Allegiance gathering feedback thread. [Archive]

Wolfe

04-07-2004, 12:28 PM

1) I don't think socializing in person is always as neccesary now we have allegiance chat, but usually it's out hunting or questing when I'm socializing with allegiance members. I.e somwhere with a purpose.

2) I'd prefer to socialize at the allegiance mansion for the simple reason that you have less chance of problems such as people trying to "steal" from you etc. For example if I'm at the mansion I'll pass items between my characters but if I were in a town or Marketplace I'd use trade window. A moot point though. Our mansion is notoriously laggy so basically the lag would be a deciding factor for me too.

3) The central recall location is really the sole use for a mansion in my opinion. Most (not all but most) monarchs who own mansions need the storage chest for their own supplies since they usually have multiple accounts. I get no benefit from my guild having a mansion other than it's a central recall location, which is fine.
I would however like to see mansions get more features than allegiance villas, but I know that's in the works.

Bhodi Amashi

04-07-2004, 12:30 PM

Originally posted by Ibn

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

1. I'm a loner most of the time, however, when I do socialize it's usually with people on my friends list or complete random strangers that cross my path. I rarely "hang out" at the mansion (or a town) and just talk. The woman, on the other hand, can sometime spend hours just talking to people as they come and go.

2. Mansions/Villa - Unlike some of my more vocal counterparts, I never cared for the spam and lag that accompanied the busier towns. It's the same reason I rarely visist the Marketplace. Anything they have there, I can easily find on my own. Plus at a mansion (or villa) you can go into the dungeon and have truly private meetings without worrying about people wandering in and causing problems.

3. Not being a monarch...the central recall ability is the only valuable feature. If you reduced the mansion to a square 5 x 5 room with 3 chests (and the central recall), it would provide the same usefullness (to me) as a villa. From my viewpoint, the only +'s I see as a mansion owner is 1 more chest and more hooks to use.

Rhesus

04-07-2004, 12:31 PM

I see people using both equally. The benefit to having an allegiance "bindstone" is multi-fold.

It gives an allegiance the opportunity to use a central town in concert with other allegiances for the purpose of cross-allegiance questing and socializing. It frees up a lifestone tie for allegiance members who use a lifestone tie to get quick access to a town. I love the idea of having our allegiance meetings in a town hall we call our own rather than at our allegiance mansion. It gives people an incentive to be part of an allegiance in order to have access to the extra recall. We could safely move our buff bots to town and they could make money from buffing passersby.

My only concern is that every allegiance monarch would pick one of three places to bind; Candith Keep, Ayan Baqar, or Rithwic. I assume you are not necessarily going to put a bindstone in every single town? There are lots of places I wouldn't want to see a bindstone because of the potential for exploit; Crater Lake, Ayan Baqar, Bandit Castle, Neydisa Castle, Candith Keep, Timaru, and Stonehold immediately come to mind as places it might not be a good idea to put bindstones.

Boddhisatva

04-07-2004, 12:39 PM

Why I'm sure my followers would use the bindstone and meet at a town rather than the mansion. *shifty eyes*

Actually, I suppose most allegiances with a mansion or villa will still spend more time meeting there then elsewhere and just use the bindstone as another recall.

Personally, I want towns to be more active. If bindstones were put in, I would likely encourage my people to spend more time in town. I would probably also move my allegiance buff bot to our town. I've even got it picked out already, Lytelthorpe. =)

Yan_HG

04-07-2004, 12:42 PM

I like the idea, though I fear there will need to be additional motivation to meet by the bind points instead of the mansion- especially seeing as how more useful housing items (such as the new portal and Font of Jojii) are being released.

I believe the coming vendor improvements will help slightly with this problem- though I still feel there needs to be an extra something... I just wish I knew what.

Either way- even if it does not become the central gathering point of a monarchy, it provides easier access to a town and may encourage socialization of monarchies using identical bind points.

Mal O'Dorus

04-07-2004, 12:43 PM

For many of the reasons, stated above, I believe that the addition of an allegiance recall to a town wouldnt change much. The open chat and feeling of security when muling will keep the people at the mansions.

I already try to spend a few hours each week hanging out in town. Holtburg was my original town so I feel best hanging out there. Not much going on. Only 1 or 2 people an hour while I have been standing there. Stood for 3 hours straight the other day, even ran as a buff bot. I saw people 5 times, 3 of which were the same person. No one used the bot.

Marius of FF

04-07-2004, 12:46 PM

Best

Idea

Ever

maybe not, but it's good. JUST make sure that when these stones are added to towns... you don't make it so there is One stone that is HANDS DOWN the best.

Like, do NOT give Arwic a Stone. Everybody will be there. Mostly everybody at least. Same with Rithwic. Although... if you gave both towns a stone, it would be split pretty well......

Oblique

04-07-2004, 12:54 PM

From a PVP perspective.

I choose to socialise where my guildmates are.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I'd gather in the town... Much more interesting than cowering at a mansion. This would increase ownership in pvp.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Very. Especially in pvp. Draw people to cities they can defend and fight for.

Be sure to do it to EVERY TOWN... That there are many towns allegiances can claim.

This is a great idea.
*applause*

KirillHuntersun

04-07-2004, 12:55 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

By general consensus. Where they are is where I socialize. In general, and to date, this is at the mansion. Since you can only recall the characters on one account to personal housing, the mansion is a safe place to keep the mules parked at. It's also fairly safe for dropmuling for those with only one account. Therefore, a lot of folks keep their tradesmules and storage mules at the mansion where they can get at them easily, as well as get buffs for tradeskills and help out clanmates.

If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

That depends. If I HAVE to choose, I'll take the town, and figure something out for the dropmuling and safe account location. This would hold true until and unless a way to "hire" vendors to work the mansion were implemented.

In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Currently, there really aren't any other features of allegiance housing that don't directly revolve around the easy access to it. Therefore, I'd by default have to rate it as pretty high. As Wolfe pointed out, half the time the mansion chests - which are EXTREMELY poorly located, given that you have to wind your way through the mansion to the basement, then wander through the basement to the chests, of which their are only 5 - in most allegiances are taken up by the monarch's personal items and goods, like tradeskill supplies and excess armor or quest items, such as rubble and pyreal bells (to name two).

I'll be blunt here, in addition to the above.

Making this an either/or proposition is a phenomenally BAD idea. If you make it so that only those without a mansion or villa can bind, you are effectively punishing them for using the current allegiance system. Yes, they'll have the central recall location too, it will just be at the mansion. And yes, that means privacy for dropmuling and, occasionally, extra storage.

But if you were, as an allegiance, to decide to DROP the hideous expense of paying a mansion's upkeep every month, you suddenly get a free recall for an entire town, giving your allegiance easy access to vendors and all the other amenities of towns. With a little forethought, you could pick a mostly-empty town that's out of the way and is only rarely visited, thus effectively keeping your privacy and mule saftey benefits. Result: Mansions very well could be abandoned, at worst; at best, every monarchy with a mansion or villa is going to feel insulted and hurt, wondering why they got punished for taking advantage of a legitimate system.

PLEASE do not make this an either-or proposition. It's a great idea, and I'd love to see it implemented. But you risk ruining it by excluding monarchies on basis of their monarch's housing.

(Hrm. Perhaps a compromise; any monarch without a Villa or Mansion would be able to bind to a bindstone in a meeting hall or some other special and somewhat private location. Any monarch with housing already in place would be restricted to using a town's Lifestone as a bindpoint. That would give smaller allegiances without their own housing a quiet place to mule and share, without taking away the advantages of quick access to a town from the "landed" allegiances.)

rschroe

04-07-2004, 12:56 PM

I like the idea. This would give the allegiance a town they could call their home town. Where they can so their selling and trading. It would be easy to get too.

Would also give an advantage to being in an allegiance, to have a city tie.

I think my allegiance would still meet at mansion, for privacy and that is where the buffbots are. But after a hard days looting they wouldn't have to come to mansion for sub they could portal right to a town and do their selling and buying.

Depending on where you put the bindstones would depend on if the cities would be used. If you put them in beginning towns I don't think my allegiance would have much use for that. Other towns like Qal, Arwic, Rithwic, Teth and AB now you have cities that you can sell in and that you can either hunt around or have other advantages.

But great idea.

Yew Wan Sum

04-07-2004, 12:56 PM

I am a monarch on MT. My home is Mayoi. Always has been. Always will be. No bindstone will change that. What *would* change is that it would not require our members to use up a tie to get to where we hang out. We don't hang out at the mansion. We hang out in public, at the Mayoi hillside LS. Why? So we can socialize and keep in contact with the many friends we mutually have who happen to be in other allegiances. If there were a bindstone in Mayoi, I would bind to it, and our members would use it. I would probably change our meeting spot to Mayoi proper rather than the hillside LS, which brings up another topic about that LS.

Can you move it a little closer to the town? Just enough so that its in the 'bunny n' chicken' area rather than the 'Dread Mattekar' zone. Mayoi is a good place to hunt, esp. around that LS, and people are always dragging monsters by(they spawn just within radars range). Moving it just 0.2 clicks to the NE would help a great deal. Nothing worse than playing a L30 character, dying on the hills, and materializing at an LS being seiged by lugians and mattys. Except maybe logging on a mule to get another weapon because yours is on a corpse, and having that mule thrashed by a tusker.. Yes, I know you can tie to another of the LS's, but take a good look at how many people use the hillside LS vs. the others. Lots. Why? Its closer to the master mage. Anyways, give it some thought.

deryk

04-07-2004, 01:01 PM

They should keep it the way it is now. Everyone atm can recall to marketplace and look how nice that is. Its filled with thieves, immature ppl/pk's who run there mouths, and noobs running around. Though marketplace is a good place for allegiances who dont have allegiance houseing to meet for quests ect.
I prefer to sit at my mansion and chat any day though.
Makeing it easier for ppl to gather wont make ppl gather more. Because ppl have the ability to gather now. And a lot still dont choose to. If ppl want to gather and chat why dont you just make a chat room for those ppl? They can pay $15 for there chat room.

Theran_Bakagin

04-07-2004, 01:02 PM

I know that the function of a central allegiance recall is a HUGE issue for me. I have been a monarch in my own right, as well as being a loyal member of the monarchy I am in now.

Being able to recall to a central location is tantamount to keeping the allegiance tight knit.

When I was my own monarch, I had no housing for people to recall to, so our guild met in Cragstone in front of the mage shop--where the Scrivners are now (blasted Squatters!) I know that even when we had the allegiance mansion, our guild had some small meetings and tinkering sessions at the Cragstone Sentinel Statue.

I am capable of going to a lot of places, but I almost invariably still sell my items in Cragstone.. I guess I am a creature of habit.. but I even buy my trade notes from the mage shop--although they no longer have the "different location" penalty.

Bindstones in towns would DEFINITELY get me back into the towns more often.. Heck I might start singing from atop the Cragstone Armorer again!

Lissette_ff

04-07-2004, 01:05 PM

I think this is a great idea to revitalize the towns. It's funny but our monarchy has a thread going right now aobut whether to choose a town as a gathering point. I liked the idea but didn't want to mess up the ties I have now. This would solve that problem. :) Great idea!!!

Protes

04-07-2004, 01:05 PM

I really like this idea a lot but I hope it will be available for all allegiances to use. I think if Allegiance Bindstones can only be used by allegiances that don't have a Mansion or Villa then this will further hurt the value of Mansions.

Surfal

04-07-2004, 01:05 PM

1. Mansion because of the easy recall.

2. Toss-up. Over time, as the ability for friendly monarchs to tie to the same bindstone happens, the towns would probably be more popular, especially as buffbots and such get moved to them.

