Emails sent about plot sizing

[Garfonso]

I hope you consider making this an ongoing process... so if any of those communities/plots that are unavailable for any changes now, will be worked on in the future, if they become available one day.

[C`gan]

I happen to be on the "safe" side of things, with a comfortable 60x60 in Acul. However, at least one of Order shard's prime plots is on the chopping block this way. It's Sckatha's plot in Harton Valley. Albeit a quaint, large plot (40x40) in the Valley, Sckatha put a lot of work into it for the community. It holds a vault, journeyman carpentry hall, public silos, and personal storage.

Unfortunately, I've not heard from Sckatha in a long time, so I don't know if she's planning on returning or if the plot was up for repo when the process goes into action. I have no way of contacting her, so I don't know if any options exist to get the plot transferred to someone active. To compound matters now, to my knowledge, no other carpentry halls are in the area fully built that have both machines. The logging camp guarded by the maple treants I believe misses the woodworking bench. If this is the case, then maple processing will be adversely affected for the shard as people will have to haul the logs to Feladan (through a somewhat guarded path) or process in field to boards (and hope not to die) and recall elsewhere to finish goods.

Also of note, Harton Valley's plots ALL fall under the "condemned" line.

[Steelclaw]

Well, thanks for some clarification. It appears, then, that participation is not mandatory, and failure to participate will not result in your plot being lost. That makes me feel better.


As for this...

No, we aren't going to guarantee you a new plot back in the same community. It isn't realistic for us to be able to do that because we do not know how many plots will end up being in that community after revamp. For example, yesterday I was able to work with a community that was totally unowned. It started out with 20 small plots. It now has 8 large ones. What would have happened if more than 8 people in that community all said "We'll release our plot so you can work through our community but we want "our" plot back"?

An effort to return the plot to the original owner is really not that *big* of an issue if you're not kicking people off their plots.

However to explain what I was talking about, this is the conflict resolution process I was referring to earlier, which may still be useful to get more plots resized:

- You know how many plots are owned by active accounts in each community.
- You have an idea of which plots will get overlapped by a resized plot.
- If more than one overlapped plot per resized plot is associated with an active account, ask the affected players what they want to do to figure out who gets the resized plot. Options include:
* One agrees to 'buy' the others out at a negotiated price
* All agree to bid on the plot
* No agreement can be made, no change is done

[Velea]

However, at least one of Order shard's prime plots is on the chopping block this way. It's Sckatha's plot in Harton Valley. Albeit a quaint, large plot (40x40) in the Valley, Sckatha put a lot of work into it for the community. It holds a vault, journeyman carpentry hall, public silos, and personal storage.

Unless I'm somehow doing my math wrong this morning, that plot is safe from being resized. It is only plots UNDER 1600 sq. m. that are being marked as "Unable to be repurchased" if they are reclaimed or sold to the Community. And plot that is owned will not be touched at all. So if this plot is important, someone will need to purchase it and hold it after reclaims.

[Justa Mirage]

C`gan, I think there is a difference between Ghost towns and somewhat used towns.

I like the idea of offering the owner of a small plot, the opportunity to own the larger plot after a resize, downside to this is every player with an open plot purchase might start snatching up plots in areas where there is nothing but 25 by 25 plots in hopes of a 'magic upgrade'

Think of this move by Virtrium as a computer hard drive defrag. Plots that show up green on both shards for resizing / merging get done. Those that have red on either shard are bypassed. I think Virtrium wants to put forth an effort to get as many green blocks as they can before deciding what properties will qualify due to ownership per shard of what can be done.

[Velea]

I like the idea of offering the owner of a small plot, the opportunity to own the larger plot after a resize, downside to this is every player with an open plot purchase might start snatching up plots in areas where there is nothing but 25 by 25 plots in hopes of a 'magic upgrade'

Multiple steps ahead of you there, Justa. Plots under 1600 sq. m. have already been locked out of being able to be bought on the live shards. We had to do this for two reasons. One is the reason you said, someone buys up the small plot in hopes of a magic upgrade. The other, however, is that we have to know that plots we're deleting now don't end up owned by someone between now and when the delta that resizes these plots goes live.

