Make Housing Mats Affordable

DarthCuddlefluff · April 18

Hello! Over my time playing this game I witnessed housing mats get unnaturally inflated in price from 1-5 gp per, say, heartwood to over 500 per heartwood and for a lot of us it's become really hard to actually decorate houses or think about buying them. Therefore, I propose that the appropriate profession vendors sell the housing mats at 10 gp a pop as a market regulator. This will allow a lot more players to decorate houses and stimulate that part of the economy. ZoS stands to gain a lot too since more houses will be sold if people can afford to decorate them. As it stands, I don't think I will ever be able to decorate any house again, or buy one to decorate for that matter, with the prices being so ridiculously spendy.

FlameDark · April 18

The problem is the sheer amount of materials needed to build even the most rickety wall. You need a whole heap of heartwood stacks to even make anything decent. Not to mention the style pieces that go in some of them. What ZOS should do instead is lower the amount of resources needed to make anything. That in itself will cause the market prices to drop, as demand also drops.

DarthCuddlefluff · April 18

FlameDark wrote: »

The problem is the sheer amount of materials needed to build even the most rickety wall. You need a whole heap of heartwood stacks to even make anything decent. Not to mention the style pieces that go in some of them. What ZOS should do instead is lower the amount of resources needed to make anything. That in itself will cause the market prices to drop, as demand also drops.

With respect, I disagree. I mean, I agree on the point that things cost too much and all that. For instance, no housing deco should cost a style mat that in itself is like 30k minimum. But I witnessed what happened before when that whale bought up every housing material for months and but them up at 1000x the price to artificially inflate it. I think the same thing would just happen again unless they didn't mess with the drop rates of housing mats and literally made everything cost 1-3 of them. No, I think there needs to be a regulator on the market. The players have proven that there's always gonna be someone who wants to permanently ruin it for everyone for the rest of the game's lifetime. idk if it's some power trip or what, but it happens all the time. On this one thing, I think that they have a clear and easy method of regulation.

wolfie1.0. · April 19

You are actually mistaken. The cost of obtaining furniture mats is not a gold value its a time value. Furniture mats like heartwood are free. You can pick them up at no gold cost from the world. The real question is how much time are you willing to spend to do that? And what is that time worth to you in gold.

Also lets be real here. Buying houses in eso is not driven primarily buy mat prices. Do they factor in? Yes, but they are not the driving force. And honestly, it kinda goes the other way. New houses, especially upcoming free ones or existing free ones impact the market.

IMO if your going to sell mats at an npc vendor in a non limited supply you.might as well remove that component from the game.

Better solutions would be to reduce the cost of the.mat requirements, and/or allow us to deconstruct furnishings.

Neither will happen. Because like in the real world housing is for the people that have money

Bithabus · April 19

All mats are now much cheaper than they used to be.

Tallon_IV · April 19

I wouldn't mind if they dropped from surveys.

SilverBride · April 19

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

The cost of obtaining furniture mats is not a gold value its a time value. Furniture mats like heartwood are free. You can pick them up at no gold cost from the world. The real question is how much time are you willing to spend to do that? And what is that time worth to you in gold.

I've decorated 56 houses and bought all but 1 unfurnished, so I use a lot of Heartwood. But I have never farmed for it, even though it is free to do so. I'd much rather pay someone else to farm it for me, even for an inflated price.

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

SilverBride wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

The cost of obtaining furniture mats is not a gold value its a time value. Furniture mats like heartwood are free. You can pick them up at no gold cost from the world. The real question is how much time are you willing to spend to do that? And what is that time worth to you in gold.

I've decorated 56 houses and bought all but 1 unfurnished, so I use a lot of Heartwood. But I have never farmed for it, even though it is free to do so. I'd much rather pay someone else to farm it for me, even for an inflated price.

Then you are very rich if they are notables.

SilverBride · April 19

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

The cost of obtaining furniture mats is not a gold value its a time value. Furniture mats like heartwood are free. You can pick them up at no gold cost from the world. The real question is how much time are you willing to spend to do that? And what is that time worth to you in gold.

