Plot Reclamation:Your taking my reason to return

[Aviendeha]

Read the post, okay?
They are choosing to spend money elsewhere. They DO spend it. Just not here, yet they want to keep the benefit of those who spend here.

How about YOU read the post. We have stated we have and DO return frequently and spend our money for TWO accounts here for at least four months yearly since release. Why so negitive?
As Amarië said
"They have as much right to express their concerns and thoughts as you do without having to end up being belittled by others."
How about you delete any characters you have in any other games you have played in the past and don't play now.After all why do you deserve to keep them..you don't pay any more.

But i digress, your right its not that important its just pixels. It was the friends and community that made this game special but that seems to have turned elitist and bitter. I was just trying to make the point that the WAY reclamation is being done (im not against reclamation at all) may do more damage in the end in return for making a few player happy to finally get that deluxe plot or lair.

P.S If anyone has been waiting to buy my (35X35) in Harton Valley i bought 9 months ago please let me know and i will sell it to you.

[Kumu Honua]

How about you delete any characters you have in any other games you have played in the past and don't play now.After all why do you deserve to keep them..you don't pay any more.

The thing is (In my opinion anyway) that they can't differentiate between someone who is on sabbatical instead of someone who has moved on.

They really have to approach plot reclamations wholesale. From the tiniest of plots to the largest and most popular locations.

Someone suggested trial accounts but I don't see a way to use those trial accounts. Can you even own a plot with one? Perhaps Virtrium could add a link in the reclamation email that allows them to fill out a "Temporary plot retainer". A one time 1 month protection from reclamation. This way someone could skip one reclamation but next months would get them?

Just as an aside: When I quit, I gave away all my items and monies including my waterfall lair plot. I usually DO delete characters when I plan not to return to a game. If I don't then I am tempted to return when I have already made a decision not to do so. So asking another to delete things is really a paper tiger response...

[Oakleif]

Well for those who wish to buy our 2 plots in harton Valley we will be on later this evening to those who wish to buy our plots and not any of the other empty plots around them.
Fawkes

Fawkes,

I understand about taking breaks from games. Anyone looking at my gaming history will see that we do that too as a game grows monotonous.

What I would recommend for you two is that you store as many of the items in the buildings on the plots in your vaults as possible (put those items in first!) then deconstruct your buildings for novians. You'll get 80% of the construction materials dropped directly in your vault, probably stuffing it beyond capacity (thus why to store the items first). Then, and only then, put the barren plots up for sale to the community.

When you come back you'll be able to purchase plots again and rebuild with those stored novians plus a little extra work to cover the breakage that happened when you deconstructed the buildings (that leftover 20%). Same plots? Maybe, maybe not, depending on who else may have bought property in Harton Valley in the meantime.

There is a thread that the devs started asking about preferences for changing plots for guild communities, so I'm guessing the smallest plots may be getting merged in other communities too, making larger plot sizes available all over Istaria. So you might actually be able to get a single larger plot somewhere that will hold all you had on the two smaller plots when you next return for your playing stint.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

((Edit: just in case you haven't been keeping up with the forums, an Emissary is a player who is helping keep the devs aware of threads on these boards and other boards. I'm not an employee of Virtrium, though Amarie is.))

[Fawkes]

Fawkes,

I understand about taking breaks from games. Anyone looking at my gaming history will see that we do that too as a game grows monotonous.

What I would recommend for you two is that you store as many of the items in the buildings on the plots in your vaults as possible (put those items in first!) then deconstruct your buildings for novians. You'll get 80% of the construction materials dropped directly in your vault, probably stuffing it beyond capacity (thus why to store the items first). Then, and only then, put the barren plots up for sale to the community.

When you come back you'll be able to purchase plots again and rebuild with those stored novians plus a little extra work to cover the breakage that happened when you deconstructed the buildings (that leftover 20%). Same plots? Maybe, maybe not, depending on who else may have bought property in Harton Valley in the meantime.

There is a thread that the devs started asking about preferences for changing plots for guild communities, so I'm guessing the smallest plots may be getting merged in other communities too, making larger plot sizes available all over Istaria. So you might actually be able to get a single larger plot somewhere that will hold all you had on the two smaller plots when you next return for your playing stint.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

((Edit: just in case you haven't been keeping up with the forums, an Emissary is a player who is helping keep the devs aware of threads on these boards and other boards. I'm not an employee of Virtrium, though Amarie is.))

