In regards to housing...

Should houses be affordable after a few hours in the game? or should it be something you work towards to?
I know this is not uo, but when I played it, I did not have my first house in the first 30 days.. and when I finally got one it was the small house.
If you cant afford the "bigger" houses in this game, trade or sell the lot deed and buy the row lot deed.

 

as I am playing part time, If I didnt have a tax free row lot, I would be just living out my bank, if possible. Current uncustomizable houses are not worth the effort in my opinion. but I am obviously bias.

 

It's kind of different if you play the game and work towards buying a house. In old UO, you worked towards buying a house. Here many of us have bought that house plot as part of our entrance fee to the game. Now we are sitting on a deed, but what is the point of using it when taxes are so high? I was hoping to grab a plot during this period then working on skills and finding various hunting spots and socialising in world. Now, why bother? Taxes are too much of a money grab to start. Just kinda tells me all is about money grabbing. As a casual gamer that was hoping to get involved heavier with the game, it is an instant turn off. I could understand some kind of reasonable tax...30k a month no matter what is ridiculous, and certainly isn't going to draw people in to play a game that is all about money and time sink.

 

What kind of lot deed costs 30k a month? And everyone knew that it would cost about 1 COTO aweek for a row lot. I did not buy anything bigger than a row lot because of the taxes, and I knew it would take me month+ to be able to afford paying taxes on something larger.

Putting down anything larger than a row lot that is taxable with a newbie char and expecting to be able to pay for the tax is ludacris unless you are good at trading or buy COTOS.

 

Posted this in the regressing thread, but posting it here probably should have been better. Just pasting here for visibility.

 

Yes. But there's a required balance.

This isn't a mobile app where you're just trying to get as many people as possible to give you money that becomes revenue for your business. SOTA is a game that is built on a robust community not a pack of mindless farmville addicts. SOTA isn't a simulation where you check in at lunch time see how your crops are doing. It's hours of direct game play and that's a big difference between how a mobile game would work and how we need to work.

I don't think that's something that is lost on the developers. I think they understand that if someone buys a house but they can't pay for it, they're going to leave.

 

This whole complaint about taxes is kinda absurd. Either pay with COTOS till your able to pay with gold , live out of the bank like may others or, suck it up and grind to pay your tax. If you didn't want to pay taxes you should have pledged enough for tax free deed it's really that simple. The taxes are fine as is!

 

A village lot is 1k/day=30k/month. I bought the village plot 3 years ago to support this game. Had I known it would cost so much in game to keep this plot, I would NOT have made the investment. Most people are saying one can easily make 500g-1k/hour. As a casual gamer that would put 30-40 hours in a month, if I made this my main game, I would be spending all my time just grinding to pay the taxes. And FYI, row lots were not an option when I first paid into the game nor was COTO. So now don't be insulting because I was early to support this game. In return for being an early supporter, I feel I am getting screwed over by the Devs to line their pockets even more!

 

Yes. And as a player I really don't want to "figure out" what the best scenes to farm loot are every month. It's not fun for me to wonder if I'm in the bad loot area this month versus last month. So it will be interesting to see how you plan to achieve a balance when so many things will continue to change.

I'm truly sure that you guys are going to do the best you can. But I'm not optimistic it can be done well month to month with the current mechanics. I think you guys should go back to the drawing board and rethink the way taxes work and how players obtain money for those taxes (many of whom will be casual players).

 

So your target numbers, are that people should spend 15 hours a month paying taxes for a row, and 30 hours a month paying taxes for a village?
In addition to the adventuring costs that repairs, equipment, reagents, and arrows that 30 hours of grinding costs?

I think you may want to reevaluate your numbers just a little bit.

Edit to add, also what are the odds that whatever the 75 people did to earn city deed tax money per hour isn't going to be nerfed anytime soon? Not trying to be mean or insulting I really want to know, is that kind of return expected to be nerfed as well?

 

I agree, perhaps start the tax low and as the gathers speed and people accumulate more increase the tax.

 

there may be a contingent that wants to keep the player base small.

 

That is stupid. I paid for a village lot years ago. Planned on setting up a place to start and get into the game. Now why bother? I will have to grind and grind, and then hope I can find a spot to use that village lot I paid for after a few months. Why not make it affordable for those of us who bought plots years ago with the intention of grabbing a nice spot once the game went live, then work on the character? You are still making people grind for at least one hour a day just to pay rent. If I have say 2 hrs to play in a day, that means probably half an hour of travelling, 1hr of grind and then going home to pay up my taxes. So you have made the game casual unfriendly. Either you put in like 4hrs daily..2hrs for paying taxes, then maybe a couple hours for socialising, grinding some crafting skills, or some exploring. Point is still the same...if I play for 40hrs a month, I will be doing nothing but grinding for taxes. Where is the incentive to bother playing? No time to do anything else. Which means I wouldn't even bother looking at cash shop for some nicer items, or bother to explore world much. Just log on to pay taxes.

 

Most of you guys are missing the point.

I completely believe in working for your gold/house. It was PROMISED that we would be able to pay for an ENTIRE WEEK worth of rent in just about an hour of play. Now in order to afford rent we have to play for an HOUR A DAY.

2 Options. Either un-nerf the vendors buy prices and the nerf to the item drops themselves. Or lower the tax rate to fit the income.

Most people are saying they can pull in 500-1k gold an hour. Then the rent needs to scale to what was promised. I don't want my entire shroud experience being nothing but grinding on mobs for multiple hours a day just so i can pay for rent over the weekend while I'm spending time with my family.

 

You could also plant stuff on the whole lot and sell it for profit, it would make more than enough to pay for the tax until you start earning more gold/hour.
If a day old char can earn the taxes on any lot in a few minutes, then why even bother with something smaller than a town lot?
What do you think is a reasonable tax on a village lot? 10gold/day?

 

Bro in the amount of time you spent composing this rant you could have paid a days rent or more! You chose not to pledge for a tax free deed you made that bed. Now you don't wanna sleep in it. Interesting turn of events on your end, but not sure why the game needs changed cause you personally made a bad call. If you can't afford it now pay with COTOS till you get your bearings or drop the plot and replace when your actually ready to own a home. From the sounds of it your not even close to ready yet...

 

I'm one of those 75, or at least if you looked at an hour I was trying I would be.

The problem is that earning 3500g/hour means grinding green mobs in one of a few places in the game. It's not fun, it's purpose grinding for gold. I would gladly accept 3500/hour killing mobs that were level appropriate as part of clearing a dungeon scene with a chance of getting useful loot and not just vendor trash (solo, raids are as big of a Black Plague on modern mmorpgs as pvp.) 30 hours a month to afford your house isn't a game, it's a job.

And my house is tax free, still don't like the mechanic as currently implemented.

 

I would like to know what you think is a fair tax on a lot? Some people chose to get a smaller lot due to the tax system.
Should a 5min old char that bought a lot in the store be able to make the gold needed to pay the tax for a week in an hour? and would that be on any lot?

 

Personally, yes I see those as reasonable numbers. One hour worth one week taxes sounds right to me.
And yes, for any lot. Maybe a bit more, but the real expense is made when purchasing the deed. I mean, easy taxes on big lots wouldn't make me buy a city deed, it remains as inaccessible to me regardless of the tax.

Currently, as a reward for spending lots of money to fund our game, players are given a grind nightmare.