I've decorated 56 houses and bought all but 1 unfurnished, so I use a lot of Heartwood. But I have never farmed for it, even though it is free to do so. I'd much rather pay someone else to farm it for me, even for an inflated price.

Then you are very rich if they are notables.

Some are notable but I have a lot of small houses and apartments, too. I have a lot of gold because I have actively traded for years now so I can afford housing without farming.

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

You are actually mistaken. The cost of obtaining furniture mats is not a gold value its a time value. Furniture mats like heartwood are free. You can pick them up at no gold cost from the world. The real question is how much time are you willing to spend to do that? And what is that time worth to you in gold.

Also lets be real here. Buying houses in eso is not driven primarily buy mat prices. Do they factor in? Yes, but they are not the driving force. And honestly, it kinda goes the other way. New houses, especially upcoming free ones or existing free ones impact the market.

IMO if your going to sell mats at an npc vendor in a non limited supply you.might as well remove that component from the game.

Better solutions would be to reduce the cost of the.mat requirements, and/or allow us to deconstruct furnishings.

Neither will happen. Because like in the real world housing is for the people that have money

In a vacuum I would agree. But I saw it happen. I was trying to buy some for a house I was decorating and the markets were empty. Anything new disappeared rather quickly. I was there.

DenverRalphy · April 19

There are two ways to obtain style and furnishing mats. Farm them, or pay other players to farm them. Deflating the value of the mats with nonplayer acquistion reduces the value realized by the farmers. It wouldn't be fair to the players who spend the time and effort gathering those mats.

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

DenverRalphy wrote: »

There are two ways to obtain style mats. Farm them, or pay other players to farm them. Deflating the value of the mats with nonplayer acquistion reduces the value realized by the farmers. It wouldn't be fair to the players who spend the time and effort gathering those mats.

But it's already not fair to the housing people. It was made unfair to the housing people. The people who spend a lot of money on this game to keep it's lifeblood running.

DenverRalphy · April 19

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

There are two ways to obtain style mats. Farm them, or pay other players to farm them. Deflating the value of the mats with nonplayer acquistion reduces the value realized by the farmers. It wouldn't be fair to the players who spend the time and effort gathering those mats.

But it's already not fair to the housing people. It was made unfair to the housing people. The people who spend a lot of money on this game to keep it's lifeblood running.

What's currently unfair about it for housing players? They can farm the mats just as readily as anybody else. If they want more mats faster, well.. :shrug:.. speed costs money. The only question is, how fast do you want to go?

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

DenverRalphy wrote: »

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

There are two ways to obtain style mats. Farm them, or pay other players to farm them. Deflating the value of the mats with nonplayer acquistion reduces the value realized by the farmers. It wouldn't be fair to the players who spend the time and effort gathering those mats.

But it's already not fair to the housing people. It was made unfair to the housing people. The people who spend a lot of money on this game to keep it's lifeblood running.

What's currently unfair about it for housing players? They can farm the mats just as readily as anybody else. If they want more mats faster, well.. :shrug:.. speed costs money. The only question is, how fast do you want to go?

You know it's gonna take hundreds to maybe a thousand or more hours of mind-numbing collecting to get what you need for a notable, right? And that housing people often do other content and don't literally just play the game to decorate? And even to decorate you need to sink just as much time, if not more, into making a ton of money for everything else you need that aren't housing mats? You know, gathering special decorations with specific drop sources, lead furnishings, furnishing plans, visiting houses, practicing new housing techniques and whatnot? And that's just for housing, alone. Forget about if you want to do any other content in the game.

Zodiarkslayer · April 19

[snip]

If you don't have gold, go farming. If you don't have time to farm, buy. If you have neither, think of how much you want the mats and if there are alternatives.
[snip]

Prices are a result of the relations between players with a lot of gold and players with a lot of time. Maybe some bots play role, I can't tell. I don't see bots when I play, anymore. Can't change that...
Also, furnishings can be purchased directly, without using crafting materiels. It is in many cases the most cost effective option to get the stuff that you want, especially when you consider that you need (to buy) the furnishing plan, too.
[edited for flaming]

Soarora · April 19

Housing mats at 10g from an npc is too far. I agree with the suggestion to decrease the costs in the plans themselves. In what world does a singular chair require 13 heartwood?

