Small Housing Improvements

[cowey48]

IF YOU DON'T LEAVE THE HOUSING CRISIS. YOU ARE GOING TO LEAVE THE SERVER. To explain? The housing crisis is so bad that if you spend any amount of time analyzing it you will probably leave the server and go somewhere that doesn't having a housing system similar to India.

Despite this sentiment about my personal opinion on how terrible the housing system is, I must say that it is absolutely legendary for a FiveM server. Considering our first taste of 'housing' was: 'Tent - 500k' or 'Privacy Tent - 750k.' I'd say we've come a long way. Yet I think there is something wrong with how the housing is done. Fear not though, for I have proposed a few small changes that can be taken into consideration for how housing can be improved upon.

My first point is housing itself, the buildings to be specific. There are ~2359 buildings within the game. A smaller amount are residential apartments or houses. I think the issue right now is accessibility. Many people own homes just to own them, they do not utilize their homes as places to roleplay or anything other than a storage unit. How do we solve this pressing issue? We add a new purchasable entity to the map and possibly elaborate on what is already within the server.

- Shipping Containers
- Stashes (Improve the current system / make it more accessible)
- Storage units

Stashes would be the beginning of storage, they are already in the game in some capacity and I would need to do more testing myself. I don't think there is really a good way to utilize stashes but I'd be more than willing to give my own unique take on them elsewhere. We don't need to play this like rust where people quickly run and lead the cops to their stashes to draw out AK's and start blasting because crappy cops are clocked in.

Storage units are fine as they are right now but you should be able to purchase a storage unit permanently as I think the main drawback for why people buy houses is the payments of the storage/civilian nature of them. They don't feel gangster enough or trap house enough, shipping containers do a better job at offering what people may want.

Containers would be the 'mid-point' between utilizing vehicles for storage and buying actual warehouses. Shipping containers will be pricey but cheaper than houses. So like 100k for a 500 storage shipping container, 200k for a thousand storage shipping container, etc. This can be adjusted as seen fit. Now how do we sell containers? Honestly, I would just utilize the Jetsam shipping terminal but there are TONS of locations that could be used. Players may even be able to request for shipping containers to be delivered or placed kind of like how tents worked back in the day The biggest issue with that is people messing with them or lockpicking them like how it used to happen but hey, there's ways to make it work. Here's how I would expect it to work if I was a gangbanger seeking to store my oxidizing guns:

1 - I drive to the Jetsam terminal.
2 - I go to the front door to talk with an NPC.
3 - The NPC presents options:
20 foot container: 100k, 500 storage.
40 foot container: 200k, 1000 storage.
4 - I purchase the 20/40 foot container from the NPC.
5 - I now have an icon on the map notifying me of where my shipping container is located.
6 - I am able to open my container and store things.

This would pull people away from utilizing houses as storage as there is a cheaper alternative that doesn't require the utilization of a home. Yes this is a bit unrealistic, yes it's very 'gamey' but, we have to face the fact that there are two kinds of people in Badlands, the ones who 'roleplay' and the ones who roleplay. Roleplay isn't about buying everything you possibly can and living some kind of highlife as a gangster, it's about creating a story. This is a great way to allow people who do not wish to use houses for roleplay to sell their home for profit and purchase an alternative storage place which requires no roleplay to utilize.  Despite this, there are new items needed to be added to use this properly:

- Paper identifying which container is owned and a verbal warning that if ANY illegal activity is detected with the container, they will have to call port authority. (This is flavor text, meant to instill a sense of tension when people utilize their container for whatever purpose they use it for)
- Dock visitor ID. This item allows for people to be present within the docks and thus they cannot be bothered by police if this is presented. Understandable due to something which can be done within the  Jetsam Terminal, the location may need to be moved because these ID's could be abused for a criminal action in an unfair manner.

Now that we've sorted the storage issue, we move to the actual housing crisis itself. I'll use Paleto Bay for my example. As of 1/25/2024, there are 0 houses for sale in Paleto. My question is this: How many of these houses are completely unfurnished and just utilized for storage? I would assume at the minimum ten. My point is that these players can be negotiated with to allow for people who wish to roleplay to use houses. Lets assume that we add new rules for houses: Houses are roleplay buildings only. What can be stored in houses? Trinkets, collectibles, various other items like tools maybe. Anything that has roleplay value or some kind of other use. So like bandages, weed, that kind of thing. Stuff like industrial materials, guns, (aside from like handguns) and such? Absolutely not. You would need some kind of IC reason for having things like stored in your house. Here's where gangbangers will be happy with this request: If you are affiliated with a gang or criminal organization you can have these things stored at your house. With that being said, houses will receive a downgrade to storage capacity to prevent them from being utilized as trap houses. My suggestion? Low tier: 50 Mid tier: 100: High tier: 200. Crates and other storage devices will remain the same as they look ugly AF in houses so, they can have them if they wish. All of this is stuff I think a seasoned developer and server owner like Tim could handle, despite some stuff being ctrl c ctrl p.

There's more to discuss about storage and its relation to houses. If you comment I'll be able to answer concerns questions regarding my viewpoint on it.

