Raffles - really? What a joke!

Anyone looking for a deed to place in game and willing to cover rent - shoot me a PM. The deeds I can't place right now because of overhead, I'm happy to place if someone wants to cover all the taxes. I'll even put a house on it for you.

 

Oh I was asking if we will get more maps with news lots, sorry for the misunderstanding

 

For NPC towns, not until Episode 2.
There will also be no new POTs until (probably) Episode 2... However, POTs are more fluid in that each is limited to a total number of square meters that can be allocated, but it is up to the Governor to determine how much of that allocation is actually devoted to lots, along with the sizes and locations.

 

To those, like the OP, who suggest that the lottery is an ill advised system... What would you do instead? Simply have the deeds for sale on a first come, first served basis? How would this benefit any but large guilds who pool their resources to buy a Sure Thing rather than a Chance at the same thing? How would this not benefit virtual land speculation and the hoarding of deeds and the manipulation of the market to drive up real-world prices?

The lottery is imperfect... however it's the most equitable system I've been able to think of to get deeds into the system (Especially the POT deeds) and provide a better chance of land ownership to the little guy.

Also, as @MrBlight suggested, it appears that the large winners are all guilds who're pooling their resources for the betterment of their members.

 

You realise, in years ahead when the game's long gone and some people look back on how much they spent on a vanity item that impressed no one but themselves, they're probably going to have a nervous breakdown?

 

BS

 

You can call it BS if you like, but time will show who's right and who's wrong. Already there are plenty of people not playing anymore who are pretty distraught and regretful at how much they spent on stuff like housing.

 

Many of the players who have won multiple deeds have donated them so that they can be distributed to deserving players... does that make it slightly less a joke?

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...g-players-pot-deed-distribution-thread.65298/

I don't spend money on Fallout 4, CIV VI, or Skyrim hoping to get something out of it other than to play the game for hours on end and have fun doing so. I spend money on this game because I like it and want to support it and see it succeed. I would hope anyone that spent money on the game has their own reasons for doing so and did so because they wanted to.

Already there are plenty of other people still playing or waiting until launch who are pretty happy and satisfied at how much they spent on stuff like housing.

 

As a Lord Marshall account holder, I purchased my account for a couple of reasons, I liked the house that came with it as well as the added items that came with it. This I have no problem with at all... I have two tax free deeds which I wanted and the rest of the taxable deeds I have no qualms with other than I wish those who have no home received first priority for the last raffle and this was not the case.

What is really starting to irk me is how you can buy something on the addon store and soon after words they either bundle the items or a very close replica of the item you just purchased can be created in game making the things you just purchased a joke... I have spent approximately 4k on the game so far and now I am going to stop buying items since I can make them in game instead of paying cash for these items. Last one that made me say enough was when I purchased a Scarecrow decoration thinking it was only a store add on item, only to find out that it is also a craft able item. IF your going to make them craft able then at least say so in the description so I do not think these can only be obtained via the addon store.

 

Housing in this game is instanced (by neighborhood, not by house), so it's really not a limited resource. The only reason for having limits on it is because the developers have a need to raise money and they have chosen player housing as one reasonable way to go about it. The raffle allows non-payers to participate on a limited basis, thereby deflecting some criticism they would receive if they didn't. The need to raise money to fund the development of the game is perfectly legitimate, so I don't agree that the raffle is absurd. However, I do think it's negative over all because it leaves players who don't win or win what they want frustrated in that they're not getting the game experience they want.

This game seems to me to have a paradoxical situation of simultaneously having both too much and too little player housing in it. Too little for the reason given above--not everyone who wants a house can obtain one with modest effort. That has its own implications for future game design--if the developers wanted to give a compelling benefit based on housing at some point in the future, then a house will cease to be a luxury. Too much because some of it is not well placed or planned. In towns housing causes performance problems and likely always will for at least some players--you can improve the performance, but you're still demanding that server, network, and client all do more work to support it. If the housing blends in well, it can be confusing if you're trying to find a particular shop in town. If the housing doesn't blend in well, it destroys immersivity, even without performance issues. And frankly the placement on the overworld map means that many of the "points of interest" on the map are really "points of non-interest", since there's little benefit to visiting a housing area if your own house or the house of someone you know isn't actually there.

 

That's standard practice... Add-On Store items almost always have an equivalent, slightly different, craftable version in-game.

 

Yes, indeed. It's a little bit of a tangent from the kind of people I was describing, but I absolutely feel for you in that scenario, too. Port seems to have its cake and eat it too with stuff like that. Leaves a bit of a bad taste.

