Houses & Plots

Ive read that players can buy more than one plot, is this per account or do you need seperate accounts to do this.
The reason I ask is with limited plots available this could:

1 Leave players without land for a house.
2 Make the price of plots very expensive if someone holds more than one.
3 If they can buy more than one plot for an account can they also have more than one house.
4 If buying more than one plot and you then use the 2nd plot deed do you lose the other plot or have to sell it.

In Uo you could hold two house deeds but once you built a 2nd home, if you did not sell one to another player the other would decay and free up up the land in a week . With this system the Plot is more valuable than the house as you are able to upgrade houses on plots.

I would just like this clarified as it could disrupt the game economy if someone with money to burn buys up a lot of spaces. It can happen when an add-on or instore item can have a great impact on the game

 

As currently designed, someone can hold an unlimited number of plots, should they desire to. But the non-backer ones will require upkeep. There will be players with no house and the price could theoretically become very expensive.

 

Ok, so just to play devil's advocate, how about this way of thinking:

Someone with only one plot of land will be less likely to sell it than someone with many plots of land. Because of the scarcity and finite number of plots -- which is by design and reiterated by Richard this week -- people will tend to hold on to their land. Demand will continue to go up yet supply will not be replenished. So the plots will go up in price and who will be more willing to sell? Someone with lots of inventory, or someone with only one piece of land? Knowing that no more will be made available, I'd guess you'll hold on to your single plot, while the gold farmer with many plots will sell for that profit.

In the grand scheme of things, there's not a whole lot of difference if only 0.1% or 1% of the population own land. That other >99% will be unable to own one due to a non-replenshing, finite supply for Ep1. The only ones willing to sell? The gold farmer. Everyone else? They want a home for keeps.

So I would argue that gold farmers are actually beneficial to keeping the supply chain moving. Real land owners are playing for keeps, at least until they leave the game.

 

If you own one plot (village) you then want a Town house you would buy a new plot deed once you use the deed you would have to sell the the first plot or it would become vacant in a set time period (week) so that frees up a plot for someone to buy how real housing usually works. You own 20 plots build a house on one decide never to sell the others you may want to farm it or your a bit of a Troll. So thats 19 players who never get a home.
So why should someone with lots of Real Money be able to decide when and who gets a plot they may sell their plots too guild members or a friend. but decide they want lots of open space around their home.
As housing land is limited turning the game into a 21st Century housing market is not the way to go with the land owned by Bankers.

 

New plots will be introduced in each episode, if not in between.

 

Why would or should anyone need 2 or more Plots for Houses unless they want to sell and make some easy gamegold or Real Cash from players wether you have pledged $500 or $50000 you as Dev+ backers of this game you should be pushing the one house per account rule and no plots onsale, This one thing at launch could be a Gamebreaker for any new players coming in.We will then be in todays UO territory no players no economy.
The $150 Plots should have been tied to account pledges to help raise funds so a pledge $150 got you a plot.

I've never come across a game were you had more than one House per account, of course this is always exploited some setting up extra accounts but at least if anyone wanted to get 2 plots in SotA they would have to pay $150 to the game developement.
Im sure we will see all these that make a killing for gold & cash stood posing for hours on some high spots in Town.

 

Yeah it's definitely promoting s system for someone with time or dispensable cash to dominate the housing market. I loved UO, and I absolutely love what I have seen here with shroud, but I work 10 hours a day to break even, and I'll never be able to afford a lot in game through time or cash commitment.

 

I have two plots (and would like to buy more when my finances allow it) so that I can profit in and out of the game. Although I'm likely to sell my extra plot in-game, if it was easy to sell for real money and get back some of my overall investment then I would.

I agree that someone could very well come in with a ton of money and buy up all the plots. If I had the money, I would do this. The economics of the game are in fact inviting someone to do this and I'm very surprised it hasn't happened yet. Will this be bad for the game? I don't know for sure, I can certainly see scenarios where it would be. But I can also see the devs raising taxes exponentially on extra plots that an account has. This might make holding extra plots very difficult to do IN-GAME where outside money doesn't always translate to IN-GAME capability.

I assume that since one of my plots is tax free, I should have no problem holding an extra one no matter how the mechanics work. I can rent this extra plot out in-game, or use it as a second hide out, or just for more space, or to roleplay having a "summer home" whatever. There are a lot of ways that this might be valuable.

 

Can two small houses be placed on one large lot?

 

Not to my knowledge. But that would be an excellent way (that I've suggested in another thread) to allow more people to live in less space.

 

Nope. The developers have made it pretty clear that you can only place one house on a lot, regardless of lot size.

 

Do we know any details on the houseboats or wagons?
Will they have special lots?

 

Hmm, in the last demo they did show waterfront lots, but I don't recall seeing any houseboats. (I presume they will simply be moored there - since you won't be able to sail away in it in Episode 1, but I could be wrong.) They're probably concentrating on getting the regular houses done before moving on to the houseboat... I haven't heard anything definite about wagons yet.

 

I bought a plot, and hoping somehow to afford moving up to Edelmann (or knight) and I would have 2 plots of land. I've already been approached by a guild mate and would probably sell it to them, or possibly farm on it...or have one in the city on a village sized lot and one in the village that my guildmates choose for where we want to co habitate for RP purposes. One in the mountains, one by the sea!

 

That's exactly why I don't have an issue with what they did... I was a dual account UO player for two houses... instead of having to dual account in E2 I plan on buying a lot from the add-on store for my second house (I figured one is enough for now). It saves me the hassle of having to change accounts, trust my other account, change back, blah blah blah. They get the money from the plot purchase that I would have spent on the game... I get the two houses I want without having to make a new account. Winners gonna win +1 to the Devs.

 

I actually bought my first plot before I pledged to Knight and then was like oh well I can use my spare lot for farmland because it looks like the Knight house will gobble up my farmland hehe. And if any other friends join I got a spare for them too. So glad I had some savings from my lack of gaming hehe.

 

heh

 

That answers the question why you should own only one, If someone as 2 then they have already a plot unavailable. If only 1% can have them I'm sure the other 99% can manage without some gold farmer buying it,, then wanting a profit as if they have done you a favour.

 

Who is to say that more lots will not become available? And when they do, how will that effect the land speculator? It may be detrimental to hold onto a property for too long.

 

Actually, no it doesn't answer the question. Because true gold farmers won't be stopped by an artificial per-account limitation. They will simply purchase 1000 accounts. The argument (and really, it was just a thought experiment) still stands, such that players with only one plot of land are going to keep it. They will not sell it until they leave the game. A gold farmer with 1000 plots of land per account or with 1000 accounts isn't going to keep those. They want a profit and will sell for a profit. Players are buying land to keep, not to sell. Gold farmers are buying them to sell, not to keep -- again, be it 100 plots per account or 100 separate accounts.