Realty is another concept which I believe needs TOTAL overhaul as it seems like some kind of shitty inner circle to get rich quick off of other players work. Kind of realistic but whatever. Here's my reworked system. Some of it is a duplicate of what we have right now, some are completely unique concepts. Realtor tasks to improve the job:

- Buy/Sell Homes for people
When it comes to buying/selling homes, realtors get a percentage if I recall correctly. This system is honestly fine as is. I don't think it needs much work.
- Assist people in finding homes
Generally it sucks to look for a home, I think realtors should be tasked with marking all properties. A new system should be implemented that states if a property is unable to be purchased, just a marker on the map. Understandably if this can be utilized for meta, it should be avoided. 
- Improved actions / more homeowner power
Homeowners essentially have no power. I introduce microtransactions. Make them 15k, 25k, whatever, just allow homeowners to do basic things such as remodeling their interior, adding/removing co-owners, that kind of thing. Realtors are NOT paid when they are called to do these things, therefore I don't believe it is necessary. Implement rules dictating that you cannot co-own multiple homes etc. A new setting: Roommate status. This would be good for letting players utilize your home for RP purposes. Not sure if this impacts server performance, though it shouldn't.
- NPC Realtor (most controversial)
There must be THOUSANDS of apartments within LS. Here's my hot take on them: Each apartment building (including the shitty ones, like the ones by Hawick) utilize an NPC realtor. You use the tablet to view the property, how it looks, etc, and you get a small apartment in similar size to the one you get at Downbad. What is the purpose? You have a place you can personally customize and decorate for characters who realistically couldn't afford a house. This does pull away from roleplay by using an NPC Realtor but, this is meant for ALL players to experience owning a property in Badlands. New players would love this concept as it requires little to no RP to get started but opens a massive avenue for roleplay. To add onto this further, Downbad (since it's state housing) becomes inaccessible after a home is purchased. Why would the state let you live there if you own a property?
- Home Inspection (ROLEPLAY ONLY)
Up to player interpretation, could be used to provide more in-depth realty interactions. I'll give an example. You call a realtor and they show you around the interior and it's the shitty ace liquor interior, you can tell them "this is straight ass." They roleplay it being remodeled, whatever, maybe they try to sell it to you anyways for RP purposes. IDK. It's a concept that is up to players.
- Home paperwork (ROLEPLAY ONLY)
Up to player interpretation, you receive legit documents that you own a home, paperwork at the home etc. New sick item: Bills. You pay utility bills and such, they don't need to be expensive, maybe like 1000 total. If you don't pay bills, the lights go out in your house. It'd be super fun to RP. Maybe to pay the bills you can't do it online and you have to drive to the post office. Some see this as annoying but it's just how life goes.

To add onto this, mechanics can be improved. I think we should be able to toggle any light within our home. If it isn't possible to toggle 1 light at a time, just all of them at once to shut the lights off. Change the outside weather since it use to default to clear sunny, it now default to night. I recall having to put walls on top of my house horizontally, clipping through the roof to prevent the place from looking so bright from the sun light. It'd be awesome to play around with this time thing to make the house look exactly how you want it to look. There may be technical limitations but, it's worth testing. The entire idea is to promote house roleplay as it can be quite fun.

Some spare ideas for houses:
- Working television, just steal the code from GTA vanilla TV
- House boombox/radio. Not sure if this has been added. Could use local in-game stations and links.
- Some kind of realistic house tasks, maybe you gotta' change a light bulb so you have to go buy one from the hardware store and fix it. Would be fun for me and the type of roleplay I do. Could make it toggleable in the setting for players who don't find this fun.
- Cooking. Doesn't need to be advanced but you can make SOME homecooked meals using new items, recipe book, etc. Have to make kitchens work, could use props for interiors that don't have kitchens. Would be cool. Make fridges functional to hold food. It would be very awesome. Just have cooking similar to making guns, that way grinders will find it fun as well. "/ad selling 10 home cooked meals 1k per"

Anyways, that concludes my small house improvement posts. I've got more to talk about that I didn't really get to but I'll be sure to answer comments and elaborate further on my vision.
 

[Aquiles Delmar]

as far as containers, you can already buy them, if you own a warehouse. think a container costs like 350k and has all the storage space you might ever need lol

i dont know about buying random storage containers to do the same. could be doable i guess.

 

as far as apartments go, only change id like seen there is the issue with having an entire building only available to a couple of people because the front doors are the only ones available. id like to see it so you can actually use the main door to then be able to access the other apartments within. kinda like the government housing in downbad is, you go to the front door and you get a list of apartments available to buy, and if you already own one in the building, it takes you to that apartment. that way these buildings can be used by more people instead of just a couple on the ground floor

Edited January 25 by Aquiles Delmar

[cowey48]

@Aquiles Delmar

Yes, you see kind of what I was aiming for. You CAN buy containers from the furniture store and you CAN buy warehouses. The entire idea is to avoid both of those options and opt for a single container that you can buy without having to fork over 130k for a house and 350k for a container that is literally so big and going to look very ugly in your house. My entire idea is to STOP using houses as storages as other players use them for. Generally random storage containers is a good solution to allow more houses to be free in the market because there needs to be less pros to owning a house in the server. Right now, houses are EXCELLENT for grinding applications such as crafting, building various things, can't meta but you get me.

Some gangbangers may have the issue of: "I need a garage to store my 69 vehicles despite only driving two of them." Here's how we solve this, we allow players to obtain 'parking' garages so to speak. I'm not 100% on how to implement this as it could be abused but basically allow players to select a home and use that persons home as a garage with the permission of the homeowner. So maybe the gang leader could be like "if you wanna store your cars on the block you can use my house."

Also yeah, the apartment entrance is pretty easy to do, have a realtor decide how many units there is, a third eye on the front door lets you select which apartment address you would like to enter, boom. Cheap housing done.