Quarters~! (Total awesome feedback)

[Reallylongunneededplayername]

Out of all things on Arelith Quarters are the most limited resource of all.

What is intresting, Their extreemly cheap when you look at them economically.
A character could buy one, Grind 100k and is set for life.

I think the following would aid:

Make certain quarters lvl restricted so they are passed on faster than other quarters;
I'm thinking on the vaults and nomad rooms for sample.
Or in Myon those in the house of reverie.
Logjam in Guldorand.
Such quarters could be owned till level 16.

Raise price and rent, Specially rent can use a boost.

Make certain guildhouses or " big" quarters have a bid system.
(each 4 years or by leaving quarter a bid system is activated that is send to citizens of that settlement a note much like " Elections are called".
Certainly it might be scary that there may be a chance you'd lose your guild house, But it motivates activity to preserve your guild past the 4th year.

-Markus

[Subutai]

In general, I feel like there just aren't enough quarters. Arelith has been very fortunate to have grown massively in the recent past, which is fantastic for the playerbase and the number of RP opportunities, but when there are 2-3x more players vying for roughly the same amount of housing, it means that the overwhelming majority have almost no chance to ever get access to quarters of their own.

Obviously, there are issues with not wanting to add more areas than necessary, with having too many scripts running, etc., but I do feel like just adding additional quarters would be extremely beneficial. The same goes for shops, as well.

[Durvayas]

stuff by Markus

This isn't feedback. This is a suggestion thread.

What you are proposing is a terrible idea anyways. I'll dissect it point by point to explain why.

Make certain quarters lvl restricted so they are passed on faster than other quarters;
I'm thinking on the vaults and nomad rooms for sample.
Or in Myon those in the house of reverie.
Logjam in Guldorand.
Such quarters could be owned till level 16.

I don't get where you seem to think that quarters are meant to be passed on as a character progresses. Quarters == storage, which becomes more nescessary as a character's level goes up, as their wealth increases. Everyone needs storage, epic crafters most of all. The settlement system recently got the ability for all citizens to have storage within the settlement, and various settlements have been expanded. What you are suggesting would screw most people as soon as they level past 16.

Raise price and rent, Specially rent can use a boost.

Won't impact magi much, as they can basically print money selling wands and other UMD consumables. This idea screws everyone else, forcing them to grind more gold.

Make certain guildhouses or " big" quarters have a bid system.
(each 4 years or by leaving quarter a bid system is activated that is send to citizens of that settlement a note much like " Elections are called".
Certainly it might be scary that there may be a chance you'd lose your guild house, But it motivates activity to preserve your guild past the 4th year.

This is just awful and shortsighted. No faction will ever be able to maintain a guildhouse without being bankrolled by several magi, and people would have to grind millions of gold constantly to bid to keep their faction headquarters stable. All this idea does is contribute to burnout, punish people for not playing magi, and forces people to grind more. It doesn't benefit new factions, because they'll have to do the exact same thing to not lose their building a few months down the line. This would be actively damaging to faction RP on Arelith. It doesn't benefit the server one iota to do this.

I strongly recommend you rethink your approach to property on the server. Just because you are having trouble finding or affording property doesn't mean its a good idea to screw everyone else above lvl 16 who already has some. Move in with someone else, use settlement storage, join a guild, and have DMs make sure people aren't quarterlogging.

Work within the system, rather than trying to bring down every established guild and epic at the same time.

[naturaly]

I think raise price of buy and rent is a good idea. Whether mages can easy afford it or not, these prices are too low now. Rent especially, as username say.

[The Rambling Midget]

I think raise price of buy and rent is a good idea. Whether mages can easy afford it or not, these prices are too low now. Rent especially, as username say.

That won't affect the ultra rich characters that sit on quarters/shops for RL years at a time, not playing at all, except to craft items and amass wealth, and those are the ones that really need to be rooted out.

[Subutai]

That won't affect the ultra rich characters that sit on quarters/shops for RL years at a time, not playing at all, except to craft items and amass wealth, and those are the ones that really need to be rooted out.

