[tommankt]

It is impossible for new players to get a sufficient income because all the places in the mall are taken or people have rented space and aren't using them. This is a real problem for me what about you ?

[mr_e12345]

I personally don't think so. I think there's about 180 plots presently, and it encompasses a staggering diversity of items covering almost everything that can be obtained. Navigating it CAN feel onerous as is. While getting a shop and building DCD seems like a promising way to start on the server, it's actually disincentivized by the way the server's already set up. We all get an hourly income, and the costs to purchase the ability to sell are relatively high to someone in their first week or so of play. On top of that, the items they're most likely to sell are likely the grindy blocks which are fairly saturated within the mall.

Instead, we could look at different solutions. Admins are doing the same, rest assured, they've said so many times recently in chat.

Three things we can already do:
- Wait for a plot to become vacant. Yes, these get scooped rather quickly, but shop resets can and do happen, it's how I got a shop earlier this week.
-Share with an existing shop owner. This requires that they (existing shop owners) extend some goodwill towards new players, or ones that are new to them, but those conversations help stoke a better sense of community.
-Put your shop somewhere else. I believe Ouranos and Little Venice are actively seeking shops built in their towns, and I'd be surprised if they're the only ones. Yes, it's less traffic overall than the mall, but it is a more captive audience for those who do it. If that is too restrictive for you, you can also build in the wilderness and offer time-sensitive goods and services (when they are being sought in chat).

What can admins do? First, a caveat. It's their server to admin, and just because an idea is popular doesn't make it necessarily a good idea, but here goes:
1) Restrict the duration for which a shop's rent can be extended. This would serve to alleviate squat-shops where a reasonably well-off Cyberdog rents a space for a year or more then doesn't build or stock it, whatever the reason. I personally prefer a 4 month cap.
2) If a town is big enough or useful enough to warrant it, it can have its own warp command, just as the mall does now. Admins can work with town mayors if they too would like access to the plot rental system, perhaps.

[Wildfirev]

Hi,

I noticed your post about expanding the mall and would like to let you know that the build team is aware of the lack of open plots.

I would like to explain why the mall was built smaller than what we have had previously. On both Sur 1 and Sur 2, the mall was 3 times as large as the one we have right now. We could never fill the mall up. We were lucky if we got to 1/2 full. As a result, the decision to make the mall smaller was made. A new layout design was made and I had been working on how to expand the mall when we ran into an issue. There are builds very close to the mall on 3 sides. The only side that doesn't have a build (that I've seen at least) is the green side.  We could add onto the green side, however, that would mean that the current centre, is no longer the centre and the plots that are further out on the green side would be less likely to be seen as they are further away.

As I'm sure no one would appreciate that option, we are trying to sort out how to make the mall larger for more plots as well as making it more accessible to more players.

Please be patient with us as we work out a solution that most everyone will like. It may take a bit to do.

As for limiting the amount of time a player can rent a shop. I think you would have a lot of players arguing against it as a lot of players go all out on their builds. To then have to tear it down and move it or remove it altogether, I think they would feel that it wouldn't be worth the bother to be at the mall.

[behid]

Is there different size of plots? Don't really pay attention if there are when I run around looking for things that I need... If not maybe add a bunch of smaller plots so more people can have small shops instead.

And I think that unused plots that the person renting them probably could be reclaimed. That way you wouldn't tear down someones build.

[mr_e12345]

My proposed cap on rent extensions wasn't meant to be an absolute one. If someone is online, they can always re-extend up to the maximum again.

[mokmand]

I think the mall should be reorganised. It can be quite difficult to find things, and for most shops it's hard to identify from afar what they're selling.

What if there was a grocery market, a redstone market, a "magic" market, a building material market, etc. then people could rent a chest or two or twenty and sell their stuff. Would give space for everyone and also improve competition.

[MattLong936]

Honestly, I still prefer everything being scattered around because you can walk around looking for the lowest prices. Plus, the mall does look fabulous so its not too bad to look around.