Cities And Housing Archive

Thread: A possible solution for Inactive lots, Condemned lots and Shuttleports

Tenia
Wed May 11, 2005 6:14 am
#1








I think I have a workable solution for the issues regarding inactive lots, condemned buildings and dead cities taking up Shuttleport slots.


The main pros and cons to a purge are:-


-People want the game run for active players and not inactive ones

-SoE want to make it attractive to inactive players to come back, and thus don’t want to purge anything


...and I think my suggestion offers a nice compromise...


A certain amount of time after a player has gone inactive (say 3 months?), the following would occur:-


a)All their items in their Buildings, Harvesters etc, including all items on any Vendor they own (even if the Vendor is in a building that they don’t own), are transferred into a new ‘Inactive Players Vault’ (similar to the bank vaults).


b)All Buildings and Harvesters (now empty due to the above), regardless of condition (so including condemned ones) and regardless of how much maintenance is left on these structures, are re-deeded, and these deeds placed in the ‘Inactive Players Vault’ too...


c)All their Vendors (now also empty) are destroyed, even if they are in a building that the player does not own (obviously the building itself isn’t affected if they don’t own it)


d)City Halls and Guild Halls would need special rules, but I would suggest that they either be re-deeded too, or just destroyed.


- When an inactive player re-activates their account, they get an e-mail and/or system message telling them where all their stuff is. They can then go to the ‘Inactive Player Vault’ and reclaim all of their items. I suggest placing the ‘Inactive Player Vault’ terminals in Coronet and Theed only. A time limit should be set as to how long they get to clear it out after they have re-activated, maybe a month, this it to avoid exploitation.


- Every month or so the game checks to see what dead cities truly are now dead, and releases that cities hold on a Shuttle port slot. Doing this will allow truly active cities to finally get a Shuttle port.


I know some people are probably thinking… ‘but my city needs its inactive players (who have placed a lot of maintenance in their buildings) to stay at the level it is’… but really those people just need to start getting more active with recruiting again, in the long run it will make your city better, it will make the game better.


I would agree that my suggestion is only a framework, but I think it’s a good start to work from.


I feel that doing this will...


-Free up space and give the game back to active players

-Provide a means for inactive players to retain all their hard gained items.

-Best of all, this suggestion is not a Purge.


All this stuff is already taking up database space, so all SoE would really be doing is moving where or what in what form the information is stored. As a result there would be no need to limit how many items the game stores in the ‘Inactive Players Vault’ for any given player.


The way I see it everyone wins!





PS - Lithium sucks, I had so many issues posting this!


Message Edited by Tenia on 05-11-2005 02:20 PM



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Aib'h Va'En of Farstar
Chesmal Va'En of Bloodfin
Rhadida
Wed May 11, 2005 6:31 am
#2

Sounds ok, but I think you can only do this for items that are in condemed houses, there are a lot of players that still use lots from player that have quitted. I do as a WS, I need all the storage/factories I can get and I pay the maintenance (and power for the factories) so the houses with it's belongings shouldn't go Poof... Just my thoughts



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IGN: Rhadida
Zhundult
Wed May 11, 2005 6:42 am
#3

I'd like them to do something with all the condemned structures littering the galaxy. If they just don't want to pay it, they should pick it up. If they don't play, their stuff shouldn't keep me from using that spot.



Soawav
Tenia
Thu May 12, 2005 3:02 am
#4


I am a bit dismayed that my suggestion hasn't generated much discussion or feedback.


I have seen a number of hot threads debating these issues, and how important to the game a solution is. I have come up with what I think is a damn good solution and only two people comment.


Maybe its such a fantastic idea that your alltoo shocked to reply?


Message Edited by Tenia on 05-12-2005 11:03 AM



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Aib'h Va'En of Farstar
Chesmal Va'En of Bloodfin
Shinyu
Fri May 13, 2005 12:12 am
#5

/agree


Really good ideas. On the one hand I can understand how people who have access to houses they use for storage, etc... might be mad because of losing their stuff, but hey, then maybe they should trade lots with ACTIVE players, just a thought......



