Housing System: A Vision

Rodario

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this post is to share my vision of ESO's housing system with all of you. My goal was to come up with a system that follows ESO's internal logic, fits the game's atmosphere and lore, provides long term motivation, creates new activities and is just an enjoyable addition to a great game.

This is a very long post, so I would not blame anyone for just skipping to the summary at the end to get the general picture.

Table of Contents

1. Basics
   • Instancing
   • Locations
   • Home Economics Skill Line
   • Carpentry
   • Purchasing Deeds & Building Homes
   • Rested Bonus
   • Types of Houses
2. The Cabin
   • Costs
   • Expansions
3. The Country Estate
   • Costs
   • Expansions
4. The City House
   • Costs
   • Expansions
5. Summary

1. BASICS

Instancing

I believe instancing player houses is the only viable option. A possibility for letting your friends spend time in your home could be grouping up and having them "travel to player" while you are at home. An "Open Door" checkbox makes unwelcome visitors - PUG members for instance - impossible.

Locations

Each zone of an alliance territory has three instanced housing areas. One in the wilds (Cabin) , one in the countryside (Country Estate) and one in the zone capital (City Home).

Cabins and Country Estates come with land and a wayshrine by the roadside, just on the instance's border. City Houses are located in the new residential districts, which are brought to life with NPCs, many of which were seemingly homeless up until now (judging by the number of citizens in cities vs. the number of residential buildings.)

Each housing type comes with its own set of possible expansions, the availability or usefulness of which also depends on the zone's climate, but more on that later.

Home Economics Skill Line

The number of homes a player can own depends on his skill in home economics. This skill line is unlocked once a character has completed the main story.

Skills

• Home Economics (Main Skill Level): Jumps to 1 when a character completes the main story. Determines the amount of skill points that can be invested in the Landlord Skill (below). Once a deed is purchased, a 30 day timer starts, at the end of which it increases to the next level.
• Landlord: One skill point per Home Economics Skill Level can be placed here. The number of Skill points spent equals the amount of total deeds a character can own.
  The following skills are needed for house expansions.
• Forester: 1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• Huntsman:1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• Herbalist: 1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• Miner: 1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• Quarrier: 1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• Breeder
• Pastures: 1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• Farmer: 1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• It's good to have land: 1/3: Enables expansion. 2/3 & 3/3: Increases yield by 50/100 percent
• Workshop
• Storekeep
• Private Museum
• Hoarder

This means a character can own multiple homes and each character can own his own set of homes. There will not be much of a head start for players with massive amounts of gold saved up, as only one additional deed per month and character can be purchased. The timer starts its countdown only once a deed has been purchased (every time after an increase) to avoid inactive players having the skill stack up beyond +1.

The reason homes are not account wide is that I believe you should only be able to buy houses within a character's alliance's territory.

Carpentry

The Carpentry skill line allows the creation of furniture and building materials and provides boons to those activities.

Building Materials
All building materials except stone are gained by converting processed materials, such as sanded maple, iron ingots and rawhide. Carpenters of all skill levels can produce building materials, but the efficiency of the conversion is increased by investing skill points in the relevant perks.

Certain NPCs also sell building materials at a high price. This way, if there aren't enough materials for sale by other players, you are not forced to become a carpenter yourself. At the same time, the NPC prices will be high enough for players to make a profit by producing and selling building materials, even if there is a price softcap.

• Stone: Is added to mining node loot tables and can be bought from NPCs or gained from quarries (House Expansion).
• Wood / Metal / Leather: Gained by converting 100-Stacks of processed materials. All tiers will return building materials, but the amount returned increases with the tier. E.g. 100 sanded maple will convert to 5 construction wood, while 100 Nightwood will convert to 50 construction wood. Can also be bought from NPCs.

Furniture

Beds, Cabinets, Chests, Bookshelves, Trophy Displays etc. are created by Carpenters, using processed materials.

