New Player Experience: Dealing with all the reserved empty plots

[TheLionKing]

Hello,

Here’s what I’m thinking it would be a good approach for dealing with all the empty plots that are reserved and not used by anyone.

Similarly as the border logic that is done to prevent greefing, the world regen could add a new check on the plots based on prestige and ownership of the adjacent plots.

Here’s an example to hopefully visualize better what I’m thinking of…

We take a 3x3 plotted area, and we do a check for the plot right in the middle, if the plots around him are owned by the same person and have a total amount of prestige higher than X, than we don’t release it, but if the amount is lower and if the plot has nothing built on in last X hours it can be released to be free for plotting by someone else.

This is by mo means the perfect example, and it can be improved on. but hope you get the idea, and given my limited knowledge of how the engine works, it might be possible.

I’m expecting a lot of people to disagree and find all sorts of excuses for it, but, given that the world regen is triggered every few hours, there is plenty of time to plot a large area, and build something, think of it as a “plot degrading system”, with a timer somewhere on the screen to know when the next regen happens it would free up a hole lot of space for new people to build and would dim down a bit the monopolistic and greedy mindsets.

Regards,
Lion

[Tmmk]

First of welcome to the forum

Now here we go

Even though it is a good idea and do understand the issues new players face as we at times hit the same issues with plotted “unused” area’s but….

Some locations are “saved” spaces gleam/snow and or normal meteors up to those who do but it is fun to see if you come across those.
Gather/mine/farm locations that are saved from being build upon so they stay locations where you can go get….

And then there are the forgotten, future plans and scout locations these can be frustrating to come across. And i am at times also one of those people that has those spots but forgot .

Some time ago @DKPuncherello suggested a challenge to build a “base” with a new character within 1 hour. I did this challenge and didn’t get very far .
Now the reason I bring up this challenge is because it can resemble newbies in a way especially if they have just 1 hour to play a day. For long time players hitting 10k prestige is nothing just drop a few blocks and done.
But for new players that don’t have access to those blocks it will take a lot more with the basics to hit the 10k prestige.
So if you where to base it on prestige this wouldn’t help newbies and would just be a minor annoyance for older players.

Better way would probably be like a delayed report if you can’t find the owner.
Report beacon empty=>owner gets notified with it’s location and has x time (weeks/month) to fix it or remove it. If nothing happens the beacon reclaim’s after the set time period.

Again it isn’t a bad idea you have

[catfud]

If it’s about the npe then always a popular thought would be too simply restrict the number of a plots a player can plop down on a starter world.
That would encourage progressing players (or big whales from coming back), with an increasing number of plots to move on to higher tier public worlds or go grab a sovereign.
Saying that, the vast majority of land on lower tier worlds are unplotted (expect maybe arie ), though that maybe is not always apparent to new oortlings.

[TheLionKing]

Hi @Tmmk,

Just the account is new, unfortunately you can’t rename a username here so having this name in all other games, thought I just might make a different account, don’t care that much for the badges. I’m @thestrategiclion btw.

So, regarding the ploted zones for resources as a reserved for public type of thing… there are so many private planets that are full of places like that and you can find a farming hub in each portal hub so in that sense I really don’t think it’s an issue.

As in regards to the challenge of building the, let’s say city as an example… the timers and conditions for un-reserving a plot can definitely be played with, but having a big chunk of the planet reserved just because someone has the plots, and indeed, maybe they plan to do something with it, but come on… it’s an MMO after all, we all have to play together somehow. Besides… again… private planets… if you want a hige mega city… build it on one of those.
You are a Supernova backer so I think you might remember how the game was before launch, all the land you could traverse that was “untouched”, it was amazing to go explore and gather stuff, now… it’s either full of abandoned projects (most of them are the “malls” or shops) or are reserved by one person.

Reporting… that involved people on the dev part to keep track for all reports, check them and ending up with frustrated players that end up writing bad reviews on steam or reddit, don’t think it’s all that good.

What I can for sure tell you, is that I see a big problem with both the plots and the empty shops (I mentioned about it in a different post )

If the new devs continue with this… don’t see much attraction to the game for new people. Even I with the time I played in the past, when I come back and try to restart the game I end up being disappointed by the same things, plotted zones and empty shops everywhere, and than, barely meet someone that is just rushing to gather that stuff for the shop he’s building. Really curios what the new team decides to do.

[TheLionKing]

Yes and no, people will want to build more so if you limit the plots on normal worlds, would “force” players to buy private planets and than that becomes predatory monetization.
Just a simple limitation or a simple system won’t work for a fair resolution.

[Eneitgranny]

@TheLionKing

I end up being disappointed by the same things, plotted zones and empty shops everywhere, and than, barely meet someone that is just rushing to gather that stuff for the shop he’s building.

