Home. It is quite an emotive word just all by itself. However, when you think of all that goes with it, your house, your belongs, those precious mementos that might seem like nothing to someone else but to you mean the world. The idea of having somewhere like that, but in a game, is quite fascinating. We know player housing will be a crucial part of Chronicles of Elyria, but where will you put that house? Land ownership is one of the features of the game we are still awaiting information on, but we now have some insights after the last live chat.

Before jumping in with the new information, lets make sure we are all on the same page. Previously the developers have explained that all land is owned in some way. Now that may not be by an individual, it could be by the ‘state’. The world is broken down into Kingdoms, which contain Duchies, that are made up of Counties. It is one of these ‘states’ that owns any land that doesn’t yet have a title deed.

If all that land is owned by someone how do you make it your own? How much do you get? What can you do with it? Well that is what this Chat Log is hoping to answer.

Three ways to take control of land have been confirmed, the first two are legal ways to go about it the third… well not so much. The two legal approaches depends on you standing with in society. Are you a part of the common Mann or are you a member of the nobility?

The legal ways include buying and leasing land if you’re an individual. If you’re a noble, you can claim right of ownership if you can prove – through documentation, that you have a right to claim the land.

This means that the average player will be either purchasing land off other players or the ‘state’. Though if that is too expensive there is the option of leasing it, more on that a bit latter. However, if you are a noble you shouldn’t have to pay, that is your land by right. It has been handed down through the ages and you have the documentation to prove it. Perhaps even if that document looks shockingly well preserved for it’s age, and the ink is still a little damp in places… As we already seem to be heading for illegal activities why don’t we go the whole way and look at how you can take land illegally:

This is pretty much the same for everyone and is called Adverse Possession. Basically, if you can hold land, even in adverse conditions, for two weeks of real-time…. the land transfers ownership to you. … If the rightful owner can destroy all your buildings, or coup de grace you during that period of time, you lose the claim.

If you place a building on land you do not own you are effectively squatting. If no one manages to get rid of you or your buildings for two weeks then, jobs a good’en you now own land! If not you might have just lost a fair amount of time and resources, but that is the risk of trying to save money. You can always try again in the future.

Now how much land are we talking about taking here? Well it is divided up into square parcels:

There’s enough room on a parcel of land to build a nice size house, and some additional stuff, like a garden, animal pen, etc…When purchasing land it’ll be visibly marked. It’ll be visible to the owners of the borders. Anyone else wandering through will just see continuous land. Though we may change that later…

Whether we can own multiples of these as individuals has not yet been confirmed, but I would hope so. I like the idea of expanding an estate, taking over more and more farm land, but then having to protect the borders from people trying to encroach on that land illegally. It could make for some very intense interactions if you have taken on too much land and are now fighting people for it from more then one side. I also like the idea of sharing land. Perhaps you don’t actually want a nice sized house with a garden, you just want a room to put your stuff in. You are an adventurer, a person going out into the world not spending your time cooped up at home so saving up for land just isn’t something that interests you. Well:

We expect rented rooms, rented spaces, etc…Even within families, bedrooms for family members will have locks on them.

So there we have it I told you we would go back to leasing at some point. That the adventure that doesn’t wasn’t the homestead life doesn’t have to, and doesn’t have to waste their money on leasing whole plots of land either. It also means that people that want to make extra money from their land by renting out a room or perhaps other area can do so. Landlord any one?

In case you haven’t worked it out I love housing, I love the idea of farming my own land, I want to see that space and say “Do you like what I have done with the place?”. I also get that other people couldn’t give two hoots and just want to be out there looking for the next piece of action. This system elegantly caters for both crowds. I am looking forward to some of the finder detail but for now, this all sounds like interesting stuff.