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PATCH Patch Notes for January 9, 2025 - Housing Taxes and House Menu Updates

Luthius

Developer
Staff Member
Housing Taxes
  • Players who have two or more "qualifying" houses across all of their accounts (by OutlandsID) will now be subject to paying Housing Taxes
  • This system will go into effect on April 15, 2025
  • Players will not accumulate any taxes until the system goes into effect
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Housing Tax Menus
  • If a player either currently qualifies for Housing Taxes, or has past unpaid Housing Taxes, they will see a Housing Taxes section displayed in the center of the Overview Page of the Housing Menu of their houses
  • Players can click the "Details" button on the Housing Tax section to view a Tax Report menu explaining their Housing Taxes in detail
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Bankers
  • Any player can also say the word "Tax" near a Banker NPC in town to view a Tax Report for their houses on their accounts (by OutlandsID)
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  • Players can also shift-click a Banker and select the Housing Taxes context menu entry to view their Tax Report
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Qualifying and Exempt Houses
By default, all types of Houses and House Boats are considered to be qualifying houses

However, the following types of houses are considered exempt types:

  • Prestige Guild Houses
  • Rental Rooms

Exempt House types will never be subject to taxes and will have no impact on Housing Taxes for a player


Who Qualifies For Housing Taxes
  • Only players who have two or more "qualifying" houses across their accounts (by OutlandsID) will be subject to Housing Taxes
  • Players who only have a single house will never be subject to Housing Taxes
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Surface Area
  • In order to determine Housing Tax amounts due for players, their qualifying houses are "ranked" in order of highest to lowest by Surface Area
  • The Surface Area of a house is based on the Dimensions of the ground floor, i.e (Width * Height)

Example
A house that was listed as 16x22 would have a Surface Area of 16 x 22 = 352 Tiles

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Players can find the Dimensions of a house in the following locations:
  • In the Home Surveying Tool menu
  • In the Housing Taxes Menu
  • In the Outlands Wiki for Housing


Ranking Houses
  • Exempt House types (Rental Rooms and Prestige Guild Houses) are never ranked and will never impact Housing Taxes for players
  • A player's qualifying house with the 1st largest Surface Area is considered their Primary House
  • A player's qualifying house with the 2nd largest Surface Area is considered their Secondary House
  • A player's qualifying house with the 3rd largest Surface Area is considered their Tertiary House
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Yearly Tax Amounts
The amount of Yearly Taxes that are accumulated for each of a player's houses is based on their Ranking, as follows:
  • Primary House: None
  • Secondary House: Yearly Tax of (100,000 + (5,000 * Surface Area)) Gold
  • Tertiary House: Yearly Tax of (1,000,000 + (50,000 * Surface Area)) Gold
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Examples

Example 1

A player owns a Castle (31x32) and a Rental Room

The Rental Room is ignored for Housing Taxes
The Castle is the player's Primary house with 31 x 32 = 992 surface area

The Castle as the Primary House has 0 Yearly Taxes

The player owes a total of 0 Yearly Taxes



Example 2
A player owns a Prestige Guild House, a Cambrian Villa (12x12) and an Andarian Abode (16x10)

The Prestige Guild House is ignored for Housing Taxes
The Andarian Abode is the player's Primary house with 16 x 10 = 160 surface area
The Cambrian Villa is the player's Secondary house with 12 x 12 = 144 surface area

The Andarian Abode as the Primary House has 0 Yearly Taxes
The Cambrian Villa as the Secondary House has 100,000 + (5,000 * 144) = 820,000 Yearly Taxes

The player owes a total of 820,000 Yearly Taxes



Example 3
A player owns an Andarian Farmstead (31x31), a Compact Stone Keep (20x22), and a Frontier Log and Slate Overlook (14x14)

The Andarian Farmstead is the player's Primary house with 31 x 31 = 961 surface area
The Compact Stone Keep is the player's Secondary house with 20 x 22 = 440 surface area
The Frontier Log and Slate Overlook is the player's Tertiary house with 14 x 14 = 196 surface area


The Andarian Farmstead as the Primary House has 0 Yearly Taxes
The Compact Stone Keep as the Secondary House has 100,000 + (5,000 * 440) = 2,300,000 Yearly Taxes
The Frontier and Slate Overlook as the Tertiary House has 1,000,000 + (50,000 * 196) = 10,800,000 Yearly Taxes

The player owes a total of 2,300,000 + 10,800,000 = 13,100,000 Yearly Taxes



Accumulating Taxes
  • Taxes for houses are accumulated on a Daily basis
  • The Daily Tax amount for each house is (Yearly Taxes / 365)
  • At the start of each day, players accumulate the total combined Daily Tax amounts for all qualifying houses across their accounts (by OutlandsID)

