Housing. A great strength, pricing causing more problems than benefits?

Got 6 in Outskirts tonight!

 

The more in game not used the less they drop, the less in game the more they drop. Its not a daily limit.

 

cotos should drop on fishing and harvesting as well, as often as mob loot.

 

I know they do drop off mining nodes. but comparing tier 5 nodes to tier 8 and ten mobs, I do not agree.

 

I rarely have found them in game but I don't do a lot of grinding in game anymore so other's maybe know the results of getting them far better than I do anymore. Since coto change happened 1 coto really is not all that much. The cost of housing still is another thing and I think those prices could be brought down and it may even out since more could buy them. I always wanted us to have payment plans and bundles return and the payment plans would have helped many players get more of what they wanted. I feel the reason the game did get so much kickstarter cash was very much due to this being in place. I never would have purchased my pledge without it. Justifying a large game purchase was so much easier for me to justify it as my monthy gaming and entertainment cost verses a huge all at once amount. It was like going to a restaurant and movie type amount even if that was twice a month

 

I am.....pertty suprised by the outcome so far I have to say. I expected the next wave of trolls to roll in but most of the people seem to be ok with the prices. Heck, at the moment 19% think stuff has become too cheap Oo

 

Here they come!

 

Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!!

Jokes aside, I am of course aware that this poll is irrelevant from a statistical point of view. Non the less it is interessting to see.

 

I think @majoria70 makes some very good observations here. I play a lot, probably too much, but as a very average player I drop maybe 200 cotos a month if I'm lucky.

Also, let me stress that I am not saying a player can't work his way to owning a house with in game income, all of my 3 properties, two village and one Row and my 3 vendors were funded that way as is the rent.

My OP is clear that it is the HUGE step up cost to a Town lot that I find disproportionately high. The average player really cannot afford this with in game activity nor, I suggest, would the average non SOTA die-hard / semi-committed player or yet to commit player justify spending well over $120 on a virtual abode. This, I suggest is not good for recruitment or most importantly retention hence I ask my question. Owning a Town lot, or larger, provides so much kudos and space for fun activities it would hook players in. A Village lot is very tight and soon fills up offering little scope for ongoing tinkering.

As Majoria says however, from my perspective, if there was an enhanced subscription option, I would most likely take it up especially if it included a rent free Town lot or larger. How much would I pay? Depends on the bundle, but we are all used to monthly subscription games, are comfortable with the concept, and in the long run I would easily spend more per year via a sub than I would committing to buy a town lot as a one-off. Those unsure of the long term viability of the game (there are many) may also be happier with an incremental investment into the game month by month rather than throw in a bundle of cash and cross fingers they get a couple of years of value from their investment.

 

I am sure you are aware of that but I want to get this one out of the way for players that aren't here since the dark age of SotA.
This is by purpose. That's the way Port wants it to work.
The average SotA player get's a row lot as gift and with time and not too much dedication can upgrade it to a village lot and maintain it.
A town lot is only reachable for really dedicated players (be it time or money, both shows dedication in the end). And a city lot was created with guilds in mind (and backers of course but that's another story).

Do you have to like this concept? Well, that's what this discussion is about ^^

 

I think they are too pricey.

 

Good points, has me reflecting.. Maybe it is my 'angst' that I am at that 'cusp' agonising as to whether to plunge deeper in to the SOTA abyss ...

That said, would you not consider that a 'parachute' option to help take that plunge could be a premium (optional) subscription? As you state, is not (lets say) a $25 per month sub a demonstration of that dedication? Would it not sit alongside and compliment the other existing options of the hard cash one-off payer and dedicated hardcore in-game income generator? Or would a premium sub destroy or upset the balance?

 

My last info is that they actually wanted to offer other subs. No idea what happend to that idea. Got to ask in the stream today if I can join.

 

I've been playing since R32, and I have yet to see a single COTO drop. Not a damn one.

 

I voted prices are completely in line with current player expectations, because Port set the price of housing to be super premium way back in 2013. If anything, prices have come down a bit in the store over the years and secondary market prices are super low at this point (relative to past pricing).

If Port wanted more affordable housing as a way to bring in and retain a large number of players, that ship sailed probably back before persistence. In other words, I don't think drastically reducing the price of housing now does much to affect things, so it is probably better from a maintaining revenue perspective to keep prices where they are. Not unless Port can afford to roll out lower pricing with actual advertising noting that home lots that used to cost hundreds/thousands of dollars now cost tens of dollars.

I am right there that housing is the sharpest hook to bring in new and keep players, but simply lowering the cost at this point without other actions probably just lowers Port's near term revenue. Would being able to get a cheap town lot really keep a lot of people around versus the village and row lots they get for free? I tend to think not.

 

chris said it was one of the things they want tassilo to do, now he's back.

 

I am pretty sure that is a false myth. From what I recall from the livestreams where Chris discussed COTO drops, there is a server side setting that sets the drop rate chance and other controls that prevent too many from dropping within a certain period of time. We don't know this time period, so it could be every 15 minutes or every hour, but I'm pretty certain it's not daily.

