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

No, it was the common narrative when people brought up why they were so expensive....I know you've been around long enough to remember that....I know a lot of you have.

 

IMO it should be every Avatar for themselves at launch time... or final wipe... I'm confused now.

 

Portalarium's philosophy (which I personally disagree with) is: Money talks, equality walks.

From this demonstrated philosophy in action, and that they're permitting, by design, higher tiers to select lower tier lots, during the land rush, with no consequences, I have zero faith in an equal-footing, balanced, fair, or just (as in justice) land rush.

They won't even say if multi-entrance selection on zone-in will ever be put in the game. And the icing on the cake? Teleportation. We better know, before July 28th, the exact mechanics of teleportation, including frequency & cost, otherwise, even more uncertainty.

I mean, teleportation could make this all completely moot. If people can teleport to arbitrary locations, in-hex, then once they find their favorite vendors, they'll just teleport to them directly, and they don't care where that player vendor is in the world. If, however, teleportation is forever limited to just recalling back to your house every 12 minutes, as it is now, then it has almost no impact on the land rush or housing locations.

If, at some point in the future, players can choose which entrance/exit to transition into a hex via, then again, this has a massive potential impact on the land rush. The default zone-in point, though, is logically the more desirable location for a player vendor. So, another massive variable with no clarification.

 

The term "Land Rush" was first used (as far as I can tell) during Update #13 of the Kickstarter on March 22, 2013.

• Land Rush! We would set a very high but fixed in game price for deeds and let people race to get them. This could be too rewarding for the earliest adopters and also could result in some negative side effects like organized groups or farmers working together to buy property deeds purely for resale reasons.
• We are also open to suggestions from our backers! No matter what system we choose, we know there will be some people not happy with the method chosen but we will strive to make it as fair as possible.

The Land Rush was later described in more detail in this Polygon article on September 13, 2013 - just 6 months after the Kickstarter.

• "Since Ultima Online and maybe Star Wars Galaxy almost all player housing has been instanced, an infinite supply of space," Long told Polygon. "What ends up happening is that housing is separate from the contiguous game space and counteracts its purpose as a social experience. It's on another map, effectively."

Which makes me wonder why after two years of development of an original Kickstater goal we'd be saying "I don't like the idea of a land rush."

I like the land rush, that's what I backed. I pledged so I could get a good spot in the land rush. But most importantly I understand the important social significance of the land rush and how it was never once designed for players to automatically "get the spot they wanted". It's a land rush, on your mark, get set...

See you on July 28th.

 

It was a horse beaten to a pulp and is a done deal, or was, for a long time.

 

I remember people arguing houses weren't equal to power. And you could save up an buy them with gold if they were important to you. They were also described as Aesthetic. I don't recall a they don't matter at all rhetoric.

Well that's the problem. There really is no race. It's just, stand at the lot, activate an autoclicker on the sign and person who live closest to the server wins.

 

Do you automatically get your next choice? Cause, I'm a thinkin you may want to "race" over there and click on it.

 

Haha touché!

 

We might see a lot of people losing their second choices while they are all swarming to get their first choice. Owl's Head is only so big...

 

We've not even seen Brit yet.

 

Much has changed since that original statement. As one of the "earliest adopters", I'm unhappy because the sale of pledges went on and has continued way after the Kickstarter, and so the amount of competition and stress involved in the land rush is significantly much much greater than was originally envisioned when I made my pledge. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see all the extra funding come into the game, but the evolution has to be recognized.

 

Something interesting is a website selection process similar to when one purchases a house/address in the game Revival. In that game's website, the functionality for property selection and purchase is built into the site itself on an interactive property map. In our case, we would log into a section of this site that would let us select available properties (need to be mapped though), and lock in our choice thus removing that lots availability to everyone else. You could do this by enabling user accounts here, on the site, in the proper tier order and before July's wipe, have every backers pledge lot assigned to them in game.

The great thing about it is that you wouldn't need to physically go to every area to see whats available. That interactive map could show you, from a birds eye view, all the available properties so when it is your turn to select on the website, you can make a comfortable, informed decision. This functionality can be reused for every land mass added to the game.

Probably not as easy as just letting players go out and claim in-game, and they would need to program this into the site while also assigning the lots in-game once the selection process is done. But it does make the process pleasant and stress free for the backers.

 

Normally "last wipe" 1st day type activities are very stressful, people are complaining, people are having trouble logging in, there's lag, people are completely new and lost in the big world...

But Land Rush day, OMG it's going to be crazy. I know it's actually not a day and spread over months, but these forums are going to be rockin. I can't wait. I mean if the game is even mildly successful I think the land rush is going to be one of those events in gaming history that people never stop talking about.

 

I'm hoping they get some good stress tests prior to the rush. People will be annoyed if there are connection issues.

 

Well I live in Australia so I guess I don't get any of my choices.

If it was an actual race at least I could come up with strategies, plan a route, come up with a technique for getting past control points. Random encounters would be an equaliser...

The only actual land rush here is after all the time slots expire when low pledges get to compete to raise gold the fastest to grab the remaining scraps.

 

Everyone involved in the land rush is going to have be prepared to make some compromises unless they're in group 1, and even then it's possible someone will cry foul.

The smartest people will develop a plan. I want this lot first, if someone else claims it, I move HERE, if that's gone, HERE, if that's also gone I run to town X and go HERE....

Only someone destined to be unhappy will stand in one place, not get what they want, and then say "well I guess I will never have a good spot." Will there be winners and losers, yes. But there will also be winners and whiners.

Good luck, Astrobia. I hope you find a lot that you're happy with.

 

Yeah, I agree. I think that's an important thing to understand, there has been an evolution. There's significantly more competition now than there was in March of 2013.

But it is what it is. It's been two years, we've talked about it, given feedback, the devs made their decision and here we are. There are some people in our community that see the Kickstarter as some kind of holy text that can't/shouldn't change over time regardless of anything (including if the game wouldn't exist without the changes). Kind of like being a strict constitutionalist verses someone that believes the constitution is a living document that was meant to change. People tend to use those arguments when it suits them, and not when it doesn't. I'm not saying that's what you're doing, I'm just saying that it doesn't really matter. We're having a land rush, and although the details have changed over time, it's essentially what was talked about from the beginning.

 

I think a viable solution to make the whole thing a lot less painful would be to turn off game mechanics during the rush.

No monsters, no random encounters, and set up /zone capability for every npc town.

/zone Brittany. Lot is gone. Ok, /zone Kingsport. Etc.

 

I'd like to see @Lum get a band of devs together and charge a toll to cross some of the bridges.

 

Make it a guided tour with a "take a number" system, get those devs in there /zoning people to their lot of choice by the numbers