Alternative solving the housing crysis: Sanctuary AND wards

[Shistar]

I think how we equalize things between the townhomes and the wards (and where they fall in the hierarchy) would depend on exactly how the townhomes end up working. If they're houses that exist outside of wards, then yeah they should be subject to the demolition timer the same as ward houses, but also get at least most of the perks OF a house. If they're apartments, then they should be exempt from auto-demolition but also not as good as the ward houses and sit somewhere in the middle of that hierarchy.

Lol no assumptions here! I just hadn't thought of those logistics earlier. Again, I think this depends entirely on if a townhouse is considered a HOUSE or an apartment. If it's a house, then yeah, you can transfer between townhouses and wards, and back, the same as someone transferring from a small to a medium or large could and you absolutely cannot have both. If it's an apartment, then you still have to buy a ward house the normal way and you could have both the same way we can have a house and an apartment now. The difference is where we choose to have the apartment.

I think it makes sense to make it be a housing interior that can be moved around, which is more or less what I mentioned in one of the first messages of this thread as something that's been discussed before. In that sense, I love the idea!! This basically fixes the main conundrum we were having in previous conversations about not everyone wanting to live in a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. In that sense, I believe having it occupy the same "slot" as a plot house would be best, especially considering townhouses sound like a premium version of an apartment in the town, but not as fancy as say, a mansion with its garden. Which leads me into...

I respectfully disagree. Townhomes, condos, and especially penthouse suites can and do have outdoor space in the form of balconies, terraces, patios (if you're on the ground floor), etc. The amount of space you have depends entirely on how much you're willing to shell out for it, but it's still there. Now, that said, the limitations on that space depends entirely on if you view townhomes as houses or apartments. If it's basically a house without the ward/ward view/etc. then yeah, they should have the ability to garden the same as any other house depending on their size. If they're apartments, then they should be subject to whatever limitations you have on apartments.

(The badly needed apartment overhaul is an entirely different subject lol)

Regardless, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a place to sit outside, plant a few trees and flowers to your taste, and enjoy that lovely view you admired so much above.

No, you're absolutely right, I was so into talking about this hierarchy stuff that I failed to mention I fully agree that it's not an unreasonable ask and that it sounds great! Buuuut here's my next batch of questions: When you transfer to a ward plot, does this mean you keep this interior garden portion despite also obtaining an outdoor garden, or does it poof out of existence? If it isn't gone, would ward houses be able to upgrade their interiors with yard space, or would they be forced to invest in a townhouse first, then move it over to a ward plot?

My solution is quite simple: Give these interior yards, or maybe more accurately for my idea, Balconies to apartments instead! This will make them more desirable, with unique layouts that townhouses/plot houses can't have because they already got their outdoors + gardening. I would say, to keep things fair, to not allow gardening in your balcony (due to having downstairs neighbors and such...) but the amount of flowerpots you can place scales up with how fancy your place gets. You can place outdoor furnishings in this balcony normally, but now we're reaching our next problem: How in the world would the game understand apartment vs. balcony space? As we know, indoor and outdoor furnishings are clearly labeled and stored separately... maybe we need a third category for balconies? I would imagine they wouldn't let us plant a whole tree in your balcony, so some things might not make the cut (but I imagine most things should)

If we're seriously insistent about having it for townhouses/ward plots, I think a terrace would be the most appropriate. But considering you'd be able to move this place between the city and the housing district, maybe the view would change based on we're you're currently settled? Tons of work for sure, but I can't resist a beautiful view... and I already imagine our floated items glitching into our terrace floors if it's directly above our top floor lol

It would! And I love the idea of the day/night cycle affecting what you see! That's great! We might could even go a little crazy and have seasonal versions for events like Starlight or All Saints.

ABSOLUTELY. If we can go insane, we can even consider weather changes! NPCs with umbrellas! (our compass always marks sunny weather while inside a house regardless of the outside weather, so they'd need to apply the same weather table for housing for this to work, I assume? This would likely also affect light levels inside the house, making for some seriously cozy rainy evenings...)

I put auto-demo at that long because I've seen one too many horror stories about people getting the short end because life events are a thing that happen and 45 days is REALLY short. I'll gladly compromise on a patch cycle though. That's reasonable for both normal demolition and hiatus. And you're right, most people are coming back for patches so they'll be logging in and can reset the timer.

You've also got a point about people going on hiatus indefinitely, so what about you can go on hiatus for the equivalent of one patch cycle (thus giving you both the normal demo cycle and a second cycle to take a break or whatever) every four cycles? So basically, you can take 8 months off (normal and hiatus) but you can't go on hiatus AGAIN for another 8 months.

That's understandable. There's a very difficult balance in making a feature useful for those who need this accesibility yet hard to abuse for those who don't...
My idea intended to stop people from going on such long breaks as 8 months. It would be 1 patch hiatus, 1 patch you have to be there and it alternates. I think longer hiatuses could potentially be arranged, but to prevent abuse they'd have to appoint a GM to it and of course, to keep track of it since it's a special exception.

Unless it is my turn to be sleepy and I am misunderstanding?

Hm... I hadn't thought about people visiting you. The idea of a separate list was a thought to help reduce server load, but that's a good point. I'm not sure how best to work that. That's a problem someone with FAR more network architecture knowledge than I have would need to poke at.

That's definitely a NO on FCs abusing the system to force people to stay though. Whatever the answer, we don't want that.

I think they could have this system only affect personal housing to begin with. FCs have a much easier time maintaining their house because every single member contributes to resetting the timer, but this is not the case for tenants, and if we pair it with the idea of separating the workshop from the housing ward competition should be more even between people moving in and out of wards and FCs who actually want a house for the house itself and not the workshop occupying spots. This would also be more in line with YoshiP's idea of wards being this communal space for multiple active FCs to mingle + some personal owners who have also proven they use/care about their housing enough to maintain a ward plot.