POT Templates

They answered, but more along the lines of why would I want to change a template that is all built out... They misunderstood my intent. I'm fine just leaving an outhouse on my pot until we have a few more choices... Even if that's six months to a year... I'll be busy playing the game and doing other stuff in the meantime.

 

basically same here too. while i'll have my guildies in the town, i'll be able to tell them to pack their stuff up, hopefully in time, for when/if they decide to come out with what i'm really hoping for in a second island biome (keys!)

 

Guys, I tend to be an optimist as well. But I have to agree with the sentiment.. There have been too many signs indicating that this feature will be under-delivered vs. what was sold. It deserves a major design update post sooner than later so there is more clarity, particularly for anyone out there still thinking about pledging for a new town or a town upgrade. These are still available in the store!

 

Yea I figure Ill put a row lot in some NPC town, collect materials to use to craft things like walls and fences, etc... That all takes a lot of time...And hopefully they'll come out with some better templates. No rush here on my part.

 

AMEN! a little communication goes a looooong way. I would submit that there are better approaches than to just take the $ and say "Trust me... I'll explain it all later". There is a LOT of misinformation out there. For example, the following appears on the pot submission form: " PoTs allow the owner to place player lots, buildings, and decorations wherever they choose including the ability to change this at any time, all within the game. Please note that these will appear in game almost as soon as the form is filled out."

I mean seriously? I remember with my pot.. I paid for it... and I got my email confirmation/receipt and then..... _______
After a while (and with no further communication) I noticed a bunch of PoT related stuff showed up in my bank. After over a month had passed I finally sent off a note and as a result I finally got the information I needed. So I got my pot ~ 2 months after I paid for it. That's just slightly different than the expectation I had based on the info provided by Port on the site. I later heard through the grapevine that people who were supposed to have been handling this stuff left Port.

That falls into the category of "stuff happens" and I'd have been understanding IF somebody had taken the time to communicate.
Now I understand and appreciate that Port doesn't have a huge staff but there are other ways I think to deal with that. One idea I floated was that Port put out a call for volunteers to help with the CS overload; I'm sure there are other perhaps better ideas but I am certain this community would be willing to help.

On another note it was stated (maybe it was Blake...I don't have time to search at the moment) that Pot ownership is a small % of what's going on however...I'd be willing to bet that if you added up ALL the $ invested by those who have also purchased Pot's the #'s would look a bit different.
I would hope that there will be provisions for us to try out different options before suddenly being told in essence to like it or lump it and be happy with what we got.

 

No worries, and I will take any and all hugs I can get. So being the target of small vents seems as good a way as any.

Good point and I definately don't think you are alone in that approach. Which is why I proposed exactly such a question in the Submission Form feedback so those who'd rather wait to get it more to their liking can and thus relieve pressure on the process.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...submission-form-bugs.26114/page-5#post-368278
Didn't get any encouragement nor follow up on that otherwise I could have contributed much more to making a better process to both Portalarium and POT owners.

Though personally I want to hit the ground running. By the time we release I've tested my concepts and should be ready to just execute.

 

it happened a little differently for me, @Solazur ..

Spoiler

i logged in one day, after the wipe, and saw my stuff in the bank, and instantly removed them all into my inventory.. i went and looked, my town was there, and couldn't zone to it. it was hit with the island link bug. they fixed that in under a week, at least so it was clickable from one tiny place (which they have absolutely fixed since, mind you), and it turns out it didn't say governed by me.
i didn't realize it was a parallel universe, so i dropped all the housing stuff in the bank and reported the issue about it not being governed by me, once wrathphoenix noticed too, and said it actually was a bug.

within days they fixed that but i lost all my stuff from the banker, that i had placed in the parallel town without a governer.
it took 3/4 of a month for them to get around to fixing that in the database for me, cause they were dealing with all the other pot owners and those bugs that arose.

by then, the next wipe hit and all was well.

TL;DR
any issues there, except the clicky one and the governed by, were caused by me. both of those two were fixed, and quickly too, in my opinion.


so what our difference in experiences tells me, sol:

• they had one dev going in and droping the stuff in folks banks, and you got hit early on in that process, while i got hit late in the process.
  
• they had another dev (or the same dev doing parallel devlike things), place the towns in the world.
• probably the same dev as one of the first two listed here, which would account for the governed by mistake, which also assigned the governers.

that was a lot, i think something like 130 folks at once on that release. bound to be a touch of human error, and this was a first for the entire gaming industry anyway, tie in the shoestring budget, and you can color me impressed with how well it all went down.

one thing that motivated them to not talk much to you about it, was they wanted to get as many as possible implemented instead of doign one at a time, and didn't want to play favorites, as they too were flying by the seats of their pants..

while they could, by my perception, have had a little more transparancy, they were afraid it would sound like them contradicting themselves in lots of what they do in the order they have to do it. - it is kind of like the way movies are made all out of order, then pieced back together for public consumption...see, they shield us from the chaos so we don't freak out, to a degree. and we should thank them for (both industries, film and games)

 

Details about our schedule including plans for PoTs is coming around same time as launch of R26

 

Thanks for the heads-up, buttercup.

 

I think the templates look pretty great in the game. I am pretty fond of snowy mountain and the island template. There always could be more variety of course. It would be nice to be able to place lots wherever you want, but there are logistically needs for flat areas to do so.

 

That's probably one of the most agitating things about the project, and it causes unneeded frustration. Be patient and wait, or questions go unanswered. I understand that over the past few years a lot of things were being worked on and things were not set in stone, so it was understandable then. With the talk of the game being close to release, as soon as summer, many things should have concrete answers to clear up questions and confusion now though. Most of us are adults, can and should be able to deal with answers given to us. We don't need sugar coating of anything, not that Portalarium does that, the silence on some things though really causes frustration that wouldn't be there if backers had more answers. I'm not trying to say their doing it on purpose, they bend over backwards a lot of times to try and keep everyone happy. I know they're trying to do their best to move the project forward, I don't doubt that. It has to be stressful for them as well, I'm sure.

At this point in the project I'd assume everything is planned out and dates are set, (at least I hope so since there's talk of release for summer) there's no reason not to disclose important information now going forward. I'd love to see some posts of this is how it is, this is the plan to get us to release, and there's no negotiating on this part or this part is up for negotiating, even if I don't agree with it. At least then I'd know better what's going on. There are a lot of unknowns at this point. On any subject just give it to me straight, I'd rather that than the unknown.

 

I wonder if there will ever be a snowy biome that has unfrozen water...I love my biome but hate that I cannot go fishing...

Perhaps the icy water can sometimes melt and be liquid? Perhaps too much to ask for tho haha

 

@Ice Queen - I agree, and you state it eloquently. Generally, I try not to add any stress to what the devs do, because it *is* like living in a blender, I'm sure. I am pleased to hear that we might learn more at R26. Thank you @DarkStarr.

*goes back to play quietly and wait patiently...*

 

As I understand it, my issues with PoT lot placement is the navmesh (the data that is used to identify where one can travel to, for NPCs).

I have an Island PoT, and I want to place my houses centered around the high grounds.
For all I care, that flat parking lot can become fields or farm lands.
To do this, I need to be able to place row lots along the curves and slopes, and it is infuriating to see unused spaces behind lots and the slopes.

IMHO, they should give us an option to disable or relax the dynamic lot collider instead of flattening to allow more flexible placements, however that is likely going to break the precious navmesh.