200 gold per day in taxes?

I was shocked to see that it costs 200g per day for me to use one of my town lots as a public square in one of my PoTs. I actually thought this was a bug at first. I'm now seriously considering converting my 3 extra town lots back to credit and buying a 3rd account that has a tax-free town lot. I'm already using the tax-free town lot from my 2nd account for a town square in my first PoT. I just don't see the value in having those 3 extra town lots at this point, certainly not for public use.

 

There have been some requests to tax the lot based on how it's used (housing/farming/decoration). Who knows what will happen.

 

If you can convert them to credits back.. for extra $300, you can get knight marshall, which has town lot and a really nice tower that you can sell for in-game gold later on.

 

So has it been decided if it will be taxed daily/monthly?

I assume they will have to asses what is a good level after deciding what the average player will make?

 

First pass on Taxes , but yeah seems way to high, also is it a game day or a real day??

 

If one of your pledges is lord level then you have a scepter that cuts the taxes in half for one lot for one month usable once a month. So that could help.

At one point the devs said that obtaining and maintaining a city sized lot would be a guild effort. A taxable town lot would thus also be on the more difficult side for a casual individual to do. I spent about 45 minutes in post tutorial highvale making a circuit killing mobs and exploring. After selling all the weapons, armor, etc I found (I was so over-encumbered I lost Focus with each step I took), I had gained nearly 1500 gold. So less than an hour effort to pay for a weeks worth of taxes on town lots. I personally think its too low. I wish I could work for an hour and afford a week of my rent in real life.

 

Considering I just brought back 1500 gold from about 30 minutes killing skeletons in the starting areas, I think 200 a day is pretty cheap.

 

A daily tax is just stupid. It should be monthly and 400 gold a day is WAY TOO MUCH for a city lot considering that we paid way over $1000 real money to support the game by purchasing the lot and then get slapped in the face with a ridiculous daily tax. Not everyone wants to spend half their playing time each day (and not everyone plays every single day) out grinding just to pay tax on a lot. I don't mind a reasonable tax - but to be forced to log into the game every day just to grind out Tax Gold is not of interest to me at all. I have supported this game with quite a bit of money, as has lots of others, to actually play when I log in - not to have to worry about purposely having to grind for gold before I can do anything else. And the scepters can only be used on one lot so if you have decided to support the game by purchasing several lots, then you are screwed.

 

If you want to pay a months worth in advance you can do that.

 

Sadly, my brand new character is too poor to afford the taxes. My first priority after a wipe is getting my PoTs set up for my guild. That's when I first encountered the staggering cost for setting up our new town square.

Honestly, if I'd known the taxes were going to be so high I would never have bought any extra lots. This is the first purchase I've made in this game that I've regretted so far. I really hope these property taxes don't scare off new players.

 

Would you consider to start the town with row lots, then expand later after your folks are more well established? Rome did not build within one day. You may find some enjoyment in growing your town by gradually building wealth and upside the plot afterward.

The reason why I haven't purchase any lots on add-ons myself was because I did not know the rental cost. Now that I do, but I already went ahead and grab citizen on my 2nd account, which I use it to grab a row lot on strategic npc town.

There are still couple options, you could also request to convert the add on lot to store credit and pay a little bit more to get a tent free as well.

As far as the actual rental cost, I don't think it's a setting stone on the amount as Starr only describe the rate in term of game hour and the current number may just a crapshoot until they have better feedback from players and in-game data.

 

I do believe you do not have to actually pay it daily... I think the plan is that you can allow the tax to accumulate for about a month... it's just calculated daily... if you don't pay it after a month you lose the lot. And this is in real time not game days/months.

 

Fortunately, my 2nd account provides me with a tax-free town lot that I can use in one of my towns to start with. It's certainly not how I intended to use that lot. I bought the extra town lots with the expectation that I could use them immediately and that they would provide added value to my PoTs as public spaces for everyone's use. Obviously, that doesn't seem to be the case so my 2nd town will have to wait for its town square, unless I just sell my extra lots and buy a 3rd account that has a tax-free lot.

I realize this is the 1st pass at taxes so I'm still hopeful that things could change for the better. I'm providing my feedback as part of this process.

 

I think the one other point I saw in the notes or Port posted... was that if you default on your taxes... you can't place it again until you pay the portion still due. This is to prevent people from defaulting, then placing it again immediately for free.

 

Also note that if you just want to make the POT look populated on the "town center", row lot markers will place default row houses for you. Anyone one who claim the lot will have that house by default as well.

 

I absolutely dislike buying power in addon stores with real money. But, the only viable solution I see to this problem of taxing lots that people have spent hundreds of dollars on is to significantly reduce the tax for add on store lots.

This can be done by lowering the overall curve, so instead of doubling the tax for each tier, only increase it by a diminishing percentage. As you get higher, to account for the actual money you put into it.

Plus, why not create a third tier of lots. We have tax free from pledge, reduced tax for add-on, then full tax for lots obtained with gold (however that ends up working).

 

I use the town lots as town squares for public crafting stations, entertainment, etc. There are no buildings there. There are NPC buildings and player homes that surround the square. I was going to pay the taxes out of my own pocket until I realized how much it would cost per day for the 3 extra town lots I bought.

 

I agree with your suggestions. However, I guess I'm still trying to understand where the actual value is in buying any property, whether with real money or in-game gold, beyond the role-playing aspects. The taxes just seem to be a further disincentive to owning property, which is supposed to be one of the biggest features of the game. I certainly feel no incentive to buy any more lots from the add-on store, and regret buying the ones I already have. Am I missing something here?

 

So the reality for me at level 1, was that I could go out with just starting skills, weapon and armor and get a steady amount of gold and junk that I could sell for gold in a reasonable amount of time. I just walked from Owl's Head to North Valley or whatever it's called with the spiders, bears and skeletons and I was killing all that stuff with no problem. Of course this was partially because the mobs are bugged, but even when they attacked me I didn't have a problem. I think that area is level set for 1st level characters.

I know that you're concerned with the taxes and 200 to 400 gold a day is not "nothing". But it's really fairly cheap when you consider that in 30 minutes I was able to secure almost a full week (at 200 gold per day) worth of taxes. So two hours of play and you're covered for the whole month? I don't see the problem with that. I actually think that the taxes should be raised slightly.

Anyway, I'm sure you won't be the only person to comment negatively on the taxes. No one likes paying them. One of the big reasons I pledged originally was so I'd have a tax free village lot (this was before row lots even existed). Good luck. I hope you find that my experience matches your own, if that's the case then I think you'll be just fine.

 

The Add on store lots are a way to get ahead with immediate housing. they should have the same tax rate as the ones you buy with gold. The benefit is you don't have to wait.