Rental System for Inn Rooms FAQ:

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 11:52 pm

This thread is the FAQ for the Rental System for Inn Rooms. Please post your questions and we will answer them.

-Alexandru Stanicu
Avlis Team, Senior DM

EDIT:
Please do not use that thread to ask about purchasing an Inn as we have not finialized the requiremnets for doing so, and we will release the information as soon as it is ready.

*this thread to be moved to World Info Feb 01,2004

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:04 am

OK I will start it off:

Q: How many rooms are there for rent in all of Avlis?

A: Currently there are 395 rooms across all six servers.

Lafferty · Post by **Lafferty** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:12 am

Q: Is there a limit of rentable rooms on a per player or per character base?

Q: At wich rate are free rooms available? That does not mean new rooms that might be added with future inns

Q: How many inns with rentable rooms are currently planned [2003-12-01]?

Q: Does every rentable room contain 1 persistent container?

Q: If i get a second key and give it to a friend... who has to pay the rent?

Nogusta · Post by **Nogusta** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:13 am

Q: After testing is done, how will a player go about buying their own Inn? And what would a fair estimate be for a price?

Q: After being paid off, does the player recieve full profit for all Inn payments or does a portion still get deducted for "costs" to run the Inn?

Q: Is it possible to share ownership of an Inn?

Q: If so, does the ownership split have to be 50/50 or could one partner have more ownership than the other?

Q: If so, How many ways would the split be allowed?

Q: Who came up with this wonderful idea of mass produced rentable rooms? (Kudos to the man behind it)

Reinstag · Post by **Reinstag** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:30 am

I'm going to try answering some of these with the knowledge I have as the test subject.

Lafferty wrote:Q: Is there a limit of rentable rooms on a per player or per character base?

No, just what you can afford. I would guess that PCs belonging to the same player would not be allowed to share a room (similar to having a mule, just in reverse)

Q: At wich rate are free rooms available? That does not mean new rooms that might be added with future inns

Rooms become available when they have not been used for 90 days.

Q: How many inns with rentable rooms are currently planned [2003-12-01]?

I am currently working on two more Inns (one with 50 rooms, the second with 40). I know more Inns are being worked on by other sub-contractors but I'm not sure on the exact numbers.

Q: Does every rentable room contain 1 persistent container?

So far, yes. One of the Inns I'm working on will have a set of suites with 2 or 3 chests. These will cost proportionaly more.

Nogusta wrote:Q: After being paid off, does the player recieve full profit for all Inn payments or does a portion still get deducted for "costs" to run the Inn?

The PC recieves a % of the rent. This is to cover the costs to run an inn. Last I heard, this % takes a nose dive after 6 months to represent covering the constant repairs that an older building would need.

Q: Is it possible to share ownership of an Inn?

Yes.

Q: If so, does the ownership split have to be 50/50 or could one partner have more ownership than the other?

The profit split is up to the owners. More detail below.

Q: If so, How many ways would the split be allowed?

The profit is taken out of the renter's pocket and placed into a specific persistant chest. PC owners have a key to this chest and to collect the rent, all you do is open it and take the gold out. Very simple for a single owner. If you have multiple owners, you have to come up with a collection schedule based on the % each owner gets which owuld determine when someone could open the chest to get the profits for that day/week/month.

Q: Who came up with this wonderful idea of mass produced rentable rooms? (Kudos to the man behind it)

Actually and I were the first players to voice the idea to the team. Funny thing is, we came up with the ideas seprately and were working on it seprately till he made an IC post about it. We decided to join forces, and funds, to build an inn. This was about six months ago. We have been working with the team to get a good, working system and I think it's amazing. Big cheer for Mistcaller for coming up with the current, brilliant code being used. Without Mistcaller, Timo and Jerry would not be so far along their path to becomeing slum lords.

Mistcaller · Post by **Mistcaller** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 10:17 am

Q: If i get a second key and give it to a friend... who has to pay the rent?

Each one pays the total amount. For instance, if two persons share a room that costs 1000 gp, the cost is doubled and each one will have to pay 1000 gp every week.

Mistcaller · Post by **Mistcaller** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:00 pm

How do I "check out" the duplicate keys to my room ?
Will that a) check me out of the room?
or b) just give back the spare keys?

EDIT:If you check out of a room your name is erased as a resident. But if you dont return ALL the keys that have been taken for this room (no matter by whom), the room remains rented for 90 days. Rented, either to your roommate(s), if you have someone, or just marked as rented to prevent exploits.

