Auto plot/lair Reclaim info

[Hrough]

Oh, I know what XP doesn't recognize. I've got 4gb of RAM in my computer, and not all of it is being used. My computer cost me near 1k, and I'm sure a good amount of it is 'going to waste' right now.
But the bottom line is, it's still better than Vista. And Istaria runs beautifully, as do all other games I play at the moment.

Still, I wish Vista didn't suck so I could upgrade to it...

[Weston]

I didn't read all the way through this thread, but enough to know what I need to say. I spent 3 years developing maybe 4 plots enroute to achieving Grandmaster Crafter Status. My final plot in Jeanne was 'out of the way', a bit inconvenient to get to, but it was a labor of love. It was that plot that provided the bait to return. I started in February 2004, and played until 2007. This was about the time when the game had fallen into the hands of E.I., I believe, and I was convinced the game had drawn its last breath. Most of my guild, and the guild we had merged with, had left the game for nearly all the same reasons. Boredom. The guild owned plots in Saritova and Apia, and members spent all their time and efforts in maintaining those holdings, even when that meant that some few individuals had to have multiple subscriptions to hold the key plots.

In any event, I returned this year, after receiving the dreaded plot reclamation notices, and stayed a little over 3 months. During those 3 months, I exhausted the bit of new crafting material, tinkered with my plot design, filled silos and crafted food that noone bought. It became a game of hoard what seemed to be promising material for the 'always on the Horizon (pun intended)' tier 6 implementation. And yes, I understand the difficulty of said implementation, given the incredible drop in subscribership, the paltry few devs who devoted their labor of love to the game. Still, I even spent time developing a few more adventure schools, though that's simply token farming at my level. I found no 'regular' friends to play with, and even the few guild members who still had active accounts went AWOL during my 3 months to go try other games.

Most (read 'nearly all') of the new material on the horizon provided NO material of interest to my toon. I spent time trying to grow my Dragon, and found that to be tedious beyond belief. I dont' enjoy Dragons, in spite of the many who do. Don't get me wrong, I have always loved what has been from its inception, the only true 'crafting' mmorpg on the market, and have always held out hope that it would become what its designers envisioned. Have there been cool additions and innovations?? Absolutely.

For me, however, it made more sense to play the 'waiting game', rather than simply pay whichever owners for one, or usually two, subscriptions to hold on to the hope of realizing that dream.

After my year of absence, it was wonderful to have my plot intact, material stored therein still there, and stuff from the consigners stuffed back in my vault. Took me a week to put the house in order, lol. I was especially fond of something simple like a custom lamppost situated along the road next to my plot that I had requested, and received. The devs have generally been a very compliant bunch. Still, so much development time has been spent on what I consider 'fluff' and which is marketed as 'flavor', that it makes me want to spit. In GENERAL, holiday event stuff is junk, and a waste of time and effort. CAN it be fun for many? Sure, just not for me. (BTW, every time I express that sentiment, I take heat. *shrugs*) I'm a serious gamer, spending hours every day trying to get the most out of my time and money investment. I know there are many others like me as well.

Now, the point of all this for me is: After being back for a little over 3 months (with two subscriptions - the extra so I could try developing a draggie lair), I let the subscriptions lapse again. Within 48 hours, the new 'auto-plot-reclamation' notices started hitting. No grace period, no assurance that in 90 days, or 6 months, I'd have any hope of having a plot and possession intact when I returned yet again. The caveat in there somewhere was that the auto-reclamation was completely random. Well, go figure. Took only 48 hours after subscription lapse, and after Istaria had just undergone months of plot reclamation and community redesign to get LONG TIME inactive plots back in the hands of the community, for the RANDOM lightning to strike MY account. Hmmmm...

I always supported the community, and my informational website has been up for years, recently updated of course.

I could have sold everything to the connies in my silos. Remember the connie nerf a couple of years ago, so that after the first 100 units or so, the price returned drops off drastically. So much for a return on my investment. If I dismantle the plot, I save 80% of the materials as Novians. Any idea how much I'd lose on 2-3 years of building in that 20%, should I come back and have to rebuild??

