The Lindens have posted Improved Region Capacity and Access in the forum. They are raising the number of avatars a region can support. Not by a lot, but who can enter and when is changing a lot. I think for events this will be a big deal. If people actually kept up on Second Life development news, I think we would hear screams from the snowflakes.

Fireworks… when it’s all over

Once the feature is rolled to ‘your’ region owners and estate manages will be able to enter regardless of the current avatar count. OK, that makes sense to me and shouldn’t have much effect on us non-owner-manager users. 

• Full regions that max out at 100 avatars get a 10% increase, max to be 110. Sort of…
• Homesteads get a 25% bump, from 20 to 25 avatars.
• Open spaces get a 20% bump, from 10 to 12 avatars.

That doesn’t sound like much or that it would have much effect. But, how those avatars are counted is the big change. Prior to this change an avatar was an avatar. Now an owner or manager avatar can always enter… but, once in the region they are counted in the limit. So, if an owner sets their region’s limit at 50 avatars and it is full, the owner entering will push the count to 51. Now two people have to leave before the next ‘standard’ user can enter.

More impactful is the Premium User. Above when I said ‘sort of…’ I meant that the new limit only applies to Premium Users. A region with a 50-avatar limit gets 10% more or a 55-avatar limit but, those 5 extra avatars have to be premium members. Once 55 avatars are in the region, premium members are blocked. So, with 5 premium avatars pushing the count to 55, 6 avatars; owner, manager. premium, or basic will have to leave before the next basic user can get in. Ouch. I think this is a big plus for going premium.

Falling Apart

This scenario is similar for Homesteads and Open Space regions.

So, how much harder will it be for a basic user to get into region? I don’t see any way to know. Experience will have to tell us.

This change is a gradual roll out… I suspect use of ‘roll out’ has a different meaning than when the term is used for a new software ‘roll out’. I suspect this feature is one of the on/off features the Lab uses now. I’m betting the server software changed across the grid to add the new on/off switch and the Lindens are watching stats and turning the feature on sort of region by region.

So, if you are a premium member with a teleport HUD… you have a way better chance of getting in.

Basic users with a teleport HUD will find themselves at a disadvantage. That 50-avatar limit is all the HUD can hammer on. But, at 52 avatars I can just TP in with my premium account while the HUD hammers away.

I won’t be at a disadvantage to TP HUD’s until there are 55 avatars in the region. So, I see this as a good thing for premium members and a hardship for basic users. But, if a user is willing to support SL by being a premium member, this access thing is a nice plus.