Apartments need Rent

[Almagnus1]

So I'm trying to think of a way to make an apartment a more attractive option compared to housing, and one of the things that may help several other issues is a slight tweak to how Apartments work, specifically:

• Available once you achieve a rank of Sergeant Third Class in any GC
• Cost reduced to 100k gil
• Now has rent of 10k gil/week, but comes with four weeks of rent prepaid
• Rent is due on or before the weekly reset
• Rent can be pre-paid for up to three months
• You will be moogle mailed when you have a month (and then again when you have a week) of rent remaining
• You will be evicted from your apartment if rent is not paid by the weekly reset

Thoughts/comments/suggestions?

[MistakeNot]

The big advantage of apartments compared to houses is that you do not need to do anything to keep them.

So, needing to pay rent for an apartment is a bad, Bad, BAD idea.

[Vidu]

...how would having to pay rent make apartments more appealing? Even if it comes with a reduced initial cost.

How would the rent even be paid? Would you have to walk up to an NPC every week to pay? As far as I know there is no system (yet) that would just automatically take gil from your inventory - if my assumption here is correct and they would have to implement a system like that in the first place, I'd think it a waste of ressources. And if such a system could/would work: Would it be able to take gil out of your retainers pockets? Or do you need to make sure you always have the needed amount on your person? (Personally, I keep most of my gil on my retainers)

What purpose would it serve to evict people from their apartments? On the majority of worlds, there are enough apartments for anyone who wants one (Balmung might be an exception, never been there). Auto-demolition for houses is a thing because there arent enough for everyone, so they want to make sure that only people who use their house get to keep it. But apartments face no such shortage, so theres not need for eviction or auto-demolition.

All in all... what a terrible idea that doesnt seem to serve any purpose (more realism?).

[Almagnus1]

How would the rent even be paid? Would you have to walk up to an NPC every week to pay?

Just talk to the NPC at the front counter for the apartments, and get an option that would allow you to prepay several weeks rent, and show you how far out you've paid rent.

What purpose would it serve to evict people from their apartments?

Incentive to keep paying rent.

All in all... what a terrible idea that doesnt seem to serve any purpose (more realism?).

It acts as a gil sink, and one that's a cheaper initial option (and easier to get into) than a house - which allows for a way for players to get into housing. 10k gil/week is low enough that the average player should be able to afford that for a very long length of time.

[Vidu]

Just talk to the NPC at the front counter for the apartments, and get an option that would allow you to prepay several weeks rent, and show you how far out you've paid rent.



Incentive to keep paying rent.



It acts as a gil sink, and one that's a cheaper initial option (and easier to get into) than a house - which allows for a way for players to get into housing. 10k gil/week is low enough that the average player should be able to afford that for a very long length of time.

So, if I'm getting this right your idea aims at being mainly a gil sink?

In that case 10k a week is a joke (just finishing 5 tasks in your weekly questlog is enough to cover that) and wont serve the purpose of a proper gil sink (I probably pay more than that in teleport fees to my house in one week).

[Seleni]

Adding fees to something that used to be free is a sure way to alienate your (existing and future) customers. Whether the idea of rent would be valid gil sink (or simply turn away more players from apartment ownership) is up to debate, but the timing for it is long past. If it were to be implemented with the current apartment system it’d need to be introduced back when apartment was first introduced.

Now if SE make it a rent for a new luxury apartment suite, there might be takers. Chances are they’d need to add balcony with view/cross-breeding capable flowerpots for it to actually appeal to the masses, but there might be player interested in paying rent even for a 2-floors or simply bigger apartments.

Dues probably isn’t that hard to implement. Simplest method they can just make you pay in order to enter your apartment suite.

[Tlamila]

We need housing to be more accessible, not less.
The reason why nobody wants apartments, even though everybody can grab one easily, is because they're instanced and small. The only reason why people do get them is because once you get one you can keep it forever, even if you unsub for years.
You basically want even the few people who use apartments to stop doing so.

[Catstab]

Thoughts?

This idea is so bad I expect you to come back next week and say you're "just trying to start a conversation."

Honestly, the best part about apartments is they never demolish, and you're proposing that.

[Nepentha]

Apartments are already plentiful. I'm not sure what purpose it would serve to make them demolishable.

[Naoki34]

So I'm trying to think of a way to make an apartment a more attractive option compared to housing, and one of the things that may help several other issues is a slight tweak to how Apartments work, specifically:

• Available once you achieve a rank of Sergeant Third Class in any GC
• Cost reduced to 100k gil
• Now has rent of 10k gil/week, but comes with four weeks of rent prepaid
• Rent is due on or before the weekly reset
• Rent can be pre-paid for up to three months
• You will be moogle mailed when you have a month (and then again when you have a week) of rent remaining
• You will be evicted from your apartment if rent is not paid by the weekly reset

Thoughts/comments/suggestions?

600K gils is cheap, because it's easy to get hundreds of millions of gils.

the automatic termination is because there is a shortage of non-instantial housing, there is no shortage of apartments, but everyone wants a house to show their neighbors that they never see.