Note: While Yearly Taxes are listed in the Tax Report, that value is only used to calculate Daily Taxes (i.e there is no end of year "massive" tax for houses)

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  • Players can view their "Amount Owed" from either the Housing Menu or a Tax Report menu
  • Players can also view how many "Days of Unpaid Taxes" they have accumulated since last paying off their Amount Owed
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Paying Taxes
  • Players can pay their Amount Owed at any time they wish (does not have to be daily)
  • To do so, any character on their OutlandsID can click the "Pay Amount Owed" button on either the Housing Menu or Tax Report menu to pay the total amount in Gold from their bank balance
  • Doing so will reset the both Amount Owed and Days of Unpaid Taxes to 0
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Excessive Unpaid Taxes
  • If a player accumulates 30 Days of Unpaid Taxes or more they will be subject to Excessive Unpaid Taxes restrictions
  • The "Days of Unpaid Taxes" will display in red text if Excessive Unpaid Taxes restrictions are in place
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Players with Excessive Unpaid Taxes have the following applied:
  • All houses owned by the player (across their OutlandsID) cannot be Refreshed by anyone (even themselves)
  • The player cannot place new houses
  • The player cannot take control of existing houses (transfer / trade / purchase / lottery)

Warning Alerts
  • Players with Excessive Unpaid Taxes will receive an overhead warning and sound effect each time they log in or attempt to refresh their houses
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  • When Co-Owners and Friends of their houses attempt to refresh them, they will receive a system message and sound effect informing them the owner currently has Excessive Unpaid Taxes and refreshing the house is no longer possible
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Daily Taxes when Transfering Houses
  • If a player purchases, transfers, or sells one or more qualifying houses during the day, they will still accumulate taxes at the start of the next day based on whatever their highest Daily Tax amount was at any point during that day (but will future days will be assessed as normal)
  • This is intended to prevent players from shuffling expensive houses to other players at the end of the day to avoid paying taxes on them


System Going Live
  • The Housing Tax system will go into effect on April 15, 2025
  • Players will not accumulate any taxes until the system goes into effect
  • Players will see a "HOUSING TAXES ARE DISABLED UNTIL APRIL 15" message in the Housing and Tax Report menus until the system goes into effect
  • Players will be able to preview what their Housing Taxes would look like in these menus prior to the system going live (to make any plans / adjustments)
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House Menu Updates
  • The House Menu has been redesigned with a much larger layout and more information displayed in some pages
  • The functionality of most pages remain largely the same, with a few exceptions
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Upgrades Page
  • The Special Page of the House Menu has been renamed to the "Upgrades" Page
  • The "Expand Housing" button that was previously on the Overview page has been removed, and those features are now available at the top of the Upgrades Page
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Ownership Page
  • The Ownership page has been streamlined
  • Players can now Change House Signs for houses while the house is either Public or Private
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Place House for Sale

  • The Place House for Sale page has been redesigned and the "Warning Message" has been rephrased
  • Players can now see a list of Upgrades unlocked for the house such as "Auto-Stash Mounts Unlocked"
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  • When attempting to Set Asking Price for a house to put it for sale or change price, players will now have to triple-click to confirm their changes
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Demolish House and Receive House Deed
  • The Demolish House page has been redesigned and the wording rephrased for better clarity
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  • Demolishing a House requires triple-click confirmation to resolve
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Now if we can figure out a way to get the people off the house they have been sitting on but not playing the game, just logs on to refresh.
I have a neighbor who I haven't seen play in almost 2 years now (use to be a real ass hole of a pk @damned bog).
I get that people have real life stuff occur and I get that.
But years of just holding on to a plot with no intentions of playing again? That's just ridiculous.
Hell I wouldn't even mind a minor tax on 1 ownership of a house just to get the inactives off the plot or playing again. Either way would be beneficial.
 
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Now if we can figure out a way to get the people off the house they have been sitting on but not playing the game, just logs on to refresh.
I have a neighbor who I haven't seen play in almost 2 years now (use to be a real ass hole of a pk @damned bog).
I get that people have real life stuff occur and I get that.
But years of just holding on to a plot with no intentions of playing again? That's just ridiculous.
Hell I wouldn't even mind a minor tax on 1 ownership of a house just to get the inactives off the plot or playing again. Either way would be beneficial.
I agree and disagree , it is bullshit yes , but people get burnt out on games and that's ok. if he's putting in enough effort to log in and not miss that refresh every month , I don't believe he deserves to lose it , I almost want to say a good idea may be have the account be active for atleast 7 consecutive days every year if not then then maybe some action toward the accounts housing.
 
