Istaria: Plot Reclamation Lock Down‏

[Takora Drakan]

For those that didn't got the mail I repost it here:

Greetings Fellow Istarians,

The much anticipated day for plot reclamation in Istaria is on the
horizon.

Starting July 11th, the buying and selling of all plots will be locked
out. This means that plots may not be bought from or sold to the community,
other players, or guild communities. This process will last until July 25th
and is being initiated to aid our developers in their efforts to resize
plots. As stated in previous announcements, plots will be reclaimed if they
are attached to an inactive account or an account that owns more plots than
it has active, eligible subscriptions. Plots that are smaller than 40x40
and that are not owned by an active account will be resized if the location
permits, giving players more space to build. Plot resizing has been an
ongoing effort and will continue in order to improve Istaria's
communities.

This process of resizing unowned plots will involve reclaims in both
individual communities and guild communities starting July 11th. Following
July 25th we will begin to open up blind auctions for individual plots of
land throughout communities in Istaria. We will announce the dates and
times that auctions will begin for each community. A list of available
Master Guild plots and guild communities will be posted at the end of
reclamation. Guild Masters will then be able to enter random drawings for
the ability to purchase the Master Plot in those guild communities.

For further information on what plot reclamation is, who it affects, and
the rules and regulations for purchasing plots and guild communities after
reclamation, please visit our community plot reclamation page at:
http://community.istaria.com/pg.php/plot_reclamation

Gather your friends, tools, and building expertise and ready yourselves
for plot reclamation across Istaria!

- Amarië AncalÃ**mon
Community Manager

Wee for reclamanation then!

[Vahrokh]

One question:


Why July 25? It's exactly the time whole countries have work vacations (mine included).

Basically I worked like a slave to earn money to buy a decent plot and now I have no chance to even be here for the auctions.

[pevil2000]

The way I read it was thats when they'll start, but each community will be different days? So say 25th maybe plots in Morning Light will go up for auction for *insert time here*, when that is over (say 3 days for example) then 28th plots in Falathien would go up. *shrugs* just thew ay I perceived it.

[Favoran]

Basically I worked like a slave to earn money to buy a decent plot and now I have no chance to even be here for the auctions.

I don't think this should be a problem for you Vahrokh, since there's no way in their right minds VI would let the auction run for just a single day, or even just two or three. To give everyone a fair chance, it'll be open for a decent amount of time, I'm sure. You may not be there opening day, but no one wins plots on the first bids anyways.

[Landowyn]

Don't ya think we should all wait and see the details before going off the deep end?

[Shian]

One question:


Why July 25? It's exactly the time whole countries have work vacations (mine included).

Basically I worked like a slave to earn money to buy a decent plot and now I have no chance to even be here for the auctions.

There will be enough for everyone. Does no one remeber one of the very first emails sent out about this?

[Amarie Ancalimon]

In order to clear up some concerns here are a few details.

July 25th is the day that we are reopening the buying and selling of plots that have not been reclaimed/resized. For example, if you own a plot and wish to sell it to a friend, you may do so again beginning July 25th. Or if you own a plot and want to sell it for say a plot in your Guild's community, you may put it up for sale as of July 25th. However, between the 11th and the 25th there will be no buying and selling of plots.

Auctions for community plots will not all be held on the same day, at the same time. They will be announced in advance and they will last more than a single day or two. That way everyone will have the opportunity to bid for the plot they have had their eye on.

[pevil2000]

Thanks for the clarification Amarie

[Amarie Ancalimon]

For one further clarification, any plots that are not sold on auction will then be placed up for sale as usual. So although your first plot choice might get snatched up at auction, your alternate choice might very well be available shortly after, and for a price you can smile at

If there are any more questions regarding our recent email please post them here.

[Drevar]

Regarding guild community master plots; will you be contacting the guilds as you go down the list of communities, or will we need to contact you to make arrangements to transfer the master plot, etc? I also wonder if you will delete/merge guild plots that are owned by inactive accounts that have structures on them? If these plots were sub-par and locked but flagged as owned, we were not able to clear them out.

Drev

[Vlisson]

nice, cant wait till reclamation will go live!

[Barrak]

Ok, so between the 11th and 25th is reclamation only? or reclamation and auction both?

[Knossos]

If there are any more questions regarding our recent email please post them here.

Though not directly stated it would seem that one purpose of the July 11-25 lockdown is to allow the orderly action of:

Deleting or merging or rezizing of any plot position (Guild town or other) which is owned by the community on all three shards.

It is not however directly stated whether or not Guild Town subplots which are developed with structures but not supported by active subscriptions will be in any way affected during the lockdown period (I am speaking about such subplots in a guild town having an active subscription supporting the master plot). Will such subplots be during lockdown:

1.) Be resized where practical and as developer time is available during the lockdown period?
and/or 2.) Be flagged for purchase by active members of the Guild in which a Guildmaster owns the master plot, whether or not of sub-par size, so that those plots can be purchased by active guild member subs having avalialbe plot slot(s)?

