Raspberry Crystal

February 9

I don't want one these novelty forrin mail boxes, what is to stop loiterers reading my post or filling in my important government forms before I get to them?
I demand we have the old fashioned but very effective security letter box, embedded in the front door, with tradional sharpened edges and an alert rottweiler dog on duty behind it in case anyone thinks of poking their hand through.

February 8

3 hours ago, UnilWay SpiritWeaver said:

Personally no. That could appeal to some, but I put that idea in here as an idea for Belli homes.

Now that Sims 4's rental apartments expansion has come out - I can further see how the idea can be done.

In one way this was already done in the old linden homes:

You build a single building on the corners of 2 to 4 plots.

Or the homes link up and have one exit to a common space (linden land outside the parcel - a hallway)

This could be a 'tunnel hallway' underneath a balcony that physically connects them all while it's actually on a 4m wide strip of linden land.

So two patterns emerge as the initial ideas:

One Two

Three Four

- All four touch.

or:

One Two

---- ----

Three Four

- One and Two touch, Three and Four touch. 4m wide covered hallway between them.

The rest of the parcel land is then used to make it appear like one building sharing a common lot. It'd need some added covenant rules for theme in that outside land.

I think once they finish all their main themes, it becomes the perfect time to do small scale builds of niche themes. Something like this wouldn't want to be done on more than 6-12 regions. Niche themes could appeal to some, but wouldn't have the same mass appeal. you could toss them around the map in quirky places.

Other niche themes could be underwater builds, sky builds, cliffside houses, etc.

We don't really know if apartments are on the agenda, but I love your corner idea.
Unfortunately I think we do know about the chance of having 'niche' designs, because it was discussed some time ago. We were told that the Moles need to build so many homes in the same design or the economics of scale don't work out, basically they can't make money from niche Linden homes.
However, I suppose it could be possible if there was a premium charged, say a Platinum account with access to low volume designs in exclusive neighbourhoods?

February 7

@Nika Talaj Ooh I like this!
Do you think there is any particular significance to the naming of the sim 'Shipyard'? I wondered if there might be some sort of port like construction planned, but it could be wishful thinking.

February 6

It's hard to come up with an actual home style which might realistically be picked up by the Moles but I love the idea of 'garden streets' in urban areas, ie small front 'yards' which are bursting with colour, and a walkway rather than road in front of the houses (with maybe a residents rez area for vehicles close by?)

What if the joined buildings were alternated by dummy dwellings, to avoid the intrusion problems?

I must admit thought hat I am doubtful that 512s will be looked at this year when the ranch and med plots are doing so well. It must be tempting to try for an even larger, 4096 even? Though they would need to choose the style for those very carefully.

February 6

@Persephone Emerald or maybe the full castle? They are a very popular trend in SL as a whole, and could be adapted for gothic, vampire, historical, all sorts of things.

February 5

Just now, PheebyKatz said:

*Drops trash on your lawn, walks the Teegle and doesn't pick up after it, retextures your siding, and steals your BelliBin*

You're welcome~! ^-^<3

Carries on feverishly derendering most of the neighbourhood whilst cackling, and then stepping into something...euck....

February 5

1 hour ago, Nika Talaj said:

*cough* There are a WHOLE LOT of threads which exist just to have fun in. This SSP thread has always been about the process of building Belli.

Multiple moles are working intensely on the (new) east Ranchland coast now.

In other news, all the region borders have been removed from Fantasseria (there had been red borders on almost all coastal regions). However, all coastal regions that have homes on them still have their SSPnnnn names.

There continues to be occasional activity up in the SSP zone which seems consistent with developing a new home style. Wild guess: another for Fantasseria?

The activity seems rather leisurely, though, so it could be something else entirely.

I wonder if there will be an adjacent theme to Fantasseria, rather than a new home style within that set-up?

eg hobbit homes, or something like that?

Also I apologise to @Dyna Mole for previously steering the topic towards incontinent dogs and feverishly patriotic letterboxes.

February 5

I wish to complain because I have now run out of complaints!

February 4

25 minutes ago, Matthieu Quander said:

Using the mini map to TP absolutely would have worked, and is my go to panic reaction when I inadvertently teleport somewhere unintended.

If you cannot spot the pervert in your neighborhood, does that mean you are the pervert? I do live near Herbert the Sherbet, who has adopted an ice cream themed decor. I gain 10 pounds every time I glance in that direction.

Every time you set home somewhere, log in an alt with the most hideous and offensive avatar you can manage and set their home there as well. Should you ever find yourself in the same situation, log on the alt and go run some errands or watch a movie.

That is a genius suggestion @Matthieu Quander! Maybe this is the way to discourage those orbs, subject the perpetrator to the double tp twang of doom, and the oscillating neon gnome avatar sat in his aquarium.

