I am not sure whether I understood it right, but from your post I seem to understand in regards to the points I am concerned with :
Housing in SotA consists of several parts:
1. A Lot. This is the actual land.
2. A Building. This is the actual house.
3. A Basement. This is an extension of the house.
At minimum you need a Lot. There are some people who have "decorated" Lots without even placing a house. You can see some awesome screenies at the SotA forums. There has been a request to allow people to live on boats. That is being discussed, but I don't think vendors will be allowed on a boat. Also, houseboats fall into #2, which need to be placed on a Lot of water for they do not move around - which will be quite limited in availability.
With the new pledge rewards, Lots are being awarded now at the Ancestor level. The lots available at Ancestor are only for the Row Lots which will be implemented in cities.
The Lots being awarded via the pledges are NOT stackable. You get one lot with each pledge - that's it. As a person climbs higher in the pledge tiers, their available Lot selection is scaled.
As an example, I'm at the Edelmann level as a Royal Founder. I am allowed 1 lot which I can claim in either the city (A Row Lot) or in the Town and Village areas (with a Village Lot). That is it. If I want another lot on my account, I will have to purchase it via the AddOn Store and when I claim said purchased lot, I will have to pay taxes (or rent) on it. I do not believe purchased lots will be claimable until after public launch. Also at my level I have Building deeds for a few different styles of houses, in addition to what I purchased via the AddOn Store. I can only place one of those buildings on my lot. The recent announcements did mention having "flexible lots" which will allow for "additional structures" but I do not believe I can use more than one Building deed. I think those "additional structures" will be available through the AddOn Store to add more storage space to a lot.
There hasn't been any solid word on the actual storage capacity of lots. In every release that I've participated in, I actually crashed several times by overloading the lot I chose. I did that on purpose and I intend to continue crashing the game by overloading the lot - because I know what we do in UO with our pixels.
I'm sure the team will be releasing storage capacity memos sometime with a future release. Right now, they are working on basic systems - specifically I think more on the combat, crafting and spells side of things. I'm pretty sure storage capacity will be scaled to the lot size and might be affected by the type of house and "additional structures" you put on the lot. After all, I do not think it would be fair to have the same storage capacity on a Lord Lot if you have only a cottage as compared to someone with a castle.
I seem to understand that the storage capacity will be probably scaled depending on the size of the lot. What this does not help me with, is understanding whether even the lowest size house that currently needs a Pledge of 275$ if I am not wrong (I do not know what it will cost at the Store nor what its tax be...), will have a good storage capacity or not. Especially with a new game, not knowing the new items and all that, it will be easy for players to feel that they have to keep all items they find, not knowing whether they can or not be usefull to advance in the game or whether they may be wanted by other players i.e. sellable. Also, I have no idea whether all items will be stackable or not because that also can bring stress to one's own storage capacities.
Furthermore, I have no idea whether there will be a bank box or storage capacity of any sort besides a house storage capacity (and how good storage capacity it will be...) which can be important for all those players who end up without a House....
Basements are another grey area of yet. Basements are available in many configurations and are assigned to specific lot sizes. There is a 5-level "miner" basementb (which I intend to purchase) - so no, they are not limited to only 3 levels. At citizen level you get a single story Basement deed (1 level). If I want to get the miner basement, you purchase the deed for all 5 levels. You still have the deed to the single story basement, which I believe you can sell to another player. Again, storage is up in the air of yet.
Basically, each type of housing unit is a deeded item. There is no "adding on" another level to anything, you have to buy the deed en total.
At launch, Lots will indeed be at a premium and as such there is a schedule being determined over who gets to claim lots when. At launch, this will be determined by backer contributions. The current thinking is in
this thread. However, there is still much discussion going on over the Dev+ forums which I cannot relay. It has been said that there will be enough lots to cover each backer who donated... and perhaps "a little bit more" to allow for people to buy upon public launch. And there will be ways to acquire lots as well as house deeds in the game without the use of money - that is all being planned into the game. There will be steady growth with the "discovery" of more suitable land for habitats - this is not going to be one of those games where we will have to wait a few years for more land. One of the commitments from Portalarium is to ensure the game is scalable with the expected growth.
I seem to understand that the lots will be probably sufficient for those many who backed the game and maybe there will be a "little bit more" for other players to allow players to buy them upon launch.
