Eurogamer: $12,000 castles and $2100 deeds - inside Shroud of the Avatar's booming housing market

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by smack, Feb 10, 2016.

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  1. redfish

    redfish Avatar

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    Um.. Well, I hope there's more "sim" type stuff coming, because that was always an important part of the classic Ultima games. The fact that you could bake bread or harvest pumpkins, that there was day and night with NPC schedules, that you needed to eat food to survive, would freeze in the cold, could look at the stars through a telescope. The sim aspects are part of what made Ultima what it was.

    Not sure exactly what you're referring to about generic fireballs in different colors, because there's only one color of fireball, and all the schools of magic have different effects. But if you have some ideas for spells, you should make a post about it in th eforums.
     
  2. kazeandi

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    Yea you have at least a brown and a green fireball, too. Not "ball" but "arrow" and not "fire" but "earth/ice/whatever", but you get my drift.

    And in U7, you didn't buy your cookie recipe online for 50$.
     
  3. redfish

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    @kazeandi,

    The different schools of magic have different effects.. fire has DOT, ice slows you down, lightning stuns, etc. Its not just different colors. Eventually this will interact with weather and the environment, too; like fire extinguishing in a river, or lightning becoming stronger. Then there will be elemental combos. But if you think they should be even more different than they are, post your ideas about that... I'd love to hear what you have in mind.
     
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  4. kazeandi

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    You still have a fist, an arrow, and so on.
    That's innovative and next gen? Coupled with the random card system?

    Well if you perceive it like that, then that's cool, too. I won't try to make you have less fun with it.
    It's just not what I expected, much less so from a developer vet like RG and his staff.
     
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  5. Katrina Bekers

    Katrina Bekers Localization Team

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    I know there are people who can win the world with their mustaches (*), but... WTF? Mustache customization is considered pay2win? In what universe I ignore the existence of? Maybe the one where every complainer has been touched by Garriott in some very private parts?
    I let my crush Colbert speak in my name:
    [​IMG]
    (I have a ton of other likely-themed images I will use generously from now to forever.)
    Without the slighters shadow of a pale doubt.
    Yet, they can still complete the promised 40+ hrs long compelling narrative. Or some blocking item to finish the main Hickman'n'Garriott story is being sold only in the add-ons store and nobody warned me?
    ___
    (*)
    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Fox Cunning

    Fox Cunning Localization Team

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    I've always liked your feedback, mate, but I have to comment on this.

    Ultima VI had pretty much a subset of the basic D&D Red Box spells, some of them even had the same names. And there was a very limited set of armour and weapons, all basically "borrowed" from D&D.
    I still think that was an Ultima game, and one of the best.

    Not to say that what we have now is the Ultima experience I was looking for. Not just yet. But combat and spells have absolutely nothing to do with it.


    Now, going back on topic... I think a booming virtual property market can be good for the game. And it has everything to do with the social aspect of the online mode, and nothing to do with "winning".
     
  7. rune_74

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    Interesting article, getting attention from people as you can see in the comment section.
     
  8. Drocis the Devious

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    So we should get a publisher?
     
  9. rune_74

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    At the moment with so many PoT's out there the only way there will be a booming virtual property market is if Port seriously restricts the land deeds. The problem with doing that is that a lot of the PoT's will be virtual ghost towns. I'm curious to see how this will pan out to be honest.

    You will need a house eventually to really get into the game, so they have to make it so you can have that carrot on the end of the stick.
     
  10. Beaumaris

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    Good article.

    Not sure how to take the 10 hours of game play to pay for a row lot. That seems to be a restatement of what Chris covered in the hang out. Is that 10 hours of playing in general, earning a little gold along the way, or 10 hours of grinding gold? Big difference potentially.
     
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  11. Beaumaris

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    I disagree with this. With a duke level pledge, I find that all the pledge really does is open up easier housing game play, by and large. That is just a fraction of the game. It has not affected or enhanced my adventuring game one bit. I have logged in for many days in SOTA and totally ignored pledge items and played SOTA, and never missed the pledge items. The cash shop does a lot to enhance the housing game. It does very little, if anything, to enhance the adventuring game. Two different animals almost.
     
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  12. rune_74

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    That's if you believe not having a house is not a hindrance. Players will be at a major disadvantage for storage space, so will not be able to compete with crafting.

    I know what you start with when you have the extra's and I know what you start without...there is a very big difference.
     
  13. Ashlynn [Pax]

    Ashlynn [Pax] Avatar

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    The one part that stood out to me was this bit:

    "You have plenty of bank space and can purchase more if needs be. "If you want to be a vagabond and just run around and play the story and have a good time, more power to you," he says."

    I then checked the pledge store and right now, new adventurer level pledges still only get 20 slots. That isn't plenty of space. So the statement is either a) not true, or b) they have decided to review the ridiculously low number of bank slots for the lower tiers.

    I really hope it is the latter.
     
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  14. Leostorm

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    Its a good thing you can buy/craft everything functional in game that you can on the store.

    it costs very little to increase your bank slots.
     
  15. Dartan Obscuro

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    I wonder what people think it means "to win". Do you only win if you have a castle bigger than everyone else and have all the rare decorative items? There's going to be a full story to advance through. They've said you can complete that without even having a house.
     
  16. rune_74

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    This is a bit vindicating to be honest.
     
  17. rune_74

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    Correction in July you will be able to advance through the Love storyline...not sure how long of a story that is.
     
  18. Womby

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    That reminds me of an idea that I've been mulling over. The Q1 2016 Schedule Update contained the following line:
    Players will be able to view a log that tracks which players interacted with an interactive object (doors, containers, etc.) on a player’s lot or Player Owned Town location.

    Now, if the devs proceed with their idea of allowing POT owners to place lots on their POTs immediately, bypassing the land rush, then a POT owner would be able to set up a temporary lot covered in as many containers as it will hold, and a note next to each with the name of the container's owner. Players could then be given kindred permissions on the lot, giving them to access to the containers. It would be an honour system, but the access log could be made public so that if anyone accesses someone else's container, it would be public knowledge. I see this being offered as a free service to members of a guild that owns a POT, and possibly more broadly, provided people accept the risks.

    This could run until the end of the land rush, or longer if there was a demand for it.
     
  19. Ashlynn [Pax]

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    I'll believe that once the game is persistent and portalarium have decided on what the final gold costs will be. I myself can't see it being super cheap (I imagine it will have a very steep exponential curve) when they are selling 10 slots for $5 a time in the add-on store. I hope I am wrong.
     
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  20. Drocis the Devious

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    How do we know if we won or not? It seems like we should get an email or something. What if someone already won and we don't know it?

    @DarkStarr please confirm that no one has "won" the game yet. This seems very important to some people.
     
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