R55 Land Rush status

So it's been 6 months since the last housing census, way back in R49, so I did another update to see what it looks like as of R55, just over 3 months since Launch / Commercial Release. I did a full pass of all NPC towns and PRTs. I did not survey any POTs.

The number of lot claims in NPC towns was essentially the same, with only 20 new claims. But the number of claims in PRTs dropped by more than half, from 825 to 310. That's a massive drop, either due to lot decay or movement to POTs. It doesn't help that PRTs are cloned scenes that won't get uncloned for a very long time, especially given some NPC towns still need to be uncloned first.

There's still tons of empty lots out there. NPC towns are only 60% claimed and PRTs are basically ghost towns with less than 7% lots claimed.

Many thanks to the community in keeping the previous R49 spreadsheet updated throughout the year. Hopefully one day SotA Map will make this all automatic.

R55 Land Rush spreadsheet: (anyone is free to edit and update)
https://goo.gl/JFSFT2

 

@smack

Thank you so much for your continued efforts into this.
*tips hat*

 

Do you also keep count of the amount of empty towns that are just held by speculators and don't do anything with it due to wanted to resell them? Some people don't realize that when considering empty places. I think SotA needs something to let players know when looking at or entering those towns so they'll be more informed that the owner hasn't logged in "x" of time, nothing being done with it at this time, they are holding the land etc. It doesn't help the game's image. Not sure what the answer is here, but I did like the idea they put in not long ago to populate the empty zones with more buildings on empty lots. I thought that was a nice touch in the right direction.

 

poor hidden vale, the only completely empty non-pot towns are three prts there...

 

I don't survey POTs in this effort. I think it's more beneficial for the POT governor and its citizens to connect directly with future potential residents. There's a sub-forum dedicated to this and is a great way to connect them: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?forums/player-owned-towns.154/

The POTs that are active with recruiting and social events will thrive. The ones that don't will eventually disappear on their own or were meant to be private personal playgrounds in some cases.

 

This may be controversial but I hope that for Ep2+ that they don't allow player housing in NPC (story-based) towns. It will enable and encourage the original intent of PRTs to be dynamic, self-organized but ungoverned communities. And NPC towns will be much more performant and will offer a better experience (especially for offline) for those just purely concentrating on the story RPG without having to walk through hundreds of empty lots / ghost towns to talk to a quest NPC.

 

I 100% agree!!!

And thanks for your work

 

+1 for this idea! Think most players would agree...

 

What if, when you clicked on towns, even in older areas... you got to choose an option (story mode npc town) and (player filled npc town)... that way you could do what you have to do without loading up 758,800 additional items as you wander around Brit Alleys, for example, because you need to find an npc or item for a quest. Then you could also choose player one so you can vendor shop or just look around. It's all instanced anyway... not sure why that can't be a thing and it would help alleviate some people's issues with this as well.

 

Interesting thanks.

 

Well that's depressing. Lets just make towns with less that 50% occupancy invisible on the map.

 

Don't let the Serenite Guild see this post, this is clearly false information in their minds.

 

I love these updates! Pouring over these numbers is a lot of fun for me; housing (and keeping up with this chart) is what originally got me into SotA just prior to persistence. This update inspired me to go on a bit of a walking tour last night throughout Novia, checking out some towns I hadn't visited in awhile. I'd forgotten how much I like Estgard. It always looks like its full of story and intrigue, what with all the defenses against the Kobolds and the NPCs running around scared. Very nice.

The sad part, for me, is the realization that the housing population hasn't changed from 3 months prior to release to 3 months post release. Where are all the new players? Yes, I know the story is that they're all going to POTs, but as an owner of a POT (and a frequent visitor to several other POTs) I can tell you that I haven't seen any mass influx of players there either.

 

@smack Thank you for going to all the trouble to do this!

I think it is a sad state of affairs when half of the game's NPC/PRT real estate is unclaimed. The thing I hate most about this game is the way the Devs used real estate as a carrot to lure backers in the early days and therefore ruined that whole aspect of the game, which could have been a real draw for new players. During the Land Rush, a small group of backers had claimed the best spots in all the best towns. Some backers seem to have claimed lots in every single good town. As to be expected, most of these properties are abandoned and undecorated. Someone asked "where are the new players?". Well, aside from the past lotteries, it has been really difficult for any new player to acquire a place-anywhere-deed. And the early lotteries were a farce, enabling a small group of property owners to snap up even more property.

I personally look back upon the pre-alpha stages of the game with much nostalgic longing. There was such excitement after a full wipe of the game. If you weren't one of the big backers you never knew where you would end up placing your house. In various releases I had homesteads in Kingsport, Holtrot, Northwood, Desolis, Kiln, Brookside, Aldwater, Ardoris and maybe even some others I don't remember off the top of my head. It was so much fun moving to a new place and meeting new neighbors. Even players who didn't have a lot deed with their pledge could afford to buy a village lot deed and a house deed from a merchant after a couple of weeks of game play. Backers with pledge lot deeds were also generous in handing the deeds out to the needy, since the loan would be only temporary. Homes were all decorated - I can't recall seeing anything similar to the vacant deserted slums we have today.

I strongly believe that if property ownership had been handled differently and was not planned as a "rare commodity", the game would be much more successful today.

 

I so agree with this too. Imo it was always a mistake to put players houses right in the Npc towns. There could have been outskirts of a town for those.

 

Well if the taxes weren't so darn high, and if there were more place anywhere deeds, then I believe more PRT's etc would be a lot more full.

 

I know what a Player Owned Town is, but what is a PRT?

 

Player Run Town. Ie, a town, not one of the main quest ones, that is governed by players (or nobody, really) rather than having a governor like in a POT.

For example: Brekken Bay.

 

Greetings @smack. I have already entered the lot info for my POT. Thank you for adding that sheet back. Hopefully we will get more people to add to it so when people look for a place to put down roots they can make an informed decision. I would also like to suggest that you add another 2 columns that list total rental rooms/houses and available rooms/houses but it should not count against the towns lot total since it has to be on an existing lot.

 

I had debated whether to include something like that but it seemed beyond the scope and original intent of my land surveys. It would also apply to any homeowner, not just POTs, and that's not something easily conveyed with the existing format. It should deserve its own sheet, but then I'd be duplicating what's already listed in this dedicated sub-forum: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?forums/rental-services-free-places-to-live.1067/

It would be great if sometime in the future the devs have the time and resources to create an in-game system to handle this eventually, perhaps even via SotA Map.

Good luck on recruiting residents for your POT! You're the only entry so far, but you really should include a link on the sheet to a forum thread in the POT sub-forum introducing your town and why outlanders should choose to live there. I'll stop by and check it out during my adventures through Novia!