Most furniture requires a combination of different materials, the ratio of which depends on the item in question. A Bed, for example, will need more wood and fabric than leather or metal, while a chair requires mostly wood and leather.

The tier of the used materials does not influence the crafted furniture's quality but the color of its parts and its general look. There are no quality differences in furniture. A homemaker should not be punished for preferring the look of oak over nightwood.

E.g. A chair could be constructed from 10 sanded oak, 5 hide and 1 steel ingot and the relevant parts would look different than if sanded maple, leather and an ebony ingot had been used.

The amount of different furniture types that can be produced by a carpenter is determined by his skill level. They are not automatically learned in a specific order. Furniture blueprints can be bought from NPCs for a moderate fee. This allows the Carpenter to decide which type of furniture he wants to produce first.

Skills

• Carpentry (Main Skill Level): Determines which Carpentry skills can be learned. Determines how many types of furniture can be learned. Increases by producing/deconstructing furniture and by producing building materials via conversion.
• Manufacturing: Increases the amount of available furniture type slots. 5 levels, learned at Carpentry level 10/20/30/40/50. I dont know how many furniture types there will be, but the skill levels should lead to 100% of all types available to be learned at level 5
• Material Efficiency: Increases the amount of building materials gained from conversion by 25/50/75/100 percent. Reduces the amount of materials needed (wasted) when producing Furniture by 5/10/15/20 percent. Learned at Carpentry level 20/30/40/50.

Note: Carpentry could also be added to the Woodworking Skill line.

Purchasing Deeds & Building Homes

Deeds can be purchased in the castle/main building of the relevant zone's capital. Once acquired you can visit your new personal housing instance and start building your home.

To start the construction process for the main building, you need to have the necessary amounts of building materials ready. These can be stored on the empty plot, in case inventory space is scarce. A contractor is then hired to build your new home. This process takes three to seven days, during which you can visit your plot and watch your home being built (Each stage takes a day to complete.)

City Houses are bought pre-built, of course unfurnished. Their initial gold cost is higher.

Rested Bonus

Logging out in an owned home that includes a bed gives you a rested (XP-) bonus. The rested bonus increases XP gain by 15% for a portion of the character's current xp bar. For each hour following that logout the bonus duration will increase by 3.75% of the character's level's maximum xp, up to 150% after 40 hours. E.g. a fresh VR 1 character's maximum bonus duration is VR1.0 - VR 2.5

Note: A weaker form of the same bonus could be added for logging out in a tavern, after paying the owner a fee.

Types of Houses

Depending on the type and racial style of a building, the amounts and ratios of building materials vary. An Orc-style building will require more wood and leather than stone and metal, a Breton house will require lots of Stone, some wood and metal and very little leather.

Racial architecture styles can be chosen freely for Cabins and Country Estates, but are locked for City Houses.

Note: The availability of racial styles could be linked to crafting motifs

Each building type comes with its own set of possible expansions, of which one or two per building may be chosen. You can change your mind later, but tearing down the old expansion and building a new one will cost time, materials and gold.

Expansions take three days to construct and their gold/material cost is 50% of the main building's requirements.

Unless otherwise specified, workers expect a weekly salary of 5'000G up front. This amount will be subtracted from the player's wallet automatically. If the player's wallet holds insufficient funds, the amount will be taken from their bank account. If the player's bank account also holds insufficient funds, workers will leave the premises until the player rehires them.

Depending on the zone's climate, some expansions are more efficient than others, while some are not possible at all.

Note: I'm not entirely sure how the construction of Bosmer houses would work, as these are grown, not built. Maybe small and large tree house seeds could very rarely drop from refining raw wood and/or they could be bought from NPCs.

2. THE CABIN

Cabins are located in remote regions, usually woodlands.

The basic building includes a main floor (living area) and an attic (50 slots general storage). Interacting with any container brings up the house's entire inventory.

Construction takes three days.

