Building Costs in EA Land

[imported_Qute Pi]

Is anyone else curious or concerned about the building prices in EA Land?
They have reduced everything else, I wonder if they plan to reduce the prices for build mode items...walls, doors, windows, carpet, wallpaper, fence, everything.

Can anyone shed some light on the subject?

 

[DGLita]

I dont tihnk building costs are very high anyway, a peice of wall is $3, many floors and walls are $1. Many other buid mode items are less than $10. Cant get much lower than that

 

[festrmentmagnet]

The floor I want cost 20 dollars a tile, so it's taking awhile to finish it, but I think all the other building items are priced pretty ok.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I dont tihnk building costs are very high anyway, a peice of wall is $3, many floors and walls are $1. Many other buid mode items are less than $10. Cant get much lower than that

[/ QUOTE ]

On paper that sounds wonderfully cheap, but I can't recall the last time I bought one piece of wall, one section of wallpaper, one square of carpet, and a tree, and called it a home.

It can cost thousands of simoleans to build a crappy house. When you take into account mistakes, it can be unbearable. On top of that, some people like to take time and make their houses actually look somewhat nice...it is very hard to do this on a limited budget.

I think the prices could be easy to workaround if their were a way to experiment with them for free initially.

I kind of like the idea of a builder's category where you can build "model" homes for free and "save" the blueprints as an object for a small fee. The blueprints could be kept or sold to a client. The owner of the blueprints could in turn drop them on the ground of an empty lot. After this, they would see a transparent version of the house that the blueprint contains. A popup message would appear that says "Do you want to build this house? The cost is (?). The cost would cover building materials and perhaps a small blueprint tax. I haven't been on the wiki in a while, I'll probably add this later.

 

[Guest]

"but I can't recall the last time I bought one piece of wall, one section of wallpaper, one square of carpet, and a tree, and called it a home. "

LMAO
thats funny, reminds me of an old song, something about a hank of hair and a piece of bone makes a walkin talkin honeycomb, All i could think of was " a hank of rug and a piece of wall makes a rocking, sockin simmy home"


Yeah i was kinda thinkin "building costs shouldnt be to high" when i started my place then realized i about wiped out my building budget on a floor lol. Back to the bot factory i go lol.

 

[imported_fajjaa]

This would be an awesome option. Im still working on our first house, trying not to have to tear down or delete too much existing stuff. I hate to say this, but if you incorporate the ATM machine for purchasing the blueprints, the dev. team might jump on this idea.

 

[Guest]

I never said that the blueprint tax would be in simoleans!

...but...ummm...dev team, if you are reading this, it would be simoleans.

 

[turtleface]

Such a wonderful idea. Not a new one, but one that really, really badly needs to be implemented into the game. Please go put it on the wiki! Building is my favourite part of the game...this would make it even better. Lots better. I think everyone who likes to build would be very, very happy. And those who don't would be able to get pretty houses more easily.

 

[Guest]

I dropped that suggestion a few times too. And I think the building prices are way too steep as well. There shouldn't be price differences in floortiles, they all should cost 1,2 or 3 tops. Taste is personal. Why a black tile cost 5 and the exact same pattern on a white colored tile cost 15 is beyond me. Same with wallpapers. It's kinda discrimination against people who want to look their house look a certain way. It won't look more luxurous, it won't look any prettier, it will just look 'different'.

Why pay 5k for a 12x12 patch of floor just to match the walls. That's over 5$! It hinders creativity.

 

[imported_SimTripps]

I agree folks - to do roof art, for example, can cost thousands in floor tiles. They should all be $1 per sq. tile..

 

[Inge Jones]

If you make a mistake and build a wall in the wrong place do you get your money back when you delete it, like in the offline game?

 

[imported_Qute Pi]

<blockquote><hr>

I agree folks - to do roof art, for example, can cost thousands in floor tiles. They should all be $1 per sq. tile..

[/ QUOTE ]

Not only that but you have to build a wall around the entire size 8 property, that will probably be deleted after you're done with the roof. Just throwing money away lol.

Any decrease in cost really would help not only with building, but with creativity. Until my house in EA Land, I never used the cheap unmatched walls and floors, it is very discouraging and usually ugly.

Do I want to spend what money I am making to color my kitchen floor prettier, or do I put it towards the new custom content item I just made, or do I put it towards food and tips? Obviously it isn't going towards the floor...

Anyway I posted to Sarah on tso-e about the subject because I was told her and Luc control that. I haven't heard anything yet...lol...not that I expected to.