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

Soarora wrote: »

Housing mats at 10g from an npc is too far. I agree with the suggestion to decrease the costs in the plans themselves. In what world does a singular chair require 13 heartwood?

I still think that the prices would just go up in response anyway, and they would probably lower the droprates.

Aylish · April 19

They should at least make them drop in survey nodes.

freespirit · April 19

This is why the phrase "housing is the real endgame" is often thrown around, it is quite true!

Those of us that have been here since day dot and actively trading have more than enough gold to buy what we need, every time I decorate even a smaller house I expect the bill to run into several millions, large houses can easily cost 10 million plus to decorate.

One of my top tips is, know what plans you have learned, know how much the item costs to craft and know what that item sells for....

Some items may cost 10k to craft BUT those items sometimes sell at over double their craft cost, that can buy a lot of extra furnishing mats.

Strategic buying of rarer plans can often return a lot of gold in the long run.

LunaFlora · April 19

Aylish wrote: »

They should at least make them drop in survey nodes.

that would be really amazing

onyxorb · April 19

LunaFlora wrote: »

Aylish wrote: »

They should at least make them drop in survey nodes.

that would be really amazing

I still don't understand why they don't drop in surveys. We get supposedly pristine and ultra rare mats, but nowadays, housing mats are definitely more valuable than the nodes.

I do a lot of daily craft writs to get my surveys, let me get some housing mats, all that wood, and I can't get some heartwood? c'mon...

Diminish · April 19

There was a point in time we had 70-80k/per Dreugh Wax. We didn't get a vendor selling those. Welcome to the ESO economy, it will adjust itself over time.

freespirit · April 19

Diminish wrote: »

There was a point in time we had 70-80k/per Dreugh Wax. We didn't get a vendor selling those. Welcome to the ESO economy, it will adjust itself over time.

Trouble is the mats in question don't adjust over time, they are much cheaper already than they were but now seem stuck in the same price bracket.

Heartwood - people don't farm wood as much as say cloth and jewelry mats, there just isn't really any value in the actual wood mats, rosin is dirt cheap these days better return from farming cloth, leather and jewelry, heck even metal has more worth as far as tempering alloy is concerned.

Mundane Rune - Farming nodes sucks tbh Kuta drop rate is pretty damn bad, easier to buy it.

Decorative Wax - This one I hate, it's the bane of my life, it's better to farm Mud Crabs for Chitin, sell that and buy the wax and even then the stores aren't exactly full of it. I've tried all supposed sources non are great.

Also remember these mats have already had their drop rate increased........ LOL!!

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

Diminish wrote: »

There was a point in time we had 70-80k/per Dreugh Wax. We didn't get a vendor selling those. Welcome to the ESO economy, it will adjust itself over time.

Maybe we should have.

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

freespirit wrote: »

Diminish wrote: »

There was a point in time we had 70-80k/per Dreugh Wax. We didn't get a vendor selling those. Welcome to the ESO economy, it will adjust itself over time.

Trouble is the mats in question don't adjust over time, they are much cheaper already than they were but now seem stuck in the same price bracket.

Heartwood - people don't farm wood as much as say cloth and jewelry mats, there just isn't really any value in the actual wood mats, rosin is dirt cheap these days better return from farming cloth, leather and jewelry, heck even metal has more worth as far as tempering alloy is concerned.

Mundane Rune - Farming nodes sucks tbh Kuta drop rate is pretty damn bad, easier to buy it.

Decorative Wax - This one I hate, it's the bane of my life, it's better to farm Mud Crabs for Chitin, sell that and buy the wax and even then the stores aren't exactly full of it. I've tried all supposed sources non are great.

Also remember these mats have already had their drop rate increased........ LOL!!