Costs

• Deed: 50'000G
• Contractor: 25'000G
• Building Materials (Breton Example): 2'000 Construction Wood; 300 Stones; 200 Metal; 100 Leather

Expansions
(One may be chosen)

• Forester's Lodge: Enabled by the skill "Forester". A laborer will work your forest and return a base value of 50 raw wood per day. The tier of wood returned depends on the zone in which the cabin is located. The lumberjack can be told to replant a tree of choice, sometime after which the requested tier of wood will be the one returned. The Lodge will store a maximum of 10 stacks of raw wood, after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods. [Only possible in woodland zones / Not allowed in Valenwood]
• Hunter's Lodge: Enabled by the skill "Huntsman". A laborer will work your land and return a base value of 50 raw meats per day. The hunter is content with 1'000G per week. The kind of meat returned depends on the climate in which the cabin is located (temperate or arid). The Lodge will store a maximum of 10 stacks of raw meats, after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods.
• Herbalist's Hut: Enabled by the skill "Herbalist". A laborer will work your land and return a base value of 50 assorted alchemy ingredients per day. The Hut will store a maximum of 20 stacks (because of the number of different ingredients), after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods. [Productivity reduced by 50% in Valenwood / Weekly cost doubled in arid zones]

Note: I could not think of an arid zone specialty for the Cabin, so I did not reduce Herbalist return by 50% in arid zones as planned

3. THE COUNTRY ESTATE

Country Estates are located near main roads. Close to civilization, but not swallowed by it.

The basic building includes two floors (providing spacious living areas to be filled with furniture, armor stands, displays etc.), an attic (100 slots general storage) and a basement (200 slots general storage).

Construction takes seven days

Costs

• Deed: 100'000G
• Contractor: 50'000G
• Building Materials (Breton Example): 2'000 Construction Wood; 5'000 Stones; 1'000 Metal; 500 Leather

Expansions
(One may be chosen)

• Miner's Quarters: Enabled by the skill "Miner". Complementary mine shaft included. Laborers will work your mine and return a base value of 25 raw ore and 25 stones per day. The ore native to the zone in which the estate is located will be prevalent, while other tiers are also returned at a lesser amount. The miners can be told to refocus their attention on a specific ore. The stockpile will store a maximum of 20 stacks, after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods. [Productivity increased by 100% in arid zones]
• Quarrier's Quarters: Enabled by the skill "Quarrier". Complementary Quarry included. Laborers will work your quarry and return a base value of 100 stone per day. The stockpile will store a maximum of 50 stacks, after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods. [Productivity increased by 100% in arid zones]
• Horse Ranch: Enabled by the skill "Breeder". Finally, an appropriate stable for your currently unused horses.
  
  If you have two or more horses stabled, you may breed them. Breeding horses will result in offspring with combined or improved attributes. Pregnancy lasts one week and the foal will mature within one week.
  
  If the breeding pair's attributes are identical, the offspring will have those attributes increased by 1.
  If the breeding pair's attributes are different, the offspring will have those attributes averaged.
  
  Examples:
  
  Horse 1: Speed - 75; Stamina - 11; Carrying Capacity - 1
  Horse 2: Speed - 75; Stamina - 11; Carrying Capacity - 1
  Offspring: Speed - 76; Stamina - 12; Carrying Capacity - 2
  
  Horse 1: Speed - 65; Stamina - 11; Carrying Capacity - 10
  Horse 2: Speed - 15; Stamina - 11; Carrying Capacity - 60
  Offspring: Speed - 40; Stamina - 12; Carrying Capacity - 35
  
  This process is repeatable. You may have a maximum of ten horses in your stables. Attributes will cease to increase at 140 points. A stablehand will tend to your horses for a 1'000G per week. [Weekly cost doubled in arid zones]

  Note: I would prefer it if we were able to sell horses to other players, but I don't think that will happen. I still think the horse ranch should be included, even if we can only use the horses ourselves

