Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Tax system seems excellent
Myosotys
Member
I must admit the tax system of AOC looks wonderful on the paper.
I cannot understand how games like New World did such stupid corrupted tax system where single players can benefit billions of gold from taxes.
This system makes me want more to play AOC asap.
I cannot understand how games like New World did such stupid corrupted tax system where single players can benefit billions of gold from taxes.
This system makes me want more to play AOC asap.
1
Comments
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/images/thumb/b/b6/castle-taxes5.png/350px-castle-taxes5.png
You cant set taxes for different things, for example, having a tax for housing, another for trading, etc
It's just a flat tax
What is there to dislike? You get to set a tax rate node wide which make things simple which you seem to like. It also can be messed with to try and fund expansion etc. It also entices people to push for castle ownership which is decided by PvP to give you an advantage as some amount of money would stay within guild.
Hey - in Democracy? It's your vote that counts. In Fuedalism? It's your Count that votes
Can't really tell if you guys are for or against this taxation through the Castles. Yours truly fully supports it, as it's yet another reason to try to be taking the Castles.
That's the bare mininal I would expect, what if I am a mayor who wants set 0% tax no housing so people would keep taxes on other stuff?
Flat tax is mega meh
Totally understand that people will have different feelings on this but adding additional layers to what is being taxed where feels like it introduces gamey-ness in a bad way and seems like a bigger headache than just having flat tax. At the end of the day I can see value in dropping housing tax if you want people to move in or whatever, but then it becomes a logistic headache of trying to parse out what the various tax rates are in different nodes when all I really want to do is go out in the world and PvP and raid/engage with the actual content.
Having different taxes will help creative mayors in dealing with his node's needs.
Also, will quests have payouts in gold?
Should quests be taxed at all if my node needs xp so it won't delevel?
I don't think quests should be taxed. I doubt they are changing their stance on taxes and that personally is fine by me.
But... that might be a bit nit-picky.
This is great IMO. Puts some pressure on the neighbor relations by default, will be creating some sweet content.
Upkeep?
Nodes probably shouldn't have upkeep on EVERYTHING but some buildings/functions would certainly be important enough that it wouldn't be unreasonable to charge upkeep.
From the 'Econ player' perspective, you can't really give players 'a constant benefit for free'. If the thing costs them additional stuff to actually USE like stalls, caravanserai or apartments, sure, but 'NPC Guardhouses' should probably require either donations or constant tax money, not just because 'it's realistic' or whatever, but simply because it's a benefit that can be sorta-exploited and then therefore just 'having it for free' is an issue.
(If you don't want that to be a raw gold-sink, it's a bit harder, but I think Taxed Gold as a sink must by nature be okay in games)
While guards and other functions will use some of the gold collected through taxes, an old and rich Level 6 node may accumulate a large gold reserve. Any group considering a siege against that node will know that the defenses will include all possible equipment, buildings and guards that could be purchased. So having a full treasury is a defense in and of itself.
Encompassing each server are carefully placed points of development called Nodes.[3] There will be 85 regular node locations at launch with 15 additional castle nodes (5 castles x 3 castle nodes each)[4][5][6] for a total of 100 nodes.[7]
If the castle and it's subservient nodes are separate from the other nodes.
How are they taxed by the other nodes?
You mentioned rl, so I will too. Where does the money come from to make the sidewalks and roads and bridges you use? How is the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) funded to keep airplanes from smacking each other all the time? How do we pay firemen, policemen, military, park rangers, 911 operators and all the other civil servants who make our society run smoothly? Taxes, of course. Yet you don't want to pay them. But I will bet that you complain about potholes in the roads and other government services not being as nice as you wish. Pay higher taxes and you will get those better roads!
You come across as wanting something for nothing in the game as well as in life.
Personnally, i'd prefer the ability to set taxes differently for different parts of the economy. More dynamic, more cmplex, more rewarding to the nodes who's mayor manage the taxes better, creates more diversity in economic activity within different nodes, etc. Really interesting point!
Castle Tax will put pressure on it's vassal and force mayors who initially wanted low taxes have to raise. But it's also a balance act - you go hard on castle tax - nodes will defect, de-level - join a neighboring node that has another castle attached who is more fair.
Nodes may just outright refuse and keep low taxes to increase their status / node level. When it is time for someone seiging - don't be surprised those vassal citizens go against you and put someone new in charge.
Large Guilds / Zergs will own castle but they still bow to it's people they have influenced over. If they dont give a shit about you - you won't have enough supplies.
While a Zerg of 500 players may seem alot - I assume the amount of people in a node far weights heavier on impacting decisions and getting resources needed to defend. Your guild will be stretched thin on defending n gathering without the will of the citizens across multiple nodes, that you wont be able to control as a zerg. That is 2-3k players in those handful of vassals.
We're excited to get these systems ready to not only be shown but experienced in the future during Alpha Two!