Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Design Topic: Player City locations
During the first week of the game, I set my house way out in the middle of nowhere (5.3km from the nearest NPC city) and started recruiting people because I wanted to help build a city. The three major problems that have me very concerned are:
Shuttles requiring a set population to place. It seems as if it would be enough restriction to require a certain skill as a politician, as with everything else. That way not only large cities could have this convenience, but small cities that have been established and have been around for a while can have it too. This rule basically forces people into large cities, whereas some (like myself) would prefer a limited size and population. I would be perfectly willing to wait for that privilege and build a strong community of say 25 people, but instead I will be required to go out and recruit any willing stranger to get one. Until now, people have been toughing it out making the long hike because they thought that the implementation would make sense and their home would have a shuttleport. I dread the day it becomes clear that we havent recruited enough people, and attrition starts to shring the town's population even further. Maintenance fees and Politician skillwill be more than enough to limit the number of shuttleports.
Faction bases interfering with city placement. Ironically, until the puplish in which player cities go live, the only way that players to simulate the mechanics of an independent player city (rather than a suburb) was to acquire a faction base. The mission terminal is the one essential thing that NPC cities have that playes cannot get on their own (essential because every structure requires actual liquid credits to maintain) and so as soon as I read about the faction bases I ran out, joined a faction, and earneda field hospital. This one is great because even non-faction people can benefit, thanks to a regular Destroy/Delivery orange misson terminal and a bank. With it we can be totally independent from NPC cities, except for the need to train novice skills from NPCs. The thought that the one thing that would prevent you from starting a player city is that you've been attempting to simulate one is crazy. Anyone who owns one of these faction bases will probably attest that aside from the mission terminals to draw and entertain local players, they are much more trouble than they are worth. The only reason to have one is to build and maintain a community of players. That behavior and desire should be rewarded rather than punished.
Terrain severly limits the density of player structures. It is exceedingly difficult to find a space in which any respectable number of player structures can be placed in close proximity. I can only hope that the civic structures really will be much less picky so that it will be possible to utilize wasted spaces that have a tiny little pool of water or a stary rock preventing building. It would be a dream come true if they behaved like campsites in their terrain tolerance, flattening the landscape to accomodate them just as one would reasonably expect.
with the fact that you've said we won't get terrain leveling ability with cities (something I hope you will rectify VERY shorty) if you want a remote city on somewhere like Corellia then it's not really possible...there are very few flat areas on corellia...and the spots that there are have already been built on
Anyways....as a PA we built ours quite a distance from the nearest town...about halfway between Coronet and Bela Vista.
These are the buildings in order of importance in my opinion
Medbay
Shuttleport
Canitna
Mission terminals
Bank
Bazzar
anything else is beautification
It is our intent to create a player city among only our friends. It will be more of a player village... We will locate remotely, choosing a site based upon static content in the game. It may be a battleground, or a base. It may be a nice statue we like that is just "there". We are currently waiting for the player city expansion. As soon as it is possible we will pick up and migrate to our new remote location. We will take everything we have, all our houses, all our PAs, our shops etc. and move.
This will happen as soon as we are able. We will likely need to power level a "city planner" or "politician" or some such, I've not read the details. Bottom line is, 21 player accounts will make a town with 1 PA hall and 100 small and medium houses. That is our goal... we have the people, the money, and just are waiting with deeds in the bank for the oppertunity to plop down a city in the remote areas of our world...
Once created we will rent houses and shops, or sell the deed for redeed/replace on the homes we choose. This should make it possible for us to build the entire town in our chosen layout without the possiblity of grief buildings popping up and mangling our ideal core location.
I'd wager there are a large number of player groups doing this exact same thing...
The Abyssal Wardens are going to try and start a player city that is about 4 to 4.5km out from Nym's stronghold on Lok.
If you make shuttleports easy upkeeps I can with about 99% certanty say people will FLOCK to the player cities .... keep the fares cheap the cantinas and med centers won't be even needed... but shuttleports is really key and the price to the nearest city is too.
