A Question on Housing shown in the 6th Month Demo

Why are houses so spread out? It seems that in a city the housing should be much closer together. To me, it feels like the city areas still look more like country areas because of this spacing.

I realize that there are three plot sizes being sold in the add-on store and through the Founder/Backer programs, but perhaps the obvious solution would be to start selling plots of land that have NO extra space? These plots could be a reduced price, and offer maybe as much as 3 to 4 times as many plots than are currently being offered.

So if my math is right...the offer might look like this, $50 for a "Studio" size lot that will be in a city somewhere in the game smashed together with another player studio lot. This would leave very little room for customization, but would give a player more storage space and a place to call their own.

Your thoughts?

 

Sorry, I meant more like they could take an existing Village plot (that hasn't been sold yet) and carve it up into two, three, or even four plots. Then resell for 1/4th the cost to the public. Then make sure that all those studio plots are located in the center of these big cities. I think a $50 studio plot would be very popular with people that arrive late into the game and find housing is very hard to come by.

 

Making some lots small to produce a more crowded city feel initially doesn't sound like a bad idea, but it would be unfair to people who have purchased village lots. These people would have paid more for the same amount of home space -- a one room home -- but don't get the protection of living in a city behind stone walls and the proximity to community areas such as crafting areas, etc.

 

Good point, but we're talking about a very small home (no basement or room for one) and no ability to farm or plant crops. Plus would not have the ability to buy a different kind of home, this would be one size fits all. Maybe there would need to be a little more of a difference, but I think it could work out.

 

If the homes are smaller then yeah, I think it could possibly work out, but how much smaller can these homes be made and still be sellable?

 

Seems like you are wanting an “apartment”, a room at the inn, a stable to sleep in, space. A very small space, a bed and a chest.

 

Yes, that's a good way to describe it.

I actually own two village lots at the moment though, so this isn't for me as much as it is the large amounts of people that have yet to arrive.

 

I will be RPing a traveling merchant so I TOO would appreciate a place to hang my hat in town temporarily as I pass through.

 

Indeed. I like the idea proposed in the initial post and figure that the cities should actually be more city like with denser housing. I was saying to myself that $50 was too cheap but then again what am I comparing that to? We are given an unknown length of string and asked what we would pay for it.


Some thoughts:

It is worth asking if a dev+ backer at $400 would pay $100 to become a citizen or $450 (say) to get one of these houses. Would it make sense to charge $100? Because dev+ backers would just take the citizen level pledge.

However, it could make sense for the lower level backers to pay $100 on top of their pledges in order to get access to a house. A pledge at $200 plus an extra $100 for a smaller than village house is perhaps not such a bad proposition. If the devs can get the balance of size for price then I'd support this idea. I'm sure the devs can get the right balance but that's if they feel like the extra effort is worth it.

 

People want space around their houses, they want usable land, thus the fences. Even though they've only shown a village (Kingsport) and a town (Owl's Head), I doubt that cities will change this since it would require plot resizing and new types of plots/houses.

I think what you're really looking for are rows of attached buildings, be they inns, apartment complexes, etc, all clumped together without any indvidiual space between buildings that truly give it an crowded urban sprawl. Unless they create those new building types that players can own, that's likely not going to happen and be limited to NPC buildings.

 

Indeed, but if they can't afford a basic village plot then this type of apartment idea would provide a house without a garden. Not such a bad compromise IMO.

Current cities, no they won't change that. However, this is a proposition for change.

That's the plan, it might not happen (unlikely for EP1) but at least the idea is out in the open and being discussed.

 

maybe they should have an apartment-based building in each town with perhaps 50 spaces or something for people to own a small room, it may not fit in with the medieval times, but i dont know if they had apartments back then or not. just a thought.

 

Smack is correct - homeowners want space around their houses for gardens, etc., even in cities. The developers have made it pretty clear that we won't be seeing inns, apartment complexes, etc. in Episode 1. Maybe in Episode 2 or later, but in the meantime, I forsee tent cities springing up outside villages, towns, and cities for those who don't own housing.

 

Oh don't get me wrong, I like the idea of the crowded urban sprawl if that's the type of architecture and city layout they're going for. It would give some players the opportunity to own a home at a lower cost if that's what Portalarium wants to do. It would lack all the benefits of actually owning land but I see plenty of people wishing for even a room to call home.

Perhaps they'll implement this via small, large or massive Inns. Because I actually want to run an Inn whenever that's implemented, complete with a tavern on the bottom floor. And a Fight Club in the basement. Wait, I'm not supposed to talk about Fight Club.

 

I think i dont want too much space, initially. A room with a chest and a bed would be enough to begin my (and my wife) adventures. So we can go from city to city renting some space while adventuring . Later we can adquire a house/boat/whatever xD.

PS: i didnt see the quote "no renting". I will be homeless sometime then .

 

I plan to rent out my second home to anyone that can pay a fair price up front. I'm even going to draft a contract for my renters to sign.

But it's not going to come cheap because the home will be large, it will have a 5 story basement, and a big yard to grow crops. If I could, I'd much rather rent to multiple people, get the individual cost (and risk) down and the overall cost up.

 

Not sure if the developers will allow that since inns are not an option in Episode 1. They did say that those listed as "kindred" on the deed will have storage and crafting station rights, but nothing about actually sleeping there...Also, if the developers do allow it, how would you enforce the terms of the contract (short of removing the renters from the deed, which would be a last resort) ?

 

I'm not sure what "sleeping" would entail. I assume you mean logging in and out there?

I think being a Kindred for a 30 day period of time as a renter would be worth a great deal to some people that will not have the opportunity to own a home themselves. In fact I'm counting on that. Which is why I bought an extra home.

 

There is a link in my sig to an Instanced Rooms idea that would satisfy the 'place to hang my hat' folks. I know Portalarium said no instanced housing in Episode One, but perhaps it might be something for Episode Two or even an interim update.

 

Yes, I believe the game still requires you to sleep (and eat) in order to regain health. I'm not sure if simply logging in and out of the game while in the house would suffice. (The developers haven't been really clear about this yet.)