Apartments

Pre-alpha apartment complex in a metropolis node.

Apartments are internal only (instanced) spaces within a node that offer some housing functionality. There will be an initial 50 apartments available for purchase when a node advances to a Village (stage 3). Additional apartment buildings can be built at Town (stage 4) if the mayor chooses to construct them and if there is an available plot to do so.

• The number of available apartments increases as a normal part of node advancement.
• It was previously stated that apartments would be available at Town (stage 4) or above.

The mayor may additionally construct apartment buildings when the node hits stage 4 at one of the building plots in the node, along with cities gaining additional static housing and apartments by default as a normal part of the leveling process. – Steven Sharif

Apartment options.

• Apartment rentals offer node citizenship.
• Different price points offer different sized apartments.
• Prices for apartments will fluctuate depending on the number of units already sold in the node.
• Apartments are instanced and only limited in number by the increasing price.
• Apartments can be decorated as required.

Household security

A permissions system will enable an owner to grant access to specific parts of their housing.

• Ability to open the door and enter the home.
• Access to crops.
• Ability to deposit or withdraw items from storage containers.
• Permission to use furniture or crafting stations.

A property has a single owner.

• Marriage enables family size to increase by one so that housing access can be shared.
• Access lists can be used to mimic co-ownership.
• Payment of taxes may be via a "gentleman's agreement".
• Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.

It'll be a single owner based system for those types of properties- for properties in general, but it doesn't prevent players obviously from you know collaborating and pooling resources in order to achieve certain achievements in the game. – Steven Sharif

Apartment destructibility

Apartments may be destroyed in the following circumstances:

• If their building was destroyed during a node siege, even if the siege was not successful.
• If the node delevels below Village (stage 3) as a result of being destroyed or through node atrophy.
• If a mayor built extra apartment buildings at Town (stage 4) or higher and the Node deleveled below that stage.
• If the mayor decides to destroy apartment buildings all items and layouts will be mailed to the owner.

Destructible environments

Destructible castle.

This is the castle siege destruction props. It's variable areas of exploded stuff. You can't completely destroy the castle or you wouldn't be able to get to the top of it. – Michael Bacon

Destructible environments in Alpha-1 castle sieges.

Destructible environments will be a core element of how players interact with the world, in both Ashes of Creation Apocalypse and Ashes of Creation the MMORPG.

We want destruction to be a very core element of how players make their way through the world. – Steven Sharif

• Attackers may not be capable of destroying a node during a siege. Instead they may carry out precision attacks to disable specific service-oriented buildings within the node. These buildings can be targeted with siege weapons and bombs.
• Node buildings (including player housing) have hit points and can be damaged during sieges. If buildings suffer more than approximately 25% damage, any NPCs or services offered by that building will not be available until the building is repaired.
• If the node still exists after the siege has ended, citizens will need to obtain the resources needed to repair and rebuild any damaged infrastructure.
  • Larger more advanced buildings will require more resources to repair them. In-node housing will likely require the least resources to repair.
• Player housing that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.
  • Furnishing and decorations are retained and can be placed again later.

There will be ways to repair destructible structures (such as walls and gates) and also repair (or re-craft) siege weapons that were damaged during sieges.

• This is a long term design goal that will not be present during Alpha-1.

You could be more precision oriented in the decision to attack a city. Let's say it's a rival node that's trying to reach you know a node stage five or something and you want to disable their ability for the religious system to progress so you target the temple during the attack, or you want to disable their scholars academy from reaching a higher level so that your nodes can; or you want to disable multiple buildings that allow for experience and quests to be undertaken by its citizenship, which prevents them from keeping up in pace of experience gained with your node. These can be more precision oriented and don't have to effectualize an actual takeover of the node. – Steven Sharif

Housing decorations

Alpha-1 housing decorations.

Pre-alpha furniture and decor concept art.

Players may decorate their player housing and other types of buildings.

• Houses will be empty when purchased.
  • Players may be able to upgrade to pre-furnished sets when they purchase their home.
  • Pre-furnished sets will be almost entirely visual and aesthetic. Only items crafted by the Carpentry profession will have in-game functionality.
• Players may place Furniture, artwork/paintings and other decor items in their player housing.
  • Items may only be placed in locations that are suitable for that item. For example: Statues, may only be placed in exterior locations (of Freeholds and Static housing).
  • Each size of player-owned housing determines how many decor items can be placed in it.
• Prized items such as achievements and trophies may be displayed.
• Characters will be able to interact with furniture items such as sit in chairs and lay in beds.
• Players will not be able to alter structural aspects such as windows and walls.
• There may be decor items that are representative of unique weapons that are available in the game.

Quality furniture can be crafted in-game based on the skill of the craftsperson.

• Furnishing items with in-game functionality will be restricted entirely to those created by the Carpentry profession.

Your ability to craft more luxurious furniture comes with how much of a master craftsman you've become in the furnishing profession... This isn't like you know, I want my house to look good, I got to fork over 50 bucks in cosmetics... Players can craft in-game based on their dedication and focus in that aspect the artisan tree. – Steven Sharif

Housing types

Player housing	Type.	Availability.	Starting count.	Ownership limit.
Apartments	Instanced.	Village stage and higher.	50.	One per character per server.
Freeholds	Open world.	Village stage and higher.	Ample.	One per account.
Static housing	In-node.	Village stage and higher.	8.	One per character per server.

Real estate

Players buy the deeds for housing from the node itself. Players can also buy and sell properties from other players.

• Housing will have a base price that scales with the number of citizens in the node.
  • In-node housing will be at a premium, and is expected to be hotly contested.
  • The more apartments that have been purchased in a node, the higher the price scales.
• The developers are considering an auction-based method for listing new properties that become available for purchase when a node advances.
  • A grace period will occur before the housing becomes available for auction.
  • Bids will then be accepted starting at a minimum reserve value that is based on the number of citizens in that node.
  • At the end of the auction, the highest bidder will win the house.
• Static housing and apartments can be listed and sold to other players.
  • There is no cap on the price of player-originated housing sales.
  • Player housing that is destroyed during a node siege can no longer be sold.
  • Freeholds may not be sold to other players. This is subject to change based on testing.

There's no cap essentially in player originated sales. Those are determined essentially by supply and demand as it is within the game and there's no artificial barrier to how high that demand can go. – Steven Sharif

• Housing ownership can default back to the node if the owner fails to pay their property taxes. A balance and penalties will be charged to the new purchaser of the home in the manner of a "foreclosure process".
• Players will not be able to exceed their allotment of housing in the game.

This will allow players to transfer real property goods. This includes ... static housing, this includes apartments that they may own; and they can sell those because those will have a limited and finite quantity. – Steven Sharif

Rental and leasing concepts are currently under consideration.

Some concepts that we have is going to be rental or leases that could be had allowing players to kind of lease a property for a period of time where they will have control rights over utilizing storage based on the area, controlling the furniture or access point; all that kind of stuff. – Steven Sharif

See also

• Static housing
• Freeholds
• Real estate