Will PRTs survive much longer?

I didn't ignore the 30 day limit. I could make enough accounts with a limit like that by myself.

Instanced as in only that player could access it? I don't know how popular that would be, but I'm sure a bunch of people would like that option until they can finish the quest line. I don't see any problems with that either!

 

new player retention and getting them to the store or subbed.

the question that keeps the devs up at night and pulling the long hours.

I don't have any easy answers that wont turn into walls of text.

getting players into the housing system as soon as possible might be as simple as moving the pot deed up to finishing any of the storyline instead of at the very end.

 

I live in a PRT and certainly don't want to have to move! What happens if a POT gets sold and the new owner decides they don't want you in there town? What if you have trouble finding an available lot in the size/location that you are moving from? I like not having anyone to answer to and not having to worry what happens when a player decides to sell their account. It's not like PRT's are causing a problem.

 

If you are trying to solve players have "a place for their stuff" and PRT voids at the same time.... Just have inns in PRT that provide free rent in an automated system.

Like this... I'm a new player, I walk into an inn in a PRT, there is some sort of NPC bellhop that greets me and tells me which rooms are vacant (similar to a town crier, but he's just for this building). I can go check out the rooms and claim up to ONE (1) room per account. There is a "control console" next to the door, in the hallway fro every room. It's similar to a deed claiming stone or sign. It's all integrated in the system and I never need to find or contact the inn owner (player) directly. I can lock the door. I'm basically a tenant for free. I'm given 1 free chest and the ability to purchase up to two more for a fee right from the "control console" on the wall outside my room. I can decorate my room and move stuff around inside it. It's a little slice of what having your own home is like. The new player tutorial can explain all of this. I get this room free of charge until my account is in the possession of ONE (1) deed of any type. At that point the free rent room has a 30 day countdown timer on it that can not be reset. Once it reaches zero all my stuff goes in the bank like a standard eviction. There can be in game mail and even account based email (out of game) sent to the account holders when at 30, 15, and 7, days and 48 hours ... to remind that I am being evicted since I have a deed.

This system uses a lot of in game elements already and would be easy to implement without a ton of dev time.

 

Yes the row deed at the end of any of the Virtue Quests rather than the Oracle Quest would be a great improvement.

Or thinking about it perhaps having completed all three virtue quests but not the Oracle quest.

 

Spot on - free deed for completing the story sounds generous, but actually isn't for a lot of players.

In order to complete the storyline you need to be pretty invested in the game, and be an adventuring focused player. To avoid setting yourself up for PvP risk whilst doing so you need to invest a great deal of time researching the safe routes etc.

Housing is probably this game's best developed feature and for a certain type of player, "homemakers" as Kara says, would be their main reason to stay. Its also the biggest draw for spending money on the store.

The game should be encouraging these players to play, not locking the best feature behind a massive paywall. I wonder what the reaction would be if adventuring required the same cash investment to get started ?

 

If we continue this line of thought, why not just grant them the POT deed once they've started the main quest? "To aid thee in thy quest, here is a POT deed to serve as your home during your adventures". Not suggesting this be done, but it's one option to explore. But as these are POT deeds, it doesn't solve the PRT ghost town problem. Which might force the more controversial question: should there be only one type of deed?

I don't think anyone was suggesting to force moving to a POT. There are over 1500 available property lots in NPC towns so there's plenty of space available throughout Novia. POTs can be a suitable option for those that prefer those. But yes, you would be one of those affected if the PRT was collapsed.

An in-game system for house / room rental would be great, but that can also be achieved by placing them in NPC towns.

 

​

I would not complain about it and would probably be for the best in the long run giving more freedom of movement for all players new and old and removing a layer of unneeded complication for new players when dealing with housing.

the only argument I could see is that people payed more for pa deeds vs pot deeds a one time payment of cotos to the holder of pa deeds covering the price dif would be a semi fair way to handle that maybe?

this would cause the population to spread somewhat and fill in the some empty npc and prt spots. so that along with closing some more empty or nearly empty prts(give the hold outs some cotos in comp) could solve the ghost town feeling.

the only sure answer is player retention tho while the 2 options above would solve some optics that's all it would do.

 

How about this suggestion.

New players start with a housing deed for a POT. Taxed.

If they want to convert it to a tax free deed, they need to complete the storyline. And they would need to login say every 30 days and play to retain that lot location. Otherwise it goes back to the bank.

thoughts?

Maybe a dev would be willing to entertain the idea?

 

I do not think someone wandering through an empty PRT leads to a material number of players making a decision to not stay in the game. I guess if they never walked into any of the highly populated NPC and POTs, they may get that impression, but that scenario to me is just not likely.

To me, it is pretty simple if Port wants a shot at getting a materially larger player base, and it has nothing to do with cloned PRTs. If they really want a larger population to stick around, the price of all items in the add on store needs to be drastically lowered. I mean like every small housing item less than $5, and stop with the silly pricing of POT sized items (like large moondials and dragon statues - even those should be under $20). This also means drastic price reductions on housing deeds - none should be more than $100 really.

We have free to play now, so that should translate into lots more players coming to try the game. But, in my opinion, they are not going to stick around and pay the prices for items that we have all paid to help get this game made. They will laugh at the current prices and walk out the door. Not many are going to care about getting a free POT row deed for completing the story if it still costs $100+ to decorate it.

It ultimately comes down to what future revenue path Port wants - lots of players spending small amounts of money on reasonably priced digital items, or the current one with a small number of people spending a good deal of money on high priced items. Both have significant risk (lowering item price is a risk if the new players do not come in large numbers, and will certainly upset existing backers who spent tons on items that now sell for relatively little; staying the current course is a risk because at some point, existing players do run out of things to buy or feel they have spent enough).

