Are player run inns still a thing?

I agree if you are lookiing to get an inn for profit it won't happen. I still like having my inn for now but inns did lose most of their viability with all players getting free access to their very own deeds now. I totally support that this needed to happen. I think many players don't seem to want to share your space and it feels uncomfortable to them to do so.

Perhaps as mentioned if the rental system would have gotten some things we asked for to make it less uncomfortable like inn keeper ability to rent rooms on their own by purchasing a key to a room from him that lasts a certain amount of time then you can buy another before it disappears.

So I still have tenants but most aren't playing at the moment. It doesn't matter to me. I mostly use my inn as a bit of history. I have all but one of the old tour hats from the hat quests. I'm not sorry I got my inn and perhaps one day they will finish the system and add more reasons and viability to being a tenant but for now we try to make our own. So many of those perhaps one day.

Also I got to know some wonderful people having my inn who were tenants for a while. I forgot to mention this part. I still will offer free rooms but rent isn't asked for or needed since the lot is a tax-free lot and I got it to help others.

Edited

 

I really liked staying at an inn as a new player. I've had a lot of guests in my spare room in the past.

Inn room is a *much* better choice than a row deed for new players.

An inn can still be successful and attractive but pulling new players in will be a lot of work.

Over all, I'd say skip it unless you *really* want to, then, in that case, don't let anyone stop you.

 

One of the better ideas I’ve seen in a while. This would be cool for player quests too

 

That might be an possible way to fill inns even if I think that NPCs not necessarily need to pay for a room.
My adaption would be that inns could be used as houses for NPCs e.g. the guards but this would of course need some new mechanics like allocating a room to your or even system NPCs.
One possibility could be to define a room as free NPC-Room maybe with an option to just offer the room to your NPCs. Each NPC who has currently no home is starting once in a while a search in close range if there is a free NPC-Room and if so he is claiming the room. The room is filled with a set of items and the NPC can be found in this room during his spare time.

For the NPCs on your privat lot you maybe could chose between:
A - search no home (e.g. for vendors)
B - search a home just on your lot(s)
C- search a home anywhere
D - define a specific room

Even if inns wouldn't be used by avatars that much they would still have a purpose and breathe life into static looking settlement by letting the NPCs move around and as NPCs would live there this might even create an interest to avatars to live in the same inn as e.g. a master trainer. (As an adaption of your competition-idea we might even have at some point the possibility to "bribe" NPCs and "steal" them to make your inn more interesting for avatar renters)

 

The innkeeper NPC is brilliant. Why isn't that in the game? The biggest hurdle I can think of (aside from coding doors to require generated and regenerated keys) would be the quagmire of granting access permissions to any John with gold for a key. Permissions would have to be subassigned to doors rather than the house itself.

A challenge no doubt but it has so much potential - an inn would become so much more than a house with a bunch of identical rooms.

Not to mention that a continuous mechanical availability of rooms would have negated the urgent need for row houses before completing the whole story arc.

 

I've got 6...

• The Watery Tart
• The Laden Swallow
• The Singing Prince
• The Pining Parrot
• The 'Af a Bee
• The Larch

<sigh>

 

Well, it seems to late now... the train has leave the station.
First the introduced inns including a inn basement, and then do the best to get rid of this function/option/game element.

The innkeeper should be available a long time before.
New Players have only 30 bank slots and are often encumbered. A room in a inn let the new player place one or more containers. Far cheaper as buying the bank box up and more immersive / RPG like.
The can also test decorating in such a room, getting their first own furniture.
May ask people for help and how things work.
They have a home until they have earned their first lot deed. At this time they also know the basics of the game.
Earning the first lot deed is a goal.

When they get their first deed now, it is to early in the game. For really new players they left alone. Have seen some forgotten to pay taxes, cause they do not know that they have to do this.

I was/be an innkeeper in Veritas Sanctuary. Before i have taken a 2 month break from game, i spoke to new ones. Haven given them a room in one of our two town inns and added them to the four town vendors. A small sightseeing tour if wanted.
It was fun to "play" the innkeeper. However you can still ask me if you need a room in Veritas Sanctuary.
Before the break no-one was gifted with a lot deed...

