Istaria.... The Ghost Towns

[Creme]

Well, there was also probably some unplanned "enrichment/gains" that occurred.

I know in Marketplace this morning a player was bragging that they made 22 gold from demolishing an expert shop on a small plot. Apparently the original owner had funded the shop with quite a large bit of coin.

Rather than the original owner getting the coin from their shop back, it went to the player that bought and then razed the plot for novians.

[Velea]

How is it greed to exactly what they wanted done? They wanted the plots cleared so they could more easily know which ones the community did not want.

I have not read the whole thread yet, just up to Deth's post, but I feel something needs to be corrected.

This was NOT something that "we" (as in Virtrium as a whole) wanted done. The PLAYER base wanted to have an opportunity to "novian farm" these small plots. There are numerous posts on these very forums, as well as support tickets, from players practically begging for exactly what we did here.

Frankly, had it been up to me, this opportunity to novian farm like this never would have happened. Plots would have been reclaimed if they were unowned, and would have been removed from the game as needed to make larger plots, structures included.

However, this would have made for just as many unhappy players as giving a window of opportunity to novian farm has done, if not more. This is an instance of the team making the decision to do what had been asked.... take down buildings they had worked to create as a community to gain the novians from those buildings so that after plot resizing is complete they can rebuild these places faster.

[Fratricide]

I was under the impression that the only novian farming that was wanted was for the novians from the Guild area plots, but I could be wrong. I can honestly say that I haven't used many of those supposed "key" crafting locations for some time, but I can pretty much assure you that had they not been raised by the players, I'm sure Velea wouldn't have hesitated to delete the plot none the less, as I would've.

Things must be done to allow for the resizing of the plots. If the sub isn't paid for, the plot becomes the property of the Istarian Development Commision. Whether there are buildings on the place, or not, is well beside the point. As was put in the plot reclamation post, the people in charge of the plot after the reclamation has the right to either sell as is, resize plot as needed, or wipe the plot clean before resale... It's pretty plain.

One way or the other, if the plot was unowned next week, the plot would be wiped, Key plot or not.

[Creme]

I, too, saw the need/desire mostly expressed by those concerned with losing structures in guild communities, where the guild, as a group had input time/effort and resources to completing those structures. The releasing unpaid plots for sale for this week would have enabled remaining "guild" members to recover at least a major portion of work that the "guild" had initially placed by building those structures.

On the one hand, I have to say that given that this was done, and the result would have been these structures all been deleted anyway, I can't fault the land strippers for taking resources that would have otherwise gone to waste.

If there had been a method by which these properties (outside of guild communities) been demolished and the novians/items been returned to the owners vaults, that would have been a good solution.

As it stands; however, the end result is that Chaos communities are a ghost town, some players now have overstuffed vaults full of novians, and a few have reaped unexpected benefits by gaining the construction coin placed on the structures they destroyed.

The world looks deserted, but it also looks cleaner, less laggy (although what's up with Selen, it still takes forever to load), and there's not all the nasty ropes/scaffolding to run through.

I surveyed some communities yesterday evening when I got home and although it is sad to see, I also look forward to seeing all those towns with 25x35 type plots get restructured with property that players will want to purchase.

I have to say though, whoever was busy was also very thorough as even the tiniest of communities got stripped bare, unless there were no recoverable resources, so there is still some remaining scaffolding

[Justa Mirage]

I think what it boils down to, if you grind this post into a base material:

It was a necessary evil, good for guild communities, bad for non-guild communities.

Another issue that is sore with people (me personally) will be the split between the "haves and have nots"

Those people that either don't work, don't go to school for the summer, or took work off to be online when the servers came back up, were able to raze the land of the resources. It was not so "plots could get resized" nor was it "So that buildings could be preserved"

Not everyone, but most, it was greed. The expert shop that is gone, will end up on some other plot where there wasn't one. This does not return the Expert shop where it was, nor will it end up back there when the plots are resized. It will end up either to the top bidder when the player sells the structure components to a 3rd party, or puts the structure on his/her own plot through a second party account alt.

