Rented rooms update!

[Rias]

As a few people have already realized, an updated system for renting inn rooms has been set up at the Hearth & Home Inn. (The previous system still works for places that haven't been updated yet.) In this version, rooms exist specifically and individually again. Each room at the Hearth has the same base description, but also a little extra individual thematic flavor at the end based on the room. You no longer go to the front desk and use the CHECK command to enter your room. You actually proceed into to hall (and upstairs if your room is on the second floor) and to the door of your room, and enter from there with ROOM ENTER. Also, other people can go to your room door and knock on it (with the ROOM KNOCK command) to try and get your attention instead of yelling at you over ESP.

The renting process is a little more involved: You head into the hall and use the ROOMS command in rooms that are flagged with (rooms) to see what's available and ROOM TOUR any rooms you're particularly interested in. This will show you the room description and some info about the room, and you can then type ROOM RENT if you're interested in that particular room. Then head back to the front desk and use the RENT command to proceed. Using the RENT command at the front desk will prompt people to do this if they haven't already set their sights on a room with ROOM RENT.

I think this makes the process and especially the rooms themselves feel much more real, and the rooms can have more unique personality. Having a real room that you actually go to and enter helps a character feel more part of the world, rather than just being teleported into an infinitely instanced version of the same room from the front desk. Plus, I can't wait to see people fighting over favorite inn rooms. I was really excited to bring back the original Hearth inn room themed doors, while also adding a bunch of new ones. There are 24 rooms at the Hearth alone, so there should be plenty of space, but the place can technically become full at which point people would have to look elsewhere, or just settle for a bed in the bunkhouse or somewhere public. Which I think is thematically appropriate.

On the note of room availability and places possibly filling up: I'm applying the same rule to rented rooms/homes as to owned homes: Only one at a time per account. We don't want all the good places snatched up by a bunch of alts, or the game running out of private room availability with every player using multiple rooms with their alts. Let this further encourage everyone to focus on a primary character and really develop them!

The above is why bunkhouses and other non-inn-room beds now provide the full rest bonus - if somehow all the rentable rooms are full, or you're on alt who can't rent because your other character is doing so, your alt can still get the full rest bonus.

One particularly nifty new feature is the ability to designate an approved guest, if your room allows it. An approved guest can enter the room whenever they want, regardless of whether the primary resident is around. Please don't do goofy things with this like paying other player characters to rent for you just so you can be made a guest and have extra space for yourself. We don't want to have to restrict guest designation to only those who don't already have their own home/room. (But it'll probably end up happening.) We don't want to go too crazy with allowing multiple guests this way, because then we run the risk of groups mostly gathering and interacting in private spaces away from the public, which we feel is bad for the game. Assigning a single guest is great for allowing a close friend or a significant other to share your living space, though.

Lastly, this same system will be used for other types of residences around town, once we finish adding them. I just wanted to get it out and tested for inn rooms, first. Maybe you'll end up renting a more long-term room above the bookstore or tavern or weaver's workshop, where rent is paid in months rather than days, to feel more grounded as a town resident rather than a transient.

P.S. Characters who currently have old-style inn rooms rented still have access to them via the CHECK command, but won't be able to extend rent of them or be able to access the new-style rooms until their current old-style inn room expires.

[Adresin]

Hmm. I like it, but the one per account thing makes things interesting storage wise. I get it though.

One question, given this one room per account situation now. Is it possible to make it so that the bunkhouse works like private rooms, in the sense that you can idle there without being booted after 30 minutes? Thematically, it would make more sense for Alia to just crash there if I can figure out how to deal with her spare armor and newbie bag related things, but I tend to idle a lot when I'm working or doing other things and just kind of monitoring what goes on. I do realize idling somewhere that isn't completely private carries risk, but at least when actually at the computer it would be super helpful. I realize I could just make a timer, but I'd guess I'm not the only one wondering this.

[Adresin]

Forgot to mention, I looove the one guest with access thing!

[Rias]

Is it possible to make it so that the bunkhouse works like private rooms, in the sense that you can idle there without being booted after 30 minutes?

It is done!

Some people mentioned the lack of wardrobes and trunks. Oops, I'll add those.

As for the basins, though! No more basins in the individual inn rooms. It was too much work for inn staff, and also kind of gross to have that standing tepid filthy water in the room with guests all the time.

Regarding the Hearth specifically, though ... they have a boiler in the cellar now which can be used to conveniently warm some water to be piped into basins of their nearby wash room that has of course always been there for inn staff doing laundry and such, but is now open to guests as well: through the swinging doors at the southern end of the lower hall. The room description notes some of the basins are surrounded by curtains, for those who want a little more privacy, but it's all in one nice crowded communal room.

[esthy]

Loving all of this! Can we please also get windows that we can interact with so I can do some more crazy yelling at people outside?

[Ninetales16]

I wanted to say this in chat this morning, but I simply love this idea and how it is implemented.
I think it fits the theme and makes everything more immersive. <3

[artus]

The room access with guests had been a topic forever since Cogg inn style was a thing, as well as people loving different sides of the inn system from the I'm not much of a fan of old Clok inn that I have to track down where my rooms were and ended up not using it, stuff like that, it turns out this rent system fits both sides now with much less hassle than before! I haven't used it yet because I just found out. Does the painfully short seven days rent still apply though, now that only one char per account can have a room? And does it overlap with housing? Is it like one room and one house or one room or one house per account?

