Apartment Blocks / Neighbor-up with friends!

Suggestions
1

I got to thinking, after my friends and I explored outside the boundaries of the Suite Remaster Condo, that being able to actually build rooms next to each other on a persistent map would be amazing since the framework for the other Suites are already in place in that map. So here in comes my idea.

Apartment Block functionality, where in a single persistent instance, you can choose to buy a room / condo / house on the same map as a friend which would allow you to build a condo next to your friend’s place. At any time you can move out and plop your furniture in a similar house on another map.

Here are the examples I mocked up using the neighborhood map and the suites map. Sizes are not to scale. Not all rooms or houses are accurately depicted. Results may vary, ask your doctor before taking. If symptoms persist for more than two hours panic wildly.

APARTMENT: All the rooms are the same, per floor. Should you decided to move to another room on the same floor, you can just transfer your items. If you move to a cheaper option on the second floor (no backyard) you must redo your room.

Shared Apartment.png800Ă—600 23.8 KB

NEIGHBORHOOD: House 1 is the default House condo. Houses 2-6 are the neighbor’s houses on the same street. Because the sizes and layouts vary per house, you can’t perfectly move houses with the furniture in the same positions, except between maps.

Shared Neighborhood.png800Ă—600 26.9 KB

As for how this feature would work, perhaps the map owner, or landlord, first buys the map. Then they can set the neighborhood to Solo (Same as the regular functionality, where only the owner can build), Private (where friends can come in and buy the houses / plots) or Public (where anyone can come buy houses / plots.) The solo option would allow the landlord full design privileges over all the available land.

For people to buy the houses, you can either buy them from the Realty store by searching by friends or browsing the public options. Then they would be given a screen like the overhead layouts above where they can select which option they want to purchase. When on the map, and you have permissions to buy a plot, there could be a FOR SALE sign on the plot / door / etc.

It could even be a separate Realty option to buy the neighbor compatible versions (which would be more expensive than buying the solo-only map) so if people never intend on using the feature, and just want a single house/condo, then they can do so for a cheaper price.

This could allow for a tighter knit community for players who want to build next to each other, and it would help build that sense of structure when you can waltz into a neighborhood and see multiple people’s designs for houses. It would help with collaboration, and also if you want to visit a friend’s house but they are offline - just pop into your neighborhood and visit!

12 Likes
2

thats FUCKING GENIUS

3

I think this would be amazing if implemented, but it might be hard to do properly. I think the neighborhood system could be done a little differently than you suggest. In short, I’d say just sell one version of each condo and allow users to create or join vacant condos in compatible neighborhoods, rather than using a landlord system.

I’d say just sell a single condo layout and tag it as “Neighborhood” if it allows for multiple condos. For the Suites, there would be two to buy (“Ground Floor” and “Upper Floor”) and Neighborhood would have one option for each house (exactly as you suggested). However, instead of buying land on a landlord’s property, this is just a plot you own.

The trick comes when you go to your condo. If you select Public and a neighborhood compatible condo, the game searches for other public neighborhoods where that condo you selected is vacant. You can choose one to join or choose to open a new neighborhood with your condo as the only occupied one. When a player joins and occupies a neighborhood condo, it automatically ports in their condo layout. If their layout contains items outside the bounds of the land plot, those are ignored. Likewise, their layout is removed when they leave. The Friends-only option works the same way, but it only searches for friends-only servers hosted by friends (public will still display friends-only servers from your friends).

For example, say I own House #2 and my friend owns house #4. He starts a public condo using House #4 and starts a new neighborhood. I decide to visit my condo and search for public neighborhoods using the map House #2 is on. I notice that my friend is hosting a neighborhood and join him. The House #2 on his server becomes occupied and is decorated according to my layout. A little while later, a random person who owns House #3 joins in and occupies House #3 before his friend (who is just visiting the server and doesn’t own any houses) jumps on the server and we all have a good time in our little neighborhood. Eventually, I decide to leave; House #2 reverts to its default layout and once again becomes vacant, letting someone else with House #2 occupy it if they so desire.

In this way, your condo is not linked to a landlord who may deactivate the server and never return, thus rendering your (likely expensive) condo useless. Rather, you can join up in a small community for however long you plan on staying and leave when ready. Likewise, anyone can take up vacant condos in neighborhoods if they already own said condo. This makes neighborhoods more dynamic, and can lead to more natural social interactions. It wouldn’t be out of the question to allow dedicated servers to host neighborhoods, either, so the host wouldn’t need to worry about disconnecting everybody when they’re done (though working out a server host migration system could help with this).

Sorry for the wall of text, I hope this gets across my thoughts on doing this kind of a system!

5 Likes
4

My vision has it that you can get up and leave a neighborhood and swap houses in a vacant spot in another neighborhood at any time. Maybe there would be a “moving fee” but that’s extraneous and just a suggestion for added realism, and perhaps a way to incentivize choosing your neighbors wisely.

1 Like
5

This would probably be very difficult to create, and hosting would be an issue, but other than that this is a fantastic idea barring execution.

6

Not really.

Just let the guy with the best ping currently using the neighborhood host. If he disconnects, switch to the next one.

7

That’s a very big thing to host for one person. Also, host migration is difficult. It doesn’t happen in the game yet, even.

1 Like
8

Seems impossible if you ask me.