Apartments in freeso, will they ever be possible? My Concept

Alessandro Needs A Server

Alessandro Needs A Server

Well-Known Member
Hey all!
I have this idea i'm thinkin' bout.. what if freeso had apartments? It would give space to a lot more space and so players and would make freeso even more unique!

Here's my concept:
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Apartment block info: shows the number of Sims that live there and the apartament they have infos just like with normal lots. Shows even apartament RENT cost which is important too keep in mind, or else the land lord will get mad! To avoid that, you can buy the Friendly landlord perk and a lot more to make your life easier! Of course they have a cost, in simoleons.

There are different types of apartaments:
  • AxB size not upgradable;
  • AxB size upgradable;
  • AxB size not upgradable under rent;
  • AxB size upgradable under rent, every new update makes the rent more expensive;
The apartments that can be bought without paying a rent will be very expensive cause they most likely will be big apartments and penthouses.


Apartament blocks lobby:
unknown.png

The lobby has 1 must-have object: the elevator. The elevator is used to browse the apartments available in the block. A very similar UI to the one in map view lets the player choose 3 different options:
  1. Leave a message: leaves a message in player's apartment mail box, like a letter;
  2. Ring friend's apartment: basically knock knock the door, gets the player inside friend's apartment;
  3. Go to flat's common room: Every apartment has a common room space, you will learn more in the next paragraph.

Apartment structure
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The apartment structure is made of the apartment itself and a common room.
Common room usage:
  • Knock the door: you have to knock the door to visit other's apartment, if the owner doesn't allows you to get in, you won't see the sims in and the messages sent inside the apartment;
  • Leave a message in the apartment mailbox: if the owner which can be your friend or anybody else is not there, you can leave a letter in their mailbox. If you don't actually know the owner, there's a chance he or she doesn't allow strangers letters.
The rent window can be opened in any moment, but it will automatically pop up with a sound when it's time to pay! There are some limitations to the SKIP THIS MONTH button:
  • If you have the friendly landlord perk there's no limit to skipped months;
  • If you don't have that perk you can skip a max of 2 months, once you finish them, each of them will take a month to be back available.
Billing and rent
unknown.png

In apartments, water and electricity are going to influence rent cost! Watch out how many times you flush and if you really need to see that reality show.
 
Sorry to say, but this could possibly alienate many players who would attempt to use this, it seems very complex, not to mention this would probably take ages to create. It's a good idea but it seems like it's not a good idea in my opinion.

I'm just going to add a bit more, apartments that look like this will just become an eyesore, and it doesn't look good with the surrounding areas.
 
Just a full rundown of this idea:

unknown.png


For a start, a lot that size would never look that big on map view, although very tall lots could make the place look more like a city. I don't see why perks would be available here and not on full lots... If they were to exist, they would probably run on a universal "bills" system, where maintaining specific perks would cost a monthly fee. The perks could simply be more expensive on a full lot.

This is where the easy to implement things end. We do have support for vertically aligned surrounding lots, but they would likely lag the game out, and there would be hella issues with other lots being completely blocked by this massive tower.

Here are immediate issues:
  • Separate buildable area per user. Per-tile buildable area, and some kind of "apartment region editor" for Volcanic or a debug instance of the game.
  • Upgradable buildable area per user. There is only currently one buildable area size value for each lot, and it also contains the orientation of the lot and number of floors.
  • Roommates on the same physical lot but on a different LOGICAL lot. eg. 3 roommates in one apartment and 5 in another are both in the same game instance... We would need another table for logical lots to map to physical lots.
  • How would this work with top 10? How do we show which of the floor blocks is online?
  • Bills counting - how much does x object cost per hour? How do we know it's "on"? Would need this for normal lots.
  • Knock the door: you have to knock the door to visit other's apartment, if the owner doesn't allows you to get in, you won't see the sims in and the messages sent inside the apartment;
Click to expand...
  • You are on the same lot instance... The broadcast routines would need to be drastically changed to support broadcast groups, so that no messages leak to the other players, who might be listening with packet sniffers or a modified client. (you can do this right now with plugin data, though it is fixed for global server)
  • Mailbox plugin. I've planned something like this anyways, but it needs some infrastructure on the MMO server to ensure we don't get any dumb race conditions.
  • Game balance. It is pretty cheap to purchase and maintain a lot currently. That would need to change if this were implemented, and apartments would have to be competitively priced. They would also have to have a nicer design than this... We support balconies, and the lots are pretty large so we can have interesting things!
  • You just completely killed the lot page! Description, lot category, roommates view...
It's a great idea, but given that I still need to implement like 15 plugins, it won't be a priority to implement something like this for a while. There will probably be new jobs before anything like this is attempted, as that'll be my way of really testing out Volcanic's potential.
 
