PETITION/POLL: Please Portalarium put a hard cap on sales of Player Owned Towns

Port has one (1) guy working on each PoT template the other 30 (approx) employees are working on the game. PoTs are not the only reason the game is delayed.

The reasons why the game is delayed include:
- Reworking Many core systems over and over.
- Reworking the pledge homes for The 10th time. ( remember the outhouse in front of the Knights home?)
- all the PvP changes so Far with more to come.
- extra items like hot tubs, trees, etc.
- new pledges knight Marshall and lord Marshall
- row lots
- keep lots
- overland map from the cool hand drawn map to The what we have now.

 

It's one guy too many. He could be working on the core game instead.

Naturally everyone that owns a POT is going to debate this issue. I'm attempting to speak for 50K people that aren't here voicing their views. We already clearly know the views of POT owners.

 

^ lol

 

Actually, you are voicing *your* views, singular. I get it, you aren't happy that one guy is working on PoTs.

Let me ask you this - What about the guy who added the sky? Was that in Kickstarter? Maybe we shouldn't have the ability to look up or have special signs in the sky.

What about the move to Unity 5? Was that in Kickstarter? Maybe the devs should have just left the engine as it was when people pledged Kickstarter?

I could go on, but I won't. I'm sure there are lots of things in the game now that were never part of Kickstarter. Should all those things have been left out? The core game IS being worked on, PoTs are here to stay, so what's your point?

 

Everyone in the entire game gets to look at, and enjoy the sky. All 50K+ customers.

Only ~120 people get to enjoy their own POTs, and another few hundred more that occupy them. POTs are cluttering the map and the design tools are not sufficient to make POTs harmonious with the environment.

I don't want to repeat myself, but the game engine they use, and the graphical improvements are core features that every single paying customer enjoys. The game engine is the core of building a game. It's an absolute given they must have one in order for all paying customers to play it.

The same way they cross out the things they did not work on in every release, but had meant to and did not make the release date, perhaps they should be investing the time in systems that benefit everyone.

 

Every player can enter any POT, visit its NPCs, browse the various player vendors and shop. Every player can wander through the POTs and join in on community created quests and events held there. Not every player will have access to houses, which is a part of the kickstarter, as a limited item. Almost every POT will want as many non-POT players visiting as possible, because POTs are inherently a social aspect of the game. This game will have 5 episodes of content, and beyond that, the majority of the content that will keep players in the game for years to come, will be player created, and these POTs are a huge tool to help support that. But the only way to make a POT an effective social tool for everyone to enjoy, is to put time and effort into the tools to make it successful. And I believe Portalarium realized the importance of getting these in early, again, because it would be much more difficult to add 'after the kickstarter core features' were all completed, since they take up so much map space.

Since you bring it up, I'm not a POT owner, and I reflect one opinion out of the 50k you are speaking for.

 

The only possible benefit for someone that does not live in, or own, a POT would be visiting vendors. Those vendors benefit the person that owns them as well.

I personally do not plan to ever enter a single POT if I can help it. Possibly if there is a community that I can take part, but I do not consider them a benefit for all players in the game.

 

So your real issue isn't that PoTs were not in Kickstarter. Got it.

How do you arrive at your numbers? How do you know this for a fact? Sounds like guesswork to me.

Well maybe the design tools will be improved to make the PoTs harmonious with the environment at some point? It's a suggestion worth making. Maybe that *one* person working on PoTs can do that? But then again, maybe you'd still be unhappy that one person is working on PoTs?

Once again, it seems you aren't *really* unhappy that things have been added that weren't promised in Kickstarter, just something you feel only a minority of players will enjoy. Got it. I'll reiterate, how do you know? You can share your opinions all day, doesn't make them true.

Well, there you have it. This isn't about Kickstarter at all, it's about your perception that a few players are getting something that won't be of benefit to everyone. I hear you loud and clear. Time will tell if your view turns out to be factual or not. Obviously, I disagree.

 

The only possible benefit combat has for someone that is not a fighter, is the loot these fighters sell into the player economy. That loot will benefit the combatants as well.