3. It is currently the only real benefit. Mansion chests lack enough fine control features (and length of access lists), not to mention capacity and difficulty to bother going to, to make them ignored. As another poster put it, if you changed the mansion to a small single room with 5 chests, it would be an *upgrade* :(

Please note: I feel *very* strongly that this change should not be made until you implement some mansion upgrades; otherwise you leave the mansion as only being worthy as a status symbol, and for those of us who have paid for our mansions for a long time, it would, honestly, feel like a slap in the face.
You've been promising mansion improvements for a long time. The useable hooked items is a START, but only a slow, small start.

I want owning my mansion to feel like it's worthwhile again.

Yusuki

04-07-2004, 01:08 PM

Originally posted by Ibn
• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Posts that are off-topic will be removed. 1. By where we are, who's going, and who can recall to wherever. For pure socializing, we would prefer towns, but everyone's tied all over the place, which makes this difficult.

2. Depends on what was going on, and how crowded the town was. I don't have enough people in my allegiance to get portal stormed at the villa, but with two or three other groups, portal storming becomes a distinct possibility. And hazardous to the mules and lowbies.

3. It's the sole reason I wanted a villa over a cottage. The chests don't concern me--the ability for my entire allegiance to recall to one spot is the entire value.

Ashenfield

04-07-2004, 01:09 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Generally we do this at the mansion. Simply because of the ease and availability of the recall. It's also nice to have an area we can meet without tonnes of open chat/bot spam interrupting clan discussion.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I suppose it would depend on the purpose of the meeting. If it was strictly an allegiance meeting, I would use the mansion recall. For casual hanging out or preparing for battle, it would be nice to do so in a town due to the closeness of components, and possibly the ability to recruit members for the hunt or the allegiance.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Extremely important. We have chests in the mansion that are open to all, with the exception of two for the monarch. An archers chest, a trade supplies chest, etc... It is very handy to have this available via a central recall for all members to make use of. Not sure I can compare the features, as they kind of work together. Central storage would not be very usefull without a central recall. A Hooked portal with a central recall would not be very convenient either.

ferastu

04-07-2004, 01:12 PM

My allegiance (I'm not the monarch) has a mansion and is a small group (around 800, 30 or so active). It is currently heavily used for socializing and pkl. Prior to having the mansion the West Holtburg lifestone was our meeting point. I think the main reason for that was to attract and recruit vassals.

I could easily lie and say 'Yeah give us the bindpoint, we'll definitely use it even though we already have a mansion' just to get another 'tie'.

However, to be truthful to be used these bindpoints would have to offer something

What they would offer would be the ability to easily socialize with other monarchies. Being a small monarchy there are many other small monarchies that we are friendly with and group with for quests/hunting. The bindpoint would be great for coordinating that effort.

Unfortunately it wouldn't allow multi-monarchy pkl tournies as the bindpoints would be public and invite griefer pkl's.

So while the bindpoint would be nice for monarchies with a recall point, what would be even nicer would be a way to have an 'allied monarchy' where we could recall to their housing/bindpoint.

Rauth

04-07-2004, 01:13 PM

I decide where to socialize based upon where I come across members and what my allegiance is doing, if anything. Allegiance chat has helped in knowing generally where people are hanging out and what items others are looking for without having to have every allegiance member on my friends list.

Where I "gather" would depend upon the reason for the gathering. I would choose to gather in town more often than the mansion if I were merely choosing to hang out. Naturally, if I were attending or running a quest, which place to gather would depend on the quest and if the town or mansion was closer to an element required within that quest (ie; settlement portals for shortcuts, where to obtain certain items, locations of npcs). When looking for some place to drop spare scrolls and items of loot that may not be useful to myself, I currently try to drop them only at our mansion. If I had an allegiance bind-town to sell loot at, I would probably use the bind point more than the mansion overall. In addition, selling attractive loot to a town vendor would extend the "shelf-life" of these items and provide access that was equally, if not more, viable to a larger range of players that may be looking for such items - scrolls would last the same no matter where dropped, but perhaps have a greater chance of use by someone.

In my opinion, the central recall point provided by housing with dungeons is an extremely important and attractive feature for allegiances. However, new and small allegiances have been at a disadvantage on common recall point, mostly due to housing availability issues. The reason I stress housing with dungeons is if the barriers are dropped, then these dungeons become much more important than they are now if membership in the allegiance is a requirement for dungeon portal access. In my opinion larger allegiances should be able to have a gathering place which is inaccessible to players not in the allegiance. Allegiance Chat has allowed easier members-only discussions and organizing for smaller allegiances, but I think that the larger the allegiance grows, the less useful /a chat becomes for controlled discussion and organization purposes.

Madgic

04-07-2004, 01:16 PM

Hiya all.

Call me silly but I and my clan spent an absolute fortune in items and time collecting and purchasing the items needed to Buy our Mansion, I have spent many Hours decorating it and we hold events there we safe muleing there and have buff bots, trade bots, swap bots and info bots all in a safe environment we call home.

I think if we had the oportunity to use a town as a central meeting spot for the clan rather than the mansion it would rather smack me and my followers in the face, firstly after al that work we find out the villa I gave away would have been good enough for us anyway and now we find out that we didnt need either a mansion or a villa because we could have a town Tie instead!

My personal View is make mansions more usefull but perhaps try to encourage people back to towns with content that would help out more! Maybe make a mansion portal that sends people to a town. The monarch deciding what town to tie it too so the Caln does its shopping in that town.

Untill there is a safe way to mule across characters from the same account you wil not stop people wanting the safety of their own chests Villas or mansions.

On a secondary note to completely go against what your trying to do, LOL, any chance of a spell a Monarch can cast ona character to sent that character to an alleginace houseing, as previously mentioned we hold events at our mansion and would like an easyer way of getting people to us. the world outside is a scary place for under 50s to be running. Perhaps you could recall to a Monarchs housing if you are permitted by the Monarch IE @house mansion_recall Madgic, would send you to Madgic's mansion if she has permitted you.

Please dont make my Wonderful home any more value less please.

Meri

04-07-2004, 01:19 PM

Other than allegiances without housing at all... it's difficult to know how many people would use a bindstone other than for just "one more tie." I'd like to think that it would aid in "cross allegiance" quests... but I just don't know.

I've requested that my followers come and post their ideas, though... since they may have more valuable input than I.

Killorn

04-07-2004, 01:28 PM

I will personaly use the bindstone recall to hang out in towns. I think that the general population will eventually shift back to the towns once people get used to going there again though I expect the shift in behaviour to take a few months.

The one area that will maintain mansion usage is the buff bot though I believe there is an option to buff allegiance only but I am not sure.

Over all I like the idea and believe that it will revitalize the towns as they so desparately need.

K

Tofino

04-07-2004, 01:28 PM

I'll answer the poll-like question. If the mansion or town was an equal recall, I'd go to town. Extra socialization with more players sounds great! It would be awesome for the group searchers as well. The only issue -- and this is an issue that would KILL the idea -- would be keeping bots from being portal stormed. If bots got portal stormed, nobody would run a bot at these town stones. Meaning, I guess they need to be in meeting halls.

Meeting halls need a BIG sprucing up, too. So dark and dreary. And the washrooms are DISGUSTING. :p

Karem Darsun

04-07-2004, 01:31 PM

Bindstones are a nice idea, but as others have said, it cant be an either/or option with mansion recall.

We meet at the mansion now, because it is both easy and private.

If the town recall was there, i'd use it, but i would think that many alliegances are going to share one town so its not going to be a orivate spot, so the mansion recall is still needed.

I guess i have to take it on faith that this is part of a series of features being put in to add value both to mansions and towns and hope to see how it works in practice.

Havo

04-07-2004, 01:33 PM

I think it is a great idea. This gives the smaller guilds a chance to have a meeting place without having to force their members to keep or tie or make the subway run. This also means that other towns can come alive. I still think housing was the single worst thing ever in AC after UCM and chains.

ufhamlet

04-07-2004, 01:34 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

We use the mansion because it's the easiest place for everyone to get all 5 characters to. If a town was available via bindstone, it would get used in conjunction, but I imagine buffbots and exchangebots would be stationed at the mansion to avoid griefage.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I personally would prefer the town for efficiency's sake. I could sell off, shop the stores (assuming OTHERS were selling off as well), chat, etc. Now the fact that some people would be busy at the mansion for the above reasons would split the group up a tad, but I can live with that.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

I think it would be beneficial to "homeless" guilds, but as has been stated on other threads, they're homeless mostly because they choose to be. Any guild with 5+ active players, even casual, has no excuse for not being able to rangle up 2 Writs and an MMD each to help with rent. Acquisition is nothing since mansions currently trade for 3 cheesewheels on the open market. The purchase price can be traded for without too much trouble, at least on HG and I'm sure other servers as well.

I would, however, object STRONGLY to making this feature exclusive to "homeless" guilds. GIVE perks to the guilds that put the resources into mansion costs, don't remove an advantage (recalls are VERY precious commodities) because they happen to be richer or more active. Either make it a feature for everyone or no one.

EvilElvis

04-07-2004, 01:43 PM

This doesn't do anything to make people want to gather in town. If anything, it fractures the places where allegiance members have where they can expect to find others of their allegiance.

It might have small positive effects if the only bindstones were in starter cities, or if there were only 3-4 cities with bindstones so as to increase your odds of seeing others from other allegiances, but it doesn't really do anything to want to make people stay in towns themselves.

As tempting as it is to want another bindpoint into a town, I'm not going to say this is a good idea.

Solan

04-07-2004, 01:43 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

By where the other memebers are.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Mansion - If I want to socialize with the allegiance, then I don't really want potention interuptions.
After all, if someone in particular wants to tell ME something, there is always /tell.

On the other hand, if you keep adding LS's to the 'middle' of towns, this is almost a moot question.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?
It's the single most valuable part of allegiance housing. Without it, no other feature of allegiance housing would be easy to access.

Dat

04-07-2004, 01:43 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Generally, I use /allegiance chat quite a bit and Meginjarder as well. I use the mansion recall feature LOTS I like the secure trade, muling features and occasionally run a buffbot for allegiance members there. It's also nice to gather there for meetings and questing events. I wouldn't like to see this change.

However, I can see a few reasons for binding...if allegiance were more of a presence in towns...perhaps recruiting new vassals would expand, using vendors would be more practical than lsrecall/tie, and for allegiances without monarchy housing this would be most helpful. Of course the drawbacks would be increased spam from bots, lag and portal storming (remembering Eastham back in the day), and griefers in general have access to more people to annoy!

If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Actually, I'd like to be able to do both. Also, a lot depends on which towns the binding stones are located in. However, if I had to pick only one, I would still prefer the mansion. There simply isnt enough of a draw to make "hanging out" in towns more desirable than the privacy and security of the mansion. Other than those without allegiance housing...why would gathering in towns be more beneficial than housing?

In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

In my opinion, this is the most valuable feature of allegiance housing. Drop muling, trading, buffing, tinkering and trade skill characters have security and privacy and all characters can recall to the mansion for meetings, quest gatherings and a variety of activities. Many times a variety of unused items are dropped at mansion for all allegiance members to get free goodies. In a town, this would not be possible as non monarchy members might get stuff before allegiance members.

In general, if one could have both, that would be great. I remember when town lifestones were the only gathering place and our monarchy hung out in eastham and the town was a bustling, busy place. That would be nice to see again.

Setolc

04-07-2004, 01:50 PM

Originally posted by Ibn
Please use this thread to answer the following questions:

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

With the introduction of allegiance chat, the need to have your character near another to talk has been removed, so now most conversations occur on /a channel.

Its a convenient place to stage a quest (/house mansion_recall) and while we get ready for questing we will tend to socialize.

We do tend to have a buff bot so lower level characters recall to use the bot and if there are others there impromptu conversations occur.

