https://www.sindome.org/bgbb/game-discussion/ideas/voluntary-moveout-1569/
I think the "abuse" sounds more like an IC issue then an OOC issue.
Shorter eviction times were introduced on lower rent properties as a result of the previous suggestion and whilst I don't doubt it has had a positive effect in terms of getting properties into the hands of active players sooner I still see only positives in the idea of players being able to forfeit the remaining time on their properties to even further reduce the delay.
The ability to put the property straight back on the market would make sense ic and ooc on a number of levels. Landlords want paying residents moved into properties as soon as possible (hence I suggested -partial- refunds might be a viable incentive) and residents often want to make a clean break from a property for any number of reasons. OOCly of course it opens up limited resources to players in need and might enable us to extend eviction periods back a little bit for players who are genuinely in need of the grace period.
Is there that much of a housing issue in game right now that people don't have places to live? From the looks of it a number of places are not fully booked.
I'm interested in hearing more thoughts on this.
Is there that much of a housing issue in game right now that people don't have places to live? From the looks of it a number of places are not fully booked.
I'm interested in hearing more thoughts on this.
I feel like this should remain akin to vehicle ownership transfers and be service or puppet (landlord) requests just to add a bit of inherent staff oversight. This would be especially important in the event we ever saw some more technical implementations of breaking and entering.
Otherwise, it does seem fairly benign.
Those places can also be very handy to older players due to their location and cheapness, which doesn't make it better. But then those older players would have an option to surrender it after use, bringing more fluidity to the market. Granted that without incentive this won't be a massive change, but I really think that every bit helps.
From a strictly gameplay related viewpoint whether or not the availability of housing is an issue depends on how high you want to set the cost of living in game. Overall there is no shortage of vacant properties but there -is- a shortage of vacant properties in the more affordable sub 7.5k ranges. One can go weeks making rounds checking cheaper properties without finding vacancies. Again whether or not this is an issue from a gameplay perspective depends on how high you want to set the cost of living which I imagine is based off economic data I am not privy to.
This is perhaps an example of bleed on my part and only a small issue for me in an otherwise very enjoyable game but my personal feeling is the pricing of housing does create pressure to donate irl cash for the IC benefits of doing so. Having to payout 7.5 thousand chyen a week and/or spend weeks making the rounds hoping to snag a cheaper property in game can feel like being penalised for handling bills in an IC manner rather than simply shelling out cash irl. Effectively earning 7.5k a week is no small advantage to players who choose to donate either.
Slither brings up a good point too. While SOME players will recognize that it would be a good housing helper move to surrender their apartment, there is no incentive to. I think that if you got maybe 1/4 of the rent back, it could make sense in that the landlord will want a tenant they can get back in there paying full price ASAP (which is how it works renting in life, the property manager wants a tenant quick because that is their income interrupted when the unit sits vacant)
We also have to recognize that the eviction process is a good thing. Even sometimes I can't log in due to real life circumstances which for anyone should take precedence over Sindome, and schedules don't always align with paying rent on time. I do think two weeks is a big chunk to afford someone though. I think one week should be the standard. However if you do not need an eviction grace period, surrendering for a little bit back I think could be an attractive option for many people, especially when we are fighting for every chy note we can muster.
I agree with @Grizz that apartments should be a perk that people strive to get into. Given that, I am not clear on whether the "issue" here is that there are not enough apartments, or if there are not enough places to sleep. In my mind, as long as there are cubes available when people need them, then there is nothing to be fixed here. It seems extremely themely to me that non-cube housing would be at a premium.
(At the risk of turning this into a discussion about the pros and cons of perma-pads, and the 'haves and have nots' of Sindome.) As others have said, it's easy to view the perma-pad donation as almost a requirement to get decent housing. I think $40 a year is a completely reasonable amount to pay. I pay it and appreciate it. The money I don't spend on rent allows me to put chy into the hands of other characters. My character gets a place to sleep and the economy gets some stimulation.
I hate to reference anyone's RL economic situation, so please take this with a grain of salt. But if a person wants to really play Sindome on a regular basis, I think they should be able to come up with $3.33 a month ($40 year / 12 months) for stable housing. Even if a person is only making minimum wage, it takes less than a hour of work to come up with that monthly bill. If a person is literally so on the edge of keeping the RL lights on and a roof over their head that they can't afford $3.33 a month, do we really want to be encouraging them to spend hours of their lives in front of the computer instead of out improving their real lives?
One final thought on the "RL cost" of permanent housing. I think that temporary housing is setup well. It exists as a way for new players who want to try out the game to do so without any expense to themselves. They can get an idea of how much chy they can reasonably earn in an hour. They can then assess whether they want to grind out that chy ICly to pay rent, or if they want to shell out quite literally a few dollars to save themselves that time. In my case, I played for a couple of months and then made the decision that I want to continue playing here in the long term. Once I made that decision, I donated for a perma-pad.
Regarding the original subject of surrendering a pad, I think it is a good idea. Maybe I'm a new player who rented a cube at the New Rose for a couple of weeks, but then decided to pay for a perma-pad. Or I did the same thing at the Westinghaus. While I could ICly try to sublet it out for the remainder of my rental period, it's easier and more efficient to just cancel the lease.
Like @slither said, the feature will be infrequently used. But when it is, it will save time. It will be one less thing for the admins to have to deal with. And in my mind, ANYTHING that saves admins time, even if it's only a few minutes every couple of weeks, is worth it. Those minutes add up to hours and days when you have a game running 24/7 like this one.
I also agree that having an IC shortage of nice places is themely.