Lot Selection Sequence Process

That is why my Village will be flagged as PvP.

 

N00b Blood Punch, and L0ser Liver Pie... out of the Cannibal Kitchen.

 

I'd like to reserve a lot in Catmanland please.

 

So, is the game considered officially launched since it was released on Steam; has lot selection begun yet?

Sorry for my ignorance, been busy and have not been able to follow everything that has been going on. From what I can see from this thread it does not appear to have started yet...so hopefully I have not missed out.

 

The game has not yet officially launched. That is still many months away. It is still in Early Access.

 

That's what I thought...just remember reading something in an earlier thread saying something along the lines of "when the game is launched officially and is available to the general public", so just thought I would ask considering the release to Steam makes it available to the general public.

Cool, phew...did not miss it then. Thanks for the info!

 

This Is Still in PRE ALPHA.. read the disclosure when signing in..It Still says Under Construction

 

Yes. I did see that, and I did know that the game is still in Pre Alpha, although it looks damn good for a pre alpha, but I still asked because I have not been keeping up with all the news. I just wanted to be sure is all.

 

When does the lot selection begin so I can plan accordingly? Thanks!

 

koyettsu that date has not been determined. Shortly before the Official Launch of the game (not the pre versions) an announcement will be made in these forums and via your account email.

During these test releases which are semi permanent now, all things are temporary. They may disappear in a flash, it all depends on what content will need to be added as they continue to build the game.

 

Cartman: [leaps up on the table and sings] Nyahnyahnyahnyah nyah nyah! I made you eat your parents! Nyahnyahnyahnyah nyah nyah!

 

Welcome xPorter to Shrouds.

 

I must admit, finally finding this thread has seriously dented my enthusiasm for the housing system. I know it's just a suggested system, but there's a number of hugely off-putting consequences of it. Here's my personal situation; I'm a Royal Founder (Kickstarter) Ancestor.

1.) At my position, the game will have begun house placement 1 month and 9 days (1st May to 9th June as illustrated on the Spreadsheet) before I get to even try. This will be an agonizing wait.
2.) We do not yet know if you can create character profiles before then. If not, those who just "Next Page" past character selection will be at an advantage in each bracket's rush. However...
3.) At Ancestor level, there are 2 entire tiers who will also have only a Row House Lot Deed before me, including those who were not Kickstarters. There's simply no chance of placing a Row House then anywhere desirable.
4.) The suggested time windows of 10 hours is way, way too short, especially for an international game. Anyone working an 8 hour day, let alone longer, is highly likely to miss it entirely. It could fall in the middle of the night for you. You could be ill at the time....
5.) The idea of further donations to improve your lot placement promises a huge influx of money at the point the game no longer requires it (just before final launch) and will almost certainly lead to incredible amounts of bitterness as people feel pressured into spending just to maintain a slot place they may not even be able to make; The negative media coverage doesn't bear thinking about.

As an alternative then, may I suggest the following instead;

(and this is a rough first draft)

1.) Before housing placement begins, set a date beyond which further funding totals will not be counted with regards to housing. That is, on the 31st of April (in the prior hypothetical this would be the day before) the figure on your account is the figure you go into the placement with.
1.) Scrap the entry gated "Tiering" system, and replace it with 4 total days for everyone at that Deed Level to enter and place. Starting with everyone with non-Add On Castle Lots and working down to City Lot, Village Lot etc, every group gets 4 days together.
2.) In game, allow people to place "Bids" on any lot they fancy and have a deed for over those 4 days.
3.) Have the lot itself sort via Tiering who will get it at the end of the 4 days. The tiering would be as currently, with LotM beating Knights, Founders beating Benefactors, and higher spending Benefactors beating lesser Benefactors, with the added tie breaker of Earliest Funding Date in case both are still identical.
4.) Make each player when they bid set a Preference Value. 1st Choice, Second Choice etc.
5.) Each account still only gets 1 winning bid. At the end of the 4 days, the game sorts out all the winners, allocating the highest Choice of the player who wins multiple bids, and removing them from the calculation on the others to allow someone else that lot.
6.) If the player wins no bids at all (it's theoretically possible, if they don't bid on every spot available, or just can't make those 4 days either) they are rolled over into the next batch of deed placers over the next 4 days, and will likely get their first choice of what is left, now being a tier higher in priority. Everyone else repeats the bid system as before.