Ok, I have read "They would have been wiped anyway..." great, I understand that. What I don't understand is the necessity of the rabid player obsession of needing to see how fast they can wipe the world clean for free stuff. It reminds me of the Comic-Con I am going to attend next week. People actually trample others to get up to a booth giving away SWAG. I watched an elderly woman get trampled and helped her up after people stormed areas for free stuff being offered.

I chalk it up to human nature

[Nisse]

What I don't understand is the necessity of the rabid player obsession of needing to see how fast they can wipe the world clean for free stuff.

I chalk it up to human nature

Yes, it's human nature, unfortunately.

[Steelclaw]

Bristugo on Chaos looks kind of empty. I guess all my neighbors packed up and left!

I would have preferred to see the non-guild plots go up for a brief auction to give players the chance to buy up and preserve the more important plots. But oh well, what's done is done.

Those who are concerned about the future availability of machines and storage on small plots in strategic locations would be wise to buy them up now and set up the desired storage and shops before they get locked down again. If the plot is in an important location, it'll get rebuilt quickly. Otherwise, there won't be anything to use there for at least a few weeks. (and it'll cost a whole lot more to get those plots later in auction)

As for enabling the novian farmers, I'll have to agree that this was one of those no-win situations. The plots would have been razed one way or another, at least some of the effort that went into them stayed 'within the game'.

I wonder if it's a good idea for VI to identify those involved in novian farming. On one hand, it does create an opportunity for retaliation. On the other, at least the ill will would be directed at the right people, and not those only rumored to do it. Perhaps making this a policy would deter the activity. (Before anyone says that's a privacy violation, let me remind them that plot ownership is 'public' information available to anyone near the community containing the plot.)

[Creme]

It reminds me of the Comic-Con I am going to attend next week. People actually trample others to get up to a booth giving away SWAG. I watched an elderly woman get trampled and helped her up after people stormed areas for free stuff being offered.

I chalk it up to human nature

hahaha...sorry but I couldn't help but think it's a good thing there's no collision detection from what must have been going on yesterday.

[Shian]

If its spirit were so wonderful, the key plots wouldn't have been touched. That's my opinion though, but with the low population of the shard I don't think that some of them will be rebuilt, only if the plot communities become much more attractive than they are now. It might be the case once plots are resized..

I disagree. I cannot wait for the day when we will know that every plot that is being built upon is an active player.

For something popular like Snowfall or Genevia, we can actually contact that player and ask if we can open up another silo for xyz. Rebuilding will be a pain at first, but at least then we'll know it is truley owned and not some ghost town that portrays a false life. It's not like it's too difficult to get a world project team going again, perhaps even build new hotspots.

[Creme]

I wonder if it's a good idea for VI to identify those involved in novian farming. On one hand, it does create an opportunity for retaliation. On the other, at least the ill will would be directed at the right people, and not those only rumored to do it. Perhaps making this a policy would deter the activity. (Before anyone says that's a privacy violation, let me remind them that plot ownership is 'public' information available to anyone near the community containing the plot.)

Actually, I don't think this would be a good idea.

Some of those involved were bragging about their "gains" in marketplace, others were observed in a mad portalling frenzy all day long. Many people saw them and heard about what they were doing. They did not violate anything, other than perhaps some players sense of good taste.

The situation was set up to "encourage" novian farming as well as the defensive retort, "well they would have just been demolished and then no one would have gotten use from them".

It's probably likely other players, when they became aware this was going on, joined in so that the main participants didn't become the sole players on each shard to benefit from it.

I see no point in a small handful of players having thousands of novians of all tiers overloading their vaults, I doubt very much that they'll ever have the chance to place all of them on anything they'll require for themselves, but will likely sell their services after reclaims for players looking to rebuilt/build on new plots.

But these players got not only novians, but also the contents of silos, tents, guild houses, houses (as well as coin placed for construction purposes).

