From my experience playing Mortal Online, I have thought about many things and ways which would vastly improve the player experience as it relates to Player Housing and TC. While I still haven't perfected all of my thoughts, I figured I would share a rough perspective of ideas for MO2 which would help both improve a player's experience as well as remove some of the frustration which was present for many players who were familiar with the housing and TC system of MO1.
To start with, I believe housing should not require a guild stone in order to have a plot of land to "build" upon. Many players enjoy building and often in MO1 guilds were not not willing to allow players to build due to trust issues with promoting others and cost related to such projects. This often alienated players from major guilds because they were forced to choose between supporting a guild, or having the freedom to build where they want to live. Essentially removing this requirement will allow true sandbox players the freedom they require, while also allowing them to support a guild (which will help increase server activity ultimately).
Similar to MO1, I do believe that housing should have required costs as building a house in reality is never cheap. Thus, I think the notion of property taxes which are set by either the local city or controlling guild are appropriate. Where I differ from the first game on this concept however is that guilds should be given more control over their territory on where houses are allowed to be built and houses built in areas where not allowed should be flagged by the Keep's overseer and both the owner and the house itself should be flagged as a criminal for building in an area where they were not approved to build. I also believe that guilds which own a city should have some direct control over the price on how much house deeds, upgrades, and other related house structures cost (and should gain profits from them).
Some other changes I believe which should be made would be that housing should not be able to be built on top of or too close to resources. This would include everything such as trees, mineable rocks, pickable plants, and creatures. This will help remove the abuse present in MO1 where players could kill spawns or macro pick resources from the safety of their homes, instead requiring players to leave the safety of their land to acquire things.
Once a player has found a suitable place for their home and it is constructed, they should be able to build around their home but not everything which was available in MO1. I believe players should be able to have basic things such as a Stable, and restricted crafting facilities such as a Crusher, Grinder, etc. along with the benches which were available for houses in MO1. I also believe players should be capable of building "fences", which would essentially be weaker versions of walls. In order to balance the fences to not become too strong, I believe they should be about as strong as ramps and TC towers in MO1.
Something similar to this:
Wooden Gate: 1,000 health / Fence: 2,000 health
Stone Gate: 2,000 health / Fence: 4,000 health
Metal Gate: 4,000 health / Fence: 6,000 health
Each one should take basically the same length as what building a tower from scratch would in MO1, and there should be no AFK building (meaning the player has to chop it just like a tower and can't leave and come back later to finish it). This will make it to where they provide adequate protection, but are not permanent fixtures which make griefing or PvP impossible. Along these lines, I also believe that housing should not be allowed to have any guards as it doesn't make sense for individuals to have them.
As for the health of a house itself, my opinion is that houses should require a siege weapon to destroy similar to the first one however something I would like to see different is that I think houses should drop their loot immediately upon being destroyed instead of on a 24 hour timer. This will mean that there would be more incentive for still storing valuables inside a city as opposed to keeping everything inside the house (and get players to travel with their valuables as opposed to keeping it inside their house forever).
I believe that with changes such as these, there would still be a way to keep Mortal as a sandbox game for everyone, without many of the problems MO1 faced in its time. There will be incentives for players to be out in the open more (farming / transporting) while also giving them to freedom to play and store some items in a location of their choosing in a massive world where it potentially can takes hours to travel.
To start with, I believe housing should not require a guild stone in order to have a plot of land to "build" upon. Many players enjoy building and often in MO1 guilds were not not willing to allow players to build due to trust issues with promoting others and cost related to such projects. This often alienated players from major guilds because they were forced to choose between supporting a guild, or having the freedom to build where they want to live. Essentially removing this requirement will allow true sandbox players the freedom they require, while also allowing them to support a guild (which will help increase server activity ultimately).
Similar to MO1, I do believe that housing should have required costs as building a house in reality is never cheap. Thus, I think the notion of property taxes which are set by either the local city or controlling guild are appropriate. Where I differ from the first game on this concept however is that guilds should be given more control over their territory on where houses are allowed to be built and houses built in areas where not allowed should be flagged by the Keep's overseer and both the owner and the house itself should be flagged as a criminal for building in an area where they were not approved to build. I also believe that guilds which own a city should have some direct control over the price on how much house deeds, upgrades, and other related house structures cost (and should gain profits from them).
Some other changes I believe which should be made would be that housing should not be able to be built on top of or too close to resources. This would include everything such as trees, mineable rocks, pickable plants, and creatures. This will help remove the abuse present in MO1 where players could kill spawns or macro pick resources from the safety of their homes, instead requiring players to leave the safety of their land to acquire things.
Once a player has found a suitable place for their home and it is constructed, they should be able to build around their home but not everything which was available in MO1. I believe players should be able to have basic things such as a Stable, and restricted crafting facilities such as a Crusher, Grinder, etc. along with the benches which were available for houses in MO1. I also believe players should be capable of building "fences", which would essentially be weaker versions of walls. In order to balance the fences to not become too strong, I believe they should be about as strong as ramps and TC towers in MO1.
Something similar to this:
Wooden Gate: 1,000 health / Fence: 2,000 health
Stone Gate: 2,000 health / Fence: 4,000 health
Metal Gate: 4,000 health / Fence: 6,000 health
Each one should take basically the same length as what building a tower from scratch would in MO1, and there should be no AFK building (meaning the player has to chop it just like a tower and can't leave and come back later to finish it). This will make it to where they provide adequate protection, but are not permanent fixtures which make griefing or PvP impossible. Along these lines, I also believe that housing should not be allowed to have any guards as it doesn't make sense for individuals to have them.
As for the health of a house itself, my opinion is that houses should require a siege weapon to destroy similar to the first one however something I would like to see different is that I think houses should drop their loot immediately upon being destroyed instead of on a 24 hour timer. This will mean that there would be more incentive for still storing valuables inside a city as opposed to keeping everything inside the house (and get players to travel with their valuables as opposed to keeping it inside their house forever).
I believe that with changes such as these, there would still be a way to keep Mortal as a sandbox game for everyone, without many of the problems MO1 faced in its time. There will be incentives for players to be out in the open more (farming / transporting) while also giving them to freedom to play and store some items in a location of their choosing in a massive world where it potentially can takes hours to travel.
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