Potential Housing Idea w/ Poll

MrGhosty

I recently posted this in another housing related poll. I understand there are more important aspects of this game that need to be fixed before something like this would even be a good idea to start looking at. I am placing this here for the devs to potentially see and get feedback, etc from the community.

My dream housing situation:

You buy a strange trinket from the wandering merchants, when used it teleports you into a pocket realm of oblivion. Your quest giver is the daedric steward of this realm and he sets you off on a quest to kill the daedric demi god that owns the realm. (similar to the bad man hollows or whatever that DC quest/public dungeon was in Glenumbra) After you complete the questline (something like the size of Kenarthis roost in number of quests and time it takes to complete) The daedric steward becomes your steward and your quest reward for finishing this mini zone is that you get to choose what type of zone this place will mimic.

You now have your own pocket realm of oblivion that can have a house and other facilities placed on it and this is where the real work begins. To build your house will require X amount of gold and the materials to craft it, just like hearthstone did. This should be a process that takes awhile to complete. The pocket realm would have quite a bit to explore, but the actual building space would be divided up into six lots. A normal house would take one lot or you could go with a mansion that takes two. Once your house is completed you can then choose from a list of other amenities like crafting station (like on bleak rock, has all stations and a bank) practice dummies, stable (could show off multiple mounts at once and allow you to train your riding skill each day) etc. The idea with the lots is to make it possible to have a great house setup, but force players to choose and not be able to have one of everything that would be cool.

The zone could also have node spawns for ore, wood, etc but their respawn rates should only be every 24 hours or something similar so people still need to go out and harvest for their bulk in the world. Just like hearthfire, it could also spawn random enemies from time to time that you have to fend off.

For the sake of guilds you could also provide the option to make your home plot the guild house instead and it would allow members of your guild who have been given permission in guild perms to visit and use the facilities.

One of the biggest issues I have with ESO is that we are essentially homeless, the main faction cities don't really feel like hubs and most zone cities get abandoned as soon as you move on to the next zone. Having your own quiet place to handle the admin would be great. The housing would need to have access to guild and personal banks, maybe a vault that can't be accessed outside of the realm and everything else need for the day to day. This could also be the perfect place to post the daily quest boards for crafting writs and maybe eventually add in randomly generated quests.

Having all you need for your day to day activities in one place would be awesome, and having to gather the materials and gold to craft these things would keep me entertained much more than a new zone would. This also provides a perfect monetization avenue for ZOS as they could make furniture and decorations for sale in the crown store. I would also expect many options to be craftable by master crafters, I take no issue with ZOS adding the flashier options in the crown store. That gives them plenty to charge for without going down the slippery slope of P2W like so many complain they are.

dafox187

No

i like housing but not like this

MercyKilling

No

Nope. No missions. No PvP. No guild membership. Just the gold and the materials needed. Instanced, yes. Not enough space in the game world for everyone's house.

MrGhosty

Yes

MercyKilling wrote: »

Nope. No missions. No PvP. No guild membership. Just the gold and the materials needed. Instanced, yes. Not enough space in the game world for everyone's house.

I may have not explained that aspect properly, I don't mean you have to have a guild to get a house. Just that anyone who has a house and is IN a guild may choose to make their home a guild house instead and there could then be some admin options in the guild tools for who in that guild have permissions to use it.

I should also point out that I would be fine without the missions, but their inclusion could add some achievement to the housing. Thank you for your thoughts.

newtinmpls

No

Too big, too complex, not practical.

Tries to make ESO into a single player game.

NovaMarx

Yes

I think this is an awesome suggestion, especially with the idea of having a stable to show off your mounts (maybe even have your vanity pets walking about, and being able to display trophies), and the idea of crafting the home pretty much from scratch.

The only concern I have, is that it would leave the "real world" a bit desolate, as no-one would have need/reason to visit the cities anymore. So some features should therefore still be restricted to the cities. Maybe writs and access to the bank - just something that keeps the world alive

Other than that, awesome!