Thank you for your very constructive and helpful reply Oaklief

[Oakleif]

I really hope it helps your situation.

The plot reclaims are necessary on Chaos because finding open plots there can be difficult, and finding open lairs I believe is impossible, while finding many "abandoned" plots. Its easier to find a plot or lair on Order, but there are still many "abandoned" plots. While I'd love to have all the players come back, that isn't likely, so the reclaim process is the only viable alternative to deal with the ramshackle appearance of the landscape and open up housing options for newer players and the tranfers from Unity.

Hopefully, deconstructing for novians can let you keep most of your work intact and you'll be able to quickly recover when you come back in several months.

Make sure to say hi to all your guildies when you're on, and pop into Marketplace too to let everyone know how you're doing.

[Dragoniade]

Second, as to the "no paragraphs" and "lack of professionalism" in the email, I can assure you that when it was sent out it had multiple paragraphs and working links. We do, however, try to make everything we send in as simple a format as possible to prevent being completely blocked by the wide variety of spam filters that are out there. Sometimes this simplicity means that the paragraph markings, and yes, even link markings, are "stripped" prior to being received. If you've ever tried to forward an email to someone, or even replied to them, you'll see that often the formatting you read on the screen isn't what you'll have when you go to send that message again.

I use firefox, and the email turned out as a single line with no line break nor paragraph. Taking a second to look at the source of the email, I think it was mistakenly sent as "Content-type: text/html; CHARSET=ISO-8859-1", yet no HTML tag can be found anywhere.

It may fool spam filter, but it make the email unreadable for most modern browser that can display HTML.

Third, it has been said in the email that you have three options for your account. One of those options is to request a brief period of time to be added to your account so you can return to the game long enough to "settle up" matters with your plot. You can, should you choose, download the game and have a free trial of two weeks to log in, take down your structures for Novians, and sell your plot either directly to another player, or for the Imperial purchase price. Obviously we'd rather you decided to return for longer, but if your goal is to take care of your plot, we'd like to do what we can to help you.

As I mentioned, I do plan to return. The re-re-re owner change make things a lot different as when it was with the con-artists that ran it previously. Not next week, but in a few months. That's why I would be pleased to heard about a tiny account for plot owner that are on sabbatical and want to preserve their plot: a not logging account with 1 plot ownership. How many notices are going to be sent and what is the delay between them, considering it's moving month here?

Plot reclamation is something that is needed for the good of the game and future growth. Many players have been waiting for a long time now to purchase and build on a virtual home.

Many player have been waiting for many things sadly. I'm still waiting for my dragon character to have something else to do than killing monster for 0 experiences since he's level 100 for 4 years and there's no other schools to put the experience in. But that's another matter.

[Vahrokh]

How about you delete any characters you have in any other games you have played in the past and don't play now.After all why do you deserve to keep them..you don't pay any more.

I do a much simpler thing: that one time in 2 years they ask for a subscription, I pay it.

In one other game, I leave it to a friend and when I come back I use it.

There are ways to deal with the issue.

That's why I would be pleased to heard about a tiny account for plot owner that are on sabbatical and want to preserve their plot: a not logging account with 1 plot ownership.

This would have been a great thread if it started with this.

In fact I suggest you put this bit in suggestions and not in here.


This also answers to the

Why so negitive?

part: Dragoniade has the same issue but wants to deal, fix and propose about it.

You only came here to say you quit because of the system, as negative as me, just with longer writing.

[Sigi]

How about you delete any characters you have in any other games you have played in the past and don't play now.After all why do you deserve to keep them..you don't pay any more.

Your character won't be deleted, so why ask someone else to delete his?

I was rather surprised to find out characters will stay there even if you don't pay, perhaps that's ok, if yu don't use you char noody is harmed, but wanting to hold on to a piece of land something someone else coulod use... too much too ask, I think.

[Kyrieath]

As someone who had to leave, will she nil she, I'll still side with the reclaimers on this one. If you know that you are going to leave the game for awhile, you do so aware that plot reclaims could feasibly happen at any time- particularly with the number of dead account plots/lairs that are out there, prime or no. The game HAS to cut them loose sooner or later or one of its most attractive features to new players is rendered null and void.

