PoT Thoughts

I'm taking this out of the PoT Directory thread to keep it pristine of discussion so it can do its business.

Yes, but often with some trade-offs. This happened with Havoc and Taenbys Landing (sp) but it didn't really fly mostly because Bladewyke was considerably better organized with all the conveniences a player (new or old) would want at the entrance of the town. This principle has been copied over and over.

Various Advantages of a PoT are:

1. Control over zone in point
2. Control over town layout
3. Devotionals and Oracle Conservatory
4. Cheaper/Free PoT Deeds
5. Teleporters
6. Control over Fishing
7. Arrangement of Bankers and NPCs
8. Location (sometimes)
9. Proximity to Guildmates, Friends, and Other Merchants

The role of a PoT in SotA is very important, it allows creativity, social interaction, convenience and a "reset" from the original land rush, allowing players to have homes in useful, prominent locations. A new PoT in the game is an opportunity to keep the game fresh.

#4, #8, and #9 are on my "hot concerns" list. I'll explain more in the later posts.

In a sandboxed universe, the PoT is major part of the game. The biome, the wider area, the arrangements of players on high or down below, the PvP flag that sets the interests, and even the decorations used... They add magic to SotA and inspire the player base. They are also a source of revenue to Catnip, since the largest items used for PoT deco are also typically more expensive. Not to mention pride seems to drive us Governors forward to compete with each other...

Please keep in mind, there are no "eligible to be placed" player owned towns new to the game (with one notable exception) since 2016 (https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=41907) and all governors are currently working with either their originals from before the cut-off or hand-me-downs.

It's hard to determine how well PoTs drive the community and the economy when that area feels oppressed, controlled by a very small minority of active players. While most of these governors are altruistic and simply want to provide housing for those that need it, they don't cover all the interests and ideas that players have.

And some governors wanted nothing more than to have a town they didn't have to manage with a pre-arranged layout, but that plan was nixed and could have lead to the number of empty PoTs we have in game right now.

(Continued)

 

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To address my "hot issues":

#4 (Free Deeds) and #9 (Proximity to Players) go hand in hand. I don't feel its a good idea to assume that a group of players come together and form synergy and friendship only in the later period of the game. I'd reckon that some people would dive right in and buy a PoT shortly after a few outskirts areas. And the friends of those players would join in, and consequently, do what they can to make their new home a spectacular one. In this way, there's enthusiasm and ambition at the beginning of their long adventures, rather than the end.

Some would argue (and have) that this means there's going to be empty PoTs everywhere -- sounds like a policy issue that needs to be addressed. I know there are empty PoTs out there, but why we are intentionally letting them ruin the game for the rest of us and future players is beyond me. And reduce Catnip revenue.. and be eyesores... etc... Any that can be "cleaned up" can also get a form unlock on their first violation.

Unfortunately, the existing system badly askew in the opposite direction of being available to new players. You cannot "just go buy an entry level PoT holdfast". Even if someone did have a buyer and seller, it still requires vouchers and an exchange, with some degree of trust and possibly even a trusted mediator. This sends a clear, bad, and discouraging message to new enthusiastic players. Most new players are used to just paying Catnip money for services, and don't want the hassles of dealing with 3rd parties.

My general feeling is that by lifting the restrictions and making PoTs available, we'd do more to grow the new player base, retain them, and turn them into paying contributors.

(continued)

 

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#8 is based on factors associated with PoT placement: Surface PoTs, Nested PoTs, "Regalis" region market PoTs, and upcoming Episode 2 PoTs.

Surface PoTs are the preferred PoT, they have Eps 1 early game visibility, they have special effects on the surface, and they one loading screen to go in. They can be placed near some resource in the game to increase their value, they can link to NPC towns as well as Nested PoTs, and have the option for sieges.

Nested PoTs have no surface presence, can be placed only near a town, and often require a choice from a selected list giving them a considerably weaker identity. From the surface, they require at least two loading screens. They have no options for sieges and have no visible markers from the surface. Many players aren't even aware that a Nested PoT exists. A few players have told me they consider surface PoTs to have "prestige" and felt Nested are second-rate.

"Regalis" region Surface PoTs are often the big ticket towns, not only do they have all the advantages of a Surface PoT, but they are grouped together to farm the largest shopping experience in the game. Ordinis Mortis, Novia Market, Crafter's Town, Britt Mart, Silverdale Market, New Britannia Market, etc. make up the core, with a halo effect for the various guild towns around it. Placement of new PoTs in this area has been turned off, making these more valuable. The majority of senior players have at least a row home in one or more of these towns, making them the most heavily populated PoTs in the game.

