Yes, Kuja and Azuya were both from Spinesreach, and I always loved that idea. I had almost forgotten about it. Good way to RP, instead of you getting a house all of a sudden...

More ideas.

Before you could start actually building, you'd have to file a request, which would basically be a description of all the rooms your house would take. Then depending on the type of room to be built, you'd have different commodities, and the Divine approving the request could put in custom commodity costs for the rooms that needed it.

Next, you'd get 'empty' rooms with which your house, mansion, et cetra would be built. There'd be workers in each room and you'd give them commodities so they could build the rooms. Upon asking them they'd give you an estimate. For example:

A viscanti mason says, "Barely started." (0% to 25%)

A viscanti mason says, "Mmh. Getting there." (25% to 50%)

A viscanti mason says, "We're about half done." (50% to 75%)

A viscanti mason says, "Nearly finished." (75% to 100%)

If no commodities were given to any of the workers for at least one in-game year they'd abandon the house and the empty areas would vanish. If someone had quit in one of those areas they'd end up at their nexus, or if they were cityless the Portal of Fate.

Families which grew to Great House status would have the ability to submit a request for a house any time in the next five IC years, and would not lose this house if they fell back below fifty members. Commodity cost for this 'Great House' house would be halved, as well.

Also, reflecting on Mary's last post... Giving the workers gold and lunch would make progress speedier. For instance, once you gave them their commodities the room status would increase by 3% per IC day. Giving them tips or food would increase their morale or make them work harder, speeding it up to 9% of completion per IC day. Of course, it would take quite a bit of food or gold to speed them up that far, so if you were laid back and only rewarded them occasionally it would go up to maybe 5% or 6%. The cap could be at 9%.

Also, if you pitched in yourself and helped the workers, that would boost it some more. Of course, you wouldn't be able to do anything else, so it would be kind of boring.

only to get slightly off track....

I think each city/commune/circus tent ....heh... should hve their own unique designs. For example, can anyone see the little mermaid's castle ( the disney movie) as the place for government in celest? I can. Now, who can see victor frankenstein's castle in magnagora? I sure can. What about the type of town found in the movie robin hood (with kevin costner, i believe) where the houses were in the trees? I think it's feasable.

But anyway, i believe a house should take three things.
1. a building permit. which should cost about 5 ccredits for divine approval)

2. the requirred comms and funding
3. workers, both npc and pc.

So... basically what you're asking for is, after paying credits or lots of gold for your house, that you wait RL weeks for it? And you want us to code something that makes you wait?

If it makes them cost less, sure.

I like all these ideas...except the part about the house/rooms disappearing. If I've paid for something I don't like the idea of that something disappearing if something IRL happens and I have to be away for a while. I mean...you can't always control IRL after all. Besides that...houses don't just vanish cause they're empty for a while. And while workers might stop working if they don't get paid, the land they're building on doesn't just vanish. Houses might get run down or only partly built, and I don't have a problem with that...coming back after a forced absence to find my house needs repairs or that it wasn't ever finished would be fine...coming back to find the house/the land I'd paid for gone would suck lemons.

To be honest, houses in Aetolia take too long already. It would be much better to actually SEE progress, rather than just, "Three RL months of nothing. Oh look, it's there in a millisecond!" Actually seeing things happen, and slightly getting involved would be better.

I was also counting on the credit price being a lot smaller, (since you do have to put a bit of money in for the commodities and gold). I think I speak for all of us when I say we'd rather wait a teeny bit longer to get involved ourselves, and for it to boost RP. We're passionate players, not just customers.

Why must I keep having brainstorms on this subject?

Perhaps the house itself wouldn't vanish, but you'd have to rehire the workers (which would take a gold fee and a request to start building again). Once the house was finished and you left and it decayed, it would become dangerous and walking through it would cause pieces of ceiling and the like to fall on you and do damage, possibly even breaking some of your limbs. It would take quite a long time for a house to actually fall down and decompose. (well-built houses IRL can last a hundred years or more without repairs)