Well, this "little bit more" sounds to me a bit too vague and I am much worried that in the end it might result in a land rush which is something I just hate. I hated the one in UO when new land opened up for Housing and those with better connections where able to take the best or largest spots. It is not something I want to go through again..... Not for me, I do not like chaotic rushes, I prefer order and well organized things.
Also, I have difficulties in making an estimate, for all those players who will remain without a house lot, for how long this condition of their game play will last ( I would imagine that only additional land opened up for housing could address this shortage but I cannot have no idea of when this shortage might get address, and whether the "homeless" players would be given any priority at taking new lots over players already owning houses. I really do not like the idea of some home players getting several house lots and other players ending up without a house in the game because of that...I am afraid that this could end up with the homeless players then having to pay an extra price to either rent from current house owners or to buy a house from players who already own one in the game.... Nope, definately this is not the cup of tea I want to get into for a game, an entertainment product....I have already enough stress in my real life, I do not need to add also stress from a game to that....).
It is also unclear to me how much the lack of owning a house in the game will limit players' game play and enjoyment of the game because of their much reduced storage capacity or ability to place a vendor in a House they own.
Insofar as those who will be "homeless" I can tell you that already people who are interested enough are lining up to existing backers to "rent rooms". I've personally got 3 people wanting to rent a room in my house. That is the joy of it and I believe is intentional... to encourage community. I've also heard rumors of some of the groups who are pooling to purchase their own Player Town (yet another deed type). They will probably "rent" lots, buildings and rooms to other players. Not sure how the systems will work, but it is exciting and interesting to read over the conversations.
Personally, I have purchased an extra Lot deed which I intend to use on a water lot to place my Houseboat deed (for the houseboats do not move, they are anchored and basically just float there). I will then be renting out my Houseboat to another player. The fee I charge will cover the basic rent I will have to pay for the lot, as well as perhaps a percentage to line my pocket.
However, I don't know if subletting has been covered yet in the bigger scheme of things, or how housing security will work, etc. Housing is a very key feature of this game and Portalarium is very keen to it - knowing throngs of UO players are backers and we simply adore our houses!
As in for the "rooms for rent", this is also a too much unclear area for me which raises a lot of concerns for me.
Will rights for the tenants be coded in some form ? For example, let's say that a landlord who owns a house in a lot, leases a room to another player. Will the tenant be enabled to exclusive access to his/her room and his/her belongings ? That is, will the game allow players in the same House to modify the level of security of their storage containers and rooms and prevent the owner of the House to have access to other players' containers/rooms if they wish not so ?
Will the owner of the House be able to evict the renter and in such case what will happen of all of the renter's belongings that were in the House ? Will the renters be able to set up a vendor of his/her own that only they can control and have access to in the House they have rented a room ?
And what about leases' terms ? Will they be short, long, freely adjustable by players as they wish ?
For example, let's say that a player rents a room, stocks up a number of things, but then the lease "expires" and the owner does not want to renew it OR they ask a much higher fee to which the renter does NOT want to agree nor be subject to. What will the renter do with his/her belongings not having anywhere the storage capacity to put them to ?
And that the same about having a vendor in a rented room House. What happens to the vendor if the lease expires and renting player does not want to renew it because the new terms are not acceptable to them ? What will the renting player do will all of the items kept on the vendor which will need to get removed ?
Should anything like this happen, I am concerned that this could bring a lot of stress to the game play of many players without a House of their own and effectively limit their enjoyment of the game. Is this going to be addressed somehow ? How ?
There are lots of other grey things which I have not understood and which so far keep me away from being really interested in this game. For example, I posted in other threads about my preference for a monthly fee pricing structure on multiplayer online games that I may play, and also, that so far I have not read much about how the game will react in case of any cheating from players (be it duping, scripting or whatever else...will there be in this game a zero tolerance policy against cheating ? Are there safeguards in the client which will prevent players somehow to be able to cheat or to be easily caught if they will cheat in the game ?). These, are important things for me in games I may want to play, and without more detailed informations about them, I cannot make my decisions...
I tend to like to make reasoned and thought on decisions, especially when significative money could be involved, and the lack of informations important to me about this game, so far, do not make it possible for me to decide whether I want to really set up my mind about it (and spend my money on it...).
