What's New in Bellisseria - May

Heathstone on the beach

It's been a busy month over on the new Second Life continent.  The biggest news being the release of the atoll houseboats, an unplanned and hurried expansion to enable boat-lovers to have the homes they missed out on during the first release of plots (somewhere around 2,300 in number). The general consensus is that Patch and The Moles did an excellent job.

It only took 27 minutes for those 709 sandbar homes to be snatched up. A second smallish catch-up to the demand release is scheduled for "SOON" with "SOON" being the current chuckling term on the SL forums.  The general thought is that more houses and houseboats will appear around mid-June.  Some preliminary work seems to be happening over at SSP where some regions and been copied over -- presumably as a template that will include some changes so that no sim is a repeat of another.

Seen this Thursday with a tiny bit showing up on the map, this looks like where the next set of homes may go in.  You can see the road turnabout at SSPE72 and there are roads and plots being put down where the green dots are.  I teleported to SSPE72 early afternoon. It may now be closed off to the public so that The Moles can work.

For anyone wondering, it is next to impossible (but still seems to happen a few times a day) to score either house or houseboat via the "new home" application on the website. Most folks will just wait until a scheduled release before hitting that refresh button over and over :D.

NEW and different styles of abodes are planned and are currently being worked on (Abnor Mole and Patch - SL forum) and many folks are hoping to see the next bit of newness in preview form at SL16B.  No official word that will happen so watching the map is your best clue.  The SL16B sims are here. Of course you can't visit unless you are a participant.

In the community news department, folks have been busy decorating their plots. My lead photo is a home near mine. I had to smile this morning when I took a look around my neighborhood. I used to tell folks I was easy to find, just go to Heathstone on the beach and look for the house with all the clutter. Well THAT won't work any longer LOL.   My neighbor a couple of doors down has really embraced my "lived in" look (not that I invented it of course).  Love it!

Of course more decorations mean slower framerates and there are some regions getting pretty laggy. Part of our virtual life.

My sunflowers and bees. I just noted that my neighbor has sunflowers and bees also :D.  It is so fun to watch our little mini-area take on its character. 


Some community groups have come into being in Bellisseria. At least one seems to be intent on becoming a homeowners association with all that entails. Some lengthy discussions have ensued on the forums and reportedly inworld (I am not a member of any new continent groups so only have comments by others to go by). Linden Lab seems to be using a light hand on the "in theme" part of the covenant, but obvious eyesores like low hanging skyboxes and helipads on stilts have disappeared quickly.

I have finished all my personal add-ons for my home and have only a handful of land impact points to play with so I likely won't be at my home as much this month. Still, it is a lovely place to visit, a small bit of peacefulness to call my own.