Buy a house - ya know, I'd love to buy a house, there's just one problem:
There aren't any for sale. The real-estate side of EU is pathetic. Yes, I've seen a few deeds for some way out the way places, and at insanely high prices - hence I guess these deeds are still sitting around, waiting to sell.
But this also falls into that same idiotic concept of "owning land" - land is simply there.
I've seen I can't tell you how many sites I've visited exploring my way around the world and thought to myself "It would be great to put a house right here."
But that option does not exist.
I can't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to wander out somewhere, say into a forest of pink trees, fell a few and build a cabin. Or spend some time chipping away at boulders strewn across a rocky plain, and construct a small keep.
Calypso is a huge place, and yet housing is in such short supply.
Now before you say "Yes, but owning property means you can make money..." - no, it doesn't necessarily mean that. Yes, some properties can make money, if they're LA type properties, or feature hangers. But if you were to construct a small dwelling somewhere, you'd have no control over what mobs spawned, no residual income from hunting/mining, etc. You'd just have a place to dump your stuff, other than the storage boxes.
The whole point of Calypso is Colonization. Part of Colonization is the setting up of settlements - building homes and living out your life.
I say there should be a Residence Deed available from the trade terminal*, allowing anyone who wants one, and is limited to ONLY ONE, to pick a spot and call it "home".
This would allow for user-made "towns" to spring up in areas, dotting the landscape with little "villages".
Yes, these user-built settlements would lack some things - no Teleporter for quick access to the "big cities", no auto-cannons to fend off wild mobs - and that's a good thing. It gives the residents reasons to skill their hunting abilities, or hire guards. The benefits of this far outweigh the time it would take to do a little extra programming.
What would need to be done:
A little simple coding to ensure the site chosen is suitable - not too close to another structure, not in/on the water (though underwater dwellings might be kind of cool too), not hanging off the side of a mountain in such a manner as to defy the laws of physics. A simple check to see if the ground in a radius of the player is "level" and not "water" not "too close" to another structure, and not in the area of a "city, town or camp" (much in the same way you'll get the message "this area is not suitable for mining", if you try to mine in the biodome**)- otherwise show a message "This area is not suitable for housing".
Once the site is chosen and confirmed, You've got a small structure with a limited number of item points (5-10 maybe - after all, these should not be more beneficial than the elaborate multi-k-ped houses that do already exist).
Now you can move in - furnish as you like.
Now there may come a time when the site you've chosen no longer suits you. You should have the option as well to dismantle and move your little dwelling, come the day EU grows beyond just Calypso and CP.
* Yes, trade terminal. Yes, you only get one. No, you can't sell or trade it. Why? The reason is to make this available to everyone, and at a price reasonable enough that even a couple week old character can afford it.
Why only one? It prevents hoarding, price manipulation, and overcrowding.
** Yes, that's correct. You cannot mine in the biodome. Tried it for fun in New Switzerland, haven't tried it in PA, but I'm sure the same holds true there as well.
~I