I was thinking about this issue before it was posted. All those houses so close to major cities as it is, I thought it would be difficult to get a player city started at a farther distance. You briefly talk about moving a house to a new location. Have you ever moved a house and all its possesions to another location? I have and let me tell you that it takes time. The biggest problem I forsee is that if your current home has 40+ items and you need to relocate you CANNOT pick everything up, destroy your house and plant everything back down. Our carrying limits are too small. So now you have to purchase a second deed setup at the new location and run back and forth untill everything is moved. Now you own 2 houses!
Im also curious to know what type of control is going to be set forth on the placement of these cities. Will a single individual be able to start a city? How will shuttle ports be controlled so you don't have a shuttle every 2k meters? (worse case)
Im sure there will be a lot to resolve with the implication of the player cities but hope they will work out to benefit all.
With mounts and vehicles on the way, I imagine distance from a shuttle/starport will become less of an issue.
PadawanChong wrote:We started our 'city' roughly 2 months ago (or longer) at the 0, 0 mark on Talus. That's a 2700m hike from the Daeric Starport. The shuttle port to the remote city was our intention all along - even though I didn't agree with it at the time being a novice smith trying to lure customers. We chose that spot specifically because no one would be around for a while and we'd have room to grow.
Same with the guild I'm in. We've got about 70+ people on Naboo (I won't disclose the location as we don't want anyone outside our Alliance settling there yet.). We're thinking we'll get the shuttleport in week 2 (after our Mayor blocks up the extra lots with gardens and lamps.). Then, we'll be able to open up a shuttleport and control settlement according to a master plan.
well kevin...
Shadowcastebuilt a city out in the middle ofnowhere back when the test code for cities was a rumor. we drew a line from coronet to daoba guerrefel..and another from bella vista to kor vella.. and where the lines crossed came awful close to everything that was tough to walk to from an existing city.. it was literally the furthest point from every city in the game. a 20 minute run from any city.We called it the Nexus... the home of the Shadowcaste. we chose nexus because it would one day be the nexus of trade on corellia... and basicly the center of everything on that planet.
it started whenFinn, Ro-Soo, and myself went out looking for flat land.. we decided to check out in the middle of nowhere...what we found when we got there was flat land as far as ya could see... and a wonderful mix of animals to hunt.. as well as tons of interests like lord nyax and several battlefields.. and the swamp.. and all kinds of stuff
when we started building we knew that the area was prime real estate.. but that it would be tough to keep interest in a place so far from anywhere till shuttleports and clone centers went live. so we did what anyone else would do.. build quietly.. and keep it relatively secret.
unlike other cities.. we decided to zone everythign.. since we had complete control.. we built how we wanted to.. lined houses up and formed roadways.. put the large houses on the hill to form an uptown district and even built a warehouse district. we banned any factories or mineral harvesters in the city limits.. which is a big difference from most "cities"that have half their usuable landcovered in harvs and factories.
we didnt get any grief from others since our membership is mostly a "family" enviornment.. and alot of our members have chosen to infultrate both rebel and imperial camps to further our cause.. we dont have any beef with anyone. our imps pummel something.. only to have our rebels return the favor... it works out well.
weve also already chosen a mayor and a city council, and weve got our warehouse sitting with over a million low grade.. and 500k+ of all the metals it will take for us to build the city buildings. weve been working hard in preperation of the code going live.. some of us have spent time on test to check stuff out.. and feed our live teams
when the city code goes live.. youll see us at the top of the list. expect to see alot of good stuff coming out of nexus on gorath server.... weve been building for this a long time
i heard a voice when it was all starting...
it said.. "build it.. and they will come"
well..Shadowcaste built it..
cmon
Lokotes Deathdealer...
Shadowcaste - Gorath server
Will you be aqble to live in the city. Apartment buildings and the like. After all the non-player cities are just huge shooping malls aren't they. To be called a city you have to be able to have your house or apartment IN the city. Imagine the views you could have from the penthouse suite.
It just doesn't seem reasonable with no residents, or all residents living on the city limits and no-one in the city itself.
I have a city by the SW corner of Dantooine right on the banks of the big lake there. But i am thinking of moving it to the heart of the volcano on lok. Both are a really long run from anywhere but if i build out there and convice enough people to drop their houses on the day i declare a city then i should be able to have a shuttle port quick. And then no complaints on distance