• Cattle Pasture: Enabled by the skill "Pastures". A laborer will tend to your cattle for 2'500G a week. Each day, the cows are milked and cheese is produced, returning a base 25 cheese. Also, one cow a day is processed, returning a base 25 beef and a base 25 leather. The barn will store a maximum of 20 stacks, after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods. The attic is adjusted for food storage and offers 250 slots for provisioning material storage only. [Productivity reduced by 50% in arid zones]
• Farmland: Enabled by the skill "Farmer". A laborer will tend to your farmland for 1'000G a week. Five fields can be sown using one farmable item each (onions, tomatoes, barley, etc.). They will each return a base value of 10 of the sown item per day and will repeat the process automatically until a different seed is sown. The barn will store a maximum of 20 stacks, after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods. The attic is adjusted for food storage and offers 250 slots for provisioning material storage only. [Productivity reduced by 50% in arid zones / Not allowed in Valenwood]
• Plantation: Enabled by the skill "It's good to have land". A laborer will tend to your plantation. Five fields can be sown using one textile plant each (jute, cotton, kresh, etc.). They will each return a base value of 10 of the sown item per day and will repeat the process automatically until a different seed is sown. The barn will store a maximum of 20 stacks, after that, work will cease until the player moves the goods. The attic is adjusted for textile storage and offers 250 slots for clothing material storage only. [Productivity reduced by 50% in arid zones / Not allowed in Valenwood]

4. THE CITY HOUSE

City houses are located in instanced residential districts, within a zone's capital city.

All players have access to these residential districts, but the player house appears as a locked building if you don't own one yet.

The basic building includes a ground floor (for expansions), a second floor (living area) an attic (100 slots general storage) and a basement (for expansions)

Costs

• Deed (Includes Empty House): 250'000G
• Contractor: N/A
• Building Materials: N/A

Expansions
(Two may be chosen. One for the ground floor, one for the basement)

• Workshop: [Ground Floor] Enabled by the skill "Workshop". The street facing wall of the ground floor is torn down to allow a healthy ventilation, a smithy and a dye station are constructed outside under a porch roof and work stations for each of the remaining professions are added inside. These come with special bonuses none of the public ones offer:
  
  • Smithy, Clothing- and Woodworking stations: The required number of upgrade tempers is reduced by 1 for each type except -by 2 for legendary tempers. E.g. In blacksmithing, at temper expertise 3/3, you will now need 1 [Honing Stone], 2 [Dwarven Oil], 3 [Grain Solvent] and 6 [Tempering Alloy] to upgrade an item to legendary.
  • Alchemy- and Provisioning Stations: One extra serving or potion is created, this brings the maximum up to five.
  • Carpentry Station: Reduces the amount of materials needed for furniture by 20%, increases the amount of construction materials converted by 20%
  • Enchanting Table: Gives a 20% chance for an extra glyph to be created.
  A helper will sweep the floors and keep all those stacks of materials and tools nice and tidy for a mere 1'000G a week.
• Store Front: [Ground Floor] Enabled by the skill "Storekeep". Your ground floor now houses a storefront where you can offer your wares for sale.
  
  There is always a house with a storefront in your residential area, which acts as a combination of all player house store fronts within that zone. Meaning, interacting with that storekeeper will allow all players to buy from store front owners (All offers are mixed into one anonymous inventory).
  
  Your shopkeeper does not require a weekly salary, but will instead work on a 10% commission.
• Trophy Room: [Ground Floor or Cellar] Enabled by the skill "Private Museum". Fill a room with a multitude of display cases, wall mounts, trophy stands and mannequins to display your most treasured possessions, favorite weapons and sets of armor or dresses, the most impressive fish you caught and the trophies you collected in your adventures. A servant will spend his days dusting your jewels. He takes pride in his work and is satisfied with 1'000G a week.
• Storage Room: [Ground Floor or Cellar] Enabled by the skill "Hoarder". Increase the base capacity (200) of this room to a maximum of 500 by adding enough storage furniture. Someone needs to keep inventory of all that junk. You hire a servant for that. You suspect he spends most of his working day "quality testing" your wine, so you only pay 1'000G for his services.

