Organizing the first player-run city with a crafting and trading theme

Very sorry to hear that.

 

mbomber, I am sorry to hear that.

On topic:

Count me in Jatvardur. All details will follow per PM.
And a ton of questions

Thanks for your work to date - your vision is clear, and it is GRAND.

 

Jot, my initial thought after chewing those 11 pages of thread:

1st - Since I read things about sieging towns, the raising and upkeep of an serious protecting force / army should be thoroughly planned imho. Will come in handy when having caravans or trecks with real valuable goods as well. Funds ( in-game to be exact, like gold) should be put aside for this!
2nd - I am against symmetrical towns tbh. TO ME (!) those always have an very artificial flair. Real medieval cities always have a sort of an chaotic, yet vibrant and lively feel. I have read a lot about the vision of a venetian-style city - and that´s a city as chaotic as it gets. I love Venice. I prefer going there in February, outside of carnival season, then you have the city for yourself ( and the occasional native ). Except for the "players need easy orientation"-argument I can see no benefit of symmetrical layouts.
3d - VangardIUM sound a bit too roman, don´t you think? I imagine a roman fort or keep when hearing that name. And Ultima was never roman, was it? More like medieval, then turning towards its own and unique steampunkish flair over time.... I know I´m in late for this type of critizism, but I had to say it.
4th - will any of your bucks spent, all those pledges and funds persist when SotA reaches Episode 2? I never understood why there will be different Episodes, nor what is the implication of those. Will have to research this topic a bit more - links are well appreciated!

Excuse these bold topics, please - I just started SotA a week ago, and I will stay for a long time I guess - and still I like your plans so much I couldn´t resist my 5cts. And there will be WAY MORE coming, I just found this thread two hours ago.

Looking forward to continue this wonderful road!

 

Dang rough week! I'd buy you a beer if you were a bit more local.

 

I was shocked when you told me earlier and I'm still very sorry to hear that life isn't so pleasant at the moment.

Real life comes first, of course. It always will. Despite how more unpleasant the real world may seem compared to SotA. Do whatever is necessary to secure life. The game can wait.

Thanks both for posting kind words to mbomber. He is a highly valued member of my team so it is highly appreciated to hear kind words from others too.

 

1) You are probably right. I've been pretty focused on the economic side of this idea that I haven't done much on the military side. I haven't forgotten but rather playing to my strengths. We are still a small team but we welcome more members. We can chat over this in PMs.

2) I hear you. I'm trying to strike a balance of organic for the authentic feel and symmetric / organized for the ease of getting around. I'd like to lean more towards the organic when we make final plans. I've been reluctant of late to make further plans until we know what the final deal is with Portalarium. I'm not entirely sure in my own mind what we will get to customize.

3) Yep, so my thinking here is to use the root "Vanguard" as suggested my a member in an earlier post but to tweak it in order to make it fit with the town names in the central northern area of Novia. All the names there have Latin influence which is why I opted that that ending. It isn't really too late to change since the city hasn't been designed / launched. I'd be open to discussion on this.

4) A high enough pledge will see you buy all 5 episodes. I think the current level is $135 if you are a new backer. Myself and mbomber are definitely above this level so we have access to these episodes at the every least. Obviously, we don't want our towns to become ghost towns in ep 2 but I think that is in the hands of the developers. They could make the ep 1 map completely redundant but I dont think they will. Will we purchase more towns in ep 2 /3 / etc? Possibly. Is rather too early to say what we will do.

 

Thanks for your response. You got a long read in your inbox.

1) Just wanted to put you on this track - I saw big ventures in another game which just vanished because they missed/ignored the ugly parts... like war. Would be a shame to see your vision flounder because of humanity´s evilness.
2) Nice to see you got my point - and I know we have no clue how to design towns in these early times. But hey - if you have the best shopping mall, people will come back, and after they visited twice, you could even construct a maze and they´d find you ( your shops). It´ll the best shopping mall there will is, won´t it?
3) The roman influence is thick and everywhere, of course - but the IUM ending feels just... wrong. You´ll know what I mean I guess.
4) Puh, the devs owe us some answers, and / or I will have to understand more of thie Episode-Thingy. Links for clarification wanted

Nighty !

 

Update

=== Agenda ===​

Metro downgrade to Town​

Welcome Archaeopteryx​

Rent -- perspective from Finchfield / Illusive Cavern​

R14 -- All Towns Gathering​

Learning the game​

====*====*====​

Metro downgrade to Town
Due to unforeseen Circumstances the Metro is being downgraded to a Town. Obviously all real life issues come before any game issue. We are having discussions to see what is the best course of action and what will be the best / most likely outcome.