/// Shinyu Shunshuu ///
- Elder Medic | Freelance Ace Pilot -
/// Shinsu Shunshuu ///
- Master Armorsmith | Weaponsmith | Merchant -
-------------------------------
{Universal Protection}
-------------------------------

Factol_Pentar
Fri May 13, 2005 7:14 am
#6

ok, what about having the Mayor able to take down condemed buildings? I know some mayors want them to stay for population count. (unless they have changed things) A RL friend had 2 accounts and he is still a citizen because he did not delete his characters, he has not been in game for 6 mo or more. But the mayor asked him to keep the houses up, so that he could have the population count.


The big thing is if the house is condemed it starts drawing credits from your bank account correct?


What is the official word on a bank account that is zero, at this point the house should go away?

make that change and I bet you'll see things go start to disappear.


the other suggestion is to allow anyone on ADMIN, to be able to redeed the house. I would gladly redeed my friends house if I could.





Allieria Moonstrider
Done Dec 17th
To much has changed


GuardianHawk
Fri May 13, 2005 2:47 pm
#7

I really like the idea. I think you hit on one problem why these issues haven't been fixed and that is because Sony does not want to give an extra kick to those standing in the doorway about ready to leave. And your idea really hits home with a solution to that aspect. I do like it a lot.


I do think there is also another problem as to why things haven't been address and that is simply because few people are mayors and most people just don't care that much about cities. But the truth of the matter is that how cities work does effect players in many ways that they might not even realize. Player Cities do build the community aspect that is so critical in making MMORPG games playable much longer then other games. If the community suffers then the long term playablitiy of the game suffers and SOE will eventualy lose players just because they don't feel like playing. So it may seem that few people care agressivly about how cities work, but I still believe it is critical to the long term sucess of the game.


And if you think about it at some point the entire player communities will look like trash heeps of old buildings all around dead cities that once had life but now have none. In time cities will die that is the nature of things. If no one ever cleans up what sort of mess are we going to have to look at in the game down the road.



As for the idea itselfthere have been some reasonable points mentioned, But how about this for a solution. SOE could try to put in some code to identify inactive players and also something for dead players. Sometimes a character is simply deleted and still has items in the game other times players are still paid up thier accounts but just haven't logged in. Some distinctions might want to be created there as well.



But continuing on your idea. How about one method of controling structures in cities is that the mayor should have the ability to condem a structure. Outside the player cities people are on their own and a game system would determine which structures are inactive. But places that have mayors who run cities could take on the job of deciding which structures must go. Reguardless of active status or not. If someone does want to continue paying and the mayor doesn't mind then let it stand.



But I would suggest that the mayor of player cities have an extra power, and that is to condem any structure in the city they see fit active or not. This way they can control the layout of their cities better. Once someone has been granted zoning rights and they place something there is nothing the major can do about it to fix up the layout of the city if the person doesn't place it in the right place.



Player cities would look a lot better if Mayors could take down structures in cities to clean them up. Of course some safe guards should be put in place. This doesn't have to be a fast process. It should take awhile, In fact it should take longer then the election span of a Mayor so a new mayor can run if people get mad about houses being condemed and they can put in a new mayor before their structure would have to come down.



Just a few thoughts hopefully some is listening







Hawkeye'
Guardians of Light
Bringing Honor to Online Gaming
www.Guardians-of-Light.com
TLara
Sat May 14, 2005 4:36 am
#8


I really like your ideas. I have been saying the same thing for a while. Im a disgruntle mayor myself. My city has reached the ability to grown but can not because of the city cap. The recent terminal bugs have just made things worse. Players would pick up houses to drop a bigger one or move to support another city but their names would still remain on the citizenship report and I wouldnt get an email about it. So basically you could be a citizen of many cities without actually haveing to have a house placed there (after the initial placing and declaring). Also, due to this bug cities that should downsize due to loss of citizens werent. So, Im very frustrated with the state of things. I would really like to see them create /eminentDomain ... hehe... or something to that effect. It would give mayors the ability to do what you are talkining about. To take condemned/vacant structures and remove them from the city to make room for other people that might want to live there. I really like your idea though on how to preserve the deed and the stuff in the house for those players who had houses removed. Then SOE and mayors can have a Win/Win situation.


