I've tinkered with the size (and shape) of my world as it appears on one simulator. I've settled on 27 regions. Once they've all been modelled and have lots of prims on them, it'll take a while to boot up and shut down, but as far as I can tell it'll be manageable. We'll see if I still think that in a years time.

Why the odd number of regions? An even number would be more sensible, you would have thought, and ordinarily I'd say you're quite right. The odd region is my sandbox, where I can make stuff and do stupid things like accidentally send a prim 5km in the air. Yeah, done that before. Or bury it in the ground. Done that too. With a sandbox I can make silly mistakes like that and return those errant prims to my inventory without having to rebuild the parcel/region all over again.

Aside from the welcome area, which is four regions, there is a hazard island (where an avatar can get injured or even die), an island (2×2 regions) from which explorers set out (there's no explanation on how they got there), and the beginning of a continent which the explorers discover. Yes, there is a theme and backstory to my world.

I've plotted all this out on some graph paper (so I don't stupidly attempt to put two regions in the same place). I have two more simulator servers (yes, I added another one) which will add to the continent. The idea is that as you move north or east (or south in some places), the landscape changes in nature, e.g. from fields to swamp to mountains etc., and therefore the flora and fauna will change, as well as the style of housing, blah blah blah. It's not just architectural style that will change - technology will vary from one region to another, but in a consistent and uniform manner. Some pieces of high tech will be found in random places.

A visitor to the world can explore the continent, discovering for themselves the journey of the first people to inhabit it, and learn what became of them. Am I nuts to do this? Probably.