Pledge Expiration - I'm Sorry, But It Has To Be Said

...except, they aren't expiring or haven't announced the expiration of the Explorer or Collector tiers, which contain a ton of physical goods. So no, they don't see to be in a hurry to lock that count down. The priority seemed to be to stop the # of items they have to sign, not necessarily the physical goods in total. Sure, these other tiers may expire too, as they said this is the first phase. But until they announce the dates for these two tiers to expire, they'll continue to take orders for physical goods.

 

Well, the physical items that aren't signed can probably be counted closer to the time to ship.. so maybe within a couple months of release! Those physical items are what we'd normally get in the box, so we'd have them right when we start playing. I think that may be why they would want to keep them available as long as possible, but ship them in time for launch.

I recommend, once all the physical item tiers are closed, they should add the items that would normally be 'in the box' to the add-on store, so people can purchase them after launch if they want. Bags of new-Britannian minted coins, Infinity-symbol necklaces, maps of Novia.. if they are being made anyway, let us buy them in the store, and then that's more stuff to offer out as bonus/gifts during events and hangouts! ;-D

 

Well I don't think Nemo will ever be back to read his thread. Que Sera Sera. Oh well we had a nice conversation ourselves.

 

Majoria70, you make me smile. I try so hard to emulate your good-natured comments, but I can't quite achieve it. Maybe someday I'll get a bit more water to counteract the fire...lol.

 

This is very confusing and the statements conflict with each other.

For example, "All pledges at or above Patron level prior to August 31, 2015 will continue to receive all of the expired rewards at or below their pledge level as they upgrade," states that accounts upgraded to Patron prior to Aug 31 will continue to receive all expired rewards as they upgrade. Yet, then later statements contradict this in stating that expiring home, basement, and deed rewards will only be received by accounts upgrading to Ancestor and Lord respectively before Aug 31.

So which is it? Do Aug 31 Patron accounts continue to receive all expired rewards as they upgrade, or is that statement incorrect with regard to homes, basements and lot deeds?

Do Aug 31 Ancestor accounts continue to receive stacking home and basement rewards as they upgrade into the future?

What if an Aug 31 Ancestor account is eventually upgraded to a Lord account after Aug 31?

 

I also think their textual statements are very ambiguous, and that is why I asked for clarification from examples instead.

As per the hangout statement when I asked that very question.

EDITED - see Andernut's response below.

 

Here is the verbiage I am using in my spreadsheet with contextual quotes from the announcement. I have yet to see the full context of what was said in the hangout but I still believe this to be accurate.

1. Must be Patron+ by 8/31/2015 to be eligible for these rewards;
2. Must be Ancestor+ by 8/31/2015 to be eligible for stacking houses and basements;
3. Must be Lord+ by 8/31/2015 to receive secondary rent-free deeds

 

Yes it is understandably confusing. I think the Dev team in stating they will not take away anything that we already have. It affects the going forward after Aug 31st. So to me that I don't lose anything that I have paid for is key. Hopefully it makes sense somewhat more to you now. The thing is upgrade now if you can, otherwise you will get what you already have and the tier things from the upgrade but nothing below that if you skipped a tier, like if you were citizen now before Aug 31 and upgraded to Lord Marshal, the tiers between citizen and Lord marshal would not be included in your rewards, just the Lord Marshal pledge items plus what you already have. Ok now to confuse you more sorry.

 

@Koldar

EDITED see Andernut's response below.

 

I clarified with the devs via support@portalarium.com.

After we pledge upgraders forced alcohol down DarkStarr's throat - he misspoke. I have it in writing that Ancestor+ retains the housestacking for future tiers. Lord+ retains the lot stacking for future tiers.

 

So.........

After having the ability to pledge for more than two years for any pledge level........and after having a couple of months notice that certain pledges/items were going to be discontinued....

Why are people still screaming foul play..........did people seriously think Portalarium were just kidding or something?

 

Following the recent UofA and expiration notice (https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=53350) I'm a little confused about waterhomes. It suggests that Citizen Cabana's were among those to expire, but I thought they were only for Founder backers anyway so were long since expired for anyone looking to purchase or upgrade, or can existing Founders of a lower tier still upgrade and get the Founder rewards for the new higher tier?

 

Nah, its a confusion of two things. They could have been much more clear.