The negative of this is that you wouldn't get that sense of instant joy from seeing a plot is yours; I remember the mad stampede for Malas housing myself quite fondly, although I was fortunate in being able to be around when the servers went up and down, and up, and down again for a total of 36 hours before I finally got to place permanently and it will be shame to lose that land-rush feeling. However as it's currently suggested there's not going to be any such rush for me at Ancestor anyway.

On the other hand, you also won't get the agony of having to run around in a tiny window of opportunity only to see everyone else has placed before you anyway. It will require extra coding, but the code can be re-used for private towns if ever they wanted to hold an auction for plots themselves.

 

Well you have given it a lot of thought Nemo it seems. I am wondering how the player owned towns are going to influence lot placement because you can count me out of the running, I'll be in a player owned town along with several other people who will be in our town too, not sure of the number yet. There are 80 or so POT's at this point, you would think that would affect the numbers. I do remember the land rush in Ultima, it truly was fun there planning for it, hunting down your home, marking runes to your spots and teleporting around and trying to see if your house would fit where you wanted it to. Really good times.

 

Fun ...... except when they did the big post-Trammel housing placement on Chessy, Renaissance I guess it was, I placed a large tower. Then server revert. Then placed a marble patio (best house ever in UO IMO). Then server revert. Damn near broke my PC those two days.

 

It won't work, because most will be attracted to the same criteria.
The result will actually be much worse. Both for lower tiers and for non-us players.
That (6) scenario is really really common in your setup, and not uncommon/rare as you indicate.
This because the number of really attractive lots are few and the amount of players is large.
So most of the player base will all put bids on the same attractive lots, leading to massive amounts not getting 'their' bid.
The only way your system would work is if every player would bid on hundreds upon hundreds of lots. Spending most if not all of those 4 days putting bids on as many "acceptible" lots as possible.
Leading to almost all not getting something even in their top 30.
With your way one could spend days in game and put dibs on lots, but not be sure that you get one. So I have to repeatedly book the lot-rush hours. Scaring away the casuals, the non-us and those with jobs.

To give you a picture, take a high school classroom of 30 females and 30 males. Lets in this argument say that they all have similar serial monogamy heterosexual tastes.
The females get to pick a date for valentines using your bids system. The rich kids trumps the poor kids, and if of similar income bracket older kids trump younger.
How many do you think will have the same top 10? How many do you think will bid on all 30? How many retries do you think they will have to make?
Lots, none, lots.
This is because most females will have the same criteria for attractiveness.
Just like players and lots.

So lets play with some numbers. To see how many dissatisfied players we will get in each trial in your setup all we have to determine is how many "attractive" vs "unattractive" lots there will be.
Lets make an assumption that about 10% of all lots are "attractive", lets also assume the double according to taste so 20% is within attractiveness for some.

So first scenario 100 players fighting over 100 lots.
To put bids on all the attractive lots the 100 players will put bids on about 10-20 lots each. Almost all of those bids will overlap within the 20%.
That leaves 80 miserable players, bidding on more "OK" lots, lets assume the double because they are desperate so 40%.
So to put bids on the "OK" the 80 players will put bids on 16-32 lots each. Leaving 48 really miserable players.
etc

Lets play the same game 1000 players and 1000 lots, how many dibs do you think you can cram in in 4 days?
1000 players making dibs on 100-200 lots each with overlap, 800 miffed players.
800 miffed players desperately making 160-320 dibs, leaving 480 really angry players.
etc

Now up that to 10s of thousands of players. Then it doesn't matter if even 40% of the lots are attractive enough, because you can't force the players to make enough dibs to go around.

 

@Nemo
It's a good suggestion, but I think some of the complexities you mention would require quite a bit of extra programming above and beyond the current housing implementation whereas their suggested sequencing does not. Their sequencing is not quite what I expected either, but I think it is the easiest to implement and the most equitable to all backers - which I think needs to remain paramount.

I could see them compressing the group windows down from 10 hours to something smaller. A small change to the group windows would have a huge impact.

 

Spoon that is priceless, thanks, maybe not funny really maybe except to me, but so well written and the way it hit me, really had me laughing. I just loved it.
No offense to anyone, it just cracked me up lol

 

Why thank you Majoria70, thank you for the warm welcome!