Do old houses have a heaven?

Aloli

I wanted to start a dialogue about this because I'm curious what everyone thinks or feels about the subject and want to learn the common practice.

When a character retires and they leave behind a house that maybe one or two people or nobody has a key to, what happens to it? Does it stay there forever, inaccessible? Does it fall off the face of the planet after a while? Would it be opened to public viewing as some old houses used to be turned into museums?

Can the old locks be picked after the person retires and some time has passed?
Can new players build their houses on the same spot?
Can you will the deed to a child or spouse?

Sibatti

Anything like that would require the owner's consent since it involves real life money. But it would be a cool idea moving foward maybe, to have like, a way to list other characters as heirs to the deed.

Rihrin

I can say one thing for confirmation - when I retired one character, I was able to give my house to an org. So, that might still be an option. I don't think you can give it to a person, though.

Solaria's house in Bloodloch is the one, and if people know the password and are BL citizens, they can still get in.

Aloli

Sibatti said:

Anything like that would require the owner's consent since it involves real life money. But it would be a cool idea moving foward maybe, to have like, a way to list other characters as heirs to the deed.

I wonder, would they not have gotten their value back in the retirement credit calculation?

Tetchta

Rihrin said:

I can say one thing for confirmation - when I retired one character, I was able to give my house to an org. So, that might still be an option. I don't think you can give it to a person, though.

Solaria's house in Bloodloch is the one, and if people know the password and are BL citizens, they can still get in.

Not gonna lie, this seems like something the current administration would say "no" to. I could be wrong, but I've gotten pushback on housing/castles when it comes to orgs, but maybe they'd make exceptions for retirees.

Rihrin

Tetchta said:

Rihrin said:

I can say one thing for confirmation - when I retired one character, I was able to give my house to an org. So, that might still be an option. I don't think you can give it to a person, though.

Solaria's house in Bloodloch is the one, and if people know the password and are BL citizens, they can still get in.

Not gonna lie, this seems like something the current administration would say "no" to. I could be wrong, but I've gotten pushback on housing/castles when it comes to orgs, but maybe they'd make exceptions for retirees.

Yeah, pretty sure it was an exception because of retiring, but it was quite a while back too. And, the house was historically for vamp houses/BL use to begin with.

Also @Aloli - houses do not go into retiree value at all, unfortunately. So they are an item you invest into and get nothing back from if you do retire. I've done this three times now and lost the houses with nothing coming back to me. It's why I'm avoiding getting one this time around. For now.

Aloli

Thank you for taking the time to explain these things, @Rihrin! I appreciate it.

Rihrin

I did want to say that I'd -love- some sort of deed/heir system for them. I could have really passed on houses on to other players to enjoy and build onto if they wanted.

Aloli

How do you feel if something like that was tied to the marriage system? I've run into situations where I wanted to give away or share a property with other players and create a will of some sort but realized there's nothing here for that kind of future planning.

In other games, I've been able to create a property, share control of it with "family" by assigning one of two levels of ownership tags. The kids got permission to redescribe and retitle rooms but could not change attributes in it like the environment type, indoor/outdoor, or anything that constituted "major reconstruction" without the owner/parents permission. The owners shared control of the property through their marriage contract, which was an actual document that could be looked up at the registrars. This allowed the two spouses to control the NPCs in the house, move rooms (reconstruct), and demolish rooms at a 100% loss of the commodities and cost originally invested with the consent of both parties. When they separated/divorced they were given the option to demolish the house (at 100% lose of cost and commodity), save it for later, give it to kids, or give it to one or the other.

It was a really amazing and fully immersive property design system that I kind of wish existed in Aetolia or at least parts of it. So, I'm shamelessly plugging an idea: #3045

Rihrin

Aloli said:

How do you feel if something like that was tied to the marriage system? I've run into situations where I wanted to give away or share a property with other players and create a will of some sort but realized there's nothing here for that kind of future planning.

In other games, I've been able to create a property, share control of it with "family" by assigning one of two levels of ownership tags. The kids got permission to redescribe and retitle rooms but could not change attributes in it like the environment type, indoor/outdoor, or anything that constituted "major reconstruction" without the owner/parents permission. The owners shared control of the property through their marriage contract, which was an actual document that could be looked up at the registrars. This allowed the two spouses to control the NPCs in the house, move rooms (reconstruct), and demolish rooms at a 100% loss of the commodities and cost originally invested with the consent of both parties. When they separated/divorced they were given the option to demolish the house (at 100% lose of cost and commodity), save it for later, give it to kids, or give it to one or the other.

It was a really amazing and fully immersive property design system that I kind of wish existed in Aetolia or at least parts of it. So, I'm shamelessly plugging an idea: #3045

It could be fun to tie it into the marriage system, but also like you're describing the other bits - maybe bloodlines. But, that gets tricky since you can't really bloodline sisters/etc, right? Hrm..

But seems a lot of possibilities!

Aloli

It would be nice if the bloodlines were expanded to allow families and extended families. In Aetolia, I think that would be such a nightmare for some groups!

Tiur

Mostly it is an issue of ownership. X paid real $ for the house, so it needs to remain in their name, as we can't have them returning eventually to assets that vanished. But when they retire, it's kinda... up in the air. We should close them off, but leave them around because some people intentionally open them and it's kinda nice. We still have issues with orgs owning things as well.

I'd really love to redo it, but it's just such a weird minefield that I'd need a lawyer.

Nonatea

What if you have a house on a character that you have retired? Would it be possible to get in touch with you and have it removed?

Aloli

Tiur said:

But when they retire, it's kinda... up in the air. We should close them off, but leave them around because some people intentionally open them and it's kinda nice. We still have issues with orgs owning things as well.

I'd really love to redo it, but it's just such a weird minefield that I'd need a lawyer.

I'm not a lawyer but my legal instincts tell me you should at least offer this as a question during the retirement process, so there are fewer loose ends. "Do you want your house's value added to your retirement credits, thereby forfeiting all rights and claims to it." or something like that.

Tiur

As I understand it, I can't do anything to a retired player's stuff by their request. It's locked down, and the only reason we leave houses connected is just time/niceness.

Alystrine

When I retired Mari, she had the whole Starsign Park/business in Esterport. I intentionally left it open and gave the keys over to another player who was family for her so that it could continue.

Aloli

Alystrine said:

When I retired Mari, she had the whole Starsign Park/business in Esterport. I intentionally left it open and gave the keys over to another player who was family for her so that it could continue.

That's exactly what Clearwater had to do too before she retired. She gave Aloli keys to the Esterport clinic to keep open and had to finish describing all the rooms.