The Housing Solution: An In-Depth Concept and Discussion Post

Ser Lobo

I am a diehard fan of player housing. I've been playing MMO's in particularly since the late 90's, and my earliest (Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies) where two of the immersion giants. This post is a continuation of one made on the beta forums, with tweaks for current gameplay and more focus on the argument of the importance of player housing, not just it's possibility.

Note: All figures and numbers are rough estimates and intended merely to give you an idea of the author's concept, not be taken literally.



Role Playing

They key word here is: immersion. In any roleplaying game, the player creates a character ... someone different, separate from themselves ... who exists in another world. And takes control of that characters life. But when that player logs off, there has to be a suspension of belief that our characters don't just disappear.

Elder Scrolls has been a hallmark of the true roleplaying legacy, oftentimes not just giving our characters a place to lay their head, but requiring them to do so to stay healthy and strong. And Skyrim took that one more step, by giving us friends and family to associate with.

Elder Scrolls Online has the capability of living true to that concept, particularly in an age of MMO's where housing and immersion are bygone concepts. Our character's were ripped from this world of Tamriel, souls' taken from us, and we must make a new home for ourselves in lands now torn apart by war and conflict and death. A great starting piece to creating an immersive legacy!



The Various Systems

Player housing is any system where the characters in a game have a shared or private place of their own. These can be simple or very complex designs, but are generally broken down into a couple varieties: instanced individual, instanced neighborhood and open world. Either and all systems have benefits, and in this post, I'd like to iterate that the best, ULTIMATE version of housing in any game would include some form of all three systems and their variations.

• Instanced Individual housing can take multiple forms, but is generally a building or doorway in the world that allows the creation of a separate, unique instance for the character to inhabit in some shape or form. Common forms of this system are EverQuest 2. This system requires the least resources, server-side, and is infinitely replicable.
  
• Instanced Neighborhood is an MMO staple, common in games such as Dark Age of Camelot and Lord of the Rings Online, as well as others. It's defined as several housing plots in a separate-from-the-world instance, designed to give the player a feeling that their character lives in the world next to others while also keeping lag server-to-pc communications to a minimum (less to load while still looking real). While the neighborhoods do require more resources than instanced individual, they are easily replicable and can create infinite housing opportunities.
  
• Open World housing, similar to what was in Star Wars Galaxies or Ultima Online, is a resource hungry system which allows players to build houses wherever there is space in the world. This is by far the most immersive system, but is not replicable, and creates huge issues for server load and is very limited with large playerbases.

Benefits of Housing

Housing as a whole gives a unique feel to an immersive roleplaying game, by giving each player an immediate, almost behind-the-scenes impression that their character belongs to the world. Many players don't realize that the suspension of belief required to assume your character neither eats, sleeps or has a place to call home is one of the most difficult to make. In line with this, a simple housing mechanic can imply ALL of those. You have a house, and so you naturally assume your character eats and sleeps there, even if there is no mechanic in the game to allow you to or force you to.

Housing in all it's forms can also make players more connected to their characters, which in turn means they are more connected to the game itself. From roleplayers having another venue to work with, to those of us who must collect it all, to the most hardned pvper and his trophy rack ... housing can keep everyone entertained.

But while housing has many benefits on it's very own, it still needs practical application to make it truly worth developer and player time and investment. Some very basic mechanics which could be used to make player housing more usable and user friendly (without it being required) are listed here:

• Custom crafting stations that can include limited and unique traits and set bonuses
• Storage Containers with small limits to allow for storage of character specific items (bound/trophy, etc)
• Vanity Mirrors that allow a player to adjust his character's style and design (from facial features to tattoos and haircuts, to even offering a preview of armor and gear the player doesn't actually own)
• Mannequins for displaying suits of armor/clothing that the player has made/collected
• Storage cases, wall racks and display shelves for showing off weapons and staves you own
• Book shelves for displaying books the player has found
• Trophy racks for displaying unique trophies from quest achievements
• Unique displays and paintings earned through achievement completion (in example, for earning 'Pact Hero' achievement, players are able to put a sculpted dragon on display)
• Minor wayshrine, for fast travel to and from the house
• Minor mundus stones, collected via specific quest or mission to exchange mundus stone effects
• Altars to the eight divines or the daedric princes to achieve small bonuses

The Stages of Housing

The following is a list of various types of housing I feel would work perfectly in Elder Scrolls Online. It is my belief that housing need not be included in it's full-featured form immediately, but some small version of it could be added soon, and the entire system could be made more complex over time.