To be able to fix and design NPC towns to accomodate all the Founder/Royal Founder pledges that has the "Waterhouse" of different size rewards. The devs need to cap those.
While they still want to allow people to upgrade their pledges. So yes Founder/Royal Founders can still upgrade to get rewards only available to those eras.


So if one has a lower Founder/Royal Founder tier pledge - and upgrade it - then after that date the upgrade doesn't include the waterfront lots/cabanas/boats any more.

 

Seems pretty clear to me.

They have a schedule for production of NPC villages, towns, and cities. They have to at least give all the early backers a lot. At the moment, they have fewer lots than what they need, so something had to give. Makes sense, but still sucks. Why?

Because now, as has been the case since Kickstarter, the focus of designers, programmers, and artists will continue to be on housing, rather than gameplay, combat, and other innovative mechanics. A real shame, but what can you expect when the focus of the project was money, rather than gameplay?

It's pretty hilarious to compare the original map size of Novia with the current one. Talk about scope reduction, wow. All that potential just vanished. And no mention of the "help design an NPC" or "in-game family crest" reward interfaces, either, yet. Guess it's good they're still in pre-alpha.

 

couldn't be more wrong. they hired 3 devs recently to primarily work on towns and housing etc. the rest of the team continues on their course of development. thats what the recent telethon was about, really. a way to pay those new devs without going (too far) out of budget, by way of time and money. they are appropriately compartmentalizing so they DON'T get bogged down. It is called Agile Methodology for a reason.

 

Just read the original post and skimmed the feedback. The ONE thing I would agree with is the cost for the higher pledges is, well, high! I totally support the game with my $110? Pledge so I could get a second character slot and access to parts 1 to 3. Although I would have liked to contribute more, just can't. So, I feel that I have adequately supported development and generally feel that I will get my moneys worth for my contribution. Would I have liked to acquire a higher tier with housing? Yuuuup! Do I think that I will still enjoy the game without those benefits when the game is released? Yes sir! Just a response to the original post...

 

I understand why the pledges are being phased out; and myself being away for months without internet, I was actually very sad to hear the news because I returned a week after the pledge levels were dropped. After learning of this news I decided to not upgrade my pledge as originally planned. Bad luck for me but I should have upgraded sooner, right? See you at launch.

 

What happened to the old fashioned activity of actually playing a game and earning really cool and exclusive items on your own merit. I'm just waiting for that part. Stopped caring about the cash shop a long time ago.

 

I do not think that the average person starting out in game will ever have an equal chance in this game. There are to many people with control over the map. Look at BMC, they have over 500 members pre launch. There is no hope for anything organic to develop in this game.

 

It is a good point you raise. Sadly though some player such as myself have never been able to achieve the really cool end game things as there just is not enough time. I have excitedly joined many games with my friends and finally maxed out the level to finally be able to run some end game stuff to get: "Dave none of us play EQ2 or STO or etc.. anymore, we all got bored and now we play "flavor of the month". Very depressing for me, the insurmountable time barrier. So then i came up with a cunning plan, i would use Chinese expert players to help level me and get me gold or credit or whatever. Other people also had this same idea as there we many website. Ah, now i too could finally be on top. Catch up to my friends and play end games before they got bored. No only that but they pride, even now as i shut my eyes and look back to those glory days my heart warms. Sure, i guess some people can feel good about accomplishing things on their own in game, i'm glad they do, there is not enough happiness in the world. As for my grinding pixels is just not what makes me happy, i like to putter around as i please. However the pride i get for helping all those Chinese kids make it through college, all those brother nerds making enough money to take their GF or wife on dates (ok maybe it happens), the modern "pinball wizard" of Shanghai being able to tell his parents that he actually gets paid to play games, etc.. Yes my poor old heart brims with joy and happiness of all those nice folks i helped. Let's not forget international relations either, China seemed a bit friendlier in those days. No island making and such that worries my host and other near nations governments. I regret a bit i cant stimulate the economy and do my bit for world peace but we are in a new era and things change. Not all change is bad. I was never fond of monthly game fees. Now i can directly help the games themselves when i pledge or purchase from the add on store. I actually prefer this system despite all the good i was doing a few years back. I will be able to poke around gathering this or that to give to my guild to help keep the crafters going. I wont feel that awful pressure on me to play a bit longer than i should in a fruitless attempt to catch my friends. No SOTA and Star Citizen will be my last games so im going to make them as comfortable as i can before launch since i plan to play them both (God wiling) for many yeas to come.