Since Land Speculation is not a new mechanic, we need a rebalance of the beacon mechanics in general. Perhaps a beacon for intent to transfer should be a beacon of its own type, requiring materials to craft with potentially multiple parts similar to a machine. Simultaneously, a basic beacon with nothing built on its plot should have a faster decay mechanic.
5 Likes
And now we have a way to exploit it. So I quickly level an alt, transfer the plots, delete the alt and repeat the process. If you mean transfer where the main or other alt has to have enough plots to cover the transfer and the transferring alt gets his plots back then that is different.
2 Likes
I completely agree with this. Also campfires should be used for early game plotting and should also decay faster. beacons should be mid game and beacons you can sell should be late game.
people putting down beacons on starter planets then never coming back to them is really annoying.
2 Likes
I think there would have to be minimum requirements. Like a prestige amount or something per plot size.
I think this would discourage cash grabs of land, but encourage people who want to build and sell their creations to those that are interested in cool buildings made by creative people.
Definitely dont want every scenic spot to be plotted and never built or just monopolies for people who have money to spend on endless plots.
But I would think if a minimum prestige of like 25k or 35k (random I know. Just making a point) then that would let creative builders have a market for their craft.
Not just cash grabs for land.
2 Likes
Oh I did not mean actual plots…just the plotted land. Both alts must have the required amount of plots available. If char 1 has a 15 plot build and char 2 only has 8 plots available, the transfer won’t work.
Edit: I love the fact that one char can’t get too OP, and that each has his own bundle of plots. Makes me use my alts more.
We are not proposing buying plots from another player.
The buyer would need sufficient plots to take ownership of the sellers beacon.
19 Likes
Btw we’ve just asked a few questions here!!
We were talking about possible features and realised that this had all sorts of complexities - so decided instead of just assuming we would know what everyone would think it would be easier to solicit opinions.
16 Likes
I think this is the only way to do it, without bein’ called P2W.
1 Like
Thanks for engaging the community!
I think there is a real communication gap in the game right now which leads to frustration. Before we get into complex ways of marketing land, it would be nice if we could streamline communication between players (offline and online).
I think if we could talk as players to each other then some of the ‘land frustration/plot frustration’ would decrease and this idea would have more community support.
7 Likes
Do you feel Land Speculation is a legitimate tactic?
No.
- There are people with 10%,…,100% extra plots.
- You can buy plots with reallife money.
- People will try to plot around expanding settlements with enough distance to avoid the TOS but with the intention to sell the plots to the settlement later.
This system would lead to a toxic enviroment.
3 Likes
There is not a single way that this kinda system would work, and not be exploited to harm, abuse, and out right exploit people. And the ones most effected would be the poor and new players.
Plotting land is already bad enough, there have been many cases of people abusing the plot system, just because it exists. Forcing towns to Merge under a new mayor. Blocking roads from being made, bordering around people they don’t like to annoy them. Those just the resent ones in the last 3 days.
But now you want to give people an actual reason to monopolize cities, Locations, and access to stuff? Seriously?
You’re just rewarding griefing at that point. As soon as a system like this is implimented, everyone is going to go out and buy every bit of interesting land they can, because someone will eventually want to live there and they get to sell the land and make money, and is now completely legal.
People are going to cut off and prevent other people, or towns, from expanding on one side of their base, where they really need to expand, unless they pay for the plots there. Towns are going to buy all the lands near them and going to charge people high ammounts of money, per plot, if they want to live in or near the town. Shopping Centers/Markets are going to be the same, the area all bought out and people are going to need to pay for it.
‘First Come, First Serve’ for plotting land is going to be meaningless, cause there isn’t going to be anywhere TO plot, everything is going to be owned, except very far from the towns, in the most ugly and remote regions, most likely on the level 4+ worlds that need protection skills to access and no shoppers visit.
This is going to be the system where the Dev’s Green Light Griefing, and exploitation, to the max.
Worse yet, people already abuse the Beacon system to do this exact thing in some locations, only now it would be an actual feature, instead of a level of trust that you giving someone money for a plot, would have the person actually giving you the plot and not scamming you out of your money.
Worse yet, it becomes very pay to win, as you can buy plots, to take up land to sell to players, using IRL Money as well.
This feature, this idea, is going to be abused, it’s going to be exploited, and if this idea goes through, it will be perfectly legal and allowed.