I recall Chris mentioning the server side settings are based on analysis the team conducted on the spend rate of COTOs and are set manually. Based on the language Chris used, it seemed like those values haven't needed to be adjusted in quite a while and the team is happy with the current drop rates.

This next part is my thoughts--basing the drop rate of COTOs on the current inventory of total COTOs available would be far more trouble than it is worth. Firstly, it is excessively complex to compile every addition and subtraction of COTOs into a table and summarize it in real time to allow for the tens of thousands of loot drop calls every minute to reach out to the summary table for the needed COTO drop variable. Also, at last mention by Chris (which has probably changed since then), there was nearly $200,000 worth of COTOs held by players (mostly originating from pledges that haven't been claimed) and based on COTO pricing, that would equate to 21.5 million COTOs. It is a far more prudent use of server resources to have a global drop rate chance (1 in 10,000?) and some simple logic that tracks COTO drops over 15 minute periods and shuts them off when it reaches a set threshold.

 

Not so quick... What drives demand?

Death, Hoarding, Catching up, and Fitting in...

Death

Dead people that have not had proper funerals or estate sales drive demand...

Demand in this game is largely driven by the ABSENT, those that no longer play for one reason or another...the currency, possessions, and real estate of these folks, (God rest their souls), has not properly re-entered the market place...

Hoarders also drive demand, taking things off the market, in order to profit later on... or as in the case of many folks that have arguably been forced or encouraged into hoarding at a minimum, due to their desire to support the game's survival and success... Who really needs 4 Flame Shields, how many of us have 4 Flame Shields? I have never even used a shield, let alone a Flame Shield, and I am certain I have at least 4 of the darned things...they are cool, but if they were all for sale, they would be cheap

Drumroll please...

Catching Up

Time vs Money - Each of us have a different balance in this regard, so how can we solve this problem for people that have more of one than the other?

IMO, the number one reason the economy is the Achilles heel of this game is, Portalarium does not sell EXP, that actually adds EXP for cash paid! This makes deeds, houses, deco items etc.; significantly overpriced, due to a need for a revenue stream.

There is simply no way to catch up and be equal, which I believe is a/the major reason for some folks to not stay. How much money would Portalarium make if on any given day, if a new player could pay $1000 as a Catch Up Fee, to be brought to 90% of the player with the most Exp in the game currently, $500 for 50%, and $200 for 20%, and so on, or $5 for a potion of 2M Exp? Why doesn't Portalarium charge a Burial Fee for character transfers, something that includes a name change, optional sex change, etc? $100? Players retain their names in case they wish to, can get some of their investment back, and can jump back in at some point in the future...your character's experience is technically being sold. No matter where you stand on this, FIX THE EULA! Why make new players think they are doing something illicit, illegal, or bannable ; that is allowed and condoned on the company's website? And for God's sake, or for my sake, if it is technologically possible, please fix spellcheck on the forums so that the correct spelling of Portalarium does not show up as misspelled. I second guess it every time I type it

Fitting In

The community is awesome, so please don't mistake this as an effort to offend, but rather, an observation of an outsider looking in, that is currently on the journey of migration into it... At first, you guys come off as a bunch on inbred hillbillies that packed up and moved from the Ozarks in order to live in a commune together somewhere near Austin. (please forgive my admittedly poor effort at humor, but needed to say it to get the point across from an outsider's potential perspective, because that was my true observation and first impression) I think some of this is changing, no longer believe that all of it needs to change (Snuggz is officially the ambassador or the Taming movement and Winfield and Xonn play a similar role in Streaming support), and hope that the things that should change continue to do so, because nobody wants to join a lifestyle game where they will never be considered a true member of the awesome community...

More polls, form some teams or focus groups that players new and old are members of, remain open and objective when new ideas are proposed...as Ghandi once observed, "There they go, I must hasten after them, for I am their leader..."

Please let your dedicated player community that you lead, help steer the ship, especially with the current funding/staffing scenario. When everyone is picking up apples and putting them back on the cart, there is less focus on where the horse is headed, please officially engage the community ..."Officially" means publicly, with meetings, notes, tasks assigned, polls...develop alternatives, evaluate them and make decisions that are based upon formal feedback from the community with total transparency...you guys are so creative, let the community assist in some of the low hanging fruit in this target rich environment...we want to be needed, we want to help, we want this to be a huge success...

 

I remember him saying it long ago it was like that, and it certainly did seem like when persistence first hit, and not many people had a bunch of crowns yet, I was dropping them decently in chillbanes. After a few months and people started to horde the crowns, I stopped getting them as drops, went down to like 1 a week in chillbanes. More recently, once dungeons first came out, people were using up all those crowns and I was getting more again, then people raised the price and less people were buying them and I started to get less again. Then the deed upgrades came out, and I am still feeling the effects of that and dropping more crowns. Not saying your wrong and I am right, but its hard not to suffer from confirmation bias on this with the experiences I described above and chris saying that long ago.

 

I have 20k crowns saved to turn my town deed from taxable to tax free. I am not sure what is the cheapest path to take as there is no direct route from taxable to tax free. The five options I get is from a tax free village lot to a taxable city lot.

And I am sure it is more than 20k crowns in the first place .