A Question on Housing shown in the 6th Month Demo

I do not believe the game would make players eat and sleep.

Would poor new players need food and shelter they can't hope to obtain? I disagree with this premise.

 

Well, they did specifically state you would need to eat in order to regain health (unless, of course, you have a healing potion or spell available), so presumably, yould need to sleep as well. There must be a reason for tents and sleeping bags being in the game (which has been confirmed) other than for decorative purposes...

 

I would hope that any housing (including temporary) would allow players a way to "save their place" when logging out. I can't see making someone actually "sleep" though.

 

They've said that eating might potentially be *one* option to regain health. But that does not make it a requirement for players to eat.

True, there are tents and bedrolls but they haven't said what they intend to do with them other than being decorative. I would hope they are functional but to require sleep? It may be an optional way to regain health but that also likely isn't going to make it a requirement for players to have to sleep. Sleeping comes with another issue in a multiplayer persistent world...the passage of time. If there is any sleep in the online mode, it will be just you watching your player sleep in game-time -- i.e., no fast forward 8 hours for you, but everyone else only had 1 minute elapse. Sleeping does make sense in single player offline mode though where they don't have to worry about that.

 

Will someone who doesn't have a home need to rent that much room for only 30 days. I would imagine they would move in with little in the way of possessions and have no choice but to leave with little too. I can't imagine them ever getting full use of all that space if they aren't taking up permanent residence. I'm wondering if you'll have to end up renting out this home at a cut rate price.

 

As I mentioned, eating is one of the three ways of regaining health - but presumably starting players would not have access to a lot of healing potions or spells. Besides, even high level players might be badly wounded and exhausted all of their healing potions and spells after a long, fierce battle with powerful foes. They may not be near a village, town, or city to restock on supplies. In such cases, foraging, hunting, & fishing skills could prove to be the difference between life and death...

It would really help if the developers actually confirmed the role of sleep in the game. You are correct that the passage of time wouldn't be noticeable in the single player offline mode, but I am intrigued by what you said about sleep in the online mode. Presumably, the developers would allow you to fast forward in that mode as well, since players would not want to sit around for eight hours waiting for their character to wake up...

 

It hasn't been decided if food helps you gain health (like a potion) or helps you regenerate health faster. Or potentially starve if you don't eat.

 

Sure, they haven't gotten into specifics yet, but food will definitely benefit you, as indicated by DarkStarr himself:

This is precisely why they devoted an entire skill tree to cooking!

 

Its not that there's "no renting" its that the game won't have built-in mechanisms for rentals on release (but maybe later?). There's nothing stopping you from renting a property. As long as you can friend someone to your property allowing them to use it and transfer money between players, then you could "rent" a house from someone even without direct support from the game.

 

I hope food doesn't heal health. I'd rather not see combat determined by who brought the most cooked sharks like RS.

 

I agree and in fact feel that this is the perfect example of why its a sandbox game. Theres no mechanics necessary, just basic tools.

Tools: we have houses, we have ability to add and take people off houses. Thats all we need.

Monetary arrangements is between players.

If you want to rent you find a renter you feel comfortable trusting. Maybe get some references.

Or just start out by paying by the day and slowly increase the payment duration as the relationship and trust grows.

No in game tools need to be added or support for "inns".

 

In theory, I agree but in practise I fear that simple RP and honesty won't be enough. It isn't necessary for the game to have the extra mechanics for managing an inn but it would help to improve accountability. You can see the potential problem as well as I can, I know you an experienced player.

If we can't have a mechanic to manage payments then perhaps we need a mechanic to manage the permissions of the house. Ideally, it would allow us to set permissions on a per-room basis. I say ideally because I appreciate that this increases overheads. The relationship between landlord and tenant is only one of the risks, the other is between the tenants. If all members have the same permissions then surely that means one tenant could steal from another (or the owner).

While it would be nice to put 100% trust in a vetting process (which could be managed without any mechanics) this doesn't prevent us against all risks. To be frank, I'd rather not take the risk of a few GP per month if it means risking all the items in my house. Ergo, we need a system to manage permissions on a per-room basis. That is the inn system but the devs are not keen on this for EP1.

 

What you're asking for could very well happen later on, it just sounds like not for initial release. Once you get to breaking things down room by room then yes it would be tough to do it without game support.

What will work right away though is just renting a whole house to someone; they pay you periodically you keep them on your friends list. If they don't pay or do something else you don't like, you take them off the friends list.

 

True. Wasn't thinking along those lines. Rent out a spare empty lot to a friend that way the amount of trust needed is limited and the risks are minimal.

This would allow someone with a deep enough pocket to buy a spare lot, and someone with not so deep pockets to have a house. It may not be perfect but it is a start.


edit: evidently I didn't read the previous replies correctly either. Heh.

 

Those are good questions. I would imagine that anyone renting the home I described would want the home for a longer period of time, more like 3 months. But I would have no problem going month to month since the rent is paid up front.

And you're absolutely right, if it's not worth it then I could get stuck trying to pay the taxes on an empty home. Such is the game of real estate I suppose.

I'm betting that housing is ultra rare though, which is why I'd like to purchase one or two more homes pre-launch.

I've posted this before, but it seems reasonable that only a very small portion of the games players will have access to housing of any kind. Right now there are 26k people that have purchased this game (or backed it, I suppose some could've just given $10 or something).

But if we just use that 26k figure as a starting point (it will probably be more like 200k at launch), and we assume that there are what, 5k houses at the very most? I think it's actually more like 2.5k, but I'm being conservative. That means that there are a minimum of 5.2 people per home in the game.

What that tells me is that even in the worst scenario there are going to be people that will want to rent. In the best scenario there may be 100's of people per home that would like to rent. I think the $150 for a plot of land is the best investment a player can make in this game.

 

Pretty close. I count 2,930 lots. This mean that 11% of our current population has potential housing, so it looks like we can expect at least another 2,340 lots to be implemented before launch. I too think you won't have any problem renting it out, I'm just not so sure that renting that much real estate can be very profitable, but of course location means everything in this business. Good luck with your rental business.