Home Ownership - by popular request

[Indigo Wyrd]

I first posted this epic wall of text in another thread, but I've gotten a lot of feedback (good feedback) from people, suggesting it get it's own thread, so by request, here is a wall of text regarding the housing situation, and a suggestion about what to do about it.

Buy a house - ya know, I'd love to buy a house, there's just one problem:

There aren't any for sale. The real-estate side of EU is pathetic. Yes, I've seen a few deeds for some way out the way places, and at insanely high prices - hence I guess these deeds are still sitting around, waiting to sell.

But this also falls into that same idiotic concept of "owning land" - land is simply there.

I've seen I can't tell you how many sites I've visited exploring my way around the world and thought to myself "It would be great to put a house right here."

But that option does not exist.
I can't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to wander out somewhere, say into a forest of pink trees, fell a few and build a cabin. Or spend some time chipping away at boulders strewn across a rocky plain, and construct a small keep.

Calypso is a huge place, and yet housing is in such short supply.

Now before you say "Yes, but owning property means you can make money..." - no, it doesn't necessarily mean that. Yes, some properties can make money, if they're LA type properties, or feature hangers. But if you were to construct a small dwelling somewhere, you'd have no control over what mobs spawned, no residual income from hunting/mining, etc. You'd just have a place to dump your stuff, other than the storage boxes.

The whole point of Calypso is Colonization. Part of Colonization is the setting up of settlements - building homes and living out your life.

I say there should be a Residence Deed available from the trade terminal*, allowing anyone who wants one, and is limited to ONLY ONE, to pick a spot and call it "home".

This would allow for user-made "towns" to spring up in areas, dotting the landscape with little "villages".

Yes, these user-built settlements would lack some things - no Teleporter for quick access to the "big cities", no auto-cannons to fend off wild mobs - and that's a good thing. It gives the residents reasons to skill their hunting abilities, or hire guards. The benefits of this far outweigh the time it would take to do a little extra programming.

What would need to be done:

A little simple coding to ensure the site chosen is suitable - not too close to another structure, not in/on the water (though underwater dwellings might be kind of cool too), not hanging off the side of a mountain in such a manner as to defy the laws of physics. A simple check to see if the ground in a radius of the player is "level" and not "water" not "too close" to another structure, and not in the area of a "city, town or camp" (much in the same way you'll get the message "this area is not suitable for mining", if you try to mine in the biodome**)- otherwise show a message "This area is not suitable for housing".

Once the site is chosen and confirmed, You've got a small structure with a limited number of item points (5-10 maybe - after all, these should not be more beneficial than the elaborate multi-k-ped houses that do already exist).
Now you can move in - furnish as you like.

Now there may come a time when the site you've chosen no longer suits you. You should have the option as well to dismantle and move your little dwelling, come the day EU grows beyond just Calypso and CP.

* Yes, trade terminal. Yes, you only get one. No, you can't sell or trade it. Why? The reason is to make this available to everyone, and at a price reasonable enough that even a couple week old character can afford it.
Why only one? It prevents hoarding, price manipulation, and overcrowding.

** Yes, that's correct. You cannot mine in the biodome. Tried it for fun in New Switzerland, haven't tried it in PA, but I'm sure the same holds true there as well.

~I

[Nighthawk]

There has been talk about being able to build your own houses...

As for the shortage of housing, I think that there was some people that bough all the estates when they were first relased, and now they sell them of slowly to get max profit from it (not sure though, only heard this from other people)...

[onyx oZ Zombie]

ah yes, very good idea imo

"quick, come and hide in my igloo to get away from those phasm!"

[Indigo Wyrd]

Originally Posted by onyx oZ Zombie

ah yes, very good idea imo

"quick, come and hide in my igloo to get away from those phasm!"

Sounds like a plan - but I've been inside some of the larger homes and still been attacked through the walls. Of course, this was out by Argus, and it was only an Exasaur pest, but still...

Nighthawk: That I would believe, as most of the deeds I have seen have all been in shopkeepers owned by the same person. Quite a shame, really, for everyone else.

~I

[Lobbe]

Originally Posted by Indigo Wyrd

I first posted this epic wall of text in another thread, but I've gotten a lot of feedback (good feedback) from people, suggesting it get it's own thread, so by request, here is a wall of text regarding the housing situation, and a suggestion about what to do about it.

Buy a house - ya know, I'd love to buy a house, there's just one problem:

There aren't any for sale. The real-estate side of EU is pathetic. Yes, I've seen a few deeds for some way out the way places, and at insanely high prices - hence I guess these deeds are still sitting around, waiting to sell.

But this also falls into that same idiotic concept of "owning land" - land is simply there.

I've seen I can't tell you how many sites I've visited exploring my way around the world and thought to myself "It would be great to put a house right here."

But that option does not exist.
I can't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to wander out somewhere, say into a forest of pink trees, fell a few and build a cabin. Or spend some time chipping away at boulders strewn across a rocky plain, and construct a small keep.

Calypso is a huge place, and yet housing is in such short supply.

