Legends of Aria Embraces the Sandbox in Their Housing Design

Housing is a cornerstone of Legends of Aria, as it serves many purposes. Not simply to show off your stuff, players can also do business there. For guilds, the guild house is a meeting place, and Guilds often try to own the land around the guild house, to form guild cities. Their housing system builds upon the non-instanced housing system designs of previous MMOs by separating the house from the land. In this system, a large lot could support several smaller houses, allowing landowners to rent their land to other players, and allows non-house structures like merchant stalls.

One thing about Legends of Aria that makes it different from modern MMOs is that every single item you find in the world has a physical appearance. This seems like it should be a given but in most MMOs these items only exist as sprites (flat 2d textures) in your inventory. One big advantage of this is that you can use any item you find in the world as a house decoration. Land ownership is limited in Legends of Aria and that gives it value. Players can buy and sell land plots. Everything on the plot will transfer to the new owner in the case of a successful real estate transaction. Weekly taxes keep land plots from being owned by inactive players. If a plot’s tax balance goes negative, the plot and everything on it will go to a live auction and ownership goes to the highest bidder.

Legends of Aria also announced it’s coming to Steam Early Access on December 4th; anyone who purchases a Founder’s Pack on their website prior to launch will get a 7-day headstart, as well as exclusive items, never to be offered again.