Next question being... how to regulate the ability so it isnt exploited...


Also, we need to come up with a really good idea on how to move badly placed structures and structures from around the perimeter.


I was thinking that player houses should only be allowed to be placed outside the city at a distance of 1000m like the rules that apply to NPC Cities. This way cities that will have the ability to grown wont have to absorb that house and therefore screw up the look of the city. All harvs can be placed close to the city but not in the city and factories will fall under the rule of the player houses.


As for moving badly placed houses in the city...Im open for suggestions... Im not able to think of anything that will still fall into the Win/Win category. I personally try to place all houses myself to avoid the /grant problem where it can be placed wrong and never moved or the player placing more then the agreed upon. I usually do the /grant again to remove rights to take care of that problem when I think of it but Militia members dont always remember such things. However with Large houses I dont always have the lots to do this and this is where i have the most problem.


Oh and one more quandary.... what is the best way to describe how to place houses/structures in the city without sending/posting a map? Or is there really no good way .... ?
Tenia
Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:05 am
#9

I am bumping this, as it generated some good discussion before, but came while everyone was still trying to cope with CU.


Be nice to see some Dev feedback to it.






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Aib'h Va'En of Farstar
Chesmal Va'En of Bloodfin
glory
Sun Jun 19, 2005 9:19 am
#10

OR just do like I am doing, pull up the city and say forget it. I asked for help with this and was told there was nothing they could do so now New Liberty is becoming a ghost town of ghosts. I am just drawing it out to try and recoup some of the millions in the treasury at 50K a day, in the meantime, only vacated houses are left with a citizenship of players with their residences now in other towns or canceled accounts.

Crazy setup. All SOE had to do was poof the houses that were maintenance in the red and accounts canceled or characters not logged in for some months.

Message Edited by glory on 06-19-2005 12:20 PM



Gloria, Lowca: Wanderhome & Test Center
9 accounts, 18 characters, ok this is a tad nutso
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take the shuttle, racetrack, Wildlife museum, Romance Inn, pub, cafe,
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Come visit, bring friends and roleplay. Pull up your overhead map, each vendor marks a site for adventure and fun.
Tenia
Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:06 pm
#11

Bumping this again, as I have been told and read in a few places, that they are alledgeley working on something like the system I suggested in my original post.


Can anyone point me in the direction of any official posts regarding the alledged 'upcoming' 'building wipe' please?



Thanks.







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Aib'h Va'En of Farstar
Chesmal Va'En of Bloodfin
bluejanus
Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:09 pm
#12

I don't know what they could do to force the uprooting of houses, let alone figuring out to store the objects in compressed format. However, I think that in the delete character window, they should have a page to remind people to uproot houses and the like or put them into the bank.





Isander Aperin - Kettemoor Master Architect (home: Serenity, Naboo)
Structures vendor in the HorkCo Shop near Coronet, Corellia (CLOSED)
Structures vendors in the Mos Mesric Mall near Mos Espa, Tatooine (CLOSED)
Structures, jedi kit, crafting station and resource vendors in Serenity near Kaadara, Naboo (CLOSED)
ShadeRage
Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:52 pm
#13

I'm in favor of condemned buildings being removed all together. I was away for a while and lost all my house things due to decay on several of my characters. The way I viewed it when I returned was that if i wasnt smart enough to find a reliable way to keep my upkeep on my house or deed it and store it all in a backback or bank it was my own fault for losing it. The decay system needs to be reacivated badly though. Seems like everywhere you go there are burning harvesters and decayed buildings. I guess it would be nice if all your stuff dumped in the bank but i would rather see stuff dumped on the ground outside the house when it falls and let existing players have a chance at collecting it for 15 minutes to an hour after it goes. They are paying to play the game after all.
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