Player Owned Towns Update: Scope, NPC Buildings, Icons, etc.

I think PoTs will be different from what is existing now. In addition to what SirRichard mentions above, there will be NPC merchants in pretty much all of the PoTs. (Well except those that choose not to have them) While the banks there may not mean much to you, the NPC merchants may buy all your iron long swords, sell repair kits, or have needed reagents. In addition, the player vendors there might be selling that new diamond encrusted vorpal bastard sword you heard so much about.

I see the PoTs offering diversity, while you may prefer to get meat from the butcher in Owls Head, I hear it's fresher.

 

All that being said, having a different color title (on the overland map) to distinguish NPC run vs. Player run would not break immersion for me, and help out those that don't want to see our toys.

 

that sounds like a great workaround, just a color change.

 

I like the color coding idea for the nameplate of the town, Bones
(From overland view)
-Smoke coming from chimnies during the day to indicate X% of inhabitants are home. No point showing 1 person is there in a metropolis, but 10% ? That could indicate something is going on inside.
-Lights on in the windows during the night to provide the same info.
-White skull and crossbones to indicate it's an open pvp town and they turn red if there is active pvp occurring.
-tooltips when you hover your mouse over the town to show stats such as largest deed in town, number of tenants, number of available lots, average level of tenant, as well as the town owner's message of the day, etc., an indicator of whether it is an RP town or other classifications

Just some ideas Nothing new probably

 

just remember, if it is single player online, npc's are assigned to the houses so the towns will be full. in single player offline, however, pots aren't even there. (but i want my pot to show up for MY single player offline experience...*stamps foot*...i can see WHY it wouldn't show up for anyone else, but why NOT show up for mine?)

as for the ideas, i think they're already planning on that type of thing, not sure which chapter though. i've heard about the smoke in chimneys and lights.

as for marking pvp from outside, i think it should zone in enough to see the gates with the banners..if it is pvp enabled, a banner is on the gate to let people know that way...and you have to walk IN through the gates as acceptance of pvp flag in the scene...having a seam at the gate line to load the rest of the town as you are walking towards the gates (would reduce the load times if you go in and see it is pvp and walk back out) there would have to be a timeframe allowance for standing outside the gates though, getting pushed back out to the overland map..

 

I was wondering on the player towns it has listed a possible choice the
"13 Village Lots + 1 Keep"

What exactly is the lot size of the keep?

Thanks!

 

try out this link: http://sotahousing.com/SotA_Player_Town_Calculator.html

all the info you need to know about the lots and you can check out just about any configuration of lot sizes

 

This will assist you
http://sotahousing.com/SotA_Player_Town_Calculator.html

 

The keep lot is equal to two city lots.
A city lot is two town lots.
A town lot is two village lots.

 

I respect this, but I wouldn't recommend hidden POTs because there will be times at which you may what to meet friends in one. Plus the overland map might look not so robust without them.

 

Somewhat related.

It seems clear how all the pledge owners in Rift's End will claim an unlocked lot. Use the lot deeds provided by their pledges. How will in-game lot purchases work? Will house vendors sell lot deeds even if there are no lots left anywhere in the game? If they don't, what if a player I want in my town can't get a deed? If they do, how do they deal with player disappointment at being allowed to buy a lot deed without having access to a lot? If I unlock a lot can a player have two options pop-up when they click the lot stone 1) Use inventory deed 2) Pay for this specific lot deed. Portalarium could set the price. Once either of these two options is done they can place a house.

 

I've been giving monuments and blessings some more thought lately and I still really like the basic concept. The one thing I may need some adjustment is how the blessing is activated. For example, let's say there's a POT that has 1 lot on it. That would mean that it has a 100% occupancy and the blessings would be enabled year round. But then let's say there's a POT with 400 lots, has 59% occupancy (or 236 people living there) but they don't get the blessing?

I think instead of making it black and white like that. How about instead we make it so the blessing is ALWAYS in force, but each person that lives there increases the potency of the blessing? This allows small POT's to still get a benefit for having monuments, but it doesn't punish large towns for trying to manage large amounts of people.

 

Seems fair to me. Much better than just based on occupancy.

 

Would you have it a straight numbers game or would you have it be some combo of percentage and total numbers? Otherwise a metropolis at 15% occupancy would have a better boost than a holdfast at 100%..

 

That's a great question. I think in an effort to not get complicated, the best way to look at it is probably more like saying a person equals a person. Does a Metropolis have the advantage that they can hold more people and therefore have a higher reward? Sure they do. But they also have more to manage and more people to make happy.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure we want a holdfast to have the "economic power" to compete with a metropolis. These larger cities should be drawing more people and should be a center for trade. The smaller POT's should have reasons to go there and visit, but it shouldn't be because they have "better" blessings than a POT that has 10 times more people in it. That just doesn't seem reasonable to me.

Having said that, I'm not sure the difference between a monument with 1 person and a monument with 100 people needs to be a benefit ratio of 100 to 1. I think we could create a tiered system that doesn't unbalance the game. For example, let's say there's a Holdfast (population 1) with a monument that gives .01% increase to your gathering ability. Then there's a Metropolis (population 500) that gives .05% increase to your gathering ability. Of course you want to live in the Metropolis if that benefit is what you're looking for, but it's a marginal increase from what you'd get in the holdfast. If you're min/maxing the Metro is better, but if you're just trying to live in a nice quiet town then the benefit doesn't ruin your gaming experience.

 

The only problem I see with the straight number game is it seems to favor maxing row lots to get a leg up in blessings instead of a variety of plot types. Otherwise, I do agree somewhat with 500 people should be a more thriving community than a loner in the woods, but I wouldn't see a mixed lot metropolis having less draw than a metropolis with maxed row lots. Different PoT sizes I agree should definitely have different level of reward, but I'm not quite as strong in my feeling that two maxed out metropolis towns should have different blessings regardless of total numbers of people (I see the justification for both arguments, just not sure which way would be better to lean towards mechanuc wise).

 

With limited housing, having MORE available housing (even if it's row lots) is good for the game. So I have no problem encouraging that.

Also, row lots are limited in that they can not have vendors, have virtually zero lawn space, are at the bottom of the housing value pyramid, and have the least amount of square footage. So the pressure to provide more village lots and above is already there. In a way I think this might balance out the benefits some.

 

Just wanted to add one important aspect regarding adding color to identify a town, item, etc., I would also add a pattern or symbol for distinction to help those who are color blind. In my many years of gaming I've mostly always had issues with color coded items, having a hard time telling one from another. Maybe it can be added as a graphics option - colorblind mode off/on.

 

Darkstarr, I have a couple of questions pertaining to town portals and how they link towns together. Will they be able to link towns through portals that would be in different regions? I would hope this is not the case as it would bypass intended choke points. I am in favor of linking towns that are in proximity to each other however, as to not have to zone to the overland map and click on the next hex. If we do have it I will probably buy two more holdfasts and place them all around the world lol.

 

Row lots can have vendors, they will just have to be placed inside.