Stairwell room cost

Gameplay Housing
1

I’m not sure if this is intended, but I’ve noticed that when you build an empty stairwell room it will cost you 6 points and give you a 2 story room. Each addition to that empty stairwell room however still costs 6, but only adds 1 additional story to the room.

It feels like extending an empty stairwell room up/down should either cost 3, since you’re getting half the space you would be getting with a 6, or extend the room 2 stories just as the initial room does.

Am I the only one who’s noticed this/feels this way? I might have a bias given that I’m building a very vertical house, but it feels like either options would be a good change.

2 Likes
2

A small room is 5 budget, stairwell empty room is double the space of a small room vertically for 1 extra budget.

3

This ^

The empty stairwell room is a great bargain so extending it upwards or downwards at the cost of the additional small room plus one extra is still a good deal. I’m fine with paying 6 every time I want to stretch my stairwell space. Those rooms are incredibly versatile.

4

I believe you gentlemen are misunderstanding the OP’s coment.

If you build an empty stairwell room (cost 6) and expand that stairwell room up to a third floor (additional cost 6, total cost 12), you will essentially have THREE small rooms for the cost of 12 because you’re expanding up.

However, if you build an empty stairwell room (cost 6) , and then go to the second floor, and build another empty stairwell room that is adjacent to the first (additional cost 6, total cost 12) , you now have FOUR small rooms for the cost of 12. Expanding stairwells up and down shouldn’t cost as much as a whole new staircase room.

4 Likes
5

The stairwell rooms are expandable 1 level rooms (the stairwell rooms with stairs already in them work the same way). Every time you place a new stairwell room, you receive an extra room above or below it for FREE. Expanding stairwell rooms is basically buying additional expandable room levels so each additional one costs the same as the original one.

While the stairwell rooms appear to be two levels, they are in fact single level rooms that come with one additional free level when they are first placed. This is why a blueprint is required for each level of a stairwell room.

This was confirmed to be the case on one of the Housing discords by a Blizzard employee.

6

Lets ignore other rooms to make a vertical shaft because if you did have other rooms the budget would be way higher. If we were to stack individual small rooms vs expanding a stairwell room, this is what the total budget would look like.
Floor: Small, Stairwell extension
Floor 1: 5, 6
Floor 2: 10, 6
Floor 3: 15, 12
Floor 4: 20, 18
Floor 5: 25, 24
Floor 6: 30, 30
Floor 7: 35, 36

1 Like
7

You are both once again misunderstanding OP’s original comment. Instead of expanding a single shaft directly upward, if you placed a staircase adjacent to the first staircase, you get the whole small room for free again. That way you can get 4 ‘small room equivalents’ for 12 instead of 3 ‘small room equivalent’ for 12.

Nobody is saying to use the actual small rooms. OP is arguing that by expanding an empty stairwell up vs. placing another stairwell adjacent, you lose an entire floor through expanding.

Explained another way:

If you if place an empty stair room (COST 6) and then you expand it up one level (TOTAL COST 12), you now have three floors, one small room at each floor.

If you place an empty stair room (COST 6), and then you place another empty stair room starting at Floor 2 (TOTAL COST 12) next to the first empty stair room, you now have three floors, but Floor 2 will have two ‘small rooms’. You get way more space for your budget by not expanding stairs. Expanding stairwells should only cost 3, not 6.

1 Like
8

Lets see if I can ascii-paint this one:

Usual situation: total cost 2x6=12 → 3 rooms

– – – – – – –

| Room 3|

– – – – – – –

| Room 2 |

– – – – – – –

| Room 1|

– – – – – – –

Situation OP: total cost 2x6=12 → 4 rooms

x x x x x – – – – – – –

no room | Room 4 |

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

| Room 2 | Room 3 |

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

| Room 1 |

– – – – – – –

Looks interesting, guess I’ll be doing some experimenting tonight to see what options this gives. I’m thinking of building a stairway from room 1 - through the wall between 2 and 3 and up into 4.

2 Likes
9

Blizz isn’t going to change the cost of the stairwell rooms. The initial stairwell room should cost 12 since you are getting two small rooms (cost 5 each) plus 2 more for the extra flexibility in allowing for vertical expansion. Paying more for additional functionality is to be expected so getting a free bonus room with the initial purchase is nice.