May we please have clarification from the Vi Staff on the above
Thank you,
Knossos

[Zexoin]

Ok, so between the 11th and 25th is reclamation only? or reclamation and auction both?

July 11th : plots are reclaimed. Plots sale is locked.
between July 11 and July 25th : plots are resized by the dev team.
Juky 25th : plots are open for auctions. Owned plots can be sold again.

That correct ?

[Vlisson]

July 11th : plots are reclaimed. Plots sale is locked.
between July 11 and July 25th : plots are resized by the dev team.
Juky 25th : plots are open for auctions. Owned plots can be sold again.

That correct ?

nice summary Zexoin. i think its happening like you stated

[Vahrokh]

For one further clarification, any plots that are not sold on auction will then be placed up for sale as usual. So although your first plot choice might get snatched up at auction, your alternate choice might very well be available shortly after, and for a price you can smile at

If there are any more questions regarding our recent email please post them here.

What kind of plots are you going to put on auction in that date? The neat > 100 x 100 plots or a "random" selection?

Because of one thing I am sure, lost the big plots there's no way to get them buying off the community, and the price does not matter at all in a game without economy, the actual plot does.

[Veshta Shaltir]

Thank you for bringing up those specific issues with guild sites, Knossos. I also have a concern over that very thing. As much as I would hate to see all my guild's hard work be destroyed because the sub plots do not have active accounts right now, having a clear outline for what will happen to them would be useful. At least those of us remaining could prepare for what is to come.

I do hope that a concise answer will come soon. Thank you in advance to whomever has the patience to sort through all of our concerns and give the best answer he or she can.

[awdz]

Regarding guild sites, expanding on Knossos's post with my own concerns ... I own the master plot in Toku on Order, and scoped out the Toku communities on Chaos and Blight. I am not sure how many of the subplot owners on Order are truly gone vs. simply not logging in of late; on the other shards, the smaller subplots are basically all empty.

My understanding of guild subplot reclamations is that they would simply be flagged for sale if not owned, with no loss of structures thereon. I consider this a huge help for the guild.

In a guild meeting, we discussed our dream - that once we know who is no longer here and what plot revamping might look like, we would like to gather the novians we can and redesign the community layout with key common use structures (shops & storage) on several larger plots. Right now the layout of the overall community is fairly random (each plot laid out independently of others) and ... interesting ... to try to get around.

So my questions regarding the lockdown:
1) Will the guild still have access to all the storage units from subplots reclaimed? Or does it constitute change of plot owner and we have to wait for it to be purchased before reopening the storage units?
2) Is there any chance we can have input into the community plots redesign? Is there a standard channel (help tickets? pm's?) we should use to inquire about this?
3) If some of the subplots repo'd are the small size, should we consider the structures on it lost because we will not be able to purchase the plot? Or is this another help ticket/pm item?

Overall, I think the plots resizing is a wonderful initiative and long needed, whatever happens with the subplots. Thank you for the hard work on it!

[Velea]

1) Will the guild still have access to all the storage units from subplots reclaimed? Or does it constitute change of plot owner and we have to wait for it to be purchased before reopening the storage units?

If a plot is reclaimed by "the Empire" on July 11th, there is no guarantee that it is going to remain in existence come July 25th after community revamps. If a plot is unowned on all three servers, regardless of size, it is up for deletion in order to make room in the community. So if your guild has things stored on a plot and you don't KNOW that someone has an active subscription, I suggest you get the things out of that storage, or you may lose them after July 11th.

2) Is there any chance we can have input into the community plots redesign? Is there a standard channel (help tickets? pm's?) we should use to inquire about this?

In a blunt word... No. The game design team is just that... the design team. Any tickets, PM's, IM's, emails, etc, are being given the same answer.... that while we appreciate the thought and concern that went in to the communication, the design team has their goals and guidelines (and no, they won't be posted publicly) that we are working toward at this time. We are focusing our efforts on meeting those goals for this revamp in a timely manner.

3) If some of the subplots repo'd are the small size, should we consider the structures on it lost because we will not be able to purchase the plot? Or is this another help ticket/pm item?

If it is unowned, regardless of size, you should consider the plot potentially "lost". We realize that this will mean that some plots which are considered valued in various places in the world will be deleted, but there is nothing we can realistically do to change this. Players can either choose to look at this on the bright side and see it as an opportunity to rebuild the world to their liking, or not, but in the end it isn't going to change the fact that we do not have time to consider dozens (or more) of specific "please do not delete this plot in this community on this shard because....." requests in addition to all the other issues that come up on a daily basis.

Thank you for the questions, awdz, and I hope you (and others) understand the reasoning behind them.

-Velea

[awdz]

thank you for the quick reply. time to get moving faster with rearranging what we can... at least we were warned, and for that i thank you.