Plot Structure Trade-in / Upgrade?

[Finn of Spirit]

Hi ho,

As new racial style buildings become available, as well as our skills and funds grow to upgrade from one tiered structure to the next, has there been any thought regarding how we might "trade-in" our old structures to the community manager for some manner of upgrade?

I'd like to see something along the lines of a return of Novian resources to the vault when an existing structure is destroyed, along with the ability to upgrade those resources when a building is deleted. For example, if I have a building with 400 cedar units in place, I think it'd make sense to be able to get back Novian resources as follows:

Tier 1: recieve 400 cedar timbers
Tier 2: recieve 200elm timbers
Tier 3: recieve 100 oak timbers
Tier 4: recieve 66 maple timbers
Tier 5: recieve 50 yew timbers

The same scale (1/2 the amount for the next higher tier) would apply to each tier of resources one has in place, so if demolishing a structure with 100 maple timbers, you could select to receive 50 yew timbers, and so on.

I know many of us have put a lot of work or expense into our existing plots, and as we can afford to move to a new plot or choose to build a different type of building, I don't believe we should have to lose all that hard work we've already done.

I believe that in order to make this work, however, the resources one receives from the community manager would have to be made non-transferable. By making the trade-in resources so they may only be used by the plot owner, we won't hurt the current builder economy by giving rise to a "Novian only" builder's market. Even if a plot owner chose to continually build and destroy silos on their own plot, for example, they're likely to still end up paying for some manner of construction on the lower tiered silo in order to get the higher tiered resources.

Another option to discourage taking advantage of a "trade-in" system, would be to only allow the plot owner to receive the same tier, or the next higher tier, but nothing beyond that.

Please consider implementing something along these lines before the new racial buildings are put in the game.

Thanks,
-Finn

[CeroBostwick]

An excellent idea; I would restrict the placement of the Novian resources of any given demolished building to placement on the next highest tier of the same building, just to completely eliminate the need to worry about abuse. I know it is a lot of work to build anything, and one might argue you should be able to place them on anything you want; however I would submit buildings are not meant to be trial and error..

[imported_Silveron]

An excellent idea; I would restrict the placement of the Novian resources of any given demolished building to placement on the next highest tier of the same building, just to completely eliminate the need to worry about abuse. I know it is a lot of work to build anything, and one might argue you should be able to place them on anything you want; however I would submit buildings are not meant to be trial and error..

Wow. Pleasethink about how many items and database entries that would add.

Novian Beginner Wood Shop Cedar Timber
Novian Beginner Wood Shop Cedar Brace
Novian Beginner Wood Shop Bronze Sheets
etc...

Now given:
5 resource categories (Wood, Metal, Stone, Cloth, Essence)
2 types of units per resource (Blocks/Keystones, Sheets/Joints, etc)
2 tiers of materialsper shop (Beginner = T2 only, Journeyman =T2/T4, Expert T4/T6)

So, for any Journeyman level shop... you would create 5 x 2 x 2 = 20 New Items for the database to track.

Now, multiply this out over the just the tiered shops available Metal, Stone, Wood, Scholar, Cloth, Tinker, Jewelry, Confectioner, and Mill. For a total of 9 buildings.

Now since Beginner is T2 only, we'll multiply by 2.5 instead of 3 to cover the shop tiers... wow 50 new items to code, track, and reject during attempted construction.

Keep in mind you ask for this to be done with Everything that can be built on a plot right now. Walkways, trees, boulders, shops, houses, silos, fences, old style buildings and new...the list goes on and on.

This doesnt seem worth their (AE's) effort in my opinion. I think we will see a flatpercentage ofthe unitswe put in to build the structure.

However. We couldend up with an upgrade function that returns the building to a scaffolding state with no novian units involved. Then we add the nexttier of required materials to make the building functional again. This wouldn't allow movement of the building for tweaking of the plot layout.

Just my thoughts,

-Silveron

[CeroBostwick]

Umm...yeah...well, I am no programmer, it's really just my opinion on things; which obviously would create much more work than is necessary..[:S]