It was probably easier to program in a free bonus level for each separate stairwell room added and keep the cost the same per level than it would have been to have one cost for the initial room and a different cost for adding more levels.

If you feel so strongly about the costs then just use the stairwells at the initial 6 cost and don’t expand them up or down. If you use all stairwell rooms in your build, you will have double the space that you would have had spending it all on single level rooms. It really just comes down to deciding if you want the most space for your room points or if you are willing to pay a little more to bring to life the ideas that you come up with.

It’s a pointless argument though. It’s not going to be changed no matter how many people feel it should have been done differently. As the room budget goes up, those few points become more and more meaningless as it’s already getting to the point at level 12 where you can’t even decorate all of the rooms you have built unless you have a bunch of empty hallways and sparsely decorated rooms.

10

You’re a hero

1 Like
11

it IS a pointless argument, because you refuse to read.

2 Likes
12

Not everyone has great reading comprehension, and that’s ok. We need to take it upon ourselves to explain it in a way that everyone can understand.

1 Like
13

I have read and understood every post from the start. While I would like to get an absurdly huge discount on the rooms as you propose, I actually understand how the current cost structure works and feel that it is a great bargain. Just because I don’t agree with your argument doesn’t mean that I didn’t read it and understand your thought process in coming up with it. A Blizz employee confirmed that it’s set up to give you a free level when you initially place the room.

If you get a coupon for a store or restaurant with a ‘buy one get one free’ deal. You pay full cost for the one item and get a second one free. If you decide you want three items, you have to pay full cost for the third item. If you decide you only want one of the items and try to return it, they won’t give you any money back (you might get the sales tax for the one item back if it was charged initially) because you didn’t actually pay for the second item. This is how the stairwell costs work - you buy the initial one and get one free but that doesn’t mean you get all subsequent ones at half-off.

Expecting to pay 3 for a room that would normally cost 5 is unrealistic. If they charged per room level from the start, there is no way they would charge less than 5 (normal cost for a room that size) for a room that has more features. I know we all want to get things as cheaply as possible but I don’t see any cost structure changes in the foreseeable future.

As I said before, if you don’t want to pay 6 to go up or down another level, just build a second stairwell room to get another free level. Personally I think that the larger rooms cost way too much compared to the cost of other smaller rooms so I won’t use any of the medium or large rooms unless I have a very specific need for that size.

14

Okay, did a little more experimenting. Here’s the OP’s suggestion of building again, seen from the side:

x x x x x – – – – – – –

no room | Room 4 |

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

| Room 2 | Room 3 |

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

| Room 1 |

– – – – – – –

First test, what happens when you build a stairwell room next to room 4 and above room 2?

It connects the stairwell to room 2 and calculates the cost as if building staight up (12 room points for 1 stairwell at level 3 and 4.

Next I tried going in a circle, each time connecting the new stairwell room to the top floor. This is how it looks in the top down view ingame:

– – – – – – – – | – – – – – – – – –

| Stairwell 3 > Stairwell 4 |

– – – – ^ – – – | – – – – v – – – –

| Stairwell 2 < Stairwell 1&5 |

– – – – – – – – | – – – – – – – – –

Working upwards from 1 to 4 you get an extra room “for free” ( aka 2 rooms for 6), nothing special there and you can keep going up this way until you run out of room points.

Each stairwell starts at the level of it’s number. So stairwell 1 is level 1+2, stairwell 2 is level 2+3, stairwell 3 is level 3+4, and stairwell 4 is level 4+5.

With stairwell 5 it became interesting. When going down it creates a room at level 5+4, but it also connects to the existing stairwell 1 (level 1+2), creating an extra room at level 3 at an extra cost of 6. So three rooms costing 12.

Then I figured… can we cheese the system into giving back points? So I started removing stairwell 2, 3 and 4 - in that order. Stairwell 1 and 5 remained in place including the extra room at level 3, and the recalculated cost was as if I had built straight up from floor 1 to 5.

Conclusion so far: the “extra free room” trick works, as long as you don’t come close to an existing stairwell above or below it.

A fun little experiment for me, maybe handy info for other builders. :wink: