Be a landlord

[bk3000]

Allow you to take one of your buildings, and put it up for rent (not purchase). Much like clicking on a door in a NPC town you might see "purchase" button after clicking on a door. Only in your town you might see the "rent" button. And if rented out already an "evict" button in case you think better of it later. And I'd think different buildings would have different rent values that go up with size.

A family (squad) might move in (maybe you have to go out and advertise). That means you have some civilians livening up your base and a means towards regular income. Perhaps they do some farming while they're there. Perhaps they do some shopping (buy your stuff) for more income. But they probably won't stay if you don't keep them safe.

And perhaps whatever local power is pissed about you doing this with the land they feel is theirs, demand a cut of the rent, etc. At least with your own base. You might be able to buy houses in town and rent them back out though without much trouble. In which case the purchase price should probably go up.

[swillo]

It has been discussed before and I like the idea of being able to have buildings in your "outpost" that outsiders can "buy" from you. so that you can have citizens and such start populating your town. So you build a building and put it up for sale and someone shows up and turns it into a Bar or shop or a house, and they make their life there without joining your group.
What I see as the issue is, at what point does it cease to be your outpost and become theirs? When they own 51% of the buildings? If they are living there don't they have a say in how it's run? What if they are not happy with the way you run things, will they leave, or will they kill you in your sleep. What buildings are for community use, like wells and power stations? What if they are using too much power and water can you cut them off? Why can't they start building their own buildings like farms and such. Now we need a system for handling plots of land.

I really see a huge game play area here in the idea of setting up a settlement, but currently in Kenshi you are only building an outpost. some place to lay your head and recover your wounds in relative safety until you can get back out there.
And adding all the things that it would take to make it a settlement building game will really cause the background processors to get over worked. I don't know that my machine could handle it. As this same system would effect all the towns and buildings in the game.

[bk3000]

It has been discussed before and I like the idea of being able to have buildings in your "outpost" that outsiders can "buy" from you. so that you can have citizens and such start populating your town. So you build a building and put it up for sale and someone shows up and turns it into a Bar or shop or a house, and they make their life there without joining your group.

Well I'd like that if someone wanted to open a bar or other shop. Especially a bar because those are lively and attract potential recruits, mercenaries, and the like. Perhaps the occasional trouble maker. But I was thinking mostly just tenants looking for a place to live. That would be even better than I was thinking.

Why can't they start building their own buildings like farms and such. Now we need a system for handling plots of land.

I'm not thinking anything radically different than the current system. Buying a building in town doesn't give you free reign to build anything outside of it. Only build things inside/on top of it. So you could think your tenants might bring furniture too. Perhaps a little system where upon it being rented out, the game loads a standard load-out of interior furniture. And that goes away when they move out/get evicted. I think that might already be the case with citizens in towns owning buildings (until you buy them).

Note that when you have buildings in town, you are connected to their power grid so naturally it should work the same for your tenants. And thinking about this too, they could change the "purchase" option to "rent" and thus it continually costs you money. Or offer that as an alternative. Buy for a lot of cats, or rent to deal with immediate needs in-town. So you "buying" anything in the early game isn't likely. I mean you're poor to start, and real estate is one of the most expensive things there is. You shouldn't be a home owner on day 2. Also yes... rent is a ripoff but that's how it is in real life too. Yet that's the only option when you don't have money. It is expensive to be poor.

What I see as the issue is, at what point does it cease to be your outpost and become theirs? When they own 51% of the buildings? If they are living there don't they have a say in how it's run? What if they are not happy with the way you run things, will they leave, or will they kill you in your sleep.

Well that's the thing, this is a little different. This idea isn't that you don't put your stuff up for sale. You put it up for rent (thus you still own it). Hence "Be a landlord" not "Be a property developer." It never would become theirs. That means slow/sustained income rather than a one time larger amount from you selling property (which in my opinion is way too cheap anyhow). So they mostly have to make do with what you make available.

As for them attacking you, That doesn't seem likely. Most citizens wouldn't present much threat anyhow. Be sure to put "no ninjas" on your tenant agreement to ward off being killed in your sleep. Anyhow I think they'd normally just move and you'd have a vacancy to fill.

What buildings are for community use, like wells and power stations? What if they are using too much power and water can you cut them off?

We already can handle that question with the existing public/private option that exists per building. Personally I wouldn't be bothered if they're doing things like using my wells, farmland, and taking a portion of the crops in exchange for their labor... which frees up my labor for other things.

And yes you'd need to keep them reasonably happy or they move out. They're probably using a modest amount of your power. If they're getting attacked, they're moving out. If their interior furniture isn't powered, they're moving out, etc. And maybe they just have a threshold of dissatisfaction before that. They might just complain before that. Think "following and talking" to complain LOL. If they need an available (built and set to public) farm plot/well, then they might complain about that and move if you don't address it within a time frame.

It might also be interesting to make some dialog options for your tenants too, but that's a stretch thing. Both the active type where you can talk and choose options (negotiating/more complex things), and the type where they just say things. Plus randomly talking to your people, maybe condition based.

A lot of the systems needed are already mostly in place. But I suppose they'd need to address what happens when you import game. Maybe the tenant (squad) could be just more building data? Anyhow I think a lot of the specifics could be accomplished today in FCS (thus by modders), except for the ability to add the "rent" functionality - namely something to assign a squad template to a particular player-owned building. If that already exists then I missed it. Ideally we'd need a button added to the UI too - when you click on the door.