• There will be three role play days for each real life day. This should allow each major timezone a chance to play during a full role play day.
  • In essence, there will be three RP months per RL month, and three RP years per real year.
  • This will speed up things so that our RL celebrations may not synch up with our traditional celebrations like Giftmas or Valentines Day or Halloween. We'll still celebrate them during their RL occasions, they just won't match up with RP dates.
  • Given that RP is sort of slow already (because you type it), this may pose a challenge for getting stuff done in a day. But since one RP day is 8 hours, this may be better because most people don't spend an 8 hour span in SL -- other than myself.
• Create and synch up an estate windlight settings to match the immersion.
• We're redoing the RP weather system, basing it on historical weather from a secret (but suitable) location. This means we'll have real weather patterns, instead of my clunky,fake, and sometimes WTF patterns.
• Generalize Time, Weather, and Temperatures into very simple and kind of vague terminology in order to show our lack of fine measurements.

• An independent but simple little HUD Add-On for those who want the immersion features.
• Jump Limiter and Falling Damage, just like the WL: New Features test -- but without expiration.
• RP Hourly weather (every 20 minutes), based on real world historical data.
• A sun and moon dial to represent the time of day (in case windlight doesn't synch right)
• An icon to represent what the skies look like (Clear, Cloudy, Stormy, etc)
• An icon to represent what the temperature is (Freezing, cold, hot warm, blistering, etc)
• Temptation: An armor bonus while wearing the HUD Add-On to encourage adoption of the features.

• Make Add-On HUD overlay.
• Make skies icons.
• Make temperature icons.
• Account for unknown or missing weather conditions (fake it).
• Hope to god that Armor isn't TOO broken to wiggle the temptation in.

• Hambone Slash will go offline May 25th.
• Malady Bog will go offline June 7th.

I've always been very transparent with how I run the estate; it's beneficial for the community if everyone knows how things are being run. I'll be honest, the past two months have been shockingly brutal with land reclaims and abandonments. I would say more than 75% people of people who do leave, leave only because of the real world economic situation. In less than 60 days, 3/4 of a region's worth of land has became available, on top of our already struggling occupancy numbers. I had hoped to hold out until June and push real hard to get those numbers up, but I have to make this decision far sooner than I anticipated.

• Hambone Slash will go offline May 25th.
• Malady Bog will go offline June 7th.

Our old tier rates were competitive for SL standards when we first came into existence. Back in June of 2010 I dropped tier rates to perhaps the lowest on the grid. It was something I wanted to do to help the estate grow, and at the time I could afford to do that. The extra cost of keeping tier as low as it currently is, is a burden I can no longer bear. If I was smart and business-minded I would have bumped tier back up much sooner than I have now. I really didn't want to take away the new tier rates I just gave you all, so I chose to ride it out instead.

The new (old) cost of tier is almost exactly 25% higher than your most recent tier payments. The chart is as follows below:

Residents of Malady Bog and Hambone Slash will be given the opportunity to have their tier transferred and converted to an existing but available plot or plots on the estate. There WILL be a pecking order as to who gets to choose land when. Essentially, the people who get to choose earliest will be the people who have the most prims worth of land across both of the departing regions. I will contact people when it is their turn to choose. I encourage anyone living in these regions to let me know as soon as they are ready, so that when I do contact you we can just jump in and get the move over with.

If you don't like the new tier rates, I can offer to move you to a smaller parcel - but *ONLY* after I've made accommodations to everyone in the regions that are going offline.

Some of you are going to be angry at me or the estate. Trust me, I understand your frustration, but these options are all I can afford to offer. I'll be frank, I don't have time to deal with any potential temper tantrums or threats. "Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man." -- The Dude

I just want to make the transition to new parcels as easy for everyone as possible. You can talk about the situation with me if you have any concerns; I am totally prepared to talk with you about it. I am also ready to answer most questions that you may have.

Residents who own land in the departing regions, and who move to a new parcel elsewhere, don't have to abandon the Malady or Hambone plot right away - you can keep it until those regions go offline.

I will be returning ALL active Auto-Pay tier mailboxes, so residents aren't billed for tier they don't agree to. If you are okay with the new tier rates, just rez a new one.

The tier payment panel will also be moved, I'll make another announcement when everything is moved.

The Arena will be moving! Fight Night and War Zone aren't going away anytime soon.

The Wastelands started with just a single region, and as happy as I am to see the estate grow, growth isn't everything. In the end it's more important to be stable and self-sustaining than to be growing, but insecure. Part of my "job" of running the estate is to do what I feel is necessary to keep The Wastelands alive for everybody as long as possible. This isn't "the end of The Wastelands" at all -- none of us give up that easy! >:D

It's unfortunate that some beloved places and builds may go away, or may move -- but the heart and soul of The Wastelands is in its community, and that's not something that can be changed by adding or removing regions.

Again, if you have any questions or just want to talk, feel free to ask!