That said, you'd be surprised how much actual useful apartments bring players together. I've experienced first hand of newer players saving up together to purchase apartments and use them together on a daily basis, hosting little house parties etc. as far as "natural ways for players to get involved", there's plenty of areas around the map that meet those needs that you probably just haven't experienced yet. For example, literally any school setting, plaza, family store, powerplant, zen garden, and both fishing locations are all areas I've seen a plethora of players interact with each other freely. SRP is not in need of "natural ways to interact", we just need to stop wasting space with things that really aren't going to be used to their optimal level.
i was solidly team estates for a little while but this paragraph really caught my attention, as a new player my character stayed with a few of my early friends in their apartment and was the main place we ended up roleplaying, so apartment complexes do play a big part especially for new players. However, as players get more into the server, they do seem to end up using apartments moreso for storage than roleplay. Tower flowers were kinda utilized, but not as much as they should've been; estates were quite frequently used, though
although estates do, as infi said, take up a lot of room for the map and are usually only taken by the "top one percent" of the server, there should still be possibilities to make properties like this. although there's not much space, im sure we can get creative; as forementioned, the football field is never used and could be utilized for one of these "executive properties". estates do a good part in bringing the older members community together, as well as those who want to get more involved, although they're not utilized daily as people expect them to be, they used to (and still kind of are) used quite often whether it be for drawn-out roleplays, or simply a walk through the estate to grab a jacket
furthermore, there's like two full pages of open apartments if you go to the estate agent, meaning apartment spaces aren't in the highest demand currently; although i know this could change rather quickly, it doesn't hurt to add at least
one of these properties somewhere on the map. im not
against complexes at all, and i really do appreciate the work the build team puts into their builds, but recently most housing updates have been limited to apartment complexes (and i can understand why). I think it'd be really neat to see another executive property implemented into the server
this is kinda broken up and not cohesive at all, but i hope my point can get across