I feel that Zenimax could begin with simple apartments with very basic features, all with a relatively small amount of investment of development time and resources. And of course, the list continues from there.

Apartments

These one-room mini-instances would be linked to a variety of areas, including NPC guild halls (Fighter's Guilds, Mages Guilds, Dark Brotherhood, etc), inns and other public housing zones. They are meant to be entry-level homes, easy for a brand new player to rent but also capable of supporting veteran players who aren't big into immersion. They don't come with a lot of bells and whistles, but they offer basic commodities. A simple quest in the main storyline even sends the player to an inn to rent his first room and start his adventure into the world.

Purchasing (or accessing a quest-given) apartments would be as simple as walking up to the innkeep and selecting the appropriate dialogue. It would be a one-time purchase. From that point forward, the player simply needs to approach the designated doorway marked 'my apartment' (in which they are given a quest which will provide an arrow back to their apartment should they ever lose their way) in order to enter. Each character can only own one apartment, but can change their apartment (and move all their items) between locations by talking to the innkeep at the location you wish to move to.

• Inexpensive, even for brand new players
• By adding one single door to each inn in the game world, ZOS could create infinite apartments
• Comes with two small 10 slot safe containers (cannot be pulled from other characters on that players' account or from crafting, or accessed by any other player)
• Has vanity mirror for changing hair and makeup
• Includes one trophy mount
• Includes one achievement mount
• Does not include a private wayshrine, manniquins, weapon racks, crafting stations, or mundus stones

Neighborhood Housing

These private zones, often located in private dales and out-of-the-way locales between regions, are the primary form of traditional player housing in the game. In these pre-made 'towns', players get to choose from any number of available houses to make their home in, similar to the apartment 'one door, infinite houses' mechanic. Guilds also may have a presence here with housing and keeps unique to larger organizations.

These zones could include roughly 25-50 plots of land (a plot being a place where players can build their own house), as well as five guild hall plots. The neighborhood itself includes a wayshrine, an NPC inn, and market stalls which could be bought by local players who have a home or guild hall in the neighborhood. Each zone also includes two 'manual' entrances, bordering the local regions. In rare cases, these could also be located on islands.

Each of these neighborhoods would give the impression of being a small town of the area, with the design of the houses required to reflect both neighboring regions (if located between Stonefalls and the Rift, for instance, houses would be of Nord or Dunmer design).

Player homes would represent standard layout options with pre-configured social areas, each giving the player a variety of customization methods to make the home their own. So while a player may need to choose from four or five styles of dunmer housing, and each of those houses has a pre-determined dining area and 'living room', the player may then determine the nature of the other rooms in the house to suit their needs, and then add specific anchored interactable furniture pieces for greater customization.

Since all furniture is linked to achievements and trophies, players can change houses and redecorate their new home with ease (though common storage options, like apartment buildings, would be transfered to new common storage containers).



Interacting with Instanced Housing

Instanced housing, which I often refer to as "one door, infinite houses", is where one building acts as a house for several players. Players access the door, and instead of being taken immediately inside, they are actually given a menu popup allowing them to select their house or someone elses house to enter.

A simple menu that has very easy to understand buttons will suffice. The primary page/tab menu allows the player to either buy a house there, or if they have bought a house, to enter their own home. If they own a home, it also allows them to manage your invited/refused list, so that you can allow whomever you wish into your home or refuse them. You can even make your home entirely open to the public. By simply inserting the name of a guild, you can invite an entire guild into your home with you. Also available is an option to always allow members of your current group access to your home while they are in your group.

Another capability of this menu is the assigning of rooms to other players and managing the mechanics of NPC visitors (hirelings and followers).

A second tab would allow you to see all the houses at that location that you have the ability to enter, sorted in drop-down menu's. These start with players on your friends list, a list of players in your guild, then go to players specifically giving you permission, and finally to all those with open houses. These sub-menu's can be expanded or decreased as you need, and a search bar in this window allows you to quickly pull up a player or character's house with just a few letters.

