bogie [148747] —
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For years now most of Torn's elite have been living in exclusive private islands, but are we reaching a point of stagnation? How many more islands can this city support, and what of those who want something better?
At the time of writing, over 23,000 people are living in private islands. Some are shared between spouses of course, but much more are abandoned and unlived in, either pending a new tenant or left permanently to rot away forgotten. By contrast, there are a little over 3,800 living on the mainland in castles, over 8,000 living in palaces and 12,000 in ranches.
We don't start to see a more common type of home until we reach the mansions, with around 33,000 residents living in Torn's fifth-best property. However, I would bet there are a lot more than that currently left derelict. Some of these old mansions may be filled with squatters unable to afford better due to Duke's never ending debts. Others may have belonged to long gone inactive citizens who still think they owe money to Tim. Either way, it seems there are a lot of supposedly unoccupied residences piling up within the City.
This begs the question; just how private is your private property?
In a somewhere as hemmed-in as Torn, how can there possibly be enough room for thousands upon thousands of palaces, mansions and castles, let alone private islands? There must be something shady going on here, with the most likely scenario being that formerly abandoned properties are repossessed by the agents and resold on to unsuspecting buyers. And in some cases, the same properties are sold without being abandoned in the first place
This is the most logical explanation for the abundance of private islands in Torn. Because how big are these properties, really? With over 23,000 residents supposedly living on their own secluded island, it seems highly likely that you are sharing yours with some unsuspecting lodger. Someone who has been sold an illegal share to your island under the premise that they now own it too.
Many private island owners who proudly identified their properties on the coastal map of Torn City have been shocked to find that several others reported dwellings at the same coordinates as belonging to them. This situation was initially written off as a technical error, but the evidence seems to suggest that Torn's real estate agents are conning our city's richest residents.
Their shaky scheme must be only just managing to stay afloat through sheer luck, though. The size of these islands means that their multiple owners may never cross paths, and when they do most will write it off as a minor case of trespassing or drunken hallucination. But eventually, some are going to cotton on to the fact that their private island isn't as private as they once thought. And when this happens, the onus will be on Chedburn to do something about it.
There have been numerous outcries made to our city's leader requesting an increase in the variety of properties available - cries that will only get louder should citizens discover that their personal properties are not solely their own. But Chedburn can hardly bring new land into existence for something bigger or better, can he?
Unknown to many there are in fact better houses out there than the private island, but these are rare and come at a cost. Torn's elite can distance themselves from the commoners by living in one of the twelve unique properties created back in 2011. The additional solitude granted by these homes provides lucky residents with extra happiness and a definite part of the map to call their own. This is something many are keen to take up, even at the cost of losing perks such as airstrips, pools or shooting ranges.
These unique houses were sold via auction six years ago for prices ranging between 11-22 billion dollars. Most have remained in their original owners' possession since, and if someone wants to experience what they have to offer, they must either pay an extortionate amount to own one outright or be willing to pay 10s of millions daily for the privilege of renting one.
Only half of these unique properties have changed hands in the six years since their introduction. The Drakkar Sea Fort, formerly owned by dION, is now owned by myself. The Royal Penthouse, originally owned by David, is now home to Egypt. St Pauls Abbey, once the property of hafijur, was reclaimed by Chedburn after the permanent jailing of its owner and it now belongs to Chaos_Greg. The Presidential Bunker, first purchased by Spectre, is now the residence of deft. The USS Bloodbath, originally owned by Tezwar and myself after that, is now home to Drakkar's former owner dION. And finally, the Silo X17 also originally purchased by David, is now occupied by Tezwar.
The full list of current owners has been provided below:
(N.B. Paimon is now known as Egypt)
As you can see, it is a rather incestuous club, with property moguls like David having at one time boasted ownership of three such properties at once. Because of this close relationship, claims of insider trading are often made when these assets are transferred. Said claims fall on deaf ears, though, making it virtually impossible for everyday people ever to own one of these distinctive homes.