Now if you drop on the floor the keys you want to use, and check out, you will lose only the duplicate ones you carry. If you pick up again the original keys, when you will enter the room again everything should work fine, since your name will be added anew in the DB.

and also, if i just trash the keys will i be charged rent for two sets?

Nope

Mistcaller · Post by **Mistcaller** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:38 pm

What happens if you lend your key to another character in game to use your chest? Will they then be bound to pay rent until such time as they get another key and check out?

Let me clarify this using an example:
Char A rents room X in an inn. The Innkeeper knows now that he has handed out 1 key for room X. Char A is written in the DB as resident of room X. If Char A lends his key to Char B and Char B enters the room X, then he is also written in the DB as a resident The Innkeeper is aware he has 2 residents in that room now, so he charges both each week. If char B doesnt visit the room again, after 90 days his name will be erased as a resident. But if he visits it again after, lets say, 89 days, and uses a key he will be asked to pay a price equal to 89 days of stay.

Of course, if char B had asked for a duplicate key to use for room X, he could check out whenever he wanted leaving the room rented just to char A. (Same goes if char A leaves the room, while char B is still renting). But in practical terms this case is the same as the above. The only difference is that the innkeeper now expects 2 keys to be handed over in order for him to mark the room empty.

In plain words:
- If you dont have a key on you, you cannot open the room door, and thus you are not a resident.
- If you do have a key on you, even if temporary, you are considered a resident.
- You can leave a room, either by checking out, or by not visiting it again for at least 90 days.
- A room is marked vacant when all keys for this room have been returned (no need to be returned by the same person)

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:17 am

Nogusta wrote:Q: After testing is done, how will a player go about buying their own Inn? And what would a fair estimate be for a price?

Q: After being paid off, does the player recieve full profit for all Inn payments or does a portion still get deducted for "costs" to run the Inn?

Q: Is it possible to share ownership of an Inn?

Q: If so, does the ownership split have to be 50/50 or could one partner have more ownership than the other?

Q: If so, How many ways would the split be allowed?

Q: Who came up with this wonderful idea of mass produced rentable rooms? (Kudos to the man behind it)

Alexandru Stanicu wrote: I am going to start a new thread here in General Discussion for a FAQ about the Inn Rental system, but I am going to let you post the Questions and then Mistcaller or myself will answer them.( Please do not use that thread to ask about purchasing an Inn as we have not finialized the requiremnets for doing so, and we will relase the information as soon as it is ready.) After a few weeks I will move this FAQ thread to the Information Section of the forums, and it will stay there.

Nogusta · Post by **Nogusta** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:20 am

Forgive me, I never read or posted in the Original Inn FAQ, or else i would not have posted those questions.

NP

CPU · Post by **CPU** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 7:06 pm

My character rented a room in Mikona (Rompin' Romani Inn) last night and found a few (easily replaceable) items in the persistant chest. Does this mean that someone else has a key to the room from before the conversion, and if so, can they still access the room and chest (and therefore anything I put in the chest)?!! After reading about the system and mulitiple room owners, I am not sure how this works? Can I have an unwanted squatter who could steal from my chest?

Nob · Post by **Nob** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 7:10 pm

That's probably the room I had before.(Bunch of books etc?)

If it is, don't worry about, don't have the key to that room anymore.

Penumbra · Post by **Penumbra** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 10:46 pm

CPU wrote:My character rented a room in Mikona (Rompin' Romani Inn) last night and found a few (easily replaceable) items in the persistant chest. Does this mean that someone else has a key to the room from before the conversion, and if so, can they still access the room and chest (and therefore anything I put in the chest)?!! After reading about the system and mulitiple room owners, I am not sure how this works? Can I have an unwanted squatter who could steal from my chest?

I would like to know about this as well. I just had the same thing happen at the Romini Inn. I HAVE had an issue where one room was rented to two individuals with another character in Ferrell. I want to be able to trust that my room is secure. Please respond if you think you rent room 6 at the Rompin' Romini, Because thats the one I have.

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 10:52 pm

The rooms that became avalible in Mikona yesterday (other then the Bored Gargoyle) were rooms that were rented under the old system and have not been used in the last 30 days since the new system was installed. As far as I am concerned, those rooms have been abandoned, and anything you find in the chest is yours.
We are in the process of developing a script that will delete all contents of a rooms chest before it is rented out to a new player, but we are, for obvious reasons, being very careful with this one.