I wished that people have gotten a quest to visit a inn along the quest towns. For Bloodriver Outskirts that would be Aerie. One of the quest NPC in the outskirts would have told the new players to speak to an inn keeper NPC.
Doing this give some XP and enough gold to get a room in this inn for a week. The innkeeper also give information that player owned towns also have inns and a brief info about claiming lots, the deeds and taxes. When triggered due to the quest.
Yes, rooms in inns should cost something. Because most of the guest forget to inform the innkeeper that they stopped playing sota, or moved elsewhere (own home maybe). Getting a small rent helps getting track if the room still is in use or not.
It also helps that players becomes used to pay taxes, later, for their own land.
As a row is now 250 gold/day a inn room may is 50 gold/day. This are 1500 igg / month. Easy obtainable. 3 oracle visits.

As far as i know keys are not as simple in unity/sota. They need to add locks somewhere. I like to see keys in game.
But usually rooms have numbers. A player can also get a (non-functional) key with a number of a free room.
A script then add the player to the lot as guest+tenant. The player can place items in tenant mode only, this ensures that the items are placed in the tenants bank on eviction.
The script add the player to the door as manager. This allows the player to lock/unlock the door and add others that are allowed to enter even when the door is locked
If the player is in debt, lets say for 14 days like it is with lots, the script removes the player from the door (and all others) and revoke the lot rights. This automagically sends all tenant items to the tenant bank. (this is already in)
For NPC town they can use more then one basement instance. If one instance is full, they use the next basement. (inn basement)
The Innkeeper can also be used as shared (shared to all guests) commissioned vendor. The innkeeper function is invoked when one speaks with the vendor/innkeeper.
For the guest the "tax-window" can be used. The guest has a "inn lot". This does not allow flexible rent, but may easier to implement.

Later on (player driven inns):
When you right click a door the "door ui" opens. Somewhere in this window there is a key you can pick up (drag to your inventory) and a text box to enter a daily rent for this room. They key can not be destroyed. If one want to stop renting this room the key needs to be returned to the "door ui". In the case the key is lost, one needs to buy a locking mechanism and place the new locks in the "door ui". This will generate a new key one can pick up, and deletes the old key from the game.
The key can be sold on vendors, send via in-game mail, traded in person or made available in public chests. It can also be placed on the lot and picked up by the public.
To have a innkeeper one needs to add a buy order for the key on a vendor on the lot with the room. The daily rent is shown in the tooltip of the "key buy order". If the key is sold to the vendor the player is added to the lot as guest+tenant, to the door as manager and the door becomes locked. The player (the seller/ guest) is given a paper in its inventory telling the room number, the daily rent, the name of the lot owner, that a "room lot" was "claimed" and how to open the "tax ui".
In the "tax ui" the guest can pre-pay the rent upto the maximum. (Currently 180 days).
The inn owner get its daily rent daily. When the guest "un-claim" the room the guest gets the remaining rent back, like it is with lot deeds.
When the room is "un-claimed" the guest is removed from the lot access list, the door access list is cleared and the door becomes unlocked. Items are send to the tenants bank.
A guest can un-claim a room with the context menu in the "tax ui" or press un-claim (or the right English word for this) in the "door ui" or "door context menu".
The owner can evict the guest by using the "door ui" or "door context menu". The entry for the guest in the lot access menu is locked. This may help to trigger the "guest remove"/"un-claim" script correctly.

The owner (or however has placed the buy order for the key) gets a normal buy order full-filled receipt. That is the info that a new guest is arrived.
If the key is sold first through the vendor the gold can be given back through the buy order. The buy order also allows to give a little more gold that the new guest gets some days for free. If the key is sold at 90 gold it ensures that there is enough gold to buy a locking mechanism to change the locks on the door, in the case the one does not really wants a room.
The receipt for the sold key informs one that there is a guest/player interested to get a room. One may contact the potential guest.

(If a buy order can not be used to trigger a script, may the quest engine helps. For this, player vendors need a word to invoke the "quest"/"task" or check for a "room key" of this lot in the players inventory (the keyword is then hello, i guess).)

May not complete thought through, but being a innkeeper is sometimes fun. And helps at least new ones.

 

I don't think it's too late to make it work. I reckon it's a matter of will and prioritization.

 

I set someone up in my inn yesterday so I guess its still a thing?

 

I have one: Mystic Knights Inn.

 

Would be a nice idea, if random NPC's could check in into "Inn classified" buildings. So owner could earn a few Gold or Crowns

A player could find a notification mail (like current sale notification) telling "Mr./Ms. xyz checked in / out, paid amount of ..."

 

I just opened a new inn, The Adventurer's Interval, in the basement of the Tortoise Clan Observatory, in downtown Storm's Reach.

All new / inexperienced players can live there for free.