5. SUMMARY

Three types of player housing are available: Cabins, Country Estates and City houses. Every alliance territory zone has an instanced area for each housing type.

Characters can only purchase houses in their own faction's territory, but each character that has completed the main story can own their own set of homes. The number of homes a player can own is theoretically 144-168 per account (8 characters x 6 or 7 zones x 3 houses), but the high initial cost, the running costs and the skill point requirement make this unlikely. Also, it would take at least 18 months to reach that number, because a character can only purchase one house every 30 days.

The three housing types each come with their own set of possible expansions, which offer individual benefits like farmland, workshops or mines.

A new Profession is added: The Carpenter provides building materials and furniture to homemakers.


I hope you enjoyed the read and I'm eager to hear your opinion.

Note: All specified amounts, be they resources, gold, yields, have been added as examples and to clarify the intended ratio. These can easily change, should they not be adequate. I do believe a house should cost more than a horse though.

Note: All designations, especially some skill names, are subject to change once I think of better ones.

Rodario

Afterthoughts

• I am not married to the exact expansions described. I do firmly believe houses should be expandable and offer special boons, the listed options are my favorite ideas for that.
• I am open to houses being shared between characters, as long as it's only characters of the same faction.
• If it turns out to be unbalanced for a player to own too many houses, the 30 day timer could be increased with every additional house e.g. 30/45/60/90/..., or there could be a hard limit per account, but I'm not a fan of that. Another way would be to increase the skill points needed per deed limit increase.

Rodario

Edit Log

• October 19th, 21:47 CEST: Fixed some typos.
• October 20th, 09:57 CEST:
  • The serfs were getting unruly and were close to an uprising. To appease them, the standard wages have been raised from 1'000G to 5'000G. Some of the more loyal employees continue to be content with their old salaries.
  • Farms and Plantations are now separate expansions
  • Cow Pastures now also return leather.
• October 20th, 11:14 CEST:
  • Plantation and Farmland yield has been doubled.
  • Herbalist return has been reduced by 50% for Valenwood, as only dead plants may be gathered. Looking out for nosy Bosmer while gathering is rather time consuming.
  • Herbalist weekly costs have been doubled for arid zones. Irrigation is not cheap.
  • Farmlands and Plantations are no longer possible in Valenwood. The authorities threatened to revoke our deeds if we continue to clear the lands and harm innocent plants.

Cazic

Thanks for the detailed post! I'm at work so I only read the summary, but can tell it's a good, well thought out idea. I fully support the addition of player housing in ESO and it seems like you've done a good job of putting together something that could get us started on that path.

Roselle

I thoroughly enjoyed building my house in Skyrim and this is a well-thought-out plan to get this going in ESO. I hope they decide to implement most of these ideas.

Teiji

Portals!

I long for a space in Oblivion with a Banekin butler, that serves cheeseboards and extremely exquisite brandy from the cellar, which is carefully placed not too close to the slaves in their cozy cages.

I love the Daedric furnishings, they're so good. I wonder if we'll have to collect items to have them in our homes or if we'll just go to a vendor, maybe in a quest? Something similar to dyes? I don't know, I must know.

Housing. I'm excited for this too.

Rodario

Update (See Edit Log).

WraithAzraiel

ZOS, hire this guy to run the Housing project.

eserras7b16_ESO

I am so looking forward to Housing system. Take a note please Zenimax

Rodario

Update (See Edit Log).

Leijona

This sounds great so far.

I have a question regarding the building process of the house. Will you have to build the house like in Skyrims Hearthfire or like in Vanguard? Or is it just having the components and the necessary amaount of gold and it just will be there?

