Overview
To ensure there is enough housing for players inside the nodes, and to ensure enough people can become citizens of a particular node, Intrepid Studios has blended open world housing with instanced housing. Just like with In-Node Houses, your account may have one Instanced Apartment per server (not per character).
Number of Apartments per Node
Instanced Apartments are going to be the instanced housing option that appears when the Node hits Stage 3 (Village). There will only be 50 initial apartments when the Node hits stage 3. To have more than 50 apartments, when the Node hits stage 4 (Town) the mayor has the option to use one of the Town’s constructible slots to build more apartments. This opens the instanced apartment building and brings the cap well above 50. Instead of a finite number of apartments, the system is based on a soft cap. The more apartments that have been sold in a Node, the higher the price of future apartments.
Initial Apartment Acquisition
While we do not know for sure how the initial apartments will be acquired, it does beg to reason that if the houses are on some sort of auction/lotto system the apartments will be as well. More to come at a later date.
Real Estate Mechanics
Players will be able to sell their apartments, but given the price calculation based on previous sold apartments, we are not 100% sure how that will work as far as future taxes.
Apartment Mechanics
We do not have many details about the apartment mechanics. We do know the price goes up depending on how many apartments have been sold. We do know that there are different sized apartments. That is just about all we know about apartments at this time. Keep checking the change log to see when we make updates to any of the housing features.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Apartments be destroyed?
Yes.
Apartments can be destroyed, both permanently and temporarily.
If the node the house is in sufferers from atrophy it can either de-level or be destroyed. Intrepid is still working on the exact details of these mechanics. If a node can delevel, and were to de-level from Stage 4 to Stage 3, then apartments would no longer be a valid constructible and the building would disappear. It's also possible that instead of de-leveling your Node could be destroyed due to atrophy. In that case, the Node and everything in it, including your apartment, would cease to exist. This would be a permanent destruction of your house.
Another way your house can be destroyed is if it is specifically targeted during a Node Siege. If your apartment were to be targeted and destroyed during a Node siege, it would either be a temporary or permanent destruction depending on the outcome of the siege defense.
If the siege defense were to be successful, then your apartment destruction would be temporary and the building would have to be rebuilt. You would lose none of your stuff in storage at your apartment in this situation.
If the siege defense were to fail, then your Node would be destroyed and thus your apartment destruction would be permanent as there would be no node for your instanced apartment to reside in. In this case, a portion of the gatherables and craftables in storage would become loot for the successful siege party.