Back in April, we shared that we had created Bills in Vitare as a way of ensuring the economy remained balanced.
We wanted to avoid everyone becoming billionaires and nothing in the game being valuable. Likewise, we also wanted to ensure the game is accessible so anyone can play and earn their way to building the lot of their dreams. Bills essentially act as an economy sink as part of this balance.
As players have started building and trying the Closed Beta, it has become clear that bills were way too expensive in relation to the wider economy. It also meant people were being charged the same bills whether their lot was popular or quieter.
As a result, Bills are getting a significant overhaul based on your feedback.
The biggest change is that furniture no longer contributes to your bill. You’ve already paid for every object you placed and it didn’t feel right to charge you again for having a well-decorated lot. Instead a small flat fee applies based on how many objects you have, keeping things simple and fair.
Bills now also scale with how much your lot is earning. A quiet Residence lot or a gallery that isn’t generating much income will pay a fraction of what a busy Money lot pays. The more your lot earns, the more it contributes back – which we feel is a fairer balance and incentivises all kinds of lots.
Finally, how often you get billed now reflects how active your lot is. A packed lot with lots of visitors accumulates toward its next bill faster – but it’s also earning more to cover it. A quiet lot with few visitors will go much longer between bills. This means the billing system naturally adjusts to your play style rather than hitting everyone with the same frequency regardless of what they’re doing.
If you don’t pay your bills, this will kickstart consequences in the lot as more time elapses. This includes pausing rankings, money objects not paying out, freezing objects, and even repossession. You’ll never lose any objects you’ve purchased in this event which would be extremely rare and not possible to happen if you’re offline (i.e. on Vacation!).
We are hopeful that these changes make bills a fair reflection of your lot’s success rather than an unobtainable fixed cost that feels impossible to keep up with. We will continue to tweak this and fine tune as we get more feedback and how the economy develops.
Your feedback has been invaluable in shaping this change – we are listening to everything you share with us!