MrGhosty

Yes

newtinmpls wrote: »

Too big, too complex, not practical.

Tries to make ESO into a single player game.

The function is already out there with how this game creates "instances" of settings. The plot design of the housing was inspired by Wildstar and Hearthfire combined. The stations and such could easily use pre existing assets and be "pre placed" so I don't particularly see how it would be impractical. Big? probably but on the scale of things it would require less work and assets than creating a new zone by my reckoning and if done correctly would add a lot of content.

NovaMarx wrote: »

I think this is an awesome suggestion, especially with the idea of having a stable to show off your mounts (maybe even have your vanity pets walking about, and being able to display trophies), and the idea of crafting the home pretty much from scratch.

The only concern I have, is that it would leave the "real world" a bit desolate, as no-one would have need/reason to visit the cities anymore. So some features should therefore still be restricted to the cities. Maybe writs and access to the bank - just something that keeps the world alive

Other than that, awesome!

Part of the reason for having a limited number of spaces would be to address that somewhat, but it wouldn't circumvent people needing to travel around the zones to gather materials, check other guild vendors, etc. It would however allow people to get away from the low level zone banks filled to the brim with players and laggy as all get out. I already spend most of my time in the Vet zones where there are already few people simply because I like to avoid crowded areas. People would still need to visit cities when questing in the area, and offload their goods, take part in thieving, etc so while I'm sure we would see fewer people in the banks I don't foresee any major hit to zone traffic.

Heromofo

Yes

Still love this idea

Davadin

No

lookit the number of housing threads lately lol...

haven't got time to read it all, so i'll abstain for now. but feel free to check out the other threads too!

Slurg

No

The concept of earning housing through a quest line and enhancing it through crafting is appealing, but I do not like the idea that one would never have to ever set foot in a town again because all the crafting/banking etc is on site. I'd rather see instanced housing in or just outside established towns (player picks the town) where you go through a gate or something and you're in your front yard.

Heromofo

Yes

Davadin wrote: »

lookit the number of housing threads lately lol...

haven't got time to read it all, so i'll abstain for now. but feel free to check out the other threads too!

Dav its worth a good read the idea is just as good as my idea.

+1 again

Gidorick

No

I just really don't like the "pocket of oblivion" idea

Davadin

No

OK, this is weird.

But I have to settle with NO.

It's a great idea, but I feel like it's too much of separating one player into his/her own instance. Too much feature and function for such a private space.

Yes, you can work with permissions, change it to guild house, etc.
Yes, ESO VI wishers can have SOME of their single-player experience.
Yes, the idea is solid for people who just want to interact with a select few.

but ESOTU is an MMO, first and foremost (unfortunately?), and it's separating the community to an already dwindling player base. Think about vendors, you can't expect to have a crafting station that doesn't have a vendor eventually. And thieving/questing? Not many would do that. BANK, sure, but how until ZOS add it to the neighbourhood?

I think it's a little too much, altho the idea is great. Major hub will definitely become emptier, and no-one wants that for an MMO.

idk

No

I'd be for housing in an open PvP zone accessible by all factions and everyone is flagged with the exception of people grouped with you and guild mates. This would add serious life to the game and make housing a central part of the theme.

MrGhosty

Yes

Davadin wrote: »

OK, this is weird.

But I have to settle with NO.

It's a great idea, but I feel like it's too much of separating one player into his/her own instance. Too much feature and function for such a private space.

Yes, you can work with permissions, change it to guild house, etc.
Yes, ESO VI wishers can have SOME of their single-player experience.
Yes, the idea is solid for people who just want to interact with a select few.

but ESOTU is an MMO, first and foremost (unfortunately?), and it's separating the community to an already dwindling player base. Think about vendors, you can't expect to have a crafting station that doesn't have a vendor eventually. And thieving/questing? Not many would do that. BANK, sure, but how until ZOS add it to the neighbourhood?

I think it's a little too much, altho the idea is great. Major hub will definitely become emptier, and no-one wants that for an MMO.

