Let's hope that SoTA follows a different path than Trion & Archeage for housing

http://forums.archeagegame.com/forum.php

What a mess- people payed for early access to get a head start on the general land grab and it failed miserably for many. From what I have read it seems as though our game is releasing housing differently and I for one am thankful for that!

 

What's happening in those games? The land is all used up?

EDIT: ok I think I found it. Seems like a familiar conversation really. I'm also surprised that anyone would think Archeage was somehow a non-themepark utopia, but whatever.

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I think everytime the SOTA devs are tired of reading our forums, complaints and problems, they should go visit the Archeage forums. It's like an entire mess that they don't have to worry about or care what the resolution is. I'm actually enjoying reading their forums right now, I think it's therapeutic or something.

 

I think that complains about not getting "The piece of land i dreamed or always wanted" are inevitable.

 

You're right Akro...I'm reading these Archeage forums and there are literally people like "I'm a Free to Play person that is waiting for the game to launch and I want to get a good housing spot!"

That's amazing. That's like me saying that I want to get a good seat at the Browns game this weekend that I didn't buy a ticket for.

 

It's funny when you figure a 5 minute phone call to DarkStarr would have fixed some of those issues:

Trion: Hail Lord DarkStarr, we heard you had experience with non instanced player housing 17 years ago with Ultima Online and we had just one question, should we allow players on first come fist serve basis to just place houses anywhere in the world without any pre-planning in regards to lot spacing or fan loyalty?

DarkStarr: F*** No.

Tion: Thanks! Who knows what would if happen we didn't ask for guidance.

 

Arrgh, like someone noted before, it is difficult to not read your post with De Niro´s voice.

 

I wonder if the good folks at Archeage are aware of the housing situation over here at SOTA? Seems to me that after learning the hard lessons about housing limitations, a lot of people may develop a better respect for the housing design here.

 

People are mad for a lot of reasons - one being not being able to enter the game / maybe due to server capacity, web attacks and their client not recognizing "patron" level accounts

The housing situation is simply that guilds and possibly gold farmers ... rushed the land an generally claimed the majority if not all of the land in the non-contested area ... the F2P people aren't even in the picture yet - and also a lot of folks are going "premium" - simply because the money vs the 4 day start (specially now considering all the problems) was not worth it

- I've been following the forums on MMORPG - its a weird blend of ohh my good the sky is falling, to I told you so, to just relax - everything will be ok, just wait a month

 

The housing situation is always going to be a contentious issue / especially if "housing is looked at as winning the game"

 

What's the minimum cost to get a home in Archeage? I know there's a free to play option, but that doesn't seem reasonable to me. I mean, is that really going to be a competitive option?

The minimum for a house in SOTA is $130 right? You get a $45 account plus an $85 Row House? That seems very comparable and reasonable to me.

 

Its not "regular" housing - its tied directly to crafting - its really a necessity if you want to play "competitively" PvP wise (because it allows you to plant resources) ... to own a house you have to subscribe - $15 a month - but if you are part of a guild you can farm on their lands with permission

- They have a progressive taxing system - the more you own - the higher the tax (I think SoTA should adopt this by the way)

- The big difference between Archeage in terms of housing with SoTA is that they are levering housing after the creation process / as opposed to using it to gather funds to create the game


F2P - CANNOT OWN HOMES

 

Oh, I had no idea. That's amazing.

As far as taxes go. I agree that there should be a progressive tax based on how much a person owns. However, that encourages multiple accounts and there's also the problem of the "no tax" lots and "player owned towns". I'm not sure how all that would balance.

I have two tax free lots and a tax free town, which is great for me. But I can see how these things would be contentious throughout the life of the game, as it's my understanding that the tax free lots and towns will not be sold again (at some point close to or at launch).

That's actually a great question about the player towns. Are they going to stop selling tax free towns at launch?

 

Not sure - about towns - I really don't know much about them or dev plans for them post launch

but multiple accounts is fine - because one would have to buy the game ... for those who play to be the "1st" to do this or that - ensuring that they can helps the game

Say for example if there were houses where / your backer status did not matter / and no one had a clear advantage to getting it - regardless of time spent in beta ... a brand spanking new player would be on par with a backer .... that would make for interesting gameplay ..

 

Those houses out in the wild - come to mind ...

 

The fun part is making people come to where you live anyway. Who cares about the npc towns!!!! haha

 

Does anyone have examples of what might bring people to a player run town? I'm not convinced this is going to happen without some help from the devs.

The NPC towns will have that help, so aren't the PC towns competing with the devs by default?

 

Casinos, shops, trade, museums, zoos, amphitheaters, worlds biggest worm farm, etc.

****Good restaraunts too.

 

That sounds nice

 

Right, so if there are let's say 100 player towns at launch (this may be a bit high), how many of those will have something unique? How many will have appeal 24/7? How many will be something that you have to see more than once?

The Casino seems like a good bet (pun intended) as it's possible to enjoy that type of active experience just about any time. But amphitheaters need shows. Do you goto a museum more than once? Is one zoo going to be better than another?

I'm not trying to be a downer on player towns. I think they're a great idea, a great thing to invest in, and I'm happy they're in the game. But I'm a realist. What you're describing sounds like a lot of work. I heaven't personally seen much in any of the releases that leads me to believe that kind of work is sustainable without developer help.

 

Yup, also cultural events like food, music, theater, and craft festivals, which attract visitors and help foster a sense of community Sure, it takes a bit of work organizing such events, but it's well worth it