A Suggestion and A Question about instanced housing
I started this thread cause I seek to understand the negative sigma towards instanced housing.
And by this I do not mean Ashes specific "node housing" (although I do not think these are instanced?) nor aparentments, I mean instanced housing in general.
Personally, the best housing experience I've had was many, many, many moons ago in Puzzle Pirates. (Yeah, THAT many moons ago x] ). There were many kind of different buildings, all with a pre-set cost. Any player could buy it and have as many "roomies" as the house permited (larger houses could have more, smaller houses could have less). There were very big houses (castles, if you will) that were reserved for the Kings and Queens of the islands and many very expensive houses that only very rich captains (guild leaders, if you will) and extremely wealthy players could afford. But, there were plenty of smaller options from everything to the free Shack to the more-than-decent houses. They came in all forms and shapes, some with gardens, some with many bedrooms, some with stairs, some with basements etc.... It was an amazing experience to pick your home island, buy a house and commit to your home there. Players also had their own shops where they could sell whatever they desired - tailors, blacksmithers, ship-builders... anything your virtual pirate could desire.
Would a system like this not work for AoC?
As I see it, it would fix a lot of problems.
* It would completely solve the issue of "un-immersive housing all over the place" (problem from AA)
* The type of houses (aka yards, no yards, small houses, big houses etc) would be set by the node mayor - as would the static price. The buildings CANNOT be sold nor traded to other players, and if they buy a house elsewhere, then their house is sold back to the node. (Just like if they'd change apartment, in-node house or freehold)
* Crafting/processing could be offered for these builds, but with much lesser quantity than that of freeholds (and a muuuch slower production/upgrade ladder towards better quality; like 500-1 000% slower than Freeholds).
* It would allow casual players to find a "place of their own" (as Steven put it) within their economy range. Someone who wants to farm could buy a land with a yard, no matter how small etc.
* The casual players would still be in the risk-reward zone as their node can still be destroyed. More housing would also encourage more people to actually defend their node.
* Freeholds would still be very desirable as they'd be bigger than the best instanced houses, and they'd by default have much quicker processing, crafting and upgrades.
* Instanced housing would NOT have NPC helping out with crops, animals and w/e. That is a luxery reserved for the freeholds.
* EDIT: also, this would allow even the casual crowd to use the skins they possibly bought over the years...
Obviously, this would be instead of the apartment AND the in-node design. So it would basically be reduced to FREEHOLDS and INSTANCED NODE HOUSING. I thought it could fit pretty well into the AoC design - and give the casual player base something obtainable. Thoughts?
