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Custom Housing
I'm curious. Custom housing is something I think would be cool in MMOs, but I hear a lot of people talk about different systems.
More specifically, I have heard people express an interest in being able to create their own buildings .. as in .. not just being able to plop down a pre-designed building.
Are there examples of this besides something like minecraft?
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already 
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Ultima Online has tile by tile house creation with freeform placement of items, varius security levels on doors and containers, and multilevel construction. Here's a link to some example houses:
http://uo.stratics.com/homes/designcontest/housedesign_w.shtml
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Isn't UO still around (since 1997) and still charging a sub? Coincidence? Maybe.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Personally, I don't feel the need for housing in a game.
Although, perhaps I am ignorant to the benefits of player-created housing. What would be the purpose of this other than aesthetics or a sandbox-feel?
Everyone is complaining about how SWG had houses and SWTOR does not. I really don't see what's being lost.
Please let me know why housing is so important. I could be missing the big picture.
It depends on the design fo the game. For example, in UO, you could build a shop on the side of a trafficked road to sell bandages, potions and other supplies travellers would need. If you are a balcksmith, it's grea tto have a forge and storage near the mountain to easily move and smelt the ore, work the resulting ingots and create your weapons.
I want to add that such things aren't necessary in games like WOW and most modren MMOs where items are weightless. In UO, that ore is massive and the ingots aren't feathers either.
Guilds can build guidl houses and design them to fit the needs and wants of the guild members. Maybe have a closed meeting room where others can't hear for private conferences. Maybehave a central guild warehouse and a separate guild treasure room that only certain people have access to. Guild houses also become an area of territory that a guild to a certian degree has claimed, which naturally creates a great place for the additional mechanics of warfare and conflict.
Roleplayers have built entire towns, combat arena and other extensive environments that further flesh out and add depth to the game world.
The world design in UO is such that supports gameplay making housing a functional part of the game.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
It was a big deal in SWG. You had to be successful to afford a nice house and you could place them in some cool places, your guildies travelled to and socialized at the house, you launched excursions from the house. Gear was stored there and the place was decorated.
It was beautiful...
It seems that many MMOs took the technical opt out of the additional software development needed to do it - permanently placed player items. So you have Aion, Rift where dropping an item means its destroyed. And you effectively lose a large part of the experience of a truly dynamic world which has just changed because you created a house in the wilderness.
But in SWG, you just plopped a pre-designed house right? You couldn't create your own configurations?
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
It has to do with immersion, feeling like one is actually a part of the world. A larger sentiment that most (all) modern games scoff at by pissing all over the player with the cog-in-a-gear system.
i dont recall - I never had enough credits for a mortgage.
But in SWG, you just plopped a pre-designed house right? You couldn't create your own configurations?
i dont recall - I never had enough credits for a mortgage.
yea from what I can tell it's just pre-designed structures ... which is far better than nothing.
im just interested in the actual feasibility of allowing users to layout their own spaces. best I can figure is at the very least it would have to be a series of blocks, or rooms, but blocks which include stairs and hallways .. that the user can then link together.
I cant figure how it would be less than orthogonal either .. I mean anything is possible .. creating path nodes and such .. but at some point it's either simple and orthagonal or complex and more organic.
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
You could choose from a few house styles and sizes but could not customize the layout.
Actually housing in SWG was relatively cheap. Everyone pretty much built their own house even if just for extra storage. The problem was that a player only had a limited number of housing points and both housing and mining machines used up these points. So if you wanted the biggest house you could not place as many ore extractors. Most people just opted for small or medium sized houses since there really was no practical need for anything bigger. Most people only used houses as extra storage anyway.
IMO the best overall option is an Editor a solid game engine like the Unreal engine and pre defined textures.Really any texture that is in the game could be used to paint your house.The unreal game engine is already designed to do everything a game could want from player housing,so it is most definitely doable.The same goes for creating our own gear and weapons.The whole problem stems back to the gigantic database,where to store all these models.For other players to see them,they have to also be uploaded to the players files.
If we had say 20k people on one server and every single person used custom models that is a lot of files to store on each persons machine.So realistically for now,pre sets are what we are going to see.
There is subtle ways to achieve this if we really want to go all out,using 3ds studio max to design the homes ect ect.This would involve smaller zones and everytime you enter that zone you would have to download the new files.Then perhaps after you leave that zone the files are dumped.This would add a bit of inconvenience having to upload and download al lthe time,but it definitley would give players a real rpg feel to their game.We have already witnessed downloading before zones,but this would probably add double the time.
I can't find the video anymore but Epic games [unreal engine] once proved you could with proper coding and some tricks achieve a super high poly count and still not lag.Their presentation was showing that just the weapon alone had more poly than what most games have for a loaded area.So no reasons players couldn't use some nice HD textures.
I think players would be willing to pay even more if they were able to use custom homes,custom weapons and gear,if not then separate the servers.Storage and file size is the problem.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Housing served a function in SWG/UO, a function which doesn't exist in other games which makes housing useless gimmicks.
Those functions are: A market, proximity to raw materials, advertisement, storage, non-global Auction House.
Without those functions, housing becomes nothing more than a 6 year old girl with a dollhouse playing dressup.
That's right. SWG had lots of room for sandbox improvement, but instead SOE went the opposite way.
Well housing also served for one other important thing........ rewards and loot. Was nice to walk into other peoples homes and see their items and your own for that matter. Setting up a shop was huge. I hate auction houses, vendors just felt more like a real store.
SWG i think had the best use for housing than any other game to date. The improvement they made and the ability to move items up, down, back, forward, tilted, rotated, and so much more opened up an entire new world for decorating. As a guy in real life i care less, my wife does that. But in that game i could spend an entire day just redecorating my guildhall or cantina lol.
Added a good bit of fun, havent seen any other mmo come close.
For those that say housing doesnt server a purpose, i say well stop trying to knock it out of games if it doesnt bother you. Some like it and it should be in many MMO's with player driven economy as long as it can have a purpose.