If they were supposed to be at that price as a natural settled price, then why did they settle for years at 5-10 gp? Did everyone just get a billion of gold at once?

kargen27 · April 19

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

Housing mats at 10g from an npc is too far. I agree with the suggestion to decrease the costs in the plans themselves. In what world does a singular chair require 13 heartwood?

I still think that the prices would just go up in response anyway, and they would probably lower the droprates.

Why would they? Even in an in game market like we have in ESO supply and demand dictates price. Lowering the amount of materials needed to create furniture creates a drop in demand. Even if it doesn't create a drop in demand you still overall are getting more for your gold. If a chair costs 13 now and the cost is lowered to 7 even with no adjustment to price you are getting double the amount of furniture you could before at the same price.
I could see a temporary increase in demand as decorators take advantage of the lower cost and maybe create five pieces of furniture where they normally would only create three. People that were on the fence in decorating a home might decide it is time to start and that could increase demand some. Still the price of materials would need to almost double to get the cost of furniture up as high as before the change. And it would be temporary. Eventually demand will wane and prices will reflect that.

Vendors selling materials isn't good for the game. Players need reasons to venture out into the open zones and do things. Gathering resources is one of the main reasons to spend time running around in different zones. It helps make the world feel more populated. Vendors selling materials removes that incentive.

DarthCuddlefluff · April 19

kargen27 wrote: »

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

Housing mats at 10g from an npc is too far. I agree with the suggestion to decrease the costs in the plans themselves. In what world does a singular chair require 13 heartwood?

I still think that the prices would just go up in response anyway, and they would probably lower the droprates.

Why would they? Even in an in game market like we have in ESO supply and demand dictates price. Lowering the amount of materials needed to create furniture creates a drop in demand. Even if it doesn't create a drop in demand you still overall are getting more for your gold. If a chair costs 13 now and the cost is lowered to 7 even with no adjustment to price you are getting double the amount of furniture you could before at the same price.
I could see a temporary increase in demand as decorators take advantage of the lower cost and maybe create five pieces of furniture where they normally would only create three. People that were on the fence in decorating a home might decide it is time to start and that could increase demand some. Still the price of materials would need to almost double to get the cost of furniture up as high as before the change. And it would be temporary. Eventually demand will wane and prices will reflect that.

Vendors selling materials isn't good for the game. Players need reasons to venture out into the open zones and do things. Gathering resources is one of the main reasons to spend time running around in different zones. It helps make the world feel more populated. Vendors selling materials removes that incentive.

There are a ton of reasons to do things. You really aren't going to run out of things to do, it's an MMO. The zones will be populated at all times. Just ask anyone using BeamMeUp. Also capital isn't as simple as supply and demand. It has a human element. We aren't simple machines with an input and and output. I already gave the example of the whale who changed the market to be like it is today. Humans affect the market. Greed affects the market. And if there is no incentive for prices to go down they will not. Supply and demand will have a role in that, but it's never been an absolute regulating force in any economy.

DenverRalphy · April 20

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

There are two ways to obtain style mats. Farm them, or pay other players to farm them. Deflating the value of the mats with nonplayer acquistion reduces the value realized by the farmers. It wouldn't be fair to the players who spend the time and effort gathering those mats.

But it's already not fair to the housing people. It was made unfair to the housing people. The people who spend a lot of money on this game to keep it's lifeblood running.

What's currently unfair about it for housing players? They can farm the mats just as readily as anybody else. If they want more mats faster, well.. :shrug:.. speed costs money. The only question is, how fast do you want to go?

You know it's gonna take hundreds to maybe a thousand or more hours of mind-numbing collecting to get what you need for a notable, right?

Now that's a bit of an exaggeration. Can farming up furnishing mats be a lot of work? You betcha. But it's not hundreds to thousands of hours for one house. Even for a notable home.

Balancing farming with generating income is part of the game. Many players specializing in housing do just that. If it wasn't a challenge, it would get boring.

