Done with SOTA for now

Agree to disagree... I think rent should be at least twice what it is now, let the hate begin

 

Justify that thought with the specific improvements that change would make to your game play in particular.

I then invite you to discuss how you think that level of maintenance on housing would affect the average player who starts playing in release 34.

 

Careful there good man with the word "fizzle" in your name you will be held to higher standards and be thoroughly tested in PVP!
@HogwinHD @Oba Evesor

 

Something to strive for
having everything handed to me isn't what I see as fun. I don't expect the new arrivals to even have housing, it should be something to strive for.

 

Right now, I understand people are suffering as they try and balance the gold earn hourly rate vs. tax. But people bought these taxable deeds knowing that they would take time to maintain. The hours of grinding per deed type were clearly stated BEFORE final wipe, when anyone could melt them and make other purchases. To suddenly remove that impediment renders the bundles and pledges that contain tax free deeds essentially useless. And that WOULD affect the enjoyment of many players.. knowing they spent money for a convenience (less grinding) that is essentially useless.

Why would Port undercut the value of their best add-on items (pledges and bundles)?

I am currently maintaining two taxable deeds, a village and a row without any problems whatsoever, even with the reduction in loot from this release. I have NEVER bought COTOs from the add-on store nor have I used the COTOs from my pledge to pay rent. And I have a full time job and two kids. So clearly, maintaining multiple taxed lots is possible through grinding. If you're playing only a few hours a week, row lots are your best choice if you pay taxes. Bigger lots are a bigger burden, as it should be.

 

Not only should rent be higher, but they need to eliminate 'tax-free' as well.

 

That's true. One of the main things that keeps me in a game is the improvement margin. Because, apart from quest and story (which are currently too static), the value of the game is in the progression of our character. There is no much fun if everyone can accomplish everything easily. I would get tired quickly if it was the case : we would lose the ability to distinguish ourselves. I like to imagine that I can meet very reputable craftsmen or rich lords, when I have chosen another path myself.

But this should not be a reason to force some people to a kind of boring gameplay. 3500gp a day to keep a city lot is forcing you to spend hours grinding just to keep the house. Want to attend to an event ? I can't, I must pay the taxes. Want to take a month for holidays ? You should have wifi (and a good one) everywhere you go ! One parent is sick ? Sell your city lot deed !
I'm ok to say : a city lot must be difficult to maintain but here, it seems out of proportion. Something like 1000~2000 gold each day would be much more reasonable.

Also, I hope that Portalarium will setup quickly dynamics events in a near future, like town siege or overland map enemy patrols. Beside, I think quests would benefit from more NPC actions. Solace Bridge scene, for exemple, seems completely empty when we could imagine some lasting defenders fight for their lives against marching undeads. And what about some refugees (among the same we meet in Soltown) walking through the fight to flee the place ? Currently, the quests are not poorly written but the staging is lacking action.

 

game is somewhere between alpha and beta, with no story and massive chunks of planned elements not implemented yet. if you expect a finished product, come back when there is one here.

I understand that this game entered persistence too early and there will be a lot of this, but expecting a completed game when we're at least half a year away from one is silly. Obviously there's not much to do right now except level your character and amass wealth. In fact, that's really all there is. The game is in testing/balancing phase still. You should not be playing at all if you expect more right now. I'm playing now to get some GM skills for release to make the story easier for me to go through and enjoy the plot.

As for taxes, I think they are fine where they are, since the game is incomplete and still in early development gold is just hard to come by. I don't think anyone was meant to be able to afford a city lot in game within the first month persistence. Add on lots were cheap (compared to the tax free ones) and were meant to require daily active gameplay to sustain. the idea wasn't for it to be a cheap way to reap the benefits of early backers housing. 3500g a week for a row lot is more than doable, a day for a city size lot? makes sense since it's the largest sized lot available and intended for top tier power users. Anyone in that class should have no problem farming as much in an hour, I'm adventure level 43 and can pull 3-5k an hour killing humanoids without even stressing. Players with city, keep, castle lots should be top tier and have paid their way to that spot, either by cash money or in game superiority. This is not the Sims, the game does not come with free housing for all.

housing should be a goal, not a given. we were given plenty opportunities to pledge and get tax free deeds

 

Considering what a pledge with tax free city lot deed costs you real world currency I was expecting higher tax. You can also pay in advance and as many have no issue making 5k/hour I really see this as too low still.