[Ninetales16]

haven't used it yet because I just found out. Does the painfully short seven days rent still apply though, now that only one char per account can have a room? And does it overlap with housing? Is it like one room and one house or one room or one house per account?

from what I understod and Ibleieve, the short rent systerm still applies, yes, with plans to add something of a more grounded out housing ysstem in the city in the future, like roms above the weaver's workshop and so on.
as for your question, i believe it is only house per account and one room per account, them not overlapping. But, my question in that place would be, why would you wish to rent an inn room if you had a more long ter mplace, (a house) to rest in, which provides more convenience than an inn room?
in fact. I can see this being a thing because some people might live together and fight or have disagreements IC and might avoid each other.
this is what I understood from the post and hope it answered your question, somewhat. of course, i might not 100% have understood everything, so someone could correct me if i'm wrong.

[Squeak]

And does it overlap with housing? Is it like one room and one house or one room or one house per account?

as for your question, i believe it is only house per account and one room per account, them not overlapping

Per Rias' post above the answer is (drumroll, please!):

... Only one at a time per account

[Squeak]

Is it possible to make it so that the bunkhouse works like private rooms, in the sense that you can idle there without being booted after 30 minutes?

It is done!

I know you have your reasons, but from a gameplay perspective logging in with the intention of roleplaying and "waking up" in a room full of characters with the AFK tag behind their name is a little jarring to think of. This is just a knee-jerk reaction, though, and may not actually be the case - I haven't logged in yet since the changes.

It just ... sounds like something that shouldn't be encouraged.

[jerc]

I tend to agree with Squeak, but for slightly different reasons. In the past, I've forgotten about the inhibited idle-out in inn rooms, which has cost me a significant amount of morale since it still drains there. Waking up IRL to 0 morale when you were expecting 5 is pretty jarring. Having different idle behavior in different places just seems like a footgun to me without a lot of upsides.

[artus]

I honestly see nothing wrong with being in a place we already know is a place of rest. Usually those of us who leave ourselves online in there are at the keyboard, perhaps working, perhaps not wanting to miss a thing as we're still semi-playing, because if we don't do it in there, we do it in our own inn room which has to be paid anyway and are in limited quantity. It's just a place shift, that's all. It's not like anyone have to get everyone involved if they want to rp in there, and it may even make for a fun rp scene given you rp right in a room where someone is supposedly sleeping so they may or may not hear you. Lots of potential for rp there. People tend not to log in in there anyway if they want morale bonus so it's not going to be all the time, there's that too. It's mostly done by those of us who want to be on because the game is awesome but can't play because of whatever, distracted, juggling windows, don't want to miss news. It usually doesn't mean we can't play. It just means we can't devote our full attention to the game in our current background activity. If anything, consider the afkers resting or being in their own personal space.

[jerc]

Sure, I get the half-playing-half-working "afk" angle, but... Why there? If you're hanging out on the off chance of some RP here and there, why not a designated gathering spot where morale doesn't drain? It's the no-idling-out in the room that provides a rested bonus if logged out but also allows morale to drain when logged in that seems weird to me.

[artus]

Inn rooms do the same. You get morale drain when you're in there. The only difference in this case is place shift, and people idle in inn rooms all the time for the same exact reason. In an overcrowded town, it makes sense to have people everywhere especially in a resting resident like bunkhouse. Those who want to use or conserve morale can just go out and do so. It doesn't mean the idlers in there need to use morale, else they can just go use it and not stay there.

If this looks weird to anyone, which is honestly not to me, perhaps a half way edition of having longer idle time, like 4 hours or something, applied to bunk rooms can do. At least it allows for both rp flexibility and feel, though I see no problem with having no idle timer because it's just a bunk room really, nothing else. People who stay there and choose to be on can't use morale anyway regardless of whether they're in inn rooms or bunk rooms because they're distracted ooc, and it's mechanically exploitable to have no morale going down there while the cooldown for good sleep goes down, so people can just log out and in every few hours to get morale bonus without doing anything else. Letting it drain there is a legit reason for those who can and want to spend morale to not stay.

[Adresin]

Inn rooms work the exact same way. This just lets characters whose players like to idle for whatever reason do so if they can't, or don't for character reasons, rent a private space or otherwise have one.

We're in a crowded, at the moment, town with a public spot for sleeping. AFK characters just add to that, oh yeah, there's sleeping folks in here theme, hmm?

Sometimes I do idle at the commons, or inn common room or something, but if I know I can't really respond to people at the moment I feel bad if people come by and try to interact. Plus that getting kicked off after half an hour is annoying. This is why I asked Rias to add this to this public sleeping spot, now that inn rooms are more limited. It just gave me motivation to do with Alia what i'd been pondering doing for a while anyway, downsizing and leaving the inn rooms for others.

If I'm multi tasking but can realistically pick up any rp that comes my way then definitely, I'll go to a gathering spot and hang out.

On another game where you could theoretically idle anywhere for up to 24 hours, some fun rp was often had in the guild or other public or semi public sleeping areas. Two characters start to interact, a third comes back to the keyboard and their character gets up, grumbles about people being too fracking loud, and stomps off. Etc. Fun times!

[Smoothcoffee]

For those to choose to coexist, (couples, friends, potatoes, etc,) would there be a consideration for additional floor space? Maybe 100, 150? Something that can be split more evenly due to furniture and ideally for keeping a stand of armor, one for each other. If not, can this please please please be considered for long term rentals or houses.

[jerc]

When logged out in the old inn rooms, we'd see the amount of time left on our rent in the "Active Characters" entry on the account screen, but it's missing for new inn rooms. Can we get it back?