Proudspire Manor

Morgha_Kul · May 2021

I like this house. I mean, I REALLY like this house. I like the layout (though the textures are a bit dull), and I love that patio... except for one thing. It's the same problem I have with a couple of other houses, like the Lucky Cat Landing (which I really like too).

The problem is that the house is not part of the WORLD. For example, as I enter the Manor, there's a group of n'eer do wells playing dice in the alley. The patio overlooks that alley... but there's no sign of those NPCs. There's no one out there AT ALL. Same with the Lucky Cat Landing. Both the front yard (which is glorious) and the patio are unconnected to the actual world. There's no one walking the streets, no one out in view anywhere. It feels very lonely and disconnected from everything.

When I played Star Wars Galaxies, that was something I always loved, sitting on my balcony, watching the adventurers running by, maybe offering them a wave, or a friendly Hallooo. Nope, not in ESO.

There's another interesting house coming up in the next patch (I've seen it on PTS) and it's the same thing. It has a balcony that overlooks a main thoroughfare... that has NOBODY on it... ever.

It doesn't seem necessary to me, and it's disappointing. I know very well that they can have doors in the house exit to different places. If I go out the upstairs door of Grymharth's Woe or the House of the SIlent Magnifico, it leads out to an exterior balcony that DOES exist in the actual world (well, Grymharth's has more of a shelf than a balcony)... so it's DOABLE. The only thing would be that you couldn't decorate it... but that isn't a huge deal, I think.

Anyway, I thought I'd bring it up in the hope that something might happen, a house might be introduced that DOES allow a real balcony into the world of the game.

bluebird · May 2021

I think you identified the problem already: if an outdoors area is part of the world, it can't be furnished.

Most houses have a sizeable enough outdoors space that the potential of customising and decorating that is worth the trade-off of not being able to see the populated game world. So for most players, in most houses, it's better to be able to furnish their gardens/terraces than to be able to see people (and seeing people can be a turnoff anyway, if you don't want to see randoms dueling or spouting profanity in zonechat or whatnot when you're 'inside' your own house).

There is a case to be made for some houses, like Grymhart's Woe as you mention which has a minuscule edge that wouldn't be very furnishable anyway. And perhaps Water's Edge would have made an interesting element to have the terrace pre-furnished with items so that it can be in the outside world instance and allow us to overlook an actual bustling city. Though again, that raises its own issues like other players interfering with your supposed house - every player who owns the house would enter and exit through 'your' home, would sit on 'your' balcony with you - which isn't a worthy tradeoff for me personally.

If you want to make streets of your houses livelier, you can always use the Houseguest and the Pathing system!

That's what I did in my Proudspire - I love that the house allowed us to customize the small garden area, and now we can also bring some life to the city!

Smoky · May 2021

I think a nice middle ground could be, loading of generic NPC's so when in your home you wouldn't be able to see or interact with any other players (except those within your home of course) but NPC's would walk the streets and do their usual tasks. Another home that would benefit is the Cyrodilic Jungle House, I have a nice platform looking out over the Bandari Trading post, normally it has a great atmosphere and is lively but from inside the house instance it just looks so boring and empty.

I don't think it would harm their current intentions with housing either. Maybe one day....

FluffWit · May 2021

It's never bothered me with Mistveil because it's so far away from Riften all you can really see is the roof tops anyway- and that's a good thing really.

The House of the Silent Magnifico... if they're included that rooftop patio in the build area it would probably be one of the most popular houses in the game. Without it almost no one bothers buying the place.