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Housing....but they want to do it right
Reklaw
Member UncommonPosts: 6,495
We really want to do player housing, but we want to do it right. We don't have a time-frame to share yet. < link to official articel.
So my question is what would be right to you?
Please let try to let this topic stay on housing only. Sure there might be things players feel are more important issue's to address to but this ain't the topic for it.
Below is how I feel it might be fun long term.
- Available to everyone, don't make it guild only related but let guilds have their benefits Think everyone should be able to access placing small houses but when guilded they should gain access to bigger houses and more option in their houses.
- Solo: one "special" slot . Guild: able to access more "special" slots. Slots could be filled with either gardens to grow alchemy plants and/or craft station(s), vendor.
- Solo: able to grow alchemy resources by placing a garden but not able to place a vendor NPC. Guild: able to place a vendor NPC but not able to have a garden but has more "special" slots..
- Furniture all styles, mix and match all styles together or make it more traditional in one style...
- Woodworking, Blacksmith, Alchemy all can have a new specialization ability line based on crafting houses, furniture and gardening.
- Optional give access to your house: all, friends, guild members, none.
- Ability to upgrade every type of house.
- Make housing items craft only or from rewards completing certain quests
- Don't make it instanced
- Make it also possible to buy/rent a house in major city's, make it very expensive to acquire but also one house account wide. You can't place a vendor/craft station/garden but can have a upgraded inventory/furniture space
- Guild ranks determines how many housing slots you can have. For example when a guild has a fixed amount of players in his town/city the amount of slots rise's. Guild leaders might start with 2 housing slots where he can place a guild building and a guild leaders house. Guild buildings could have optional feature's, example the guild leader can choose from: Church like building with ability/skill Shrine's or choose to have all craft stations with certain stat enhancements for crafters within the guild. Their own house should have the max of furniture slots. And as the population/community grows bigger with more members the more slots can be given.
- Make furniture accessible, meaning I should be able able to sit on that chair, lay on that bed
I have no idea of current engine is able to but these are just my idea on what I think might be fun for ESO.
Comments
i don't see how they can make housing non-instanced with the megaserver, which IMO is the only right way to do housing.
Nail on the head. I don't see any actual value to housing in current mmo's. I enjoy it in WS, but I don't see it as a lot of value. I remember small houses selling on ebay in UO for hundreds of dollars. But having a house was a huge deal.
This topic isn't about if you feel it has value it's about them already have spoken that they want to do housing.
Tons of people don't need or want housing but as said this aint the topic for that.
I gave my idea, as said not sure if it can work and if it's how others might want it but it's still just an idea.
Somehow "link" friendlist to your hous(es)? So that anyone in your f-list can always see it? again just an idea.
Oh I was coming from the position that it is good we don't get to see houses if we don't want to.
But I think a separate phase would be needed just to handle lag and so on.
I'm guessing you're suggesting using the phasing mechanics to allow "open-world" housing by essentially using the same piece of game world to contain different houses in different phases. But what happens if you and your friend build a house in the same spot (just in different phases) ? You'd never be able to see his house unless you went to his "phase", at which point you may as well use instancing, because when you can see his house, you can't see your own...
The PvP campaigns are persistent and don't have multiple phases. They are "servers" in everything but name. All they would have to do is either carve-out a safe area in Cyrodiil (if they want safe non-instanced housing) or better yet, make it so that it's not individual houses but guild halls and make them fair game to attack and defend. Mind you, they would have to be limited in number... but so much the better because that would make them more rare and valuable.
I'd rather have guild structures with some game play purpose any day of the week instead of the solitary, instanced, player-owned, time wasters most games have as their housing "feature." First thing I did when I went back to Rift and they gave me all kinds of rewards whenever I created a new character for having once been a subscriber, was throw away all the fluffy housing crap... did I mention I see little purpose in having an individual instanced house?
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
OP, you're not going to get far here. More than half of your responses will be people telling you how housing is stupid. They'll completely ignore trying to give you an answer, and just insult your preference for housing. These people were likely abused as children, and thus, must hi-jack your thread and make it about them, just for the attention. It's just how it is.
