Arkadian shops suck. Most of them. I hate empty shops. The reason why they suck? THEY COST TOO DAMN MUCH. Why? Because the price has been artificially inflated by people who hold the deed and mothball them. There are players who buy up shops and shopkeepers just to keep them in demand from no supply. Same with many other things. What we need to change ALL THAT is the Arkadian Shopping Mall. A tower that is owned not by an individual, but by the deed holders. Mindark LOVES deeds. And Im not talking about deed only with a POTENTIAL for profits some day if players just hunt and mine and shop and pay taxes. Im talking about one that is based on Term Leases as well. Im pretty sure Cyrene started the concept. Every shop would have a term for a lease. When the lease is over, all items inside would go to the owners storage automatically, and the lease would be put on auction automatically. Madusa actually made it work, in a way, with a rental plan for shops. This kept fresh faces cycling through owning a shop, made them affordable and well stocked. It was not automatic, but it seemed to work. I went to Madusa shops because of it. The idea is to sell the ASD and have deed holders get daily returns from taxes on sales, and monthly on leases. Have each floor hold 12 shops, then leases could be staggered so there there would be a lease sale every month. Each time all of the leases sell from all floors, a new floor would open. If all the leases do not sell on a particular floor, the floor would close, and the leases would not go on auction. It could also be possible to have these shops revert to a leased apartment option instead, and return to being shops in the next cycle if needed. Really, it does not have to be that complicated, but it could be that complex while being simple and easy to understand. And really, if shop lease money went to deed holders monthly, as well as the shopping tax daily, it could be the most profitable deed in EU. I just can't wait to hear the response on this one! Bah hahhahahah -hip
Potential Issues: Don't we have enough Ark Deeds? Who will Set Taxes? Can we get Weekly returns instead of Monthly? Would a leased shop deed be tradable? Would leased shops be upgradable? Would Leased shops be customizable?
Ark has unsold shops still owned by MA/PP so why do we also need a Mall. On every planet there are some shops that are under-used by their owners. Often because they want the ego trip of being able to say they own x number of shops, more likely though they have let them lapse due to change in their availability to log in, or simply they underestimated the cost to run the store, to stock it and keep it stocked costs a large number of both ped and time. As you currently run one of the physically largest shops on Ark, I would have thought those dead or failing enterprises would in some ways be to your advantage, as less competition. If you are worried people stop touring the shops to find what they need because of the poorer ones, then simply advertise and let them know where you are and what you have Ark shops are unique in EU, the lack of a Mall is in my opinion a good thing. We don't want or need to be Caly clones Ark shops are dearer than some on other planets, they are also generally larger, brighter and better laid out, as well as easily upgradeable/customisable. Sometimes the higher price is in fact a simple reflection of the costs previously incurred to upgrade. p.s. take a look at Caly malls sometime, they also have empty shops and almost empty shops. So more shops here will just make things worse not better.
Thank you for wasting some time with me on this concept. Your perspective is a breath of fresh air on my stale hot air. I find it hard to believe that someone would discover it impossible to both own and stock a shop as a reason for it to be empty. With the massive expense of owning, it would lead to just cycling the deed and returning it to use to someone who can afford to stock it. Buy and hold is a method of a speculator, not a player. I am less concerned about competition and more about being complete. If I had four more shops, I may be able to come close to having room to offer everything I can make. And then there is the more altruistic concern that this is such as awesome aspect, I wish more players could experience it. I agree that Ark is not, and will never be, a clone of Caly. We are just one step better. A lease mall would be the treasure mining of malls, something as you say unique, but also wonderful that is, like mining, available on Caly but done better, like treasure. As for unsold shops still held by MA/PP all I can say is WTF? It is bad enough that some shops are being held up by players who no longer play and even more held up by the speculators, but to not release shops and put them into circulation at all, like Cyrene, is just a bit lazy and stupid. We could use a hundred more shops, really, and a hundred more apartments, a few dozen more would be a boon, not a detriment to the Arkadian economy. I can even see land plots, once they fix the bug that prevents harvesting, adding the feature of adding booths and terminals to individual plots so that THAT investment can be made profitable. I am not saying that what you are saying is not true, I can understand how you feel and healthy discussion is healthy. I just think that the problems you are concerned with can be overcome, and I am just exploring ideas that help to ease what I perceive to be an induced shortage that is not beneficial.