I’m one of those who rush past - usually concentrating on what I set out to do, and get back home to my safe planet I try to keep my shops maintained and restock regularly, and try to keep things available at a reasonable price for new players. But some of our big builds are just there for people to explore if they want, some of our WIP projects have been taking shape over several years. I have a couple of areas plotted out for future builds, and have started gathering all the blocks I need for those builds. I maintain the beacons of guild members who are taking a break. How would your idea work for players like those in our little guild?

[TheLionKing]

Hi @Eneitgranny, respectfully, I don’t think you understand my point, you seem to enjoy the game, and you can ignore some parts of it, others like me might not, and that is fine.

[Tmmk]

To be fair i do understand what @Eneitgranny ment your topic is about empty unused plots isn’t it?
Im sure that’s what it’s about “reserved” plotted space that is untouched.

To get back on your msg to me
I do remember that time and also remember paying Footfall out of me diaper. Warp cost to my (home) base. Not having thousands of plots like many other players.

The issue i had back then was that i had to walk an eternity trough rough terrain (most times annoying) to get back to a “city” as it was the only hub location to go back home (had all the hubs saved back then in my beacon list).

Most back then build close to hubs easy way to go and get back home. Which changed when warp home became free. And the hassle of going back home was no more an hassle as you didn’t have to travel back to a hub.

Also at some point it became easier for most to maintain a small portal to their local hub, eliminating the need to stay close to one and be limited by available space.
So more builds in the middle of nowhere.

As for resources back then there where a lot of lucrative locations that where simply inaccessible because people blocked those off… which in turn caused people to reserve spaces as natural locations for everyone.
I do understand your point with farms but not all the worlds (perm/sov) have the same color palette so why should it only be a sovereign thing.

Besides my main issue with sovereign worlds is that they aren’t permanent. The best community sovereign world would be (in my eyes) one for €40,- so it can support 40 people at once.
That is a monthly pay of €40,- with for others no guarantee it stays for more then a month unless it gets “fueled” for more.
Also unless one knows where to go no guarantee of finding it or even farm on it as its up to the owner.

To go back on what i said about reporting a beacon in my previous post was more ment like a pm with an expiration timer attached which is for example handled by the beacon it self.

For example if its my beacon which has GC. You report it for being unused the beacon switches from GC fueled to lesser beacon fueled. Unless i go back to said beacon and work up it required prestige it will burn out in 4 weeks and reclaim.
Or it could be an additional requirement when someone places the beacon in the first place as its basically not a “valid” beacon for plot protection until it has 10k prestige in the first place. So it would go to GC fueled from 10k prestige and up.

As i also remember all those double plots wih a work bench and thats it every where for months.

Anyway that how i see it.
And ignoring I ain’t probably the same for @Eneitgranny. At this point just tiered of repeating myself all those years here on the forum with things that didn’t work from the start, need to change (most of them AGAIN) or need to be added (before anything else) and on and on and on……

[Xaldafax]

@TheLionKing

Here’s what I’m thinking it would be a good approach for dealing with all the empty plots that are reserved and not used by anyone.

I’d say we focus less on those people that have put thousands of hours into the game and have their various reasons for why they have “reserved” plots versus those that can easily find many other planets and space to build including PRIVATE planets, CREATIVE planets, and the future ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER planets.

The fastest way to destroy reputation is to alienate the existing players that have stood by the game and kept playing and have space set up for when they have time to BUILD and do more things. Not everyone can spend 24 hours in the game and like to reserve space…

New players have plenty of space to play build and do things - reserved plots are NOT a problem. Maybe add reasons for why people might want to let land go that doesn’t hurt them for holding that land but instead helps them… then maybe we can lower space usage. But, never forget in this game there isn’t a space problem…

[Nightstar]

I’m not paying for gleam club so that some random troll can come turn it off of my beacons since they think they have a “better” claim to that spot for some reason. Frankly, for any reason.

@Tmmk

For example if its my beacon which has GC. You report it for being unused the beacon switches from GC fueled to lesser beacon fueled. Unless i go back to said beacon and work up it required prestige it will burn out in 4 weeks and reclaim.

Ack this is an awful semi-automated system. I’m not even asking you to defend it just making a clear note that it gave me the shivers. Super incredibly prone to abuse.

@TheLionKing

released to be free

No, no no.

@TheLionKing

dim down a bit the monopolistic and greedy mindsets

I don’t know it’s barely called for, I’m not even paying for Gleam Club right now. But this sort of attitude is one of the most toxic aspects of human nature in this game. It calls on a basic double standard.

• When you do something you have reasons
• When others do something, they only have excuses

There is no situation where it’s a good plan to allow random people without qualification to force action or take things from the people who are financially supporting the game.

That’s not an excuse. It’s the reason. And the mind bogglingly greedy mindset is, IMO, more appropriately assigned to the people who often show up here making posts about how there needs to be a way for them to take whatever it is they want. Or whatever they have decided someone else doesn’t deserve.

