I have to say by far swg was the best. You could put anything anywhere. EQ2 what I play now is the 2nd best. To be honest I not played any other games with a decent housing system. Lotro by far the worst I ever saw.
We are pretty much in line with the housing systems in game. One of the poster have write The real motivation for a home lies in the added storage space and a place to hang your trophies that no one but you will probably ever see, when he was talking about LOTRO housing. That bring me to the way devs create housing systems. Most of the games i played that use housing, didnt really create a world where housing have a real impact, World of Warcraft and ArcheAge try to incorporate some ressource gathering in it, but it still felt pretty flat. Sure having a way of showing off your achievement is good, but in a instanced house systems it doesnt mean much.
Ultima Online was pretty punishing game at the time, and even if a lot of poeples dont really want to invest in a game that may made them loose what they have hardly gather, i believe that in the final it help a lot make the achievement truly unique.
The funny thing is, i know i love the house systems, but when i stop and think about what game mechanics truly make a good housing systems i have to think hard to find what i truly enjoy in that system. For me house should be a storage area, that you can really customize. The way you customize it make it even greater, Trophy from unique boss, crafting, exploring, faction gift, quests.. but a house is also a place that make you feel comfortable, something that reminds you of the hard work you put into the game. A place where the adventure start and finish. A place where you can sell your wares, a place where poeple gather to start their quests, could bring protection, ressource, fames...
For you, which game mechanic should be develop to make a housing system work. ?
vanguard had good housing, had to collect the materials and buy a plot, then build the house which brought crafting into play as you needed to make some of the items, place stuff where you wanted and even got trophies from kills that you could put on the walls.
The guild hall was one hell of a job to produce, requiring a shed load of materials to make. kind of gave you incentive to act together as a guild to collect the materials and craft what you needed.
for early games, liked Asheron's call housing. had to get the writs and items you needed to buy the places first. different types of housing had different amount of storage capacity. you could recall to your house, put portals in, hang things on walls etc etc. given the age of the game it didnt do badly
The game which had the most impressive housing system was hands down Shadowbane. Where you created a giant city with walls guards and a whole kaleidoscope full of buildings to place inside of it. Also a giant tree in the middle. All in a open world where people can burn down and take your city. fun times
UO comes to a close second do to the amount of decorating and insane things you could do with it. Any sort of housing that is instanced is disqualified cause its not true housing just your private little dungeon that has no effect in the game world.
From what i can remember, i've only tried housing in eq2, lotro, swtor, and rift. None of them can compare to virtual world housing though, which are more in line with Landmark's building system. Rif'ts housing was really good too.
UO and SWG were the best. Pretty sad that housing has become a lost art in games today.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
Comments
Everquest 2 and now Wildstar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjh2mMg1DtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDaRGGqNuAw
Toss up between Rift and Wildstar for me, but I think if I really had to choose it would be WS.
edit: Wildstar Housing Video
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
We are pretty much in line with the housing systems in game. One of the poster have write The real motivation for a home lies in the added storage space and a place to hang your trophies that no one but you will probably ever see, when he was talking about LOTRO housing. That bring me to the way devs create housing systems. Most of the games i played that use housing, didnt really create a world where housing have a real impact, World of Warcraft and ArcheAge try to incorporate some ressource gathering in it, but it still felt pretty flat. Sure having a way of showing off your achievement is good, but in a instanced house systems it doesnt mean much.
Ultima Online was pretty punishing game at the time, and even if a lot of poeples dont really want to invest in a game that may made them loose what they have hardly gather, i believe that in the final it help a lot make the achievement truly unique.
The funny thing is, i know i love the house systems, but when i stop and think about what game mechanics truly make a good housing systems i have to think hard to find what i truly enjoy in that system. For me house should be a storage area, that you can really customize. The way you customize it make it even greater, Trophy from unique boss, crafting, exploring, faction gift, quests.. but a house is also a place that make you feel comfortable, something that reminds you of the hard work you put into the game. A place where the adventure start and finish. A place where you can sell your wares, a place where poeple gather to start their quests, could bring protection, ressource, fames...
For you, which game mechanic should be develop to make a housing system work. ?
This .. UO, then i guess SWG, then AO
vanguard had good housing, had to collect the materials and buy a plot, then build the house which brought crafting into play as you needed to make some of the items, place stuff where you wanted and even got trophies from kills that you could put on the walls.
The guild hall was one hell of a job to produce, requiring a shed load of materials to make. kind of gave you incentive to act together as a guild to collect the materials and craft what you needed.
for early games, liked Asheron's call housing. had to get the writs and items you needed to buy the places first. different types of housing had different amount of storage capacity. you could recall to your house, put portals in, hang things on walls etc etc. given the age of the game it didnt do badly
i look this wrecked because i've got GIST.
Whats your excuse?
http://deadmanrambling.com/
The game which had the most impressive housing system was hands down Shadowbane. Where you created a giant city with walls guards and a whole kaleidoscope full of buildings to place inside of it. Also a giant tree in the middle. All in a open world where people can burn down and take your city. fun times
UO comes to a close second do to the amount of decorating and insane things you could do with it. Any sort of housing that is instanced is disqualified cause its not true housing just your private little dungeon that has no effect in the game world.