Lot Deeds: Never Oversold

Yes, but you're kind of making my point for me. So maybe instead of an abandoned building you plug in a flower garden. Anything but an empty lot with a for sale sign. Especially when no one can actually buy the lot, get it?

 

I see your point. So your saying, what if all the deeds are sold, but many people with deeds never used them to claim a lot, and then stopped playing. The lots remain unclaimed forever, with no one able to buy them because the deeds exist, unused for all eternity.

 

Yes.

And if you have empty lots that people can't claim, now you have downtown Detroit. Because the perception will be, "I don't want to live there next to all those empty lots."

So my proposal is to turn the empty lots into something of value. It can be simple like a flower garden. Or it could be more dynamic and interesting, like a new dungeon or quest area or a place that provides something interesting. The sky's the limit on what that is, plus you can still put a for sale sign up just in case someone returns to claim the spot.

 

Perhaps plots for sale could hold NPCs who are vendors on their plots, but are looking to get out of town.. they will basically be unhappy people in the city, stuck there until someone buys their land so they have the money to move away. Some of them might hold regular 'open houses' or 'estate sales' with food and drinks offered, and nice houses with elaborately set up basements, all open to the public periodically, or all the time, because they are trying to find a buyer to sell to.

 

I think Starr means they will not sell (store add-on, pledges) more deeds than there are lots available, but it people decide to sit on those deeds without getting a lot then that is the deed holder's problem. If someone decides not to place a house and the game starts than that is just an extra lot up for anyone. Remember deeds and lots are different things.

There can be more deeds than lots. I am not sure they need to maintain that especially as lots will open up with each expansion. I think the point was that for those purchasing a deed before launch there would be assurances there would be a lot available for them. If they decide not to, or can't based on multi-house rules, that just means more lots available in-game at launch.

 

You make a good point Umbrae. But I can't see there ever being more 'city deeds' than there are city lots, or else people will complain that they spent a LOT of money on a worthless piece of paper that gives them nothing.. something I'm certain must be avoided.

I believe a deed is a promise that there is land available for you.

So I think the real answer here is to either have some kind of time-limit set on how long a deed can be held without being placed, or do what Drocis says, and create events within empty lots to keep them interesting and inviting and useful despite not being owned by players.

 

I have to say that my interpretation is that at the point of launch if you purchased a lot deed there will be plenty of lots to claim with it.

Over time (probably months due to the price) the lots will taken up by people who purchase lot deeds ingame. I wouldn't expect a lot deed purchased on the addon store to be any different from the ones purchased in game, equally the only difference with the pledge plots will be that they have a tax free element.

My view is that if you sit on a lot deed and as a result there is no space to place then it is your own fault. I would never expect the game and community to wait for me whilst I decide to do something.

 

If the time limit placed on the deed idea is used, perhaps there could be a medieval form of real estate agent you could hire, who could have access to what lots are available for sale in the world, and guide you to them? This may be a useful feature after the game is established and most of the lots are taken.. And done right, could be a fun way to help people decide which lot they want to buy.

 

tick tock!

 

Lets say we're 6 months into the game, there's 10 lots available in the world, with tens of thousands of people playing, and no limit to number of deeds allowed for players to purchase in-game, a thousand people may have earned deeds in game racing to snatch the last of these 10, meanwhile, because there are 10 available, there might be 5 deeds available for purchase in the add-on store. people who purchase one of these deeds go into the game and find, along with 990 players who purchased deeds in-game, that the lots have been taken. I don't think this should be possible. I wasn't trying to differentiate people who purchased deeds with real money vs. in-game gold. I just don't think it makes any sense to have more deeds than lots. I hope that clears things up.

 

Yes. I understand your point better. Thanks for the clarification.

I see the pre-game launch lot deeds a promise. After SotA ships that
Promise is fulfilled and there will be enough lots to place.

Going forward I don't see a promise anymore as I believe they will not sell lot deeds in the add on store for real cash. Only in game. I think I read that or heard that in one of the many video casts.

At that point it is up to the player to find an open lot, buy the deed for in-game gold, and place if if is still open. UO works like that.

I do appreciate the thought of keeping the city looking busy.