[Mysk]

Unless I'm somehow doing my math wrong this morning, that plot is safe from being resized. It is only plots UNDER 1600 sq. m. that are being marked as "Unable to be repurchased" if they are reclaimed or sold to the Community. And plot that is owned will not be touched at all. So if this plot is important, someone will need to purchase it and hold it after reclaims.

I don't want to be picky but the Email says the following:
"Our threshold for plots we consider "under-sized" is 1600 square meters or smaller - such as a plot that is 40x40 meters or 30x50 meters"
--> That means 1600 is included and not under 1600.

But as it was already mentioned noone is forced to leave such a plot.
I personally just wonder how you will handle the situation that the 3 servers will have different plots overall if you will customize the plots in the world individually...

[Velea]

Well I can't help it if Amarie wrote it wrong. She should have said that it's under 1600, not included 1600.

Want me to smack her later for you?

And we're not customizing plots by shard. Can't do that. It's all or none.

[Takora Drakan]

Want me to smack her later for you?

While are you on it, smack LO also for me please? (because he spawned 5 AoP on me last time =p)

[Summerbreeze]

Personally, I believe this is a great idea that should have been done long ago! There are many whole towns that are literally unowned, because all the plots are 25x25 or there abouts. Also many guild towns are virtually empty because of the plot sizes.

Mundi guild town is a perfect example. The main plot is ok in size 50x70. I only say ok because it has a t2 guild house on it, if it was a t1 guild house it would be alot better. The other 12 or so attached plots are so tiny its unreal. The community itself is small so it should have the main plot, the lair, & 3... maybe 4 (at the most) attached plots. That would make it an excellent home for a small guild, as it should be since the land area it covers is one of the smallest guild towns by area.

Then you have regular towns, especially those south... south/east... of Dalimond. Many towns with not a single plot owned due to the size. Morning Light is another good example. A beautiful town, near resources, with very few living in it due to plot sizes.

I comend the devs for listening to us about the size issues and taking action to help!!! THANK YOU~~~~

Summer

[Hoberton]

I thought about one Guild community: Cameron. The main Guild plot is only a 40x40 with two 22x22 other plots and of course a wonderful Lair 144x144. What is going to happen to this Guild community?

[C`gan]

Thanks for the clarification, Velea. So, you're looking at 39x40 and under.

Still, it's a plot to be repossessed, I think.

I do think this will make for better plots in the long run when combining and/or enlarging those postage stamp ones (25x25 and less).

[Dalvenjah]

We don't have a timeline as yet because there are just too many variables at this point for us to be able to give any sort of good timeline.

As I said, it's something each person has to consider for themselves. I know there will be inconveniences, so it might not work for anyone at all. But we didn't know that until we asked, right?

If i could sell my plots to a char i could afford to block the vault for an unknown time i would do it .... but after its no longer possible to sell the plot(s) to another Player this isnt possible anymore. So i think it would be a good idea to enable this again

[Velea]

It is a bug that you are unable to sell plots to players.

A bug we are working on fixing. It is not something that we've changed on purpose, in other words.

[Kryu]

Whoa, buck up folks! This is exciting news! I imagine all the constructions workers would be comping at the bit waiting to run out and rebuild.

I love changing the look of the world with my work. Building bridges, fixing lamp posts, that fort that cost me a day or two of sleep.....

We all know folks need shops, and expert shops are important. Plan out the plot again after resizing/rezoning. I'll be that saris who smells like sawdust wandering the communities with a tool belt.

Anyone else wanna join the fun?

[Amerelium]

Lands are swarming with plots too small for anyone wanting them. Bring it on I say. If someone is gonna HAVE to dismantle structures, well, u get 80% as novians - it's not that big of a deal...

[Landowyn]

Having built up and then "sold to the community" a 40x40 plot, I'd have to say they are a tad too small. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get what I needed onto the plot, and even a 45x45 was a tight fit. But hey, it's better than nothing I suppose.

