Suggestion for Player-Run Towns

Since the player run "towns" don't really contain anything except player lots, should these be considered Hamlets? If so, it might be wise to have the crier (and whatever other NPCs exist therein) be able to relate the town or village to which the hamlet it linked, and thus where the nearest place to access major services will be available.

For example, the hamlet of Kingswood is nearest to Kingsport, so the crier would advise travellers to head to that town in order to access public facilities.

 

I would hope that while player run towns might start small, eventually they would be the only cities worth going to. Towns not run by players should be the exception, not the rule.

 

I'd like to be able to contribute resources to a communal pool as a way of progressing towards community projects.

 

Ideally, but not at the size of the ones in the Vale. Unless they expand to full city size, these are nothing but housing plots (and poor ones at that).

 

I'd like for SotA to have contested Player Run Towns... Guilds battle for control... that would be epic...

 

As the towns grow, perhaps it would be possible for predesignated lots to spontaneously sprout inns and stores? Even if just one of each spawned per town, it would help add flavor to the "generic" hamlets. Perhaps predesignated lots might also spawn "flavor" items, like graveyards and monuments?

 

There will be no player run towns because houses are persistent on every facet of the game and the layout isn't open. There may be a few but it'll involve real money and lots of work offline because everything is pre-set and confined.

 

Expanding the towns either based on size or contributions to a community pool would be great.

There are many systems that could work such as taxes going to hire a town mayor, where people with plots can vote on the next additions to a town.
Or where people could contribute their resources (wood, iron, etc...) to have a blacksmith or theater, etc....built.

I'm sure there are a dozen other possibilities that would work well, but I don't reckon we'll see anything like this until chapter 3 or 4.

 

I'd like for SotA to have contested Player Run Towns... Guilds battle for control... that would be epic...
What kabalyero suggests here is quite good; (sorry the forums don't allow me to quote for some tech reason)
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I too believe a form of this is the way forward to a developing idea. Player towns are basically Guild towns and if any "one guild" want's to run their town, then I believe this would be best suited by "Boroughs" rather than any specially made separate towns. Any Hamlet that was such an outpost, should expect to fend for themselves and not expect the King's Guards to be stationed there, thus providing all that has been stated here in regards to such town's security and ambience organically.

This month we have seen the Guild's get active and begin to gather their numbers. This was a natural accruing thing that evolved our of necessity as our test game has become multi player, combative PvE and objective oriented. In this same way, we will soon see the Guild's (that have their stuff together) begin talking in earnest about what they collectively will do about having all their houses closer by each other when the actual game begins.

Evolution of the gatherings of any people's separate cultures through their own Guilds should be struck out alone, by those Guilds.
But if there is any collective Guild, or collective people, that live round each other that wish to effect their environment, yet live in a section of a full SotA town/city with NPCs and everything, then they too should define what they agree upon in the same way unless we are to have any SotA supported voted government...
"But Lord British to my knowledge has never signed any Magna Carta to the masses" as of yet that Portalarium would then assign any special Tax privileges to, through both real $ and ingame Tax allowance.

Any Such Magna Carta would need the masses to have had a mass in order to be catered to..
It's a Time for Massing', before we can see what's on the other side
~Time Lord~

 

We of PaxLair are extremely excited about Player Town ideas in SotA. We tried out a few things in R5. Please see our article in our PaxLair Time here ... and I will describe a bit more specifically about R5 and some developer recommendations below.

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Release 5 – Valemark Upper Meadow – Open air village lot looking out on meadow circle.​

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Several of us of PaxLair placed houses in Valemark in (what we call) the Upper Meadow. There are three open circle areas in Valemark with houses on the outside of each circle. We have 4 of about 10 houses in the Upper Circle, and another in the Middle Meadow (another circle). We were a bit late during the land rush. The circle has one town lot, and all the rest village as best I can tell. Some of our friends and citizens are founders that have city lots, so with this design, they would have to choose a smaller lot to be with us in the player town.​

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I really like the open meadow/circle design. In Valemark, it gives a feeling there are three hamlets (whatever you want to call them) in one scene/hex. So it offers abilities for several groups of people to start forming their own towns. Also, people can start trading lot locations so they can be closer to their group. It can take weeks, months, or years to get one area's buildings populated with people who want to participate in the player town. To speed this up:​

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Feature Request: Mail Boxes - We need a way to communicate to/with people who own houses in the hamlet area. Perhaps we write and drop a letter in their mailbox (every house gets one automatically), and the letter has a return address (my lot, or my character name/account) -- all letters are tied to accounts and reportable if it is spam, griefing, etc. They can answer the letter and it appears in my lot's mailbox, or my P.O. Box at the nearest city post office. Thus, we can get to know the person in the house (invite them to join our town, negotiate a trade for the lot, etc.)​