Episode 2 PoTs are an enigma, because last we heard players would need to buy Episode 2 access to visit the lands to see the towns on foot and that they'd be available to others via teleport or zone in if they followed another player in. This implies a degree of difficulty in even learning about these towns if you are a new f2p player, and a good reason not to go with your free outskirts deed (#4), and a really good reason for a new player not to become a governor of an Eps 2 town because their outskirts met friends probably wouldn't have bought an Eps 2 expansion yet (it is a Tier 10+ zone, after all -- "down the road" is an understatement.) With a paywall in place, it's not necessarily likely they'll be beating out the Regalis PoTs as a superior marketplace community since there will be a lot of casual shoppers locked out.

However, that could change based on how Catnip games decides to handle it.

Personally, I'm for removing all restrictions on PoT location placement, implement an unused PoT or vanity PoT policy, and since PoTs aren't pledges, "Vault" them back into the game so players can purchase them straight from Catnip whenever they desire. This is how I feel we keep and grow new players -- by enabling communities instead of restricting them, and presenting the opportunity when the need arises.

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Sincerely,

Engineer

 

What a huge compliment, thanks!!! Bladewyke was a early early trend setter while other towns have Built on and improved on that concept as well as places like crafters town, novia market did this with market versions etc.

 

The game needs to make a SAFE way where POT's can be resold within the game For COTO's. Many people have more then one town 400 plus towns in the game atm..

 

I disagree on lifting the restrictions. There is already too many empty ones and dont want to see more. I would rather see squatters that do nothing or dead ones with no active people living in it phase out like that of taxes if you dont pay it goes to bank. perhaps there should be a policy update that if these conditions happen that you get refunded so it can be resold by CatNip to active people. That would be my solution with out creating more.

just my thoughts.

Ps. every episode more will come for players to buy so its not like people wont get the chance. As well players can resell to others still.

 

As for the eyesore of empty POTs - I had an idea the other day... why not have an option/toggle similar to
- "Show Inactive Player Owned Towns on Overworld: no(default), yes
..with a timer duration similar to vendors based on the last time someone loaded the scene

 

This!

 

Maybe fix the problems driving away players who literally plunked down hundreds and thousands of dollars?

A dead POT literally represents a monumental failure on the part of Port. Email those people and find out why they left?

From personal experience, the continual war on trade and crafting, and the total lack of any (meaningful) updates for the UI in 5 years makes me want to throw up my hands. I keep the Factorium going due to a sense of responsibility for the new player, but I'm letting my Ep 2 POT go. I had big dreams for it to be a wretched hive of scum and villany and gambling, but nope without some vendor UI updates. Hard nope.

@CICI is right, it would be nice to be able to sell it to someone in game with Crowns. Now we can't even sell it in the forums, so it has to go to the back alley RMT channels.

And since my interest in those channels is close to zero, who knows, it might sit empty for a while.

 

What would you like to see as an update to the vendor UI? Just curious. Vaslor and I can talk about this on our stream tonight.

 

We have a Episode 2 POT, but we've never been a POT owner. I'm sure it takes a LOT of time to decorate and maintain a town. Vaslor and I are looking forward to the LUA and Inky integration to create variety in our town.

 

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/aggregating-vendor-requests.79544/

That is requests that I have been compiling from the community for 3 years. They aren't all mutually achievable but it's a good list. I took that plus my experience and spent several weeks trying to take the current system (to minimize developer hours, I know vendors are super low priority compared to combat) and make it usable:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fmre-08uMn7RBMdhj_d-m93TzAsdKsffKEFfE70v2xc/edit?usp=sharing

 

For me, the biggest time saver is to give vendors the ability to buy/sell partial stacks of items and resources.

If I could pick just one thing off Vlad's list, that would be it.

 

That's why it's the top point in the design document as well. Nothing else can even be done until then.

And the design doc I did (and it was endorsed by many top merchants), but the list is from dozens of peoples postings, many of them repeats, over the course of years, so it's not my list at all. It's our list.

 

I think you have an excellent idea going there. PoT owners are probably the biggest spenders in the game, why not make things easier rather than time consuming for them. Keep them happy and you'll find less money leaving the game and way more owners still playing.

 

I would LOVE to have my own town. But, let's be honest here...the population of players is low, and it's not going to go up. SotA is a niche game. It has its core players, and I don't think it's going to get a huge influx of new, long term players. Too much land with not enough population. Go into most PoT's away from the core around Brittany, and they're dead. There's nothing to do in them. There's no reason to go to them.

