Row Houses are good!

This is one of the best updates in a while. Also to help fund the game if you aren't at a tier that has a house, consider upgrading to Ancestor or get a row lot deed for $88. Check out the row houses in this update. They have lots of space.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=41148#more-41148

 

Just had a quick look - those are not bad, and I imagine the 4-story version will have quite a bit of space. I hope we get to look around some of them in R7.

I would love to have a home in-game and was wondering how I was going to afford a Citizen pledge... but to upgrade to Ancestor is not a huge jump from where I'm at now, so I plan to do so. (Still hoping to get a village plot one day, though, for the outdoor space. But this is a good start!)

 

If they were to establish some simple controls for an owner... a 4 story town home could serve as a boarding house of sorts, with the homeowner renting floors to 2 or 3 players other players.

Have the first floor as a common area... the owner takes the top floors, and each of two tenants on the second and third.

 

That would be great for people who'd like to rent rooms, and the style of the row house fits the idea of a boarding house perfectly. Add a basement, and the owner could have the entire basement and rent out three or four floors in the actual house! (Common area on the first floor is a good idea, though.)

What I'm curious about is doors - I was thinking this about some of the other houses I've looked at recently. I'd like to be able to share my house with family and friends, but it seems like there are a lot of open areas in many of the house designs. With doors, it might be easier to set permissions for certain people to have the use of certain rooms, but some of the individual rooms are tiny and some homes don't have many doors at all.

I'd like to know how sharing is going to work - is the whole building (and basement) shared among everyone who has the same level of access, or will it be possible to denote certain floors or rooms as belonging to individuals? Is there a dev post on the subject that someone could point me to?

 

The question I have that I can't find a answer to about row houses is, how often do you need to log in, to maintain the tax free properties.
Citizen is, or was 1 time every 5 months.
So, does the additions of row house tax free lots effect the citizens time?
My thought, has been that the lot from developer, would be 4 months, Navigator 3 months, and Ancestor 2 months, working backwards from the existing log in amount.
However, that line of thought, doesn't take into account how the Knight Marshall, and Lord Marshall tiers fit in.

 

Row houses actually have me a bit worried. For now, it seems most of the player cities are planning on loading up big time on Row lots, which I don't think is a good strategy at all. The Row lots are small. We'll see how small soon. For now, imagine the Citizen house with stairs taking up some space in the floor plan. Not too much room, right? That's close to what you'll get with Row houses, only with up to four floors and absolutely no yard space.

I really don't expect many people will be happy with a Row lot for long. Lots will look to upgrade to Village where possible, and that at a minimum. Supply for Row lots will, not long after release, come to far exceed demand, and I really expect most Row houses will turn into soulless storage units. Player towns that invest too heavily in Row housing will become ghost towns as a result.

Think about it. It'll be nice for more players to start with a small housing unit, but how many of you starting with such a small lot plan to use that lot as your primary residence long term?

 

I plan to use my Row lot as a private escape from the Bear Tavern where I will spend most of my time, I think Row housing works well for Berans Reach, although we haven't released our numbers yet we're certainly looking to keep the numbers of rows at a decent number without flooding it with them. Row Lots really help the aesthetics of a city, particularly one in a medieval setting, it would be weird if you walk in to a City and just see tons of open spaces everywhere

Row Houses suit me perfectly for my aim, the price point is not too much and the amount of upkeep and space is ideal for a busy Barkeeper.

Plus there is always basements as well

 

Just playing around with my town calculator, Imagine a player city size with only Row houses. It looks like you can fit 448 of them! Would that make one a slum lord?

 

I have a friend that backed Shroud with me. The plan was, he would share my village home with me.
Now, he's upgraded to ancestor. And will also share his row home with me.
I think a lot of people just want some place to store and display their stuff, and to setup a vendor.
A row home works well for this.
And, the size of a citizen home was mentioned. Isn't a four story row home better than a one story citizen home?
Add the 5 story basement, which, unlike my 5 story village basement, actually uses the entire space of the row home plot.
So, think a 9 floor home. each floor may be small, but there's a lot of them.
Yeah, no yard. But my village home won't have much of a yard either after I drop my knight home on it.