I personally do not plan to ever enter a single fight if I can help it. Possibly if there is a quest that I can not complete by other means, but I do not consider combat a benefit for all players in the game.

 

Unless you plan to be a total pacifist and not PvM, then I can't see how you see no benefit of combat.

 

By actually reading the R20 Release instructions. "113 New Player Owned Towns: At the end of June we pulled data from all the submission forms. If you had completed payment up to at least Holdfast level, entered a name/location/biome, and were connected to the Overworld (or if you were connected to a hub PoT also being placed), we added your Town to Novia as a blank template map with dynamic lot placement based on the information we had at that time."

Do not put words in my mouth.

 

Sneaking around a monster, talking to bandits, accessing dangerous castles via secret passages and walking in disguise are all examples of PvM without combat. Gandhi won wars without combat. The Avatar's goal has never been to kill, but to gain enlightenment through understanding, communication, sharing and peace.

 

I'm quite well aware of a pacifist approach. But do you personally plan to take that route?

Further, if a pacifist were to come and complain about combat design, when it was clearly stated in the KS, they'd be completely out of line. I doubt anyone in their right mind would do such a thing. So why are you creating a straw man?

 

They have stated there will be 250 POTs on the overworld map, but there has been no announced limit to the number of POTs that can link to other cities on the overworld map.

 

My humble opinions...

On the # of POTs:
I think the Devs have done a good job so far in introducing the existing 113 POTs in the game. I don't have the impression that they are cluttering the overworld. I find the grouping of POTs in coastal/river locations quite realistic. There is a limit to what the overworld will hold, but I feel better about the existing large number of POTs now.

On Kickstarter goals:
I was not a Kickstarter (I would have been had I known about the project), but I am in favor of the Devs being flexible and not sticking only to the original Kickstarter goals if it makes the game more interesting.

On "benefits only for a few":
I am not a POT owner, nor would I want to be. However, my in-game home will be in a POT. Knowing and liking my neighbors increases my game enjoyment tenfold.

I don't expect that I will visit every POT often, and some not at all, but many POTs will be spectacular, both from an aesthetic standpoint and from what they offer visitors, and I will probably visit them more often than I do NPC towns. I consider POTs to be a benefit even to players who aren't interested in living in a POT or even having housing of their own. If some people choose not to take advantage of visiting POTs, that is fine - it doesn't spoil the enjoyment of those who will.

 

Because the entire basis of your argument against POTs is that you don't feel they benefit all players. I'm making a strong point that you could say the same thing about most aspects of the game that are being worked on, even combat. The fact is that POTs do benefit the game as a whole, and everyone playing it. Some more directly than others, sure, and no, the specifics of POT development were not outlined in the Kickstarter, but neither were many other important aspects to the game. As far as 'order of development', it isn't feasible to push POTs off until later just because they weren't headlined in the Kickstarter, because the order of development needs to progress in a way that makes sense to complete the game. Cities need space on the map, so finding space for them before all the map is filled in is important.

 

You see, I am not talking about future development. I'm talking about the time they have actually expended so far. I am using their own statistics. And yet you still debate. For what possible reason?

 

You may personally believe they benefit all players. The jury is still out on that. There is no way to know this.

The fact I'm voicing opposition is not a lone voice. The majority of dollars come from high level backers. But the majority of investors do not own property. One can speculate, and I am speculating. But so are you.

You think you make a strong point, but you don't to me personally.

 

PaxLair, Vengeance and Port Phoenix have staged events such as plays, PVP, gustball, role playing tutorials, open mic nights, etc. These are open to everyone. In my view player generated content such as that adds an enormous benefit to the game, and I can see most of it originating from and being staged in POTs.

 

I think it would be a great objective to develop the game to try and get POTs to provide more benefit to all players, if that's by interweaving the 250 visible POTs into the storyline or other quests, or some other means to keep there existence fun and valuable to all players in the game. I like that the less populated and less active POTs will be nearly invisible on the map, it's a good start. Bottom line, this requires more and earlier development time, so I'm glad they put them in so soon, and are working so hard on them. Keeping the thought that we want them to be meaningful to the whole player base is a very good point we need to hold on to moving forward. Thank you!