Overwhelmed with my first foray into housing.

mystfit · October 2017

I came from EQ2 and Landmark with a strong emphasis in housing and decorating. Both of those games were very housing friendly. Creativity overflowth and the options to be creative were aplenty. Housing was fairly easy and cheap to obtain and housing items were cheap in game and even in their cash store fairly cheap. Storage houses (and player made dungeons) made it easy to keep all the housing items organized, even with many multiple copies of the same item

ESO, not so much. That's their choice of course. A new player hits multiple gold and crown store walls, storage of items is challenging....knowing what's out there is difficult (though I'm sure as I get more familiar, it'll get better) and our choices in how we decorate is limited (what I would give for a resize bigger or small option).
I'm wiling to trudge onward in my attempt to get into housing, but welcome any advice to not feel so overwhelmed. My first question is related to crafting tables. Are master writs my best way to get the basic versions of the tables? In EQ2 and Landmark, I always had a set in my bags to plunk down in whatever house I was decorating at so I can easily make items and decisions as I'm building. I have gotten a few master writs that give the vouchers, but most I am at least two more months away (and one of them...a 9 trait one...what, a year??? to learn that 9th trait. And for what? 6 vouchers

Oooooooo.

I may sound bitter and for that, I apologize. I adore decorating with the passion of a white hot sun

I even formed a guild yesterday called Landmark Memories so I could link in recipes into chat so I could preview the items in the dressing room (via an add on) and not bother my 'regular' guilds. That's how hopeless I am

Pity I can't use it for storage since I'd need 10 accounts to get a guild bank but it's not intended as a functional guild.
Also, if anyone more familiar with housing can suggest 'fall/Halloween' themed items, I'd be grateful. In an effort to be less overwhelmed, I decided to select seasonal housing to decorate, and recently picked up Autumn's Gate to play with.

Linaleah · October 2017

its honestly, probably easier for you to buy the stations from the guild stores. they tend to sell for about 40k gold each - something you can make with only few days of stealing (easiest place to do so are the 2 ships in Daggerfall harbor, but there are several other good stealing places), in case you are not participating in ESO trading system.

for fall/Halloween themed items - unfortunately, you'll have to wait until next year to have a chance at achievement needed to buy some of the decorative skeletons, but recipe to craft pumpkins is pretty cheap, some of the housing vendors have fall foliage trees like this one for example https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/sapling-autumn-cluster/

mystfit · October 2017

Linaleah wrote: »

for fall/Halloween themed items - unfortunately, you'll have to wait until next year to have a chance at achievement needed to buy some of the decorative skeletons, but recipe to craft pumpkins is pretty cheap, some of the housing vendors have fall foliage trees like this one for example https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/sapling-autumn-cluster/

I'm curious...why would I have to wait until next year? Isn't there a holiday event coming up?

Linaleah · October 2017

mystfit wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

for fall/Halloween themed items - unfortunately, you'll have to wait until next year to have a chance at achievement needed to buy some of the decorative skeletons, but recipe to craft pumpkins is pretty cheap, some of the housing vendors have fall foliage trees like this one for example https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/sapling-autumn-cluster/

I'm curious...why would I have to wait until next year? Isn't there a holiday event coming up?

there was a pvp event - midyear mayhem and some of the rewards included skeletons. you can still see them on a vendor, but cannot attempt the achievement until next year. at least i'm hoping its going to be once a year deal.

you CAN get target skeletons though, they are just... not cheap, as they require expensive writ voucher only ingredient to craft, even for the most basic one.

there are also some somewhat creepy quest reward unlocked achievement furnishings that you just need to complete the associated quests to be able to buy.. like https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/remnant-of-balreth/ for example. or https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/auluss-captive-audience/

unfortunately, this resource is not fully updated, so its missing some possible to buy stuff.

mystfit · October 2017

Oh yay! I actually did that event! I wasn't aware of the vender, I'm off to go check it out now!!!

Linaleah · October 2017

mystfit wrote: »

Oh yay! I actually did that event! I wasn't aware of the vender, I'm off to go check it out now!!!

oh, awesome! the vendor is a global achievement vendor in all the capitol cities as well as Vivec

kargen27 · October 2017

With the master writs I sell the ones I can't do myself and use the gold to purchase master writs I can do. I usually sell the writs worth less than 10 vouchers even if I can do them myself and buy the ones worth more. I try to stay away from the legendary ones unless I find a really good deal. I've been spending vouchers on Hlaalu furnishers documents. I learn the ones I don't know and sell the ones I already have. I've sold a few of the really high priced ones even though I didn't know them. Lately I have been making more gold back than what I paid for the writs and am still able to learn some I need.

