[MTA:SA] Properties, Vehicles, Property Vehicles, Oh my - Dev Fireside Chat #3

[Badandy]

SAVLINE ROLEPLAY
MTA:SA RP Dev Fireside Chat
SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2024

Properties

The next stop in our development chat is our property system. The player will be able to own different types of property that lands into two main categories, commercial and residential property. Residential properties are houses, apartments, and trailers that the player can call home and have parties, enjoy drugs, or watch TV. The player will also be able to own commercial property that involves business ventures like shops, warehouses, and any other business entity. These can't be owned directly by the player but through a business that the player sets up that allows purchasing commercial property. The last category of property falls under the government that are (mostly) public buildings like City Hall, LSPD, or the DMV. More information will be broken down into each type below.

Property Features
All properties share certain features that can be used by both commercial, residential, and government properties. All properties have a main interior after entering where the player loads into. Properties may also have sub-interiors where there are door markers within the main interior that link to other interiors in the property. The number of sub-interiors and what interiors are used will be based on the size of the outside building. Each interior inside a property may have multiple entrances/exits defined but only a few of them may be used when set for a property depending on the outside of the building.

A property can have multiple door markers that link to the interior where you have a main front door but then there's a back door and a garage. Each door marker set behaves independently so if you lock the front door, you can keep the back door unlocked or any permutation of such. You may also have different locks on each door with different keys which allows the player to have control and creativity within roleplay. For example, having a shop with an unlocked front door and a locked employee-only back door that employees have keys to.

Properties will not have an inventory where players can store items. This is replaced by requiring furniture to act as storage within the property like boxes, dressers, shelves, toilets, etc. This applies to all properties. This may help criminals who may want to store illegal items on their property and if police execute a search warrant, they will need to actually search through the property. They may not find your stash of weed in the back of the toilet.

Each property will generate trash as it's used and will require at least one trash can placed in the property to collect the trash that's generated. Once it's full, it must be emptied or the property will cease to function normally. This has a huge impact on commercial property since players won't be able to buy or sell items. If left like this too long, it will be foreclosed. To empty the trash can, you just have to walk up to it, right-click, click on the option "Collect trash" and take it outside the property.

Residential
As stated before, residential property will be houses, apartments, trailers, etc. where the player lives. When the player purchases the property, they will obtain the deed (item) and a key (item) for the property. The player will be able to place furniture in the house for storage, recreational, and decorative purposes. Each account will be limited to five residential properties. If a single character owns two houses, that means the other characters only have three houses left between them.

There are two types of door markers that go along with residential properties:

Green means it's on sale. Blue means it's sold and owned by a player.

Commercial
As stated before, commercial properties are business properties that are shops, warehouses, etc. Players cannot own these directly but have to form a business that then purchases this property. There is no hard limit to how many commercial properties a single business can own. They will still have to follow the law about monopolies and anti-competitive practices. Along with that, the property will need to be maintained by the player or employees like for garbage removal and taxes.

Shop owners will be able to design their shops by placing down furniture for what items they sell. Players will walk around the store looking at racks with a shopping basket to purchase items. Once they gather all the items they wish to buy, they go to the checkout and purchase them. These flexible designs allow shop owners to be creative and possibly have secret shops in the back. Shop owners will be selling regular items that they have to source and they can set what price they sell them for.

Warehouses can be used to store large quantities of items using furniture like shelving and pallets, along with a forklift. This kind of property will allow you to enter and exit with vehicles so you can use a forklift to enter and exit the property with pallets. Along with this, being able to store vehicles inside depends on the use of the warehouse, which is up to the owner of the business.

There are two types of door markers that go along with commercial properties:

Green means it's on sale. Yellow means it's sold and owned by a business.

Government
As stated before, government properties are (mostly) public buildings that are there to serve the general public. City Hall, Los Santos Police Department, and the DMV are examples that the player may most commonly see when they first join the server. These properties can only be managed by government officials including if they are locked or not. There may be circumstances where they have to lockdown these buildings during periods of civil unrest or terroristic threats. Typically these buildings are also staffed by NPCs that will serve the general public like for licensing, business registration, and paying fines.

There can be many different types of door markers that go along with government properties, these are two examples:

White will always mean government and the symbol means its specialization. The generic government building will have the building icon.

Other Door Markers
There are two generic door markers that can be tied to any type of property. The first is the generic door marker that can be used to denote any kind of door entry. These are typically used for back doors or sub-interior doors and used for exits of properties. The other door marker is the vehicle entry marker which means the player can drive a vehicle into this door like a garage.

Light blue means generic entry/exit and has no symbol. Light blue with the car symbol means the vehicle entry and is only visible while in a vehicle.

Entering and Exiting Property Video
Here is a video showing an example of entering and exiting a property along with having multiple doors to enter and exit from.

Property Hoarding Concerns
Some players may have concerns about other players hoarding a large amount of properties. I want to address what we are going to do about this and how it will be difficult for this to happen. Residential property will be limited to five properties per account. Commercial property doesn't have a limit but the next two restrictions will make it more difficult to own a large amount of property. Property taxes will be applied to any property that is owned and the owner must pay on a regular basis. If this is ignored for multiple rounds, the property is foreclosed. The second restriction is garbage generation which needs to be handled by the property owner or someone they hire. If garbage is not managed, the property will be foreclosed. This requires activity from players to own their property. Along with this, stocking shelves with items for shops will require enough activity to source these items and get them transported to your business. Once the server is online, we will monitor the economy in real-time to make sure it's healthy and adjust different parameters when necessary. This economy is a player-led economy.



Vehicle Roleplay
Let's talk about some fun things about vehicles. We are looking at different ways the player can interact and use existing entities in the GTA SA game. Vehicles may be simple but they have many opportunities that we can investigate and script. One example of an idea is one that has been around for a long time throughout SAMP and MTA SA where you want to be put into a trunk and you sit on the top of the trunk and use an anim and just sit there and we all pretend you are in the trunk. Pretend no more, if you open the trunk and right-click it, you will be able to get into the trunk. You won't be able to stay in there forever but this should help create more engaging and realistic roleplays. If you have any ideas for more things like this, let us know!

Badandy was taken and never seen again.

Property Vehicles (?!)
What the hell is a property vehicle? Well, certain vehicles will allow you to have a "property" on wheels. It's more of a single interior but you can decorate it and place furniture in it like any other property along with locking the door. Examples like this are campers and shamals. Something else that we will look into is towable trailer homes.

Living in luxury. Just hope the plane doesn't crash.