I have a problem with SotA

There will certainly be an initial land-grab at the start of the game, but that will only be a small proportion of the population that purchased a lot package. Portalarium should be smart enough to know that the demand on property should not be on the lots in general, but the most economically desirable lots. They should always supply enough lots to cover the majority of players.

 

I think I should add this to my FAQ, and I'll try to hunt down a good answer for this.

There will be additional housing. I've heard a number tossed around (30% additional lots beyond what they need to accommodate for pledges add on store sales at launch) but I'm not sure if that was a guess or an actual official statement.

I'm not sure how much housing there will be at launch. I'm guessing the devs don't know 100% themselves yet, because they don't know how many pledges they will sell before launch.

What I can say is that there are 4 more episodes planned that will add major landmasses to the game. RG said his plan is for Novia (the land we're getting in Episode 1) to be 10% of the total landmass we'll see by the end of Episode 5. So worst case may be that if you don't get a lot/house before launch, and you don't earn money in game quickly, there is a chance you don't get a house in Episode 1 and you wait at most a year for the Episode 2 release and new land opening up.

A house doesn't make your character more powerful. There are guilds than plan on sharing a large guild house and giving people storage. A house is fun and nice, but not the be all, end all of the game. There are many other facets of the game I'm interested in.

 

That income goes into developing future episodes and expanding the staff. Episode 1 is supposed to be 10% of the land mass for the total game and they want to add more features in the future. All the high level backers are getting Episode 1 through 5 as it stands, so Portalarium isn't necessarily getting more money from any us without further crowd funding. What they really need to do is to grow the player base to an ever larger market than those that have already backed with retail sales post-launch.

If in the end, some of the money becomes profit for RG, I don't mind. He took the initial risk in starting Portalarium out of pocket and paying for all the initial development out of pocket. As the founder of the company and the initial investor, he is entitled to return on his investment. I have zero problems with that.

 

Just another note on housing. Cant remember if I read this or heard it on one of the deep-dive. I am not computer savvy or tech savvy, but the jist I got from the discussion was regarding the common server. I am certain someone else can explain this better.

What I understand is they don't want to make this a subscription game. Servers are the greatest cost in a mmo. They are reducing the number of servers needed to run the game but they still need one common server to keep track of everyone. By buying a house now, we are also helping investing in that server (as well as game development). Our use of the the house will be mostly for vanity. The more you pledge (invest), the bigger house they give you.

Now how to explain this is mostly vanity and not an advantage? For sake of argument you have a Duke and a Citizen who both play the same number of hours and they always group together. There accumulation of loot would be about equal (depending on luck from loot rolls of course). Any useful loot that provides in game advantages will be kept by both, and probably something that can fit into 4 or 5 chests. Just decorative item found in loot may be useful to one house and sold for cash by the other. So the true advantage is the ability to store and display decorative items.

With that said, as time goes on...lots will be for sale with in game cash. So even players in game will eventually get the chance to express their vanity. Of course number of lots available is dependent on server.

 

I have a problem with Sota, is still in alpha.

 

@Shadowblades

...wow. I'm impressed. That doesn't happen often. No, really, that was well researched and well put together.

I do think you missed a small point or two, so I'll go through em here. I see that the more loyal forumfans have already ripped into you pretty badly, so I'll try to avoid doing so even more than normal.

I gotta say when I first saw the prices on houses (during the kickstarter) I was put off. Then I realized something. I've never really given a damn about housing in video games. It might be nice to have a house, but it won't be why I'm playing. I'll buy one with in game gold, one day. Some people DO want houses, they get to have one early by helping to fund the game.