Is it intended, that materials collected by the forester or the miner would never be the highest quality and if so why? (I don't want to say, it is a bad idea, I'm just curious)

Have you thought about making this for guilds as well?

Nice job so far, I hope @ZOS_GinaBruno or @ZOS_JessicaFolsom will pass this forward to Phil/Michael/Doug and the rest of the team, so they will be aware of it and read this concept.

Rodario

Leijona wrote: »

This sounds great so far.

I have a question regarding the building process of the house. Will you have to build the house like in Skyrims Hearthfire or like in Vanguard? Or is it just having the components and the necessary amaount of gold and it just will be there?

Once you have the necessary building materials and gold ready, you hire a contractor to do the construction job. You can watch your house being built over three or seven stages. A new stage is reached every day.

Leijona wrote: »

Is it intended, that materials collected by the forester or the miner would never be the highest quality and if so why? (I don't want to say, it is a bad idea, I'm just curious)

As there is no good reason to not be able to plant the tier of clothing material plants you desire, it seemed unfair that mines and forester's lodges should be locked at the zone's native tier.

The native tier is preset, but lumberjacks and miners can be ordered to return a tier of choice.

Justifications:

Lumberjacks will replant the trees you desire and from then on only return that tier of wood. Miners will refocus their efforts on the chosen tier of metal. As the zones of Tamriel are not very large, it seems feasible that subterranean ore vein diversity does not completely change from zone to zone.

That being said, I believe not only the highest tiers of materials will be in demand. The look of furniture depending on the materials used means all tiers of materials should find takers. In the case of woods, for example, I would be using lots of beech and mahogany, others will prefer the look of maple, or oak, or ...

Leijona wrote: »

Have you thought about making this for guilds as well?

It has crossed my mind, but i haven't come up with a sound plan yet.

I guess Guild Halls would be built in residential districts and cost a lot more than player houses.

One expansion I could imagine is a Guild Vault, that increases Guild Bank space.

Other than that, I can only think of RP reasons for Guild Halls. (Without taking away expansions from City Houses, that is.)

Once I come up with a plan I'm happy with, I'll be sure to post (or link) it here.

MornaBaine

This sounds pretty fantastic I must admit. I really do want to see guild cities though. I want something rather like a combination of Northpoint in Rivenspire and Evermore in Bangkorai. And I want to be able to put my guild city or my stand alone home in the zone of my choice. My roleplaying guild is ICly located in Rivenspire and we use Northpoint as our manor but when we have people who have not yet done the Northpoint quest and therefore cannot get in we switch over to Evermore in Bangkorai. A guild city would eliminate this "problem." As for player housing in a guild city I want the option for a cottage area (half a dozen cottages are fine since with instancing the number is actually infinite but I want the area to LOOK like a residential area) AND the ability to have "personal chambers" within the main manor. The manor itself should also have a great hall with long tables characters can sit at (with dining and drinking animations being optimal) and a kitchen area with a cookfire. There should also be an area at the end of the great hall with a large fireplace to relax in front of and, at the opposite end, an area with a raised dais and throne-like chairs characters can actually sit in. There needs to be enough free space in this area to allow for additional characters to use the /sitchair emote to flank the two center chairs as well, so space for at least 6 sitting characters. lastly there needs to be a library/war room. Bookcases along the walls and in the center a large table covered in maps and maybe a few stacks of books where characters can gather to plot strategy!

Anyway, I am VERY impressed by your write up for housing. Would you consider doing something similar for guild cities? I definitely want BOTH to be available!

deleted221205-002626

I personally would LOVE to see housing in ESO but Ultima Online style.. Id like to see plots of land and actual houses people can see... This instanced housing is ridiculous and no one gets to even see it. Its sooo much more enjoyable and fun to have your house out in the open, decorations for all to see and even pvp on your doorstep would be awesomesauce

deleted221205-002626

I can vision guild houses with large scale pvp back n forth on rivaling guilds right at theyre home! This also brings more people together and more attention on waring guilds. Its soo much fun

ShadowHvo

Honestly though, I really like a lot of what you've made out here, but I utterly despise the way that you've given the "expansions" seperate purposes.

