SSP Continent – Daniel Voyager

Three years since first SSP batch of regions arrived

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Daniel Voyager

Three years ago on 20th August 2018 the first 80 SSP Linden owned regions batch arrived on the grid in Second Life. There was definitely excitement about this new land mass back then. Many speculated that it could of been an extension to Horizons or Linden Realms or the start of a new continent.

The SSP regions doubled in size and then kept on growing into a big continent which opened back on 15th April 2019 named the Bellisseria continent with a handful of Linden home themes to choose from.

Since then Bellisseria has become supermassive featuring many cool Linden Home themes featuring Stilts, Chalets and more recently Fantasy homes. There are more Linden Home themes to come along with more expansion of the Bellisseria continent for at least another year or so.

The start of the development of the Bellisseria continent in mid August 2018

The Chalet sub continent in the far north east will be finished soon. The new Fantasy Linden homes continent has recently opened just south of the log homes continent and further expansion is expected.

New Chalet sub continent – 6th August 2021

New Fantasy sub continent – 15th August 2021

The Moles and the lab have done a great job over the past three years expanding out the Bellisseria continent adding thousands of new Linden homes and adding new interested hang out areas.

I have been tracking progress of the SSP and Bellisseria since mid August 2018 and I will keep on blogging about new developments for some time to come.

More good things to come in the short term and long term. Can’t wait.

SSP Development Update – 26 March 2021

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Daniel Voyager

It’s been a while since I blogged about the latest developments happening over at the SSP regions and I wanted to share the latest updates as of 26th March 2021. The Moles are continuing to add more Stilt homes over at the Bellisseria continent just north east of the log homes area. There has been no ETA on the latest batch of regions for release yet.

It looks like the SSP regions have expanded again recently by ten regions just above the SSP2531 to SSP2500 line. At the moment these SSP regions are not showing up in terms of map tiles/visuals. It’s worth pointing out that this area of the grid is used for the Moles/Lindens to work on upcoming Linden Home themes.

SSP2521 to SSP2530 are the newer regions
SSP2531 to SSP2500 has been on the grid for some time now

SSPW6 has appeared on the grid north west of the regions above. It’s not clear what W6 means yet. I guess we will have to wait until after the Chalets have been released after SL18B (mid June-early July).

The LH Dev region and LH Dev 2 region there seems to be various developments happening. The LH Dev 2 region is worth keeping your eyes on as it looks like a shopping area of some sort.

There doesn’t seem to be much happening with the nearby LH Dev Final regions below. It looks like these regions are used for testing/creating new homes.

Stay tuned for more updates during April 2021.

Two Years Since The First SSP Regions Arrived

Posted on August 20, 2020August 20, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

20th August 2018 – First SSP Regions Arrive

It’s now been two years since the first SSP regions arrived on the Second Life grid. There was just 80 regions back then and no one really knew what the regions would actually be used for. Many speculated that it could of been an extension to Horizons or Linden Realms or a new continent for something.

Linden Lab back then said it was to do with a Super Secret Project they are working on. The Second Life Grid Survey picked up the new SSP regions on 19th August 2018. I discovered the SSP regions on the map the day after on 20th August 2018 with many others. There was so much buzz about these new SSP regions so a new thread was set up named SSP? on 21st August 2018.

The community excitement grew more a few weeks later when more SSP regions were added. The SSP continent grew from 80 regions to 384 regions. This became the working grounds for the LDPW Moles to start preparations for the new Bellisseria continent. The SSP continent grew further out in the weeks and months that followed until the grand opening on 15th April 2019.

Further Expansion

Since 15th April 2019 the Bellisseria continent has grown doubled in size with new Linden home themed areas and mini-continents etc. It’s been great following the new developments during the past two years and Bellisseria still has room to grow still.

Looking Ahead – (Late 2020 & 2021)

The logs home continent on the east side is still being worked on and hopefully that will finished within the next three months or sooner. The train line expansion will be worked on very soon and that’s going to be amazing once thats opened. The Moles are working along the coastline adding new homes and cool new areas.

Once Second Life has moved into the cloud before the end of 2020 then the lab will add batches of new SSP regions again. You can expect this to happen more during 2021 if all goes to plan with more new Linden Home themes launched.

The new Stilt homes will be launched on the grid either later this year or early next year. Still no confirmed date for that.

The Bellisseria Continent – 20th August 2020

More updates soon.

