Suggestions for Mansion Improvements

[Stylesjl]

So I have had some thoughts about the use of mansions in the game. Normally I don't really build or buy mansions as I find them useless.

But in general I thought I would write a few reasons on why I think they are useless:

1) Mansions don't actually cost a lot of money. One of the most surprising things about the in game mansion is that despite the fact that they are supposed to be a display of immense wealth they are actually very cheap to build, especially if the land is cheap. Here is an example of the most expensive mansion type:

MansionCost.png (4.96 KiB) Viewed 3537 times

It only costs 100 thousand for the building. That's comparable to a typical home, not a mansion.

My suggestion to fix this is that mansions should have a much wider price range. I recommend starting with the minimum cost of 500 thousand (for the building). And for a high end price I think it would be interesting to see mansions at the 100 million mark, which would give the player something substantial to aim for in terms of personal wealth and granting a sense of accomplishment.

For reference I found these articles on mansion costs which notes that in general you are unlikely to find mansions below 500 thousand in terms of cost and that the median mansion is 1.8 million in terms of cost (varies by region):
https://www.pacaso.com/blog/how-much-do ... nsion-cost
https://www.e-architect.com/articles/ho ... nsion-cost

2) Mansions are economically inert - once you build them they have no effect on the economy other than giving the local city government some cash from the land sale (in the CES DLC). The mansions do not pay any tax, they don't produce anything, they don't contribute to GDP. All they do is just sit there and get in the way of productive enterprises.

This is made all the more annoying by the fact that every single in-game person will buy one mansion each, which adds up to a lot of mansions (I moved them all here so they wouldn't get in my way):

EveryoneHasAMansion.png (269.98 KiB) Viewed 3537 times

Some suggestions to improve this:

If suggestion 1 is implemented far fewer of the persons will be able to afford mansions - meaning there are less of them around. But also:

- Mansions should have maintenance costs or taxes. If the person can't afford them then they should demolish them and sell the land. It also means that they have some ongoing impact on the economy aside from taking up space.
- In game persons should also upgrade mansions - if they are making money from their Senior Executive Jobs, Dividends, Stocks, etc they should demolish their old mansions and get new, more expensive ones, this helps to make the mansion system a bit interesting as it will change over time and not just have the person sit in the same house forever.
- Mansions should have a small boost to the local consumer economy, since people live in there including the owner and staff they should should consume some resources as well such as food, appliances, automobiles, jewellery, etc. It does not have to be extreme but in general given the wealth of the owners the amount of resources consumed would be disproportionate to the average citizen, especially for low necessity goods.

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Anyway these are some ideas I have on the mansions within the game, although perhaps if the Millionaire Life DLC is being implemented then these might be some of the changes that could be added.

[cantdownloadit]

all buildings are unrealistically cheap to build not just mansions, it would be even stranger to me if a mansion cost 20 million and i can build a whole supermarket for 100k.

i still think mansions should be taken entirely off the base map, and if you build a mansion its in its own seperate area, where you can add multiple upgrades as your wealth/influence increases.

[Stylesjl]

i still think mansions should be taken entirely off the base map, and if you build a mansion its in its own seperate area, where you can add multiple upgrades as your wealth/influence increases.

This is also an interesting idea as well - an entirely separate place to add a mansion and put upgrades on it. Though this might require a lot more coding to implement though.

[Paulywauly]

I think the mansions should be left in the base map, but there should definitely be a wider range of houses available ranging from small up to estate size costing $10s or $100s of millions. Perhaps with the option of adding on gardens, tennis courts, swimming pools etc. on to the property. Include an annual property tax on it and have increase the surrounding land value. It is a good idea to have something in the game that shows the player's wealth other than just numbers on the screen.

[anjali]

not every country does have property tax, so its good not to have it ingame. i certainly wouldnt want a house or piece of land if i got to pay rent to the government even though i am owning it, its mine, not gonna pay rent for it to some lunatic

i usually have a mansion or 1 each city later in the game, but usually i just buy the mansions from AIs because they re in the way and i buy n rip them down to get the land underneath it. sure make them hundreds of millions a house i wouldnt own one then even if thats just needs me to give me for 1 year a salary that gives me the money for the mansion, as a hundred million can be used for buying up land or whatever and usually i got no money in the pocket even with multi billion companies and any salary goes back to purchase shares of my companies

[Paulywauly]

Whether it's property tax or maintenance cost, it's more realistic to have a revenue expenditure when owning a property. True that not all countries have property tax, but considering there is no corporation tax in the game either, it's unrealistic. The mansions are a piece of the game and if people don't like them, don't build them. I think it would be a good idea to have areas of the map that CANT have manisons to stop AI from building them in random places.

[anjali]

no corporation tax? uh up to 26% in those AI controlled cities and no way to avoid it. even interest paid for loans must be taxed and are not deductable, so you can even loose money i.e. you make 500k a month pay 120k corporation tax and pay 450k interest on interest for laons thats 70k loss a month. at least speculative income are tax free to counter this. but yes some maintenance to keep the mansions in shape is ok, just not too crazy like 40-60k a year is more then enough to keep a house in good conditions

and yes those 100+ mansions per city can be a disturbance, but its actually the only reason for me to build up private cash in order to buy them up once for sale, though they been a hell more expensive in the past, i remember paying 30m and more to buy up a single mansion, but that was mainly due to 3x3 mansions and price was up to about a million to build that made them 30m+ in hot spots, those 2x2 now for all mansions help a lot to get rid of them over time. in cities controlled by myself i give residential space only free at the beach side where they can build the mansions and wont disturb anyone, and after those mansions are build, i add parks around it gives it a nice beach scene

[cantdownloadit]

mansions should have running costs