 

[imported_Qute Pi]

<blockquote><hr>

If you make a mistake and build a wall in the wrong place do you get your money back when you delete it, like in the offline game?

[/ QUOTE ]

no

 

[Inge Jones]

Oh that seems silly! I can understand that each sprite or poly on your lot "costs" the server some resources, so charge for the number of walls but there doesn't seem any reason why you can't get the money back for deleted structural elements - and it must take so much of the fun out of building a house.

 

[imported_Qute Pi]

Well I'm used to not getting the money back...lol...but now that I'm poor I'm not used to putting in less than 100% to build. It's affecting my interest in building my property lol.

Plus everything else was reduced in price, why not build mode?

 

[Laverne]

Inge,

We can't sell back catalog items so I doubt we would get any back for restructuring. One of the nice things about the off line game.

 

[imported_SimTripps]

So true Qute - I've got a whole area of indoor grass in one property.. 'To tile or not to tile? Hmmm... When I've got extra funds, I'll tile.... but never seem to have those extra funds...'. lol...

 

[Inge Jones]

Hmm I have yet to spot any sort of game-related advantage to actually having a home! Seems the only purpose is if you want somewhere for a private chat and even then you can't actually keep it private can you? I mean if other sims decide to land on you?

 

[JRock]

Well you can set an admit list so that only the people you invite can land on your property.

Just a suggestion

 

[imported_corpatortis]

In the offline game you get a percentage of your money back when you delete walls. Not positive on other build items.

I guess people will just have to work hard earing cash to build their homes.

 

[imported_Qute Pi]

<blockquote><hr>

Hmm I have yet to spot any sort of game-related advantage to actually having a home! Seems the only purpose is if you want somewhere for a private chat and even then you can't actually keep it private can you? I mean if other sims decide to land on you?

[/ QUOTE ]

There are many reasons I enjoy having a home. For one, after the merge, my 5 years of anniversary gifts, self crafted items, pets and their supplies, among other things, I need a place of my own because I have so much stuff. Also, I love to build...I love to personalize my property and make it reflect who I am and what I love...which is a great thing about custom content!

On another note, if everyone thought it was pointless to own a property, we wouldn't have skill houses, money houses, stores or any other property...

 

[Inge Jones]

Well I didn't say I couldn't see a point in owning a lot at all, I specifically meant a home - a personal residence.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Oh that seems silly! I can understand that each sprite or poly on your lot "costs" the server some resources, so charge for the number of walls but there doesn't seem any reason why you can't get the money back for deleted structural elements - and it must take so much of the fun out of building a house.

[/ QUOTE ]It has to do with ownership. Catalog items have owner attributes (you can tell who bought and owns the object in question); however, build-mode objects have no owner attribute, so it begs the question: If you delete build-mode items, who gets the refund? The property owner? The person doing the deleting?

The problem with making the property owner the target for refunds is that it creates the possibility for the owner to abuse his or her roomies. Similarly, allowing the deleter to get the refund makes the lot owner vulnerable to unscrupulous roomies who can effectively sell the house right out from underneath the owner.

You can't just apply owner attributes to build-mode items to be able to solve the problem, because it would create new, unworkable problems. For example, let's say you own a house that was built by you and several of your roomies. Let's say one of your roomies moves out. All of a sudden, you arrive at your house to find half your walls missing. Worse, let's say one of those walls supported a catalog item that requires being affixed to a wall? Now you have missing walls and unusable objects. Speaking of unusable objects, can you imagine the problems of having your only door into and out of your building being "marked for deletion" and thus unusable?

Since build-mode objects cannot have owners, and because there is no equitable and fair way to refund cost of build-mode items, there's no way to be able to give refunds.

 

[Inge Jones]

Oh gosh there is a lot to consider isn't there

I forgot about roomies. Ok... so let the build mode stuff get the buyer's name on it too, so the right person gets refunded

Another idea is that there is a type of build mode you can go into before any non-build objects are on the lot, and only the owner can be on the lot at the time. At this initial period you can build and delete without penalty. At least it gives you a few stabs at getting the proportions roughly right?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

Oh that seems silly! I can understand that each sprite or poly on your lot "costs" the server some resources, so charge for the number of walls but there doesn't seem any reason why you can't get the money back for deleted structural elements - and it must take so much of the fun out of building a house.

[/ QUOTE ]It has to do with ownership. Catalog items have owner attributes (you can tell who bought and owns the object in question); however, build-mode objects have no owner attribute, so it begs the question: If you delete build-mode items, who gets the refund? The property owner? The person doing the deleting?

