Tax free forever house lot...expired?! $100 home lost, after $500+ royal pledge!

Now that the game is finally released, and I actually got my boxed copy, I went to start playing the game for real. And was immediately alerted that my lot lease expired, and my character (who had been standing on a tower in my house) fell to his death. Wasn't that the whole point of tax free lots, they don't expire? I figured as long as I used it, put a house on it, it'd be there for when I went to play the game after its actual release.

So what happened, why did the policy of Kickstarter pledges to get tax free houses change? I had gone to a lot of effort to get a decent plot in Aerie, since I wanted to play the path of Truth and figured that'd be a great town for it, and I bought a nice $100 haunted mansion to put there for when I went to play the game after its release. I am very disturbed by this, after a certain point I stopped playing early releases because I didn't want to spoil it before release, and now that I finally get time to play the real game, I discover that I wasted a lot of time and money in the house rush. I guess this may have been mentioned in one of the updates, but those came so frequently, I eventually stopped reading them and wanted to experience the game fresh anyways.

Sure, I still have that house, but with nowhere to build it, it's pointless. I don't want to live in a player-owned town, I made the effort in the housing rush to get a plot in a town I would actually be spending some time in doing quests and stuff. Is there a global search to see what cities have open lots available? Aerie has none

 

Tax Free lots do expire .You have to refresh them. However, nothing is lost in this process. Expired lots and houses are sent to the bank.

The fact that even tax free deeds do expire has been known long before persistence, release and the land rush.

 

Lots TF or not have a timer on them. The owner needs to log in every X days. The amount of time differs per pledge level.

 

Well, not known by me, and I did read all of those updates for a long, long time, and played 36 hours of early access. Just not within the last year or so, except once to check out the early story content to see if the game actually felt like a classic non-MMO Ultima game (it did!), to participate in the land rush, to buy and put up the haunted house.

Sure, nothing other than time and effort is "lost", except with no place to build my house, the deed and the house are worthless. If there was a time limit on lots, they should have at least not started the timer until the game's official release, for those of us who were waiting for release to play the game.

 

All lots have up to like 300 day expiration timer, that resets when you log in on the account that owns it.

This is to prevent people who dont play from holding valuable land forever

 

No offense, but kind of dramatic, there are lots all over Novia...*shrugs*

 

They even added an email to be sent if your house was about to expire... you should of had plenty of notice

 

There aren't any in the town I wanted to live in, Aerie. Maybe you could help by answering my question "Is there a global search to see what cities have open lots available?"

 

No there isn't, unfortunately, You have to check each town's town crier

 

Player maintained so, it might be out of date:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vtmm1VYQy5PVyZKJN_qWwNAqie7imGHzNJTPn8Na254/edit#gid=0

 

Well...there is an indirect possibility as you can use https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/map/, open the map of a town and move your mouse from lot to lot. A hint says who currently owns the lot and if it says "empty village lot" it is hopefully still empty when you arrive.

 

Every lot marker displays how long before the deed expires. Try checking some of the lots in Aerie. There may be some that are soon to expire.

 

My in-game message this morning said my house expired in March. I just looked up all my emails related to "Shroud" from Feb through early April:

• Shroud of the Avatar: The Making of Lost Val...
• Shroud of the Avatar: Confirm your physical rew...
• Project Update #101
• Shroud of the Avatar: The making of South Midma...
• Shroud of the Avatar: Vendor Variations and Impro...
• Project Update #102
• Shroud of the Avatar: Release 51 Live This Thurs...
• Response Needed! Get your reward for backing S...
• Got it! Your survey response has been submitted
• Shroud of the Avatar: Play Release 51 now!
• Shroud of the Avatar: Trophy Room Contest Winn...
• Shroud of the Avatar: The Companions of Truth, L...
• Last chance to confirm your shipping address
• Shroud of the Avatar: The making of South Bound...
• Shroud of the Avatar: Launch is Next Week
• Project Update #103
• Shroud of the Avatar: Launch is Here!
• Shroud of the Avatar: Launch is Here! Play Releas...
• Shroud of the Avatar: Monthly Livestream Reward...

Lots and lots of emails None about housing expiration.

 

Sorry that happened to you. As stated, every deed expires eventually to encourage the player base to stay active. A year is a long time to park your property. I also pledged in 2013, but didn’t get around to playing in earnest until release in 2018. The tax free pledge expiration’s could have been better communicated, and a lot of folks have had similar challenge to yours. That said, you may very well find a spot you like better. Here is a quote from Darkstarr with the expiration times mentioned:

 

Yeah I'm not sure how you missed it re the "tax free not being forever" - this was pretty self evident even before persistence. I guess if your involvement has been minimal its slipped by. But they expire for the exact reason to prevent what you were trying to do - essentially "hold" a lot for 2+ years in a prime location so nobody else can have it even though you're not using it. You can still do that of course, but need to log in once every so often for 10 seconds to keep it. Not trying to call you out specifically or anything, but its a real problem and its reduced the appeal of these cities for a lot of people. Most of the early/big pledges have like a once per year logon. Its a real downer for people who are here and playing actively to walk past all the derelict lots, if anything, I think the activity time should be considerably shorter.

There are still a LOT of npc towns that are practically empty, and even more opportunities in the player-owned sector. You can always watch for spots to open up in your dream city of course, but the majority of us gave up on that a long time ago, since our dream city is like half taken up by old claims by people who don't even play!

 

Just be patient, something will show up. Go around where you want to live, check the expiration's on the lot stones. Yes it takes time, but its not horrible. Check the Town Crier each day for openings. You just have to be diligent. I picked up a really nice Town Lot in Brittany Wharf s a couple months ago. It was full as well. Pick something up in the mean time. Use the Property Manager once you find your dream lot so you dont lose your decorations when you move.

 

It's right there on the signpost/stone when you claim.

This was a recent addition so it sounds like your lot expired prior to its implementation.

 

(creeps in quietly)

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...nd-the-new-smugglers-row.139763/#post-1135582

Just saying - you'd be welcome....

(tiptoes out again)

 

A new discussion.
I recived my Collector edition box in the mail on Wensday!!!!
Nice items..

 

Aerie Centre Exchange is located immediately outside Aerie, a few steps away. Much more beautiful than Aerie, has lots of vendors, full crafting stations, Oracle for free gold, full set of Shrines for free buffs, lots of space, and free lot for you for as long as you please.

PM me, will set you up.