Bellisseria Expansion Latest Developments – July 2020 Update

Posted on July 5, 2020July 5, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

The Moles and Lindens have resumed work on the new Bellisseria expansion. They are busy again building the new infrastructure from new homes, new roads, new water areas to new interesting areas to hang out in.

Land Selection Page – New Linden Homes will be available here. Please note that you have to upgrade to Premium to have a new home!

During the past few months the Moles have been working on the SL17B regions. They have done a great job this year. Well done to everyone that made this year’s birthday celebrations possible.

The SL17B regions are still open to explore. Don’t forget the LH Demo region showing the new Stilt Linden homes at SL17B is still open to the public until 12th July 2020. Visit the SL17B Enchant region.

What’s New ?

New homes appearing near the water areas (red squares)

I have added a blue line where future new Linden Homes will be built in the weeks and months ahead. There is still a lot of work for the Moles to do before the whole expansion is completed.

The green line = the new upcoming railway line

Expansion bridge connection on the west side

The map below shows the early days of the expansion back in March 2020. As you can see there were loads of empty areas and access was very limited. This was one of the biggest releases to date yet.

The map below is the new expansion as of early July 2020. As you can see the Moles have been adding new Linden homes all over – now there are fewer empty areas. It’s worth exploring the new expansion as it has loads to offer everyone.

It will be great to see it once its all been completed later this year.

SSP Update

For those that don’t know where the new testing SSP regions are located on the map. Please see below. These regions are closed to the public.

The big batch of SSP pink regions and the other nearby regions in the north have not changed much in recent weeks or even months. I will be keeping the lookout now for new visual changes and will blog when new developments occur.

SSP pink regions located north of the map

I will post further development blog updates in the months ahead.

New mass of regions added east of of Bellisseria

Posted on March 21, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

During the past 24 hours the lab have added roughly 96 new regions east of the Bellisseria continent which are currently closed for public access. It’s believed this new mass could be the new log cabin regions which Linden Lab have been talking about recently.

When you zoom into these new regions there are many cloned groups of regions and most them have been named now. Thousands of new Linden homes will be available very soon.

See below for screenshots that I took today.

New regions within the white highlight area

These new regions could be released next week or the week after. I’ll post more updates when newer developments happen.

Patch Linden Is Now The Vice President of Product Operations

Posted on October 8, 2019October 8, 2019 by Daniel Voyager

patch-linden-new-role-1

On Monday 7th October Patch Linden announced on the Second Life Forums that he has now moved position at Linden Lab. Patch Linden new title is the Vice President of Product Operations.

Thanks everyone for the congrats and well wishes! My new title is Vice President of Product Operations.
It has been an honor and pleasure in serving the community over the past 12+ years.

Patch has worked in many departments over the years at the lab from Concierge, to being the Operations Support Manager, working on the Product team to Land Operations which includes the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).

Patch recently was the Senior Director of Product Operations and this week (starting 7th October) he has become the Vice President of Product Operations. Wooot!!

Congratulations Patch and well done. Thanks for everything you have done to make Second Life more amazing over the years.

Terrain added to the New Extension South Of The SSP Continent

Posted on October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 by Daniel Voyager

Terrain added to the new extension on 2nd October 2019

Last weekend the Moles added a huge new extension south of the SSP continent. The new regions start from SSP601 to SSP700 which is like a small continent.

Today on Wednesday 2nd October it looks like the new extension now has it’s own new terrain. It will be interesting to see how this new extension develops in the weeks and months ahead.

The two region wide channel update

Today Patch Linden has confirmed the two region wide channel from Bellisseria to Jeogeot is in fact a temporary bridge between the continents. The regions will be replaced as work continues down south and east.

I’ve said elsewhere before, the two region wide channel is a temporary bridge between the continents. It is not necessary to maintain it in present form and will be replaced with regions as we work our south and east.

There was mention earlier in the year that there needs to be at least 38, 000 new homes to cover all the occupied old style linden homes. This new southern extension makes that very clear indeed.

The new extension south of SSP on 28th September 2019

New developments on the Bellisseria Continent – 2nd October 2019

New campers/trailers are now appearing around SSPE62 and SSPE100. There are new water areas around the mountain areas worth exploring.

Pickle Island

The new homes development down south is coming along nicely with new water areas, new homes, new houseboats and more.