The problem with making the property owner the target for refunds is that it creates the possibility for the owner to abuse his or her roomies. Similarly, allowing the deleter to get the refund makes the lot owner vulnerable to unscrupulous roomies who can effectively sell the house right out from underneath the owner.

You can't just apply owner attributes to build-mode items to be able to solve the problem, because it would create new, unworkable problems. For example, let's say you own a house that was built by you and several of your roomies. Let's say one of your roomies moves out. All of a sudden, you arrive at your house to find half your walls missing. Worse, let's say one of those walls supported a catalog item that requires being affixed to a wall? Now you have missing walls and unusable objects. Speaking of unusable objects, can you imagine the problems of having your only door into and out of your building being "marked for deletion" and thus unusable?

Since build-mode objects cannot have owners, and because there is no equitable and fair way to refund cost of build-mode items, there's no way to be able to give refunds.

[/ QUOTE ]
The simple solution is to restrict "sell-back" only while still in build mode. Once build mode is cancelled, all structural elements lose their "new" satus. This is similar to Production city stores where you can sell an item back for a full refund until such time as you cancel buy mode.
Not sure exactly how difficult it would be code-wise, but it can be done.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

The simple solution is to restrict "sell-back" only while still in build mode. Once build mode is cancelled, all structural elements lose their "new" satus. This is similar to Production city stores where you can sell an item back for a full refund until such time as you cancel buy mode.
Not sure exactly how difficult it would be code-wise, but it can be done.

[/ QUOTE ]I hadn't considered that. That's actually an outstanding idea! All build-mode objects can carry a simple flag - when set, the flag indicates permanence. Any build mode objects placed on a lot will be able to be deleted for full refund <u>until</u> build mode is exited. Upon exit, all unflagged objects become flagged and can no longer be deleted for a refund.

This sounds very easy to do!

The only problem I can see is if more than one person is in build mode on the same lot at the same time.

 

[imported_Gracie Nito]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

The simple solution is to restrict "sell-back" only while still in build mode. Once build mode is cancelled, all structural elements lose their "new" satus. This is similar to Production city stores where you can sell an item back for a full refund until such time as you cancel buy mode.
Not sure exactly how difficult it would be code-wise, but it can be done.

[/ QUOTE ]I hadn't considered that. That's actually an outstanding idea! All build-mode objects can carry a simple flag - when set, the flag indicates permanence. Any build mode objects placed on a lot will be able to be deleted for full refund <u>until</u> build mode is exited. Upon exit, all unflagged objects become flagged and can no longer be deleted for a refund.

This sounds very easy to do!

The only problem I can see is if more than one person is in build mode on the same lot at the same time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wouldn't it only be a problem if the users are building together and one uses a wall to connect to theirs? I've had building wars with roomies over the years, this could add a whole new fun to what we end up creating. Depending on what gets wiped out as temporary and what becomes permanent structurs. LOL.


Roof artists would love this feature, as building the downstairs wall around property is always deleted once the roof art is done

.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

The simple solution is to restrict "sell-back" only while still in build mode. Once build mode is cancelled, all structural elements lose their "new" satus. This is similar to Production city stores where you can sell an item back for a full refund until such time as you cancel buy mode.
Not sure exactly how difficult it would be code-wise, but it can be done.

[/ QUOTE ]I hadn't considered that. That's actually an outstanding idea! All build-mode objects can carry a simple flag - when set, the flag indicates permanence. Any build mode objects placed on a lot will be able to be deleted for full refund <u>until</u> build mode is exited. Upon exit, all unflagged objects become flagged and can no longer be deleted for a refund.

This sounds very easy to do!

The only problem I can see is if more than one person is in build mode on the same lot at the same time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wouldn't it only be a problem if the users are building together and one uses a wall to connect to theirs? I've had building wars with roomies over the years, this could add a whole new fun to what we end up creating. Depending on what gets wiped out as temporary and what becomes permanent structurs. LOL.


Roof artists would love this feature, as building the downstairs wall around property is always deleted once the roof art is done

.

[/ QUOTE ]
I can't see something like this happening regularly - first of all, it's counter productive with two people throwing up walls etc, and probably interfering with each other. (unless you're having a "wall war")
Besides, you can't code for every possible circumstance - people who build in tandem would just have to accept that the roomie might "steal" their walls!

Otherwise - instead of a simple "on/off" tag, ID tags would have to be associated with all build mode elements, and *that* makes it (probably) not worth the extra work.