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Player housing and regional AH in ESO.
Phinix1
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As everyone that enjoys the Elder Scrolls knows, the world design has always been one of the strong suits of the genre. There are so many interesting and visually impressive vistas to explore that simply wandering becomes a viable (even core) play style. In many ways, the zone design itself can advance the story of the peoples living there.
What I thought might be interesting for the concept of player housing would be a system that integrates specific locations and themes of culture and building/crafting style housing with lore-based quest chains needed to unlock the ability to build there, and to expand the resources you have available to build with.
To build in or around a Thieves’ guild hub for example, you would have to unlock a rather long and lore-rich series of achievements specific to that region. This might involve completing a number of faction-specific missions (without getting caught!) in order to build reputation.
Other factions like the Mage and Fighters guilds would have their own missions and housing/questing hubs scattered throughout the land, as would RACES.
Racial/faction back stories and inter-faction styles:
Imagine the role play dynamic involved with completing quest chains and mission reputation achievements to unlock housing in a little Bosmer community at the outskirts of Shadowfen, a Khajiit temple and caravan hub in Bangkorai, a neutral Orc crafting guild in Malabal Tor, etc.
Each faction and race could have numerous hub locations where housing was available, with different tiers of housing (improved quality and location) the higher you have unlocked it, and with higher-profile missions to accompany each tier.
You would also have cross-region and potential inter-faction relationships between specific hubs. For example, your Bosmer community in Shadowfen might establish trade and cultural ties with the native Argonians, making a unique blending of styles available for items that could be used to decorate your home that couldn’t be found anywhere else.
Community-specific auction houses:
One step up from the guild store would be a centralized “global” auction house available to anyone with housing in a given regional community (or any of it’s trading partners you have unlocked). The more inter-faction and inter-regional quest lines you unlock, the more items you will see on that region’s auction house.
Regional auction houses will be veteran status neutral, meaning if you unlock the chain in normal 1-50 content, you will be able to access items for sale on that regional auction house by ANYONE that lives there, be they veteran or not.
How many regional auction houses you have access to could be limited only by how many places you choose to invest the time and gold to build in.
Cultural guild recruitment:
A billboard system could be made available to members of a regional community where members could post a brief back story and guild recruitment notice for others to peruse. This could help establish a common ground of interest in lore and play style that can help keep guilds together.
Many more opportunities for expansion:
This is an incredibly fertile ground for expanding the game in an “Elder Scrolls” direction (not to mention budgeting all those talented bards and voice actors to do their thing.) Eventually if and when we do see some form of micro-transaction shop become available, there could even be items that you could only buy once you had unlocked a certain tier of your regional inter-faction housing style.
Overall I think it would be an excellent idea to help bridge some of the gaps or limitations in the current framework, particularly the auction house system (or lack thereof.)
These are just some rough sketches, and I am interested to hear what others think about the concept.
What I thought might be interesting for the concept of player housing would be a system that integrates specific locations and themes of culture and building/crafting style housing with lore-based quest chains needed to unlock the ability to build there, and to expand the resources you have available to build with.
To build in or around a Thieves’ guild hub for example, you would have to unlock a rather long and lore-rich series of achievements specific to that region. This might involve completing a number of faction-specific missions (without getting caught!) in order to build reputation.
Other factions like the Mage and Fighters guilds would have their own missions and housing/questing hubs scattered throughout the land, as would RACES.
Racial/faction back stories and inter-faction styles:
Imagine the role play dynamic involved with completing quest chains and mission reputation achievements to unlock housing in a little Bosmer community at the outskirts of Shadowfen, a Khajiit temple and caravan hub in Bangkorai, a neutral Orc crafting guild in Malabal Tor, etc.
Each faction and race could have numerous hub locations where housing was available, with different tiers of housing (improved quality and location) the higher you have unlocked it, and with higher-profile missions to accompany each tier.
You would also have cross-region and potential inter-faction relationships between specific hubs. For example, your Bosmer community in Shadowfen might establish trade and cultural ties with the native Argonians, making a unique blending of styles available for items that could be used to decorate your home that couldn’t be found anywhere else.
Community-specific auction houses:
One step up from the guild store would be a centralized “global” auction house available to anyone with housing in a given regional community (or any of it’s trading partners you have unlocked). The more inter-faction and inter-regional quest lines you unlock, the more items you will see on that region’s auction house.
Regional auction houses will be veteran status neutral, meaning if you unlock the chain in normal 1-50 content, you will be able to access items for sale on that regional auction house by ANYONE that lives there, be they veteran or not.
How many regional auction houses you have access to could be limited only by how many places you choose to invest the time and gold to build in.
Cultural guild recruitment:
A billboard system could be made available to members of a regional community where members could post a brief back story and guild recruitment notice for others to peruse. This could help establish a common ground of interest in lore and play style that can help keep guilds together.
Many more opportunities for expansion:
This is an incredibly fertile ground for expanding the game in an “Elder Scrolls” direction (not to mention budgeting all those talented bards and voice actors to do their thing.) Eventually if and when we do see some form of micro-transaction shop become available, there could even be items that you could only buy once you had unlocked a certain tier of your regional inter-faction housing style.
Overall I think it would be an excellent idea to help bridge some of the gaps or limitations in the current framework, particularly the auction house system (or lack thereof.)
These are just some rough sketches, and I am interested to hear what others think about the concept.
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