This idea pertains mainly to shops.

I think it'd be neat if shops were actually objects (that you can probe, etc.) that are placed in a room with a limit on the maximum number (let's say six). If you walk in, you could do a command (SHOPS, maybe?) to see the listing in the room.

Ex:

On Nautilus Pompilus street, in the non-Merian quarter.
You see a sign here instructing you that SHOPS is the command to see what shops are here. You see exits leading east and west.

shops

----Name--------------ID
Herbs 'R Us - 123
Flea Market - 341

Then, you could do ENTER to enter it, taking you to the shop room, like it would normally. This would, of course, result in a lot of exits being deleted.

This doesn't seem like it would be a very good or important change, but having the buildings as objects might make it easier to change them. It would make them more dynamic; they could be subject to weather, attacks, or whatever.

Personally, I don't like this idea. Buildings other than shops are rooms, why should shops be any different?

You could just put a sighn up like
SHOP---------LOCATION
FLEA MARKET--N,2E,N
HERBS 'R US--N,E,S

The point of my idea was really to make them more easily subject to the rest of the world, rather than make it easier to see them. Then again, I don't think shop owners would take kindly to having their shops struck by lightning or burned down.

Oooh, I see. That makes much more sense *thwap me*. All the same, I don't think shops should be treated differently than normal rooms.

I like this idea. Its the same one used in Icecus. The thing is, however, there ended up being something like 200 shops in every single city room. It was insane.

200 shops per room is certainly too much, there is no way they would -really- fit into there.

But apart from that i really like the idea. i mean we have a 'market compound' in Mag and it has 5 shops in it?!

One of the big pros i see it that a lot more people could own shops without the admis having to make the rooms first.
At the very least i'd increase competition

Well, about the "200 rooms" thing: There could be a limit placed on shops per room, as I mentioned in my first post. Admins might still have to make the rooms, it would just change so that you would ENTER SHOP instead of going north, in order to enter the shop room. You would just EXIT SHOP or go OUT to leave the shop room.

This also kind of relates to an idea floating in the back of my head for ships and boats. You could have the ship or boat as an object that can only be moved on water, and you can ENTER SHIP to move yourself to a ship deck room.

Yes, I hijacked my own thread.

Armageddon does shops this way, I believe, but I didn't see more then one shop/stall/booth in a room.

All I can say is ick. To me, this seems bad. It's nice for shops to be tangible rooms, ICly. This reeks of subdivisions. I hated those, because they really, really came across as gamelike. I like how Imperian does housing - Similar to clothing, you submit an idea for a room, and have someone build it with the stone/wood comms and masonry skills. I think, all cities can do this for any kind of room, but shops cost more comms to build.

I agree with Gol. I prefer shops as they are.