Housing in ESO can make use of phasing and instances, via the Megaserver technology. There should be certain plots around the map that players can place structures. Potentially thousands upon thousands. After all, there is certainly enough land mass at the moment to achieve this. To create more space, you just split the space into different instances. If for some unbelievably unrealistic reason, you and a friend have placed your homes on the exact same lot, then you'll have to travel to each others instance in order to join them.
I'd also suggest some form of guild hall housing along the same lines. As well as instanced housing in the form of Inn's or Taverns in NPC towns. You pay rent to the barkeep, and you get a small room for as long as you continue paying. It will be the cheaper and more limited version of actually owning a home out in the real world. As that would be quite expensive.
Crafting would be deeply interwoven when it comes to furnishings for your home. Woodworkers can make things like chairs, tables, chests, woodworking table, etc. Blacksmiths can make iron sconces, blacksmith anvils, weapon racks, armor racks, forges, trophy cases, etc. Clothiers can make beds, rugs, drapery, clothing stations, etc, Alchemy can make braziers, lanterns, alchemy stations, assortment of flasks, bottles, etc, Enchanters can make enchanting tables, add environmental flavor, glowing crystals, etc, and provisioners can mount fish trophies, camp fires/fire pits, chimney's, assortment of foods, plates, etc.
I'd like to see stomemasons and jewelers added to professions. Maybe the chimney, firepit, exterior, interior can be altered this way. Jewelers can make chandaliers, jewelry boxes, chests, and other frumpy things. Though, that's the future.
All of the NPC guilds will have rewards attached to housing. Essentially, everything in the game should have some affect on player housing. And ultimately, if you're not interested in any of it, well, my advice to you is....
DON'T BUY A HOUSE.
Unfortunately, Landmark kind of went and ruined housing for me in other games.
That said, the most fun housing experience I've had has probably been in EQ2 during Halloween where everyone designs their haunted houses and shouts out invites for players to come and do a run through.
I say take the minigame idea and run with it, sort of like the foundry model in STO/NWO, but less of an adventure and more of a theme. Allow us to design public inns with npcs that stock actual food/drink, open-air parks, theater plays, gladiatorial arenas & jousting, costumed gala events, Guild Halls displaying the severed heads of fallen foes, RP hotspots galore, and yes, personal little getaways for ourselves with our own maid/manservant =P
I don't mind instanced, but I'd prefer an easy-to-navigate menu to browse other people's creations. Hopefully, no matter what they implement it won't take too many players from the established game world.
A LONG time ago, when I started to get the Shadowrun bug again, I posted this "article" talking about collections and how they could be used in conjunction with housing. Wildstar seems to have taken some of this (can't prove it though LOL).
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/WolfClaws/102008/2710_ShadowRun-Collecting-Artifacts
And this was my big housing suggestion for MMOs in general but with the Shadowrun IP as well.
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/WolfClaws/092008/2702_ShadowRun-Sleeping-in-the-Shadows
I am actually going to chime in my thoughts also... What the heck.
1. Available to everyone, don't make it guild only related but let guilds have their benefits Think everyone should be able to access placing small houses but when guilded they should gain access to bigger houses and more option in their houses.
This is important. There should be personal house(s) and guild halls. I will talk more about player housing in relation to guild halls.
2. Solo: one "special" slot . Guild: able to access more "special" slots. Slots could be filled with either gardens to grow alchemy plants and/or craft station(s), vendor.
Slots or hardpoints or whatever you want to call them are a great idea. DAOC has em. DDO has them. And it works. Giving it something to help the character and/or guild out by providing some kind of small benefit (never anything that can be abused or I WIN).
3. Solo: able to grow alchemy resources by placing a garden but not able to place a vendor NPC. Guild: able to place a vendor NPC but not able to have a garden but has more "special" slots..
Farming, Livestock, mining, whatever else, these nodes could act similar to the passives that are in the crafting trees already. Daily benefit so long as you provide upkeep. Like farmville, but less tedious. Maybe more like how LOTRO does this.
4. Furniture all styles, mix and match all styles together or make it more traditional in one style...
This is a gimme. You gotta have options. LOTS of options. Will also give woodworking/metalsmithing and even leather crafting (leather chairs folks) more stuff to do. Enchanting could be helping with the lighting as well.
5. Woodworking, Blacksmith, Alchemy all can have a new specialization ability line based on crafting houses, furniture and gardening.
