So, in reading all the replies, again AYK makes many excellent suggestions and obviously housing has become an issue.
Yes, having a house should be a valuable thing.
Yes, it should be difficult and extremely rewarding to be able to afford your own home. It was. Now, the shard has become filled with empty houses. Just run through any packed housing area, you will see many empty wagons and 8x8's which are holding houses people place through VPN's. Not gonna name any guild names but it is happening. Also, as AYK mentions, people shouldn't keep being rewarded for their past contributions to the shard, having moved on to other games but logging in once a month for 5 seconds to refresh their houses and move on again just because they like "having their plot on Outlands" but there is a high probability they will never return to actively play.
That being said, as someone said, everyone recoils in horror at property taxes. OK, fine then let's make houses require resources. Iron and Boards, specifically. It is in line with upkeep on houses. It was floated a while back, it seems to be slowly gaining traction. It can start off low for small houses such as wagons and 8x8s. Maybe, 2k iron 2k boards per month. Getting more and more for bigger houses. This will really help a lot.
The amount of houses hogging valuable Outlands land has now become a problem. As the small discussion in the Real Estate discord earlier, there are also now no wagon spots left anywhere. The real estate guys are convinced Outlands is now officially full. New players want to know they can own their own piece, as AYK, they will be more invested and will play longer. I don't have a problem with people owning 3 properties per IP. I have a problem with empty houses that sit for a year or more doing nothing but blocking people expanding their houses, or letting new players own a house.
Maybe property can be dealt up in sizes per IP? up to 12x12 3 allowed per IP, 21x21 only 2 allowed per IP (can't own a third house), 30x30 only one allowed per IP (can't own a second or third house on their IP).
Just some ideas, hopefully a solution is brought in the next few months otherwise we're going to see some serious problems for new players, which is the lifeblood of any server.
Yes, having a house should be a valuable thing.
Yes, it should be difficult and extremely rewarding to be able to afford your own home. It was. Now, the shard has become filled with empty houses. Just run through any packed housing area, you will see many empty wagons and 8x8's which are holding houses people place through VPN's. Not gonna name any guild names but it is happening. Also, as AYK mentions, people shouldn't keep being rewarded for their past contributions to the shard, having moved on to other games but logging in once a month for 5 seconds to refresh their houses and move on again just because they like "having their plot on Outlands" but there is a high probability they will never return to actively play.
That being said, as someone said, everyone recoils in horror at property taxes. OK, fine then let's make houses require resources. Iron and Boards, specifically. It is in line with upkeep on houses. It was floated a while back, it seems to be slowly gaining traction. It can start off low for small houses such as wagons and 8x8s. Maybe, 2k iron 2k boards per month. Getting more and more for bigger houses. This will really help a lot.
The amount of houses hogging valuable Outlands land has now become a problem. As the small discussion in the Real Estate discord earlier, there are also now no wagon spots left anywhere. The real estate guys are convinced Outlands is now officially full. New players want to know they can own their own piece, as AYK, they will be more invested and will play longer. I don't have a problem with people owning 3 properties per IP. I have a problem with empty houses that sit for a year or more doing nothing but blocking people expanding their houses, or letting new players own a house.
Maybe property can be dealt up in sizes per IP? up to 12x12 3 allowed per IP, 21x21 only 2 allowed per IP (can't own a third house), 30x30 only one allowed per IP (can't own a second or third house on their IP).
Just some ideas, hopefully a solution is brought in the next few months otherwise we're going to see some serious problems for new players, which is the lifeblood of any server.