Thoughts on Tax Reduction

I was replying to the thread here on tax reduction when it got archived to not allow more posts. Since it seems to be a still-current issue, I'll post my thoughts here instead.

Technically this is true. With improvements to the agricultural system, landed property does now have more inherent value than row housing. I don't think that's why they did this - I think their focus is more on new player retention by easing the path to become a settler of the world rather than just a player within it - and I think the logic is somewhat flawed because it doesn't account for the even greater value-modifier of property location where row houses often excel over the other land types.

Personally I would have rather seen a tiered rent system with a modifier based on location (ie: proximity to city services and zone entrances) so that there would be cheap entry-level housing available in less desirable areas, the inns would still be useful by being affordable but better locations with some in-house services, and well-maintained shopping districts would develop in prime traffic areas, and overall people could settle easily enough somewhere to get a foothold but still have a path of upward mobility to aspire to in order to keep them engaged for the long term.

While I'm happy for the general direction of improving the new player experience, unless we get a huge influx of new colonists to start moving in fairly quickly, I think this particular implementation will end up being more of a subsidization of mercantile expansion of the existing population at the expense of new player settlement options in the future unless it's also on the table to add in more row housing to sub-prime locations later if vendors take up a majority of the existing lots. I know if agriculture wasn't one of the prime game activities I enjoy, I'd be trading in my village deed right away for two to four new row deeds to set up a new storefront with better foot traffic potential.

 

Id partly guess the change came because now many people will have a free row lot and to avoid complaints of a lot they cant use anyone with a row lot taxable can now have the shroud lot too for the same price

 

I agree with you there, but I wasn't addressing those deeds specifically since they're POT-only and therefore under the purview of POT-owners to accommodate rather than the Dev team. But because POT and PA deeds share the same tax structure, the PA property market is likely to be affected by this change too, which is mostly what I was speaking to.

POT land is probably not so big a concern since the owners have the power to redesign themselves around their interests and residents' needs. I was just thinking more long term with the assumption that we'd eventually be wanting to see the npc/prt towns more fully populated too.

 

@Krissa Lox yes, I understand. Ive spent way too much money on deeds for a POT let alone place anywhere ones.. my bank balance could only take so much.

 

The main problem was/is that the gold income is not as high as it was as Port. has set the taxes for the taxed deeds. They also stated they will keep the balance between gold income and tax paying.
For this release it was said that all taxes are cut into half. This has lead to a war between taxfree and taxed landowners. That finally the taxfree owners have won.
The income nor the taxes has changed. This actually means that village owners and above have a hidden tax raising, while row owners are balanced.

Regarding the agriculture, there is a four-story-greenhouse for row lots. The point that you only can do agriculture on village or higher is not valid anymore.
There are also dysfunctional public gardens…

i want to second this. I can imagine what happens here in the forums, once the players have recognized that they have to pay taxes for their row deed. The taxfree owners do not have Port. allowed to reduce taxes. Because this would take some value of their properties away. I think Port. have the tax reduction on row lots only put through to avoid the complaints starting with this release.

In my opinion giving away a free row lot deed was not a good solution. The next discussion is removing the taxes for this only free row. Make a quest .. bla bla bla. Port. has given the little finger, ...
They better has introduced an NPC-Innkeeper available for every town type (POT, PRT, NPC). And lead new players to an inn, so they become used that is normal in SotA to start in an inn. They created buildings for this including a inn-basement.
A room in an inn allows to place a container that can hold more items as the bank. And also people can start decorating their room. Exploring some features the game has to offer.
Currently new players do not know, that they can live in an inn. Many inns exists in this game, also in PRTs and NPC-Towns. They do not know to whom the have to speak to, to get a room. That is why a lead and an NPC is needed.

Once i posted an idea that Port. set up the taxrate and give control to one half of it to the town owners. Town owners should be able to setup a default percentage for the town and manually can adjust it per LOT. This would also allow tax rates like @Krissa Lox has mentioned. But also other tax politics. For NPC-Towns and PRTs that can be setup by Port. itself.
This would also allow to set the taxes higher, so that taxfree owners can raise the value of their property on the back of the taxed deed owners. As they are also available to reduce tax to get more players in. However, the decision is done by the playerbase and not by Port. They players self have a tool here to balance RMT needs and ingame economy needs. This either destroy the game or give some insight in balancing.
All the war that happens here in the forums addressed to Port. can be executed directly in game.
Also a percentage of the tax the town owner can control should be given to the town owner, so they have a reason to keep it high.

Controllable half of the tax set able from 0% - 200%. Per LOT. (Town earnings may be reduced for balancing reasons)

Code:

Size    Port. Tax    Tax min.    Tax range    Town earnings
row     500          250         250 - 750    0 - 500
village 1000         500         500 - 1500   0 - 1000
town    2000         1000        1000 - 3000  0 - 2000
city    3500         1750        1750 - 5250  0 - 3500

A room in an inn maybe set to 100 gold per day and for a PRT and NPC-Town may to 150 gold per day.
Paying taxes/rent seems unique for SotA. Most new player do not understand this.

I think that most new players feel trapped with the very small bank box and seemingly high prices for a LOT deed. And then taxes... They do not see a escape route and feel forced to get one of this taxfree ones. The book "Places to live" does not has done much. Most new players do not even have read this.
This is a failure of New Player direction and lead into game. And players can not be present 24/7 to catch up new players.

When new players are send to the capital city of the region they started in, they also should be send to an inn. Talk to NPC-Innkeeper to get a room and some hints and advices. So, they can start to understand the housing system in SotA.
And to give them time to explore and a home until they are capable to get their own land. And stop them from staring at other houses they do not have but want to have.

 

Where was that said by Portalarium? Unless something has happened that I haven't seen announced, the tax cut is ONLY ROW LOTS. Or did you hear that when they never actually said it? Please point me to where they said that, because I really want to know if they did.

They said there would be a tax cut, but I never heard them say an exact amount, or even that it would be across the board. Everybody just started acting as though they had said all taxes would be cut in half. They said we would get a tax cut, and we got a tax cut.

I don't understand something. First you seem to have a problem that "the taxfree owners have won", then you turn around and argue for giving money to POT owners? What makes POT owners more special than people with tax-free lot deeds? They don't pay taxes on POTs, and now you want to effectively give them negative taxes?

 

@Elwyn I think because they said they were "reviewing taxes" and were going to cut.. people assumed it was more than just row lots.. because it was never said it was specifically row lots but then it was never said it specifically wasnt just them

 

That was my point. Everybody heard what they wanted to hear. Devs reviewed them, they changed (some of) them.

 

I confess, I did expect "generic" taxes to be changed, maybe not all by the same amount, but because it was just said taxes, I did kinda expect it to be more than just row taxes.. but ive struggled and I have most of mine as tax free for the reason everyone does, its one less thing to try and fund/worry about.. I have always had poor characters, so funding a house would be out of the question.. I do haev a taxed row lot, which I bought for what seems now like an extortionate fee off the port store, and I regret that purchase, as a) its not really even worth 1/4 of what I paid, and b) Im not paying the taxes on that a day! a week maybe, but a day?? sheesh

 

I got one of the last store Town deed right at persistence, so I understand. At least it was on sale, yeah. And then later I bought a Founder Town deed from another player. Fortunately this was just a week or two before Westend got a rift, and I put it to use right away.