However, newcomers occasionally do get their hands on one at a significant cost; the most recent example being the Royal Penthouse bought for a staggering 75 billion dollars by Paimon (Egypt), and currently top of the list of tour guides headed up by top television networks. The price Paimon paid was almost double the previous newcomer purchase of around 43 billion dollars for the Presidential Bunker, and more than twice the 36 billion I paid previously for the Drakkar Sea Fort.
Although, it should be noted that the figure I have provided for Drakkar is only a rough calculation; purchasing one of these properties is not just a simple matter of money changing hands. Many of Torn's richest could afford to buy a unique home if they were offered for sale, but it often takes far more than mere money to acquire one of these prestigious properties.
Their owners seldom enjoy parting with these real estate status symbols, meaning that even the most affluent and influential people can only look on with jealousy. In my own experience, I had to work my way up the ladder to acquire the Drakkar Sea Fort, as I found that most owners prefer to swap these houses for another unique property or item, to maintain the prestige that comes with it.
I succeeded through deliberate trading up the ladder and just being in the right place at the right time. To begin with, I originally purchased the USS Bloodbath from Tezwar, who happened to mention it was for sale in the forums casually. The offer I made consisted of a Gold AK-47 (which I had bought for 20 billion from another user) along with 8 billion dollars cash. This alone is enough to make your eyes water, especially since, in my opinion, this is the worst of the houses on offer.
The USS Bloodbath, while undeniably desirable, has no pool, and therefore does not allow you to benefit from the increased gym gains. To remedy this I swapped again, offering dION my USS Bloodbath along with a set of sports sneakers I had recently won in a pumpkin carving contest - two high-cost items for a single unique property. dION accepted my offer, but this just goes to show how much it takes to acquire only the 2nd best property on the table. The owner of the most prestigious unique property, David has said he will be holding on to his Queen Eleanor until the bitter end.
One can only guess as to the kind of offer you would have to make to make him ponder the prospect of being mildly tempted to think about maybe considering selling sometime in the future.
So, back to the question posed earlier in this article: Could more of these unique homes provide a solution for Torn's housing crisis? Or must our people be subjected to bigger and bigger bills at the hands of the elite to get that additional bit of solitude? One of Torn's most popular residents, PMV, has submitted a direct request in writing to Chedburn to bring in more variety for the city, and hand control of this issue back to the people rather than the elite few.
However, in response, Chedburn has claimed he is unable to create new land in a God-like fashion but that he may be able to offer new planning permissions to existing properties for further adjustments. This change may placate some, but not everyone. Many people would pay good money to have their own, identifiable custom property. So should their needs be catered for, or are we in danger of once more pandering to Torn's gilded elite?
If more of these unique properties were to be added, then the only people who stand to benefit are the ultra-rich. The demand and cost of these unique homes has and will always be vastly underestimated by most. In adding further properties, we might just create another endless cycle of disappointment; likely resulting in current unique property owners buying the new ones up to flip in future.
So what is the solution to the housing crisis in Torn? If there comes a point where new properties of every description cannot be built, will overcrowding force us into each others' homes? Into each others' vaults perhaps? How secure are these vaults I do wonder, and what chaos would ensue if people were capable of breaking into them? And if more houses can be constructed, might we be able to destroy them eventually too? Houses can already be vandalised through the use of stink bombs, toilet paper and dog poop, but we could be looking at more permanent and destructive damage in the future.
With many Torn families now sharing streets with factions garrisoned outside their front doors claiming to own the surrounding buildings, or "territories" as they put it, could a few stray bullets or explosives put an end to someone's home ownership dreams? Plenty of users are already cashing in on arson fraud, but whose homes and warehouses are they burning down? Could it be yours next?
About these things, we can only speculate. Until a revamp is announced, those poor Torn citizens confined to regular accommodation must watch with jealous eyes from their private housing. And when they do gaze lustfully at the one-off properties owned by their rivals, they may do so alongside several others, who might all be staring out from the same stretch of coastline they all call home.