Also -- for those with mulitple accounts having burdened mules at the mansion is a great convenience. A few still drop mule, with no problems at the mansion with losing items.

We also have monarchy members that will drop items and tell the group that they are available for pickup if desired at the mansion (healing kits, level 7 scrolls -- which are dropping too often (IMHO), armor/weapons that is ok, but not great, etc.).

As a result of these different activities, there are typically a few people at the mansion at any time -- which encourages monarchy socializing.

Due to the muling issue -- I would probably tend to gather at the mansion over a town.

Also as has been mentioned, when at the mansion, we can use open chat to discuss issues -- if we gathered in town to socialize, then we would be forced to use /a since some conversations may not be appropriate for all ears.

The /house mansion_recall was one of the reasons that mansions were extremely valuable early on. The remote location was also very nice.

I would be disappointed if the game decided to 'force' player repopulation of town by removing the ability to recall to the mansion. Or if the game developers decided to provide a Bindstone to non-mansion owning monarchies -- which I would personally see as another 'nerf' to owning a mansion.

The bindstone concept is a good idea -- but I am not sure I understand some players concerns that towns are deserted. Do players need to see other dots running around to know others play the game? When I visit AB I am reminded that there are other people in this game, and to be honest, a good majority of the people that engage in PKLite I would prefer to not socialize with.

I believe that the only reason people go to town is to sell loot or buy components. That activity does not take more than 3 minutes.

If Turbine/players desire to add socializing to towns, there needs to be another reason to be in that town.

I hate to borrow from AC2 -- but I do recall from the beta the concept of using a forge which would increase chances on crafting attempts. If you implemented modest enhancements to the capital towns (has to be concentrated) people will move this activity out of the marketplace and then may gather.

Then as the famous quote goes.....build it and they will come.

Batu Tenjin

04-07-2004, 01:56 PM

"• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?"

Most of my socializing is through the new Allegiance chat while out hunting (and Meginjarder before that), but when I do meet up with any Allegiance members for any reason it is always at the mansion. That is where everyone can recall to and where the bots are.

"• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?"

If I could choose (meaning I had both options available to me, which is the the only way to do this - giving Bindstones only to non-housed Allegiances would be a phenomenally bad idea) then I can see myself using both equally. Primarily I would use the Bindstone for stocking up before hunting or quests and for selling loot, but it would be just as easy for any Allegiance quest party to meet at the Bindstone town as at the mansion.

"• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing? "

Central recall is, for me, the only valuable feature of a mansion. I never use the storage, I could care less about the massive basement and all of the nicely decorated rooms (other than the vicarious status I derive from it). Well, that and the fact that you can only hook the new portals on mansions. However, if we were a non-housing Allegiance, I would feel a bit uneasy about congregating and formulating questing plans in a town where everyone is wandering about through our gathering spot.

All told I think this would be a good idea, even if the house-enabled Allegiances only used it as I would - as an easy path for all of us to get restocked and to sell. That would still drive extra traffic into the towns, which is your ultimate goal anyway.

Edit: Seto speaks the truth. Giving us another WAY to get into towns is a great idea, but giving us another REASON to get to and stay in towns is much better. Forges for tinkering that in essence cast Brilliance on you when clicked, Alchemy workbenches for potions that does the same, and other things could easily be added to the game to draw people into the towns. Make them only clickable once an hour, and you would not have to worry about macros hanging about.

JohnnyFF

04-07-2004, 02:01 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

1: The places I meet up with the people I know are places easily accessible. Places like the Marketplace, Vesayen Cathedral, Mansion, Old Subway or Ayan. These are the places people tend to turn to these days.

2: If the town was as easily accessible as the mansion, I would prefer the town because of the local vendors and the possibility to level in a x-level hive (if the bind point were in Baishi to take an example) even though I would probably still use the isolated Mansion area to mule various items from one account/character to another, because you know who you can trust and if another allegiance chose to bind in the same town as the one I was in. There would be some complications regarding who to trust when placing some high quality loot on the ground and then logging out in hopes of it still being there when you log back in.

3: Regarding recalling to allegiance housing, I'd say the only real purpose it has is strictly muling. If you open up the possibility of "binding" to a town, not only would you ensure that you light the spark in AC that was there 2-3 years ago with people standing about in Arwic trying to trade their goods. I'm curious if the idea about rebuilding Arwic had anything to do with trying to convince people to come back to the towns. Arwic has become a place where you would hardly be able to breathe if all were to gather there, compared to how it was before. As a follower of an allegiance you don't notice the "other features" of having a Mansion for instance. It's not like the people around the mansion use the interior for anything but muling, it's simply another place for the monarch to collect various quest items as another kind of stash.

Kyllyr

04-07-2004, 02:04 PM

Just found this thread and reposting this here:

Our monarchy has several bufff bots at the mansion. Those of us just hanging out hang out at the mansion inorder to watch what is going on.

We can see if somone is repeatedly buffing, which indicates they are having trouble. Then we can offer assistance.

Also by being at the mansion we can conviently answer any questions that people want to ask while they are buffing, without burdening everyone with spam on the /a channel.

It is also a good place to leave a character "parked" while going AFK. when you return you can scan the chat and then PM or /a answers to anyone who asked anything, whithout the burden of reading through a bunch of junk form non allegiance members.

It would be nice to see there be a reason to hang out in the towns again, but I do not look forwrd to spending hours trying to buy a cracked shard again. I wish you luck with this, but I think the marketplace killed all chance of towns ever regaining there popularity. The people who liked to hang out in towns, all hang out in the marketplace now.

UldartheSkilled

04-07-2004, 02:15 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Entirely on what the system allows. Currently, the only common gathering point is the mansion, so I use that.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

It would depend on the purpose.

- I should point out that this recall feature could help people get together with others from OTHER monarchies for quests, discussions, etc.
- It could also encourage monarchy members to patronize one common town's shops, etc.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Absolutely critical, as it is the one common recall point currently available (with the exception of marketplace, which is used for other purposes). Quite frankly, I'm not even sure what the "other featuresw of allegiance housing" are...

_DOT_1_2_3_4_5_

04-07-2004, 02:15 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

usually we just meet at the mansion .. everyone can get there easily

If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I would prefer town... can chat and buy/sell as well as see if any newbies need us

In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being most important I would say 5

Number-Sun

04-07-2004, 02:17 PM

another recall is always useful. That will free up a LS or recall for quest useage. Everyone needs to visit town for components and mansions are generally not close enough to walk.

Ashake_MT

04-07-2004, 02:29 PM

Where does our allegiance meet? Most often at the mansion, but we've been known to get a group together elsewhere - depends on where the people are.

I must agree, however, with the people who have said it would be grossly unfair to those of us who own mansions to be denied the ability to "bind" to a town. Why even consider punishing the allegiances who have worked hard to buy and maintain their mansions? After all, IMHO, they are already "punished" by the absolutely ridiculous maintenance required for a mansion to begin with!

On another plan of yours - I must voice objection to the proposed "powers" for allegiance officers. I do not feel they should be able to access @allegiance info, NOR have the power to oust OR appoint another allegiance officer! Granted, it would be assumed that the monarch would appoint those that can be trusted, but as we all know, on any given day, people can have bad days and dislike each other. As the monarch, I honestly feel the ability to appoint or remove an allegiance officer should be MY decision, not the decision of one I've appointed. To be brutally honest, it is my name on the allegiance tag as monarch - not theirs. IF this is implemented as you propose, I may very well not have any allegiance officers at all ... it could turn into a nightmare :(

Heideggar

04-07-2004, 02:34 PM

"How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?"

Either at the mansion or tou tou LS. Tou Tou has a lot to offer, and the LS is practicly in town as is, so not a big deal there.

"If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?"

Tough to say here. There are benefits to being at the mansion that aren't really there in towns. If I could easily recall to a town without giving up my other ties, like the mansion recall does, it'd use it to sell not much more than that.

The thing with mansion, and all housing recall, is the use of the barriers to go afk, hold buff bots there, tinker bots there, mule things, and it is a central point for the allegiance to gather without it taking up one of a person's portal ties.

These can all be done in towns, but in which situation would it be better for an allegiance to do these things? The mansion.

You can also have exculsive in-guild PK/L fights at mansion without much interferience by others. Towns don't provide that, BUT on the flip side, if more people were in towns, there'd be more people to fight. Take the good with the bad I suppose.

I can swear at my mansion all day long if I want to. I can't speak freely in towns, or other public places like that : )

"In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?"

There are other features to allegiance housing? I'm not sure which housing features you're referring to, but there aren't many to compare.

The central recall for allegiance housing is one of the most important aspects of owning a villa or mansion. I have a rather small monarchy, and we all can share the allegiance storage. Not to mention, most have cottages and other housing with storage as well. This is very nice for me considering I put salvage, THE's, kits, etc. and other supplies/items for members. It's also a place to put things for others when people have different playing hours. I'm fortunate that there aren't a lot of people. I can't make storage open to everyone. I have to select specific people. There _should_ be allegiance storage, not monarch storage. You should look into that. 2+ chests would do wonders. In large allegiances, this ability is almost mute considering the numbers involved.

Would house hooks be a housing feature to consider? The hooks are placed rather poorly, not enough of them if I wanted to do something, and the rooms are aestheticly unpleasant to be in. I have bugged housing hooks as well, and housing in general lags me pretty bad. So, house hooks are not something I consider a housing feature or a reason I'd get a house. Utility, Utility, Utility.

Mansions take up a chunk of landscape, but I'd like to have a courtyard with the barrier expand around it so people can PKL there, drop mule there, have events etc. Just a perk imo.

Basicly, if there wasn't a @house mansion_recall feature I most likely wouldn't have a mansion.

In fact, if there was no housing, people would be in towns. People would depend on their fellows for muling, or they'd drop mule somewhere. Housing has jacked up a lot of key features of AC when you think about it.

While a town recall ability would be nice, I don't think it'd provide the utility necessary to lure people there.

Most run quests are ones that provide utility to people.

You'll need a bit more than just a town_recall to get people in towns more. I'm pretty confident in saying that 99% of everyone has a quick means to getting to a town. Adding in a town_recall would only provide a convenience by possibly freeing up a recall tie.

What you guys want to do, which I'm sure is the point of this post, is to get people to hang out in towns. That means luring them away from mansions and villas. Doing that devalues mansions in their ability to have a central gathering point without taking up a portal tie.

There should be distinct reasons to own mansions, and distinct reasons to be in towns. Your idea just takes the reasoning of being at one place and puts it with another.

The amount of time spent doing town-related business is rather minimal. Buying and selling takes a couple minutes. Why hang out in a town when you can hang out at the mansion?

There should be a reason to hang out in town, no town_recall for any housing/allegiance. This would get people into towns, but still provide for the focal point of gathering. Not to mention that with the VERY few reasons to even have a mansion, devaluing the recall to one is going in the wrong direction in helping mansion be worth their cost.

"Posts that are off-topic will be removed."

I can't help but think that this was added in memory of me : )

Ryori

04-07-2004, 02:57 PM

First off, I view socialization as conversation. It is easier if all toons are in open chat range, but I do not believe I have to see the avatar to be social with the person.

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

It just happens. Once we got used to the /a channel it has meant we can be anywhere and socialize. I do most conversions via /a, direct tells or via fellowship chat, so "physical" location fo the toon does not mean much to me.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Mansion hands down. No spam and safe muling.

Everyone remember havign to run toons out to the middle of no where to drop mule? or trying to mule with strangers running between you and the other toon?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

In my opinion it is the only valuable part of allegiance housing. The other things are nice, but having a home base is great.

General:
As others have mentioned, I agree that choice of bindstone locations needs to be thought out. If there was one in Rithwic and I was the monarch, I wouldn't think twice about which one I'd pick.