Autumn's Gate is a really good house to start with. Not so large that it is overwhelming to fill space but you get a decent amount of room both inside and out. It also lends itself well to all kinds of themes.

I would suggest getting the free apartments available if you don't have them already. They can be used to store furniture until you are ready to use it so you don't take up as much bank space.

I'm right there with you on the resize option. Would be nice if there was a slider that allowed us to increase or decrease size of some items. I have a small yard I would like to put a fountain in but most are simply to large to fit.

This is part of a grave yard in another house where my Vampire lives. I'm making a house for each character I play and trying to give it a theme to fit the character.

Jayne_Doe · October 2017

I suspect that if ESO was still sub-based, the housing system wouldn't be so difficult. But, housing is a way for them to generate revenue, so in-game requirements are not cheap. Though they are removing the achievement reqs for small/medium houses with the next update. But, the gold costs remain, which aren't exactly friendly to new players. In addition, the drop rate for blue/purple furnishing plans is abysmal - most plans you see at guild traders, at least the purples, are from the furnishing documents that Rolis sells for writ vouchers.

Speaking of writ vouchers, I can understand your frustration with the master writ system. Keep in mind that this is only a recent addition to the game and was designed as something to keep master crafters busy and provide rewards for years of work. So, that means that newer players, while they can get to level 50 in a craft skill quickly and start doing top-tier writs for a chance at the master writs, they aren't going to have the same knowledge (recipes, traits research, etc.) as someone who has been playing since the beginning, or for at least a year. That is intended, as these are writs for top crafters. So, you will get a lot of writs that you won't be able to complete. Either save them to use later or just sell them for gold. If you do, then you could make enough gold to just buy the crafting stations you want for gold from guild traders.

I think starting with a small home is a great idea for a new player, since the cost to buy the house is much less and you won't need as much furniture in order to decorate it.

Just think of housing as a long term project/goal. Something you can do along the way as you level up your characters, complete quests, do end-game content, etc. You'll find plenty of materials, plans, etc. along the way. But, I'm a little impatient, so I have farmed a lot of gold to buy plans that I want (though I farm all my own mats). Plus, I've done a lot of urn farming for plans.

So, there are ways to get plans that don't cost gold. Also, check the home furnishing vendors in each zone - they offer only a small selection of very basic furnishings, but also carry local flora and rocks that you can use to decorate. Also, check out the achievement vendors. There are specific ones for each zone, which offer furnishings based on achievements for the zone, plus there are the global achievement vendors in each capital city/Vivec City - one for the main quest/general achievements and one for the holiday achievements. Many of the items aren't cheap, but there are some really cool furnishings.

Also, check out ESO Styles, http://eso-styles.com/, which has pictures of all the furnishings. It's slow-loading but provides lots of information.

lasertooth · October 2017

Can you try and find a housing guild? Or find other players that are into housing? We all help each other out. I send mats and my buddies will craft anything I need, and vice versa.

FloppyTouch · October 2017

I would buy the basic crafting stations they are not to much. This way you can place them at ur home and craft ur own gear. Also what @lasertooth said join a housing guild and there are plenty of people that will craft you the stuff you want if you supply the mats.

In eso you are very limited with what you can craft and buy but at the same time this almost forces you to be more creative with what you have. It's a lot of fun turning things around place objects into each other to make a completely different item or effect.

Find like minded people and visit tons of home in ur guild and you will see some amazing things you didn't even think was possible.

mystfit · October 2017

FloppyTouch wrote: »

I would buy the basic crafting stations they are not to much. This way you can place them at ur home and craft ur own gear. Also what @lasertooth said join a housing guild and there are plenty of people that will craft you the stuff you want if you supply the mats.

In eso you are very limited with what you can craft and buy but at the same time this almost forces you to be more creative with what you have. It's a lot of fun turning things around place objects into each other to make a completely different item or effect.

Find like minded people and visit tons of home in ur guild and you will see some amazing things you didn't even think was possible.

It would seem I got freaked about crafting tables for no reason. When I did a search 'attunable tables' came up, the price was so high, I bailed. I see now that that's the special sets and regular ones are cheaper!

CorinaB · October 2017

I do a lot of my decorating on the PTS, at least at first. I don't now if you have room for it on your computer, but if you can download it you get 5500 crowns per day to work with, and all the houses cost 1 crown. I test out decorating ideas there and see what i want to buy/make in the "live" game. if i didn't have that resource, much as I love decorating on ESO and in real life, I probably never would have even gotten started due to my own overwhelm. Good luck and have fun! :-)