Openspace and the future of SL aviation

[Cornelius Fanshaw]

I'm sure everyone's aware of LL's new pricing policy regarding openspace sims as it's being debated to death everywhere, so I'm not going to go over all that here.
One aspect though that might have a big effect on where we can fly and I've not really seen discussed in relation to aviation is this paragraph:-

"Lastly we will begin to proactively discuss overloaded Openspaces with their owners. This is important because as with abuse of region resources, a heavily overloaded Openspace can adversely affect other Openspaces sharing the same machine which is clearly unfair to residents who are using them responsibly. We have listened to your feedback on this, and agree that we need to make changes to better support our Openspace users by actively working to keep the performance levels as high as possible. We will also provide some detailed guidance about what ‘overuse’ looks like and how to prevent it."

Now does that mean that if we gather in an openspace sim for a dogfight, it will "overload" that sim?
Will our dogfights become something that bring down the wrath of LL on the owners heads?
Openspaces are where we mostly meet, yet we know a lot of aircraft in one sim cause masses of lag.
Is this going to effect Naval battles and motor racing or any big event on and openspace sim?
Are openspaces going to become no-go zones for events?

[Zoe Connolly]

That's an excellent question, Cornelius.

I wonder of Mifune has an answer to this. We'll have to ask him next time

[Zoe Connolly]

Damn my grammatical and spelling errors!

[Air Vice-Marshall Pearse]

It's a very good question. Looking at the last Navigational Hazard Map there are only 3 of the full sims in Caledon that have no hot spots, though if people kept within the sim that would open it up to a few more.

The cynic in me wonders why the lab "will begin to proactively discuss overloaded Openspaces with their owners" at some nebulous point in the future, but in the same breath claims that this overuse is the reason for the price hike. I would have thought that enforcing the "light use" clause would have been the way to go about solving the problem.

But of course "light use" has it's problems too - there are no actual guidelines to advise when light use becomes medium use or even high use. To me a weekly nightclub on an OS is obviously high use but then I've been spoilt with places like Caledon and Winterfell who while having residents on their voids rarely have much in the way of regular traffic.

As a further possibility, is it worth asking the Duchess of Primverness whether we might also avail the use of Lovelace as a possible venue for dogfights from time to time?

[Zoe Connolly]

"Avoid the Voids" - The Void Sim Creativity Tax Act of 2008

[Cornelius Fanshaw]

LL's latest offer:-

"Openspaces are intended for very low-impact use only. They share 4 CPUs per server, and support a limited number of objects. When the new changes go into place, they will support 750 prims and only 10 avatars, and will likely place limits on scripts running in the Region, as well as being unable to use event postings and classifieds.

Homestead regions are for quiet residential or light commercial use. They are not intended for events, malls, or other high-impact uses. When new changes go into place, they will support 3750 prims and 20 avatars, and will likely also have script limits."



Well the 10 avatar limit will kill off our weekend dogfights over "openspaces" and I dare say no one will be too pleased with the "Homestead" offer either seeing as they are limited to 20 avatars, script limits and get to pay $96 in Jan raising to $125 in July. It's not so much an "Openspace" but more of an "Emptyspace" and the "Homestead" is an "Outhouse"

Not a happy bunny.

How many people are going to want to shell out money each month for something they can't do anything with?

[Air Vice-Marshall Pearse]

And even the "new" sim gives you less that what you have now (20 AV cap) and you will still get slugged the 66% increase. I know I've already told Des it will be doubtful that I will be able to afford $125USD a month (especially now that the exchange rate has fallen again).

Very unhappy here.

[Cornelius Fanshaw]

"Them pesky Linden kids might have got away with it too if it hadn't been for that meddlin' exchange rate"

The exchange rate is really going to make those of us outside of the US think twice without the price increase. I think they picked a bad time to make a bad decision.

[Zoe Connolly]

I'm afraid our dogfighting days are numbered, gentlemen. We may become another social organization within Caledon, and although I find dances and parties a fun activity, RCAF is supposed to be so much more than that. :(

Not a happy bunny here, either

[Zoe Connolly]

I see a rise in hovering scripted craft

[Cornelius Fanshaw]

With the script limits I see a rise in none scripted aircraft you wear like a skirt ;-)