I think of few of us agree on this point (hope this isn't off topic). Getting to some town is easy enough. There is no reason to hang out there. This is just my opinion, but Qal, Hebian and the Sub (hub) were rarely social places when busy.. they were places of business. A good number of folks just ran in, sold, bought, and got out. Back then most other towns were still fairly empty... I rarely saw folks in Nanto, and rarely anyone in Lin that wasn't in my guild (we setup shop in the Lin bar). Yaraq was usually busy as well.

Lots of things, not just mansions and the marketplace have changed to the economy since then, though. Making it easier to get to a town likely will not do much unless there is a reason to stay there.

Gouru

04-07-2004, 02:58 PM

Sangria

04-07-2004, 02:59 PM

I like the idea. I socialize all over the place. i try to help new players get started. i dont spend a lot of time at the mansion.

I only mule at my appartments so that is not an issue for me.

As for what it does to the value of a mansion - I can see their point. With no mansions or villas to be had I think a lot of players are forced to join monarchies instead of having their own. I can see some splits happening here and there. It will certainly make keeping rank interesting for some.

But mansions and villas are a choice in the game like everything else. If implimenting this makes mansion owners feel their investment is a waste - they still have the option of moving out and into a town instead.

It will make questing much easier with players not in the family and easier for small clans to join with bigger clans for questing.

I like the idea and I hope they give it a try.

SuzySwiftblade

04-07-2004, 03:00 PM

I like this idea !!! I currently use the mansion for muleing, chatting with friends knowing the others around are people I know BUT I also like hanging out in town where I can meet up with friends, meet new people, sell/restock...its a whole new environment in town...Ok I guess what I trying to say is...

Manison is home/family and town is getting out socializing :D
shopping/spending money!!!

Jarella

04-07-2004, 03:02 PM

Oh i love this idea :)

I go where there are people to socialize with.

If we could recall to a town it would be so much easier and all the monarchy would most likely hang out there too.

The central recall is probablly the most valuable part of allegiance houseing. If you make this recall avialable to only those without a mansion....then i will immediately begin pestering my monarch to get rid of our mansion.

I also agree with those who say you should be careful about where you place the bindstones. Just be sure to put one in heb :)

Blau

04-07-2004, 03:04 PM

1. We meet at the mansion and go from there.

2. At the mansion because I'm on Darktide and we don't want to get ganked while we're afk buffing using Nerfus Buffus. Typically we all meet, we buff, we raid. After 50 minutes or so, we regroup back at the mansion and most of us go afk while we buff for round 2. Fix a bowl of cereal, make a sandwich, take a bathroom break, make a phone call, and other real life stuff. Even if you make buffing go faster, some people take longer to prepare than others (they have to go buy supplies, mule some items, etc), so you'll end up going afk even if you're done buffing while you wait for your friends. We're not going to start doing this in towns and we don't want you to change this.

3. Very useful. It will allow guilds on Darktide to have a designated guild town that they defend. Today you have to burn a tie to do that. If they got a "homeland" lifestone that everyone in the guild could recall, it would enable easy acccess to the guild to their town. However this is only part of the problem. You need to make it worth fighting for too.

IMHO you should just let everyone in the guild recall to the monarch's Life Stone wherever it is. We don't necessarily need it to be in a town. Towns are laggy and not very good battle grounds for PvP.

IMHO you should just move mansions near town - or even in town. Towns would be much more useful if they were close to your allegiance hall - almost like your mansion is just a building in town. That would be ideal. I'd also like to be able to just have an apartment upstairs in one of the buildings or something like that instead of a cottage out in the middle of nowhere.

If you want to revive towns, make them worth fighting for and give us an easy way to get there. Don't couple these together though. Some of us will choose a hunting ground rather than a town to attack/defend. You can make towns interesting without nerfing something to force our hand.

Dj_Viper

04-07-2004, 03:28 PM

Before I start this keep in mind I am from Darktide.

-I decide where to meet based on where my friends are lifestoned. We socialize in the safest spaces usually (the mansion) where we don't have to be worried about being buffed 24/7.

-I would gather at both. Bindstones would probably be used as something to fight over for good sell rates or something which is exactly what darktide needs. If there were battles over bindstones...that would be amazing. I would use the mansion when I wanted to be somewhere safe and perhaps use a buff bot, and use the bindstone when I'm looking for trouble.

-The mansion recall feature is extremely important to me. If this was taken away there would be no point in having a mansion at all. If I am reading this question right...mansion recall features should never be taken away...especially on darktide. I use it all the time as a safe spot to meet and would probably never use the mansion if it didn't have a recall feature. Our mansion is widely used and would serve no purpose if there was no recall. I would be surprised if even one mansion would be bought on darktide if this was implemented. I also have a feeling people would cancel their accounts over something like this because thats what they tend to do when stuff like this happens.

Stirling

04-07-2004, 03:39 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Convenience is probably the most important factor

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Probably both. You can't sell at the mansion, and you can't get the same sense of fraternity in town.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Easily the most important feature. Witness the comparative demand for villas when they became recallable. Mansions took away from towns as gathering places, though, and it would be good to give a sense of community back (I used to live in Kara, for example). Also every recall and portal gives more options for travel around Dereth, which is always a good thing.

Raylin

04-07-2004, 03:51 PM

Excellant idea. These are my thoughts.

I think both a mansion/villa and the bindstone would be used. Players would use the bindstone to get to town to sell which would free up a LS or Portal tie. Many players will like that. It will also be used for players to socialize informally.

Then the allegiance housing recall would be used for things like guild meetings, using buff bots, and access to the guild storage. Expecially since Monarchs will be able to open their storage to the whole guild if they wish to.

So I think it's an awesome idea, but please don't limit it just to guilds that don't have a mansion/villa.

Lord-of-Light

04-07-2004, 03:56 PM

Originally posted by Ibn
Please use this thread to answer the following questions:

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

To some extent, the first query is almost an oxymoron for those allegiances that have alleg housing; alleg recall capability presumably makes alleg housing the logical place for the members of almost all those allegiances that have alleg housing to congregate there instead of anywhere else.

However, the other advantages of alleg housing (extra storage, the ability to mule and/or exchange items safely, and the seclusion that much such housing provides facilitating open chat without spam or undue interruption -- or censorship -- all weigh in favor of alleg housing being a logical congregation spot as well.

Thus, for many, the answer to the second question would be (and has been) alleg housing more often than not...because of many of the other advantages of alleg housing as noted above.

[Note: I don't include buff/portbots and/or tradeskill bots in this mix, because as some others have noted, they could be as or more usable in towns.]

Nevertheless, I am heartened by the fact that a number of monarchs (as well as other alleg members) have indicated that they feel they would use towns/binding stones as congregation points as well when they were introduced...as this would enhance the opportunity for cross-allegiance interaction and activities, as well as enhancement of recruitment opportunities and/or otherwise being available to help noobs (or independents)...and which would in the process tend to make at least some towns more active.

In reading other replies, I see a fairly strong case can be made for not making it an "either/or" decision. There would be little point in continuing to have alleg housing if you could not still readily recall to it, and, again as were noted above, the other advantages of alleg housing would make most monarchs/allegs opt to stick with the housing recall option as between the two on an either/or option basis.

At the same time, some while back, I started advocating something just like this (which I called "lodestones") in part to enable small allegiances, or those who had otherwise unsuccessful in getting alleg housing, to also be able to have a reday place to congregate...and if binding stones are only going to be available on a first come-first serve basis, I'd still like to see that those groups who didn't have that capability at all be able to acquire it before others were able to have multiple alleg recall capability.

[Note: How the "binding stone" mechanics/protocols would work are still a bit unclear. Most particularly, would multiple allegiances be able to tie to the same binding stone, or just one alleg per stone. If the former, would there be a limit to the number that could do so? I could see it not necessarily being a good idea (lag or loadwise) that 40 or 50 allegs could all tie to one stone...or stones in just a couple of towns....but then to the extent that revitalization of towns was a desired objective, even a handful of fairly active towns would be better than what we have now.]

Lastly, I see no reason to eliminate the recall ability re: villas (or the ability to use villas as alleg housing) as one or two others appear to have suggested (and, no, neither I nor any alleg I belong to own a villa, nor do I aspire to have one. I simply don't see how eliminating that ability would be constructive...or in the long term interest of the game.]

Flipo

04-07-2004, 04:01 PM

Please use this thread to answer the following questions:

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

1. I go to the place where only clan mates have a tendency to visit whenever they play. Since bots,tinks,Font,portals,chests, muling are done at mansion then this is the place to meet fellow allegiance members.

What i have observed in playing AC is that clan learns where their clan meets and ppl adapt to that location.

2. Mansion.

3. Extremely.

Now if monarch could set a tie so that a command like
/town_recall could be used by clan then I think this would be a more friendly way to promote more clan ppl in town and immediately help those who don't have a villa/mansion.

ie /house mansion_recall for allegiance only socialization.
/town_recall for allegiance and non allegiance socialization.

While this is not a strong enticement for clan to hang in a town it does open that up as a option where none existed before.

brucehreese

04-07-2004, 04:20 PM

Alot of good points in this thread. As for the monarchy im in, I think I can safely say we will continue to meet at where ever the buff bot is. Having another way to access a town seems a plus, but I dont think mansion owners should be denied a perk that other non-mansion owners have. If anything give mansioned monarchies more options for their money -- make it worthwhile to own a mansion. Currently our monarchy can run two or three buff bots. We often run one in the marketplace as well as at the mansion. With a town binding stone, I can see us putting the bot at the town if there is enough traffic there. Two or three monarchies using the same town might be enough traffic, and maybe the different monarchies could come to some buff bot aggreement. The only other way to keep people at a town is to have it a good hunting town. By that i mean, good xp monsters around for a fellow to form and kill, having a buff bot nearby, and an easy way to get to the hunting grounds, would start to bring different monarchies to one place. Pathos menice illustrates my point in this regard. In this case a tie to stonehold would be most useful and very used. Just dont go in the dirrection of giving to the non-mansion monarchies something that takes away the value of owning a mansion.

Cuttler

04-07-2004, 04:31 PM

Exoris

04-07-2004, 04:39 PM

1. /a has made it not necessary to have a place to socialize, but most socializing happens at the mansion or while out adventuring or questing. Our monarchy sort of has a town many of us use for selling/comps, and we run into each other there and visit. An allegiance town tie would encourage that even more. I also like the idea of sister allegiances being able to tie to the same town for easier access to each other.

2. Allegiance meetings would still happen at the mansion. Quest gathering usually now happens at the most convenient place to start the quest, for example, we meet for Bobo at the AL drop. Meeting to exchange items would probably still happen at the mansion. General socializing I imagine would happen equally both places, with perhaps the more sedate people gravitating to one place and the rowdier people gravitating to the other. I do like the idea of it being easier to gather in a particular town, socialize and shop at the same time. Take care to not make the merchant's prices obviously better in one or two towns to where virtually all monarchies tie to those towns.

3. Central recall is essential to the smooth functioning of a monarchy. It is easilly the most valuable feature of allegiance housing. However, I was surprised to see so many responses badmouth the mansion itself. I love the mansion design; it is a very cool building. The use of hooks to display quest trophies and presents from allegiance members to monarch adds much to the monarchy, especially if they are inscribed well. Every once in a while, I wander the mansion reading the inscriptions on new items on display. I do agree with the comments suggesting that mansion storage could stand some improvement. I'd like to see some storage only for the monarch, and other storage open to select members, and some storage open to the entire monarchy. I'd also like to see the storage located closer to the front door.