The coming of Newsom the Second "Got a problem? Make a tax" that being said why isn't there an autopay for the daily tax so people can just turn that on and have it deducted from their bank automatically... makes it easier than trying to remember to check it regularly. Oh, and since you essentially end up losing it in a little over a month if you don't pay it monthly shouldn't you instead be showing a monthly fee instead of a daily or yearly one? Makes no sense to have either of those if your system is based on a month basis instead of an annual one. Even more so since you don't have the option to auto pay daily or be able to pay the full yearly amount in one go. I really feel like whoever came up with this system doesn't actually have real property tax to pay to know how such a system actually works.
 
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be nice if this was delayed just a little bit longer. since we're trying to get rid of the old school rich players, at least time to consolidate their riches into one property since they've only been wasting the last 2 years-ish just refreshing their houses. a lot of us arent even familiar with the patch notes since then. im more than positive their have been changes, but why would i read them if i have only been refreshing my houses. could we at least get a revision or a complete list of current rules and patch notes of the current housing replacement rules?

I agree and disagree , it is bullshit yes , but people get burnt out on games and that's ok. if he's putting in enough effort to log in and not miss that refresh every month , I don't believe he deserves to lose it , I almost want to say a good idea may be have the account be active for atleast 7 consecutive days every year if not then then maybe some action toward the accounts housing.
i login once a week to refresh my 2 houses, if 1 of them drops, nothing can be placed there ever again unless there is land changes in the future. but i would have to pay 1 mil a year just to keep a second 8x8. my buddy would have to pay 4 mil for his 8x8 just because it is his 3rd house...

Now if we can figure out a way to get the people off the house they have been sitting on but not playing the game, just logs on to refresh.
I have a neighbor who I haven't seen play in almost 2 years now (use to be a real ass hole of a pk @damned bog).
I get that people have real life stuff occur and I get that.
But years of just holding on to a plot with no intentions of playing again? That's just ridiculous.
Hell I wouldn't even mind a minor tax on 1 ownership of a house just to get the inactives off the plot or playing again. Either way would be beneficial.
1 house with no tax flies for me, but me and my buddy have been holding an area on outlands for 5+ years. we dont want to lose it just cause we arent active, we love outlands. but we're inclined to play it every single day just to keep what we have already worked for. doesnt seem right. just cause we're not community driven shouldnt expunge us from ever coming back. we still do play from time to time, but lets face it, theres a lot of other games coming out too that we wanna try, as well as real life events that occupy us for periods of time, yet i still got 10 mins to refresh my houses...
 
Great addition, with land at a premium this should hopefully incentivize selling a house to a player who has no house.
In other words, more new players will soon be able to obtain a house.
 
Really like the changes, would love some way to leave messages via a house sign in order to send offers to players that might be inactive and hard to reach or you just have no way of figuring out who they are. Keeping house owners anonymous if they wish but allowing players to submit an offer or something of the kind. I really want to expand in my current neighborhood but due to certain houses being empty for months and there being no way to even figure out who they are leaves me shit out of luck :(
 
"Housing taxes for a player will be calculated daily based on a ranking of the surface area (ground level) of their houses, with a player's largest house having no taxes, their second largest house having moderate taxes, and their third largest house having heavy taxes. Players can view and manage their Housing Tax details directly from the Housing Menu or from a Tax Report viewable by saying “Tax” near any Banker NPC. Failure to pay taxes for 30 days or more will result in restrictions, such as being unable to refresh, transfer, sell or place houses. "

So as it was announced the houses should be taxed by area, so why a smaller house have more tax fee than a bigger house. Who will define which is yr first account, secound and third? what are the rules for this definition. I am posting a picture which prove this announce in discord is not true.
 

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"Housing taxes for a player will be calculated daily based on a ranking of the surface area (ground level) of their houses, with a player's largest house having no taxes, their second largest house having moderate taxes, and their third largest house having heavy taxes. Players can view and manage their Housing Tax details directly from the Housing Menu or from a Tax Report viewable by saying “Tax” near any Banker NPC. Failure to pay taxes for 30 days or more will result in restrictions, such as being unable to refresh, transfer, sell or place houses. "

So as it was announced the houses should be taxed by area, so why a smaller house have more tax fee than a bigger house. Who will define which is yr first account, secound and third? what are the rules for this definition. I am posting a picture which prove this announce in discord is not true.

This is all explained in the Patch Notes. Please read them.
 
Thoughts on allowing alternative currency besides gold to pay taxes? I was thinking "tax credits" that could be purchased with Prev coin, faction silver, doubloons, PVP/Society/Achievement points etc. A fair exchange rate on tax credits to cost would have to be determined, but most of that is already factored in on the prev vendor/rewards.

