Merchant Archive
Thread: Any ETA on removing empty buildings?
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DesktopSaki
Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:42 pm
#1
We lost some in that character purge we had last year, supposedly more will go in the next one. This is a real hot topic on the Politician boards, with suggestions a'flyin' as to how to remedy it. The one I like best so far is that if the owner of a structure doesn't sign on/enter the structureevery so many months, the mayor has the option to 'deconstruct it.' It gets redeeded, all items are listed on a datachip, which is then automatically deposited in the inventory or bank vault of the owner--so nothing is lost, but the lot is freed.
It'd mean a little more work for lot trades, but it'd help keep towns a little more fresh.
Hurlobacca
Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:32 pm
#2
I'm guessing they'll want to wait until the CURB's been out a while to see if some of those players come back to the game, so maybe by October they'll consider purging inactive accounts if the above described remedy is not adopted.
OdaOna
Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:42 am
#3
Hi. Does anyone know anything more about the once announced plan to remove players buildings from cancelled accounts (notice I didn't say "deleted" -- pretty sure on deletion of of an account all buildings are removed)? I'm asking because I'd like to drop a tent outside Coro and Theed and naturally the same empty house are still there months later, sprawled around...
I think it's a reasonable request to get the buildings of cancelled accounts removed, particularly if those accounts have gone past their renewal dates. Right now, SOE gives players 90 days grace that it will retain (without promise, just probability) some or all of their data (inventory). I presume this extends to buildings but I don't think it should if the building is empty.
Anyone have any info on this? thx
OdaOna
Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:48 pm
#4
yeah but that's only for player cities -- I'm talking about all the empty buildings that surround Theed and Coro that make me place a tent >2km from the city. It's ridiculous and unfair. If the accounts are cancelled, they should be destroyed by the server, maintenance or none.
DesktopSaki
Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:33 pm
#5
What's weird is our town hasa tent where the owner no longer exists. You try to add them to your friends list and it tells you it's not a valid name. But the tent's still standing.
PaladinX333
Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:59 am
#6
This is a big problem. Roughly half the buildings around Coronet and Theed are essentially abandoned. They are open to public access with signs like "Joes Resources and Loot" on the outside. When you enter them, there are no signs of whatever vendors used to be present. The people who own them do not play the game anymore and have no intention of ever doing so again. Good thing they put a whole year of maintenance on that house before they quit...
OdaOna wrote:
yeah but that's only for player cities -- I'm talking about all the empty buildings that surround Theed and Coro that make me place a tent >2km from the city. It's ridiculous and unfair. If the accounts are cancelled, they should be destroyed by the server, maintenance or none.
DesktopSaki
Wed Mar 16, 2005 12:28 pm
#7
I still like the idea of a maintenance cap, and if you don't upkeep it, instead of drawing from your bank or destroying your house, after a few weeks, everything--maybe even including the deed--is bundled into a 'receipt disk' that's placed in escrow for you. In towns, the mayor could turn that on or off, or it could be an option for the mayor to "condem" a house that fits the requirements if they so wish.
It solves the problem of so many houses sitting empty for a year or more, while freeing up lots without destroying what people might want to come back to.
pknaz
Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:11 am
#8
As the mayor of a city and an alt who is a merchant you can see why I have problems like these. There are several buildings in town I would love to get rid of. October is way too far away for a player purge, Heck, I don't even know if i'll be playing that far in the future!
xDiggerx
Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:43 pm
#9
I can't see a purge coming anytime soon. I know they talked about it but I bet when they pulled the numbers, and realized just how many structures this would impact, they got a bit nervous. Over-night do you really think people could handle such a major landscape change? I mean, think about how many houses and structures are going to go POOF! During the first purge not that many people had left the game..many did leave, but came back. Since then, with other games like WOW and EQ2 we have lost A LOT of players. Stupid of them to leave from what I can see but hey, they left. Many of those folks have now been gone long enough that a purge would remove their structures from the game. In my city alone we have around 95 residents listed......and I am guessing we will lose at least 25 of them if a purge hit, maybe up to 40 of them. Think how that would change the face of each planet, some player cities would cease to exist overnight. Plus all the structures dropped on lot exchanges, like factories, harvestors, etc.. that now have players who left the game. The other issue is unless your the owner of a structure you can't transfer the structure or remove it. I hope before a purge they could implement something where if a player has been inactive for say 90 days, but your an admin on their structure, you could do a transferstructure to someone else as an admin. This would give us a chance to recover some buildings/factories/harvestors we would rather NOT lose.
Anyway, an account purge should happen, I agree. Sooner than later. I am just afraid that it will be so shocking to some to see just how many structures are lost from the game that it could cause some folks on the fence to then go ahead and leave as well. As I have told many of my guild members at this point in the game, it's so close to the combat rebalance why leave now...at least wait to see how it shakes out. I hope people stay and I hope we get a big influx of players after the new Star Wars movie comes out this May.
Pappi
Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:18 pm
#10
pknaz wrote:As the mayor of a city and an alt who is a merchant you can see why I have problems like these. There are several buildings in town I would love to get rid of. October is way too far away for a player purge, Heck, I don't even know if i'll be playing that far in the future!
just to clarify, the purge that was associated with (LAST) october has been postponed indefinitely, and there is talk about a new purge that's different. I haven't received any response when I asked them when they're purging (which I feel is sorely needed)
Akkori
Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:41 pm
#11
You would think that they would want to purge before the movie comes out to free up room everywhere. There is already a theoretical system in place that...if a structure is destroyed.... places everything in the house, including the deed, in the players Bank. Item cap is ignored for this, and the bank cannot be used until the item count is below the cap again. Vendors in the structure have all their listed items deposited in the Vendor Owners (not structure owner) Bank in a similar way.
If they were to delete every single building in the game, nothing would be lost. That is, IF the system works. It is impossible for anything to be deleted automatically now. As a test, I have had out a small Tat house for about 2 weeks with zero maint, and I keep all my creds in Cash, so there is nothing to pull out to auto-pay the maint. Its still hanging around.
DesktopSaki
Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:02 am
#12
Unless there's a bug with the new "comes out of the bank" thing where it'll get to zero condition, zero creds, zero bank and just keep hanging on, eventually it *will* rot. We've had several houses in town rot, including a few that were still in use, but the owners were on leave from the game, sometimes for just a few weeks. :/
EDIT: I'm wrong, sort of. I misunderstood the new system. If I've got it right this time, what happens is that once both maintenance and bank are drained, the structure is condemned and no one but the owner can enter it for six months, at which point it's finally deleted. Which means that someone with a hundred thousand in the bank will have that house named "Retarded Joe'sHouse Of Bootie Love" in big red letters sitting there for, oh, say, a few years.
Message Edited by DesktopSaki on 03-18-2005 04:10 AM
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