Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Housing/Item Decay Idea's
termsy
Member Posts: 100
I'm not sure if MJ has said how housing will be implemented into CU, but I wanted to throw my idea out there and get some feedback.
Housing
I feel as though CU would benefit most from freely placed housing, with some restrictions obviously. Players should be allowed to place their houses where they choose, as long as it doesn't affect gameplay by blocking paths, or proving to be form a choke point. With the freely placed housing, it ties into my idea about city building. When a guild, or a group of people start to from a city, there should be a radius around the center of the city that expands as the city becomes larger. The radius could be in a map overlay that shows that guilds territory control. Any houses that are built within the guilds territory radius are susceptible to taxes to that guild. If a player chooses not to build their house within a guilds territory, then they are not offered the protection that is provided by the city, but at the same time they don't have to pay taxes to that guild. Players should also be allowed to turn their house into a shop and sell items when they're offline with an NPC merchant, which then ties into my next point..
Item Decay
In order for crafting to succed in CU, I think items should have a permanent item decay. A quick example would be a broadsword that was just crafted that has 100/100 durability. As the player uses the broadsword, the durability goes down and loses even more upon a player death. When the boardsword gets to 30/100 durability, the player decides to repair it. After repairing, the max durability of the item is lowered to 70/70 so that after enough usage and deaths the item eventually breaks forcing the player to purchase another sword from a crafter. I believe with a system like this in place, it would put a constant need for crafters and it would provide a death penalty that would help fuel RvR through crafting.
These are just some quick ideas I had on my break at work, and wanted to get some feedback. Maybe even an MJ comment :O.
Comments
Pretty sure MJ has some fairly grandiose ideas about housing. One need only look at the Repopulation to get an idea of the potential scope of player cities, nations and housing that can go into a game. And I have a feeling MJ will at least match what is being done there in terms of being able to build around the world.
It will be interesting to see how they plan to maintain the economy. The best economies are those like Eve, where you have both economic and item loss, or at least systems where there is economic decay (ala SWG). You must have a backend drain to create demand for raw resources, components, and end items, and to create scarcity. Certain parts of the world should provide scarcer/rare resources to create competition for those areas. Almost all great wars in history have been fought over resources, after all. There has to be continual demand for all levels of items, not just the top tier, in order to avoid gearflation.
First, keep in mind than housing will include building wall and keeps, towers, i would love to build traps too, like a pit in the middle of a busy road to help kill an unsuspecting prey ^^
Second, MJ already said there will be item decay, so i think he already has something about it^^
Granted I didn't play long enough to get into housing, I heard it was a huge effort to upkeep. I'm not a fan of having to log on to go to "work" just to keep a house. Maybe I'm wrong about this because I never did get that far in SWG, but I like the rent system of DAoC. Although, if this is sandbox to the extent of building where ever you want then why pay rent or taxes? I'm sure some amount of upkeep will be required for a house, there always is, but it shouldn't be so much that it consumes all my gaming time.
I don't think MJ will design it that way though. He wants this to be a fun game with many aspects, so I doubt he will let one aspect require all of a players play time. That's not to say that a player couldn't spend all of their time building or crafting, as we know there are going to be builder/crafter class(es).
It wasn't a huge problem to get credits for upkeep, you could get more then enough credits for upkeep just by playing normally easily.
The problem was that in SWG, your house decayed evne if you weren't subscribed anymore. So if you planned to say, come back a few months later to check out the game, you had to load up your upkeep with enough credits to last months in advance.
Obviously there needs to be some kind of system in place for this, both as a means to take out houses from people that may leave and not plan to return (so new players can b uild their houses on such land) but also a way to give some breathing room. Perhaps simply having a buffer, where a house doesn't decay for a few months if that person is no longer subscribed, but after so long it starts to decay (and an email is sent to that person to explain to them they'll lose their house if they don't re-sub).
Just give them some months without it decaying.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
True, that was a big part of the game for me back in the day while trying to fight off PKers lol. I just hope the housing isn't instanced and also has a decay system like they are discussing above (which was also part of UO).
Nah, wasn't hard at all to pay for housing upkeep. It was pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.
I actually thought that housing persisted for way too long without upkeep being paid (if you didn't pay upkeep, it just wouldn't let you in to the house). Would like to see housing turnover much more quickly to release in-demand spots if folks aren't actively maintaining it or their account lapses.
I can agree that having empty neighborhoods is not a fun idea and that there should be a mechanic to allow for spots to open up. What about when your house is removed and you decide to come back? Vendors like in DAoC that have all of your decorations and furniture?
While I think SWG's freedom might not be perfect, I hope the map opens up opportunities for people to build in certain areas rather than wherever they feel like.
Using existing buildings could be a good idea. Example: There were several buildings in Jordheim that could be occupied by guilds. One that comes to mind is the rouge's hall where the Shadowblade and Hunter trainers were located. It was pretty much a big house with little purpose except housing the trainers. Having a guild being able to set up shop there would be awesome. Maybe even let them roll down their banners on the front, and having to meet certain criterias for occupying and maintaining the building. There were several areas like Mularn and vasudheim which easily could serve as guild houses.
Alternatively, certain areas are available for occupation, but before a guild can move in a monster has to be eliminated. I know this is not a PvE game, but some encounters could be tossed in. The more desirable spot, the tougher the monster.
I am not a big fan of instanced housing. Both DAoC and LoTRO has it, and it is rare to meet people there outside of RP events, simply because most people has no purpose for being there. I for one, also have no need for a personal house with my own garden, so I can settle for renting a room ala EQ2. Instancing rooms like that, and placing them in a inn in a central location like Jordheim (or Bree in LotRO) makes them feel more like a part of the world than a instance outside the city.