Regalia And Housing - We Need Your Thoughts!

[MrHappyTinkles]

Hey guys.

An issue has come up regarding the availability of rentregion properties in Regalia.
As of now, I believe there are 700 or so rentable properties in Regalia according to a recent headcount done by MonMarty. Of these, a very small number are available to rent, and may have already decreased as I've typed this post.

Right now, the World Staff are currently balancing two options. They are temporary solutions designed to alleviate the lack of properties, and by no means will hold itself up in time.

• The creation of apartment-type buildings. In the space of 1.5 or 2 houses, we can create 1 floor rentregions, fitting a minimum of 3 or 4 rentable locations per building. We're looking at already existing properties in Regalia which can either be replaced or retrofitted to become these apartment-type constructions.
  
  
• The re-implementation of prefab housing, to be placed in areas nearby the old Imperial castle. Using a certain randomization and placement method, houses are randomized with different roofs and window designs to create a single house. There are 9x9x9x9 = 6591 possible combinations of these houses.

The current sentiment behind these houses is that players hold most value to the customization and utilization of their rent-region houses, and that they are content with creating roleplay scenes within their homes. However, certain sacrifices to the quality or the visual aesthetic of the areas outside new housing areas may need to be made to inject more houses into circulation. This is why I would like to approach our community and create a certain transparency behind the World Staff's work. Who knows, maybe some of you have more ideas on how we can better expand Regalia in it's current state. Do you happen to have an idea on how to increase the number of renting regions outside of the two ideas above? Perhaps other thoughts regarding Regalia's construction?

If you want to send your thoughts, please make a vote in the poll or send a reply in the thread. Feedback and critique are highly encouraged; we always listen to what you have to say.

And if any of you are wondering about our plans for the near future, I can present my current priorities.

• Outline and create new apartment buildings.
• Test and create a new housing organization suited for slums and low-end housing.
• Resume construction of the new sewers world, which has sat idle since the start of this summer.
• Push out both the slum project and the new sewers by the end of 2016.

 

[Tra_kad]

...Would this Slum project happen to be _within_ the New Sewers in this project, per chance?

Also honestly I'd like to see more small RP locales like the Sun Palace of Farrahdeen. The Nelfin Grove has been on hold for what seems like an eternity, but I think it'd be genuinely interesting if lore and world building staff put together a new, small city, let's say for example, Ssil, and lore staff pushed for people to have RP there. Maybe there could even be rentable houses in it so people don't have to rent so many houses in Regalia? Or would that be too complicated?

 

[Wumpatron]

I've always found apartments above shops to be pretty neat. Like when all those buildings were redone for the auction. Shops with apartments above them. People like having shops to RP in and some like having just housing to RP in. I don't know what the plans for the new apartments are going to be, but people do love them some shops.

Add on: Maybe even some shady store front type places in the sewers or in the slums. I always thought that some shifty stores in the poor district would have made it even better. Just food for thought, you guys always come out with amazing work.

 

[Gabauchi]

I like the idea of having apartments with quirky neighbors

 

[EdnaMode_]

Opinion: I've been looking around the newly released houses recently and have seen very little of them being used or decorated. Most of them are left empty or have very few blocks placed in these very big spaces/houses. I personally think its a shame that these people have the luxury to have them when maybe others could potentially use these as roleplay environments or actually use these plots to decorate because they love it (Me) and not just place a table and leaving the rest empty. This is just my opinion though no need to actually take this information to improve the situation. Just thought I could put it out there. Plus I don't know how you could possibly fix this...

Constructed Thought: All I can think of is maybe reduce the amount of regions you can have? I'm not sure how many you can have as of now (Maybe 3?) But you could reduce this and it would (maybe?) help you guys to not build even more regions since you seem to be already packed with other things. (Not 100% sure if you are) I know this was a thing before kinda where non-perms could only have 2 and premiums could have 3? Yeah anyway, that's all I can think of. Maybe this would help? Maybe not but eh.

Wow, I rarely voice my opinions on here... My first time. Kinda scary... (/ω＼)

 

[FireFan96]

If I may add a few things I've noted. long post is long

A lot of times, I see rental regions rented out until some insanely high number such as September 2017 and then nothing is in the house. More or less I feel some regions are just rented to spite other people who need the region. On the other hand, I see regions which are bought solely for storage. While I can relate to those who do not want to risk losing their loot from a MassiveRestore due to an inactive faction.

I feel regions should be used primarily for RP purposes, and to encourage characters to have adventures in other districts, not just the Golden Willow. While the Willow is a lovely RP generator, I personally think it a bit odd to see people who are smiths and bakers by trade sitting all day long without doing that part of their life. I'll make the assumption that once again they do not have regions in order to do this trade.

Back to the World Staff topic though. I personally love the idea of apartment styled housing and the prefab designs. Living in a city, there should be more "cramped living" spaces and not just everyone get's a two or three story house. And frankly, even I suffer from too many rooms syndrome. My harbor shop is a great example. I have the bottom decorated, and just temp things on the other two floors. I posted a notice of renting, but only got one tenant.

However, one thing that I think needs to be looked into is what I'll dub "inactive regions." We all see them, the empty room regions that have rent extended to next year. While in retrospect there's not much to do about it, it just is a bit annoying to visit new districts to find half the houses unused and left to be forgotten in 2 weeks time.

I'm going to add one more unorganized thought before I post. And that is the Roleplay seems to always end up congregating in 3 places: The park, the Willow, and the Mossy Poss. Yes, that is the general city layout. Yes these places should have more traffic. But all the traffic just seems to make the rest of the city useless. You could literally remove the edge districts (Commerce, Old Gods, Slums, Harbor) and you'd hardly see a difference in player traffic. While this in the end isn't primarily a World Staff Problem, I feel that there should be perks for going out to other districts. The Obscure Oyster was a good attempt at encouraging roleplay elsewhere, but in the end it failed because everyone trickles back to the 3 main hubs.

