Every now and again, either Steve or I get questions about rent and why it appears to be overdue according to the notice on the login chat.

The short answer is: It isn't. The dev-supported guideline for base rent is: DO NOT PAY THE RENT ON TIME.

I know this flies against every single responsible-person instinct we have. However, this is, in fact, what we're expected to do. In order to get the most mileage for our prestige, base rent should only be paid within 10-14 days AFTER the rent due date.

I promise the rent will always be covered on time and the base will not be powered down. Those of you with rent pay privileges -- please don't pay unless:

a) we're not going to be there and ask for someone to cover (like we did with vacation) or

b) for some unknown reason, we vanish off the face of the earth and the base powers down (highly unlikely - I'd say totally improbable, but hey, you never know what'll happen with the weird weather this year.)

And that said, if anyone wants to volunteer to be responsible for keeping track of and paying the rent, please let me know! First come, first gets it.  I'll still be glad to play backup if you can't do it for one week for some reason, just let me know.

For those of you who want more explanation on how the system works, here goes.

People who pay on time or pay early are essentially penalized for doing so. The devs know this is the case, and there've been a multitude of posts with people asking why the notification system is set up as it is, but it is as it is, and it's not going to be changed any time soon.

Here's how the cycle works.

Rent is paid based on the following cycle:

Note 1: After payment go to beginning of rent cycle (step 1).

Note 2: If paid after rent is due, but before base is shut down, rent cycle acts as if the due date was the start of cycle. So if you paid on day 13 after the rent was due, on day 14 you'd get the new rent notice.

If you pay rent *early* (which most of us responsible adults would tend to do) you actually gyp yourself out of prestige because the cycle resets early.  If you pay the date the rent notice comes out, you are actually paying a *monthly* rent *twice* a month. (We did that for the first couple of months, out of ignorance.)

If you pay the rent on Day 28, you lose a two-week freebie rent period which you could have without penalty. There is also no penalty cost if the base is powered down. All you have to do is pay the rent due, and everything immediately powers right back up. From what I have read on the boards, the devs expect us to use the Day 29-Day 42 rent free period to pay the bill, so this is in no way using any sort of illegal loophole.

To me, this is bork city, especially since the cycle is poorly explained on the help material. I also don't approve of basically punishing people for being responsible. However, I didn't design the system; I just use it.

I typically time the payment to be around Day 38-Day 40 after the day rent appears to be due, just to be on the safe side, and don't allow the base to be powered down (though some people do).  I prefer not to let it power down because it could inconvenience people.

So, yes, paying late means we stare at an overdue notice and our responsible spot itches for two weeks. However, it's worth it, prestige-wise.

Some other rent factoids for those of you still reading:

By my (conservative) estimations, we paid in excess of **480K** in rent for our 8x8 base from the time we opened it until we did our first size upgrade. As luck would have it, we were ready to upgrade to an 8x12 plot the week after 8x8 plots were made rent-free.  At the same time that 8x8 plots were made rent-free, base rent was substantially reduced.

To give you some idea just how much things have changed, we owe approximately 40K a month now for our 12x12 base. The month before we upgraded to our 8x12 and rents were reduced, our rent bill was 80K -- for one month, for an 8x8 plot. This was because instead of being based solely on plot size (as it is now) we were also charged for the amount of prestige we had saved and any and all improvements we had in the base. A double whammy.

To put it into more perspective, that 480K we overpaid would be the difference we now need to buy our new generator. We could have upgraded to our new plot a month earlier than we did. It's a huge chunk of prestige for a moderately sized SG. However, despite many requests, especially from smaller groups who were hit even harder than we were, no refund was ever given for the overpaid rent.

Given that we paid a great deal of rent for a now-free 8x8 base plot for a full year, at a much higher rate than what is charged now, and given that we did not get any refunds at all for all that rent we were charged...getting the two weeks' worth of additional time out of the system is about all we can hope for in compensation.  Let's take what we can get.

~Elizabeth