This is something I've noticed is absolutely true. Having to go back to your quarters or shop once a week is a nice idea, but I don't think it's a complete idea, or without issue. What is really the concern is both whether the character is being actively played, and they're actively using the store/quarters, which only the latter seems to be considered right now (and perhaps considered too strictly).

If I play my character several times a week and engage in a good amount of RP with that character, but suddenly I have to leave for a week (maybe there was an emergency), I now lose my character's store and quarters, despite that fact that except for that one week, I played very actively.

If another player plays their character once a week, every week, to make a bunch of wands and restock their store, then goes off to play their alts, they can keep those quarters and that shop forever, essentially, despite the fact that, of the two characters, mine is the one that's actually being played and contributing to RP.

Of course, I'm not saying that people who don't log on often should lose their stores, or that people who do log on often should never have to check their store or their quarters. Just that there's a line there, somewhere, between a character who is actively participating, and a character who is just taking up scarce resource. Right now, the system favors the one sitting on the scarce resource almost entirely.

[Arienette]

I think raise price of buy and rent is a good idea. Whether mages can easy afford it or not, these prices are too low now. Rent especially, as username say.

That won't affect the ultra rich characters that sit on quarters/shops for RL years at a time, not playing at all, except to craft items and amass wealth, and those are the ones that really need to be rooted out.

Wait, people do this? Why?

[Reallylongunneededplayername]

Cause quarters are rare. Also there is the "pass over" thing, Where a quarter is kept between OOC friends.

[Let Love In]

Don't want passover? Simple. Make it so that when you give up a shop or a quarter, a random amount of time between 12-36 hours expires before it becomes available. If people want the place really badly, they would have to organise an entire group to camp it and other people could easily notice this and insert themselves into the equation.

[Vrass]

Just add more quarters and guild halls. Building such is easy and if you keep them relatively modest they don't take up much space or bandwidth. I am currently building several areas i hope to get added at some point though it probably won't be any time soon.

[Irongron]

I've not been adding more quarters lately, chiefly so I have plenty of scope to do when the new city is finally added - so it will happen at some stage.

In regards to the price of housing/shops/guildhouses. I personally don't like them being too expensive, because it is the new characters, often in the level 8-15 range that we find doing something original, be it starting a new guild, establishing a business, running their own tavern. Simply put, making early purchases can really help shape interesting RP. Conversely, when we price the new characters out, these things tend to go only to the high epics, whose roleplay is pretty much already estabished.

[Reallylongunneededplayername]

I've not been adding more quarters lately, chiefly so I have plenty of scope to do when the new city is finally added - so it will happen at some stage.

In regards to the price of housing/shops/guildhouses. I personally don't like them being too expensive, because it is the new characters, often in the level 8-15 range that we find doing something original, be it starting a new guild, establishing a business, running their own tavern. Simply put, making early purchases can really help shape interesting RP. Conversely, when we price the new characters out, these things tend to go only to the high epics, whose roleplay is pretty much already estabished.

This is why I suggested lvl restricted quarters, So low level characters could actually be able to find themselves a quarter and start out that awesome fresh RP stuff.

[Honeybunny]

What if Rent was increased quite a bit, but then reduced by every RL hour of playtime in the last x period of time?

This would encourage active people to own homes/quarters, while not prohibiting inactive players from doing so, though it would help add a disincentive to them?

I don't want to get into numbers, as I trust the admins to balance it out according to their vision.

[monkeywithstick]

What if Rent was increased quite a bit, but then reduced by every RL hour of playtime in the last x period of time?

This would encourage active people to own homes/quarters, while not prohibiting inactive players from doing so, though it would help add a disincentive to them?

I quite like as an idea to be honest. Generally the lower level characters are more active which could be used to offset the cost.

Would kinda suck if someone went on holiday in the midst of their levelling spree though.

It would also potentially make it harder for poorer characters to plan their expenses a little. If you know it's 1200 gold every 3 ooc days from your account then you know how much you need in your bank to make it stretch until your return.

