Player owned apartments

Doubling the world size didn't necessarily double the size of the towns and cities, since it's dual scale. Think of it as more detail in between the cities.

 

I wan't to say thank you to those "wealthy players". I am aware that without them the game would not exist or would be much more basic.

 

No it doesn't but it gives them more room to add towns as they need them. So say we get a few thousand citizen level pledges, they can always add more villages to give them space. I honestly hope that happens.

I honestly believe they will leave room for some new players to get a chance to get a normal house after the release. Personally I would rather have a rent free house, but I hope they make some housing available after release. (although they will still have to be lucky to get one of those)

 

No doubt, i thank those people a lot who invested their money in this game.
But - dont you think that if housing is limited to a view people, one big aspect of joy in this game is really missing ?
SotA will be a great game, and Richard Garriot is one of the innovative minds i know, so there will be a solution.

All the time you discuss this matter here, your thoughts are limited to the actual state of art mmpogs - become flexible !

I would suggest the following:

People who have payed for their house, or supported the game, or both shoud get a great house somewhere central that is visible for everybody.

Visible - thats the point - now comes the server filter in duty.

Everybody else can build houses on dedicated areas that are at the beginning blacklisted to all other players.
That can happen on multiple layers, because they wont be visible at the same time.
If you like you can whitelist other player houses or private shops etc. bit by bit.

That two players whitelist each other and they built at the same spot will be verry rare...

Thats the idea.

If you are not too sure about it, ask all the people who invested their money in the game, i think they want you too have as much fun as they do.
They will have tho old stylish big houses in the city, i dont think that they will deny you your hut.


Second posibility would be also very interesting....
Watch the little tiled Intro of Ultima V - and you know what i mean.

Last thing: I want ships where you can live on. A ship with room for 1 - 3 people - a mobile home.
Imagine what would happen.... i see mobile cities of players and clans. Give the whole a little steering dynamic and it would be wonderfull..

 

I'm sure as future episodes come out and expand the land, housing will undoubtedly be expanded as well. Will every single player be able to own a house? Probably not. But that's ok. I don't think not owning a home is a deal breaker.

 

I just skim through the posts but I was thinking about the same problem...I do like the idea of apartments for people who got no deed or currently do not have the money to get one but in my opinion these apartments shouldn't be in private control...as some others I see there just problems...what if the owner of the apartment block didn't paid his tax...what if he wants to change his house back to e.g. a Knight's home...just leave them under NPC control.

I do not understand why these apartments should devalue your e.g. village plot. If you have a deed you can change the appearance of your house, you can decorate the in- and outside, you can hire a vendor, you can buy a basement, ... all that wouldn't be possible with an apartment. With an apartment you just have a small room to decorate...maybe you can't even change the appearance of the walls and of cause you have to pay a relatively high rent every week/month (keep in mind if you pledged enough you don't have to pay a tax/rent for your deed and the apartment has maybe the size of 1/6 of a village deed but the rent is maybe 1/2 of the tax you have to pay for the village deed).

I would suggest a apartment block with the size of a city deed in every town. If you would build each floor like on my picture there would be 22 rooms + stairway on each floor...with a simple two floors apartment building there would be 44 more happy people in the game...maybe even some more if you make the apartments a little smaller. All in all I would suggest to create as much apartments as deeds are ingame available.

For the owning of the apartments I would suggest an adaption of the current deed system with a new smaller deed size for these apartments...you buy a apartment deed for room 20 for x gold (brokerage) and have to pay y gold each week/month as rent. If you missed to pay your rent the second time in a row the room is cleared, you lose the apartment deed and your stuff goes into your mailbox.

I think it would be a simple solution to get a home for more people...well at least a taste of a real deed.

About the instancing...well I think in some kind it is already in the game. You just can't show all the 10.000 characters standing at a corner...you have to separate them into smaller groups to keep the framerate working...so I think you will be all the time in an instance and that is ok. Creating instances to multiply the number of the apartment blocks or deeds in general on the other hand is a no go.

 

Oh, there definitely will be Inns and Apartment complexes and whatnot in the future. They simply haven't committed to it for Ep1 currently, but you never know. It can be a huge money maker for them so that everyone can own or rent a house, but not the land it's on since that will always remain a very finite number. True, there will be land owners and they too will be able to buy an Inn or Apt Complex on it and rent it out to other players who can't afford land.