 

meh i disagree.
I feel like the majorty of people who put a TON of money, either sold their stuff out in peices and recoverd most losses, or dont regret it at all.

ORC was playing a remake of Lord of Ultima for last little while, Crown of the Gods .. and it was normal for some people to be blowing 100's of dollars week on it. Do they regret it? No?
Its not like people are unaware of what they are putting into, and reality is your paying for enjoyment.
Think your making a pretty big leap in saying people will regret it. (Theres also the fact, you wouldnt be dropping that much money into an alpha if you didnt think you would enjoy it long enough that it was worth it to you ) lol.
Would i regret putting 5k into the game? Maybe.. but im a broke Canadian. Meanwhile i play with guys who already have dropped hundreds into the game, with 0 regret at all. *shrug*

Still waiting for any kind of counter argument towards what Rufus more politely reflected i wsa saying.
How would You distribute deeds in a *better* way then the raffle?

 

The raffle not only fails to prevent large guilds (and the general population) from land-grabbing, it actually accelerates a shortage of housing. At a clip of 675 deeds per release, quite rapidly.

 

Still waiting? I didn't realise I was contractually obligated to reply to anything, just because someone asks it. But, OK, my best answer is that I don't think there should be raffles at all.

I'm becoming deeply uninterested in SoTA by the day, so a mechanism to try and interest people in the game/tie them back into it doesn't sit with me in the way it might sit with you.

 

Quoted your first half.
That question was in general to the other people, not to you directly. Since you wern't on the subject, i should have made more clear. Downside of posting on my phone.

Your answer regardless is pretty much what i would have expected anyways, as ive seen a lot of posts from you in the same direction/mentality towards the game.

So ill rephrase.
The people that are against the raffle, yet still interested and looking for SOTA to succeeed, What are your reccomendations on something other then raffle? I see a ton of people complaining about the raffle, but i dont see other ways to really get those deeds out there fairly? Im generally curious as i dont see much for better options.
Edited to clarify **

 

Someone earlier posted "If you don't like the lottery system, how would you do it?"

My solution, scrap the deeds and and make it character flag based. So you can grind for a row flag , say 200k gold, and claim an open row lot. Then if you want to grind further you can grind out village, town and city levels. Basically you would be able to claim a lot up to your highest grinded level and below, giving you the option of what size lot you really want to pay taxes on.
Tax free deeds would have to be frozen level-wise to be fair. But you could still grind for taxable levels.
This would also insure the game gets the maximum value real cash since you wouldn't be giving away deeds that get sold for half of what the store sells them for. This way people who didn't want to grind could buy gold from the store. Right now it costs thousands for a city deed in the store, but if a player was able to grind up to town level, they might be more willing to pay hundreds to get to city level.
As for placement, you could keep the towns and cities like they are and consider those lots to be choice, but then open up housing instances to cover cases where more players want City lots than are currently in game.

 

All accounts limited to one purchase per month of deed releases.

 

Initially it was designed and even stated that the systems was a way to the little guy to have a chance but it is working as the "rich get richer"

Good idea bad implementation.

How would I fix I ? I do not have and answer to that but what we have now does not work as intended.

 

Is it though?
Who are the rich people that are destroying this raffle that you guys keep referencing?
Ive seen large guilds do well, because more people...

Im not even attacking your comment, im genuinly curious. IS there actually people running 20+ lots? IS it more then just a few guilds covering more and more players?
Is a guild of 50 winning 70 deeds proof of rich getting richer?

Im kinda laughing as one of our guildies, with his 2 freebees, won - 1 Place Anywhere village, and 1 POT CITY lot.. with just the 2 free tickets.. so i find it hard to belive he was the only one who won of freebees.

And i look at the big winners and immediently its the same guys who were buying for guilds last round *shrug* i dunno. Im sure theres some deed Hoarding.. but i highly doubt theres people running numerous house holds from raffle wins.
And my point from before, was even if someone won 100/600 deeds... does it matter? The most they can do is sell it for the cost of the shop.. If anything ive seen give aways, and deeds being sold for less then the shop value, or more importantly for newer/ casual players, IGG. Which is awesome IMO.
Let Duke avery win 50 per raffle, if hes selling em anyways, for in game gold, it just makes a guarentee option for people. And theres no way he can Crank the prices past what someone could buy one in shop for and sell it. (grabbed his name randomly)

I just assume the * Rich * are the POT owners.. and they probly arnt spending millions on the raffle.. and if htey are.. its not showing in the list of the winners.