I get the other side of this argument I do I just don't agree.

I mean Grand Castle in UO wasn't something you got day 1.. (I think free shards for me) in my dream no one would be high enough level to even be able to pay the tax on a city loy now a month after persistence

 

I can tell you for a fact I did not expect, by any stretch of the imagination, that a game would tax me one hour of my time per week just to keep a p[ece of cosmetic decoration placed in game after accepting $100 for it. They also had far cheaper prices in place with no obvious clues that they intended to so tightly tune it.

Do you consider that to be a fair exchange on a cash shop item? Consider a cash shop item in another game, a mount for example since they are so common, cosmetic and offer no real advantages (I am being generous putting housing in SOTA in this cosmetic category). I put something likw $30 into a mount in my preferred MMO. I do not have to invest further time to use it it. My add on purchase with Sota has a hidden cost now that I find prohibitive.

This wasn't clear in mid to late 2015 when I purchased my add on. I also didn;t come back until a few dats before final wipe and didn't go digging in the forums because SOTA information goes out of date so quickly it's more or less useless so claiming it was announced in the forums is pointless.

If in game deeds, purchased with in game gold had these tax rates, I would not be here arguing to have the tax lowered. In game attainment is valuable and attributes to the fun of working towards a goal.

However, now you are dealing with not insignificant additional requirements to utilise purchases and that's not ok.

If taxes were halved, tax free backers are still almost 90000gp a year better off. That's row lots only. 30-90 COTO's worth of advatage depending on if you value them based on tax credit or average trade prices. Start multiplying that out based on lot size.

How much inconvenience are high end backers wanting to place on that vast majority of backers and every new player from here to the final chapter, just to preserve their 'status'.

You still get what's on the tin as per the kickstarter, tax free lots, priority lot selection, indestructible tools and a plethora of items that are even being used to recoup real money where they have no use in the Market Place.

Those out arguing to inconvenience others and protect the interests of the few are very quickly becoming my main issue with this game.

Congratulations on finding a way to support your property in game. I can guarantee that I am not a very knowledgeable SOTA player and havben;t gone researching tips and strategies and could certainly learn a lot from them and find some grove.

But I travel several times a year and these instances will require4-5 hour grind sessions just to maintain my plot.

I play SOTA after two other primary games I prefer. I am very averse to this game now trying to create mechanics that insist I play SOTA primarily or risk leaving a $100 deed in a bank, essentially wasted.

So, still the only response on my question "why are high taxes are needed" which I have asked like five times now, still the only answer is

So people who have pledges feel more special.

Housing is limited by the cost, in dollars
Housing is limited by finite space
Housing is limited by a lottery being the only current way to gain one without trading with a player who purchased with real money.

Now we have proponents of pl;ayers who insist one hour per week is reasonable for the smallest lots. How many barriers do you need to feel the game is 'rewarding' enough

Final Fantasy XIV has a fairer housing system and the land there is so limited I can't even buy plot without negotiating with a player who owns a plot. It's also widely considered to be a bad system because of how high the barrier to entry is.

SOTA will live and die on it's community. Combat is weak, questing is barely implemented and there is no late game yet. The best feature of the game is housing and it is the most developed. But there is a culture in the forums and in the developers that somehow earning things 'the first time' isn;t enough. We need to earn it every week, not just maintain it with whatever passive income we get.

Don't let my calm writing fool anyone though. I am very specifically angry about being taken advantage of and keep that out of my posts as too many people speak around the issues to address the person.

If this philosophy continues, I strongly suspect SOTA will not grow beyond what exists because the community wants high spenders to be given every advantage before even considering the quality of life for casual players.

 

I know that perfectly well. But I took Solace Bridge as an exemple because it's advertised as polished. I know that many improvements are expected but the fact that the emphasis on storytelling is currently absent pushes me to react. I'm not a game designer : maybe this kind of stuff is done at the last moment, I don't know. But when in doubt, I make my voice heard.

 

Or four hours a month, since you can pay for more than a month in advance.

From the add-on store: "Row Lot Property Deeds purchased through the Add-On Store will have an in-game currency tax that must be paid monthly or the lot reverts to being for sale and the Lot Deed is returned to the owner.

