How do you feel about the land rush? Would an alternative lot distribution option be viable?

Disclaimer: This is a personal post, and does not reflect any line of thought or work with Portalarium.

Before you read this further, I would appreciate if you cast a vote up top first. I'm interested to gain more perspective at the start on how people feel about land rushes.

I'm going to be honest: I don't like the idea of a land rush. It makes me anxious because I have a lot of lots in mind that I think I would like but many of them are across the map from each other. In many cases you'd end up just 'settling' for a lot because you took a gamble on one that got nabbed before you got there.

Many of the people I've talked to have felt similar about the way land rushes work and would prefer if there was a better way to go about obtaining their lot come release. It got me thinking about how it could be done differently:

What if two weeks before when the rush would start, open up the game and let people choose up to 100 lots they would like to have using a GUI of sorts in the order of which locations they would like most to least then let the server sort out which lots are assigned to people based on their pledge level/date since the information is already stored in the database. When they log in next after the server is done distributing, people would have their lots on their accounts already. This would probably solve 90% of the housing rush without having to fight for spots in game.

The other 10% would be made up of people who chose all 100 houses and didn't manage to get one because they were taken by players above them in the order of distribution, most likely because they would choose all 100 as high demand lots. This would lead to a much more limited land rush but would give them more opportunity to find one they would like because there would be much less competition on the field apart from people trying to quick swap for a better plot which could easily be taken care of with a land lock that would prevent them from being able to change the lot they were given for a certain amount of time to allow the rest of the players a chance to grab their lots.

Obviously the idea isn't foolproof but I think it would work a lot better in the long run than just unleashing the horde into the cities like it's Black Friday and possibly causing a lot of animosity over the results. This would help get people lot locations that would be acceptable rather than just having to grab one and go on the search for one that is better while taking up an existing lot someone else could use while they decide on another.

 

I only voted yes because I don't want the team to work on a GUI and system that will be used once. If there was already another option in place, that might be different.

 

My main concern is under the current plan I'm going to be standing next to a house sign while waiting for my selection time slot to come up and if there's another person standing there waiting for same slot... And we are both clicking on the sign as the clock ticks over... I will lose by default just due to regional ping times... And there's nothing fair about that.

This land rush design there isn't even a race, you can't plan a more efficient route or anything. It's just find a lot still empty half an hour before your time slot and stand there and wait and hope no one else stands next to you or it's a ping time contest. Even doing it by ballot would be fairer.

 

Normally I'd agree on that but in this situation, housing is a very important and in some cases, the most important feature for some players in the game. That is why I wouldn't mind if they took the time on it.

The GUI itself wouldn't have to be anything lavish either. It could be very basic. Just enough to get the data recorded. Most of the time spent on it would be on the back end coding for execution.

 

This was the other point I wanted to bring up and was lag from either international players or people with less than stellar connections. A good example: earlier today @Miracle Dragon couldn't even log into the game because his internet was having issues. How would he be able to compete with others in the rush?

 

I'm avoiding the land rush entirely by arranging for lots in two different POTs (see links in my sig below). Unless you're dead set on a particular town like Owl's Head or Ardoris or wherever, seems like it isn't hard to find space in a POT, many of which don't plan to tax their residents. Removes the doubt and anxiety from the equation, and you know who many of your neighbors will be.

Seems to me there is PLENTY of space in our 200+ POTs. I suppose there's some risk that you may be kicked out of a POT (very high risk in my case ) and left lotless, but doesn't that pale in comparison to the risk that you won't find a decent lot, or any lot, in the town you want to live in?

EDIT: That said, the land rush in UO: Renaissance on Chesapeake was the single most frustrating gaming experience I've ever had. Managed to place a large tower and had it wiped in a server revert, then a marble patio house and had that wiped too. Ended up not even placing a small. Grrrr.

 

I also dislike sitting on a lot in general. It creates bad blood. Plus imagine camping a spot for hours or days and in the last minute someone pops in and snatches it. Either side of that is unpleasant.

 

There is a simple option to resolve this without going back on the plan of record. If players within a group are randomized so that each deed comes active one minute apart, then we can finish claims in 7 days and nobody will compete.

Port can specify when the time will be ahead of time. Plus this will avoid the server crashes, long login queues, or lag issues when everyone comes on at the same time.

 

I'm glad this thread came up, and I feel like im not completely alone. I made a poll very similar to this in Dev+ right after the initial announcement, and the results were convincingly in the "i'm happy with the way it is" category. Perhaps I worded the poll poorly.

Either way, I'm using this opportunity to voice my opinion... again.

I'm not against the land rush, at least in theory. But the overall method Port is choosing has a lot of serious issues. I originally was advocating the "interactive map" option; the devs have since stated this would be too much of a technical hurdle. I don't have the technical/networking skills to refute that, so fine. Forcing players to actually play the game from the beginning, however, just to pick a lot, is... ok, well, its a real downer.

1. Latency issues. This has already been brought up earlier in this thread.

2. Monsters and Random Encounters. Players who encounter monsters on their travels are at an automatic disadvantage to those who don't.

3. Creating a dummy character and bypassing/ignoring the story in the beginning of the game is lame.

4. Squatting on the lot and hoping against hope your mouse click registers before that other guy's is worse. In fact, I would say that borders on silly. And what happens if you don't get the lot that you want? Well, better hurry up and run to the next town, and hope that you don't get attacked on the way!

5. Higher level pledges getting access to any size lot under their selection also sucks. Personally, I will be looking for a town lot. Of course, those are rare to begin with, and there have already been higher tier members stating they would be taking a town lot instead of their city lots. How many cities will I have to run to in order to find an empty town lot?

Interesting idea. I like it better than the current grab bag.

Especially if they gave everyone the ballet emote ahead of time.

There certainly will be. But I'm fairly certain I'm not alone when I say I have no real desire to live in someone else's POT. For a variety of reasons.

 

I would just like to add that I just realized this thread is in Dev+... and I think it should be moved to the general forum area.

 

Not alone at all.

 

lol i typoed

 

If the topic gets pushed to general, can we just move the thread if nothing sensitive is in it? So we are not repeating ourselves.

 

I'm ok with it, but I also found a POT to settle in at a good location.

The game has been very centered around Owl's head right now and I think everyone has their dream of getting a lot there. I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of people upset are wanting to go there. But there's cities we haven't even SEEN yet and the map is sooo much bigger than these few prime spots everyone wants.

Regardless of what way they do it someone is going to feel shafted and mad they didn't get the spot they wanted. There's no way around that.

 

Me too. Fixed.

 

It's been debated for more than a year.
I believe the Rush part of the land rush will not live up to the hype.
Put a fork in it. It's done.

 

I agree with you.

Funny, back a couple of years ago, houses were not considered that important and just nice to have....things sure have changed.

 

This post was completely dismissive. Thanks.

 

Given they started at $500 a pop, I sure do not remember that time... Then there was all the P2W whinging on the MMORPG forums over the price of housing...

 

You're welcome.