Final Wipe and Lot Selection

I have to really bite my tongue after reading the last update on friday and now reading here the blocking transfering deeds in the first month. And all that just to favore people that had no faith in the game yet to play while wipes were still are in. What will change within this month? The game is still not finished, what is the main reason they are not playing yet. Do you guys really think after one month they will upgrade the pledge? For what? The only selling point left in the pledges are the bigger lots. Nothing more. Most valueable pledge rewards are removed. The place in queue in the landrush will mostly be over before they made up their mind. So what?

I just think all you guys want to stop the sales of pledges in the first month. Because most will try it out at least once and than they are bound to this game at least for one month. Very clever. Kudos

 

I've been out of touch for a while and slowly getting up to date again. Lot selection and the land rush has always been a hot topic.

I'd like to add that I have an interest in the real estate market of the launched game, sounds exciting, but I can't see a problem with locking lots for a month. Given a three year wait for release an extra month is nothing. At least I can't see one. Rarely does something become riskier when you take things slower; generally, the opposite is true. So a bit of a loss here. What's the trick?


edit:
I just saw an example from Mekong. However, I didn't think that was possible. I have two lots on this account but each lot has it's own lot 'timer'. I can only claim with deed 1 in the first time frame. The second deed has a different time frame. This will be true of all deeds.

This says to me that it is the deeds themselves that have the timeframe imposed upon them. How they inherited that right is dependent upon the level you pledged at. That seems self-consistent though.

 

When you get to your lot window, you can claim one lot, using ANY deed on your account. The game essentially updates that YOU are allowed one lot, using whatever deed you want from your bank. The change that is going to happen is, during the landrush, your DEEDS will be bound to your account. You can't give a deed to someone else or be given a deed from another account during R32. It doesn't stop you from claiming in your window using any deed that you have on your account. It means if you have a Duke account and an Ancestor account, you cannot give the deed from the ancestor account TO the duke account during R32. You can still claim a row lot during your claim window on the duke account, but you will have to use one of the deeds on THAT account to do so, then transfer the deed from the ancestor account some time AFTER R32.

 

Gotcha. That first sentence was the part I didn't know. I didn't attend the landrush, so didn't know. This particular situation doesn't affect me either.

If a Duke claims a row low during an early window with a row lot deed (e.g. taken from an alt), then they will have the keep and village lot left over. The next window available to an RF duke is 91 (I think): i.e. the very last one. So in order to claim something before 91, then those deeds would need to be transferred. If they go to the ancestor account then they are choosing near the end anyway. So the pickings ought to be slim. If, however, those deeds were transferred to a friend then I suppose they might be able to pick something earlier.

 

Sooooo... will we have horses? not houses... horses... enough to go around?

 

and will we finally have different mines? to explore, and different maps in overland zones? and balanced loot rewards so killing higher level things will reward us proportionately? and will we have real weapons rewarded in loot that we can equip instead of just the rusty sell it crap?... the vast majority of the player base care more about these things then the deeds and houses... which most of us won't get to partake in because we aren't as real life as wealthy... the more important thing is to please the masses not the wealthy... we PAY your bills... not the rich.

 

Honestly I think every person who has sent you cash should be receiving a tax free deed... even if its just for a hovel on the outskirts of the NPC cities... we are the bulk of the money that you've received... yet like in real life we get the shaft by those who govern... we pay for the roads and the guards... but do we get a house? no we get to rent, from the wealthy... all benefactors should at the very least get a shack on the edge of town... even if it's just a cardboard box and even if its at the end of the lot selection list... especially those who although not wealthy have spent our time and money to test a game and provide feedback to help make it a great game at release... but hey, what do I know... why should I care about those peons, I plan to pretend I'm wealthy and buy a pledge before they expire and get my own free lot... lets not fret over the peasants

 

This seems fair to me and will allow the lot selection to go smoothly without problems and exploiting.

 

I probably use the word exploit too liberally. I do not mean exploit in a security sense, but rather exploiting an unintended loophole in an unfinished program.

Many things are still bound to change since this software is not released. Many things are bound to be changed (i.e. patched) as "loopholes" are discovered, even after r32. This is just one of them.

 

The TL;DR version is that if everyone just use the deed given to their specific account at their turn, then everything is all good.

But if someone wants to use deed from alt account that has a lesser lot, so that they don't have to use their "main" lot to claim a smaller lot and switch later on, they won't be able to do that with this restriction.

 

'Pledges without property represent 37% of pledge revenue' - Dallas, COO of Portalarium. May 2015 in dev+.

DarkStar posted the data here for everyone in June 2015:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...wned-towns-stretch-goal-store-megapost.11465/


I doubt much has changed since then. Everyone pays their bills, both rich and poor, but non-house owners make up a smaller slice of the pie.

 

I'll rent you something.....www.sotasuburbia.com. You are welcome

 

If that were true we wouldn't have free to play games. Their whole model is based on whales.

 

Nope... confused here, too. Makes sense and doesn't affect anything I'm gonna do.

 

In contrast, the last I had the data with which to make the calculation which would have been around the same time frame, the top 1% of contributors had pledged 30% of the revenue to date.

 

Now I understand why Lazerous seemed so mad . People really taking this stuff way too personal at times. Most people are less passionate about real homes!

And I think it's been said... Home is where the heart is... I don't know if we have hearts as deco items yet though.

 

Not really a surprise. On a related note, an article published today pointed out the persistence of powerlaws in the world: http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/14/power-laws-rule-everything-around-me/

This isn't the first article to do so, but relevant and obviously timely to this discussion. People over-paying at the top end (paying premia) means that people at the lower end can get involved for a lot cheaper (discount).

 

40% only because in order to achieve a deed in benefactor stage requires a serious comittment to funding the game, similar to real life 90% of the taxes are paid by 5% of the population, because the way they structured the pledge/deeds it fell that way... had they bumped deeds down one tier of pledge closer to what the middle class could afford to spend, that percentage would easily have flipped to 60/40 instead of 40/60...

I can argue this point in various ways... but to what end. It was structured that way by the Dev's. simple as that... When the game is released to the masses... the larger percentage will be paid by the little guy.


----edit

After reviewing that link,

30,000+ players below the pledge giving a lot deed vs 3,000 above the pledge giving a lot deed... thats for initial pledge, once game becomes a monthly pay to play who will pay more? the masses, all players will pay the same small monthly fee... regardless of benefactor pledge's... they will receive about $50,000 from the little guys and $5,000 from the big guys... every month. Thats just counting the pre-release people... once game hits the market wealth becomes no factor, monthly fee is same for all... the masses will pay the bills for decades to come. The wealthy were just a slightly larger portion of the income at the start.

 

The rules were put out quite a while ago

 

The funding model was clear from day one. There is no obligation to play. Many people have left all across the pledge spectrum. This is just a game. It doesn't need to be a political soapbox. If you are sick of the world, perhaps your time would be better spent trying to change it offline rather than debating on a computer game forum but hey ho....

I also seriously doubt your conjecture about the future of the game's funding. You can find enough articles online from game companies that admit the bulk of their money comes from the few. The upside is that such games also have low barriers to entry (often free): i.e. everyone gets a chance to play. If you turn out to be correct then be sure to drop back with the stats and gloat.