Merchant Archive

What if structure fees were changed to increase in cost the closer you got to a city? Not only would you have the no-build zone, but structure fees (ALL of them) start high and drop off the further you got from town.

This has multiple advantages:

1) It would improve the money sink, because most everyone wants to build close to a town

2) People who want low rent would have the option of building in the middle of nowhere and have very cheap rates

3) It mimics real life where some areas are more desirable to live in, and therefore more expensive

4) You could base vendor fees off the area's property tax rate. People with vendors closest to town get more business, and therefore can afford higher rents

5) It would discourage people from building lots of harvesters close to town where everyones houses are. I personally hate when my house is surrounded by smelly, smoking harvesters.

6) It would give some small relief to those who have to run out to the middle of nowhere for their harvesters.

I think fees closest to town should be 50% higher than they are now for harvesters and PA halls, and 100% higher for houses and merchant tents. The rates would drop quickly as you got out of town, until they were down to half the current rate once you got a good distance out.

Of course this could present a problem when player cities are introduced, so maybe you'd have to base the distance on shuttleports. If a player town has no shuttle, it's not really any "closer" for people. But as soon as a shuttle becomes available, then the local rent will go up.

What do you think?