RHY3756547 said:
Just a full rundown of this idea:

unknown.png


For a start, a lot that size would never look that big on map view, although very tall lots could make the place look more like a city. I don't see why perks would be available here and not on full lots... If they were to exist, they would probably run on a universal "bills" system, where maintaining specific perks would cost a monthly fee. The perks could simply be more expensive on a full lot.

This is where the easy to implement things end. We do have support for vertically aligned surrounding lots, but they would likely lag the game out, and there would be hella issues with other lots being completely blocked by this massive tower.

Here are immediate issues:
  • Separate buildable area per user. Per-tile buildable area, and some kind of "apartment region editor" for Volcanic or a debug instance of the game.
  • Upgradable buildable area per user. There is only currently one buildable area size value for each lot, and it also contains the orientation of the lot and number of floors.
  • Roommates on the same physical lot but on a different LOGICAL lot. eg. 3 roommates in one apartment and 5 in another are both in the same game instance... We would need another table for logical lots to map to physical lots.
  • How would this work with top 10? How do we show which of the floor blocks is online?
  • Bills counting - how much does x object cost per hour? How do we know it's "on"? Would need this for normal lots.

  • You are on the same lot instance... The broadcast routines would need to be drastically changed to support broadcast groups, so that no messages leak to the other players, who might be listening with packet sniffers or a modified client. (you can do this right now with plugin data, though it is fixed for global server)
  • Mailbox plugin. I've planned something like this anyways, but it needs some infrastructure on the MMO server to ensure we don't get any dumb race conditions.
  • Game balance. It is pretty cheap to purchase and maintain a lot currently. That would need to change if this were implemented, and apartments would have to be competitively priced. They would also have to have a nicer design than this... We support balconies, and the lots are pretty large so we can have interesting things!
  • You just completely killed the lot page! Description, lot category, roommates view...
It's a great idea, but given that I still need to implement like 15 plugins, it won't be a priority to implement something like this for a while. There will probably be new jobs before anything like this is attempted, as that'll be my way of really testing out Volcanic's potential.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this very complete answer, i actually didn't know how the lot page was made so i forgot those things mentioned (lot cat, description, roommates,..). As for the apartments in the same blocks, my idea was to have the simulation active just on 1 apartment instead of simulating the whole block which would murder the game. As for the perks, i actually didn't think they could fit for normal lots, it would make the lots and the game itself even more unique and amazing! OH and yes i actually didn't thought that the apartment block i made wasn't 64x64 large so i made it fit the whole lot cursor lmao
 
It's very dificult to simulate part of a lot. My idea of making this possible would be apartment blocks of like, one instance per two floors. This way you can interact with your neighbours, that is if you haven't upgraded your space into where their apartment would be.
 
RHY3756547 said:
It's very dificult to simulate part of a lot. My idea of making this possible would be apartment blocks of like, one instance per two floors. This way you can interact with your neighbours, that is if you haven't upgraded your space into where their apartment would be.
Click to expand...
Yeah that is better than one per floor!
 
Good to hear I'm not the only one that wants to have an apartment. Never tested FreeSo mechanics fully, so I though there were restrictions to a specific for roomates to build/buy on stuff. Love your ideas!
 
A bit unrelated or off-topic, but I'm thinking there could be hotels in welcome lots If apartments are gonna be introduced. Hotels would be much more restrict and needy:
  • You can stay only for a few days (like 7 rl days) as a noobie, and after the rent expires: you will be force to rent an apartment or live homeless (not a big problem, since you can visit service or other non-hotel welcome lots to green your needs)
  • In reserved rooms, reside newcomers cannot build and buy in there stuff.
  • In hotel, resided newcomers will spawn in the lot as if they live in it and can return in it with a simple button.
    • Owners and roomates of the hotel do not need to be in there online to keep it running, but HOWEVER they won't gain money as the resided newcomers stay there (to keep things balance and not op!)
  • Normal, non-resided visitors cannot use facilities or services on that lot (objects become complete or almost uninteractival to 'em).
 
Hi, could I rent a 2 bedroom apartment? I'll trade you $10,000 simoleans and a rare robo dog.
 
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