New Lands a-coming (if only I could log on)

Earlier today I read - then largely forgot - this article in Second Life Herald. I had an excuse: I was at work, where such frippery is frowned on. However, when I finally had some "me time" I thought I'd take a squint at the map and see what I could find.

My first ramble took me to a whole cluster of new islands under construction, and clearly intended for human habitation. However, the first clue that this was not the fabled New Continent was this, emblazoned on the walls of a sleepy, hot Mexican pueblo:

There appears to be a large cluster of new SIMs being added to the already extensive holdings of Azure Islands. As far as I can make out, one part of the cluster is given over to hot, dusty desert conditions:


While a second seems rather more lush and temperate. And this one even has a bit of a Myst (Myst III: Exile) theme going on:

Not being one (yet) given to investing large sums of real money in virtual real estate, the existence of Azure Islands has largely passed me by. "Land is available without the need to pay Tier (ground rent, to us Brits) to Linden Labs. The Azure Islands is tiered per sqm (rather than at abitrary levels), and offers both US$ and L$ rates. "

So having drawn a blank, I tracked down the article again - and sallied forth once more. I opted for the poetically named "Loom Weaver" (it brought back memories of PC games of yesteryear) and, on TP'ing, found myself in a field now filled with For Sale signs. Then it all went pear-shaped. The ironic message on the line at the top of the screen assured me this would be a lag-free experience! Ha! After seeing my poor avatar seemingly catapulted from one end of the sim to the other, I finally found myself totally stuck and unable to move. I logged out. This was about an hour ago - when concurrency was claimed to be in excess of 30K residents.

I've just tried to login again - and was surprised to see the number of residents standing at only 10K. Odd, I thought... and hit "Connect".... nothing happened. A quick check of the LL blog says "[1:47PM PST] We’re experiencing problems with the network, which is in turn affecting log-ins and some regions on the Second Life Grid. Our operations team knows what the problem is and is working on fixing it as quickly as possible. If you’re unable to log-in, please try another location." I followed this piece of sage advice... nada... niente... nowt. On the plus side, I can see that people are getting in - concurrency now up to 12K.

More anon, but for now I'm stumped. I've tried to logon to "Home" and to a number of areas I know... without success. Grrrr!

+++

Haha! Wouldn't you know it? As soon as I hit "Publish" on this entry, I finally got in to SL. For those desperate to know, the New Continent appears to consist of 51 sims. "Area 51?" - who knows! Anyway... here's the satellite views currently available:

You can see Hong Kong Island (which is on the East of the main grid) - so that should give you your bearings if you want to hop over for a look around... or do a map search for the sim of your choice. Happy rambling, ramblers!