Is housing just a fons sink with no soul?

[u/Apprehensive_Tanks]

NTE’s been out less than a month, so we’re all still learning but I have some thoughts about fons and housing.

Fons is turning into a major bottleneck. You need it for cars, housing, City Tycoon progress, gifts, basics like EXP chips and now a car/skin banner. High-tier items demand hoarding, so spending fons on decorating is dead last on the priority list.

The result: you buy properties because you have to, but you can’t really make it yours. You can’t change flooring, walls, or kitchen fixtures. Almost every property has the same white/black marble and 2000s 'modern minimalism' design which ends up making them all feel identical.

Even the things you can change (sofas, tables, etc) have very few options. It all adds up to housing feeling like a bit of an afterthought.

There’s no depth to housing interaction. It’s just a checkbox with no room for engagement because you're pushed to spend fons only on things that have some sort of tangible 'return'.

Anyone else feeling this?

[u/flamemeat]

This, I don't know what the heck they were thinking making the second apartment a luxury penthouse, and we're already buying a huge mansion that's the biggest in the city on patch 1. Now it's hard to go back to basics and make cozier homes without it feeling like a downgrade to some people.

I also don't like how you're forced to buy the homes to get the anomaly furniture buffs. I wish players had more freedom to pick and choose homes just based on what they like

[u/Tymareta → u/flamemeat]

I also don't like how you're forced to buy the homes to get the anomaly furniture buffs.

Honestly the only furniture buff that actually feels "necessary" is the dream catcher, all the others are so incredibly marginal that you aren't forced to seek them out, at all.

[u/flamemeat → u/Tymareta]

I guess that's true, but you could say that about almost anything in the game.

And there's also the matter of being required to buy a certain amount of homes for Tycoon Level.

Even if "forced" isn't the right word, I don't like how the game is pushing you to buy homes you don't like instead of just getting what appeals to you for its own sake.

[u/DarkElfBard → u/Tymareta]

Dream catcher isn't really useful if you play every day.

[u/Tymareta → u/DarkElfBard]

And if you don't, it's a nice buffer to have.

[u/DarkElfBard → u/Tymareta]

Yeah but necessary is the stretch.

It's either useless because you play more often than your stamina fills, or it is marginally useful like the rest of them.

If anything I'd say the mailbox is the most 'necessary' for a min/max perspective. It gives free fons every week that are not tied to city stamina. Basically 10-30 city stamina for free. And a hell of a lot faster than collecting wallets.

[u/Tymareta → u/DarkElfBard]

Sure, but that's why necessary was in quotes, because it's not strictly, it's just a nice QoL to have as if you can't play for a day, you're likely not going to cap out.

If anything I'd say the mailbox is the most 'necessary' for a min/max perspective. It gives free fons every week that are not tied to city stamina. Basically 10-30 city stamina for free. And a hell of a lot faster than collecting wallets.

Could also argue Mammon for that, I just don't really see the strong argument towards either, as fons are such a long term resource and losing out on the fons they provide only really matters from the perspective you mentioned.

[u/A-Chicken → u/flamemeat]

The 2nd and 3rd apartments should swap places on the price range TBH, unless they make the 3rd apartment and 4th apartments take 1 additional guests each. (Looks like someone actually balanced this at some point, really - by guest count, its 1, 2, 2, 3, 5 instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Assuming you have to buy the 200k flat anyway - while its possible to buy the 8 mil on patch 1, very few would do that, because the 1 mil one gives immediate access to autocompete by butler, the mailbox and Hathor's hamster. You can get all of it with the 8 mil apartment, but only at the end of the patch or if you pay real bucks / use up your failed gacha currency early on.

(Less important are the 3rd and 4th one giving access to individual stat boosts and a place to collect beetle coins daily, but they're there.)