Number of POTs - too many, too few and the dilution problem it may present.

Great post and I agree with a great deal of what you said. The negative posts on these forums have made me read them less, as well as several others I know which is unfortunate. Thank you @Sea Bear for taking your time posting!

 

Excellent post @Sea Bear , Thanks!!

 

Thank you Sea Bear, you said everything I wanted to say and you did it in a way that was a lot gentler than what I might have come up with.

 

We had one new outsider today get frustrated over the time involved. Part of the problem was he unknowingly entered pots to sell items. We know what time sync that can be. Seems like there may need to be have knowledge spread to new users to let them know what a pot is, so they know that a pot is not a reflection of the primary game.

I am not trying to knock great pots, but the good ones will be few and far between.

 

Just think of POTs as gas stops on every highway. Not everyone will have stop on all of them. Some are also nicer than others. Some will eventually look abandoned and be ghost towns. However, that shouldn't affect anything unless that POT is your favorite destination.

 

Good take. I think of it as a tutorial kind of thing. New players do not know what POT's are and will likely have unsatisfiable expectations of them. So it is best to let them know in a positive way, not to play them down.

For example, Player Owned Towns (POT's) are the towns without ribbons on them on the world map or accessible via stage coaches and small boats within a town. As the name suggests, they are towns owned by players which may deliver widely diverse and fun content of their own from passionate players. While they cannot progress your character, they provide rich and specialized environments to enjoy and settle in including role play and PvP.

 

As has been stated before, there are many reasons why those of use who purchased a POT did so. Personally, it fits my character's story. She's a loner, a bit of a misfit. So it makes sense for her to live in an out of the way spot and to be wary of the company she keeps. However, she "inherited" her holdfast from her paternal grandmother, and it is far more space than she needs or wants. She has plans to welcome other misfits into the small community, and will provide temporary, free housing to new Outlanders so they have time to get on their feet.

I do not understand the animosity toward POT owners. Aside from the town purchase itself, I have purchased four accounts in order to have the tax-free lots to house new players at no cost to them and to provide crafting stations and a crafting supplies merchant for the town's use. That money has gone to help build this game. What is so horrible about that?

(And lest you think I'm loaded and spending the money was no hardship, far from it. I'm self-employed. But this game is important to me, and I plan to be "living" here for many years to come.)

 

+1

 

~How is this issue still a thing?~

Go POTs, we need more of you!... and everybody knows those are expandable right? The crossroad POT of today could be New York City size 5 years from now.
Pots are not just empty places with some having almost nothing there, "they are waiting for people".... Our game isn't even finished yet and we are not the many, N0, no, no, "we are the few". I know that number of supporters list has allot of digits on it and may seem big to some people, but that number only represents a small amount of the people coming into our game when open marketing of it begins.

Ultima Online was one of the first games for player housing, and through many years of struggle, waiting for your neighbor to drop dead to be able to expand your guild's get together dwelling, "it's about time some game somewhere had the great idea of POTs". I knew a guy who stood his ingame character outside this one player's house "for 3 weeks", waiting for his neighbor's house to fall down..... He had his family members standing guard at his computer 24 hours a day waiting for that thing to fall. But what amazed me about this even more, was how pissed off this dude was when he found out that his neighbor wasn't dead , Needless to say he didn't get the house after waiting all that time

POTs, "the spandex gaming necessity of our future"
I live in a POT and I've contributed to another because it helped our game and helped build good communities.
BFF Yo! "The Bear Loves Me!" and I love them back forever!
~Time Lord~ Special Gest Appearances at The Bear Tavern

 

Came here from a random google search about town plot availability, etc. Just wanted to point out the most voted answer predicted the future. Vast amounts of empty everything giving a feeling of emptiness and a rapidly decreasing player base.

 

Have you never played archeage? Now that was sad and frustrating, the housing was that is.

It doesn't matter if our POTs are full at the moment. Is the governor and stewards having fun with them, being creative? I never gave a thought to population in Wizards Rest, I just have had fun with it, well me and Lord Baldrith and town members if they wanted to . I played around with making obstacle courses, seeing what items in the game could do and what could do what. Well Anyway it just happened and we are pretty much full.

So the thing is, what's the importance of a POT in this game: First and foremost extra places to live for anyone coming to the game. If someone doesn't have a lot, Darkstarr has says doors in a home will eventually be clickable and then you will be able to select the 'rent room' option or some wording. The rent will automatically go to your bank, so no late payments or hassle and if rent is not paid no loss except the person renting will have all his/her things go back to the bank. They can just rent from another place, which as you see there are a tremendous amount of those. Now this would help so much for people trying to pay taxes on their place, just get a room mate or two, or hmmm three or so.

2ndly if town sieges were to work out where our towns could be besieged with critters and horrors running around killing us all and all that saves us is to take a trip away from town but in the meantime an announcement flashes across the street Help Wizards Rest has been Invaded. And if this ever happens please let it be daemons, dragons, troll, the phoenix, and oh my type of creatures with minions of course. Then let the invasion happen somewhere else after that.

3rdly What about events, true they could be anywhere and some people are not social at all, but we have done Bingo, Name that Tune, and fashion shows we haven't done but as we get more clothing to wear that would be great. We always gave away cool things like store credit as rewards. Anyway any of events can be created, even quests as well.

Anyway so I tried to vote for I think we have a good amount, but we are not even at the point where much of the land mass is even in the game, so who knows. I think I would not worry about what someone else is doing so much and just play the game, well when there is more to it that is