See above.
6. Optional give access to your house: all, friends, guild members, none.
Just like DAOC, EQ2, DCUO,SWG etc.
7. Ability to upgrade every type of house.
I can see this having added value. But there will need to be limitations. The 1%ers will want the best and biggest, and they need to be rewarded if they want to pursue that option.
8. Make housing items craft only or from rewards completing certain quests
This has never really been an issue in the games that have housing. Quests and bosses dropping trophies to display in homes is always a great idea.
9. Don't make it instanced
With the way ESO is designed, you have no choice. They might have been able to do it like DAOC, but you can already explore every nook and cranny in Tamriel. What they could do is expand upon the ability to make pocket dimensions and have housing areas for the souless people (even though there is only one of you). Otherwise they could do it like Anarchy Online or DCUO or EQ2 and certain buildings in place that you could buy. But it has to be instanced.
10. Make it also possible to buy/rent a house in major city's, make it very expensive to acquire but also one house account wide. You can't place a vendor/craft station/garden but can have a upgraded inventory/furniture space
Renting of homes vs buying. This is a good option as well. Buying having more up front costs, but pay less per month from taxes, while renting will cost a bundle each month.
11. Guild ranks determines how many housing slots you can have. For example when a guild has a fixed amount of players in his town/city the amount of slots rise's. Guild leaders might start with 2 housing slots where he can place a guild building and a guild leaders house. Guild buildings could have optional feature's, example the guild leader can choose from: Church like building with ability/skill Shrine's or choose to have all craft stations with certain stat enhancements for crafters within the guild. Their own house should have the max of furniture slots. And as the population/community grows bigger with more members the more slots can be given.
Here is going to be my take on guild halls and PC houses. We can have 5 guilds right? Each guild may or may not be in the same faction. And how many people have even seen more than 2 or 3 people in their guild? I mean come on. So have the guild hall "size" depend on the number of accounts that have built a home in the same city or area near the guild hall. You are bound to socialize with the guild members on accident, you get groups hanging near one another, and of course, the maximum size of the guild hall will be dependant on the location it is built, so if you want a castle, you gotta be in Coldharbour or something. And the more account based personal houses in that area, the more options the guildhall will have.
12. Make furniture accessible, meaning I should be able able to sit on that chair, lay on that bed
Same comments Paul Sage made last month basically: "do it right" and "no timeframe". He also talked about housing being a good fit for established games - and the implication was that TESO was not yet established - and that the console version might not launch this year. So I think "no time soon" are the key words.
if housing happens, I doubt it will be this year but i dont know
list of ESO future features (posted may 1st) -- some of these are already ingame
housing is not listed among them
http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2014/05/01/the-road-ahead---may-1st?ref=rss
EQ2 fan sites
Then as my topic suggest what could make housing okay to you. Keep in mind they already talked about doing it. Not holding my breath if it will be this year. But still, perhaps you might have some idea's?
I don't want the beautifull world of Tamriel littered with houses and in my opinion it doesn't have to go that route at all.
Think plenty know this already Nadia but as said and actually put in a link them speaking about it in a interview makes me wonder what other gamers could come up with for idea's about housing.
by "right" they mean like Aion right or ArcheAge, UO right?
on aion everyone can have a instanced apartament with some open world houses of verious sizes, everyone can have a apartament, but not houses, AA and UO you have to buld it in open lands spaces and give permition for people or guild.
in the end it will never work RIght or you give homes a open world to everyone see or make it instanced not much meaning save for maybe a buff or 2
I don't know what they meant by "right" It could have all sorts of meaning for them.
But in the end it might work for those into housing. I already know many people don't like housing so it would never be right for them.
Maybe I'm just this RPG nut and want my house in my RPG game
Not at all, it is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask for, but as a roleplayer myself I have never got that much use out of housing. Doing it right is the main issue here as housing has been poorly implemented in some MMOs. I preferred the Lotro solution to the Vanguard one, better yet would be an integration with the cities we can see. But that would require a separate phase to insure mistakes that have occurred before do not happen again.
Open-world, non-instanced housing is the only right way to do housing. Anything instanced is a fail. Big, big fail.
+1
Keep it instanced and out of the way.
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