Outdoor Storage (Lawns)

You think there should be techno, spaceship, cars in SOTA? Or do you favor some restrictions?

 

I am playing a sandbox because I want no restrictions. I have no problem with how someone decides to decorate their yard. I say let people do what they want.

I'm here for sandbox.

 

I think that's fine for Player Owned Towns. But for public space, like Ardoris, Owl's Head, Soltown...these areas will be integrated with the quest system. I think they should have restrictions that tone down the "creative" lawn art. Just like the TOS has restrictions, and just like the game engine has restrictions, and just like this is a medieval fanstasy roleplaying game and that brings with it restrictions....our front yards that are visible by anyone that should wonder by can have restrictions.

There are already technical restrictions. You can only put X amount of lights in your yard. You can only place certain types of objects in your yard.

Holding on to freedom for the sake of having the ability to put 20 throne of bones in your front yard is not an honorable fight.

 

There were no restrictions in UO and it was awesome to see what people did. I hope we can see some of that creativity again here.

I will fight to the death for a sandbox game. There hasn't been one since UO.

 

Pushing an agenda of trying to restrict what people can place on their lots just because you don't like how it looks isn't honourable either - I would say it is pretty terrible.

 

Technical restrictions based on the platform are a given and are to be expected.

Lord Baldrith is correct about the sandbox part. I also believe that is in the spirit of the game, I believe the Devs want us to have as open of an experience as we can. After all, I bought into the sandbox element of this game while it was being lifted up and pushed in the KS campaign, part of that was to have my own persistent house lot. They sure didn't mention any restrictions of the houses or lots based on opinions of other gamers opinions and if they had then I wouldn't have gone into the KS tiers with houses.

I honestly don't care if someone has 20 bone thrones in their yard. I'll just laugh at them and move on! Why get so hung up on it?

 

Seeing jumpships, bonechairs , or marble hippos, your hyperbole makes no debate without screenshots.
All noted from the initial problem you seem to have, the area was a great looking industrial player lot, talked about back from the kickstarter. IMHO.

 

Just stumbled onto this thread... So, we have lawn police now?

Personally I'll probably have somewhat normal and, if possible, creative lawn deco on my places.
But, if I lived next door to the OP, I'd probably pile up the bone thrones and crafting tables - 'cause lawn police really annoy me.

Just sayin.........

 

As the OP pointed out, the excample he choosed is rather random, but as it is my lot, two points from me too:

1) I´m not much of a roleplayer. I first ever met "real" roleplayers in this game. On one of my first days in sota i was just running around and learning to climb and jump. One time i jumped in a really well build garden with hedges, tables, and all that stuff and stood in the middle of nice decorated people talking somehow "british" and really felt like running naked through a cake Party of your 60 year old aunt Mary. Greatest feel of Immersion i ever had in game so far Im not a roleplayer but i enjoy the deep immersion this game offers. Or maybe i am a roleplayer, but i search my role outside the immanent story of the game.

2) In fact, the decoration of my lot is Kind of Expression of a - temporary - frustration with sota this release. Mostly based on Problems with Support and some other Details not important here. BUT, i love it to be able to havea way to express this in sota itself. I mean, hey, i really got ya with my first stroke on that

So, please, let me play the way i like. And that also means, i dont like any possibility to filter decorations for other reasons than lag. I want my junk to be seen!

 

I'd prefer dev time to be devoted to other, more pressing issues, than a community-driven stick to beat bad-tasters with.

 

Ok, there's a PM of Mah Junk coming to you soon Wait, that's not what you meant? But I really wanted to show it to you!

I've no problem with how you decorated your lawn by the way, and I probably wouldn't block most people, even ones that do strangely annoy me like guild tags in lights (don't know why, it just looks too much like graffiti to me...) but I don't see why we don't want to allow people the right to opt out? We claim that right automatically ourselves by having personal preferences, but we don't feel our freedoms are restricted by that. Rather, choice is the basis of freedom, so why not give people the choice of what they'd like to see?

Maybe have it as a magic spell you cast, "Wall Of Invisibility" to go around people's lawns, which when passed through allows you to see the lawn, if we really want to keep it in character? Maybe even "Wall of Silence" for when I get a lawn full of cows if their mooing keeps you awake at night. I don't have a problem with that, not everyone loves cows as much as me (But Moo loves me more than you, Lum the Mad! Hands off my cow!)... Being a good neighbour means knowing when to keep the midnight mooing down.