Geomancer

04-07-2004, 04:54 PM

Allegiance gathering feedback thread.
Please use this thread to answer the following questions:

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

I socialize with my fellow allegiance members in IRC or in our forums. When I'm in-game, I do it via IRC and the location isn't meaningful. So... I decide by what is most convenient.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

We would gather at our mansion to start quests, but we'd gather at the town for raiding. (This is all on Darktide)

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Well, what are all the features?
1. Central recall.

2. Protection for your mules and bots that buff or do trades or whatever. (PKs cry about housing barriers because they can't gank our trade mules, waaaah waaah waaaah)

3. Depending on the location of your villa or mansion, easy access to somewhere.

4. (Potentially) community storage, though it sounds as though many people don't use it that way.

5. A hookable portal to the dires. (But it is way out in the middle of nowhere :( )

I'd rank the mule protection as #1 (due to housing barriers) followed by central recall.

Posts that are off-topic will be removed.
_________________
Alex "Ibn" Beckers
AC1 Online Community Relations

I have to agree with people who are calling for the bindstone feature to be enabled for ALL allegiances, not just ones without housing. Especially since villas work for allegiance housing and are often in more convenient locations than mansions anyway. (Add more villas!)

I have to disagree with the people who want to decide where you should and shouldn't put bindstones. From a PvP perspective, bindstones are going to be a way to get to a town to either defend it or raid it, probably both. Don't limit where you place them, or if you do, simply make 'restricted' bindstones that you must be PK (not pink) to use. Put the carebear bindstones in the limited places the people here seem to want them, and put the PvP bindstones everywhere.

It worked for you in AC2, just go ahead and add them. You ought to add a spell for it too, so that people with item magic can recall it faster and more conveniently.

bmw_hg

04-07-2004, 05:06 PM

In my opinion, the only thing this will do for the majority is give us another place to recall to, making it even easier to get around.

It will be a nice feature for smaller clans with out a villa or mansion.

I would still rather see housing redesigned to look more like castles and keeps and towers. With fewer rooms. No one ever uses any of the rooms in mansion now. They are nearly worthless, except for the hooks that give you a bit more storage.

I think my clan will continue to meet at the mansion when there is a need to meet.

Depending on how the bindstones work it might be useful to coordinate with another friendly clan that you hunt with a lot to use the same one so that both clans can meet in the same town.

Seun

04-07-2004, 05:13 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

We socialize wherever we end up. Most of us are lifestoned and lifestone tied in the same places, or we meet at the villa.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

It would depend on the purpose of the gathering. If it was to prepare for a quest, which we do quite often, we would probably meet in town. If it was to tinker/dye/mule, we would probably meet at the villa.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

This is an extremely valuable tool. The villa houses our equipment, extra healing potions, rations and is a safe place to mule.

el_slacko

04-07-2004, 05:27 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?
As in talking, either with Patron, Monarch, Vassal, Co-Vassal or Allegiance chat. In person, i either hunt with them, or we choose to meet in a easy-to-get-to town, or we goto the mansion. We decide whatever is easiest to get to and if one of us is shopping/selling, which place has the facilities we need.
If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?
For buff bots and other allegiance bots, the mansion, to limit outsiders from being able to use them at will. For socializing purposes when we are semi-busy(see above), a town would be ideal if it wasnt too spread out, or too crowded. For non-mansion/villa monarchies, a small, close town with good rate vendors would be ideal. We could recall to there without using up a tie spell, and we could buy/sell etc, it could also be a sell-point during hunting trips. Although, for meeting up for quests where someone has a tie, a mansion is good because its even smaller than a town, and we can all meet up in one small place to get ready(buff bots too).
In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?
It is paramount. If there was a boulder with a chest on top of it with recall-abilities, many would use that if there were no more mansions. The dungeon isnt a big deal and rarely used, and the decorum of a mansion can sometimes be too big and confusing. Most meetings happen out in front of the mansions, or sometimes, the dungeon. The storage is nice for a handful of top-ranking monarchy members to put valuable, sought-after loot in to exchange and take as needed for the lower-downs. Although storage isnt an enormous deal, since appartments are easily gotten, you always have a little storage.

((About appartments, their main use for many people is to safely mule(transfer items between characters) than for real storage. I store some potions or arrows in it so i can only recall and grab and go. But the limited storage capacity of appartments is rarely used for mass-storage.))

khonda

04-07-2004, 05:28 PM

1) My allegiance tends to gather at the mansion, but I think that is a side effect of everyone being able to recall to it. /a helps reduce the need for face to face meeting.

2) If we have the choice to recall to a town *and* to the mansion, I would choose town. Many of my clanmates use Hebian to sell and use Hebian as often as the mansion. I think towns would help people to meet others, making for a larger sense of community. Currently, people meet primarly at the allegiance housing, and go straight to their hunt from there. Doesn't leave much time to meet others.

If the choice is town recall *or* mansion recall, I would choose the mansion. If I couldn't have both, I would opt for the privacy of mansion. I can get to town when I need to, but wouldn't want to give up a private meeting place where I know it's safe (muling, trading, etc).

Please allow for allegiances to recall both mansions/villas, and to towns/bindstones.

3) I think a central meeting location is very important to allegiance housing. I think it is the most important feature. I have only been inside the mansion on a few occasions, and actually find the layout confusing and frustrating. 99% of my trips to the mansion is to meet with others.

I like this idea, and see it like this, Towns are public gathering places (the mall, the bar, swap meet, etc), and allegiance housing is the local Elks lodge :D. I don't think they should be mutually exclusive.

Bivitar

04-07-2004, 05:34 PM

#1 -- Most of my group preferred in town, but with allegiance recall freeing up our portal/LS ties, we defaulted to the mansion.

#2 -- Town, it provides a center for allegiance activity with NPCs while allowing the chance to meet other players in non-hunting situations.

#3 -- It's important, and give members greater mobility by freeing up their ties for personal uses.

Opinions: Restricting town bind stones to non-house owning allegiances will further erode the value of mansions as a center piece of a successful allegiance. While I am all for allowances for small guilds, I also dislike changes that make it hard for larger allegiances to operate. There is something wrong when a mansion (on the server I play on) goes for less than a villa! People don’t tend to build good teamwork unless there is a necessity to do so, and the easier you make it for players to have it all for themselves, the less social and civil the game becomes.

sylphia

04-07-2004, 05:49 PM

I wouldnt want to see allegiance bindstones restricted to NON mansion/villa clans. Invariably, there will be some who want both. For example, our clan in particular is based in Eastham, and has been for several years. Whether we have had mansion/villas or not, we have always maintained ties to eastham for gatherings. Giving the monarch the ability to provide a clan-wide LS tie for the rest of the clan would still be useful for us, even though we currently own a mansion. Dont shut the door on "landowning" clans.

kgober

04-07-2004, 05:55 PM

where we socialize depends on how you define 'social'. if you mean chatting with allegiance mates, then we do that at the mansion. if you mean doing a quest with allegiance mates (and only allegiance mates) we would typically gather at the mansion, because that's where the buffbots are.

but if we're running a quest and we have non-allegiance members as guests, then we would of course arrange to meet at a bindstone.

I think it would be a mistake to limit bindstone use to monarchs without villas or mansions -- the larger allegiances that can afford a villa or mansion are also typically the ones that run the most events that are open to non-members. and a bindstone is a very handy way for allegiance members to rapidly get to a location easily reached by non-members as well.

muling, of course, will always be done at the mansion, bindstone or not.

-ken

Evoker II

04-07-2004, 06:17 PM

Originally posted by Ibn
Please use this thread to answer the following questions:

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Posts that are off-topic will be removed.

I DEFINATELY will want to continue using our allegiance mansion as the place to gather for our guild. Let's face it, there are alot of annoying pain's in the rears living in dereth. I like having the privacy of a mansion or allegiance housing so events or quests or hunts can be organized without any interruption. Interruptions can range from a bunch of strangers coming by and asking questions, or your colorful griefer who happens to like your allegiance gathering area and takes the time to pass by ever so often.

Not that some players outside the guild saying hello is an evil thing, but when your fellow is buffed and about ready to leave then 4 or 5 players pass by asking if they can join and aren't buffed, then an explanation is needed to tell them why they can't. So they leave and a few more come by and they start asking "what's up"? lol. It can get annoying.

I really don't understand the great longing for town gathering. It's nice to meet up with a friend and chat in town here and there and chat for a few mins. We have so many easy to get to meeting areas in Dereth. Subway, Marketplace, Sanctuary, AB. On Mt it seems marketplace is the big meeting spot, hence the name marketplace, followed by AB

Some folks are just latched on to the old wayof how it was back in the day when there was no housing and everyone lived in town. Lets face it, those days are gone. Some folks are forgetting how much of a pain it was to find a secret spot and drop mule your items.

Ontop of that, it's not like we have over 2000-3000 players logged on a server during peak time like long ago. Even if players started to move into towns, they'd still be pretty empty. 5 or 6 players standing in town will not recapture that town buzz. We're lucky to see more then 50 people at marketplace, Take those 50 and spread them evenly thru each town and you'll still have that vacant feeling.

This idea imo is only good for those who do not have an allegiance villa/mansion. Being a monarch of a very large allegiance, I'd only use this as a way to save my followers a portal tie. I'd most likely set up in mayoi so they could recall and get comps fast.

Bottom line, the only way to get people back into towns is to do away with housing, and that's not gonna happen.

Eschient

04-07-2004, 06:34 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

I go where they are.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

TOWN!! All I can do at mansion is stand there. In town I can sell or craft while we're all chit-chatting. Plus, it would make things easier for socializing with friends outside our allegiance. *love*

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

I use the house recall to hunt on my lower levels. It's always been great for meeting up for quests, but I prefer towns any day. And with the new recall, I'd get the added bonus of being able to get my mules and low-levs someplace where they can sell and hunt without having to give up their current lifestone ties.

Mageling

04-07-2004, 06:35 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

It varies, I tend to prefer a safe palce if I'm going to be chatting for a while, i.e. mansion or the like. I tend to die if I try chatting too much much while near spawns... I juist have a preference to 'seeign' teh person I'm chattign with when possible too.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

It'd vary depending upon what the purpose of the meeting, for some things it would go either way. Most chat could be either place, some of it is private but that could done via /t or even a fellow and fellow chat. For tink jobs and the like it'd probably be the allegiance housing.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

The allegiance recall is , to me, *THE* reason to pay the highway robbery in writs each month, it's crucial and critical to be able to meet up with your fellow allegiance members in a easy way (preferably without burning a tie), also remember that some templates don't HAVE item magic....

I guess in summary the proposed changes sound interesting and nice, the bindstones do sound like they'd be the best bet atm to help revitalize the towns. I'd prefer if the /bindstone command worked for allegiances that already have housing as well for those without such but it's not going to twist my underware into a bundle if it doesn't. You probaly should watch out where the bindstones go tho....

Ishamael Creed

04-07-2004, 06:36 PM

1) We socialize at our mansion.
That's pretty much the reason we got it.

2) Mansion. What would be nice is the ability to purchase vendors for your mansion for easier selling of loot, though I do understand that it will likely do away with towns then. Back to the topic, however, I'd say a 'meeting' place in town would be terrific as well. Opens the doors to those monarchs that don't have the ability to maintain a mansion (Villa recall for allegaince was a nice touch) and also serves as a more formal meeting place.

3) The Central Recall location, next to allegaince chat, has been the best thing for Allegaince 'closeness' in my mind. Before that recall ability, we've always felt disjointed. Hell, I didn't know half the people in my monarchy prior to it. Allegaince chat has also helped tremendously, so I think it's at least in the top 2.

Originally posted by Ibn
Please use this thread to answer the following questions:

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Posts that are off-topic will be removed.

