A total of 709 new Linden Home houseboats were made available on Wednesday, May 15th, 2019, after a build-up of expectation.
I had wondered if the new regions, that arrived alongside Bellisseria, the Linden Homes continent might see one more move prior to being opened, but as was quickly shown, this wasn’t the case. This does leave the new regions supporting the houseboats looking – at this point in time at least, but who knows what might come in time – looking like a bit of an after-thought bolt-on to the continent, but there can be no doubting their popularity: all 709 were gone in just 27 minutes.
The release saw a huge build-up along the north-eastern side of Bellisseria, the closest point to the new region, with two regions in particular – Graff and Dorma – bearing the brunt of the interest, each having in excess of 50 avatars in them in the hours leading up to the release. A lot of this saw social interactions, although I opted to watch via the Map while paying a visit to another region.
The Houseboats are available to select as we release them via the Linden Homes Land selection page, and access to the continent addition is open. We will have a set of region restarts to go through, so please bear with us as that happens if you enter the regions right away.
We know they will go very quickly, but as time goes on we will get more out, and hopefully faster.
Our next focus will be to bring more Traditional Homes plus more Houseboats in another smaller launch while working in parallel to a larger launch and an exciting new theme.
As usual, stay tuned here for more updates!
Patch Linden’s forum announcement that the houseboats were available
The houseboats were released via the Linden Homes web page at 10:00 SLT, together with a warning that some of the regions were being restarted. But the latter didn’t dampen any of the desire to obtain one of the new units: within seconds of the opening of the doors, people were literally pouring into the regions to see their new houseboat – and fortunately Caitlyn was among them as well.
In commenting on the state of play, Patch noted that there was some churn during the 27 minutes: people grabbing a houseboat, checking the location, then abandoning it in the hope of getting a better spot. How many may have missed out on an opening as a result is hard to say, it’s possible some people may have come away a little disappointed – hence the comment from Patch of the focus on making a further “smaller launch” of houseboats and houses.
There had also been some churn in the lead-up to the release with some people with Traditional Homes abandoning them in favour of being ready for the houseboats, as was noted on various forum threads.
I took a boat ride through the new regions following their release, and the level of activity was pleasing to see as people set about decorating their new homes, together with a large uptick in conversation and activity in the Bellisseria in-world groups – and the founding of a residents newspaper The Bellisserian – of which more anon!
In the meantime, congrats to all those who snagged one of the new houseboats!
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
I have been a prime member since they made it available.
There has to be a better system to reward long-time membership! This is absolutely infuriating and ridiculous.
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That’s a “premium” member not prime….
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i’d like to understand the reasoning behind a huge demand & a small supply (when profit making isn’t the issue) AND the declared “fix” is to roll out *smaller* launches. huh???? (sorry for wonky typing, i’m physically impaired with the keyboard for a while.) — seicher rae
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Well, staging releases like this in understandable from a technical perspective. The initial release of homes (houseboats and Traditional), saw some regions with mixed densities of housing. For example, I’m on a Full region with (at present!) only eight house boats on it; a friend is similarly on a region with 8 Trad Houses. Others are on regions with up to around 17-18 parcels on them.
This has presumably been done so the Lab can monitor overall performance during the initial deployment(s): what kind of back-end load are people likely to put on the simulators in terms of scripted items; what will be the range of texture load ranges that could impact viewer performance, and so on, in order for them to make adjustments in future deployments.
That said, I understand the frustration. I’d be climbing the walls if our positions were reversed; in fact, I have a friend who is, and who was also monitoring the web page but couldn’t get a look-in.
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thx for the insight into the reasoning of smaller rollouts with high demand ♥
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Reblogged this on Thar She Blows! and commented:
Tumultuous release of the second batch of Linden houseboat homes in the new Linden ghetto of Belliseria. Ok, not my scene, not my concern but I’d wished for a bit more dignity by both, The Lab and resis.
Let’s see how Inara liked the release …
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Honestly if you are a sailor, these houseboats are not great. I’d say at least half of them are on square parcels and the orientation will make it near impossible to moor your boat. If you have a small motor boat or a sea plane, you’d be just fine but a Bandit 50, 55, 60, etc, is going to take some editing to get it moored. Patience will get you a better location and I am really hoping jamming all these boats into an area is not an indication of things to come. I think it was in response to overwhelming demand.
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AFAIK, many parcels are rectangular in shape. Some are long and narrow, with the houseboat “end on”, so to speak. Others have the houseboat abeam the shore (as is the case with mine). With both, I’ve actually seen plenty with the larger Bandit yachts moored within them (on the narrower parcels, trying to get two such boats side-by-side might be admittedly problematic).
Similarly, those with the houseboat abeam the shoreline also have room for larger boats. In this, I offer my own houseboat, with both the Bandit 50/3 and the 460AK moored outside, and still with room to rez a plane as well (to the left of the pier for the Bandit 50/3).
How much space you may have also depends on the footprint of the preferred houseboat. Again as an example, I use the Windlass, which has the largest internal volume, and a long, thin profile. With my parcel, this actually gives extra space for moorings directly behind the houseboat, between it and the boundary pier placed by the Moles.
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I looked at the mini map with the parcels outlined. I don’t believe there is a way of me posting a picture here but select the mini map>show>parcel lines and you’ll see what I mean.Most of them are square. I see what you mean about having a longer boat behind the houseboat. For my personal preference it’s very cramped that way. My houseboat is on a long narrow rectangle and I have a deck in front of my houseboat and can moor my 60 with no problem. I do have to say a square parcel is MUCH easier to put a skybox above if you want.
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I wasn’t disputing the sizing, per se, just that many are 16×64 and some of the abeam are also rectangular rather than square; I’ve not looked to see how the exact split between these those that are square to see if they are 50/50. My point was more in response to your comment about the larger Bandits, which – as noted – I’ve tended to see moored just fine (as in my own case 🙂 ).
Like you, I’m hoping that the “bolt-on” regions that opened yesterday are more a response to demand rather than the shape of things to come; I’d hate to see some of the space around Bellisseria (and outside of the sections of the continent yet to be deployed) devolve in “splotches” of additional regions put together to fulfil the demand for various types of Linden Home.
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I think you guys should just wait to have a FULL LAUNCH of the NEW HOMES/BOAT HOMES because it’s not fair to the ones that are steady waiting, trying to purchase, or move from they’re old home into a new one. You guys are doing a helluva job and I’m sure y’all are doing the best y’all can, but at the same time it really sucks to keep launching only a select few and not a bunch more after ijs
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I assume by “you guys” you mean Linden Lab 😀 .
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