-Alex

CPU · Post by **CPU** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:37 am

Alexandru Stanicu wrote:The rooms that became avalible in Mikona yesterday (other then the Bored Gargoyle) were rooms that were rented under the old system and have not been used in the last 30 days since the new system was installed. As far as I am concerned, those rooms have been abandoned, and anything you find in the chest is yours.
We are in the process of developing a script that will delete all contents of a rooms chest before it is rented out to a new player, but we are, for obvious reasons, being very careful with this one.

-Alex

Are you saying no one has another set of keys from 30+ days ago or that if they do, they will no longer work? I do not see how the rooms can be considered safe storage if multiple keys exist that allow the access of previous player/character tenants from before the new system was implimented.

I completely understand the need to recoup abandoned rooms to allow access to those new players looking to rent. I'm just wondering if the issue of key security has been addressed in the scripting. This is not to be critical, I just want to know what to expect.

I'm sure you understand my concern. Thanks, Alex!

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 3:04 am

A large portion of the rooms under the old system were not useable due to lost keys. (there was no way to replace them in the past)

Yes, if you rent a room from one of the inns that was under the old system there could be a key to your room out there, and could be looted... but... I dont think it very likely and if you are looted please report it as the DB logs each and every person who uses a key to open the door. So if someone does have a key from the old system and does loot you, I will be able to track them down and do really nasty tings to them.

Now just so that it is stated... Use the Rental Rooms at your Own risk, converted from the old system or not.

-Alex

Baratin Gilden · Post by **Baratin Gilden** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 12:43 pm

Mistcaller wrote: In plain words:
- If you dont have a key on you, you cannot open the room door, and thus you are not a resident.
- If you do have a key on you, even if temporary, you are considered a resident.
- You can leave a room, either by checking out, or by not visiting it again for at least 90 days.
- A room is marked vacant when all keys for this room have been returned (no need to be returned by the same person)

So using this system , if newbie A hires a room for 10 Days, drops the only key for room X on the floor and logs off never to be seen in Avlis ever again. (that key is lost in the next system reboot and not picked up)
It will take another 80 Days, before the Room is rentable again?

Is there not a way for the system to recognise if anyone owns a key for a room (i.e. has the key in their inventory - logged on or not), and if not make the room free to rent immediately?

Mistcaller · Post by **Mistcaller** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 1:21 pm

So using this system , if newbie A hires a room for 10 Days, drops the only key for room X on the floor and logs off never to be seen in Avlis ever again. (that key is lost in the next system reboot and not picked up)
It will take another 80 Days, before the Room is rentable again?

Yes. But if newbie A returns sometime before these 80 days have passed, he may ask for a new key to his room and continue renting it, if he is able, of course, to pay the rents he owes.
Have also in mind that currently we have about 400 rooms and less than 20% of them are really rented by PCs.

Is there not a way for the system to recognise if anyone owns a key for a room (i.e. has the key in their inventory - logged on or not), and if not make the room free to rent immediately?

What you propose, if I get it right, is not functional, since it would require lots of DB calls and inventory examination, frequently (i.e each time they log in). Most important, some people do lose their keys due to server crashes and the hand-lost-key function was initially created with them in mind.

The 90 days period(in accordance to the server vault char-keeping period) is applied to ensure that no exploit can happen, i.e. people leave the key on the floor, check out from the room, wait a couple of days and rob a new room user's chest.

Post by **Alexandru Stanicu** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 9:26 pm

The 90 days period(in accordance to the server vault char-keeping period) is applied to ensure that no exploit can happen, i.e. people leave the key on the floor, check out from the room, wait a couple of days and rob a new room user's chest.

If you are thinking about attempting this, you should know that every person who uses the key is logged in the DB, and that sort of cheating is banable.

-Alex

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:10 pm

Q: After my wife and I rented two rooms from the same inn, her room is much larger, with 3 containers, and my room is a soapbox with one container. All for the same price. In the future, will there be an option to get a bigger room for a bigger price?

Mistcaller · Post by **Mistcaller** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:00 pm

Ashen wrote:Q: After my wife and I rented two rooms from the same inn, her room is much larger, with 3 containers, and my room is a soapbox with one container. All for the same price. In the future, will there be an option to get a bigger room for a bigger price?

A: In 99,9% of the rooms only one of the containers is a persistent container and usually that is a plot chest. A useful hint: If it is NOT plot (i.e. if you can deliver damage to it), then, in most inns, it is not a persistent container.

The size of the rooms is picked in random order for variety. I guess a cost increase for the bigger ones is reasonable, but it would require heavy scripting work...