A third tab would allow you to search all houses to find out where someone lived, including their zone and physical address in-game. This includes a much larger drop-down menu, but includes the same easy and simple sorting functions.



Taking Friends Along

Player housing is as much a social environment as an immersive one. For many, all the display cases and trophies in the world are useless when there's nobody else to see them.

Inviting a player to your house would be as simple as a slash command /invhs, /invap, /invitehouse, /inviteapartment or by visiting the door menu (which can be accessed from within the house, allowing you to travel to other players houses from yours instead of having to exit first).

One of the primary benefits of a house is it's roleplay and social potential. This is why dining rooms and living areas would either need interactable furniture, or no furniture (since any player can use the command /sitchair to produce a chair). For larger houses, longer tables and public rooms full of displays/mannequins would suit to provide a large social environment.



Furniture and Effects

This proposed design focuses more on the 'Dark Age of Camelot' anchor-point style of furnishing homes, which gives the house or apartment a very basic amount of furniture on purchase (not empty), with players accessorizing areas with clutter or specific anchored interactables (manniquin displays and platforms, bookshelves and reading table, trophy mount and plaque, etc).

The concept is to pre-design the apartment and houses to be livable areas, and then offer enough customization options to allow the player the feeling of control without making the system too complex. This removes the free-form nature of item placement that games like Star Wars Galaxies allowed, but if properly implemented can offer far more ambiance than DAoC or EQ2 offered.

As an example of the customization options presented is what was seen in the Hearthfire DLC of Skyrim, only offering more individual options per piece added to include a spartan, elegant, lived-in and cluttered setting, with each representing an assortment of clutter style and amount.

Also, NPC hirelings (for those with profession hirelings) or NPC followers could be given simple scripts in the house to make them more lively.

Overall, the concept is not to introduce new crafting professions (and by that nature, not to take up even more precious inventory slots), but to use achievements and current trophies to offer 'free' furniture to the player.



Wrap Up

Even though I feel the above system would be rather easy to add (due to most resources already being in-game), and include far more return on developer investment, Zenimax is hinting that player housing might be one or even two years away.

That is rather disheartening. While it's obvious that there are well-paid individuals in ZOS who don't see this type of player immersion and world ambiance as important, I believe the overall principle of player housing is true to the Dark Age of Camelot roots, to it's Elder Scrolls roots, and to the traditional golden-age MMORPG that it so easily reproduces.

And the returns? Far more than any content outside of user-made quests and PvP, roleplay and 'digital barbie' mechanisms represent the most option for player longevity and loyalty. Character investment should NEVER be underrated in a franchise built on maintaining active subscribers, and the more capability ZOS can give us to make that investment, the better.

I have literally spent years in Star Wars Galaxies, well through two major screw-ups and countless thousands of dollars in subscription fees. In the end, my greatest regret from them closing down the servers was the loss of those digital pieces of property I'd spent so much time and energy making my own. AND I WASNT ALONE!

@Zenimax ... don't skip a month of effort on something which could spell the crucial difference between a beautiful game, and a beautiful game we can't do without!



Too Long; Didn't Read

Many people love player housing. Elder Scrolls is well-known for player housing. Elder Scrolls Online could easily add player housing. Player housing would help retain subscribers.

Eorea

Very interesting and insightful. I disagree on some points (guilds being able to purchase exclusive neighborhoods), but not enough to go into huge detail. HUGE roleplayer here.

+1 internets.

Ser Lobo

Eorea wrote: »

Very interesting and insightful. I disagree on some points (guilds being able to purchase exclusive neighborhoods), but not enough to go into huge detail. HUGE roleplayer here.

+1 internets.

I simply remember how difficult it was to build my house near friends in Dark Age of Camelot and Lord of the Rings.

Eorea

No, I understand. I just hate exclusivity. I haven't had many good experiences in large guilds. It wouldn't be something I complain about, just privately go at.

ers101284b14_ESO

I wanted to read all that but it's after midnight so I'm just gonna agree.

I think that their housing will be well done and super customizable but we won't see it super soon. Can't wait to see what they do with it

HandofBane

Some solid ideas there. One thing that does need to be addressed early, despite few wanting to admit it would be necessary, is how to deal with dead housing. Meaning: accounts that close, and how their land (in the case of neighborhood housing) is disposed of.