As a result, such an increase would need to be well signposted and still retain some level of predictability at least: needing a spreadsheet to work out how much gold to grind and bank before going on holiday would be a chore for many I imagine.

[Sea Shanties]

I think a problem is that a lot of people are hoarding quarters simply for the storage. I wonder if changing storage limits would make a difference. Like you could only keep 5 items in a quarter, but the bank limit for citizens and the chest limit in factions was made higher (just an example, I don't know what the solution would be.) The incentive for property ownership ought to be a place to conduct RP more than a bank vault.

We also all have different definitions of "active." Someone might only play one afternoon a week for a stretch of busy RL time, I don't think that means they shouldn't be allowed a quarter. Or if someone has a shop and only logs in once a week to gather and craft but fills it with things people need and want, that's adding something useful to the server.

[Subutai]

Or if someone has a shop and only logs in once a week to gather and craft but fills it with things people need and want, that's adding something useful to the server.

I think this one gets to be really iffy really fast just because what's useful and what's useful *and* unique are different. If someone only logs in once a week to restock barkskin, stoneskin, and death ward wands in their store, they're definitely providing something useful, but there are often multiple shops in every settlement selling the same items. The same goes for stuff like adamantine, rune materials, etc. They're useful, but not unique.

If someone is providing useful items that no one, or almost no one, else is, it would be an unfortunately loss for them to lose their store, but I don't know that it's a common enough situation to say that someone who only ever plays the character to restock the store and earn gold is likely providing something worth preserving. Personally, I'd much rather see someone who actively and consistently contributes RP to the world have a store that's maybe less useful, than someone who does nothing but restocks a store once a week but stocks it with things that are more useful.

[Sea Shanties]

I think you're being too harsh. Play time ebbs and flows, someone might only check in and do the bare minimum for a while then be much more active when they can. Long-term it usually evens out and if it doesn't they'll drift away.

If you want mature adults to play the game you have to allow for people who want to be a part of things but can't play for dozens or even hundreds of hours a week like a lot of others here are somehow able to. Putting time demands on them will make them get discouraged and quit or it will lead to unhealthy behavior like dropping RL obligations to be here when they really shouldn't. Even if they are just filling a shop with wands, that's something. Or easy to make but much needed things like repair kits.

If someone's really quarter hogging and doing absolutely nothing- not crafting, not RPing, just logging in to touch a door- that should be reported. The DMs can check and give them a warning if that's the case (and it may not be, it may only be the perception.) Otherwise I don't think the answer is to stigmatize players who have less time but still want to be a part of things, even if it's just to be a background character who enjoys keeping their little shop going.

[Subutai]

If it's just temporary, sure. If you're busy for a few weeks, even a month or two, there's nothing wrong with not wanting to lose your hard-won quarter or store because of real life business. But that's not the problem. The problem is people who are consistently busy, who constantly only have one afternoon a week to play, or who almost always only have time to craft and restock.

It's not that these people are bad players, or bad people. They're just busy people, or people with other priorities, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, if that kind of business starts to drag on for an extended period of time, if you can't find time to play for months on end, or if your life situation changes so you only have time to craft and restock, it's important that the quarter and shop not hinge purely on your willingness to give it up. Eventually, even if a player really wants to play and just hasn't had the chance for a very long time, the server's need to not have a very scare and valuable resource be eaten up by an inactive player starts to outweigh allowing room for real life interruptions to players' schedules.

Is that overly harsh? Maybe so. I don't want to strip property away from people who just got busy, or anything. I just don't want people hanging onto it forever because maybe next month they'll have more time if their situation changes, and no one else has a turn despite that player never having the time.

[The Kriv]

Remember that one discussion thread about multiple players sharing the lease of a single quarter? so that it protects against one person losing track of the calendar day, or losing their IN-GAME housing because their own RL house burnt to the ground, or dealt with a traumatic life experience, or had to deal with a death in the family, or some other live-event that took them 7.5 days to log in/refresh their house?

Where having MULTIPLE players share a lease on a single residence means LESS people occupying quarters, and makes MORE players access to game-housing through this shared responsibility???

yeah, I remember that thread... seems very relevant to this one.