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We will need to be able to mow the grass in our Upper Meadow's center part of the circle. The grass is a bit tall. When we can place objects outside our property in the general area, we can set up benches in the circle and have plays and recitals and festivals. As for inside the house lots, being able to place furniture outside your house but still in your lot yard is a huge thing to us ... I can have a very small house (with a big basement underground), and make my yard area a garden, nice sitting area, or open market craft area.​

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Feature Request: Blank House to allow Basement - Oh, if there is a way to place a basement on the lot WITHOUT placing a house or place a "blank house", that would be great ... just allow the trap door to be somewhere on the lot to get down there. Then we can decorate the entire lot as a garden, park, outdoor crafting area, etc. (We can do this in UO by placing a customized house, and not build a house on it... just it as a dirt plot with grass, paths, water, etc. - then put furniture on the lot.)​

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In my opinion:​

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1. Player Towns can start thriving by first achieving a most basic goal: the guild/community people group their houses together in one location. Please read about how Player Towns generally formed on Chesapeake, UO.​

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2. There are several ingredients that help a Player Town grow and last through the years/decades. They are:​

• Location
• Events
• News, News and more News
• People
• Organization
• Web Page and Forums

Please read about these ingredients in my article from 2006.​

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3. Player Towns can be built and can go in so many directions: contested combat areas to be won and lost, government systems to be democratic or monarchy, group efforts to achieve rewards and more features, immersive role-playing at many levels, massive libraries and theaters, and more. It is up to the creativity of the people and the in-game capabilities/services provided by the developers.​

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Not all of us may think of Player Towns the same way though. Some may see it as a player-run 'game' town with game mechanics for elections, battles, resource gathering to build common areas, etc. Others may see it as a player-run 'community' town with game mechanics for good citizen interaction/communication, hold events, build libraries, negotiate alliances with other towns, etc. Some may see it as a combination of both!​

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I really look forward to the player-ran town ideas and how they will be developed in the coming months and years.​

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Dragonspeed!

 

The town crier should be able to report on available town lots.
I couldn't seem to get them to talk about anything.

 

It would be nice if player towns could create public areas like town squares.

 

Great stuff! I love the fact you note that over time trade can be accomplished to group. Its something I've been saying since kickstarter but a lot of people still have a negative attitude about even the possibility of grouping.

I built two player towns on Catskills and a private area . It took a few years, patience, and a lot of gold. Many times people are very willing to trade because the location isn't a huge deal to them but they understand it is to you and so are willing to help out.

Winfield would know, but for those that dont:

The second type that don't want the hassle or want to move will usually do so if you offer them a fair incentive. Better location, some gold, and/or a few items.

Then you have the third type. The ones that just ignore you, wont discuss it, or even hear you out because in their eyes everyones trying to stiff them somehow. Those just took wealth. Id figure out their schedules, hide by thier door and watch tv. They show up and a suddenly theirs a check on the ground for a 110k, followed by a book with a note.. 300 k more now and 600k in 5 minutes if youll stand still and listen to me for a few minutes. They do, you drop the 300k. Then proceed to flatly state you will give them 10 million to trade locations with u. And if they wont trust you even though your showing honesty *drop 600k* then youll pay the gold fees for a broker.

Id sometimes at this point drop a note to a councilor i knew whod pop in and state "hes honest, if he says hell pay you, hell pay you", then pops out.

This would usually make it happen although its a shame people can be that hard to deal with.

Its all just a matter of patience, determination, and persistence. I agree though that a way to communicate with people in game is a must!!!

Often times you run into a spot u need and they aren't playing but log in to refresh.. You have to have a way to leave a note. In UO id scribe a bag full of books with a gm scribe. Then log them on a hardly used account at their door, and just drop a book a couple times a day with a note "email me at... Will give you x gold if you just give me a few minutes of your time." Eventually the got it.

Hardest one i had was a guy in FEL had a small, last in my secluded area and was keeping me from pulling others and dropping a full tower. Nice guy, we often had neighbor chit chat. He didn't care about items or gold and just didn't want to move but "when i do ill make sure you have first option!". One day came along and "im giving up UO, house is yours for free for being patient, understanding, and not a pest".

So its very doable.. I never met a house i wasn't able to buy given enough gold and time. And that was doing it on my own (id just give the houses to my guild members for the two towns i established). A GROUP of people working on it together? Yep!! We WILL have player towns, guaranteed!

Winfield, they said that a basement with no house on a lot should be doable at one time. Haven't heard to the contrary yet unless i missed it.

 

We had a great time tonight in R5. Lord British visited the Valemark Upper Meadow player town. Thanks so much to a lot of people and home owners coming too. LB was with us for about an hour, visited all the homes in the meadow circle, and then answered a lot of our questions. Thanks everyone! It was great fun!

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The open air lot with Lord British and many friends! (Violation is just off screen on left, you see his sword, sorry about that)​

(see full screen picture here - 1920 x 1178 3.7 MB)​