I'm not sure what people think is so grand about having a zone filled with people filling chat with obscenities or trading spam while new players streak through the middle of town hitting every skill of their hotbar. If it isn't that it's a naked dance party in the many fountains around the world. I genuinely doubt this would dramatically lower the population in most cities anymore than those people leveling beyond the zone and going elsewhere would.

Some often believe that my aim with this is to make ESO a singleplayer game but that is not the case at all. I would personally use this space as a home for my guild where guildmates can come show off their new armor, trade, etc without having a wall of text between them. We recruit across all three factions and not everyone has a primary character on the same faction. I see these guild houses working in such a way there would be no faction restriction. This could also then lead to adding in functionality for dueling which people have often said they don't want to see in the cities anyway. Having more things to do and places to go is never a bad thing in my book.

Bramble

Yes

Voted "yes" but only half agree...

I quit one game when I discovered the personal housing had to be accessed via PvP areas. Forget the name but I had liked it up until finding that out. Had dragons you raised, put out by SOE. At any rate, put housing into an inconvenient swamp of combat, pvp, ghastly cost, cumbersome travel, etc. and what could be a game's biggest asset becomes the creep of resentment that begrimes all else that sparkled.

I would love housing. Good, fun, less complicated housing. Inventory galore, wardrobe space, ingredient cabinets in a homey kitchen, interior and exterior customization, furniture, roomy lands surrounding, a lake or beachfront to fish on...

Dreamy!

Theosis

way to close to World of facebook-farmville-twitter-craft

the garrison in wow killed the economy it was a neat gimmick before they realized getting a town were you can get your own materials without leaving your garrison was a huge mistake

there should be some sort of buildup to a better house or mansion or even castle but...

Castle should only be for guilds.

maybe a crafting table or two but no more than that

anything in your house should be bought or made yourself and should give you reason to leave except...

a trade chat or world chat you can only get by entering this plane of oblivion, other than that I like your idea

Fentari

Yes

Yes

I would Love to own a House in ESO. Finally Space would become manageable.

MrGhosty

Yes

Bramble wrote: »

Voted "yes" but only half agree...

I quit one game when I discovered the personal housing had to be accessed via PvP areas. Forget the name but I had liked it up until finding that out. Had dragons you raised, put out by SOE. At any rate, put housing into an inconvenient swamp of combat, pvp, ghastly cost, cumbersome travel, etc. and what could be a game's biggest asset becomes the creep of resentment that begrimes all else that sparkled.

I would love housing. Good, fun, less complicated housing. Inventory galore, wardrobe space, ingredient cabinets in a homey kitchen, interior and exterior customization, furniture, roomy lands surrounding, a lake or beachfront to fish on...

Dreamy!

I think you might be associating Oblivion with the game that takes place in Cyrodil. When I say plane of oblivion, I mean a plane of the actual "other realm" not going into Cyrodil.

Theosis wrote: »

way to close to World of facebook-farmville-twitter-craft

the garrison in wow killed the economy it was a neat gimmick before they realized getting a town were you can get your own materials without leaving your garrison was a huge mistake

there should be some sort of buildup to a better house or mansion or even castle but...

Castle should only be for guilds.

maybe a crafting table or two but no more than that

anything in your house should be bought or made yourself and should give you reason to leave except...

a trade chat or world chat you can only get by entering this plane of oblivion, other than that I like your idea

When I say there would be some nodes, I only mean a few nodes. What I had in mind when saying that was that say you're trying to craft a piece of armor but you happen to just be a few shy in order to get the ingots you need, so rather than loading into a new zone you can just run out and grab your house nodes. Their respawn rates wouldn't be nearly as fast as those in the overworld. In my eyes it would be similar to the amount and frequency of ore you get from hireling mails. I don't want this place to replace all interactions with the rest of the game world, but as a dedicated crafter and trader I would love to have a simple place to go and get away from the lag and noise when doing up batches of pots, foods etc.