Commercial District Announcement

[asim0v Profile]

The commercial district in Sky5 has been around for some time but hasn't gained the traction I had hoped. As such, I am announcing the temporary closure of the Sky5 commercial district and a pending remodel and restructure of the entire district. Additionally, there will be a complete rewrite of the commercial district rules to reflect the nature of the new district.

All commercial lots will remain open until February 8, 2013, two weeks from the posting of this notice. Between Feb 8 and Feb 22, the commercial district will be closed to all shoppers while the remodel begins. The deadline to remove your existing shop is February 22, 2013. After that date, your shop in Sky5 will be removed.

The new an improved commercial district will launch in March.

If you have any questions, please let me know either here, in-game, or on Twitter (@skyfivecity) and I will do my best to be prompt. If you need any help tearing down your building, please let me know and we can schedule a time.

FAQs

• I already have a commercial lot in Sky5, what does this mean for me?
  Good news! Your current shop is going away, but you will have first pick of lots when the new district opens up! You will literally be getting in on the ground floor of the new commercial district.
  
• A commercial district rule rewrite was mentioned. Can you elaborate?
  Unfortunately, not at this time. The rewrite is currently under way, and the new rules will be posted as soon as they are completed. What I can say is the nature of the rules will be changing to reflect the new district.
  
• Will commercial lots still be free?
  No. Commercial lots will need to be rented or purchased (I'm still working out those details). The problem with free lots is it encourages people to build then never maintain their shops. There are shops that haven't had the owner visit in over 6 months. I want the Sky5 commercial district to be thriving, not a ghost town.

[asim0v Profile]

28 shops still stand. Please have your shop dismantled by Feb 22!

[Inertpyro Profile]

I look forward to the revamp and definitely plan on adding a new store location there.

[benjlaud1 Profile]

When do you expect the relaunch to take place? I'm interested in starting a shop. Any idea of how much rent/buying a property will be?

[asim0v Profile]

I have not decided when the new commercial district will launch yet, nor have I decided the property issues. All I know at this point is it will be some time in March. And any input on purchase vs rental would be great to have.

[abigail Profile]

ok, how about this:

have a one-time purchase plan for stores, with a deadline to set-up the sign links and decorate/make the building. perhaps have a lot fee of a little bit more for stores with 4 walls and a ceiling already there as a base. but encourage people to make their own thing from scratch.

players can have ONE store each in sky5. but you COULD make a deal with someone who paid extra (re:bribe) for 2 lots next to each other for a larger store, perhaps 2 players with neighbouring lots that make a super store together.

these are suggestions, pending approval or alteration by the owner.

my 2 cents:
i am one of those people who dont like upkeep. at all. the main reason im willing to with one of my stores is that my store there makes more than enough each month to pay the rent (unless the icomomy crashes). i do play regluarly most of the time but i dont like to have to worry about fees or doing a cobble run for twitmart to pay rent, but thats because the older i get the more i detest grinding for any reason (xp, items or money) especially in a game like MC where i dont really need to grind to do what i want. i had a hosue in star wars galaxies, for about a month. thats when my guild starter upkeep ran out and i realized how much i would have to grind to make money to pay for it and the gas in my speeder. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

please dont make me grind

[asim0v Profile]

Any rent or fee wouldn't be about making money on my part (hence, my $1 example, though that's probably too low). It would merely be a way of making sure the person is still active. In the past, I tried requiring signs that had the person's last visit date posted. Problem was, half the shops never even had the sign because the owner never came back. I wasn't able to do anything about it for various reasons. That setup will all be changing in the new commercial district.

[benjlaud1 Profile]

if the price to purchase a lot wasn't too high, i personally would rather buy the lot and be done with it, but also think that rent would be a better way to force owners to keep up their shop. I agree with abigail about not wanting to constantly grind to afford to just keep the shop open. If it was too expensive, that would kinda ruin playing the game for me.
I've never rented of owned a lot so i dont know about pricing, but I would maybe throw out a price of $25 a month. I think most people could afford that.

[Inertpyro Profile]

I agree the lots should require a fee and maybe a small monthly up keep. Say 55c to make it easy. With the rent I will be paying for a leoville plot I would hate to have to try and keep up with more.

[abigail Profile]

yeah, a token amount to encourage participation is much better.

very little of these things are about making money anyway (for the owner), they mostly want to recoup the building costs and time spent on the builds