Water areas with both script and build enabled, with a decent autoreturn for building, seem few and far between. While the regions in the Blake Sea have many smaller zones that allow rezzing, these small spaces are only for extremely short term rezzing of vehicles, with autoreturn often set to 1-5 minutes.

In fact, the longest autoreturn setting I have yet found on an aquatic region was 30 minutes, in Kenosaki.

When asked about the issue, many will suggest the lake located in Balance/Fame, as part of the Vehicle Testing Regions (Balance, Bethel, Brilliant, Fame, Fortuna, Georgian). But when investigating the so-called “Vehicle Sandbox”, it quickly becomes apparent that very little of the 6 regions can actually be used as a sandbox, beyond short term active vehicle testing

There are two small parcels that are adjacent to water within this area, an awkwardly shaped parcel in Bethel with 10 minute autoreturn, and a moderately sized (20x64) parcel in Fame with 60 minute autoreturn. However, both of these parcels are mostly land, with water only ‘accessible’ from the parcel. Meanwhile, the surrounding areas of the regions offer extremely short autoreturns of 2-10 minutes (with Balance being a strange exception, with 70 minute autoreturn (see attached map)

None of these regions allow for the ability to build something ‘in the water’, and no proper sandbox that I’ve been able to find, offers that ability.

And none of them offer the ability to take an experimental vehicle out to test in open waters.

To that end, I’d like to suggest the creation of one or more “Nautical Sandbox Regions”, either through the deployment of new, purpose built regions, or through the conversion of existing water-adjacent regions.

Attached, I’ve included just a rough concept of what such a region might look like, either slotting in to fill gaps on the map, or expanding existing, water-side sandbox areas. In my attached sketches, I’ve suggested creation of a general access G/M rated nautical sandbox west of Wanderton, south of Luna Point, and a near twin premium-only A rated nautical sandbox east of Sandbox Colborne, and north of Qrassuca.

Island based sandbox regions could be an interesting idea as well, with the space between Nautilus and Corsica being an interesting location to consider (that whole area needs water regions!) Similarly, one or more Nautical Sandboxes could be used to fill out the ANWR channel, or be located north of Bay City, south of Portage Bay, or dozens of other locations.