I only bring that up because when I played Horizons (now Istaria), we got to deal with a massive server merge after the population took a nosedive, where hundreds of housing plots were left occupied-yet-vacant. This ended up in people being the lone residents of their area, living in a ghost town. At the same time, you don't want to nuke someone's house just because they failed to renew immediately after their account shut down due to a game time card running out, or something similar.

Ser Lobo

Honestly, @HandofBane, that's a great topic!

While the concept of neighborhood housing was taken directly from Dark Age of Camelot, which created neighborhood zones in repetition (so you knew if you were in, say, Varvendfall Neighborhood #28).

But, if the neighborhoods were built to include a number of predefined house models, in which players could rent the house in the same manner that they rent an apartment (one door, infinite houses)? Then there wouldn't be that feeling of abandoned lots.

Of course, it may still feel a bit odd to have another player walk up to your front door, but no more wierd than watching someone walk into your inn room.

Player choice would then be along the lines of: what neighborhood to choose (in relation to style of houses, etc); what house to choose (in relation to the exterior model of the house); and where you're located in that small neighborhood.

Honestly, that system might not just be easier to manufacture and manage, but also might be more aesthetically pleasing and immersive. I'll give it some thought and probably revise the original post tomorrow.

ers101284b14_ESO

HandofBane wrote: »

Some solid ideas there. One thing that does need to be addressed early, despite few wanting to admit it would be necessary, is how to deal with dead housing. Meaning: accounts that close, and how their land (in the case of neighborhood housing) is disposed of.

I only bring that up because when I played Horizons (now Istaria), we got to deal with a massive server merge after the population took a nosedive, where hundreds of housing plots were left occupied-yet-vacant. This ended up in people being the lone residents of their area, living in a ghost town. At the same time, you don't want to nuke someone's house just because they failed to renew immediately after their account shut down due to a game time card running out, or something similar.

We should be allowed to loot pillage and torch it over time. Don renew within a month we can enter it and sleep in your bed. Gone two months we steal your house loot, gone 3 months we take your furniture and burn it down!

HandofBane

ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »

HandofBane wrote: »

Some solid ideas there. One thing that does need to be addressed early, despite few wanting to admit it would be necessary, is how to deal with dead housing. Meaning: accounts that close, and how their land (in the case of neighborhood housing) is disposed of.

I only bring that up because when I played Horizons (now Istaria), we got to deal with a massive server merge after the population took a nosedive, where hundreds of housing plots were left occupied-yet-vacant. This ended up in people being the lone residents of their area, living in a ghost town. At the same time, you don't want to nuke someone's house just because they failed to renew immediately after their account shut down due to a game time card running out, or something similar.

We should be allowed to loot pillage and torch it over time. Don renew within a month we can enter it and sleep in your bed. Gone two months we steal your house loot, gone 3 months we take your furniture and burn it down!

So UO-style house-falling parties. Where a dozen of us camp out, with the odd PK showing up to kill someone, waiting for the moment the house collapses to snatch up anything worth grabbing as the walls fall down. I am down with that.

Soupypoop

Out of all the MMOs I have ever played, these three had player housing - LOTRO (never played long enough to experience it because I hated the game in general), Runescape (AMAZING housing system, one that other MMOs should learn from, more details below), and Tibia (Wasn't spectacular, but all the basics were there and it worked like a charm.)

Runescape, while it was pretty bad graphic wise, had imo an amazing housing system. I would argue the best of any MMO, period. There was an entire skill dedicated to it. Players could invite friends into their house. It wasn't just 'come and look at my house' either. It was 'come and see my house, as well as participate in the various toy and gimmicks that I built and worked for'. You could have boxing rings, mini games, a basement dungeon, and much more.

Of course, not all of this could happen in ESO, but I would love to see houses play more of a role than just eye candy. Have some interactives and whatnot as well. Maybe a horse race track behind your house? Or even a dueling ring.

Runescape also allowed you to earn various rewards for your house through quests and loot throughout the world. Much like what many here are thinking - trophies. This is already a great way to encourage players to do quests and keep their trophies. I would also love to see rare boss/mob drops that act as trophies and decorative pieces. Achievement rewards as well! Oh, and dyes could play a role in decoration for not just your armor, but for homes as well.