At the time of writing, over 23,000 people are living in private islands. Some are shared between spouses of course, but much more are abandoned and unlived in, either pending a new tenant or left permanently to rot away forgotten. By contrast, there are a little over 3,800 living on the mainland in castles, over 8,000 living in palaces and 12,000 in ranches.
We don't start to see a more common type of home until we reach the mansions, with around 33,000 residents living in Torn's fifth-best property. However, I would bet there are a lot more than that currently left derelict. Some of these old mansions may be filled with squatters unable to afford better due to Duke's never ending debts. Others may have belonged to long gone inactive citizens who still think they owe money to Tim. Either way, it seems there are a lot of supposedly unoccupied residences piling up within the City.
This begs the question; just how private is your private property?
In a somewhere as hemmed-in as Torn, how can there possibly be enough room for thousands upon thousands of palaces, mansions and castles, let alone private islands? There must be something shady going on here, with the most likely scenario being that formerly abandoned properties are repossessed by the agents and resold on to unsuspecting buyers. And in some cases, the same properties are sold without being abandoned in the first place
This is the most logical explanation for the abundance of private islands in Torn. Because how big are these properties, really? With over 23,000 residents supposedly living on their own secluded island, it seems highly likely that you are sharing yours with some unsuspecting lodger. Someone who has been sold an illegal share to your island under the premise that they now own it too.
Many private island owners who proudly identified their properties on the coastal map of Torn City have been shocked to find that several others reported dwellings at the same coordinates as belonging to them. This situation was initially written off as a technical error, but the evidence seems to suggest that Torn's real estate agents are conning our city's richest residents.
Their shaky scheme must be only just managing to stay afloat through sheer luck, though. The size of these islands means that their multiple owners may never cross paths, and when they do most will write it off as a minor case of trespassing or drunken hallucination. But eventually, some are going to cotton on to the fact that their private island isn't as private as they once thought. And when this happens, the onus will be on Chedburn to do something about it.
There have been numerous outcries made to our city's leader requesting an increase in the variety of properties available - cries that will only get louder should citizens discover that their personal properties are not solely their own. But Chedburn can hardly bring new land into existence for something bigger or better, can he?
Unknown to many there are in fact better houses out there than the private island, but these are rare and come at a cost. Torn's elite can distance themselves from the commoners by living in one of the twelve unique properties created back in 2011. The additional solitude granted by these homes provides lucky residents with extra happiness and a definite part of the map to call their own. This is something many are keen to take up, even at the cost of losing perks such as airstrips, pools or shooting ranges.
These unique houses were sold via auction six years ago for prices ranging between 11-22 billion dollars. Most have remained in their original owners' possession since, and if someone wants to experience what they have to offer, they must either pay an extortionate amount to own one outright or be willing to pay 10s of millions daily for the privilege of renting one.
Only half of these unique properties have changed hands in the six years since their introduction. The Drakkar Sea Fort, formerly owned by dION, is now owned by myself. The Royal Penthouse, originally owned by David, is now home to Egypt. St Pauls Abbey, once the property of hafijur, was reclaimed by Chedburn after the permanent jailing of its owner and it now belongs to Chaos_Greg. The Presidential Bunker, first purchased by Spectre, is now the residence of deft. The USS Bloodbath, originally owned by Tezwar and myself after that, is now home to Drakkar's former owner dION. And finally, the Silo X17 also originally purchased by David, is now occupied by Tezwar.
The full list of current owners has been provided below:
(N.B. Paimon is now known as Egypt)
As you can see, it is a rather incestuous club, with property moguls like David having at one time boasted ownership of three such properties at once. Because of this close relationship, claims of insider trading are often made when these assets are transferred. Said claims fall on deaf ears, though, making it virtually impossible for everyday people ever to own one of these distinctive homes.
