Real Estate Business in Project Eternity

[rjshae]

How is it we all rallied around the idea of a new generation Baldur's Gate, then people just want to play house and buy a small business? I'm not very excited by this trend.

[Archmage Silver]

Voted for the Pimp My Stronghold option. Xzibit will install me some arcane color-shifting windows and enchanted stables with chrome horseshoes +3.

[TCJ]

Only if the housing bubble can crash in the game, too.

[SinoSamba]

We should merge this thread with the PE MMO one. After all it's MMOs who have an active economy that can be crashed.

[mcmanusaur]

An MMO economy works quite differently from what I'm proposing.

[.Leif.]

Please for the love of Odin no. Being a Lord (or Lady) of a keep is enough. This is a Roleplaying game, not a renaissance development simulator.

[mcmanusaur]

That sums it up perfectly. This is a ROLEplaying game. Now, we need to get out of narrow-minded approach that a role is only what you contribute to a party in a combat situation (DPS, healer, tank, crowd control, etc.). Some people like playing actual roles in the game's society, and this is something that would allow us to do that to a greater extent.

[BetrayTheWorld]

Just give us the option to donate excess gold to temples etc., rising through the ranks of patron-ship until churches are named in our honor.

Not a bad alternative.

 

It doesn't have to be an "alternative"...could simply be one of the options.

 

Personally, troll or not, I'd like to see plenty of options on how to spend money made in game, including investments, properties, drinks, prostitutes, donating to your choice of establishments, buying l33t gear, etc.

[Atreides]

Perhaps a quest where players get part-ownership of a famous establishment is more manageable, given design constraints.

[SophosTheWise]

Perhaps a quest where players get part-ownership of a famous establishment is more manageable, given design constraints.

You mean like a brothel?

No, seriously, there was a cool sidequestline in Yakuza 4 where you managed a club (a talking brothel, I don't know, one of those typical "WTF, Japan?" things). While it was quite uninteresting and a bit boring aftere a while I could see something be fun if made right.

[Sacred_Path]

You mean like a brothel?

 

A brothel is pretty much mandatory after the ToEE incident.

[Jorian Drake]

Perhaps a quest where players get part-ownership of a famous establishment is more manageable, given design constraints.

You mean like a brothel?

No, seriously, there was a cool sidequestline in Yakuza 4 where you managed a club (a talking brothel, I don't know, one of those typical "WTF, Japan?" things). While it was quite uninteresting and a bit boring aftere a while I could see something be fun if made right.

they might have watched the Eureka series, and noticed the TALKING HOUSE in it, it isn't always them who come up with ideas ya know

[Pshaw]

Honestly that just sounds too fable like for me. Too much freedom leads to redundancy. Even in Skyrim you got plenty of houses and an expansion to build your own and even though I bought the houses (never got hearthfire) and got all the guildhalls as homes I didn't see the point in residing in them. I mostly used them to dump potion ingredients and move on.

 

However I did feel a bit more attached to my stronghold in BG2. You only got 1 based on your class but it felt more suited to your character and well earned. So even though I didn't get to pick my stronghold out of dozen of choices or even improve it's looks or anything I prefer them over all.

 

Now even though I never bought hearthfire for skyrim I did like growing my own mushroom palace in morrowind. I think that if you can develope your own house and perhaps guide it's growth a bit that's the best way to go. However such things don't always fit into the story. Keeps don't spring up overnight so unless the story is set up in a less than urgent fashion building a castle for yourself in the midst of the story might be a bit much as far as suspension of disbelief is concerned.

 

TL:DR

More choices isn't always better for something like this, see fable where houses were bland. I like the idea of taking over a seat of power via clearing it out as a dungeon, see BG2. Finally developing you own seat of power is always rewarding but doesn't always fit well into an urgent story.

[Jorian Drake]

That sums it up perfectly. This is a ROLEplaying game. Now, we need to get out of narrow-minded approach that a role is only what you contribute to a party in a combat situation (DPS, healer, tank, crowd control, etc.). Some people like playing actual roles in the game's society, and this is something that would allow us to do that to a greater extent.

seconded with fist raised into air for emphasis

[Jasede]

You mean like a brothel?