Zonomar Xisle

04-07-2004, 06:52 PM

I think our alleg would still meet up at the mansion a lot.
The ability to easily meet up there is important.

Bindstones would allow "allied" monarchies - or just monarchies that have a lot of friends between them - to gather together.
This could allow smaller monarchies to come together easily to do quests and such, if they were tied to the same bindstone.

Drogo007

04-07-2004, 06:56 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Whereever they are.. :) Happens to be at the mansion because the common tie we all have makes that a more likely spot t orun into them.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Probably at the Town more often than not if I'm just "hanging out" - If there are multiple monarchies tied to the town, it should increase my chances of chatting with people and generally having a good time

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

What other features?? Honestly, I've never seen any real benefit to a mansion other than the common recall....

A couple of points: As has been stated over and over already (/me prepares to club the deceased equine), DO NOT make this available ONLY to the those who do NOT own a mansion or villa... be real annoying to have all the hard work our monarchy puts in to maintaining our mansion feel like another slap in the face. And please be clear on the purpose of this new tie before you place the bindstones - if it's for gathering purposes, then make it out of the way, non-popular towns. If it's for easy access to resources, then make sure all the nice, "uber" towns have one so that people can take their pick. And if you limit the number of monarchies that can tie to a given stone, prepare to hear whining on an incredible level when one or two of the best locations fill up and people are unhappy about having lost in in the "land rush".

Phosphine

04-07-2004, 07:16 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

I use allegiance recall to meet allegiance members to give them loot. I currently supply weapons to 3 dagger, 1 sword, 2 ua characters as a free service. I do not use the buffbots, tinkerers, or crafters, as I have midrange (ranked ~25 on the server for tinker skills), and my Iron Chef is an accomplished cook and alchemist. I also occasionally quest and am doing this more often, but my main use (5/7 trips) is for the care and feeding of allegiance members.

If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I would prefer to gather in a nearby town. At least half of my meetings are for crafting and the supplicant doesn't have all the neccessary components. They have to then recall and get them. Being tied to, say, Rithwic or Ayan Bakur would help reduce these problems and waiting around 10 to 30 minutes.

In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Basically, its the only reason to have allegiance housing; to have place to meet and gather. The downside, if you want to have public quests, you can meet in Subway or Marketplace and thats about it.

btw, the hardware survey is flawed, you don't count the number of accounts that each person holds only thier hardware.

Maxymyllyn

04-07-2004, 07:29 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Usually convenience. If a town is most convenient, so be it. But usually, mansion is the easier place to do what we need to when we're getting ready to go running around.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Well, most likely, I'd gather at the town, simply because in progress stuff usually is helped by the resources in towns...but the town content itself needs further improvements. Just adding the bindstones will not be enough. I have heard some really good ideas on this such as tinker forges and alchemy work benches, etc. Personally I think that additional work overall needs to be done to towns to make them more 'valuable'.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Quite important still - security and solace for mansion owners - don't take this away!

Kyayote

04-07-2004, 07:57 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members? Theres not much time to socialize, We usually do it hunting & questing. But we have bimonthly clan meetings & those are held at the mansion.

If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather? Most likey I would choose the mansion.

In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing? Very. When everyone can get together fast is what helps make a clan tick.

Davidge

04-07-2004, 08:08 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

The primary decision is based on ease of use, it's easy to use /house Mansion_Recall . . . .

Secondary is our mansion is home to our clans shared storage, buff bots, clan hooked items (we have a few AWESOME decorators that help me decide where to put things) and the area provides excellent mid-level hunting grounds.

We use our mansion for quest starts because its so easy to meet and get into groups.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Both! Before we had a mansion we lived in Hebian-To. Many of us still gather there ( I have a tie to the South Dires LS specifically for that reason, easy Heb access) for chatting, meeting friends from other clans, and to start multi-clan quests.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Very valuable, but I also highly value the storage (our clan actually uses it and allows access to our council for clan needs, pooled housing resources for those needing cottages, quest keys and objects, bells for QQ, etc etc) as well as the hooks. The place is home, and has become a musium of our clans past notable events and leaders.

I also love the new beneficial items that are hooked at our mansion, Font of Jojii, the new Blackmire portal, etc. for everyones use.

Fzzt

04-07-2004, 09:07 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Generally I stand around at the mansion since it's free of thieves and troublemakers (ie why I rarely use marketplace).

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I'd choose the mansion as I feel more at ease around my fellow clan mates, especially about giving items away. However, I also play an Alchemist/Cook/Tinkerer and if there was a way to make that type of character more viable by being in town I would play them in towns MUCH more.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

As far as mansions are concerned it's intrinsic, that ability coupled with allegiance chat has helped to get allegiances together and I would suspect its the same for the smaller allegiances that cannot get ahold of a mansion or afford a mansions monthly rent.

Fzzt of FF.

Darth_MT

04-07-2004, 09:30 PM

I decide where to socialize with my allegiance members by going where the most of them are gathered.

I would probably choose to gather at my allegiance mansion, since it provides a place to meet without people outside the allegiance interfering with our activites.

I think being able to recall to a central allegiance house is very valuable, as it provides an easy means to gather for quests, fellowships, etc.

Loreth

04-07-2004, 11:10 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

A: Since most people hang-out at the mansion, that's where I go too.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

A: I'd probably 1st visit the mansion, if nobody's around I'd then visit the town.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

A: Of all the allegiance features, "mansion recall" is the most important to me, as it allows fast/easy access to meeting other players.

SUGGESTIONS: Possible ideas to increase town populations

1) Allow trade-mules to work in town shops. While working in shops, they would earn XP at a rate similar to a mage/melee person fighting monsters solo. No fellowship's allowed while working in shops. No unattended workers allowed.

Working in a shop would involve helping customers (they would semi control the NPC merchants buy/sell window, maybe even offer a few % variance in prices), plus they could also provide special services: Tinkers, making potions, arrows, etc.

Maybe even allow then access to special non-player owned inventories, such as bag of embue or tinker materials. Players visiting the shops could purchase these inventories, but only shop worker could access/use them .... to be used in tinkering items for the customers.

Or allow a trade mule to create items while working in a shop, then give them the ability to put them on sale. Example: Player works for healer shop, creating potions. When done, the potions are placed in the healer shop's inventory and can be purchased by players.

2) Alternate idea, I'm sure its already been suggested: Instead of trying to move people from the mansions to the towns ... why not just move the mansions TO the towns. Maybe even put 2 mansions in each town!

Good luck :)
-Loreth (WE)

embien

04-07-2004, 11:43 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

We meet at the mansion. Well, we used to meet at the mansion before so many people left AC in the last couple months, but those of us left still do so. I'd consider putting my buffbot in town, but I'm afraid the griefers would take the joy out of that. Plus, can you imagine the amount of spam in Rithwic with about 10 buffbots running there?

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

We'll probably still meet at the mansion, but having another recall to a town for selling/buying would be handy.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?
What other value is there in owning a mansion? The rent is usuriously high and the storage is so hard to get to that it's hardly ever used.

If our allegiance didn't already own a mansion, you could bet your bottom dollar that we'd be on the prowl for a villa, instead. We'll be watching carefully for the promised upgrades for mansions. We may yet find that it's just easier to abandon the mansion altogether if we can recall to a villa somewhere. Hookable portals and other "goodies" that are only attainable by large allegiances don't cut it for us.

LugianWarlord

04-08-2004, 12:10 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Either at the mansion, but usually in IRC or Allegiance Chat

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

At the mansion, simply because other crowd chat is avoided entirely, plus we can form a fellow and give instruction without distraction/interruption.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

It's probably the only valuable feature of allegiance housing (mansion) for me since I am not a monarch...

chotatopip

04-08-2004, 12:24 AM

1 i like to meet at mansions really easy

2 i would like the town recall if you added it to mansion recall

3 i like embien ideas about hookable town portals that would rock and a place where every alleg member can recall meet and trade or qust is extreemly valueable

Bartz HG

04-08-2004, 12:57 AM

1) usually at the allegiance mansion, its very convienant for all to recall there.

2) most likely at the mansion, as it would only be allegiance members there and would facilitate more privacy for allegiance only activities.. to gather in town would be fine for non allegiance specific activities..and a bigger plus would be if vendors sold more items that higher lvls use i.e. platinum scarabs at all mage shops, and greater mana charges as well as the items that lower lvls could use.. also buy rates should be better say 95 per cent for all towns even starter towns, that would increase a little more traffic to them i would think and give a reason to want to recall to an allegiance specific town, or any town for that matter 8).

3) its very valuable to have the feature, and the other features of allegiance housing are just as valuable.

and thx for the opportunity to participate *)

kgober

04-08-2004, 01:51 AM

whoops, forgot to answer the last part.

@house mansion_recall is the *only* thing that makes allegiance housing useful. it's the only command that can transport all characters on all accounts to a single secure location for muling and cross-account buffing, without using a valuable lifestone or portal tie.

since we lost everything in the basement, I don't use the mansion storage anymore. I rarely use our apartments' storage (when I do, I go to the apartment with an appropriate character to fetch it, then bring it back to the mansion for transfer).

the hooks are irrelevant to me. most of them are in rooms I never go into (the only parts of the mansion I ever see are the big two-story main room, and the hallways that lead to it from the front door).

the mansion barrier is useful. it's what makes the mansion a secure place for muling. not that it matters all that much, since we hardly ever see a stranger in the area anyway.

-ken

SCM

04-08-2004, 02:09 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

By the convenience factor for what is happening at the time.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

The mansion. Again the convenience factor of having the buff bots & trades characters available at any time in one spot. Also it is a more secure place for family members to ground mule.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

It is far more valuable than a biding tie to a town, although that feature would be nice to have.
I would gladly give up the portal trip to the dungeon to retain the mansion recall. I wouldn't even mind another 4 flights of stairs.
What other features are there that make mansions worth the exhorbinant rental.
5 chests? Bah I can have side by side villas & be one chest short
& a lot of writs & pyreals healthier each month.

DrCykosis

04-08-2004, 02:55 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?
A: I Don't usualy if i want to find one i look at the mansion.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?
A: I'd say the town as it would be a time saver from selling then recalling to mansion to drop off something nice I found or vise versa. Also would save me a tie *maybe* as I stay tied in Eastham my Fav old Haunt.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?
A: It's very valueable for when you want to drop nice stuff on the ground, mule cleaning, so that only Clan members can grab the old goodies :)

Hope this helps :)

Micos

04-08-2004, 09:38 AM

About 3 months after housing was introduced (and for storage/mule purposes badly needed) I realized the "socialization" aspect of AC was degredating. Binding stones (and for our guild most likely HT) will be a great asset in returning to the city where its possible to "hook" up with other allegiances for spontaneous quests (something that rarely happens anymore)

I completed the Great Candeth Keep Scavanger Hunt and was given access to the Tree Fort. My character is tied to the LS outside the walls. My question is...along with the towns will Candeth Keep in all its splendor and potential be recieving a binding stone. It gets the occasional adventurer....but it is such a cool all in one place (if it had a meeting hall I think it would be complete) that if it werent for the accessability aspect I would think this the place to be?

I realize the Arwic potential of the site becoming swamped or peeps hunting off the walls. Just thought Id throw it in there for consideration.

1. We socialize at the mansion where we can drop loot, use buffbots

2. In town in hopes of catching a rogue or open invite on a bobo quest or something someones doing that I can tag a long on.

3. I think its a very important function as it allows for secure muling and allegiance jump point for quests. I also feel it killed the "making new friends" aspect of town life. Now it would appear (if the stones were implimented) that those that wish to live a hermits life would be able to and those who relish chatting around the "rock" in Yanshi or the "tree" in HT could once again indulge in that recreation.

kioskies

04-08-2004, 10:05 AM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?
Well I play on darktide and I don't do this much. However when we're about to raid or something we gather in front of the mansion/villa. On a side note, i think that 'bindstones' would be one of the best things possible for pvp.
If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather? On darktide, mansion. On o.0, town.
In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?
Very valuable. It allows for a place for people to group. A bindstone in a town would be awesome as well.

I woulnd't mind if mansion/villa recalls (and barriers possibly) were dropped from darktide. It would be great if allegiances on DT were focused on a single town.

Martus

04-08-2004, 10:55 AM

Argonath

04-08-2004, 05:13 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

- Well, this is simple. /a is the first choice, we also use IRC for non-clanmates as well. However, an actual gathering spot for clanmates is simply the mansion. Convenient, easy to recall to. Non-Clanmates, either the Subway or Marketplace.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

- The Mansion Hands down. Have you visited AB or Baishi Lately? Lag central. Other towns that started to see this kind of increased traffic will also suffer the same effects over time. Contrary to popular belief, Bandwidth IS Finite and Cable users are bandwidth hogs. They nab everything they can get up to the ISP's Caps. Get 20 or so cable hogs in the same town, and on SC, the town will be laggy.

- This has already been attempted with the Marketplace and guess what! Great idea, I applaud the Dev team for their time and effort put into the marketplace BUT, it's another lag central to be avoided. I only go if I have to meet someone who's non-clan. Otherwise I never go. The Tradebots have outrageous "pricing" on items I can easily find or buy in places like AB or Baishi for much much less than the MMD note or worse for a 10K item.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

- To be honest, the mansion is a NICE option, asthetic and usefull for clans. I would rather see the mansion developed further to be more like medieval castles wherein all basic options could be found there. Armorer, bowyer/fletcher, grocer, that sort of thing be built into the mansion. Leave the special item types in the towns (LP tools, special arrow heads, that sort of thing) to have people continue going to towns.

- Also, as far as cottages and Villas go well, I have said this before and I'll say it again. Newer options need to be put into these areas (IE: A second chest that can be purchased for cottages or apartments for example). Some form of meet the requirements to get a villa at an open cottage and it can be purchased and used as a villa.

IMHO, adding gathering points in towns will not be very usefull when it causes LAG issues with yet another town. I think it would be better to simply work with what's already in place or find another way to get peeps to gather in towns if that's what the Dev's really want. For example, put timers on the vendors. After X time with no players using a vendor, he disappears. The result is that towns will Vanish. As a town population diminishes, start increasing the spawns to more wild and nasty stuff. That will attract higher level toons for hunting.

Once peeps realise that unless they start using the towns, they'll dry up, it'll make peeps start making use of them. Basic Economics 101. Supply and demand. No Demand, no supply. And everyone knows it's a real {Female dog in Heat} when they absolutely need something they can no longer get it without major trekking...

Just my 2 cents. I had thought that this was a players world and as a Veteran Dungeon Master of many years (Since 1977), players tend to make their own roads. Some close, new ones open. You can put all the bells and whistles you want, but if players don't want to use it, then they simply won't use it and no amount of incentive will change that.

Argonath,
Life/Xbow - Solclaim

pacesetter

04-08-2004, 06:16 PM

1. where the people are that I lub.

2. I would still use the mansion as well as the town. prolly 50/50.

3. central recall is probably the most important feature followed by the security aspect of the mansion. The dungeon is a cool spot for some privacy with a friend and works well for allegiance PKL fights : )

MIdnightFire7

04-08-2004, 09:49 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

I use the alleg chat, and gather at mansion when time for a quest.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Mansion. No other alleginces there.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Its ALL very important. One no more then the other.

Just my small little opinion.

Kronos

04-09-2004, 01:39 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

for fellow allegiance members i go too the mansion, but i have alot more than fellow allegence members i chat with i have other allegiance friends as well, and i go too where they hang out. marketplace.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Mansion for allegiance quests, Marketplace for all other friends quests.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

great i love the recalls for the mansion, i hope they get rid of portals and make it all recall, think how easy life would be if i could just @cragstone too sell.... or @nexus too hunt... but really, it sounds like turbine wants too fix why people are not in town.

#1 reason i'm not in town is....*drum roll*

Market place..... market place where u can buy & sell.
market place... where u can get buffs from bots
market place... where u can chat, hang out and hunt via pkl.
market place... the easy too.... any one can get too ....place u want too hunt with your friends that are not in the same allegiance... central location.... be there.. or be square..place.

Jet-eye-nite

04-09-2004, 01:43 AM

how about this crazy idea . You wanted to get rid of housing portals so allow monarchs to bind tie to say 5 to 10 of them which could be decided by their own groups and allow them to summon a portal to any of the ones they have tied to . Give them 1 month to complete this task prior to removing the portals .Maybe set the limit to the rank they hold at time of tieing . What about future monarchs ? O well , maybe a monarch could use his bind tie to any portal they decided to choose but with the understanding that housing portals will be gone in a month so choose wisely . :eek: edit ; if you are a monarch and have bind ties they will be rendered un-useable if you swear to another ,you won't lose them but only the "TOP DOG" can cast summon bind tie :p

Rortie

04-09-2004, 07:03 AM

Possibly restricting to non Mansion/Villa Allegiances? Why? I'm perturbed that this is even an option! You want towns to be town again, them make it so. "Do or do not, there is no try".

To answer the questions (at least in a past tense):-

1) Based on needs and well as convienience. Over the course of my years as a Monarch, these changed from time to time. There is no one answer for me.

2) Both.

Some things are private, some are "public compatible". *shrug* In general, chilling and chit-chat likely at the mansion. (Polite version: When I still played most of my peers and I did not find much of the general chatter to our taste. Specifically, various forms of "spam", not just bad language.)

But being well spirited, towns for other things. Quests are "public" whenever feasible.

3) Very.

Rortie - Rorthrona Inglorian of House Inglorian, Dereth arm closed.

Kaluna

04-09-2004, 07:46 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

I socialize with others through allegiance chat or by going where we are questing. I never just sit around the mansion, unless I am waiting for someone. Heck, I never even go inside the place.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

OH Boy! If I had to choose, I'd choose a town. We can speak privately in allegiance chat. We can put a buffbot anywhere. The ammenities of a mansion are only available to a few. In a town we can buy/sell/trade and meet up with non-guild friends.

Don't really want to have to choose. I think this is a good idea, regardless of whether or not your guild owns a mansion. I do think it makes smaller guilds more viable, especially since mansions and villas are limited resources.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

The central recall location is the only reason to have a mansion for the vast majority of guild members. Well, for me, anyway.

Akkah

04-09-2004, 09:57 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

via /a and at the mansion

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Town would be nicer. And just use the mansion for guild crafting events or such.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

The only reason to have a mansion is the recall / gathering place. I don't know of anyguild that opens the storage chests or such for the entire guild use.

A better way to get people into towns would be to move the mansions into the towns and then put bind points or alleg recall points where the mansions used to be. That way if a guild was using it for something besides gathering, they can still get back to that spot. Then just wait a few months and delete the bind points that were at old mansion points that are not in use.

Bowwitch

04-09-2004, 11:40 AM

I LOVE the idea of a bindstone....just please don't make it only for monarchies without a mansion or villa!

•How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?
I head for the mansion, because it's an exclusive place for our guild.
• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?
mansion
• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?
It's the most important feature!

Netahna

04-09-2004, 12:10 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

We gather at mansion

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

We would do both, it would be wonderful to have a choice and another location.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

It is extremely valuable, it is where we gather to chat and buff etc.

Monkey Overlord

04-09-2004, 01:18 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

I decide by the general population of the members. I can't control where they are so if I want to meet up with some one I normally just go to the allegiance mansion.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?
I would gather in town because you could interact with other members of guilds if they would come into town, thus being able to build alliances and new friendships.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?
I think its very important because it gives easy access to other members of your allegiance. Allegiances make or break success of the game.

Remark_WE

04-09-2004, 02:29 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

My allegiance is rather small, so while we do gather at the mansion, we also spend a lot of time chatting and questing with friends in other guilds. The ability for us to establish cross-monarchy meeting places would be fantastic.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

We'd do both. The mansion is great if we're just playing within our group. It's an easy way to gather in one place, prepare, mule items, and then summon a portal to whereever we are hunting. But when we're logged in to play with friends in other allegiances, to hang out and chat, we use towns. The Roleplaying Society of Wintersebb has actually used several towns as a "home base." Right now, this means the town needs to be readily accessible and most members do end up spending a valuable tie for ease of getting there.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

It's one of the most valuable features. I got my first villa after the allegiance recall was extended to include villas and the recall was the reason.

sanjhi

04-09-2004, 02:41 PM

Most of the time, the Monarchy I belong to meets in town. I have been a member since January, and went to the mansion for the first time last week! A bindStone or BindingStone would be a tremendous asset.

Morgwyn

04-09-2004, 02:54 PM

Our clan has been discussing this very topic for several weeks now. Before this announcement we had just decided to add a town meeting area and possibly place a bot there. We are a large clan that doesn't restrict its activities to clan-only. So we needed a gathering place that was easier to get to than our mansion. Having a clan-accessible binding to a town would be perfect. It would allow us to use our ties for quest portals and corpse recovery purposes. But we would still need our mansion recall for other things such as safe muling and clan meetings and for those who elect to not camp a town.

We decide on different gathering places for different purposes. So we often gather in towns. For other things we might gather at the mansion. If we expect visitors, we may elect to use a meeting hall. We are very busy and quite involved with other clans so there could conceivably be several gatherings going on at the same time. A quest may be getting buffed up. One of our members may be asking for help in body recovery - in fact, three of them may be. A new member may be getting some armor from a few members. Certain unnamed members may be serenading the troops from the roof of any handy building, while several of the older female members may be having a hen party. Senior members of the clan may be planning anarchy in the basement. You just never know. We are busy, you know, and there are a lot of us.

It would be terribly difficult to make a choice between the two recalls. We really need them both. I know it seems so silly that two portal ties and two lifestone ties arent enough, but they arent. First of all, most of us carry a tie to a subway so that we can get to the towns. Running across Dereth is nerfed and so takes a measured amount of time to get anywhere. Many people that we are trying to help are not able to tie and we must take a hike to get their bodies. Portal ties allows us to do that within a reasonable period of time. If the settlement portals are going to be nerfed, we will desparately need more ties rather than fewer. I have always missed the social interaction that being able to have a home town offered. The merchant price nerfs and then mansion recall emptied the towns. Please don't make this either/or. Give us every opportunity to populate the towns again and be able to make friends outside of our clan. Un-nerf the merchants and add the binding stones for everyone. Not just some of us.

The allegiance recall is what helped the monarchies to actually stay together. Before the recall, many of the clans were falling apart. Our clan started having trouble when the merchant prices were nerfed. No one could agree on where to move to. When we did finally get a mansion, too many of the members couldnt get there alive. Not every member of a clan agrees on everything, so every time you give clans a choice on something, you shatter their fragile peace and give them something else to argue about.

You must realize that the allegiance recall got the clans together and also socially isolated them at the same time. Over time it became simpler to just move all the mules to the mansion and gather there. Bots got set up there. Because two portal recalls gives you a subway tie and a hunting tie. And the second lifestone tie gave you a town to sell in while the first one gave you Rithwic, with its master mage and easy access to marae. In my case, at least.

With the loot nerfed beyond belief, the prices that merchants pay is an even bigger issue today than it was ever before. I can remember in the beginning days when I had to follow melees to the hunting fields and loot after them to get my life mage (who didnt wear armor because she could not find enough money to buy any) enough comps for her to hunt. Lately it has gotten almost that bad again. So I believe that merchant prices need to be un-nerfed in the towns that you want people to gather in (I really would like to go home to Glenden Wood, if you don't mind). If you dont, they will remain empty.

If we are to have lots of new players, you will need to get the experienced players back to the towns so that the newbies will have people around to talk to and learn from. My friend and I did that from the earliest days. We grabbed every newbie we could find and explained about the game and how they needed armor and stuff. It was fun for us. And a stranger could come to us and ask for help and get it. There are quite a few of us long-timers who still play you know. And we would love to be able to camp GW (or Crag or Hebian) again. And sing from the rooftops. And talk about how we miss Bortin. Sigh.

Haus der Liebe

04-09-2004, 03:27 PM

1.) doesn't pertain to DT, no input.
2.) doesn't pertain to DT, no input.
3.) How important? Town wars, especially for candeth .. definitely something to fight over! Excellant

Epim-MT

04-09-2004, 03:37 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Our Guild is small and very spread out. The best way to socialize is with the /a command. When we are on, we tend to be playing, as opposed to hanging out.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Our primary gathering point is the mansion, though we sort of claim Eastham as ours. If this goes through, I think the mansion would still be the prefered location for gathering due to the oft mentions privacy and security issues. The one exception to this would be inter-guild events, quests, etc. Many guilds, ours included, have allied monarchies. When one guild is going on a quest, they must make arrangements in some way to get word to the other guilds. A town meeting point would do well for this.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

The central recall location is one of the main features of a guild. It is very common to see a message like "Anyone need a 325 wield dirk with a 10-15 damage?" If anyone does, the next phrase is almost always the same. " Meet at mansion". Central recall is VERY important.

Having a second cental recall location would be very nice, but as many have stated, it is unlikely to repopulate the towns. Instead it will serve as an allegiance lifestone recall.

Tehanu

04-09-2004, 06:27 PM

"How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?"

Usually where people happen to be. If there are 3 folks at the mansion, I go there. If they are in town, I go there.

"If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?"

In town, unless we wanted privacy for our discussion. I love the towns in AC, and would like to see more people in them as there were in the old days.

"In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?"

Extremely valuable. Mansion recall is frankly the only reason right now to HAVE a mansion. There are absolutely no other benefits to allegiance housing right now, and you can get the recall ability with a villa.

If we had an allegiance "home town" as well, that would be even more valuable. Right now my guild HAS a home town. It's Eastham. I run into guild members in town more often than I run into them at the mansion. However, I've never considered Eastham to be MY home town. But since it's the guild's home town, I have to keep a LS or portal tie to the town, sacraficing my links to what I consider my character's own home town (Zaikhal). If I could recall to my guild's home town of Eastham with a new feature, that would be extremely valuable to me as it would allow me to not have to sacrafice role playing for convenience.

Ced

04-10-2004, 01:49 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

At the moment, the mansion. It makes perfect sense of course because of the ease of getting there.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I have always bemoaned the loss of socialization due to housing(which was and is poorly implimented) and would welcome the chance to repopulate a town.

I think a better option for mansion/villa owning allegiances and to make sure mansions/villas do not become redundant for them would be to have a hookable portal to ANY binded town(but limited to one per owner/house) while non mansion/villa owning allegiances would have the "bindstone" option to selected towns.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

The central recall feature has had the single biggest impact on socialization in AC since retail. It has improved guild cohesion and inter-guild events and questing ability. It has negatively impacted towns to the extent they are now dead. This has ripped the social life out of the game and if it was not for fan sites message forums, there would be hardly any ingame interaction happening at all, outside of individual guilds. If we did not have the central recall point for allegiances, that would not be the case.

To adopt a "fix" such as allegiance binding would go some way to repairing the system although housing in general needs to be revisted and perhaps even the entire process needs to be rethought. Housing does supply us with our own "Corner" of Dereth, safe muling and extra storage options. It even gives the ability to show off our warez and well earned items.

It also effects everyone with the incredible lag it causes. I think anyone here will know how bad and frustrating housing lag can be, particulary villa settlements. That is something that needs to be addressed.

kryptik

04-10-2004, 07:30 AM

- I always talk to my allegiance with /a or /c.
- Town - Just becuase there is the potential to meet other people.
- In my opinion Mansions are a waste other than the fact we can /house alleg_recall

Rafein

04-12-2004, 04:21 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

/a, or whatever town I'm in.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Mansion. Would have a much lower amount of spam flying by. When I'm getting together to do a quest, i don;t need people running up to me asking if i can tink this, or help them mule that.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Most important.

arboc77

04-12-2004, 04:26 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Our allegiance gathers at the buff bot location. (We do not have a villa or mansion.)

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

N/A

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Most important feature.

dhin

04-12-2004, 05:44 AM

I'd like to preface this by saying I play Darktide.

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Most of the "socialization" we do is raiding. Right now we buff at the mansion to make finding and joining fellowships easier and getting portals easier; we don't use the mansion for "meetings" or "parties" or whatever else players on the other servers do.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I think a lot of players would still buff at their mansions because it's safer. I think it would be a lot more fun to hold a town than to hold a mansion, so if you eliminated allegiance housing in order to force people to do it in towns it would be ultimately much more fun. I concede that most players on Darktide, given the choice between buffing at home or at the mansion and buffing in a town would chose the safe location. I think that some players would still go to their towns to make sure there are no PKs there.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

I hate it and I think that it should be eliminated entirely. I don't care if the houses are there. Nobody would use them if you had to run a few clicks to get to them.

Misfit

04-13-2004, 02:12 AM

While I think this addresses a very pressing need - repopulating major towns - I think there may be better ways to address it. Perhaps giving monarchs with mansions a hookable portal to a limited number of towns would help address this. If you added this funtionality along with a bindstone, it would help repopulate towns, as well as give mansions more much-needed functionality.

I am in a great small allegiance, and we currently meet on the lawn in front of the mansion. The problem with this is that we rarely see other friends. Having the ability to have a "home town" we could all use, without having to sacrifice a tie, would be a huge boon, as we could congregate in towns to shop, chat, plan quests, etc. The only part I see in this as being held back is that most quests start on the lawn because that's where the buffbots are... but if there were mana pools in towns that were there for buffbots, it may help motivate the moving of buffbots into towns, which again would motivate other players into moving there.

The mansions and villas would still be used, for the obvious reasons such as secure muling and such, but having the ability to recall to a town means that the old days of hanging out in Eastham and having contests (Simpsons Trivia Contests were always popular :D ) may no longer have to be a thing of the past!

Please add this functionality, but do not do so in a way that would make existing functionality less attractive. Mansions are already hardly worth the sizeable monthly upkeep, they are sorely in need of revamping. Move the chests up out of the dungeon. Add more useable (and useful!) hookable items for mansion-use only, especially portals and such, even if they were town portals that were purchased from a vendor in that particular town.

Regan The Grunt

04-13-2004, 01:00 PM

How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

answer: Shouldn't matter as to an individuals decision... what matters is we the players are given the opportunity to have multible choices as to where we are able to gather (easierly/quickly) if each individual decides to participate in Clan activities.

If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

answer: That would depend on the reason of gathering... to gather for a Hunt... a Bindstone would be Ideal as to most come or gather unprepared and should have an easier to prepping in their Allegiance Hometown. For meetings in the Meeting Halls... a Bindstone would open up that option to All allegiances once again weither they have a Mansion/Villa or not... options to the Players is Always a good move!

In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

Sadly the pros and the cons on Allegiance housing have not been seriously dealt with by Turbine in my opinion... The Mansions seriously lack it creating an Allegiance sense of ownership... Clansman are able to recall there... whoopie! A small selected group are permited to access a whole 5 Chest! whoopie!

Mansions need serious improvements to help create the community sense of ownership by all fellow Clansmen...

suggestions: I have voiced at ACPL previously...
1) Community chest... so drop muling is not needed.
2) More USEFUL fixtures (mansion only items) such as:
Weapon Racks that can be equipped with up to 24 weapons before being hooked for display.
Manniquins that can be equipped with suits of armor before being hooked for display.
Lore Bookshelves!! Get the gathered content of Lore onto display where it can be viewed and accessed withou being removed! So everyone in a Clan can read up on Lore and not everyone having to save it for future referrence.
Scrollracks.... same
Jewelry cabinets.... same
the list goes on for all the useful items that should be able to display in the Clan to help outfit its members and get these items into use instead of sitting in chest or on multible Mules!

So the central recall location of Allegiance housing in comparasion to.... what? A few hooks accessable to only the Monarch? A few chest accessable to a few assigned? ummm... yeah...

Housing was to help Clans form communities and lessen the burden of overpopulated towns that were plaqued with Portal Storms.... now the towns are empty except for the passerbys and sellers.... or the Macro-Tradesmules futher deteriating the Derethian Monatary Economy... why bend the knee to pick up the loose change when you'll just increase the Loot system so Gold Peas drop more often ;)

zedjin

04-13-2004, 10:34 PM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

We gather @ the mansion where everyone has an easy recall

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

Town - I'd like the ability to interact with others outside the allegiance ... easier to gather people for bigger quests, and even possible to meet new players/make new friends

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

The most used/necessary feature

Ophar Kabitaki

04-14-2004, 01:42 AM

With allegiance chat I socialize constantly..during fighting or questing..the channel makes distance a moot point.

Town or mansion both easily recallable would give ease of access to a town for the clan. I would probably have a buffbot posted at both locations.

Allegiance housing recall has made grouping for quests simple and fast. It is by far one of the most valuable aspects of owning a mansion or villa IMO. I don't use the chests for personal property at the mansion, so the allegiance storage command is long overdue in my opinion. My gear is stored in my second accounts cottage.

I think the bindstones are a good idea. I don't expect it to alter the socialization dramatically for a while. Would help if you limit bindstones to the three capitol cities and maybe a few more. One in Teth could revitalize a defunct area. Of course..some new content out that way would make a bindstone there more appealing.

Kal Sho

04-14-2004, 05:14 PM

As of now I'm speced in Mansion Camping, but I certainly have enough skill credits to spec Bindstone Camping too. :D

•How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

Everyone stops by the mansion, even if it's only briefly, and trade/tinker mules are usually logged there.

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

I'm guessing that I'd split my time nearly 50/50.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

The central recall location is the single most important feature of allegiance housing.

I think this is a great idea.
On two of the servers I play on, our allegiance has split into seperate groups. There was no bitterness in the split, in fact we all helped get together the housing items for the person looking to try something new and become a monarch. We've maintained a close relationship with those who left. This would make it much easier for us to meet with old friends and plan joint quests.

I repeat: Great Idea!!

HK Fooey of MT

04-15-2004, 12:59 AM

• How do you decide where to socialize with your fellow allegiance members?

/a Hiyas..... talk to me ,baby
/house mansion_recall..... there they are

• If you could choose between gathering at your mansion and gathering in town, and both were an equally easy recall, where would you gather?

before aquiring a Mansion, I was lifestoned where I could socialize with my allegiance mates, at a town. I had to think long and hard about the convenience of LS near my hunting area, vs getting back 'home'. Our Allegiance is falling out of communication with members of other allied Monarchys as each one moves into it's own Mansion. I currently go into towns only to buy/sell, or when required by a quest. Having a 'home town' is something we should revitalize.

• In your opinion, how valuable is the central recall location feature of allegiance housing, in comparison to the other features of allegiance housing?

central recall is almost the only feature of Allegiance Housing I use. The chests allow the Monarch to store his stuff, and several members have given the Monarch items to be placed on hooks for display.

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I like the idea of being able to recall to a specific town to meet more people, and have ready access to the shops.
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I can see a possible exploit in that a 'Monarch' with one follower could use a bindstone, allowing one character from each of two accounts to recall to specific locations. It would be easy enough to require a minimum number of followers, but where to put the cutoff?