If you really want to keep it so badly; scrape up a few dollars to reactivate for a month and find someone to buy it from you and keep it in trust if you intend to return to the game one day. If you have no plans to any time soon- let it go so someone else who can't compete with the big wallets can have a chance at experiencing the joy of owning a plot and building.

When I knew I was going to have to leave, I searched around for days to find someone who would take my lair. In my case- I looked for someone who would actually use it and develop it as their own since there's a real possibility I may never be able to come back, for all I want to. If you don't want to do that- just look for an adventurer who has no interest in crafting to keep a hold of it for you if you don't want anything to change. Istaria has a few of those too.

[Vahrokh]

Example of how Dragoniade went propositive for:

Plot Reclamation : Special subscription
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=18622

and the different and hardly negative reaction it elicited off mine:

I.e. making a "sabbatic player" subscription with a WEB page button: "Go active".

When the guy presses "active" and a "are you sure" prompt, the game immediately charges $14.95 and flags the player active for a month. At the month expiration, the switch automatically goes "inactive" and the remainder of the "lower rate" subscription takes over.

Basically, why rant and attract flames, when you can achieve more and better with a suggestion?

[Aviendeha]

Well I had a reply but it was deleted.. I don't feel it was any more negative than what has already been said and directed at me but that is not for me to decide.

Let me try again...

I respectfully disagree with Vahrokh.

I thought this section of the forum was for rants. Please forgive me for posting a rant.

Im sorry my concerns over the reclamation drew Vahrokhs ire and i respectfully ask that he try to not accuse me of casing trouble for it was not my intention. I sincerely hope he will no longer have stressful feelings about this and me, as i have had none.

Im sorry for my post here. I was trying to express mine and possibly others feelings about how the reclamation is being executed. But it appears that the lack of other unsubscribed players participating in this discussion has put my fears to rest about how the reclamation will be received. I hope that the few players that remain here that may be affected by this "issue" will not leave as some already have.

I would like to remind everyone that games are to be enjoyed and thats what "Istaria" is.... a game.

[Dragoniade]

Example of how Dragoniade went propositive for:

Plot Reclamation : Special subscription
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=18622

and the different and hardly negative reaction it elicited off mine:



Basically, why rant and attract flames, when you can achieve more and better with a suggestion?

Sadly, it has been welcomed vehemently by your friendly neighborhoods fat students / soccer moms / Social Security Misfits and has been closed before I could even post a reply.

My conclusions to the plot reclamation ordeal: the decisions have already been made, there's no opening for discussion and the only way to keep your plot if you are on sabbatical is to set it to "For Sale to Players" and put a ridiculous high price, like 999 mithrils.

[Deth]

Dragonaide I am sure that would still not save it as once the reclaim starts it would see that you do not have an active account and would still reclaim it once the required time passed. As other wise that would be an exploit and we can not have those.

[Velea]

My conclusions to the plot reclamation ordeal: the decisions have already been made, there's no opening for discussion and the only way to keep your plot if you are on sabbatical is to set it to "For Sale to Players" and put a ridiculous high price, like 999 mithrils.

To any considering this, it will not help. If you set your plot to "For Sale to Players" it is still owned by you. You still must maintain a subscription to continue to have that plot yourself.

Think of it this way... You do not truly "own" the plot in game. You rent it. Your monthly rent in this case is your subscription fee. Some games have in game coin as your "rent" for housing, but essentially it comes down to the same thing. If you do not play for a time, you will not be able to pay your rent.

If you did not pay you rent in real life (or your mortgage if that applies better, or your property taxes), you would not continue to be able to live in that home indefinitely. If you had moved to a summer home for three months each year, you'd still have to pay rent on your other home. The situation is much the same in any MMORPG I've experienced that has housing for players. In one way or another, if you do not pay the rent, you don't keep the land.

[Oakleif]

As noted by Deth and Velea, if a plot is "For Sale to Players" it counts as one of your plots. If your number of plots, including any marked "For Sale to Players," is more than your subscriptions, it will cause the reclamation of a random selection of plots to bring your plots equal to your number of subscriptions. If you do a search for Amarie's recent posts, you'll find several where she's mentioned that, I think one of them was made today or yesterday.

