Housing (Pharaoh)

For the disambiguation page on this game mechanic article, see Housing.

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Housing is a game mechanic found in Pharaoh. Just like with Caesar 3, housing is placed generically and can be evolved in manors and estates when provided with the needed commodities.

Background

Housing act as homes for the population of the city. As no city can operate without people, housing are essential for any scenario.

When housing is initially placed, they are simple vacant plots. Like most other buildings, these plots must be within two tiles of a Road to function properly. Once a valid plot is placed, immigrants arrive from the entry point of the map (the beginning of the kingdom road) and enter the housing.

Once housing is occupied, it takes the form of a crude hut. Housing is initially run-down and primitive, but improves with access to goods, services, and desirability. Improved housing holds many advantages: they have decreased risk to fire (after a certain level is reached), disease, malaria, and crime, can hold more people per unit of space, generate higher tax income, raise the desirability of the neighborhood, and boost the prosperity level of a city. In order for housing to have access to services, they simply require a walker from the service they need to walk within two tiles of them. In order for housing to receive goods and food, they require the service of Bazaars that have access to properly-stocked Granaries and Storage Yards.

As stated above, housing has many risks: crime, malaria, disease, and fire. Risks of these occurring almost always decrease the further houses are upgraded. The one exception to this is fire: risk increases up until ordinary cottages, before falling all the way up to and including palatial estates. Housing is initially undesirable in and of itself. However, as housing upgrades, the negativity of its desirability diminishes until it becomes positive. At the highest levels, housing are very desirable, although they invariably need desirable buildings placed around them in order to evolve in the first place. 

Housing come in many varieties and sizes. When a house evolves to a 3x3 tile size or larger, it ceases providing labor. Instead, it begins generating scribes and a tremendous amount of tax revenue. The revenue is such that in properly developed cities, tax income can easily outstrip export income. However, building too many 3x3 and 4x4 housing can result in severe labor shortages.

A list of the levels of housing and their requirements are listed below:

Housing Levels and Requirements
Level	Image	Goods	Services	Max Occupants	Entertainment Points	Desirability
Crude Hut		None	None	5 per tile 1x1 - 5 2x2 - 20
Sturdy Hut		None	Well or Water Supply	7 per tile 1x1 -7 2x2 - 28
Meager Shanty		1 type of food	All of the above, Bazaar	9 per tile 1x1 - 9 2x2 - 36
Common Shanty		1 type of food	All of the above, access to 1 God (Temple)	11 per tile 1x1 - 11 2x2 - 44
Rough Cottage		1 type of food	All of the above, Water Supply (Well not acceptable)	13 per tile 1x1 - 13 2x2 - 52
Ordinary Cottage		1 type of food	All of the above	15 per tile 1x1 - 15 2x2 - 60	10 entertainment points
Modest Homestead		1 type of food + Pottery	All of the above	16 per tile 1x1 - 16 2x2 - 64	Entertainment points 12 Very Easy 13 Easy 13 Normal 15 Hard 20 Very Hard
Spacious Homestead		Same as above	All of the above, access to a Physician	17 per tile 1x1 - 17 2x2 - 68	Entertainment points 14 Very Easy 15 Easy 16 Normal 20 Hard 25 Very Hard
Modest Apartment		1 type of food Pottery New: Beer	All of the above, Festival Square, & Pavilion	18 per tile 1x1 - 18 2x2 - 72	Entertainment points 16 Very Easy 18 Easy 20 Normal 25 Hard 30 Very Hard
Spacious Apartment*		Same as above	All of the above, access to a Courthouse	19 per tile 1x1 - 19 2x2 - 76	Entertainment points 18 Very Easy 22 Easy 25 Normal 30 Hard 35 Very Hard
Common Residence		Same as above	All of the above, access to a Scribal School or Library	20 per tile 2x2 - 80	Entertainment points 20 Very Easy 25 Easy 30 Normal 35 Hard 40 Very Hard
Spacious Residence		Pottery Beer New: 2 types of food	All of the above, access to a Dentist	21 per tile 2x2 - 84	Entertainment points 25 Very Easy 30 Easy 35 Normal 40 Hard 45 Very Hard
Elegant Residence		2 types of food Pottery Beer New: Linen	All of the above	22 per tile 2x2 - 88	Entertainment points 30 Very Easy 35 Easy 40 Normal 45 Hard 50 Very Hard
Fancy Residence**		All of the above	All of the above, access to 2 gods	23 per tile 2x2 - 92	Entertainment points 35 Very Easy 40 Easy 45 Normal 50 Hard 55 Very Hard
Common Manor		2 types of food Pottery Beer Linen New: 1 type of Luxury Good	All of the above	~11.1 per tile 3x3 - 100	Entertainment points 40 Very Easy 45 Easy 50 Normal 55 Hard 60 Very Hard
Spacious Manor		All of the above	All of the above, access to a Mortuary	12 per tile 3x3 - 108	Entertainment points 45 Very Easy 50 Easy 55 Normal 60 Hard 65 Very Hard
Elegant Manor		All of the above	All of the above, access to 3 gods, access to a Scribal School and a Library	~12.9 per tile 3x3 - 116	Entertainment points 50 Very Easy 55 Easy 60 Normal 65 Hard 70 Very Hard
Stately Manor***		All of the above	All of the above	~13.8 per tile 3x3 - 124	Entertainment points 55 Very Easy 60 Easy 70 Normal 75 Hard 80 Very Hard
Modest Estate		2 types of food Pottery Beer Linen New: 2 types of Luxury Good	All of the above	11.5 per tile 4x4 - 184	Entertainment points 65 Very Easy 72 Easy 80 Normal 85 Hard 90 Very Hard
Palatial Estate		Pottery Beer Linen 2 types of Luxury Good New: 3 types of food (2 on Very Easy)	All of the above	12.5 per tile 4x4 - 200	Entertainment points 75 Very Easy 83 Easy 90 Normal 95 Hard 100 Very Hard

* the last level of housing that can be 1x1 in size.

** the last level of housing that can be 2x2 in size. All houses after this do not generate workers.

***the last level of housing that can be 3x3 in size.

Strategy

Due to the fact that higher levels of housing require multiple goods and services and that losing access to any of these cause devolution to the next lowest level, housing quality can fluctuate greatly if placed haphazardly (in the most extreme example, a palatial estate can devolve to a crude hut within a very short period of time if it loses access to water). Most successfully built cities therefore ensure that its housing are afforded constant coverage of goods and services.

One of the most efficient ways to do this is to create a "block"--a looped road that contains (both within and outside the loop) housing and the goods and services they need. Looped roads ensure that random walkers always follow a set path, in turn ensuring that housing always benefits from their services. Larger loops naturally can hold more housing, although blocks that are too large (longer than 44 tiles in circumference) can be subject to instability as walkers can only walk so far before returning to their buildings. Loops hold other advantages aside from promoting stable housing. They allow players to precisely control the evolution of housing in sections of their city by allowing or disabling certain goods and services. 

Housing is generally better placed on the outside of the loop--this way, other industries can draw labor by walking near the block (as long as citizens walk within two tiles of a house). Buildings do not draw workers from just the houses its labor seekers come across. Once a building has access to housing, it has access to the entire city' population of workers.