February 4

The tiny concession of the one second warning allowed me to commando roll over the boundary and escape, on the eleventh attempt. I suspect the device was hidden in a welcome mat, but I could be feverish at this point after the trauma.
Afterwards I wondered if I could have tp'd out using the mini map.
Herbert Thepervert has many manifestations. The most memorable lately has been the 'art' loving neighbour, who completely filled the walls of his home with photographs of lady bottoms, posed in uncomfortable positions and set to *full bright*, and then obviously ran out of prim allowance when it came to curtains.

February 3

...it was the endless twanging noises that were so disorientating!

February 3

Careless Raspberry, who has been on a purposeful but meandering hopping quest to find a home which ticks the right boxes, and isn't next door to Herbert Thepervert (not a real name).
She sometimes forgets to update her home position.
In most cases this isn't an issue, until....
One day, the hippy hoppy Raspberry is sent home, and the home has been taken over, by a person who has either not read, understood, or cared about the Bellisseria covenant (also known as 'do not delete on pain of death').
The new resident has set his security orb to 'send home in one second'.
...but according to the home position, Raspberry already IS home.

What happens next?

February 3

14 minutes ago, Frigga Freidman said:

Still keeping my fingers crossed for one or two single-storey models in this theme; would love the combination of a Doyle-like footprint in the Logland setting. (My former log home on a lake that was one of the most-chased locations upon release has been empty for the best part of a year... I'd snap it up with a one-month Premium Plus upgrade given the option for a slightly smaller house.)

I read your post and checked out your lovely pictures of that house, you had it looking lovely. Your remark about the styles feeling too big did resonate with me though. I wonder if what @Matthieu Quander said about the workload of Q&A might be relevant here,

Quote

All other themes would require extensive testing or smaller footprints than the current models.

I could live with smaller footprints easily!

February 3

I am sure this has been debated before many times, but after the tree houses were created for the fantasy regions I started to wonder if the Moles might have plans to insert more models into the log homes region.

I do enjoy the landscaping in this region, especially the hilly parts and the winding lanes and 'mountain' passes. The lakes are lovely too, and as I have said before, many remind me of the post-glacial landscape of the English Lake District. The planting is really well done as well, and it is hardly necessary to use prims in the garden adding to the scheme.

I can't move on without mentioning the railways, which are some of the nicest rides in Belli.

So why the wondering about new models?

This is probably already something the Moles have thought about, but my main tack here regards orientation of the individual homes, and this has been brought into focus by my recent experience of snagging a waterside plot. Apart from the 90 degree swivel of the Grand View, the main focus and view points from within the buildings point towards the mail box / road.
This works well for many lots, but there are also quite a few where the main view would naturally be from the back of the house, say where the house backs onto water, or has an open aspect to the rear.
What I noticed was a pattern of occupation which corresponded to each plot's ability to take in the view. Even if a house was besides water, if the water was behind the home, it was less likely to have a resident, or to be furnished.

If we could have some new homes that had their main rooms at the back of the house, I wonder if there would be more take up of those plots which have the best outlook from the rear? It could give more flexibility to the choices available.

February 2

12 hours ago, EbonyOverIvory said:

On the other hand, a good chef listens to their customers' preferences and dietary requirements. Simply ignoring all suggestions and feedback will lead to making only sushi that the chef likes.

Sometimes that does happen, when there are a lot of competing requirements we sometimes get given something that nobody (or very few people) actually want, BUT that isn't usually the case.
I don't believe for a moment that Abnor or the Moles ignore feedback, I think that the response was supposed to be interpreted humorously! (bearing in mind that they are all busy with the meds and ranch houses right now).

February 1

Ooh I just spotted a poster for this at a log homes rail station, looks like fun.

February 1

Thank you! This really opens up the choices

February 1

I found a few nice trads lately which were tucked away and only had footpath access, or had an interesting set of steps leading down (or up) to the road.
My lusch car is fairly forgiving, but does make some alarming clanking noises if I try throwing it off a cliff, or bumping down a stairway, so I had a search around for any nearby traffic rez spots without success.

My memory doesn't reach back to the very earliest Mole new continent building, but I was inworld for the completion of old Belli, and I just can't remember if car rez spots were brought in later, or were more spaced out? Have I just been unlucky in my searching and they are hiding right there in plain sight?

I saw some 'obvious' spots for boat rezzers as well that hadn't been utilised, was it just the lighthouse island facilities available back then?
Maybe my memory has lapsed, or been overwritten by Newbrooke and Bellivaria where seemingly every single sim has a rez spot for cars.