The second game, Tibia, didn't let you build houses. Rather, there were houses, keeps, towers and even flats/apartments located throughout the world which you could rent. Highest bidder at the end of a bidding period would get the home. As long as the rent was paid, you kept it.

The coolest thing about Tibia's homes were the immense decorative possibilities. So many banisters, dressers, tapestries, armor stands, etc etc. ESO most certainly needs in depth housing decoration. Some should cost gold. Some should be craftable. Others should be rare drops (or at least the materials to make them.)

Overall, I think player housing should be in depth, endless, and encourages players to do other things in the game to get pieces. Maybe hidden NPC quests throughout the world as well that benefit this?

Oh, and sleeping in your bed before logging out should grant your player buffs.

If ESO gets a properly done housing system, I would sink so much time and effort into it alone.

Lovely

I'd rather have my house and everything I invest in safe. For example, a couple of years ago I had an accident and was 'out of order' for two months. If I risk losing my house, I'd rather not invest in it at all. Things that require constant maintenance are IRL's domain.

And frankly, I don't care much about seeing other people's houses, especially if they can decorate the outsides and make ugly looking things. Phase mine and be done with it.

curlyqloub14_ESO

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

Elder Scrolls Online could easily add player housing.

Really? Are you a game programmer? Are you an expert in this field and quite positive that this is an easy task? If so, perhaps you should go work for Zenimax, I think they are hiring.

This is a nice proposal for ideas, now lets see the proposal for budget, number of developers, designers, project managers, etc etc that you expect to complete this supposedly easy task. And most importantly, let's see the realistic timeline for completing this proposal. Because realistically, with all the features and points you've outlined, I would imagine a 1.5 - 2 year estimate for all those, with EVERY developer and designer they have working on just this, and nothing else.

And let's also see how you would rationalize why this should take priority over fixing bugs, combatting bots, addressing game client and server issues, and the slew of other stuff on their plate. And lets not even consider adding new content, which is kind-of essential to keep an MMO going.

I get that people want housing, and yeah, it's part of Elder Scrolls. But seriously, try to look at the bigger picture, and consider all of the other things they are balancing.

There is so much more that goes into these features than what you would imagine. Just b/c the pieces may already be "built" (or designed), doesn't mean the rest is easy. You need lots of logic and coding rules in place to make sure things work as they should, additional server support for the added features and graphics, and an entire plan and rule system about how housing will work in terms of purchase, upgrades, location, player customization, whether or not other players are allowed, etc etc etc.

And clearly, from reading the posts of those who want housing, the experience really needs to be full-blown, immersive, and customizable. If Zenimax rolls out a half-a*sed, basic housing system, even if it comes sooner, no one will be happy.

When you consider all that, as well as the other more high-priority things I listed above, 1-2 years seems like a pretty aggressive timeline, and an optimistic estimate.

Ser Lobo

curlyqloub14_ESO wrote: »

ruze84b14_ESO wrote: »

Elder Scrolls Online could easily add player housing.

Really? Are you a game programmer? Are you an expert in this field and quite positive that this is an easy task? If so, perhaps you should go work for Zenimax, I think they are hiring.

This is a nice proposal for ideas, now lets see the proposal for budget, number of developers, designers, project managers, etc etc that you expect to complete this supposedly easy task. And most importantly, let's see the realistic timeline for completing this proposal. Because realistically, with all the features and points you've outlined, I would imagine a 1.5 - 2 year estimate for all those, with EVERY developer and designer they have working on just this, and nothing else.

And let's also see how you would rationalize why this should take priority over fixing bugs, combatting bots, addressing game client and server issues, and the slew of other stuff on their plate. And lets not even consider adding new content, which is kind-of essential to keep an MMO going.

I get that people want housing, and yeah, it's part of Elder Scrolls. But seriously, try to look at the bigger picture, and consider all of the other things they are balancing.

There is so much more that goes into these features than what you would imagine. Just b/c the pieces may already be "built" (or designed), doesn't mean the rest is easy. You need lots of logic and coding rules in place to make sure things work as they should, additional server support for the added features and graphics, and an entire plan and rule system about how housing will work in terms of purchase, upgrades, location, player customization, whether or not other players are allowed, etc etc etc.