However, newcomers occasionally do get their hands on one at a significant cost; the most recent example being the Royal Penthouse bought for a staggering 75 billion dollars by Paimon (Egypt), and currently top of the list of tour guides headed up by top television networks. The price Paimon paid was almost double the previous newcomer purchase of around 43 billion dollars for the Presidential Bunker, and more than twice the 36 billion I paid previously for the Drakkar Sea Fort.
Although, it should be noted that the figure I have provided for Drakkar is only a rough calculation; purchasing one of these properties is not just a simple matter of money changing hands. Many of Torn's richest could afford to buy a unique home if they were offered for sale, but it often takes far more than mere money to acquire one of these prestigious properties.
Their owners seldom enjoy parting with these real estate status symbols, meaning that even the most affluent and influential people can only look on with jealousy. In my own experience, I had to work my way up the ladder to acquire the Drakkar Sea Fort, as I found that most owners prefer to swap these houses for another unique property or item, to maintain the prestige that comes with it.
I succeeded through deliberate trading up the ladder and just being in the right place at the right time. To begin with, I originally purchased the USS Bloodbath from Tezwar, who happened to mention it was for sale in the forums casually. The offer I made consisted of a Gold AK-47 (which I had bought for 20 billion from another user) along with 8 billion dollars cash. This alone is enough to make your eyes water, especially since, in my opinion, this is the worst of the houses on offer.
The USS Bloodbath, while undeniably desirable, has no pool, and therefore does not allow you to benefit from the increased gym gains. To remedy this I swapped again, offering dION my USS Bloodbath along with a set of sports sneakers I had recently won in a pumpkin carving contest - two high-cost items for a single unique property. dION accepted my offer, but this just goes to show how much it takes to acquire only the 2nd best property on the table. The owner of the most prestigious unique property, David has said he will be holding on to his Queen Eleanor until the bitter end.
One can only guess as to the kind of offer you would have to make to make him ponder the prospect of being mildly tempted to think about maybe considering selling sometime in the future.
So, back to the question posed earlier in this article: Could more of these unique homes provide a solution for Torn's housing crisis? Or must our people be subjected to bigger and bigger bills at the hands of the elite to get that additional bit of solitude? One of Torn's most popular residents, PMV, has submitted a direct request in writing to Chedburn to bring in more variety for the city, and hand control of this issue back to the people rather than the elite few.
However, in response, Chedburn has claimed he is unable to create new land in a God-like fashion but that he may be able to offer new planning permissions to existing properties for further adjustments. This change may placate some, but not everyone. Many people would pay good money to have their own, identifiable custom property. So should their needs be catered for, or are we in danger of once more pandering to Torn's gilded elite?
If more of these unique properties were to be added, then the only people who stand to benefit are the ultra-rich. The demand and cost of these unique homes has and will always be vastly underestimated by most. In adding further properties, we might just create another endless cycle of disappointment; likely resulting in current unique property owners buying the new ones up to flip in future.
So what is the solution to the housing crisis in Torn? If there comes a point where new properties of every description cannot be built, will overcrowding force us into each others' homes? Into each others' vaults perhaps? How secure are these vaults I do wonder, and what chaos would ensue if people were capable of breaking into them? And if more houses can be constructed, might we be able to destroy them eventually too? Houses can already be vandalised through the use of stink bombs, toilet paper and dog poop, but we could be looking at more permanent and destructive damage in the future.
With many Torn families now sharing streets with factions garrisoned outside their front doors claiming to own the surrounding buildings, or "territories" as they put it, could a few stray bullets or explosives put an end to someone's home ownership dreams? Plenty of users are already cashing in on arson fraud, but whose homes and warehouses are they burning down? Could it be yours next?
About these things, we can only speculate. Until a revamp is announced, those poor Torn citizens confined to regular accommodation must watch with jealous eyes from their private housing. And when they do gaze lustfully at the one-off properties owned by their rivals, they may do so alongside several others, who might all be staring out from the same stretch of coastline they all call home.
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