 

Depends on how you look at it. What is the price of a lot? Well currently the price of a town lot is $400....what is the price of a town lot in game? Well it's actually should be the equivalent of $400 in game currency (almost creates an exchange rate).

You could kind of see it as Time vs $...... How much time has to be spent to earn the equivalent of $1 of in-game gold. I expect this will be considered when they set the price of the lots within the game.

In terms of lot deeds there could be 2 schools of thought:
1) they are unlimited despite their only being a finite amount of land (a bit like the old UO system)
2) the deeds are counted in game against the number of plots available. Once all deeds have been sold (limited add-on store deeds are classed as sold even when they are not) no more can be bought unless it is from another player.

 

I would hope that if I spent $120 to $1050 on a lot that I'll be able to use it somewhere - even if I'm in a car accident and I can't play the game for 6 months.

I think the "promise" is a good one, especially when we're talking about a good amount of money. So I hope the promise doesn't end once the game begins.

 

There will always be more lots than deeds pre-launch:
- As stated, they will not oversell them pre-launch
- If the initial allocation is exhausted, they can either stop selling them or they can expand villages, towns, and cities or other POIs as needed since they are designing them pre-launch anyways
- If the pre-launch allocation is not sold out then those can be added to the post-launch pool
- There is a healthy reserve set aside for post-launch purchase

There potentially can be more deeds than lots post-launch:
- Unclaimed lots where the deed holder does not claim one during his "window" pre-launch and/or some grace period post-launch to claim their "guaranteed" lot since they bought it pre-launch. I highly doubt that they will hold the lot for eternity just because they are a backer and didn't claim it beyond that window + grace period. But it would be interesting to find out how long they will hold it for backers.
- House decay will free up the lot
- Unpaid property taxes will free up the lot after some time yet to be defined
- Players are bored with housing and sell the lot but not their deed
- Players leaving the game

So post-launch, if there are a lot of backers who for whatever reason didn't claim their guaranteed lot during the pre-launch window, then there will be that "empty" town feeling with those being placed on hold for some grace period.

Having said that, there's going to be that empty town feel to some extent anyways with the 1000's of plots reserved for post-launch purchase in-game. Players will need time to grind enough gold to purchase and that may be days for some and weeks or months for others.

We can only speculate if they will continue to sell lots in the store post-launch (from that reserve). I doubt it and they'll keep it in-game, but you never know.

 

First, town lots are not $400, they are $900. City lots are $2,100. You could buy the game over 45 times for that price. And this is for deeds that promise plots you still have to pay monthly taxes for. These are insane prices if the deed didn't guarantee a plot. Considering in-game prices should be equivalent in expense, I don't see school of thought #1 being a possibility.


On one hand (school of thought #1), you have frustrated people who worked hard, spent time and or lots of money just to get nothing.
On the other hand (school of thought #2), you have people racing to be able to buy the last of the deeds, but if they didn't get one of the last lots, they still have their money and can spend it on something else.

 

Good point. If they miss their window and show up a few months late to the game due to some kind of family emergency for instance, then they can still redeem that deed some how. They will have to make sure there is a reserve of open lots to open back up for those who miss the placement era. They should be able to track people who haven't placed, and they can contact these people via email.

 

Hmm.. by limiting deeds to actual lots.. after the first run of houses are all sold a couple months in, the developers could create a new city, then have a few different ways to give out the deeds.. hold an in game auction for several of the city deeds within that city, have some kind of lottery for some of the town lots, and first come first served for several of the village lots.. etc. So many more possibilities and much more control by keeping the deeds limited to the lots.

 

I would like a lottery for abandon lots to exist become available only be to accounts with no prior home/deed ownership just to keep it fair for those who enter the game at a later time.

 

Every year a new episode will open, possibly doubling the number of lots each time.. plus, a new city could be uncovered every couple months.. I sincerely hope there will be plenty of opportunities to ensure everyone has a fair shake at a house/deed.

 

This is all great, but explain to the new player when he gets here that all the lots in the game are gone and he has to hope someone quits the game so he can get to the game highlights of decorating your own home becoming part of the world as advertised on the front page of the site. This makes it sound like owning a home is a big part of the game and not everyone is going to be able to do that. This is going to cause issues down the road.