Has anybody else wondered why you can't just take over houses? NPCs seem to have done it in Dernholm, but you can't... I'm speaking about sleeping in the beds of said houses, by the way. You can only use Inns to sleep, and you have to pay for a bed... even if you've killed the innkeeper and, theoretically, now own the house. Anybody else disappointed with this?
Kinda, yeah. Even if I'd never use the feature, Morrowinding a house should still be available. 'course, then inns become useless, but they were anyway. (Mages don't need 'em. ^^)
In a sense, one can squat. I haven't tested this myself, but I am lead to believe that articles left in containers such as chests and barrels will remain there indeffinitely. As far as free beds, I don't know of any. Remembering back to my Final Fantasy II days I would fly around the world in my airship to sleep in a free bed rather than pay at an inn. These days, I chalk paying for a bed at an inn as another aspect of the role playing experience. Furthermore, one finds himself with an abundance of coin endgame so that dropping the trifling sum here and there at an inn should not be that painful.
In some of my games I squat in Liam's workshop, since it's quite cosy and ownerless anyway. Especially useful for mages, since they can easily teleport there every evening for a good night's sleep, which is not only cheeper than the inns (free, after all), but it gives you the feel that you have your own place in the world of Arcanum. Count Novitas, my evil battle-mage, even preferred it over his very own mansion in Tarant, since teleporting to the workshop was much quicker than walking all the way to the said mansion. Not to mention how the workshop is much safer - the Count had a lot of enemies and everyone knew where his mansion was, so why would he risk being killed in his sleep when he could sleep in a small house in the middle of nowhere? The only drawback was the fact, that from time to time he was awaken in the middle of the night by some wolves or rats outside the house. Or inside it. When did those bastards learn to open doors anyway?
It's not about cost so much as convenience/immersion. If I kill everyone in a town, then the town should be mine. I should be able to sleep where I want. ESPECIALLY if the former occupants of the town were squatters themselves (Dernholm)!
The Blackroot Inn is another nice choice, safe for the "your own place" feeling. It has a very short teleport-to-bed walking distance... plus as an evil character, you can kill the half-orc blacksmith for the strongbox, admit you killed him, and still get your free bed. You don't pay either, and the place is not dusty and smelly like Liam's workshop, plus you get to order the innkeeper around... "Bring me my wine and steak right now or you'll be sleeping next to the blacksmith!"
The Blackroot Inn is nice since it indeed can become rightfully ours and is a quality stay. I do prefer the workshop for my evil mages though, because if my character would sleep in a city in the same inn every night, it would be but a matter a time before his enemies would get to know about it, bribe the innkeeper and assassinate my character in his sleep. If he sleeps in the middle of nowhere with no one even knowing about the place's existance (not to speak of it's location) it's much safer. So I'd say the Blackroot Inn is nice for good mages, while Liam's Workshop is good for the evil ones. Sad thing all my the good mages I played so far were played prior to the UAP, where the whole Blackroot strongbox thingy was bugged, disabling an eternally free room.
Technically, to get the most immersion, slaughtering an entire town should cause the Tarantian army to bear down on your position.
I see your point now, IdiotFool. A bed being merely a bed should permit unrestricted use. Perhaps sleeping in beds without paying would negatively impact people's reaction to your character.
That's all well and good, however the workshop was originally owned by a technologist, so immersing yourself in the game, really you would think the tech that is meant to be lying around there would hinder your powers.
Not necessarily. I have thrown out all of the tech items from the workshop. We could of course speculate that there are a lot of minor tech items all over it and that it's just not shown in the game, but in that case we can just roleplay that we have disposed of it as well (because if this was real life, we'd do it as quick as possible), thus making the house clean from tech aura.
