Lowering the cost of portal ships in Arda (More in post) | Suggestion Box | Forum

I'd have to agree on this. The world is 9 times bigger and there is currently no transportation system. Idk how much portal ships cost before but it seems steep. Only donors would be able to easily keep up with the rent. Now what Sgt_Hurls was saying if it isn't an Exodus portal ship it should be lower priced. If you are not a donor you will be walking quite a while just to get anywhere.

I've already been talking to a few people, suggesting a shared Harbor with one ship leading to Exodus, so that only one ship pays the upkeep. I think there's a few people with a collaboration concept on it already, if I read yesterday's conversation on it right. Now I myself won't get a ship in Exodus, I'd rather not pay upkeep and use the money on my town instead, but I'm fine with the 100k price myself.

For new players it's indeed an awfully steep hill to climb, but it encourages teamwork and people building settlements near each other, and a shared (rail)road network. Now GP will eventually be cheaper than Residences >30 in height, meaning that large cities will be cheaper with GP. So with large tall settlements, the cheaper cost translates to an easier payment for the portal ship. As for smaller and less-tall settlements, I'd encourage those to start at 400~1000 distance of a big ship, or near a road/railroad connecting cities.

Remember, you don't need to pay for a Portal Ship. If you are within 1000 distance of one, it's only 4 minutes to walk to your place, less if running, so short enough a time for people to still be able to drop by your place. So if you want people to drop by your place, just build within a mile distance from a Portal Ship. And if you want to live by yourself, even non-donors now get 5 /home locations so that won't be a problem no matter how far you live away from others.

So rather than cheaper portal ships, it'd be better in my opinion to band together. If e.g. 4 people with big project ideas team up, they could build a central airport with a ship to such a big Harbor, then build roads to their individual areas, they really cut the cost down. They'd be paying 25k each for the Airship, and a 6-wide, 500-long road to one place would only cost 9k to GP, add shared Airport cost and you're at 35k each, rather than 100k. Or you could do like what happened near Avalon, build a village a while away from a big city with its own ship.

With Capetown I intend to have the ship near the Cape, and will be claiming a large track of land so that I have enough space for future projects, but I'd still be building a direct road to the outside, so that people can come through my town and set up shop nearby. We had a road from Capetown to Baywalk before, with houses built near it soon as a result. Such a situation isn't one I'd object to happening now, and solves the problem for individuals. For big projects I'd suggest the teamwork mentioned before, since that really helps cut the price down.

I've been informed of the fact that public road networks aren't allowed, so having several builds connected to a shared airport by 500m-long roads wouldn't be possible. As such, that part of my suggestion to people should be ignored. So should the part about building a new settlement near roads/railroads connecting other cities.

However, you could still team up and put your claims next to each other, with a shared airport at the center. It will give you less space to expand, since you're restricted by the others, but you wouldn't be paying for roads and the airport would be cheap, so you'd be talking 26k each with 4 people.

I got told that having (rail)roads, claimed or not, stretch around and thus potentially get in the way of future claims isn't okay.

Since the topic was brought up again, I'll give my reasons for why I still disagree with a price drop myself.

First of all, as noted before, this should encourage people to band together, and either build future settlements a while removed from big cities with Portal Ships, or combine their resources to pay for a Portal Ship together. The latter is useful for not only separate projects near each other, but also for shared settlements. Given how settlements depend on citizens, the less people make one by themselves, the more actual life there can be to them. And pooling together your Shills is real useful. If you vote 20 days a month, that's 10k shills. Do this for 2 months with 5 players and you're already at 100k, and that's excluding selling gold and trading with donors.

Second, the fact that Exodus ships are significantly more expensive makes them a sign of pride, a symbol of power. (Needless to say I possess neither so am not going for one.) Even if someone with one makes a Harbor where others can dock their own ships, the fact their city is the relay point is a big status symbol. These Harbors would also make the perfect place for shopping districts. I'll gladly place my ship and a shop at such a Harbor.

Now I see the argument that it will "allow more diverse locations to be explored by players." But right now there are few actual settlements even coming into existence, nevermind actual places that really are worth the visit. It will still be a long time before people are ready for Portal Ships, with or without the raised cost. Plenty of time for them to earn the money. And until then, what is there really to TP to? Building zones? Hardly worth it.

So honestly, this subject shouldn't be breached until a few months from now, when people are actually ready to start building ships to connect their settlements. Only then can we really say "is this too much?".

As for my iConomy balance: Since I just got salary, 292,386.59 Shillings. But I intend to spend about 240k of it on extending my claim, and then use voting and perhaps selling gold to eventually buy my Portal Ship.

Res TP was only available for donors, so I wouldn't consider it a valid transportation method.

You should keep the power of Portal Ships in mind. People will bond together. Yes, currently we have a lot of far-away large claims made by rich people, and also a bunch of smaller ones. But probably >50% of all claims is within a mile distance from a Compass Ship. Take a look at Le Fay, which once was the biggest newbie village around. Where did it pop up? Next to the first big Portal Ship anyone visiting the harbor could see. Which conveniently was located on the edge of town, so people could build quite close to the portal ship. Capetown was the second portal ship, and the result was lots of people building places in the stretch of land between Capetown to Dreyzden.

We'll see the same here, once there's Portal Ships people will start living near those instead of just near the Compass Ships. People will always attract people. As for those deciding to live far away from each other, that's the choice they make, which comes with consequences for visitors. But they themselves can still set a single home there and have 4 remaining, 5 if you include a bed. So we don't really need Portal Ships everywhere.

Things will take time. The railroad took a while to fully develop with Vetronia. Meanwhile, my ship was the second Portal Ship ever, and it took 6 weeks from Vetronia opening to open my city with working Portal Ship. And until we reach the point where we actually have cities ready to visit, we can't even tell whether the cost is an issue right now, nevermind over time.