Do NOT let this feature come to pass, nothing good will ever come from it. You can already do the exact same thing, just by removing the plot and have the other person claim it. You don’t need to make Griefing more easy!
3 Likes
Yes, but certain things need to happen first to prevent abuse.
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Plots can only be sold for coin if they have over a threshold prestige requirement. Empty plots do not qualify for ownership transfer, and the plot holder is required to develop the space and make it attractive in order to sell it.
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Empty plots need to be reworked so that holding unused land comes at some degree of maintenance cost. Fuel timers would work, but GC completely negates that. My suggestion is a coin tax based on the number of empty plots and the value ranking of the settlement it is next to. This way, speculating on unused land near a high prestige, high population city is more costly than speculation (or “planned expansions”) for low prestige,. now population settlements. The more that a plot’s prestige develops, the lower it’s upkeep cost becomes until it reaches 0 cost. Only once a plot has reached 0 cost may it be sold for coin.
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Footfall needs to have it’s thresholds adjusted. Currently, players are able to abuse the footfall system by plotting underdeveloped roads between popular locations. With 0 maintenance costs of any sort, these plots generate pure profit. Beacon fuel was supposed to be this cost, but extended timers and GC negate this mechanic. I propose that footfall thresholds be adjusted upwards so that plots with lower prestige earn less portion prestige. A player with 5k prestige in a 100 plot road should get less footfall per visitor than they currently do A shop keeper with 5k prestige in a 10 plot shop should get more footfall than a road owner, due to the higher density of their build’s prestige. This is in addition to the tax on large plots of land, so that players are encouraged to invest more time and development into their plots. A player can still build a cheap road to gain lots of footfall, but the tax mechanic greatly reduces your income unless you invest more time and prestige developing the area.
12 Likes
I like the idea of someone being able to build something and then sell it to another player. I think the risks are someone plots a bunch of land just to hold onto it forever and stop expansion then try to sell. Idk how to combat people being inconsiderate like this…
I don’t like that people plot all around gem bed so you can’t dig to any part of it. Seems like this shouldn’t be allowed. I also don’t like the beacons people place outside of portals like on serp just so people run past it to collect footfall
I think make footfall only start once you hit a certain prestige.
Maybe a tax on beacons when you place it into “selling” status and this tax increases based upon amount of plots. This may keep someone from grabbing a bunch of land and then just sitting on it until a settlement is forced to buy it
Only allow 1 for sale beacon per account. Players now can’t have plot s on 12 planets just waiting for someone to want that land
The issue with that idea is that this would lead to players avoiding communitys/citys.
I don’t chime in very often, but I think beacon transfers should be kept strictly within Guilds or a community. There should either be a way for you to transfer plots to members of your Settlement, or change ownership to your guild. Rather then trying to market off plots.
2 Likes
Note my expectation for how this would work if implemented is to have a ‘beacon token’ that can be sold like any other item and allows the owner to take control of the beacon (user’s plots required, and owner then gets his plots back automatically) so can sell houses without having to be present and no new gui screens required for ‘beacon trading’ or anything.
9 Likes
Players would just plot the land and put up signs to avoid it, or if the TOS doesn’t allow that just plot the land until someone messages them.
I absolutely disagree with this.
I am holding plots with nothing built on them because I like the area and wish to expand and thankfully nobody has plotted right beside or near me.
I strongly believe the reason this is, is because I have not built anything yet. as soon as I start building others know something is happening and either want to be neighbours (which I don’t want) or want to extort me for expanding my plots. (which I also don’t want)
The reason I am not building yet is because I do not have enough plots to start building and I want to reserve the entire are that I don’t want others to build in BEFORE I start building.
after that, others can plot as they wish.
I have a specific look that I’m going for and don’t want other builds obstructing the view of it or plotting where I plan to expand.
I think this is actually a very good solution! 
4 Likes
Go slow on this!
First allow beacon transfers between alts.
Then transfers between guild members.
Only then if all is well allow transfers between players but with several rules such as:
- Have beacons generate a protection aura proportional to prestige making placing beacons not belonging to same town members or guild members more expensive to place and maintain if nearby. Of course this requires good guild and town mechanics first.
- Require roadway access every so many plots so a player cannot buy up a large continuous mass of plots.
Actually…I think I would too if i’m honest. My Alts have hundreds of plots and i’ve 700 on my main in use with about half I could take back without damaging my build. If this system comes i don’t think i could resist plotting everywhere for easy coin
1 Like