From our Medium article:

Details, Rules, and Deed NFT sale hints

Housing Placement

The type of deed determines where the housing can be placed in-game. The general areas for accommodation are NPC Town Limits, Wild PvP Areas, and Claimed Territory. NPC Town Limits are directly inside the NPC Town gates and along its outer walls. Wild PvP areas are zones that allow PvP conflict; these zones are in deeper areas of the map. Claimed Territory can be anywhere a tower or castle has been placed and has extended the user’s regional claim. Castles and towers in Claimed Territory inherit the PvP attributes of the map if placed in a Wild Area.

Housing in Metagates is scarce and will be a fiercely competitive market. There will only be enough small huts for eighty percent of the server’s maximum concurrent players.

Housing space is measured by wall X by wall Y multiplied by the number of floors, giving meters squared for its total area. The space one player character occupies in the game is approximately one unit, or one meter squared.

Placement will be on a first-come, first-served basis, and players will have to find areas on the map that support their deed size. There may be special NFTs that will grant the ability to give players first “dibs” on server opening and for 24 hours after new regions are unlocked through the gate. These NFTs are very limited if/when available.

Housing Deeds

Small Hut 4×4 16 Units of Space.

Small Huts are the most plentiful deed type. They can be minted in the sale and redeemed by transmuting the Albino and Slime body type of The Business NFT. These housing units can be placed in a town or in castle/tower territory. These properties have a base tax to maintain placement inside NPC cities, and castle/tower owners can charge up to three times on top of that tax amount for rent while being placed within their territories. The mint price will be 0.15 ETH at a supply of 5,000. The 5000 supply in the housing mint is separate from the rewards in The Business NFT redemption.

Wilderness Cabin 6×6 36 Units of Space.

Cabins can be placed only in Wild PvP areas and cannot be placed within towns or regions claimed by towers/castles. These locations are for the brave who want to make it independently. The cabin can be placed in remote areas other property types cannot reach but will still owe a monthly placement tax. The only way to acquire a cabin is through minting during the NFT Property Deed mint, trading on a third-party market, or trading in-game with Ethereum or in-game gold. The mint price will be 0.30 ETH with a 750 supply.

Large Wilderness Lodge 8×8 64 Units of Space.

Independent players who like to rough it in a PvP zone and want more storage space will find this housing a decent upgrade from the smaller wilderness cabin. They are placeable only in Wild PvP areas and cannot be placed within towns or regions claimed by towers/castles. These properties still owe a monthly placement tax like the smaller wilderness cabin. The only way to acquire a cabin is through minting during the NFT Property Deed mint, trading on a third-party market, or trading in-game with Ethereum or in-game gold. The mint price will be 0.5 ETH with a 750 supply.

Duplex Villa Inn 9×10 Two Floors 180 Units of Space.

The inn is the first and smallest unit with an entrepreneurial spirit. The inn is placeable inside NPC Towns and regions claimed by towers or castles. The second floor consists of a default layout of 10 rooms that the owner can rent to other players. The structure is planned to be customizable in future game builds, allowing more rooms to be squeezed into the floor plan. The property owner or manager sets rental terms and duration. The owner or manager has a non-rental room on the bottom floor. These properties owe tax and or rent depending on where it is placed. The mint price will be 1.5 ETH with 250 available.

Tower 14×14 Four Floors 784+ Units of Space.

There are two types of towers in-game, the first is the one minted through the NFT Housing Deed sale, and the second is the tower awarded for burning the Solana body type poop from The Business NFT collection. The first type of tower can claim land and rent the land out to smaller units. The second cannot claim land rights and is only placeable in Wild PVP areas, just like a cabin.

Towers minted from the NFT Housing Deed sale are the smallest property that can claim control over land. They are placeable in parts of the map that do not conflict with NPC Town zones or territory already overlapping with another tower or castle. The area claimed by the tower can rent placement rights to small huts and inns. There will also be other gold-generating activities possible such as connecting players to the auction house, fast travel, and other functions that will be added as the game expands. The mint price will be 15 ETH with 30 available.

Tower awarded from the Solana body type redemption:

The Legacy tower is obtained by redeeming the Solana body type NFT. The Legacy Tower will be a bastion in the wild, reaching far deeper into the red than any claimed region dares to venture. The Legacy tower is similar to a large wilderness cabin but at ten times the size. The Legacy tower will not be able to claim regional land and is just an extremely large housing unit.

Castle 28×28 Two floors 1568+ Units of Space.

Castles are the most significant property that can claim control over the surrounding land. They are placeable in parts of the map that do not conflict with NPC Town zones or territory already overlapping with another tower or castle. The area claimed by the castle can rent placement rights to small huts and inns. There will also be other gold-generating activities possible such as connecting players to the auction house, fast travel, and other functions that will be added as gameplay expands.

Castles are massive; their default claimable land holds almost double the land rental space of a tower. And because of their size and influence on the game, there will only be 20 mintable during the NFT sale. The mint price will be 40 ETH with 20 available.

Renting details expanded

The Duplex Inn will have ten rooms to rent out. The starting charge for the rooms will be a monthly cycle at the rate equal to the base tax of a small hut per room. Owners will have the option to adjust to weekly cycles and change the rent amount.

Castles and Towers rent the land plots to the small huts or inns around their territory. By default, rent is set at a base game tax with the option to increase it up to 3x the base tax and is locked in for three months. For rent to be increased during an active lease, it will need a two-month buffer window. Caps on the maximum rent will be removed after the game economy stabilizes.

Castle and Tower Extended Economy details expanded

Lording over a region is an advantageous affair. Rent for the land around a castle or tower can often greatly outweigh the tax for owning such a beastly property. Fast travel, connection to the central auction house, and use of the building’s advanced crafting/repair tables can all be services that incur hefty tithes according to volume. For lords that actively invest and grow their communities in their regions, quality of life additions through the spending of game resources can bring on new functions allowing them to incur new gold revenue streams.

For large guilds and gaming groups, controlling a region next to the PvP/PvE hotspots will shape how the game is played in those regions. Travel in Metagates is hard, and bringing loot from one place to the next is a risk!

Castle and Tower functions are still tentative and will evolve as the beta continues to develop.

Housing taxes are charged monthly and are calculated by a formula based on the total of gold collected by the players in the previous month. This system creates a dynamic tax/rent price that lowers the tax when there is a smaller player base and gold mining efficiency is low, and a hard cap on how high the tax can rise because the amount of gold dripped monthly is limited. A small hut is considered the base tax rate, and the ratio is established against how much bigger the other units are compared to the small house. Even with a tax rate 100x higher than a hut, a castle is still potentially profitable in gold as it can rent space to around 200 homes.

The base tax rate is owed at the end of the month. Small huts and inns inside the NPC Town owe the base rate + 25% if the town housing plots are at total capacity. Cabins/Towers/Castles in the wild always owe a base tax rate.

Towers and Castles that want to claim extra territory over the base territory will increase their tax rate as the size scales upwards. Owners collecting rent cannot claim profits until the Tower/Castle’s base tax is paid.