Update to POT spreadsheet is imminent.

Welcome Archaeopteryx
We extend a welcome to a new member who is looking to purchase a POT and add it to our current offering. Tentatively, he is eyeing the Crossroads size. I will update the POT spreadsheet once this is finalized.


Rent -- Finchfield / Illusive Cavern
As I take a general interest in the development of POTs I thought it was interesting to note that POT owner Envy (Lust / etc) has declared a maximum tax rate for Row and Village lots in two of his towns: Finchfield and Illusive Cavern. Both are Holdfast level (iirc).

Row lot rate: 1200 gold per month. Village lot rate: 1800 per month.

I can't really comment much more on these rates but I don't think they will be a million miles away. There is a fair chance of revising the numbers by launch but unless there are major changes to (eg) respawn rates then I'd be surprised if these rent values were doubled or halved.

It is great that these prices are public. Anyone who has worked in sales know that giving away prices is a last course action if you are being underhanded. Hence why many people in sales are reluctant to tell you the exact price or tell everyone else what you paid.

It isnt necessary that all row lots have the same price though. The market still functions even when prices are public. Some houses can still be more desireable yet everyone can see the prices. Be very wary of anyone that hide prices, especially rent rates.


R14 -- All Towns Gathering
Not long until R14. Yay!

Winfield has stepped forward to announce that Paxlair will host the R14 All Towns Meeting. I encourage all POT owners to attend, and any player who is interested to learn more about each of the POTs that exist. The event is not heavy on RP, if there is any at all. At the moment it is more of a meet and greet to let other players know what is going on and what each POT owner thinks about various important topics.

Thread: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...l-player-towns-gathering-monthly-event.18268/

Learning the game
In the last couple of releases I've done some Gathering and Crafting workshops to teach those aspects of the game. I've also done a couple of in-game tours for new players to give them a taste of the game. Thanks to all who have helped out with this (mostly notably Winfield of Paxlair). Blake Blackstone has also been doing these tours and is quite the master now. These tours are aimed at new players to learn the game. If you think this will be useful then feel free to add either / both of us in-game. You are also welcome to send us private messages on the forum.

/friend Blake Blackstone
/friend Jatvardur Elden

 

Welcome Archaeopteryx. Jat is a pretty good leader, so you picked the right guild. Mull over buying a POT until you are absolutely positive. It can get a little hectic, stressful, and can be a lot of work...

Sorry to hear about your misfortune mbomber. Been there, and its not fun, but came out ok on the other side!

 

+1

 

Mulled as long as I could...

It´s a hamlet now. Will eventually upgrade it or acquire a second one. I have been playing EVE online for nearly seven years - so I know what´s stressful, having been a CEO of a small corp.

 

Excellent work on this project. Thank you for all the great efforts and looking forward to visiting you guys.

 

I would love to work with you on some in game events sometime to strengthen our alliance. Let me know if I can help in nay way.

 

Pretty good leader? You must have a harsh scale on which to judge leaders. ;-)

Although we've talked about this: "Woo! Yay!" etc. :-D

Obviously we all expect great things from you now.

Many thanks Etheom. Be sure to come visit us upon launch. If a lot is of interest then you'd be welcome too. Obviously there are other towns worth considering. Blackstone Bluff is pretty good. ;-)

Gchat when we are both online and not being requested to do other stuff (which may or may not be important). :-D I have a couple of ideas for further out that need more prep, but in R14 there ought to be something.

To all:
In R14 I've shortened my IGN to "Jatvardur". I dropped the family name. Makes it easier to remember / zone / friend / etc.

 

Update

=== Agenda ===​

Note on inactivity​

Upgrade Crossroads to Town (and beyond....)​

Tantalus​

Town design​

R17 - Paxlair​

====*====*====​

Note on inactivity
My activity has been fairly low in 2015 and I expect that to continue until June. This means I won't be as active on the forums but I'm still reachable via PM.


Upgrade Crossroads to Town (and beyond....)
The previous strategy for Vanguard was to spread out across Novia as best as possible. The consideration was that geographic reach was more important than concentration.

The merit of this strategy hasn't changed. However, the emergence of Tantalus and the prospect of working with other town owners towards a common goal means that there is less of a need for Vanguard to (try to) do it alone. The expectation is that Tantalus towns will have an even spread over Novia (a guess not an enforced rule).

Consequently, I'm looking at melting down the holdfast in Vanguard and using it to boost my Crossroads to a Town. Ideally, I'd love to boost this further. Perhaps to a City or Metro. I still believe this is a possibility. The price deadline of May 1st is looming though.

EDIT: Holdfast melted. Crossroads is now a Town (13th April 2015)

Tantalus
Hopefully you have come across a new initiative which is bringing several POTs together called Tantalus Consortium. It is a collective that encourages members to work together to meet shared goals. The intention is not to have onerous rules placed upon member POT owners as that discourages engagement (and kills the fun!).

If you would like to join then take a look at the Tantalus thread (see below) and send a PM. The main point of contact is Blake Blackstone. If he can't be reached then I'm a willing 2nd point of contact.

There is a wide range of POTs of various sizes. As stated above, I expect the POTs to be fairly evenly distributed across Novia. I believe this will be true since there is a large number of towns (of various sizes) and that we only get to pick the quadrant. A POT owners' preferences for a particular spot will be very limited, therefore I suspect that town placing will look random.


For more information read the thread:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/tantalus-consortium.21514/

If you haven't seen the most recent dev+ post then I suggest you do. Normaly dev+ rules apply of course:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...r-owned-town-exclusive-design-proposal.24191/


Town design
I need to look into town design again. I've been following some of the developments in this sub-forum but not 100% up to date on the latest dev statements. I still feel that it is a bit hard to plan a town when I don't know what level of customization we will get. Had 2015 had a quieter start then I could have found time to contribute to the "template" thread. That said, I did some town layout sketches in the early days of POT discussions (see the first 3 posts in this thread).

A lot of good info and discussion on POT templates here:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...paxlair-player-owned-town-test-for-r17.23963/


R17 Paxlair
So it looks like Paxlair (as an actual town) will feature in R17. This means it will be the very first POT and the devs (probably) want to see the community give it a good and thorough testing. It would be great to see the town fill up with housing and events too. By the end of this week Paxlair will hopefully have the lots available for R17. Can an eye on the thread for the announcement.

See here for more info:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...vents-news-housing-open-to-communities.24181/

 

Update

=== Agenda ===​

Metro
Vanguard Founders
Tantalus
Citizens Wanted!
Donations​

====*====*====​

Metro
Finally! We've upgraded our main town to a metro. It has been a long time coming. The OP has been updated to reflect this and to reflect the reduced uncertainty in design and scope.

Vanguard Founders
I'd like to extend my thanks to the following folks for being involved in the founding of Vanguard:

@mbomber
@Lord Gornych
@Blake Blackstone
@Kadumel
@Aevans
@Atogrim
@Archaeopteryx


Tantalus
The Tantalus Consortium is still open for POTs to join: Tantalus Consortium

Citizens Wanted!
We have a metro to fill! We welcome everyone but especially want players who are keen gatherers, crafters and merchants. We also welcome people who have a spare second home but dont know where to place; you are welcome to place it here.

Donations
Donations are still accepted for this project. It will guarantee a lot within the metro once the game is launched so you can avoid the landrush. Donations are not necessary but players who donate will be given priority selection.

We also welcome player towns to join Vanguard too.

 

Ah Jat, nice to see it worked out!
Grats man!

 

Update

=== Agenda ===​

Town Design​

Town Name​

Vanguard as a group of POTs​

====*====*====​

Town Design
Now that town design and location planning we feel that there is a far lower risk of ideas being stolen. A few months back we put together some ideas for a water town that had a Venetian feel but without any connection to the mainland. This would not be a town on the coast but rather one which is wholly surrounded by water (although probably not too far from the coast). The idea would be to re-use assets that already exist for the Kingsport Dock and Ardoris. Naturally, this is custom request but it could feasibly become a template. This design is metro sized and could be adapted / modified as necessary, but we think this is a great starting point.

​

​

​

The blue slabs of Lego are water-lots; the dots at the end denote the entrance to the lot.

Find more images of the Water-hex town design by Aevans here:
http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/aevans7106/library/LEGO SotA/LEGO SotA Islands?sort=3&page=1


Town Name
I'm also considering re-naming my town. From Vanguard to something else; while Vanguard works I'm scratching my head as to whether I can pick something more fitting with our proposed location (depending what the devs grant us).

Vanguard as a group of POTs
Tantalus supercedes anything that Vanguard was supposed to be. It no longer makes sense to maintain Vanguard as a group of towns within Tantalus. It is an extra layer of management without any extra benefit.


OP updated.

 

So... Will we have crafting areas in our city soon?

 

First arrival at Vanguard.

The town is the island just off-coast south of where Jaanaford should be (South Paladis / just west of Blackblade mountain). I don't know if they have fixed the camera bug where you need to rotate the camera in order to click on the island, but you can zone into Vanguard but simply double clicking on the island.

Residences should be open to all. There is still plenty unused lot markers too, so more can be placed.

​

Soon (TM).