So I'm put in the unenviable position of either 1) paying at least 1 subscription monthly to maintain a plot in a game that makes me wait YEARS to see the implementation of features promised and planned years ago, or 2) take a kick to the privates by having to do the things listed in the previous paragraph, or 3) simply lose all the material, structures, and labor after the 3-1/2 years of game play.

Anyone not in my position can't possibly understand the sense of game ownership, nor the sense of loss this choice entails. Hats off to those diehards who select my option 1 above. Whether dedicated, foolish, or independantly wealthy, I can't say.

I'm angry for being placed in this position. And since my plot is already likely gone, if I came back and found it so, do YOU think there'd be ANY chance of my staying, or ever returning again?

I would suggest the following to Vitrium: for people such as my self, offer a monthly 'maintenance fee' on an account to hold it open against the likelihood of a future return. I'd guess that there are MANY folks who, like me, don't want to permanently disconnect from Istaria. How about $1.95/month. Or $2.98/month. Something reasonable that we could justify to protect a 'virtual' investment, rather that paying for not playing.

That's the best I can suggest. In life, I know there's no such thing as a free lunch. But how about some reasonable alternative to making enemies out of potential long-term allies and friends?

Thanks for hearing me out. Bless you if you've read this far.

Weston, Chaos, Dark Defenders, formerly proud owner of a real nice plot near Jeanne. <sniff...>

[Hoberton]

You stated you recieved the notice in your email. It stated everything that would happen if you do not pay for an account, (Plot will go to Auction and will probably be purchased by another).

So in not paying for an extension of your account your plot got auctioned and someone else purchased it. What did you expect to happen?

[Creme]

Your plot has been gone for over a month Weston. As your GM told you, it probably would be reclaimed and it was within about 3 weeks of your leaving game again.

While I sympathize, land is the draw in this game; especially desireable land. I can't see $3.00/month to hold a piece of property that someone else would pay the full monthly subscription cost to maintain.

[Guaran]

His plot is probably wiped, but it was done solely for the materials I would wager, not the "land" itself. While these reclaims (in general) were long overdue, now there is as I predicted: more than enough plots. There are empty plots everywhere, same for lairs.

I suppose my point or suggestion would be that the 30 day reclaim window is too short. Too quick. It isn't necessary for it to be that quick. With the economy (real world) like it is, perhaps a 6 month period before "foreclosure" happens is better. To avoid someone trying to "work the system, the foreclosure period would be from 3 to 6 months, depending on the number of sequential months paid before going inactive. So if someone had played for a year, there would be 6 months before foreclosure. But if they only played for 3 months, foreclosure would happen in 3 months.

Something like that.

In any case, 28 days really does seem too quick.

[Akuluxtraxas]

Actually Land while a Draw when new players do show up mostly these days is novian farmed before said new players ever see it.

While i agree plots should be freed up i again believe in 90 days being a much better time frame with the dismal population and abundance of land. I also like the scheduled reclaims so folks know ahead and can work to secure property.

Im all for new players having great options and they do right now but the 28 days has novian farmers drooling..and i really hate seeing things razed like that when many of those plots had purposes to everyone.

90 days seems logical til the populations would reach a point of needed reduction which i sadly dont see anytime soon

[Death-knell]

Oh, I know what XP doesn't recognize. I've got 4gb of RAM in my computer, and not all of it is being used. My computer cost me near 1k, and I'm sure a good amount of it is 'going to waste' right now.
But the bottom line is, it's still better than Vista. And Istaria runs beautifully, as do all other games I play at the moment.

Still, I wish Vista didn't suck so I could upgrade to it...

Too bad it's not a vista problem

[Creme]

There is nothing left to novian farm.

All 90 days does in this situation is allow someone to go off and put money toward another game and let their subs lapse and know that their plots are safely held during that interim.

VI has already said that if someone is in trouble, to put in a ticket and they'll work with them.

That's a different situation than someone wanting to put their money in another gaming company's hands and retain their property in Istaria.

I do, however, think that 28 days is a bit short and if someone's having financial difficulties that generally, 2 months is long enough to save up $15. If it takes longer than 2 months, then you shouldn't be worrying about this game.