The $2000 house

ukuko · 2013-08-14 08:09:15

The most common complaint from new players seems to be along the lines of:

I made a house but it was wrecked straight away!

At the moment there seem to be two common strategies that are employed by seasoned players of the game starting a new life:

1. The bluff
Stick some pitbulls in front of your family, use what concrete you can afford to create the illusion of a fortress and block the vault with a trapdoor/grid combination.

This is generally enough to deter anyone looking for an easy job as well as poorer players who can't afford to find out that nothing lies behind your concrete facade.

2. The unprotected vault
Spend all of your money on wife protection and leave the vault next to the doorstep. Requires almost no thought and the money quickly rolls in.

Neither of these strategies really concern themselves with house design. They are, however, fairly reliable methods for earning enough cash to 'build a proper house'. I've used them both many times. They work really well. But neither feel like you are really playing the building aspect of the game.

I feel like this is the crux of the problem for new players. Without using the above techniques I don't believe $2000 is enough money to build a house likely to last long enough to earn any money. It's also frustratingly restrictive.

When I started playing (v5) there seemed to be a fairly steady stream of free $2ks to supplement your starting money. During the blueprint era players received $6000 starting cash, plus it was actually possible to rob a top house with minimal tools. The current environment seems to be the harshest for new players.

What do you think? Is it possible to build anything worthwhile or interesting for $2000?

jasonrohrer · 2013-08-14 09:46:10

As an experiment, I've just counted 13 active houses. 27 people have played in the past 24 hours.

I'm setting the starting funds up to $4000. Does this change things?

I'll check back at 9:43am PST tomorrow and see what has changed.

ukuko · 2013-08-14 10:08:06

Without a corresponding hike in tool prices I wouldn't expect to see much of a difference on the house list.

Back when funds were set to $6000 it didn't really impact tools due to the 8 item limit.

Nonetheless it'll be interesting to see what can be built with $4k vs $2k!

Blip · 2013-08-14 10:35:02

Interesting. I'm worried, though, that the $4,000 will only allow people to start with secure magic dances instead of having to use cleverness to start off with a good house. However, I guess that the "free vault" isn't really clever...

Cent · 2013-08-14 12:12:04

It also means that scouting-go-home-to-die runs are easier to do now. With 2k, people could only afford 3 ladders on a 2k budget, so all I had to do was create 4 autoclosing trapdoors at the entrance so people could never leave after a scout run (along with thick walls around it). But now, I'd need at least 6. Also capable of busting 8 walls of concrete. Scouting runs looking so good right now.

Ludicrosity · 2013-08-14 20:17:34

Yeah, wow $4000 scouting missions are downright dangerous, even for top houses. That's enough to break houses with expensive defenses (after several $4000 attempts). I wonder if there will be immediate ramifications.

bey bey · 2013-08-15 15:06:48

A careful assessment says that it looks like there are rather less than more houses around now. I assume that my family won't survive the night.

jasonrohrer · 2013-08-16 18:20:15

Yes, putting budget back to $2000 for now.

We'll see what happens after other changes are in place, but tool prices may need to go up.

bey bey · 2013-08-16 18:42:18

Aw shucks, now I wish I hadn't died due to stupidity in my 40k house just now. 4k starting cash wasn't all that bad. Still, yeah, there is an imbalance. Upping tool prices seems sensible gameplay-wise, but how one would justify that a little wire-cutter is 100$ - the same amount it takes to excavate a man-deep pit in your house - that is a little odd.

It looks like the first few ladders / crowbars / ... should be rather expensive (to counter starting cash abuse), while the 20th or 30th ladder could be quite a bit less expensive to discourage monoculture houses.

Once again, a building-voucher-vs-tool-cash system seems like the solution most fit to the problem. But then again, it's fun to destroy whatever is within reach with starting cash when between houses and the fear of those attacks is a nice thing when building stuff. (AM I SURE MY HOUSE IS 2K-PROOF??)

Maybe the game could simply give you a voucher for building materials in addition to normal starting cash: Here's another 4k from the city to get you started on building supplies. Or from the local chihuahua dancing charity. 2k starting cash can be used as always, there's only some more cash to go into building (or not). Some more cash to work with would mean one doesn't have to log in every half hour at least in the first phases of the house to get things off the ground.

jasonrohrer · 2013-08-16 18:55:04

This may be necessary, but I'd rather avoid it. I really want a very clean design, where you could spend money on either, and it's balanced. I'd rather have $100 wire cutters if that's what it needs to be. I could also make walls and stuff cheaper, too!

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2013-08-14 08:09:15

The $2000 house

#2 2013-08-14 09:46:10

Re: The $2000 house

#3 2013-08-14 10:08:06

Re: The $2000 house

#4 2013-08-14 10:35:02

Re: The $2000 house

#5 2013-08-14 12:12:04

Re: The $2000 house

#6 2013-08-14 20:17:34

Re: The $2000 house

#7 2013-08-15 15:06:48

Re: The $2000 house

#8 2013-08-16 18:20:15

Re: The $2000 house

#9 2013-08-16 18:42:18

Re: The $2000 house

#10 2013-08-16 18:55:04

Re: The $2000 house

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