How to Prepare for the TLO

The Tertiary Land Offering (TLO) will soon kick-off and run from November 14th until December 18th. And while many things are similar to previous auctions, there are some exciting new additions as well this time around. This article helps you to prepare and make sure you are ready to join the action.

Somnium Space NFT’s

Somnium Space assets are so-called NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens). Each individual asset is uniquely registered on the blockchain and can travel between people’s wallets. During the TLO, assets are minted and initially held by Somnium Space. People can bid on assets and upon completion the asset will be transferred to the winning bid maker’s wallet. The registering of the NFT’s (minting), execution of the auction and the transferring of assets is done on non-affiliated NFT marketplaces (OpenSea and Holaplex Stores).

Conceptually this is pretty straightforward and similar to bidding on physical objects during auctions. However, to participate in the TLO you will need to prepare. Those of you who have participated in previous auctions and are generally on top of how this works, may want to skip certain sections. However, do be aware that for the first time assets are also sold on the Solana blockchain via Holaplex Stores.

What will be on sale during the TLO?

A range of Somnium Space assets will be on sale. It is advised to familiarize yourself with those assets and what utility they provide. Understanding current and future utility is paramount in the valuation of assets and helps you determining fair price ranges. The assets on sale during the TLO are listed below. Click on the green headers to read more.

Land Parcels

As far as Land Parcels are concerned, there are a two main differentiators:

Size: (S)mall, (M)edium, (XL)arge

Location: Inland, roadside, waterfront

Size affects the measurements of the plot as well as the number of credits the parcel supports. Credits are consumed when you place objects on your land, so the more credits a land parcel supports the more you can build. Note also that simple objects may consume as little as 1 credit, while lights, microphones and multimedia objects can consume up to 50 credits.

As a rule of thumb, small parcels (200 credits) are excellent beginner parcels allowing you to build or place a smaller home, start a small gallery or other business. Medium parcels (400 credits) give a lot more space for a larger home, gallery, club or other any other venue. XLarge parcels (800 credits) are excellent for larger projects.

As far as location is concerned, be aware that price is typically affected by a) vicinity to the city center and b) vicinity to Deep Oasis Lake. Especially waterfront parcels are in high demand. Not only because they’re situated at the water, but also because waterfront parcels provide additional building space as you are allowed to build all the way onto the water.

Therefore, always make sure you check size and location of the parcels you are planning to bid on. For a complete overview of land parcels, check out the Somnium Space Map.

Somnium WORLDs

Somnium WORLDs represent a revolutionary feature that allows users to develop custom immersive experiences and place portals to those on land parcels. WORLDs come in 3 different sizes: (S)mall, (M)edium and (XL)arge. The size of a WORLD dictates the maximum size in MB of the custom project.

For more information refer to Somnium WORLDS: Like “Inception”, but it’s not a dream

See also below video:

Estates

Estates consist of multiple adjacent land parcels and are perfect for the largest projects. Eventually estates will allow the owner to build across the land parcels they consist of. This will allow for huge structures to be build.

Special Limited Edition Avatars and Cars

While you can create and upload your own Avatar using Unity and the Somnium Space Unity SDK, a shortcut to looking great in Somnium is by purchasing an Avatar NFT. Once an Avatar NFT has been transferred to your wallet you can select it in the PC Client or directly switch to it in-world using the VR tablet.

Selecting an avatar using the in-world tablet.

And while you’re in Somnium, why not jump into a car and go racing? It’s all possible in Somnium Space.

Special genesis edition items in cooperation with Admix

These are new assets that haven’t been put on auction by Somnium Space before. As they are in cooperation with Admix – specialized in non-intrusive in-game monetization solutions – they’re likely to be assets for in-world ads or similar. Considering the growing number of businesses and experiences, advertising your brand in Somnium Space is more relevant than ever.

Auction Types

Assets will primarily be sold via English (classic) auctioning. This implies that the asset will go to the highest bidder within a set timeframe.

Somnium Space is Going Multichain

A significant new development is that Somnium Space will support multiple blockchains. In addition to Ethereum based NFT’s, support for Solana NFT’s (November 2021) and NEAR NFT’s (early 2022) will be added. To illustrate its significance, it will for example allow you to display your Solana art NFT’s on Ethereum based land parcel NFT’s. And vice versa. Or you can jump with your Solana Avatar into an Ethereum based racecar.

The first clear indication of the direction Somnium is going, is the fact that during the TLO assets will be auctioned off on both Ethereum (OpenSea) and Solana (Holaplex Stores). Solana is fast and extremely cost-effective when it comes to transaction fees. That’s a good reason in and of itself to get ready for bidding on the Solana side.

Setting up and funding your wallets

To buy assets on either OpenSea or Holaplex Stores you will need to setup wallets and fund them with crypto currency.

Ethereum/OpenSea

OpenSea is an Ethereum blockchain based NFT marketplace. To connect with OpenSea and be able to bid on assets you will need to setup a MetaMask wallet.

An excellent article showing you how the various components are connected and how to setup MetaMask is Somnium Space, Blockchain, Metamask, Coinbase and OpenSea: How it all works.

Somnium Space member Chris Bell shows you exactly how to do this and setup your first Wallet in this video.

Solana/Holaplex

Somnium Space assets will be listed on a Holaplex Store, which is a Solana based NFT marketplace. To connect to the Holaplex Store you will need to install, setup and fund the Phantom wallet.

In the following video Chris Bell explains how to do this. Note that he navigates to solsea.io and installs the Phantom wallet from there. This is a good way to do it. Somnium Space assets will however be listed on a Holaplex Store.