DarthCuddlefluff · April 20

DenverRalphy wrote: »

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

There are two ways to obtain style mats. Farm them, or pay other players to farm them. Deflating the value of the mats with nonplayer acquistion reduces the value realized by the farmers. It wouldn't be fair to the players who spend the time and effort gathering those mats.

But it's already not fair to the housing people. It was made unfair to the housing people. The people who spend a lot of money on this game to keep it's lifeblood running.

What's currently unfair about it for housing players? They can farm the mats just as readily as anybody else. If they want more mats faster, well.. :shrug:.. speed costs money. The only question is, how fast do you want to go?

You know it's gonna take hundreds to maybe a thousand or more hours of mind-numbing collecting to get what you need for a notable, right?

Now that's a bit of an exaggeration. Can farming up furnishing mats be a lot of work? You betcha. But it's not hundreds to thousands of hours for one house. Even for a notable home.

Not at all. I have been picking up every single node I see for over a year's worth of gameplay now and I have like 2k mundanes. I have been on 8 hour a day, week long grinds on starter islands in the past. They are that slow.

freespirit · April 20

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

Diminish wrote: »

There was a point in time we had 70-80k/per Dreugh Wax. We didn't get a vendor selling those. Welcome to the ESO economy, it will adjust itself over time.

Trouble is the mats in question don't adjust over time, they are much cheaper already than they were but now seem stuck in the same price bracket.

Heartwood - people don't farm wood as much as say cloth and jewelry mats, there just isn't really any value in the actual wood mats, rosin is dirt cheap these days better return from farming cloth, leather and jewelry, heck even metal has more worth as far as tempering alloy is concerned.

Mundane Rune - Farming nodes sucks tbh Kuta drop rate is pretty damn bad, easier to buy it.

Decorative Wax - This one I hate, it's the bane of my life, it's better to farm Mud Crabs for Chitin, sell that and buy the wax and even then the stores aren't exactly full of it. I've tried all supposed sources non are great.

Also remember these mats have already had their drop rate increased........ LOL!!

If they were supposed to be at that price as a natural settled price, then why did they settle for years at 5-10 gp? Did everyone just get a billion of gold at once?

Heartwood, Mundane Rune and Decorative Wax have never been cheap, the others have but those three no, Heartwood was at one point nigh on 1k gold each, currently 200-400 gold...... these are PC-EU prices from my experience and I have brought a lot over the years. 🙂

DarthCuddlefluff · April 20

freespirit wrote: »

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

Diminish wrote: »

There was a point in time we had 70-80k/per Dreugh Wax. We didn't get a vendor selling those. Welcome to the ESO economy, it will adjust itself over time.

Trouble is the mats in question don't adjust over time, they are much cheaper already than they were but now seem stuck in the same price bracket.

Heartwood - people don't farm wood as much as say cloth and jewelry mats, there just isn't really any value in the actual wood mats, rosin is dirt cheap these days better return from farming cloth, leather and jewelry, heck even metal has more worth as far as tempering alloy is concerned.

Mundane Rune - Farming nodes sucks tbh Kuta drop rate is pretty damn bad, easier to buy it.

Decorative Wax - This one I hate, it's the bane of my life, it's better to farm Mud Crabs for Chitin, sell that and buy the wax and even then the stores aren't exactly full of it. I've tried all supposed sources non are great.

Also remember these mats have already had their drop rate increased........ LOL!!

If they were supposed to be at that price as a natural settled price, then why did they settle for years at 5-10 gp? Did everyone just get a billion of gold at once?

Heartwood, Mundane Rune and Decorative Wax have never been cheap, the others have but those three no, Heartwood was at one point nigh on 1k gold each, currently 200-400 gold...... these are PC-EU prices from my experience and I have brought a lot over the years. 🙂

Except that's just not true. They WERE 1-10 a pop for a long time at the beginning of the game. At least on PC-NA. They were when I was playing for the first time when Greymoor was new. I don't know how many times I have to repeat this. A whale ruined all the housing mats economy for everyone. Is this not a well known event? Did everyone just see that their leftover housing mats were 1000 gp suddenly and just go "not gonna look into that?"