The positive is that guild communities will have the resources to rebuild, hopefully on resized plots that will provide much more use than what they had previously.

As far as key locations. We can only hope that the plots in those key locations are able to be resized, and that players will put usable structures on them.

These things are not new to us, however, I know I lamented the loss of the essence shop in Heather (next to a guildhouse to bind to and the loss of the vault next to the pad).

We make do with what we have and whoever buys up an available plot, has the right to put on it what they deem is of the greatest benefit to them, no matter how unhappy/inconvenient it is to the rest of us

[Velea]

Raptress, perhaps it is just a timing issue... Virtrium hopefully won't sit idle after this and make good on the promise to make plots / lairs available for auction on the 25th as planned.

Just a point of clarification... Auctions will not start on the 25th. We'd originally scheduled total reclaim for that day, but that is not when auctions were going to start. There will be time after final reclaim for resizing of available plots. I'm sorry that you understood a "promise" of the 25th, but to my knowledge nothing went out that specifically said auctions would start that day, because that was never the plan.

[Creme]

The exact quote from the mail was:

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.

It never states when after July 25th auctions will commence.

[Vahrokh]

What I don't understand is the necessity of the rabid player obsession of needing to see how fast they can wipe the world clean for free stuff

Humanity sucks and is horrible. It's why I am die hard Lunus.



The whole matter for me is very simple:


1) The razed plots are very old and are 90% T1/T2. Who cares if someone takes that stuff. The T5 or so are an exception, expecially in those tiny plots.

2) I want to see your face when they'll reclaim the 90 x 90 plots. THEN it'll be novian carnage.

3) You believe Chaos is barren? Wait to see after the reclaims. And there's nothing to do here, but a desperate need for new players.

Speaking of new players, I really tried hard but failed to see how a potential new player could EVER know that this game exists.

I asked around and apparenly the only "ads" about Istaria is an online comics with a strip depicting a scenario where people joke about Istaria about being to die. Some actually tried the game seeing that...


Istaria N E E D S players, the last days I see so few online I am worried. The turnover is natural in those games, but in Istaria elders leave and no one enters.


4) The "key plots". If they are key for real, they will be rebuilt by a community of interested people. So don't worry.
If the key plots will stay barren it's because they are not really needed.


5) Novian farmers: greed, hatred, vengeance, cowardy, malice, avarice, discrimination, ruthless competition. Those are the engine that fuel humanity, with those we have arrived at 2008 in our oh so wonderful and evoluted technological world. It means that even with those around, we'll survive and go ahead. Despite we are all a bunch of blasted ba***rds except the 1 in a billion that end up dead and killed by the very ones they were helping.

[LaughingOtter]

A rose bush looks empty when you prune it back, too. With time, though, the result is a stronger plant and more flowers.

In order for Novians to have value, they need to be used, and once they are used, the result will, to some degree, benefit the community once more.

[Takora Drakan]

A rose bush looks empty when you prune it back, too. With time, though, the result is a stronger plant and more flowers.

What a wonderful metaphor for our Community LaughingOtter.

[Zexoin]

I appologize for any nasty things I said. Been a bit stressed IRL lately and that affect my behavior on those boards. I'm sorry.

[Deth]

Zexooin No problem here I understand and have been in such a place before. Yes LaughingOtter thank you that states it simplely and to the heart of my feelings but could not put into the same words.

[LOVWYRM]

*winghugs Zex*
*winghugs Tako*
*smiles thoughfully at Laughing Otter*
*has to agree with Vahrokh*

[Justa Mirage]

*Rubs all over Lovwyrm and sheds*
*Pricks his finger on Laughing Otter's rosebush thorns because a trimmed rosebush is nothing but thorns that hurt*
*Pat pats Zexoin, because I didn't type Zexion, Xexoin, or Zexxon and because the Hello voice makes my male Saris sound Female*
*Agrees with Vahrokh*

[Nisse]

*Rubs all over Lovwyrm and sheds*

Bad Saris!