Personally, I would much rather see a system where we build or buy rooms, and then place whatever furniture into them as we wish. It allows for all players to chose for themselves, instead of feeling forced to invest into something just to unlock a new "special room".

Sure, if someone wants a blacksmith, Alchemy, Enchant, Woodworking and clothier table in one big crafting room, then let them. While the others of us who feel more immersed with our homes, can build them into whatever we see fit, whenever that might be a normal house, a nasty murder house or a real hunters trophy room.

In general, the hiring of workers sounds fine, but I really despise the way that rooms needs to have a specific purpose. All home creation games, espically currently Everquest next landmark, and Wildstar are bright examples of how amazing creations players can make, when the developers don't limit their creativity too much.

Tabbycat

I'm not sure the housing prices are high enough. It seems odd to me that cabin and expensive horse prices are so close together.

That said, I think everyone should automatically start off with a room at the Inn that has a small chest for storage (10 slots - not upgradeable)... perhaps after completing some starter housing quest.

bedlom

I sure hope zenimax are at the very least agreed this has to happen.

bedlom

Instanced neighborhoods like LOTRO would be something I'd love to see in ESO.

kevlarto_ESO

Very nice post OP, and some good ideas.

Rodario

ShadowHvo wrote: »

Honestly though, I really like a lot of what you've made out here, but I utterly despise the way that you've given the "expansions" seperate purposes.

Personally, I would much rather see a system where we build or buy rooms, and then place whatever furniture into them as we wish. It allows for all players to chose for themselves, instead of feeling forced to invest into something just to unlock a new "special room".

Sure, if someone wants a blacksmith, Alchemy, Enchant, Woodworking and clothier table in one big crafting room, then let them. While the others of us who feel more immersed with our homes, can build them into whatever we see fit, whenever that might be a normal house, a nasty murder house or a real hunters trophy room.

In general, the hiring of workers sounds fine, but I really despise the way that rooms needs to have a specific purpose. All home creation games, espically currently Everquest next landmark, and Wildstar are bright examples of how amazing creations players can make, when the developers don't limit their creativity too much.

Just to be clear, only the expansions have specific purposes. The main building can be furnished however you like. In the case of the city house, if you choose to not purchase any expansions, this also applies to the first floor and cellar.

Elloa

I really love the idea! Good job to have though so deeply to the system!

I'm a bit affraid that the advantages the houses expansions bring could unbalance the economy though. It seems a bit overpowered to be able to get 50 of some ressources by day. I guess some specialist will have to think about it to balance the houses nicely.

Otherwise, I'd already be happy to have a house just for "fun-cosmetic" purpose!

crowfl56

Please Please, NO player housing, its worthless, its a waste in all directions.

MornaBaine

crowfl56 wrote: »

Please Please, NO player housing, its worthless, its a waste in all directions.

Shush.

Rodario

Tabbycat wrote: »

I'm not sure the housing prices are high enough. It seems odd to me that cabin and expensive horse prices are so close together.

Including the probable prices of building materials the Cabin would cost around double the price of a good horse. Without expansions that is. Prices aren't set in stone, but I feel this is a good starting point considering that great horses aren't exactly cheap.

While I wouldn't want houses to be a dime a dozen, I also believe they shouldn't only be accessible to the 1%.

Aesthier

I just wanted to let you know OP how happy you made me by such a well thought out and detailed post you gave. Too many times I have seen the "It's my house and I deserve it now!" posts with little consideration of how exactly they could be implemented.

I too firmly desire having my own home to crawl back to, after a long journey or exploration binge, and hang my trophies on the walls.

Again thank you very much for putting into words what most of us could not, and then taking it so much further by providing an well researched example of how it could tie into the game in such a lore friendly manner.

