Caspian requested screenshots last night. This is what was found in response. There may be more, but I was tired.

Posted By Gunnlang at 7:38 PM - Sat Apr 13 2019

Thinking about this idea more. Why doesn't SBS just open up the IP charts again. Unlock the IP and make it where people can jump others in line. While having random flash sales that change every hour. I think that's awesome, who's with me?

note the above is all a joke, in case people can't tell

Well, you say it like it's a joke, but SBS deciding to keep IP changes open to purchases all throughout DSS, to allow for minute by minute input makes it somewhat...less humorous...

Posted By Kellock93 at 5:49 PM - Sat Apr 13 2019

I am very much against Unlocking IP during D&SS, not so much because of me losing my time slot or favored settlement but instead because of the picture it paints about SBS. Actually, at this point is it more about cutting the losses, I guess.

I do not know why SBS has overthrown their decision, but to me from an, as I admit, uninformed perspective it looks like SBS caved in because of the concerns of a vocal minority and the temptation of more funding. Which raises great concerns with me personally, for the future of the project as a whole, but more about that later.

It has been communicated for a long time that IP will decide who gets to choose their settlements first and that for that purpose the IP will be locked at some point. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that there are times in game development where promises have to be broken or long-standing plans have to be changed, all in an effort to make the game better or even make it possible at all.

But this is not one of those times. At least that's how I personally feel when I look at this change. Well, in the end, the real issue here is not how I feel SBS, but rather how others perceive this issue and the studio as a whole. You probably know this a lot better than me, but a crowdfunded project is heavily reliant on peoples trust of the developers and their vision of the game, that is presented to us players. An action like this, that seems to me thoughtless, or worse, greedy, damages our trust in the project. The issue I have here is not that there will be changes to peoples IP during D&SS, but rather what the change implies. Which is, that SBS is a studio that can't be trusted to deliver their long term plans as announced and are willing to topple player plans on a "whim".

For me personally, I do not believe that is the case. But please remember SBS. As long as the game is merely a concept on paper for us players, consistency in regards to the core concepts of the game and it's development, are very important to us.

/RantEnd

All the best vibes, -Kell

Exactly.

What fun will a game be if the rules keep changing because the loudest voices complain about them?

What next?

Please lock the IP as I agree with all the arguments for the lock position.

Nimb,

I love that the concern you express is not for yourself or even counts but appears to rest on one of the most numerous title holders, the aristocrats.

As for the influence locking aspect - we were always told that influence would be locking prior to domain selection. Hell, an announcement even went out stating that this was the case. Idk about y'all but I think SbS should stick to their word and lock the IP.

Thank you Zortir those are kind words.

Unless there is an update from SBS that I’m not aware of, I’d love to see an official response. SBS have been awfully quiet on this topic and the topic of D&SS testing....interesting.

tbh I missed the thread that states how SbS will be handling IP prior to D&SS, and never really thought about it. I can't say I feel strong for one option or another, but:

If IP will remain unlocked I feel like there was no point in hiding IP charts, and it will just bring back bidding war that SbS initially wanted to avoid, and it can happen on any level, who says a monarch or a duke won't see that his turn is quite long and drop some funds to speed up the process potentially getting in before someone else.

It does help SbS with funding ofc, take it however you will, but locking IP means people won't be able to impulsively drop cash to get in sooner, which makes SbS miss on some cash. While locking in prior will make some people to spend it nevertheless before deadline, I feel when people see the time they will be more inclined to spend more as they will see the change and their position. To be clear I'm not supporting this position, I simply state why I can see SbS not locking it in.

If on the assumption that players still pick at their given time if someone cuts infront of them Im not sure I see the impact. You as the player wouldn't be able to see the difference really because afaik all you can see is your own time, not who is infront of you. You would never know he just got infront of you or who already had more IP or not because you still pick at your time given right? You would just see settlements being taken as if nothing changed. It wouldn't have much observable difference if they skipped infront of you in IP before domain selection or not is my point i guess. Again, on the assumption that if someone skips you you still pick at your original time.

I also don't think I agree that mayors will be overly rushed to pick settlements because at that point wouldn't they have had access to map for almost an entire month in advance? If I were a mayor I would already have like 8 settlements to autolock on my list. With the sheer number of settlements, unless I was trying to pick a settlement clearly just out of my league it is unlikely all of them are being contested to the extent some of these posts are implying.

Idk maybe Im reading the system wrong, I don't see a huge deal in it. I can understand wanting the system to stay the same because it was what was given to us and its an abrupt change just 2 weeks before the system though.

My opinion on the matter is that there is a ton of confusion on how D&SS is going to go already.

Half say SBS is saying there are 6 Kingdoms and 1 week, thus each King has 28 hours to select their Kingdom (in IP order).

The other half says SBS is saying there are 6 Kingdoms and 1 week and entry will roll by IP and you may have 10 minutes to select or you may have an entire day to select (based on your IP amount).

Either way, you have no idea if the person started ahead of you or got there after D&SS started. I understand the frustration and share it to some degree but they are not commenting so we just have to plan for the best and prepare for the worst.

There was a response to this issue in Discord, which I would link, but we have been asked not to link dev comments from Discord as comments made in Discord are unofficial.

So, if you would like clarification on the official announcement, please go to the unofficial medium of communication and search for Caspian's comment, which should, evidently, be considered the official response...

I wonder how many mayors have the same IP at the bottom. Was the plan to let them all in at the same time previously? If not and they were spread across a day or several days by some tie breaker what happens when a bunch hear they can spend $4 and jump ahead a day to an already full schedule or something similar happens with counts? I worry about bugs being introduced or crashes that cause issues for everyone.

We've been asked to clarify the D&SS IP lock rules.

Previously we posted a forum message and sent out a tweet regarding locking influence prior to domain and settlement selection. This was a miscommunication between the Outreach and Design teams. After realizing our mistake, we removed the messages to avoid further confusion.

To be clear: Influence during Domain and Settlement Selection will be the same as it was for Surname reservations. It will not be locked, it will be open to change throughout the event. This means it is possible to move your reservation earlier. If your influence changes during D&SS, it will adjust your pick time slightly.

Note: This does not affect the start time of other users as it is not a queue.

We hope this clears up any confusion, thank you.

Thank you for the clarification

Why the claim that it was due to community feedback? Was that also a miscommunication?

Posted By fierywind at 12:20 PM - Mon Apr 15 2019

Why the claim that it was due to community feedback? Was that also a miscommunication?

I don't think that was a miscommunication so much as a misunderstanding.

People took the quote in the OP "After many quick responses, instead of keeping influence locked in for the duration of the event, we'll keep it open and allow you to continue to earn influence throughout the event." as saying that it was quick responses with the community.

After the clarification post from Serp, it's clear it was meant as quick responses between the outreach and design teams to clarify the miscommunication.

The change was never based on community opinion about locking IP