You should not provide your best feature at the end - the other way

Hello Portalarium.

In my personal opinion your Housing System had been the strongest Feature of your Game always.
And from my point of you that is your main attraction that stands out compared to other Games. Well lets say it can compete with others easy and it is still different in its own way.

So from my point of view it should be the first feature and not the last or the later feature you should confront players with.

I remember 2 Testing Videos of Youtubers with good reach who back then failed to notice this feature or even ever try it out.
They left your Game with long Videos on Youtube not even touching on your strongest feature only presuming it.
Some may say - so they are bad testers . Nope they are not. Not their fault of having a opinion before ever being able to reach the best parts of the Game.
It is a Game Design Problem.


So that is why i think you should rethink your strategy.

You should let all players when they arrive in the game right away have a rented room, like one floor of a row how sice that is already paid.
Let it be only with a small bed and a chest they spawn and then they leave into the sandbox world within a starting city out of this Inn for example.

Yes. it can be instanced, like in BDO. Let them be the only instanced Rooms - and they stay with players until they are hooked and want to enjoy more.


So the Free to Play Player will get connected on a free version with a small "appetizer" for the strongest feature.

Now it would be silly to think that this would avoid your Sales on Deeds or Lots because they have a taste of it at start.

The Opposite. This would introduce your best feature right from the start to your Customer Base and right away get those players a idea what this Game is aiming for - a place to build your home.



So again my thinking is - you are keeping your best feature far to long behind that you might loose customers before they even noticed what this feature is about.

I am sorry to say so - in my opinion it is not the story or the MMO that lets you shines above other Games.

But your Housing System is very unique and rich compared to other MMOS - and your Idea that still is different , ( curse the POTS) about all having a own home on the same world - you should refocus on this as your strongest sales point and let all new gamers bite on this feature fast - within the first hours of playtime in my opinion.


This would increase your chance of Gamers spending more , even only with small decoration amounts at start and lets your chance of a newe high spender coming in increase.


Take care

Myrcello


P.S: Also it would reduce the risk of Gamers testing your Game thinking that your Add On Store and Housing Feature is a "high price feature blocker". Because you right away provide a tiny verion - a instanced Room - to enjoy this feature for free.

 

Would be interesting to finish the beginning tutorial and have "scribbled on a piece of paper" the address (marker pin) for a location to a random INN and random available room. If the INN's could be self-service, IE some way to make payment for that initial few days or a week etc easily so the owner doesnt have to be around of the INN.

 

perhaps after doing an intro quest a new player would get a once per account 30 day row lot deed that would delete its self or something after the time period passed?

is 30 days long enough to do the main quest to get the real deed? 10 day 20 day? idk

 

I think if you got a lot straight away youd have throw away alts created just to get free row lots for a mainaccount that’s co owner to them

 

You can stay at tons of inns for free and store your stuff until you get your Row lot deed.

Getting that deed is a great accomplishment, and should stay so.

 

Just have deco demo area in the the new player experience that is a solo instance, so no one else sees it and allows no containers or vendors, so can't be used for storage on the Isle of storms.


Regards
Spung

 

Having witnessed several people "plow" through the main storyline, with much effort and questions, just to get the deed, I have to wonder how many don't make it?

It took one of them over 200 hours to get there.

Homes are the stickiest part of the game, so I agree, don't put it at the end.

If the devs have metrics for when players quit playing on average, the deed should be rewarded before that.



Perhaps after any of the first three quests are finished.

What about Inn owners? Well, maybe we'll be out of luck until bonuses for sleeping in beds and automatic room rental is implemented. It's ok if we're out of luck until then, or if Inn's never happen. Such is life in game development.

Not in favor of magical no location rooms though. Get them into a real house or a real Inn at a real location.

 

The above is from the other thread, but I thought this might be a perfect solution to giving us a reason to have Inns as well as getting players into homes, regardless of their story progression.

(Lots of people don't play for the story, let them play how they like).

 

+1 to the op for this thread. I ve been thinking the same for a while now. I also think the price of deeds bought from the addon store is too high. With lower priced deeds , they would sell more, and also encourage coto sales to pay rent and addon store sales to buy deco.
Just my opinion, but as an early backer , I really want Sota to succeed and get the player population it deserves!

 

don't people already on start get on a claim a book that takes them to the forums for housing? myself when we invite new guild members into Havoc I offer every one I can a free place (room or building) to occupy until they can get a place of their own. I don't charge guild members rent as I have plenty of room and then some. I can understand if you were a solo person with no friends that the challenge of getting your own place could take a little while to do, however I would think that idea of the reward at the end of the quest is best simply because it takes just about as long in the game to fully understand everything you can do or how things work. I would rather see a nice tool put in game where people can list rooms and houses for rent or rent free like a directory then you can get a marker to vendor to these places. having one for global or filtered by Guild members would be awesome.

 

You could make it one per account and not resellable.

 

That does not solve that problem at all, you would have to make it so only that account could use it as well.

 

For me the Forums is not a good solution . Too much depending this Game is on Community to jump in and explain how this game works and provide places to living. Community help should be a extra "can" benefit - but not a must to solve a problem

 

Needs thinking through, but I think there's some merit in this idea.

 

I agree with @Myrcello .

Forums are a good way to discuss the game, but it shouldn't be a fundamental aspect of playing the game.

Perhaps there is something *we* can do. I know it's far from an ideal solution, but, until a better one can be implemented, we might actively try to funnel players into our inns. This wouls have the added benefit of getting players into commubities doe greater stickiness.

Of course there could also be the very disturbing possibility of new players being hounded by countless well-meaning strangers trying to take them back to their place. That would be very off putting for some people

 

On the Isle of Storms introduce decoration mode.

Move objects around the scene as part of the tutorial.

 

Actually lots of players offer affordable housing (and sometimes free) to players who don't have a lot yet.. So.. its .. I mean.. and Also that's hardly "the end" imho -- For me it was really more of a beginning.

"let me explain you a thing..."

 

At our pot (chateau du lys) we have three inn set up and free to live in if player wants a room ( we advertise this on the right section of forum as a lot of people do) we also have an inn in owls head rdy to welcome players for free with use of cf vendors.

There's those inn free in a lot of place around the world of sota just have to have a look around

Bjorn Dyonisys