 

The problem with a "good taste" type rating board is the people who have and like junk in their yard will run around and vote for everyone with junk in their yard. If you give a vote to everyone, then people with tastes different than you will be voting for things you might not want to see. Some people don't like obstacle courses or mazes, so you'd restrict the awesome inventions some players make because a certain set of people don't want to live near them? You're setting yourself up for a useless tool later on because no one will be able to select "view lot by rating" when the ratings will be completely randomized.

It's better to not discriminate at all. If you don't like how players decorate their houses, make your own town with like-minded folk and spend your time there. At least weathering effects make sense, or will..once weather is in the game. Then people who really want their crafting stations outside will at least have to replace them every once and a while and the "karma" of their choices will be visible. I think this is more in line with the point of the game, given all our choices are supposed to have consequences. Decorating contests have their place, a universal rating system does not.

 

I agree, I think this is well stated. I'm not a huge fan of the rating system for the problems you outlined above, it's very subjective.

A similar problem I have with SOTA is that traditional classes are not supported well at the moment. Meaning you can't be a pure fighter or a pure mage because of all the "freedom" of the classless system. It's another good example of where the extremes of the player population "subjectively" take things too far. But I don't think that means you have to throw your hands in the air and say "well I guess the only thing we can do is keep it the way it is and let everyone do whatever they want to do". It just means it's a complex problem and will require a special solution.

The problem I see with this thread is that there are a lot of people that seem to think people putting a bunch of junk in their yard is not really a problem. Which is as frustrating to me as I'm sure my feeling that it is a problem is to them.

 

I understand what you're saying Drocis, and I know it's a problem for some players. I think part of the issue is, though, is that it's kind of like being aggravated about players dancing in their underwear in front of the bank at 2 in the afternoon or, in real life, people picking their nose in public. Part of living in a diverse society (real-life or online-game based) is that some people's choices will always be repulsive to someone else. But, bad taste just isn't that actionable, and too much micromanaging will turn players off. It's a slippery slope.

 

I totally agree. But unlike real life, this is in fact a game where the players can only do what we let them do. For example, players can't steal items from other players because we don't let them. Some players would LOVE to steal items from other players, yet we've taken that freedom away from them because many players feel that's in "poor taste".

It really is a slippery slope, but it's a slope we must travel nonetheless. You see, the answer is not to say "no one can steal or everyone can steal" the answer should be something inbetween.

Do you see my point?

 

Yes please In fact it is not easy to find junk/ugly/rotten objects in sofa. There is nice slime in the sewers, but i can't pick it up so far. Im open for tips in this direction

 

Well .....

• We have techno music on Avatar's Radio. Wait, wut!?!! There's a radio in a medieval fantasy roleplaying game?!?! We need to get rid of that radio, pronto. Non-immersive modern stuff begone!
• No cars, agree. Would be non-immersive. Of course we can electrify our fences in this medieval fantasy roleplaying game. No cars, but definitely electricity. Hmmm. What about electric cars, should they be allowed?
• No flying around in spaceships, agree. Would be non-immersive. Not in this medieval fantasy roleplaying game. Of course we can travel through lunar rifts, just like they did in the 12th century. Yeah it's right there in the Arthurian legend. No spaceships, but definitely lunar rifts. Very AUTHENTIC.
• Was unaware that my pledge included an obligation to abide by the rules of your Homeowner's Association. Must be in the fine print somewhere. Next to where it says we have 19th century homes in our medieval fantasy roleplaying game. No matter, let's keep those yards nice and tidy!

I just fundamentally disagree that a crafting table in the front yard breaks immersion. If it wrecks immersion for you, I strongly suggest you pay no attention to dozens of other game mechanics because it will seriously ruin your day.

 

I think in most cases chests and crafting tables are outside because the game mechanics pursuade you to do so. It is simply the closest way to the /zone point. You wouldn't see that much of this if the /zone point would be in the houses for example.

 

The OP suggested weather impact stuff you leave outside. Not that you couldn't leave stuff outside. Pages of "oh noes! freedom!" later, and that's still all I suggested.

 

Right, I totally agree. The game encourages people to put everything outside for convenience. I'm suggesting that be changed.