What could bring PoT's back to life? Set up regions of the map that will accept monster spawns, or resource spawns. Let the town owner set up a kobold camp on the outskirts of their town (away from the home lots). Let the owner place a mine, or designate an area as a forest with choppable trees. NPC dialog is a good thing, but needs to move more quickly so players can set up quests. You want to make SotA grow and not become stale? Give the players more ability to shape/mod the world. Let them be your world builders.

 

I've long liked the idea as per Rowell's suggestion above to be able to really customize the POT with additional stuff - such as resources / monster spawns in the non-housing area. Dungeon spawners and such play into this nicely, and I've heard Chris talk about us being able to decorate outdoor scenes in the same manner - lets do it for the towns. Suddenly instead of just an optimized market set up you'd have a hub of player quests, storylines, etc. All the stuff that a lot of us have been doing anyway with no tools to do it (those of you who have visited Rinzai are likely famililar with the ongoing war between ShimCorp and ScoffCorp and their treatment of 'employees'...etc) but we have to tell the story with books and papers and such. Now we're getting NPC scripting, which is another piece of the puzzle. 400 pots someone said? That's 400 new adventure / quest scenes requiring zero dev labor beyond giving us the tools to make it work and each town would have an identity instead of being a slight variation of lined up row houses with vendors, or completely empty.

Combat's nice and all, but the unique thing Sota has are all the non-combat stuff, the housing, the crafting, the decorating, the book-writing (and soon quest-making). I can go download any game and kill stuff, get loot, repeat until maxed out. I own a desert POT, let me have waves of corpions charge the walls as they try to repel the invasion of civilization. Let me build a lost pyramid out in the sands and fill it with monsters and treasure, or build a camp of smugglers hidden behind a mesa. Let us have a "resource limit" as with lights, deco, npc, where we can sprinkle wild cottonbushes around and/or choppable trees. Think of how much money I will spend to buy all the things I need to do this....

 

Thinking hard about it, I agree with @Rowell . Simply adding more POTS isn't going to solve SOTA's underpopulation problem. That's like saying we have so many empty supermarkets so why not build more of the same to bring more people in.

 

So much this. You can't really tell a compelling story with just words anymore - specially with the F2P crowd. They'll be gone before even reaching the end of the first story page.

 

Interactivity: You make a move, the game thinks about the move and responds, you think about the games move and respond.

Right now POT interactivity is low (unless people fill that thinking part). Mutual decoration and running shopping centers are the high end of interactivity, because they involve other people. Player to player interaction is the easiest form of interactivity (and great) and why PvP is hanging on here (good) and great PvP is what makes many other games so popular.

But to put the final pieces in place the game needs to respond to the players moves. And real interacticity is what makes great games, whether that is great AI (not here), complex simulations for the player to play with (not here) or a great story with meaninful choices (sadly not here for the most part).

A pie in the sky example specifically for POTS: Foliage that grows over a MUCH longer time than agriculture, to full fleged trees etc, provided they have light.

Growing an epic size tree shades out other foilage. (We have dynamic light, remember).

Trees can be pruned to keep them from becoming so huge (and some never go that big. FYI, apple trees in the wild are MASSIVE in Washington State, you can't even reach the bottom limbs after 100 years of growth, they are totally workable in the orchards.)

Lots of foliage, particularly with fruit, draws herbacious animals, over time. Lots of herbavores draws carniverous animals over time.

At any point, the player can step in and manage populations, or decimate them. Lord British tells the story of players destroying the UO ecosystem. Well, we've got our own areas now, let us manage them.

You could see the same with fish population in our waters. Stock them, cultivate them, or overfish them?

End of pie in the sky example, how about one that might actually happen because it is combat related:

@kaeshiva builds a pyramid in the desert and populates it with undead via the dungeon style interface. But then she forgets about it because it is lost, and does something else for a while. A month later she notices a horde of undead roaming around the pyramid. Eh, that's fine, we've got fashion shows to put on. A month after that, a skeleton wanders into the crafting pavilion. Looking up, there is a horde of undead charging over the hill toward town.

Outfitting guard NPCs, allowing sieges to overflow into towns. Building walls to keep the sieges just outside of the populated area, but letting them fill up the outer area so the whole wild part of town is crawling with enemies, etc.

You want to retain players? Increase interactivity. And the best place to do that is in POTs.

And no, dungeons aren't interactive yet. Pre-made scenarios with weak AI enemies is the lowest level of interactivity, bordering on brainless. UT, very little interactivity there, most people can do it on auto-pilot. There may be a brief window when it is the exact level of challenge to force the player to think like crazy, at that moment the interaction with the combat system (not the AI) will shine. The rest of the time it's a grind.

Find the interactivity, put it in POTs, win.