Oddly enough, the 40x40 I built up was in Harton Valley (on Order) and it was right next to that woodshop plot, which at the time didn't have a vault on it, so I built one. There wasn't much room left after that.

Leaving the 40x40 and up is a good idea, but I'd like to see a 45x45 minimum on those that are resized.

[Nisse]

It could be a nice community effort to collectively rebuild the expert (and lower, too!) buildings that get lost during this process.

With everyone working together, it would go quickly

I am all for resizing plots. There's plots in the south isles of istaria, acres and acres, all empty. Whole communities.
Sad.

[Galeana]

First I'd like to appologize for the emotional charged "eviction" post.

I appreciate some of the clarifications made since then. I've had time to reflect and hopefully this will be more logical. I don't usually even post to forums, let alone read them. Honestly, I think it was my agitated state that had me reading the forums and posting.

"In my most recent "Developers' Desk" email I mentioned that while we're working toward plot reclamation, the design team is also taking a close look at communities where plots are "too small" to be effective. There have been some questions and feedback asking us to define what "too small" means and what our plans are for those plots, so I thought I'd provide some more information. And there are ways that as Istarians you can help us with this process, too."

Now, my understanding at the first reading of the letter was that it concerns all communities. It never said only guild communities would be looked at. No real problem with that. Places like Heart and Spire's Shadow etc. are nearly nothing but those tiny plots.

"Our threshold for plots we consider "under-sized" is 1600 square meters or smaller - such as a plot that is 40x40 meters or 30x50 meters. What we have done at this point is set any plots that are too small to a status of "Condemned". Any plot that is Condemned is considered unworthy and can not be purchased. It will either be reborn as a larger plot, or sent to the eternal bit bucket."

When I read about the threshold size and "Condemned" status agitation began to set in. My plot is below the 1600 at only 1350 as a 45x30. My plot is not a 1s guild plot, thus my concern with being able to afford to remain in my chosen community.

"Here's where you can help. If you, or a friend, owns one of these unfortunate plots, we'd ask that you take the time to tear down structures on that plot and sell it back to the community."

Here's where eviction popped into my head.

"Obviously this is not something that we're forcing anyone to do, but it is a request."

Okay, cool. I'm not being evicted... yet.

"The more of these under-sized plots that are owned by the community, the easier it is for us to be able to work in the community - and provide everyone with a selection of larger plots."

Yeah makes sense. A real land developer usually walks away from a proposal if theres something in the way.

"It is often difficult, and sometimes impossible, to modify a small plot if it remains owned by someone on any of the shards."

Although, local government could use emminent domain to aquire the something to let the proposal go forward. We reserve the right to "evict" you.

It was never written that owned plots would not be part of those being considered for resize or disposal. Such a tiny ommission, but one that probably would have kept me from a false start. Yes there is all that lovely contact information provided for those with questions, but in an agitated state common sense is water held by a strainer.

I'd love to be able to move to a larger plot that meets my criteria. I've seen plenty of larger ones that don't meet my criteria. I neither neccessarily want to cause a problem with resizing in my chosen community, but nor do I want to stand out after all is said and done. Share your proposals for communities when you have them just like real land developers so I and others can decide if participating is worth standing out or the personal gamble of trying for a larger plot and possibly finding myself locked out in the cold.

[algenon]

I happen to be on the "safe" side of things, with a comfortable 60x60 in Acul. However, at least one of Order shard's prime plots is on the chopping block this way. It's Sckatha's plot in Harton Valley. Albeit a quaint, large plot (40x40) in the Valley, Sckatha put a lot of work into it for the community. It holds a vault, journeyman carpentry hall, public silos, and personal storage.

As a recently returned player who has used this plot, I heartily agree with your concerns. However, I would expect Spire's Shadow will be an area where a lot of plots end up being enlarged, and as a dedicated crafter (60-80 in all the building trades) from Unity who currently doesn't have a plot (I can afford about a 60x60, just), I would snap up the chance to take a decent sized plot there and get a fine wood shack up and running