With the un-bundling of bundles a few months ago that made previously rare items pretty cheap on the add on store, the addition of buying bundles with crowns, and the new 50% off Fridays, the direction to me seems headed toward the path of lowering prices to get more new people to stick. That direction make sense when trying to get new players on a free-to-play model, so I expect it to continue and amplify if Port is seeing successful metrics with it.

 

You have a very valid point, but I think this is where I need to clarify: this thread was not about customer retention. This was intended to address the perception issue of SotA being a ghost town. The small population -- especially peak population -- relative to the number of scenes, contribute to this heavily, and it's only exacerbated by the PRTs being truly evident as ghost towns. I think your points though are worthy of their own thread regarding retention. While I don't disagree that ghost towns might not play a large factor in it, I do think it's yet another nail in the coffin if not addressed in some way in the short term.

I completely agree with this and deserves its own thread that I was actually going to post about. I think would spawn a great discussion on that topic alone.

 

Six of one/half a dozen the other. If you get rid of PRT's, which is what was suggested and what I was responding to, you are forcing me to pack up all my stuff and move. The location is irrelevant. In addition, you didn't address my other concern: "What if you have trouble finding an available lot in the size/location that you are moving from?" If you delete the PRT that I live in am I going to find another Town sized lot that is pretty close to the town entrance? Also, it would be a big hassle for me to have to move all my stuff, especially when there is no point to it. A PRT doesn't just collapse; you'd have to actively make a decision to remove it. I could see if they were causing some sort of problem in the game, but being unoccupied isn't something that effects anyone.

A PRT is a great option, as I was lucky enough to win a Place Anywhere Deed. I don't have to worry about the stability of a POT, and I don't have to try to find a good location and a Town Sized Lot in a game town/city. Don't really see any point in removing it. Maybe they can continue the Lot Raffle with just Place Anywhere deeds, so more players could move into them. Or, have a PRT Only Lot deed raffle to encourage players to move into them.

 

I kind of wish we had this sort of thing automated for player inns

 

Really?! You and @HannahAlpenglow2 are suggesting that people will leave if they see empty towns/lots? WHY?! LOL! If someone would leave over something that trivial, I would guess it would be 1 of myriad other reasons why they might leave. Good luck in retaining that type of player.

 

I am not suggesting anything of the sort @Sorthious; actually the opposite.

 

As I said, it's not a popular thing to do and the devs will ultimately decide. And feel free to take a look at what's currently available -- there are over 1,500 property lots open for claiming in NPC towns. But again, nothing is changing. This is just a thread to discuss the state of PRTs.

While collapsing them is one option, the other one as is find ways to increase their adoption. But after 2+ years and PRTs are being vacated at an increasing rate, whatever they're doing now isn't working. More controversial or drastic things would need to be done. And the lot raffle thing has been terminated / put on hold until they figure out how to move forward with that, so they've already thought that wasn't working for whatever reason. Perhaps they should just start giving away PADs at random.

Yeah, not sure where you're getting this as I clearly stated this thread was not about player retention.

 

Hehe. I had to think of this funny Video of a Streamer who logs into a 20 year old MMO to find no one left. And after some time running around he runs into a other players . the other player roleplays good and he thinks he is a NPC.
Only to find out -- he is the last player left on this Game.

Kind of funny and creepy:



but yes - i think a confident feeling to not invest a Game that is about to have no one interested is nothing good.

So it is important to get a minimum player count that has signs of crowing. exspecially if a game has just released and not 20 years old.

 

My bad @HannahAlpenglow2 , I misread..you were just quoting what @smack had said.

 

I don't want to take a look at 1500+ properties. That's my point. I'm happy where I'm at. Why do more controversial/drastic things need to be done? Obliterate a town because there aren't enough residents? Should we also discuss removing certain maps because not enough people visit them? How about Public Vendors in towns that never have anything for sale? Should devs just delete them? I have the gist of the thread, I'm just asking why. What purpose does deleting a town serve? What happens if there is a population explosion and all these locations have been deleted? Then players would have to wait around till staff adds them back in game.

I know the raffle has been discontinued, but it wasn't because it wasn't working. If you read the release notes, it tells you it was discontinued because of the various ways that players can currently get lot deeds; through quests, COTO Vendors, player vendors. I was suggesting Place Anywhere/PRT Lot deeds as a replacement raffle that would serve to encourage more PRT residents. Again, I don't really even see why removing the PRT's is a discussion. What purpose does it serve?

 

I like this idea. Or what if it was a separate questline like The deco merchant offers it which makes more sense imo. He will teach you decorating and request you learn a few things instead about the housing system. Then after the completion of his quests you will get the deed. Imo this is much better than forcing players to go through the questlines which many of them don't enjoy anyway. It is again imo overwhelming at least for some I have talked to. It is way too complex. The decorations vendor could not be so hidden as well and he barks of owning a house and etc.

And regarding PRTs yes I know some players love their homes where ever they are of course. My thoughts have always been that housing should be on the outskirts of towns anyway. It has been way too confusing to muddle our way through NPC towns full of player homes to get to merchants and quests. It is crazy difficult and does not need to be. Outskirts could still look like the town but would cause a separation from the town so merchants and quest givers could be more visible instead of a complex complicated mess. I truly hope they change this in Episode two to no player housing in NPC towns and create outskirts to these towns instead. I know some PRTs are not that large to cause such a mess but still I think some thought should be given to this when implementing things. Again imo.