 

A four story Row house is better than the Citizen house. A Village lot, however, which is what Citizens get, is four times bigger than a Row lot. Citizens can always buy a bigger house with gold and replace the Citizen house with that later on down the road. If you stick to a Row lot, the biggest home you'll get is that four-story hole-in-the-wall.

And those houses will be small. Again, I can't say this enough times that will impart a greater impact than actually seeing it yourself. Many people will probably start with a Row lot because they'll be cheap and super accessible, but those people won't live on that lot for long. In short order they'll be buying up Village and Town lots for more space to live, to decorate, to craft, to store, to sell. And when that happens, cities that are built on a foundation of Row housing will become ghost towns, packed full of properties that are purely dedicated to storage (if used at all).

This is my prediction, and I am happily accepting friendly bets (or real bets if that's cool with Portalarium) on it.

 

I'm inclined to agree. At least for me, it would be a starter house. With a friend grabing a tax free row house, I'll have access to one. Probably mostly for storage and merchant placement.
He'll be grabbing the 5 story basement, and I'll toss him the 4 story row house that I'll get for free. Maybe it will get used. And... maybe it will get decorated with stuff that I get tired of at my village house. Heck, the friends not even planing on it being his primary use.Seriously discussing the idea of the row house, being in one of the player owned craft/trade cities. Just to increase to have a presence of some sort in one.
(is it wrong to plan how to use a friends tier rewards? then try and tell him what he's going to do with it?)

 

This didn't happen in UO, housing no matter how small were so highly sought after throughout its time, for every person who wants to or is able to upgrade there'll be 5 or 6 wanting to move in to that space. On top of that player run cities can and should evolve throught its time, no reason why people cant sell/move between cities. Not only that but Cities can expand over time or start a second city, I don't see this stagnant world. People need to be careful of course, but I think a good number of row housing is a great idea.

A lot of people will be content with small housing, I know I was for most of my time in Ultima online.

 

I think Row houses are the best thing ever! I just upgraded to Ancestor yesterday.

And I don't think of it as a starter home. I'm not in to housing. It doesn't do anything for me... BUT having my own base of operations and a place to store my stuff is nice. It's an affordable tax-free lot. Just what I wanted.

 

That was true for a time, mostly because housing in UO was difficult to acquire. That changed when the UO landmass started to expand and the player base started to shrink, as it became far easier to place larger houses.

But the comparison isn't a very useful one, anyway. UO was a 2D isometric game, which gave all buildings a less claustrophobic feel from what we get in SotA. I am pretty convinced that players will prefer a larger living space in a game that offers a 3D environment. People might settle for the itsy bitsy space of a Row house if that was their only option, but I expect Village lots will be quite plentiful.

 

I would have to disagree, I actually felt far more claustrophobic in Ultima houses than I do in SoTA, it may not be a useful comparison to you, but really, no other games have done housing quite like Uo/Sota are. My small marble workshop was ridiculous , I shall see what a row house is like soon hopefully to really judge whether it is as small as you say it is.

 

Guess I'm going to be SotA homeless. I'll do what I see the local homeless do, sneak into some abandoned looking place and set up shop there lol. "Hey, I think I saw some homeless adventurer sleeping in that shack in south Braemar...."

Honestly, most of the time I just may be at Bear Tavern

 

Passing out in a corner will be fine, I'll sweep you out at 6am.

 

Just be sure to fall asleep with a mug in your hand and people will know you enjoyed the stay.

 

Oh for those that know me, that's pretty much a guarantee lol. I frequent breweries and craft beer pubs in my local area. If there were a Bear Tavern in real life, I'd probably be there every other day. I just wouldn't be homeless

 

a 3 story knight marshal house is much better than a lot home, and it fits on a village plot. Village lots have much more potential.

So having a "rent free" village plot is better. Also you can place your village plot on a row lot if you like, and you get the row houses from lower tiers to place there, including the basements.

So the short answer is your pledge is much better.