Mara Bless you!

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Images in Signatures]

bedlom

crowfl56 wrote: »

Please Please, NO player housing, its worthless, its a waste in all directions.

It's gonna happen one day and you can take that to you're bank n store it.

Rodario

Elloa wrote: »

I really love the idea! Good job to have though so deeply to the system!

I'm a bit affraid that the advantages the houses expansions bring could unbalance the economy though. It seems a bit overpowered to be able to get 50 of some ressources by day. I guess some specialist will have to think about it to balance the houses nicely.

Otherwise, I'd already be happy to have a house just for "fun-cosmetic" purpose!

I have given that some thought and though I can't be 100% sure, I believe it would work out fine.

Processed materials of all tiers will be in much greater demand, both for furniture and building materials, so the additional supply should be balanced.

The laborer's fee means you will get raw materials a bit cheaper than the current market value and will probably be able to sell the processed materials at a small profit. Small enough for it to take a while before you earn back your investment (the expansion cost).

Because of the increased supply of raw materials, temper drop rate from refining might have to be adjusted downwards.

Leijona

[quote="Elloa;1330535"It seems a bit overpowered to be able to get 50 of some ressources by day. I guess some specialist will have to think about it to balance the houses nicely.
[/quote]

50 ressources by day would "only" be 18 deposits, if you compare them to what you could find in the world. And 18 deposits don't seem to be too much to find.

Chufu

Very nice, @Rodario. I hope, that your post will find the way to the developers! Very good ideas.

One thing I didn't catch is: What about Guild-houses? Do you mean this with the "city houses"?

My idea was: The housing could be a very good socialising theme. The guilds (small or big) could work together to build their own guild house (perhaps with a farm or a lumbermill). A great project and everbody can help to build that.

Let's say as an example: One guild house would cost 200.000 gold (for the estate), 100.000 wood, 100.000 stones and 100.000 ornaments. So everbody can find these items in the whole world of tamriel and bring them to the house and work on it. So you can interact with this guild house, for example 2 minutes = costs 1 wood = 0,001% of the house/100%. You can build longer of course, but there could be a "building bar" (like stamina) and when your bar is empty, your character is totally tired and needs to rest.

This could be really funny, because the guildmates help eachother and they could find the items together in the world. For example: the stones could be rare and you have to kill hard bosses to earn them ---> so you need a small group of 3-4 guildmembers to get some stones. and then you return to the house and *knock knock* the stones to build it (see the example above).

The hardest way could be: The ornaments for the house (jewelry, garnishments). An optional feature to enhance the look of the guild house. Ornaments could be VERY hard to get, because you just get them in Cyrodiil. You HAVE TO BE in a small or larger group to get them, because there are only a few spots to get them. Very nice PvP-action!

Summary of my idea
- building a guild house brings guild-players together
- guild houses costs Gold (estate), wood, stones to build it and optional ornaments
- wood: all over the world in Tamriel
- stones: rare places in Tamriel, you need a small group
- ornaments: very rare places in Cyrodiil, you need a small/large group
- if you get some wood, stones or ornaments, you can build at the house like 2 min, you need one wood and then the house is in progress 0,001/100%. If you want you can build longer, but not longer as your "building bar" is empty, because then your character has to rest a while.

Leijona

Chufu wrote: »

One thing I didn't catch is: What about Guild-houses? Do you mean this with the "city houses"?

No, he doesn't. He allready said, that he has no good solution for guild houses yet, but maybe your input will help him develope one.

Chufu wrote: »

Ornaments could be VERY hard to get, because you just get them in Cyrodiil. You HAVE TO BE in a small or larger group to get them, because there are only a few spots to get them. Very nice PvP-action!

You mean, forcing people to PvP? Maybe there could also be an alternative way to get them? No PvP player would have to do PvE to get their houses. And collecting mats doesn't count as PvE. Why forcing players to do PvP?