Now all we need is a patch to make resting in a location you rent/own give a bonus and were all set

 

I was talking with Travis after the release stream, and mentioned that inns were going to be kind of useless now, and he off-hand said basically the same thing, so I guess the idea has been kicking around somewhere. At least there is awareness among the devs that inns could use some love after the easy lot deeds.

And I thought that was a pretty cool idea, but I hope they do it in a way that isn't limited to inns. Some row houses and basements make a good inn configuration. I suppose a good simple UI for it would just be set the door to enable an "allow NPC tenants" mode. It would also be cool if they could have the NPCs wear random adventurer-style clothes, NPC models are more boring than player character models right now, which aren't very good. But I'm sure all that could run into NPC limits and they'd have to "get the plague".

And... y'know... more staffing.

 

I'd convert my Elven inn to COTOS if I had the chance. It is good that the devs are noticing the impact.

 

Almost seems like Inn Mechanics as described here might be better than theater mechanics but what do I know.

 

Inn's are another case of not finishing the last 20%, and having to deal with the ramifications of that lack of completion.

We don't live in the game, even if we are on a lot, there would always have been players rolling through with no service because we have to log out some time. Everyone knew this, it was widely discussed.

Additionally, beds never bestowed buffs on logout, a great idea acknowledged by everyone including the devs, but also a lost opportunity.

Giving away the deed was a good move but one that only had to happen because Inn's were only taken to 80%. Having to punt on Y because X isn't finished needs to stop happening.

Every time they have to yank a system that they put hundreds of hours into but didn't quite finish, an angel loses her wings.

Finish systems that you've started.

(This includes sounds, no game is complete without sounds.)

----

Anyway, the loss of Inn's is sad for a lot of people, but at least the new players have an easier way to get into the game now. You win some you lose some.

 

Agree with @Vladamir Begemot - while iterative development is great, necessary, and progressive, there needs to be some guidance to avoid situations like this.

However, "inns are not dead," just pointless given the current state. They have been sent to purgatory. Much like VB said, we got 80% of that system, but "finishing" that last 20% can make inns great again.

Allowing a buff for logging out while sleeping in a bed is a huge start. Even when in possession of a PoT row lot, a new player may want to adventure on the other side of the content (and think of multiple continents!). It may not be prudent to recall all the way home, but rather, visit a nearby inn. Plus, while doing quests, players may want to stay in an NPC town - the new players only have a PoT deed at this point. NPC town inn keepers become more relevant.

Also, eliminate "teleport to scene," and instead replace it with "teleport to home." Any lot you own or are a tenant of - this would encourage players to rent rooms all over Novia.

Perhaps, even, players can register their lots as inns, and one feature of this is avatars are allowed to bind to your inn (separate from their recall point). Then "teleport to home," actually can become "teleport to inn" scroll, and you can teleport to any inn you have rented from in the past.

There are a ton of other features I could think up that would make inns "a thing" again. How about no commission charged on a public vendor if you rent a room in that town? Combine that with "teleport to inn," and you would have people traveling and staying in various towns around the world. This thread isnt for dotting out features though, I am just saying a few iterations on inns and tenancy (*cough* UI! *cough*), and we could have inkeeping be a trade in the game.

I like that new players easily get a PoT row lot. I think we can adjust the game mechanics such that it is beneficial to have a home base and find lodging all over Novia.

 

I like your enthusiasm, but sometimes trying to make something work just so it is a thing isn't a good use of time. I think the ship has sailed on Inn's and devs should really focus on the last 20% of some other systems so they don't sail as well.

 

Indeed, a tough one for inn owners with no renters.

Arguably its not different than that with some other buildings though. Most POT taverns, for example, don't overflow with patrons either. They are as expensive but less useful than inns. With performance improved, the devs might rethink how NPCs are used to bring life to public buildings. Why not auto-populate a handful of NPCs to wander inside POT inns or other public buildings to add at least a little life?

At the end of the day though, player-owned housing is SOTA's central feature. The devs did good to promote that feature with new players via deed rewards.

 

I have an Inn for the housing of my guild mates who haven't beat the game yet. I also really enjoy decorating and there are lots of rooms in an inn to decorate. I really like owning an inn purely from the RP aspect of our town having an inn for visitors to take a room in the night for. I don't think it would ever be a viable source of income, however, I think that if there was an inn system implemented it would be neat and would only add a bit of spice to owning an inn. It is my honest opinion though that inns are something that can be really fun, if they're done with the right attitude and the right people.

If you have an Inn and would like to get light shed on your venue, then let me know. It would be an honor and a pleasure to host tavern night at anyone's inn/tavern.