Lot Selection Sequence Process

Why can't I expect people to be aware? Fine, I can't expect it. If you pledged 500 or more U.S. dollars and aren't concerned enough to be aware then how is that on Portalarium's shoulders? This is not a hand holding game and it was DEFINITELY portrayed as such during Kickstarter.

 

Short answer - No.

Short Reason - It was said during kickstarter that you COULD upgrade up to a year after the kickstarter, meaning noone HAD to pay full upfront, and i dont see any reasons why people who payed FULL amount earlier should get advantage, we already have the advantage to pick before others.

You claim that people who pledged after you get to place before you - Nope. They payed as much or more as you , just a smaller amount earlier.

 

How about letting us "Register our interest in a lot" during R18 so that when you click a for sale board you get to see which player currently has priority on the lot you clicked. Only players with a higher priority would be able to displace a person's registered interest, and notify the expelled claimant that they have been gazumped. Just a thought.

 

Not the brightest of comments. For Example, I purchased Baron level of support so that the game WOULD get built, doesnt mean I have the time to sit here and be part of the development process. I invested in a FUTURE product, and was assured that I would have a certain priority in lot selection. AND We/I were told that we would have ample notification of lot selection. Your way seems more like GIMMINE something for nothing and screw the people who made the game even possible.

 

Thanks for the reminder I do hope that Portalarium learned a lesson from Chris Roberts in Star Citizen, seems enterprising young entrepenures scripted bots to to scarf up all limited number ships such and the Idris Corvette and the Destroyer Capital ships, average players ended up with no chance to get the ship they had waited so long to try and get.

 

Ok now that Ive reviewed the more recent conversations, is there any ETA on the actual lot selection phase of the launch?

 

Nothing has been said regarding an actual date for lot selection.

 

Thanks, I keep a watch over the Emails I get from Port, and hadn't seen any comments on it, so figured I would check in. Been a while
since Ive looked around.

 

I didn't assume your pledge level(s) so I am unsure why you feel inclined to assume my pledge levels. If you consider yourself one "of the people who made the game even possible" then I am also one of those people several times over (if your Baron pledge is the measuring stick) so there is no GIMMINE something for nothing going on in this corner.

 

Calm down and look at what you type. Don't get so excited. You demanded that people "PAY ATTENTION" during the game development or screw them. Not the way to go. I made no assumptions about you personally....lol almost as bad as my wife telling me what I think.

 

C'mon. Wives always know what you think, even when you don't think you thought it. We're always right too.

 

Maybe the solution is to make villages not boring. As it is, I can't tell one from another in too many cases. Braemar repeats everywhere.

I think they've kept village sizes small to eliminate lag. The complaints about the size of Ardoris, and some people can't even go there, have been numerous. For me though, Ardoris has no lag at all. And I prefer row lots. That's where condensed vendors will be, making it easier to buy from players door to door rather than traipsing all over the globe.

If we've invested in a game and get a tax-free lot, we're guaranteed claiming a lot. The real question is, where? If villages aren't boring, it would help. I'm a RF, but personally, I think we all should have to take our chances over where the best lots are obtained. Everyone wants a guarantee of the perfect spot just because they invested early, or invested at all. We agreed to invest in a game, so we could play the game. It's not, House of the Avatar. It's a game, and when people lose their focus and think they should have their dream home spot, well that's beyond a game to me. That sense of entitlement bugs me.

I'm just glad I have a guaranteed lot and house.

 

I liked the original lottery solution, start at the highest tier and give them a certain amount of time to pick their lots, then move down a tier and let them have some time, and so on.
It's fair and it is logical, not random or arbitrary. I also think it would be quicker to have a flat 2D map of the towns for people to put their name on, instead of making them wander from city to city looking for lots that have not yet been claimed. Just my 2 cents.

 

There than in a big city, perhaps near a crossroads and/or near a rift gate, how will one even know what a "good" lot is before the real game even starts? And what will be a good place a year later.

I know I'm not smart enough to figure out where the perfect lot would be, even if I had a week to look without competition.

With that uncertainty, add that many/most of the movers and shakers here are doing PoT to place themselves near their friends and like minded folks. With 202 PoTs, I don't see the land rush to be the problem that it was once considered.

Besides, once the first expansion hits, with new territory, and towns, everything will change some more.

 

Some browser based solution would also give people at work a chance. But the downside is of course development time/cost spent on something that will only be used once.

Still, this whole land rush race thing does not seem too thrilling to me. It clearly favors people on fast connections near Austin and disfavors people who have to work or are just not expert at winning a race. If they would number all lots in the game, then publish some maps with the lot numbers (or display the lot number in game) and give people lots of time during beta to find their favorite lots, then just let them input their lot number on the account page that might be better. When it is their group's turn people would probably have to repeat entering different lot numbers until one has not been taken yet. But this would be a fairly simple process and there wouldn't be any running around in game and lag issues would be much less likely to play a role when just accessing a website form. People would explore in game beforehand and note down lot numbers/IDs of lots they are interested in. Sort of much more like a seat reservation system. Maybe one could even input a list of preferred lots beforehand and if lucky one would get assigned a lot on that list without even having to be online at a specific time.

 

All that seems reasonable, and even logical. But RG and Starr are the ones that want the land rush. Competitive acquisition is what makes people want to play. There will be disappointment, you can't avoid that. It's part of competition.

Lord British and the Oklahoma Land Rush

"Much like deeds sold in the old West, they do not specify a particular piece of land, only a right to settle."

 

Not really. If you check out the OP the DarkStarr says they are still considering a ticket seating solution and want suggestions on other solutions given the limitations. Where the reasoning is that lot-rush can be done with current tech, and most other solutions would be costly and demand non core tech.

So while Richard may say such things and also enjoy such things, Starr is usually more grounded.

This is a rational decision, so if someone would propose a better system for the same price then they'd go for it.

 

I can only go by what Starr, himself, said. If he's shifted that position, maybe you could point to his actual quotes on it? Because this does not seem "grounded" to me....(emphasis in quote mine...)

"Long said that he had researched the land rushes of the old West because 'it's the perfect model' for his design projections. 'We're very much inspired by that westward expansion and that exact behavior of new land being discovered and offered up and the kind of behavior we want to see. It's different and it's challenging, but we think it's more interesting for the players'."

 

why cant that graph just have a nice upward trajectory all the way to the top? why is the middle so little value and at that rate how can they contemplate ever getting many at the highest level if the middle level value is so harsh, is this intentional to try to pidgeon hole an eceonomic model of a tiny middle class (which has never worked well afaik)

 

Ancestor, Navigator, and Developer were only given land in the form of Row Lot Deeds post Kickstarter. The lowest level of Land Ownership during the Kickstarter was Citizen. The Row Lot and the granting of those deeds to the three previously mentioned pledge levels was a recognition of the dip in the graph and an attempt to help fill it by making those three levels more desireable, and lower the barrier to property ownership.

Here's what your suggestion would look like:


To raise the same amount of money we've raised to date, would require 61,789 Backers. We currently have 31,183, or a bit more than half what would be required. But, that's not really accurate, or knowable, as the total amount raised includes Add-On store and Player Owned Town pledges. I could adjust for the PoTs as I've got numbers on those, but not the Add-On store purchases.