Hey all. :)

Thank you for your feedback, responses and suggestions. My personal plan for attacking a Shop and Hop is to do what a couple of people have suggested, which is to keep heading in one direction with the stores on my right (or left) until I make a big circuit. I see many others doing the same. :)

There is a good reason to keep them at a distance from one another though. It keeps everything from filling your view all at once, which helps mitigate viewer lag. Having SO MANY stores close together would make for an even worse shopping experience if half of the store refused to load, no?

One of the things we always try to do is build for efficiency in the weight our our content VS the resident content. In this case the stores are the stars of the show, so we space them out to make it easier for residents to browse the stores without all of them competing for your viewer resources all at once. It means a little more walking then normal, yes. But most people have come up with ways to enjoy the journey. ;)

I do the outer-ring/inner-ring method as described by quadrapop Lane, and I use a follow HUD when I am with friends. We walk past every shop, and usually do 2-4 regions at a time. It's great fun and I see no reason to change it.

The camming method works as well, but somehow takes the fun out of it.

Bonus tip: My s.o. and I have the tradition to hug and kiss whenever one of those Venus of Willendorf avatars (google it) passes by. Makes it extra fun.

the trick to not getting lost at shop and hops if walking the regions always turn one direction on exiting the store (i go left) and when you get back to the store you began the region at simply TP to the next region in the ring (at the same co-ords as the one you just left). All regions at shop and hop allow for double tap and direct TP.

I second the comment suggesting more variation in the regions.

I know the decor does change some from region to region, but there is not enough distinction even though some attempts are made with regional decor differences. If you dont know the region or store name for something you want to return to you cant refer to something like "the green one with all the snow and elves but not snowmen" as they are all the same colour and several have the same decor.

I am aware that decorating 20 regions is a big task and the moles do an awesome job... 4 times a year! Templates are a must at this scale but user navigability and taking into account the varying ways people remember or track things should be considered as well (eg some are word oriented, some location, some visual, and some a mix).

A start could be changing something fairly simple like the floor colour and pattern to be distinct for each region. Perhaps even add a "path" to follow that goes past each strore - the central area is massive.

If there is a redesign of the region template consider smaller stores pulled in from the edge of the regions, SL is becoming less over size and while mega sized malls are still a thing, so also are smaller more avatar/realistic sized spaces. Note how many stores at shop and hop use a subsection of the space provided!

It would be easier if the sim(s) enable double-click teleportation for large events, so if you use the camera to move around the experience is much less tedious and traumatic. Good design (sim) is like the movement of fluids, if it slows down or stops everything, it's not good.

You can't really reduce the distance without having smaller shops, because the edges are taken up by shops. But they could add a clearer border on the edges of regions, so you'd know to stop if you hit it before finishing looking around the one you're in.

I avoid Shop and Hops, despite the bargains, because I find the layout too large and confusing. I do cam, as some other commenters have suggested, but even then, I lose my place (so to speak). My suggestion would be to reduce distances and also vary the designs so the plaza areas are more distinct. I suppose it's fair to say I also avoid very large, same-y malls in real life, preferring smaller, more distinct shops and areas that have a sense of place.

I find Shop and Hop to be TOTALLY EXCELLENT! The design is perfection in my opinion as 20 fairly large shopping areas are arranged in a square per region. Every shop is visible within the square and because they are arranged in straight lines, you can easily pan your camera to see things. I walk ALL the regions and visit every store and have ZERO problems. For those that want to visit specific stores, there is a shop list with URLs in the blogs.

Please DO NOT CHANGE A THING.

Suggestion: stand in the middle of region and cam along and around the stores, preferably using a trackball instead of mouse. Share screenshots with friends if you find something to share. Most of the time, no need to walk.