January 31

I can't help thinking that sushi chef looks more benign than advertised.
What you really need is a time machine to capture the look cultivated by a Northern English fish and chip shop owner for use when a group of teenagers come in asking for free 'scraps' without wishing to pay for a main meal (scraps = bits of batter that fall off the fish).
Or the look produced by his assistant, used to terrify uncertain adolescents into buying mushy peas as an extra, thus causing them to walk home because they spent their bus money on unwanted processed vegetables.

January 30

1 hour ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Bellisseria's name itself is an invented word, no doubt derived from the Italian word for beautiful, Bellissimo. But with an -eria swapped for the -mo to make it geographic sounding.

Curiously, when you put the Bellisseria name through a text to speech translator and listen to it in any non-English European language, you'll mostly get a pronounciation of "Belly-see-ree-ahh", which is very different to the one that Patch Linden uses, "Bell-iss-sarr-ree-arr".

I use my own pronounciation of "Bell-iss-sair-ree-ahh". 😜

I had no idea how Patch pronounced it, so I just went with the Bell - iss - seyr -reeya type thing.

I'd really like to switch the Chalet district to Shalleys, it is more phonetical and less likely to cause confusion with the different style of homes which are called chalets in real life; https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chalet

January 29

Why not make another @Persephone Emerald? Use the names that have been thrown up and whittled down by use on the forums.
I usually think of the desert terrain continent as 'the meds'.

Posted January 28 · January 28

41 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Oh sure, of course. My mother grew up in Hounslow, a suburb of London. I've visited it (and many other parts of Britain): it's a pretty dreary warren of identically squat and ugly red and white brick housing, what passed for a middle class subdivision in Britain in the 30s and 40s. I am very well aware that most housing in the UK does not look like picturesque Cotswold villages.

But all of this is sort of missing the point, which was emphatically not about which nation has the nicest houses. I said that Bellisseria felt arid and boring to me, not that I think US middle class residences all look the same, and all suck.

What I was arguing is that more diverse and international themes would be good. I showed the Cotswold cottages not because I am under any illusions about the "superiority" of British middle class suburbs, but because they are examples of what might be attractively and appealing added to the offerings in Bellisseria. That's all.

Oooh, I am quite fond of 1930s semi-detached houses, but the density of Hounslow wouldn't appeal to me.

SL has its limitations, and of course Belli has its own subset of those. I quite like it on the whole though.

It has taken me too long to realise that cultural filters are invisible from the inside, in the same way that within a family you see how you differ from your siblings, but an outsider will notice the similarities.

I'm not sure if it might not be worse to have Cotswold Cottages as a theme, because to someone from that area of the UK they would end up looking too changed to be totally familiar and that could cause more dissonance in the end, especially as the americanisation would be somewhat invisible to the majority and could cause conflict.

What I have come around to liking about Belli, are the accidental joys, finding an area of the log homes which reminded me of the English Lake District, with its deep, long and narrow waterways, or a windmill free waterfront in the chalet area, which had a familiar riverside vibe.

They are better doing what they know, and if there is enough SL randomness in the process, we may end up with something we want almost unintentionally.

January 25

I really do not like the look of banlines, but how they appear, and usually behave is much preferred to being sent home by a zero second orb.
I would say that most reasonable people do not want to stray onto private property without the blessing of the owner / renter, but the limitations of second life make this difficult to achieve at times, especially with the added confusion of lag and sim crossings and it is a confusing and upsetting experience to be targetted when acting with the best of intentions.

Unreasonable people will be that way whichever extreme of the access debate they adhere to, but even in the case of extremely annoying and inconvenient behaviour, I do not believe any kind of griefing or bullying is acceptable.

I also realise that the perception of home invasion can be traumatic for some people, in ways that they have little control over, and while this can get covered up with masking aggression there is always a person under the attitude.

January 24

@SarahKB7 Koskinen that looks like an amazing journey, and you made a great graphic as well!

January 23

17 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Recently, a friend and I went to the cheapest diner in my RL neighbourhood and each paid US $30 plus for a simple breakfast and coffee. And that's before we even got to the movie ($17.50 each as seniors) or museum or anything, with $2.90 each way bus fare. Very easily a simple day with a friend in NYC turns into a splash-out of US $100. I don't have that in RL to spend. So SL for me, where I might spend that much in a month, but more likely half that, or US $50, is perfectly great entertainment and artistic outlet, and I have a business inworld to generate that income.

People contrast Second Life with other online things, like MMORPGs or even an online news subscription. But the thing to contrast it with is real life.

It totally sucks the fun out of leisure time if the costs are stressful. We take home made cake in plastic boxes and find free stuff to do, though to be fair our museums tend not to charge for entry so it makes things easier.

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