I expect most will still use gold, but for those whose game content focuses on other areas, this would give them some options. We don't want those poor faction soldiers going homeless after serving their country after all :)
 
be nice if this was delayed just a little bit longer. since we're trying to get rid of the old school rich players, at least time to consolidate their riches into one property since they've only been wasting the last 2 years-ish just refreshing their houses. a lot of us arent even familiar with the patch notes since then. im more than positive their have been changes, but why would i read them if i have only been refreshing my houses. could we at least get a revision or a complete list of current rules and patch notes of the current housing replacement rules?


i login once a week to refresh my 2 houses, if 1 of them drops, nothing can be placed there ever again unless there is land changes in the future. but i would have to pay 1 mil a year just to keep a second 8x8. my buddy would have to pay 4 mil for his 8x8 just because it is his 3rd house...


1 house with no tax flies for me, but me and my buddy have been holding an area on outlands for 5+ years. we dont want to lose it just cause we arent active, we love outlands. but we're inclined to play it every single day just to keep what we have already worked for. doesnt seem right. just cause we're not community driven shouldnt expunge us from ever coming back. we still do play from time to time, but lets face it, theres a lot of other games coming out too that we wanna try, as well as real life events that occupy us for periods of time, yet i still got 10 mins to refresh my houses...
If you've been around that long, you should have no problem running crafting soc jobs to pump links to sell for your taxes.
If you're not active, and holding land for 5+ years, this patch was literally designed for you. lol
 
"Housing taxes for a player will be calculated daily based on a ranking of the surface area (ground level) of their houses, with a player's largest house having no taxes, their second largest house having moderate taxes, and their third largest house having heavy taxes. Players can view and manage their Housing Tax details directly from the Housing Menu or from a Tax Report viewable by saying “Tax” near any Banker NPC. Failure to pay taxes for 30 days or more will result in restrictions, such as being unable to refresh, transfer, sell or place houses. "

So as it was announced the houses should be taxed by area, so why a smaller house have more tax fee than a bigger house. Who will define which is yr first account, secound and third? what are the rules for this definition. I am posting a picture which prove this announce in discord is not true.
Your questions are literally explained in the patch notes. What decides which house is your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd? The order is decided by size of the ground level (ie: 30x30 is your primary, 10x10 is your secondary, 8x8 is your tertiary). Also, why is the fee for your third house higher than your second? Taxes go up with the more houses you have. The first house is free, the second has a base tax + amount based on size, and the third/tertiary house has a higher base tax + higher amount based on size. The formula is in the patch notes, but I've placed it below for your convenience.

  • Primary House (the largest house you own): No Tax
  • Secondary House (the second largest house you own): Yearly Tax of (100,000 + (5,000 * Surface Area)) Gold
  • Tertiary House (the smallest house you own): Yearly Tax of (1,000,000 + (50,000 * Surface Area)) Gold
 
be nice if this was delayed just a little bit longer. since we're trying to get rid of the old school rich players, at least time to consolidate their riches into one property since they've only been wasting the last 2 years-ish just refreshing their houses. a lot of us arent even familiar with the patch notes since then. im more than positive their have been changes, but why would i read them if i have only been refreshing my houses. could we at least get a revision or a complete list of current rules and patch notes of the current housing replacement rules?


i login once a week to refresh my 2 houses, if 1 of them drops, nothing can be placed there ever again unless there is land changes in the future. but i would have to pay 1 mil a year just to keep a second 8x8. my buddy would have to pay 4 mil for his 8x8 just because it is his 3rd house...


1 house with no tax flies for me, but me and my buddy have been holding an area on outlands for 5+ years. we dont want to lose it just cause we arent active, we love outlands. but we're inclined to play it every single day just to keep what we have already worked for. doesnt seem right. just cause we're not community driven shouldnt expunge us from ever coming back. we still do play from time to time, but lets face it, theres a lot of other games coming out too that we wanna try, as well as real life events that occupy us for periods of time, yet i still got 10 mins to refresh my houses...

Delayed longer? You literally have over 3 months. Even if you have you pay 4m per year for an 8x8, that's only 11k per day or 77k per week. That's just a few trips to a dungeon. You could find ways to consolidate your houses if they're in the same area. Or if that's impossible, perhaps some of the houses near you will sell due to people in your exact position, which would enable you to combine your homes after purchasing nearby real estate.

This system wouldn't get rid of your hard earned real estate or make the game unplayable. It would just mean that you'd have to log in to farm around 112k per week to keep your real estate investment. Or if you want to take time off from paying, you could play one or two days per month to make 480k. Your second house costs less than my daily vendor cost, and my vendor certainly takes up less space than a house.

As someone who has been apart of this community since before the shard launched, this is the best solution to fix the problem of all of the empty houses on the server. We have tons of players incapable of owning a house because they joined too late, and we have a ton of people who own too much land and rarely play who simply benefited by joining the server before everyone else. This solution is equitable for everyone, and the tax is easily paid by playing 4-8 hours per month depending on your farming speed.