Plot/Lair Reclamation Idea
I'm a returning Unity player, and I would like to suggest an approach to the first round of plot/lair reclamations that I don't think anyone else has suggested yet. And I'm posting here instead of under the Unity sub-forum since responses from non-Unity players are equally important.
First of all, let me say that I completely agree with not giving Unitarians plot tokens for the plot/lair auctions after the reclamation, that would be an unfair (and undeserved) advantage. However there is a simple alternative that could help at least some players reclaim what was so unfortunately taken away from them, without being unfair to those who never played on Unity. Let me explain:
Years ago when the servers were merged, people's plots were taken away and auctions were held on the newly merged servers. The system used was that people who had previously owned a specific plot had the first chance to get it back if they wanted it (although they might be bidding against 2 other previous owners). If the previous owner/s didn't want it back, the plot was fair game for anyone else to win. And if you chose to go for a different plot instead of your old one, you no longer had any advantage.
My suggestion is to apply a limited version of the same idea. If a plot/lair that is freed up in the reclamation was previously owned on Unity (at the time the server was taken down) by any current player, they should be given the first opportunity to buy back that specific plot/lair if they wish to, before the auctions begin. (It can be a simple purchase since there would be no one to compete against.) However like the transfers, they would need to prove it was theirs by identifying the Unity account that owned it.
I suggest it should be limited to claiming only one plot/lair in this way, (regardless of how many gifted subs a player has now or how many Unity plots/lairs they owned). Also guild plots should be excluded, that wouldn't be fair to current guilds now occupying those guild towns.
I realise this would need to be a manual process, similar to the transfers, but I can't imagine there would be very much work involved in checking a plot/lair's previous owner in the Unity database, checking it has now been reclaimed and assigning it to a character. Plus only a proportion of the ex-Unity players would want to do this, and it could only be applied for if one of their old plots/lairs became free on Chaos or Order. So as a rough guess it might apply to at most 20-30 plots or lairs split betweeen Chaos and Order?
I'm not asking for ex-Unity players to have any general advantage in the auctions, that would be wrong. But I do think if someone's plot/lair that they worked to build in the past did now become available, it would be a terrible thing if they should now lose it again, this time to another current player (of any origin) who never previously owned it. What do you think?
Soresha
PS: For the record, I myself owned 2 guild sub plots (50x50 and 50x25) and a lair on Unity. By my own suggestions I could never get back those plots, and I don't know whether my old lair would become available or not, but that's really not the point. The point is that at least some of the ex-Unity players would have the chance to rebuild what they had before, if they wished to.
