2 Weeks is Too Short

Im thinking the 14-day timer on housing is a deal breaker.

I've never been fond of online games that force you to constantly play. Sometimes this is enforced through the extremely competitive nature of the game, given an astonishingly high number of gear needs, experience needs, and quests to complete (often requiring binding one's self to the availability of large groups of players), to be even marginally competitive. Or other times, games put arbitrary timers on things that turn into pumpkins if you decide to travel IRL, or do something in your life besides game all the time.

Two weeks is just two short. I often have needs IRL that keep me away from any gaming for 2-3 week stretches. I am not alone in this. Like many would-be gamers like myself, we cant get along with some of our favorite games as they leave casual players out in the cold. I'd hate to see SoTA become one of these titles, at least, one that forces players to pop in to "refresh a house" in such an arbitrarily short time. If only I had the luxury of playing video games every day...

Anyway, please increase this to one month. Not everyone has someone that can refresh their house for them. Not everyone stays around their computer every day for every 2 weeks of their life. People go on vacation, get sick, have to work, etc, and might need 15, or 16 days before they can log in.

Can there be other options? Can you make a house-refreshing API and have a mobile app to sign in and just refresh your house with a click? Can you extend the time period based on the number of "friends" or co-owners a house has? For instance, if I am the only person able to interact with my house, can I get 4-6 weeks before the timer runs out - and if someone has N-many friends/co-owners, they get the reduced timer, 3 weeks, 2 weeks, etc?

This is written after logging in for the first time in 15 days, and my house has been tossed into the bank. Its very discouraging, given my personal history with my favorite online games forcing me into a playstyle I cant afford. I finally have income again, and was looking forward to donating some more money to upgrade to the next tier of housing, but it seems pointless since I know its going to disappear cuz I had to do stuff IRL. It feels like I wont ever be able to fully participate in the game, so I am worry about associated risk of investing.

Please extend the housing timer to 1-month minimum (I do feel thats also too short, but its a world away from the way, way too short 2-weeks).

 

Two weeks is the current housing timer for pre-alpha. The timer will adjust based on your pledge level, as noted in the FAQ:

 

You have friends! You have, then, other options already available to you. Just give them permission to move stuff around in your house and I hear your house will be waiting for you when you come home. Depending on your choice of friends though, you might have to re-decorate

 

Won't the non pledge timer be a month, to correspond with paying the taxes?

 

I suppose that depends on the pay mechanic. If you have to drop the payment off, or click something to pay it, then yeah its likely going to be the same as upkeep. If it draws directly from the bank, I don't see a reason for upkeep really; eventually you will run out of coin and it will revert. /shrug

 

2 weeks has hit me too. But this is just for testing purposes - the original reason was pre-alpha limited lot availability in earlier releases. People logging on, grabbing a house, and never using or decorating it. I still like the 2-week expiration for people NOT using the houses who just grabbed it for the heck of grabbing it... but for people who decorate it - it's an asset to the world and I hate to see those homes drop away during the releases.

But again, 2-weeks (which will probably be extended when a dev reads this now that it's been vocalized!) is pretty short if one does step away for a bit during testing. It's a lot of work to re-do your house! BUT come game launch it will be a much longer window. For those with tax-free lots it's multiple months, for those who have taxed lots I'm curious what the length of time might be not logging in but if you paid your taxes.

 

Or if there is a way to pay ahead of time. It would be nice to have an escrow.

 

OK TYSM for pointing that out to me (and everyone else's responses). I was actually getting kinda glum cuz I was foreseeing a future where my avatar is left in the dust! I have a hard time keeping up with news, changes to game features, social events, and release notes, but I do try.

This system as described above makes sense and sounds totally reasonable. Two-weeks just for testing purposes alone also sounds reasonable . Ill be upping my pledge amount soon!

+1 !

 

Thrilled to hear you're upping the pledge.

If you need someone to house sit for you ever, toss me a permission and location and let me know when you're gone and I'll move a chair or something around to keep it active. Wonder if it might be worth starting up an ingame group of house sitters...