Now before you say "Yes, but owning property means you can make money..." - no, it doesn't necessarily mean that. Yes, some properties can make money, if they're LA type properties, or feature hangers. But if you were to construct a small dwelling somewhere, you'd have no control over what mobs spawned, no residual income from hunting/mining, etc. You'd just have a place to dump your stuff, other than the storage boxes.

The whole point of Calypso is Colonization. Part of Colonization is the setting up of settlements - building homes and living out your life.

I say there should be a Residence Deed available from the trade terminal*, allowing anyone who wants one, and is limited to ONLY ONE, to pick a spot and call it "home".

This would allow for user-made "towns" to spring up in areas, dotting the landscape with little "villages".

Yes, these user-built settlements would lack some things - no Teleporter for quick access to the "big cities", no auto-cannons to fend off wild mobs - and that's a good thing. It gives the residents reasons to skill their hunting abilities, or hire guards. The benefits of this far outweigh the time it would take to do a little extra programming.

What would need to be done:

A little simple coding to ensure the site chosen is suitable - not too close to another structure, not in/on the water (though underwater dwellings might be kind of cool too), not hanging off the side of a mountain in such a manner as to defy the laws of physics. A simple check to see if the ground in a radius of the player is "level" and not "water" not "too close" to another structure, and not in the area of a "city, town or camp" (much in the same way you'll get the message "this area is not suitable for mining", if you try to mine in the biodome**)- otherwise show a message "This area is not suitable for housing".

Once the site is chosen and confirmed, You've got a small structure with a limited number of item points (5-10 maybe - after all, these should not be more beneficial than the elaborate multi-k-ped houses that do already exist).
Now you can move in - furnish as you like.

Now there may come a time when the site you've chosen no longer suits you. You should have the option as well to dismantle and move your little dwelling, come the day EU grows beyond just Calypso and CP.

* Yes, trade terminal. Yes, you only get one. No, you can't sell or trade it. Why? The reason is to make this available to everyone, and at a price reasonable enough that even a couple week old character can afford it.
Why only one? It prevents hoarding, price manipulation, and overcrowding.

** Yes, that's correct. You cannot mine in the biodome. Tried it for fun in New Switzerland, haven't tried it in PA, but I'm sure the same holds true there as well.

~I

wonderful idea I have always been w8ing for my own house. It will bring some "sims" feeling to EU and that's great I think so plz ad houses to tt and let the ppl put them almost everywhere

[Nighthawk]

Originally Posted by Lobbe

wonderful idea I have always been w8ing for my own house. It will bring some "sims" feeling to EU and that's great I think so plz ad houses to tt and let the ppl put them almost everywhere

or rather house parts...

Buy items:
Main House Model 042B - 800PED
Watchtower Model 09A - 550PED
Add-on Entrance Room Model 02 - 400PED



And then rent ofc... maybe based on the size of the house? (kinda like decay is higher when you have add-ons on weapons)

There would also have to be some rules, like:
"Ground must be flat"
"No vegetation is allowed at the house area"

Buy items:
Ground Flattener - 80PED
Machete - 25PED

[thoreau]

there is not a lack of housing. the problem is houses and apartments have been purchased and abandoned.

MA needs to clean house and all inactive accounts (>1 year?) need to have an housing removed and placed on auction.

[Indigo Wyrd]

Not auction - I know what will happen - someone with more PED then they know what to do with will simply buy them all, horde them, and resell them for many times what they paid for them - ensuring they stay out of the hands of the majority.

As I recall, the "abandonment period" before accounts go away is 330 days without logging in - and if you're just a "storage account", it's pretty simple to log in once in a rare while to "reset" that period.

Ideally, there should be an NPC on the ground floor of each apartment building who holds the deeds to the apartments in that building. If the "rent" is not paid for two consecutive rental-periods, the apartment holder looses the deed (aka is evicted), which is then returned to the "building manager" NPC. This would be far more realistic, since apartment tenants don't actually "own" their apartments, they rent them. This would also provide incentive for people to pay their rent - especially if items left behind in "abandoned" apartments were "lost".

Nighthawk: What you propose would be a good idea for either existing homes, or as an addition to my proposal, as these add-on modules could increase the item storage capacity, and thereby increase the overall value of a property.

But what I had in mind was more along the lines of PS-110 Shelter - more akin to a large, rigid tent, or pop-up style camper, with enough space inside for a few items (or points worth of items).

They shouldn't hold more item points than an apartment, or there'd be little value in having an apartment.

~I

[Warpath]

I definetly agree with the eviction Idea.

Also building your own house would be cool, but there would have to be restrictions on how much you can build, otherwise the same thing would happen, the players with tonnes of ped would run around building estates in as many good places as possible and slowly sell of the deeds to prime location real estate.

But it is a great concept for MA to consider.

[Rumsponge]

If MA wanted more housing in EU, all they need to do is throw up more apartment buildings. Maybe in VU 10?

I think a lot of people have talked about how cool it would be if they added a "Construction" profession. Unfortunately, there are a long list of similar "nice to haves" but they won't get addressed until the "must haves" are completed.

...so, VU20ish?




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