Now...

charity (char-i-tee)

— n , pl -ties
1. a. the giving of help, money, food, etc, to those in need
b. ( as modifier ): a charity show
2. a. an institution or organization set up to provide help, money, etc, to those in need
b. ( as modifier ): charity funds
3. the help, money, etc, given to the needy; alms
4. a kindly and lenient attitude towards people
5.
love of one's fellow men


Important point at definition 2a.
SotA is not a CHARITY. It isn't tax deductible, they aren't giving things away. We are not funding a charity, we are funding a Cor-Por-A-Shun. It's overall goal is to put out a product AND pay it's employees AND make money for it's shareholders and other owners.

The way to understand what's happening is to explore the NECESSITY of additional funding. The Kickstarter gave the funding needed to make the BASIC game. A game like this, they could develop addon's and extras and new features for the next three decades, and it would never be enough. The more we give, the more they can develop. We are paying not only the primary team at Portalarium, but also various consultants, and we want them working round the clock for the next several years giving us awesome game-ness, and that takes money.

Are the houses savagely overpriced in the in game store? Yes. Are there rabid fans who are ready to purchase the MOST expensive possible digital abode? Also yes. Let them have their fun. They are paying to make your basic subscription a better world, and since SotA won't be asking for a monthly, it will be almost the last time YOU ever have to pay for any of it.

 

i think you can place a vendor almost any where they said, a dev chat i think. so a person with house could place in their yard, a person without could place a vendor in street out front.

expert crafting stations will be attainable with in game gold and they have said certain locations will maybe specialize in certain crafting areas (town in forest area has better mill stations etc), so maybe different towns will have those same or better stations in them for use.

fedwook

 

There won't be many lots available with ingame cash. Very few I suspect. All anyone has to do is run the numbers, look at the size of existing release settlements and the number of lots in them, and then extrapolate that to how many towns you need AFTER you have accounted for all the backers, store lot purchases, and upgrades since then. Then add on the additional amount for a "reasonable number of in game lots available for purchase in game". Nobody should have any illusions here. =P

After release if the game is successful then the store needs to stop focusing on housing related things and concentrate on selling non-housing related stuff - otherwise it is selling to a small market. No one is gonna buy junk like a hot tub if they don't have anywhere to put it. =P

 

I'm not sure if it was 40% or 60% more lots in game....I have made it a pretty big issue that all this time being spent on housing it would be a shame not to have enough for lots of people to enjoy.

 

You have to take the "limited" quantities that are mentioned in the Store for lot-deeds with a big grain of salt. All three lot-deeds have been sitting at the same numbers(village lot sais 155 out of 450 left) for several weeks now, while we know for a fact that at least one town-lot has been sold in that period. Now I am not saying that they have sold hundreds of lots that we do not know off, because then the total pledged amount would rise a lot quicker then it does now, but I think it is bad marketing to not make those "limited supply" numbers reflect real-time quantities.

I also have a hard time believing that when this game becomes truly succesfull (something that will result from actual gameplay and content, not having a world full of player-houses) that they will not increase the amount of deeds available. They do not have to wait untill episode 2, they can just add more towns and villages, this is one of the perks of the "scene"setup of the game. I am sure they will want to maintain a certain "rarity" to housing, but when enough people are knocking at the door to throw money for a house at Portalarium, they will oblige. I do not think they can run this sub-free game from selling 5 dollar hottubs and 10 dollar house-pets.

 

I thought I had heard that they were going to expand the map every release and have more spaces for housing....
...some vid somewhere... don't know....
~Time Lord~

 

That's how I understand it, too. What Tyncale says is possible -- that they could add more land in between chapters -- but I think the guaranteed method will be with each chapter.

 

consider that we only have seen a very very small bit of the world.( less than 1%) so i doubt the world is going to be a giant metropolis of player housing. also space is basically unlimited here to ( as the can expand the world at will basically). Also we don't know yet if all players start in the same spot on the world. tbh i believe that there will be different starting locations once the game goes live ( from all the info that i cobbled together)

Add to that that the biggest majority of people actually do not own housing at the start ( or arent interested in owning one) and i guess you shouldnt be worry to have all spots occupied at start