The only ways to keep a plot if you are on sabbatical is to either
1) start paying the subscription, or
2) send a support ticket to explain the unusual circumstance (deployed military for instance) and ask them to exclude your plot from the reclaim, or
3) use the one week trial (you may need to ask for it via support ticket, not sure) to go in and take down your buildings for novians, and sell the plot back to the community. Then, when you return, find a plot (did you hear they were working on enlarging the smallest ones?) and rebuild. (See post #23 in this thread for more details on this option)

I hope this helps.

[Dragoniade]

Think of it this way... You do not truly "own" the plot in game. You rent it. Your monthly rent in this case is your subscription fee. Some games have in game coin as your "rent" for housing, but essentially it comes down to the same thing. If you do not play for a time, you will not be able to pay your rent.

If you did not pay you rent in real life (or your mortgage if that applies better, or your property taxes), you would not continue to be able to live in that home indefinitely. If you had moved to a summer home for three months each year, you'd still have to pay rent on your other home. The situation is much the same in any MMORPG I've experienced that has housing for players. In one way or another, if you do not pay the rent, you don't keep the land.

True. But if I were to move away for a year with room and board due to work, you wouldn't keep the rent. You would still need a place to keep all your furniture and personal belonging, but you don't need a big apartment that need to be heated and all. You would take a consignment at a lower rate. That was how I was envisioning the plot issue.

[Dragoniade]

To any considering this, it will not help. If you set your plot to "For Sale to Players" it is still owned by you. You still must maintain a subscription to continue to have that plot yourself.

Think of it this way... You do not truly "own" the plot in game. You rent it. Your monthly rent in this case is your subscription fee. Some games have in game coin as your "rent" for housing, but essentially it comes down to the same thing. If you do not play for a time, you will not be able to pay your rent.

If you did not pay you rent in real life (or your mortgage if that applies better, or your property taxes), you would not continue to be able to live in that home indefinitely. If you had moved to a summer home for three months each year, you'd still have to pay rent on your other home. The situation is much the same in any MMORPG I've experienced that has housing for players. In one way or another, if you do not pay the rent, you don't keep the land.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. The previous answer was open to interpretation.

Just to clarify... To "dispose" of your plot, you must use the Sell Back To Community" option after taking the structures down for novians.

If you mark the plot as "For Sale to Players" and set a price on it yourself, that plot is still considered "yours" until such time as someone comes to purchase it. If someone does not purchase it from you prior to reclaim, you stand the chance of having the plot reclaimed if you don't have enough subscriptions.

[Deth]

True. But if I were to move away for a year with room and board due to work, you wouldn't keep the rent. You would still need a place to keep all your furniture and personal belonging, but you don't need a big apartment that need to be heated and all. You would take a consignment at a lower rate. That was how I was envisioning the plot issue.

What I would do would rent a storage shed, which you would still have to pay for and let some one else move into my old apartment. Which Vi is nice enough not to charge you for the shed, your vault, they are also nice enough to pay your plane ticket back into town to move your stuff into storage and even pass your apartment on to some one else if you like, give you a free 2 week trial so you can decon you plot and sale you plot to a friend if you like. Well I guess it is not completely free there is the decon fee. But maybe if you ask really nicely they might even reinburst you that.

[Oakleif]

Well I guess it is not completely free there is the decon fee.

I always thought of the 20% of the construction that doesn't turn into novians as breakage. You can't dismantle a house and move it without some breakage, needing new construction to fix. (Even if its just laying a new foundation under the old structure.)

[velveeta]

True. But if I were to move away for a year with room and board due to work, you wouldn't keep the rent. You would still need a place to keep all your furniture and personal belonging, but you don't need a big apartment that need to be heated and all. You would take a consignment at a lower rate. That was how I was envisioning the plot issue.

i was between places once and had to store most of my stuff in a storage warehouse (ya know, one of those driveup places with the plot size storage 'rooms') - and you do have to pay rent on those.
and they are pretty expensive......

i do see both sides of the discussion here, but i still have to come down on vi's side. from my pov - they are making every effort to be fair and willing to work with peep's circumstances, but it all comes down to the fact that to have a plot, you have to pay for it.
it doesn't matter if you only rent the storage for 3 months, its still rent you have to pay. if you want an apartment, you have to have the money to give the landlord. the bank expects its mortgage payment every month whether you are there or on a world tour.

several options have been offered for consideration. so one must decide whether to avail themself of one of the options or if the item in question is less important than something else.

pay to play, guys, that's the name of the game......