Winter Expo / SL Christmas Expo 2019 & New Discoveries

It’s believed these three regions will be used for the upcoming Winter Expo happening in early December 2019. The SL Christmas Expo 2019 starts December 5th to 15th December 2019. I would imagine the lab will be showcasing the current themes and new themes during the annual event. The lab could release a super premium announcement during this period.

My predictions for these new regions…

WE2019 1 – this region looks to be showcasing the new commercial area

SSPWE2019 2 – this region is showcasing Traditional Houses (bottom), Houseboats (top right) and Campers/Trailers (top left)

WE2019 3 – this region could be used for the new Linden home theme 4

New Discoveries

This is a large scale operation the Moles and the Lab are doing right now with the building of new homes on the Bellisseria continent, testing on the SSP continent with the new extension etc and now with preparations for the upcoming winter expo.

I would imagine before the end of 2019 we will see thousands of new homes, new areas, new campers/trailers built, the train line would of been extended out further, a new 4th LH theme announced and a super premium announcement.

It’s going to be very exciting indeed during the last three months of 2019.

Private Estates Show 0.5% Positive Growth During 2019

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Daniel Voyager

According to the latest weekly report published on Sunday 15th September the year to date for net Private Estate growth now stands at 88 regions which equals 0.5% growth since the start of 2019. This is great news to report on for once because in previous years the grid had been declining for some time.

There has been more interest in Private Estates this year than in previous years and that’s always a good thing. I think this has to do something with the reduced land prices in Second Life that the lab rolled out earlier in the year. It’s definitely helped from looking at the grid numbers below. Hopefully Private Estates will continue to show more net growth in the last three months of 2019.

The total area of Second Life is now 1594.56 (KM).

Stats as of 15th September:

Total Main Grid Regions: 24, 331
Private Estates: 16, 208
Linden Owned: 8, 123

Back in June 2019 I reported that most of the growth came from Linden Owned regions for the new Bellisseria continent which opened back in mid April 2019. More new regions are expected to arrive in the weeks and months ahead to complete the new Bellisseria continent. Probably around 50 – 100+ Linden Owned regions before the end of the year. If the lab shuts down the older Linden Home continents and the SSP continent it will effect the grid stats deeply. A big shock to say the least.

Stats back on 2nd June 2019:

Total Main Grid Regions: 24, 147
Private Estates: 16, 130
Linden Owned: 8, 017

It will be great to see it go from 0.5% to 1% positive growth before the end of this year. For now it’s good to say the Second Life economy is healthy and it’s recovering at long last.

New track line completed on SSP continent

Posted on September 7, 2019September 7, 2019 by Daniel Voyager

Screenshot of the trailer/camper area on SSP continent – 7th September 2019

The Moles are working hard over at the SSP continent creating the next big batch which could launch sometime later this month on the Bellisseria continent. The new trailers and campers will be nearby new small lakes/waterways. The landscape will be very nice to live in I think. Good luck to all those wanting a home there.

This week work started in SSP280 with new trailers/campers being built. It looks like the Moles are working down south. It’s believed the Moles have built a new train station in SSP264 where trains will running regularly hopefully.

It’s unclear if the trains will be automatic around the track ? or will everyone be allowed to rez their own trains ? like in other continents in Second Life. It could be a light rail tram system which would be quieter. Any new train system in Second Life is most exciting to say the least.

A train journey around the trailers/campers area could possibly be very exciting indeed. It’s going to great to see these regions when they get moved over in the weeks ahead. I’ll blog more when new developments occur. I do post updates on my Twitter account (see right).

Pickle Island Progress Update – 7th September 2019

Work is still on-going over at the new Pickle island where new Linden homes and houseboats are being built. New residents have already moved in on the north side and in the weeks ahead more residents will slowly move into the new neighbourhood.

The new water lakes are very nice indeed. It’s worth checking these areas out if you love relaxing in Second Life. In the north west a new underwater area has been built where there is so much to discover. Best to put on a diving suit or something water protected.

New Trailers/Campers Development Area – August Update 2019

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Daniel Voyager

Since 11th August the Moles have been working on a new trailers/campers area on the south side of the SSP continent. Once work has been completed the whole area will be transferred across to the south side of the Bellisseria continent which could happen before mid September 2019 at best estimates.

It’s looking more likely the release is becoming more imminent with every day that passes. I’ve taken snapshots of the development since early August to keep track of it’s progress via the map.

The development is going down south on the SSP continent – 27th August

Once the trailers/campers development is completed then it will be moved across to the south west of the Bellisseria continent. The newer regions could be here later this week or during early September 2019.