And clearly, from reading the posts of those who want housing, the experience really needs to be full-blown, immersive, and customizable. If Zenimax rolls out a half-a*sed, basic housing system, even if it comes sooner, no one will be happy.

When you consider all that, as well as the other more high-priority things I listed above, 1-2 years seems like a pretty aggressive timeline, and an optimistic estimate.

If TES is using anything close the any of the developer construction sets for previous TES games? Yes, it would be easy.

And you can see that they do. Looking at house layout ... looking at 'set piece' construction components as houses are 'fitted' together?

Fall through the world once, and you can see the general methods for terrain generation. Building new terrain isn't terribly difficult in that aspect.

One-to-two years for this system? When Hearthfire was done by a small group of employees as a in-house competition?

All of their necessary systems are already in place. We're not adding avatar support for a game that doesn't already have it. This doesn't even need a full team. Logic restrictions are already there, within the game. Not necessary to be 'established'.

So no ... I don't see this system taking that long. Only taking a small amount of dedication. If they want to send me their in-house construction set, I'll have them a working apartment alpha turned around over the weekend for each zone, and by the end of the month entire neighborhoods ready to insert.

Don't believe me? Look at what individual modders do every day in TES. We aren't special. Just people who really love the game world and have a passion to see it improved.

crowfl56

NO Housing its stupid and a total waste, you live in a house, you don't need another in a game, geeeeezz

Ser Lobo

crowfl56 wrote: »

NO Housing its stupid and a total waste, you live in a house, you don't need another in a game, geeeeezz

You are absolutely right. There are many players who feel this way, and it's an opinion that needs to be considered.

I don't honestly feel it's a majority opinion, but I don't have any facts one way or another. Either way, 'need' is a very important word. It may not be necessary to make the game run, but is it a necessary feature to keep players loyal to the game for months or years to come?

In my own personal experience, yes it is.

Loligo

I am a die-hard enemy of player housing. It is a complete waste of game resources, sucking up developer time, introducing more places for software and graphics bugs to dwell, and adding virtually nothing to the game that matters.

Forget player housing. Use the resources to get rid of the autobots that harvest all the resources, hog spawns and spam mail and channels with their buy-gold ads.

Ser Lobo

Loligo wrote: »

I am a die-hard enemy of player housing. It is a complete waste of game resources, sucking up developer time, introducing more places for software and graphics bugs to dwell, and adding virtually nothing to the game that matters.

Of course, this is where our opinions differ. The only thing that truly matters in an RPG is immersion. It's why I play RPG's. It's entertainment that makes itself, once the systems are put into place.

Of course, I don't see costumes, high quality environments, detailed lore, backstory and emotes as a waste, either.

HandofBane

Loligo wrote: »

I am a die-hard enemy of player housing. It is a complete waste of game resources, sucking up developer time, introducing more places for software and graphics bugs to dwell, and adding virtually nothing to the game that matters.

That's kind of amusing - I feel the same way about raiding.

Elvent

That was a good post and a good read and lots of good ideas. I've played Lord of the rings Online where they had neighborhood housing, I loved how they did the housing system out of all other MMOs that had housing. There's 30 houses (standard, deluxe and guild) in one instance of a neighborhood out of so many instances.

It made housing more alive rather than just a single instance to zone in a single house. It would be cool to have different areas to choose where you want your house such as inside a city or somewhere out in the wilderness. Lots of good ideas but I really did love the neighborhood system.

Sakiri

Eorea wrote: »

No, I understand. I just hate exclusivity. I haven't had many good experiences in large guilds. It wouldn't be something I complain about, just privately go at.

Id complain about it.

Especially since it would basically lock the neighborhoods out of a lot of people, and Im seeing this go the way of "get in a huge RP guild if you want an actual house as opposed to flats.

Which is also a no go.

Ser Lobo

Sakiri wrote: »

Eorea wrote: »

No, I understand. I just hate exclusivity. I haven't had many good experiences in large guilds. It wouldn't be something I complain about, just privately go at.

Id complain about it.

Especially since it would basically lock the neighborhoods out of a lot of people, and Im seeing this go the way of "get in a huge RP guild if you want an actual house as opposed to flats.

