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Housing questions and conerns

HiddenDaggerInnHiddenDaggerInn Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
in General Discussion

When a node reaches level three and housing starts, I believe there will be a housing “rush”. Since the initial housing is limited (level 3 node) and “levels” up with the node, won’t this be the most sought after? What’s to stop the large guilds (who will have the most resources at this point) from rushing in and taking ALL of this housing? Will they be able to physically block others from getting close to buy? Will they be able to kill others who come in to buy? Yes there will be other housing that comes in as the node levels, but it seems to me the large guilds will still control the “best” housing.

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    ChaostasticChaostastic Member
    It will be unknown when the node might level up so unless you camp it 24/7 you won't be able to always get the plots as soon as they become available. And plots aren't permanent. Nodes will be constantly built and destroyed so there will always be new empty plots to buy in the world. Buying a ton of plots on a level 3 node just in case the it becomes a metro likely won't be worth it. There is a good chance the node gets level capped instead and possibly sieged before it ever becomes a metro, making the investment pointless.

    There will be plots that become way more worth than the initial price but you won't know which ones beforehand. And if all plots in a node have been bought, remember, plots are resellable and for the right price you should be able to get a plot in any node.
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    BeekeeperBeekeeper Member
    The one concern I personally see that falls under this is rehousing. When a big node falls and a ton of players are suddenly homeless, it'll cause a sudden influx of people seeking to get new housing asap.

    If that translates in tons of freeholds suddenly wandering from one node to the next, it could lead to a sudden housing crisis, even if there never was any guild collusion or unfairness really.

    I'd love to see those systems tested from all angles in the upcoming alphas/betas so it becomes obvious whether the consequences are working as intended or overburdening.

    @Sandman In general though, I would assume theres at least somewhere a plot of land in the world you can nab. At the most extreme, it may involve joining an attack on a node with the intention of leading a mob to the freeholds to destroy them, freeing up housing space in the general area.
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    HiddenDaggerInnHiddenDaggerInn Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    edited August 2020
    Yes if it is truly unknown when it happens then that will be a good thing, I thought I remembered them saying there were certain graphical changes before a change occurded though. In the end though you are both correct, it certainly is not permanent, and I will be leaving a note on the door if someone takes my lot,

    "I'll be back" Insert Terminator
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    KhronusKhronus Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    I would imagine there will be a rush to do most of the content here. Imagine the first time people are able to pay for the mayor position in a merchant city. Housing will be an issue for sure. I don't plan on building a house first personally unless the benefits are that dramatic. My guild will have a major impact on whichever server we land in but I won't be organizing any crazy "everyone get there for houses fast" kind of thing. At least as of now I don't think I will haha. I would rather tell the server to be ready to buy.
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    BeekeeperBeekeeper Member
    The main advantage of a house/apartment is citizenship. That's the baseline you get.
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    loghanloghan Member
    House purchases in nodes will be done through a bid process which we don't know how long yet but I get the feeling bids will be accepted for days. So to your concern can a guild straight up physically block a player from even bidding. I would say no. At some point, at 3am on a tuesday, a player will be able to rush through the city gates, and once inside be safe from PvP and make it to that house plot to place their bid on it.
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    ShaladoorShaladoor Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    I do imagine there being a mad rush for housing early on, because, well... BRAND NEW GAME! DO ALL THE THINGS!

    But if the price of a house is too high, it's not like they're going to just "fly off the shelf" so to speak. It may take some time before players earn the gold in order to actually purchase a house. Guilds could pool their resources together to purchase one or two houses quickly with plans to pay back their members.

    I also believe that when a node levels up and people are around, they will be transported to a safe place while the changes take place. That would allow all players a chance to rush to new housing opportunities. It's not a fix for anything, but at least it gives players a "running" chance!

    I also just thought of a way for Mayors to help game the system on housing. According to the alpha footage, the tax rate could be raised all the way to 100%, effectively doubling the price of all goods in the town, including the price of housing. If housing is still available at regular price, it's probably because players can't afford it. And if they can't afford it at regular place, they won't be able to afford it at 2x the price (at least not initially). If a Mayor did this early on, they could "lock out" potential buyers until their friends or guildies came to town and were ready to purchase a house. Then the Mayor could lower the tax rate as low as possible and coordinate with their friends/guildies so they can be ready nab those properties first, and at regular price.

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    HiddenDaggerInnHiddenDaggerInn Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    all really great answers, something else I was thinking about is will the Average player, have enough to buy just a standard house when the node reaches level 3, or will this take a extraordinary effort?
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    loghanloghan Member
    It will take extraordinary effort and the intended design by the developers is for in-node housing to be rare and hard to get, truly a display of your power and general awesomeness. Because in-node housing is done through a multi-day bid process, the rich will bid that price up very high (and like Shaladoor mentions the tax rate is applied as well). Basically, as in life, if you have to ask the price, then you can't afford it. The same will be true with in-node housing, if you open up the bid screen and you actually have to look at the price before hitting the bid higher button, you've already lost. I personally have no delusions of grandeur that I will own an in-node house. But I'll have a freehold and that's all I need to feel warm inside.
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    ZhabZhab Member
    It seems like that you wont be much of an artisan without being a citizen of a science node. You will also have to correctly guess which one will evolve to level 6 first (without being destroyed first and surprise runner up is first). Overall there seem to be a lot of advantages to be gained by being first in this game. Special ranks/titles leading into special augments/enchants for example. All of that circles back to did you successfully grab citizenship while you still could ? To be honest it does worry me.

    Let's say that we end up with 60 nodes that can have citizenship (from lv 3 to lv 6). It is said that servers will have a total population of 50 000 players (10 000 concurrent). But for the sake of the discussion let's go with 30 000 people. That means that for everyone to have access to housing each node would need to support (on average) 500 people. Maybe a metropolis can do that but a village ? There will be an heck more villages than metropolis. Not to mention that being a citizen of a village is better than nothing but 4th rate down the line. If nodes can only house on average 400 people than 20% of the population is homeless. 300 ? Then 40% is homeless. That is for 30 000 people.

    In the case of a metropolis just being citizen is already granting you a truck load of advantages in various ways. With that in mind it would be nice if having a freehold around villages and towns (far away from heavy population centers) would be advantageous. It would give a reason for some of the "power players" to go live in the country side. Which would then increase the value and player traffic of low level nodes.

    Question for Steven. Once a server is developed. What is the % of the player base of a full server that will be homeless and without citizenship because there is no housing left in one form or an other.
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    loghanloghan Member
    You inspired me Zhab, I made a giant reply here: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/46121/will-there-be-enough-housing-for-every-account-to-have-atleast-one-home-so-you-can-be-a-citizen#latest
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