I'm gonna stop now and give the thread some input form some others, but first:

ll I can think of is maybe reduce the amount of regions you can have?

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I disagree on this, as some players may actually use their multiple regions for multiple characters. Granted, some may fall on the wayside due to RP preference of a character, but limiting housing isn't a perfect solution. Yeah it creates more housing from what we have, but also limits what you can do in terms of RP generation. One would have to choose whether to keep their business, or keep their home. While this would be an example for a single character needing two houses, you might have a trader who has a business, a ship, and then a residence. Or using two characters and having a house for each.

 

[CaptainRandom97]

I just find it hard to find new homes. For the past few months I watched as the new districts grew and checked them almost every two days to see when they would be available for rent. Then one day I come on and all the houses were taken. If there was an announcement as to the new districts or a way of finding homes for rent that would make it much easier to find an in rp home. I do have a home in my faction, but that can't really be called permanent with the constant threat of raids, so if there was a kind of guide it would really help.

 

[EdnaMode_]

I disagree on this, as some players may actually use their multiple regions for multiple characters. Granted, some may fall on the wayside due to RP preference of a character, but limiting housing isn't a perfect solution. Yeah it creates more housing from what we have, but also limits what you can do in terms of RP generation. One would have to choose whether to keep their business, or keep their home. While this would be an example for a single character needing two houses, you might have a trader who has a business, a ship, and then a residence. Or using two characters and having a house for each.

Click to shrink...

Totally true! I was just thinking of a simpler way to things I guess... Idk. But I totally agree with you on that!

Arg quoting things are killing me.

 

[Film_Noir]

Maybe the renting of regions on alt. accounts could be stemmed so that players truly can only rent a max. of 3. However, I don't generally like the idea of limiting renting because who are we to say what a player has planned for their properties, or that a player can't fully realise their creativity when it comes to immersing themselves in Regalia? After all, that's why people like their Regalia houses, I think. Well, it's why I do: because you can carve out your own little patch in Regalia and realise your character a bit more, as well as host events for others at your property.

There'll always be some players who fully utilise their houses, and others who don't so much. The apartments in the poor district always seem fully rented and visually look nice (even though it's technically the poor district). So, I guess I'd vote for the generation of some more apartments to fill the need, yeah.

 

[Beetletoes]

To me it seems several houses are just inaccessible because the doors are closed and you can't even tell if they're rented or not. This is as much an issue in the sewers as it is in the city, but the sewers more so because there's less houses to go around. More rentable areas, and levels even, would be my preference.

 

[Zacatero]

I think the idea of adding apartments is neat. I mean you can call it 30r a month like the poor properties... Alleviate the property shortage without spending the time that can be spent on the sewers and new areas

 

[Lizmun]

Maybe we could make the slums / poor district bigger. Or, make multiple poor districts. And maybe add a poor man's pub in one of these. Lots of easy appartmnent-esque houses, and lots of cheap rent regions too. Helps newer fellas out. I guess. I mean bigger/multiple poor districts would make sense, maybe there's a lot of poor people.

Disclaimer: I only read the OP. Not any other post. Please don't lynch me if this has already been said, I just like poor districts.

 

[Zacatero]

Realistically speaking there are far more poor people than nobles.. so a larger poor district would make sense

 

[MrHappyTinkles]

Thank you all for your replies so far. If you wanna get the word out, share this out with your friends and discuss. We've got some pretty solid ideas stewing from all this discussion both inside and outside the thread.

 

[Legoclub22]

Fixing /as find so that it only finds houses in Regalia, and not areas in the Market would be very helpful in finding houses.

 

[ChensSpaghetti]

Fixing /as find so that it only finds houses in Regalia, and not areas in the Market would be very helpful in finding houses.

Click to shrink...

You just do /as find rent (maxprice) regalia

It works. There's currently no properties up for rent right now though, iirc.

 

[Legoclub22]

You just do /as find rent (maxprice) regalia

It works. There's currently no properties up for rent right now though, iirc.

Click to shrink...

For a while, it would take you to a random marker shop.

 

[ChensSpaghetti]

For a while, it would take you to a random marker shop.

Click to shrink...

You have to put regalia in it. It's part of the command.

 

[Zacatero]

Monmarty added the group Regalia to filter out the market stuff

 

[Henck]

Monmarty added the group Regalia to filter out the market stuff

Click to shrink...

That's there.
Isn't it?

 

[Legoclub22]

Ahhhh, I see.

 

[FireFan96]

After a few days of thoughts, I'd think the apartment idea and breaking up regions into smaller ones is a great idea.
The following are ways I see it being a very good option:

• It creates more regions without sacrificing space. So those who just need a place to live can get their one room areas.
• It hinders buying regions just to buy them. If you want to own an entire building, you would have to buy all the floors to use it.
• It makes city dwelling seem more realistic. I don't see Average Joe owning a skyscraper complex in the city as it's the norm. I see apartments and people sharing the space.

Also,

We're looking at already existing properties in Regalia which can either be replaced or retrofitted to become these apartment-type constructions

Click to shrink...

Could players request world staff to cut up their currently owned properties to create some apartment space? I happen to only use the bottom floor of one of my places and wouldn't mind having the top floors removed to be used by other people at their will.

 

[Zacatero]

I noticed that the Harbor district came with apartments that were designed as apartments. I like that style. 1 building 1 entrance but several properties inside. It gives a more neighbor feel,