Which is also a no go.

Originally, the idea of a guild owning a neighborhood wasn't owning the entire area, but merely one instanced copy of an area, with many other instanced copies available. Basically, allowing them to make sure neighborhood players were only guildies, but not in any way preventing other players from enjoying that same neighborhood (but in other instances).

This was pushed aside for a more pre-made 'town' based instanced with a variety of houses already placed. Sorry for the confusion.

Zepheric

I rather enjoy the immersion aspect sometimes, I fancy the idea of returning to my hometown after a raid and repairing my armor / putting it away going to the bookstore down the street and buying some new stories to fill my library/reading them.

Sometimes it's about your own imagination and comfort in a game than it is just about having housing.

I want the game to feel alive, much like the single player games.

Nazon_Katts

I think there could be pockets of oblivion, available to a certain number of same faction players. Those should come with different types of plots and areas, designed for guilds, small groups and individual players. All those combined would make a city. So there wouldn't be an outright exclusivity to just one guild.

Cities should be managed by a political system, different systems could be possible (democratic, feudal, etc). Everything would have to be crafted, houses, walls, keeps, gardens, furniture. At first, room to build should be rather limited. Community quests could offer ways to expand.

Those pocket cities could declare war against each other. The winner gains some land, the loser, well, loses some. This should be strictly consensual.

That's how I'd want housing to be implemented into a RvR game, that doesn't allow for free world building.

TicToc

If they add player housing i would only want to see it as instanced off a doorway/building in one of the cities. i would not like to see an instanced neighborhood. I would never use it.

That said, i think that player housing is one of the last things they should be looking at right now. They have far bigger issues to deal with that have a much greater immediate need. Right now they need to forget about the fluff stuff and focus on the core mechanics.

Ojustaboo

I love player housing but it has to be done right.

I thing EQ2 has the best overall housing I have seen.

Lotro is awful. I saved for weeks to afford a house, took peoples advice and got the delux one. A very very very limited amount of items allowed to be placed, and those have to be put in set positions. It was nice at first riding througj the neighbourhood to your house, but soon got tiring if you weren't lucky enough to get one near the neighbourhood door.

I played Lotro on 2 servers, had houses in numerous neighbourhoods on both, I dont think I saw another person in any neighbourhood more than twice (not counting the kin/guild house)

I could also never manage to buy a house in the same neighbourhood as others in the kin, as we all bought at different times, none were available.

I think instanced neighbourhoods would be a good root, some public and some available for guilds to purchase. Maybe a blank canvas where we can choose what to build and design to a point ourselves. With banks and crafting areas available, giving the guild a reason to congregate there.

kassandratheclericb14_ESO

I agree that player housing shouldn't come until many other issues are addressed and fixed. However it should come. Instance housing would be the best way to handle it (and no one would have to see them if they didn't choose to visit one.) I do not want to have to live in fear that my house and any gold or real money that I spend (as we know there will be housing things available for cash money) will go up in smoke. A guild house for the guilds would be nice...a meeting place more than dormitory...but for those that enjoy guilds that is great to have.

I really liked Rift housing myself. It was not without issues but you could win things and houses, earn the stuff, craft things and sell to others...etc and really make it your own. It was instanced and you didn't have to spend a dime if you didn't wish to do so.

The single-player Tes games are known for their housing and for those that are pack rats and treasure hunters its a great reason to keep playing.

GrafDresche

+1 to the OP. "Player housing" was my standard two word entry in the desired features field of the eso beta feedback forms.

I loved my tower in UO.

Moonscythe

Yes! I want a house of my own, where my stuff is safe from vandals and I can feel like part of the world. I hate going into an out of the way corner to log off. It feels dumb and sometimes like I might be eaten while I'm gone. I loved building my houses in Hearthfire though I wished I could have rearranged some of the wings and really wanted some decorating options that weren't dead with glass eyes or barrels in my dining room.

I confess to a fondness for the virtual game worlds in anime such as .hack/Sign and Sword Art Online so I'm really on board for immersive housing.

Ser Lobo

As I mentioned in another thread:

Furniture could easily be linked with achievements. Player earns a specific achievement, and that achievement unlocks a painting, or a style of table, or a bookshelf. Something unique that gives those players in the know an idea of what you've earned.