 

A brothel is pretty much mandatory after the ToEE incident.

The Arcanum sheep was good but maybe we can ask Obsidian to include a few more options.

Edited November 9, 2012 by Jasede

[The Guilty Party]

I contributed to the development of an RPG, not a real estate simulator.

[AGX-17]

Another scenario which implies the presence of capitalism. Thus it cannot, in my opinion, not work with PE's world as established thus far. The best you can hope for is the landed aristocracy converting from feudalism/serfdom to mercantilism and transitioning into Landlords charging their former serfs a fee to continue working the land (something which led to rebellions and uprisings in real-world Europe.) Capitalism is a post-enlightenment economic system. Mercantilism is the most believable economic system for the setting.

Edited November 10, 2012 by AGX-17

[mcmanusaur]

Are you meaning to imply that our characters shouldn't be able to climb up the feudal ladder and have vassals of our own?

[Heresiarch]

Sure, as long as I can liquidize my assets and reinvest it in local government bonds.

 

And while we are at it, I also want an option to subcontract my quests, so that that other unnamed adventurers risk their lives for a meagre cut of the reward. I will call it DTHA: Double Time Hero Agency incorporated.

 

P.S. Did I mention that I want to be able to issue loans and play on futures market as well?

[mcmanusaur]

I contributed to the development of an RPG, not a real estate simulator.

And you happen to have an extremely restricted view of what an RPG is, no doubt bolstered by all the DnD RPGs and spiritual successors.

[Nietsewitch]

More important then owning a castle is how the noble will react on you and how it will influence the story.

 

I really would like a clash with noble, that would be nice.

 

How that would fit in the story is a diffrent thing.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Nietsewitch

[mcmanusaur]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2ZeTKc7Cyc&t=4m51s

 

Investments mentioned at 4:51! You mad, anti-simulator bros?

Edited November 13, 2012 by mcmanusaur

[Mandragore]

When I saw the poll my first thought was of Crossroad Keep in NwN2, which is basically the sort of thing I'd be interested in in PE. A bit more autonomy would be nice though, maybe the ability to actually command the castle garrison to go out and perform vile acts of banditry on my behalf instead of just turning a blind eye while they do it anyway.

[Jorian Drake]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2ZeTKc7Cyc&t=4m51s

 

Investments mentioned at 4:51! You mad, anti-simulator bros?

 

I hope for being able to own buildings and such, if you ignore the whole modern idea about assets/investments and think in the framework of a medieval setting, you can still see clergy, merchants, and nobility owning lands, cities, castles, mines, etc

 

Of course I think even more interesting than simply owning things is the ability to customize and upgrade them, let mines and walls be guarded by your own loyal people, with the banner of your own raised (be it a banner of your noble family, or your guild, or some other faction). If one wants to, let the player use purple and golden furniture for his castle or house in a city (who knows? maybe the character has a purple/golden Coat of Arms to begin with and wants it to be fitting?)

 

One can't really cut pieces of the whole "cake" and declare that this part is okay for an RPG while the other isn't. For a rich and/or noble character it is very logical to be able to own lands and customize them in many ways. I always hated that both in pnp and PC games this side gets almost always ignored -well Pathfinder has something like that but its still far from perfect-.On the other hand, those people who are not at all interested in these things shouldn't be forced to do these things, and should be able to play the whole game ignoring this part, even if it means losing out on the experience and missing out on items and events/quests.

Edited November 13, 2012 by Jorian Drake

[Jojobobo]

Personally I liked owning loads of property in Fable II, upping the rent and watching people suffer, so I'm for it. However not every thing in sight should be purchasable as per Fable II either - and if you were to be a landlord you need some non-profit venture you can sink your money into as a counter balance.

 

EDIT: If you really wanted to get technical, owning shops could be used for greater roleplaying - you could get burglarised, then have to track down the culprits. Or maybe a serial killer takes an interest in the residents of a neighborhood you mostly own - even an evil character would feel obligated to put him down if they wanted to bring in more cash. Touches like this would really enhance the feeling that you were part of the world. You could also own other more dubious businesses - brothels, crack (or some P:E drug equivalent) dens, etc.

Edited November 13, 2012 by Jojobobo