Please.

[Eneitgranny]

I understood your point, I wanted to give you a bit of background as to where I was coming from when wondering how altering the rules of beacon system would affect those of us who have spent years playing the game, indeed began building long before private planets were a thing.

[Tmmk]

Just brainstorming but would result in the same thing that happens now with plot protection.
Plop 10k prestige down and leave it as is.
Circumventing that idea all together.
Thats why i mentioned from the start prestige wasn’t the way to go in the first place

[majorvex]

@TheLionKing

people will want to build more so if you limit the plots on normal worlds

Allowing any player to plot as many plots as they could(on Known/Home Worlds), was within the rules when the game 1st launched - as long as they weren’t griefing others. They earned and paid for their plots like everyone else. There were no rules telling players that they had to build something within X days, or your beacon goes poof. There were no rules telling players that they had to build anything at all on their plots, no rules about minimum prestige, no aesthetic requirements, etc.

Rules can be updated and changed, of course. Just like when the new compactness system was added. I think it’s unfortunate that it was applied directly on top of existing plots/builds instead of applying it to new planets/beacons only.

I think testing out a certain new permanent planet type would be interesting - one that’s a Lush T1 with a 20(ish) plot limit per account. People would need to work together to make a viable town or hub of some sort. No threat of anyone bombarding the area with 100000 plots. Perhaps a couple of dev-placed portals that lead to random hubs/cities on other Known Worlds.

As the rules stand at the moment, if you want control of your area and the surrounding area without plotting it 1st, you’ll need to get yourself a rental planet.

[Havok40k]

Never will I ever understand why someone would think they are more entitled to a plot that someone else has already made a claim to and invested in. Even if a plot has nothing on it for two years, that’s 2 years of GC or fuel invested in maintaining ownership. That’s plots that they earned with grinding levels or RMT. That’s not nothing. If someone wants to invest their time and limited plot space on maintaining an empty field, then thats all the reason they need to keep it.

[Trundamere]

@Havok40k

Never will I ever understand why someone would think they are more entitled to a plot that someone else has already made a claim to and invested in

“Some people” are inflexible and have problems working around a problem, So instead of finding a solution of their own, they put the blame on someone else and start trying to find owners of plots to ask or harass them into removing them, or otherwise complain about the situation. It is easier for “Some people” to handle it that way.

[BabyCookie]

Just pray that we get lots and lots of new players when monumental officially takeover Then we’ll have New Planets Spawn and then everyone can keep there plots that been there for years lol

@Trundamere

instead of finding a solution of their own, they put the blame on someone else and start trying to find owners of plots to ask or harass them into removing them,

Really didn’t know that (Q.Q) I find asking Nicely is a whole lot better than being a meanie Boop!

[Trundamere]

@BabyCookie

I find asking Nicely is a whole lot better than being a meanie

“Some people” sometimes turn to harassment when asking nicely failed to get them the result they wanted. They are self centered

Anyways I wish people could just learn to accept that other people might have or place plots that might
be a bit of a conflict, and just learn to ignore the plots and work around the plots. This is an online game, its to be expected people will plot in your way at times. but people often still react like a surprised pikachu when it happens.

I find it is far better to focus on one’s self, then it is to focus on other people.

[Tmmk]

Asking is always better
To be fair i got quite a lot of empty plots I can’t give away as they are planned but I simply don’t have time

[BabyCookie]

I have like 4 Dead beacons and 2 active next me left I put Doorways on those sides and put signs for year 2040 when more vanishes xD can’t do anything more {Solved}

But I do hope more players in future & maybe more lethal planets spawn in future so I can start another city on a more Dangrous planet (^-^)

[Xaldafax]

@BabyCookie

I have like 4 Dead beacons and 2 active next me left I put Doorways on those sides and put signs for year 2040 when more vanishes xD can’t do anything more {Solved}

The best answer to things like this is just to suggest people let go of areas they don’t need or want to use. Otherwise the only answer is to just integrate the build into yours or make a path like you did and call it a day. People can also moved and that is why I pushed so hard on my personal calls with James to get Blueprints working for “move based stuff” as soon as possible.

Many people might not also release plots because they do want to possibly build there at some point or expand and once someone else grabs it there is no guarantee they will EVER leave. I see that in Aquatopia… if I let a few things go for new people there is no guarantee they will even build so I keep some of it reserved because at least I know I will continue to expand the town. We have some spots that people still have a partial build on since those first few weeks and refuse to fix the hole in the ground but clearly don’t need the plot…

On Biitula I have a floating 2 block area in the old PS hub that I even think @Jiivita might own but it isn’t released even though it is surrounded with nothing… so people have reasons and you just have to wait and see and hope people will continue to clear out beacons they don’t need.

and be thankful that this game has so much land possibility and options for people. Space is not an issue…