From the add-on store:
"NOTE: Row Lot Properties will not be exclusive to the Add-On Store, and may also be available in the game. "

The add-on store deeds are the same ones available in game for gold. You merely paid for the convenience of having one at the end of final wipe.

If you think of add-on deeds for $100 vs the pledge deed from a $275 pledge. We'll say the tax free deed is worth $200 in this case, as a base value. At the current tax rate paid in COTOs, it would take almost 2 years of house placement to re-coop the extra $$$'s spent for tax free. If you half that, it means you would play through 4 episodes before you would get the "value" from the tax free deed. Not much of an enticement for someone who is paying in advance. I am sure at the higher level deeds, it might be even longer to get that value back.

It's not about feeling special. It's about the role housing has played in obtaining money from players to get this game made. The role Portalarium themselves assigned to it. Don't try to undercut that for your own personal convenience. Because that is what the dollar difference between tax free and taxable deeds is there for. Convenience.

Also from the add-on store:
" All lot deeds are transferable between players."

If you don't see the value in having a home to be greater than 1 hour of your game time per week, you can always sell your deed to another player. This game is completely playable without housing and with better permissions and rental options on the horizon, there is no need to push yourself for something you are probably not playing enough hours to properly utilize anyway.

 

In earlier release, when there was jsut hidden vale, peopel were gathering near the exit and forming adventuring parties there. It is possible to meet quite a few people on market. I think these days the zoen chat on Novia map might prove most successful. The bottom line is, it is up to players to meet and form adventuring party. It is up to players to find good gathering spots and use them and tell about them to others.

 

You didn't find what i asked for. Where the cash shop purchase indicated it required one hour of maintenence in perpetuem dated mid 2015 when they accepted my post.

If we want to talk the return on investment in tax free, well it's not as simple as adding up the difference in addon prices and pledge towers because of how liquid assets in game create more opportunities to generate wealth and the actual amount they are better off would like curve upwards as money attracts money.

More pragmatically it's only a free weeks of rent before the value of my time exceeds the value difference in pledges as well so it all depends on how you parse the payback rate.

Four hours a month is not an improvement on the situation just a rephrasing of my grievance.

As for selling our of my stake, I'd rather attempt to have reason prevail first then go to the grey market to cash out of this game.

 

They never gave it a time frame, but what part of "in-game currency tax" did not indicate you would have to spend part of your time in game earning money to use the deed? That phrase has been there from the start, for every lot deed, indicating you would be sacrificing some discreet portion of your game time to have a lot to put a house down on.

 

Sir...your whole argumentation started crumbling the moment Porta made clear they are working on part 2 of the game. Can we at least agree, that we want them to have the %&$§!& GAME DONE AND READY before anyone even takes a pencil up and starts working on version 2? Have them at least remove the "work in progress signs" maybe?

The product (I wont call this a game yet)is FAR out of testing...no one here is up to test anything...hell, you cant even make a stack of arrows hold in the bank...people been telling that since X and nothing moved. If you want people to test, then you listen to feedback and change and correct stuff accordingly what is obviously not happening. BUt housing...uhhh...yeah.

Have people start in resolute...and get a finger cramp EACH TIME they need that gate open to get in town...or run into the watchers BRZZT BRRZTT BIIII...while standing in the bank...do you think the devs are playing this game? If yes, then NOT in the starter towns and NOT with sounds on...cause they'd pull their headphones off their heads like a lunatic...thats what I do in resolute before going crazy.

There is one thing you can do in game...socialize...but only if you invested a lot of $ then you can run around with a crown on your head and invite your little princesses to your own digital teacup party...yehaaa...I've been waiting for this all my life -not.

 

If you can't afford your lot, give the spot up and sell the deed.

Problem solved, you're welcome :3

 

They should not have offered rent-free in the first place. Too late now. There would be a revolt if Port tried to take it away.

 

This alt account is getting off on the wrong foot.

 

Simply playing the game provides them with critical data needed to make decisions. That in my eyes IS testing. Trust me, they are collecting data behind the scenes so they can analyze it and make decisions about game play. Also paying to play a game in development is common practice today so not sure how this is "bizzaro" world. I enjoy the game and I am happy to play and provide the data they need to enable decision making. If you do not like this then why did you pay to play before the game releases?