Official Discussion Thread for "Introducing Homestead"

Scrummy37

Can't wait

16BitForestCat

Another musing on housing from me....Some "this would be insanely cool" dreams for down the road (which surely have already been suggested, but this thread is getting kinda long):

1: Allowing open access to your home beyond just people you manually choose. I know this one's been requested already; people really want it! I used to play another game back in the 1990s where players could build and upload their own maps, and one of the most popular activities in that game was exploring and hanging out in random maps. You could choose a map by scrolling down a list of player names and picking one, or just have the game choose a map at random. It'd be really cool if you could set your home to be Open House, and players could either choose to potentially be sent there from the door at random or because they specifically selected to visit your home from a list at the door.

2: Visitor list and guestbook feature! With people randomly coming and going from your home, usually while you're not there, it'd be really cool to see a list of who visited when, and for them to have the option of leaving a message for you. Like renting a beach house. =D

3: Of course, that means we'd ALSO needs the ability to ban specific players from entering our homes. If you check your guestbook entries and some total stranger has left a comment saying:
"ur house sux
ur a *insert racial or gender slur of choice here*
kill urself lololol *another slur*"

...Well, I'd imagine most of us decent folk would not want to let that player back into any of our homes.

Enodoc

PriorityBalle wrote: »

Telvanni mushroom towers ZOS_GinaBruno and i cannot express how important this is to the majority of player base, there needs to be room for the strongest and most powerful Great House ever to have set dominance on Tamriel.
The elitist wizards of Morrowind needs to show their superior arcane powers with giant mushroom towers so the other houses will tremble in wake of the more dominant forces of Tamriel. ( I love roleplaying )

I think that would be inappropriate. Only high-ranking members of the House are allowed to grow their own towers, and you can't even join House Telvanni in ESO. Outside of that, the only existing Telvanni Towers will be in places that we don't yet have access to (Vvardenfell and Morrowind's eastern peninsula). Roleplaying is great, but I really don't like it when roleplayers supplant existing lore with something that doesn't "fit".

AdamBourke

Shadowshire wrote: »

If a player's ESO+ subscription lapses, then they can remove items from the Crafting Bag, but cannot add any items to it (until and unless they renew their subscription).

So the analogy in the comments (in boldface above) does not quite make any sense. How can a player "get back to the item cap" if they cannot edit the contents of their home while the subscription remains expired? There must be some way to remove items, even if they cannot add items unless and until they have removed enough items to be below the lower cap.

Methinks the ZO developers need to learn how to think outside of the box. :-)

Like the ESO crafting bag - you can only remove things if your subscription lapses (until you get back under the cap). It's a pretty good analogy...

Giraffon

I sure wish I had an idea of how much gold will be needed for the different tiers of housing. Maybe they want suggestions? I'll offer up some ideas:

I suggest:

Tier 1 housing: 250K gold
Tier 2 housing: 750K gold
Tier 3 housing: 2 million gold

For some of you those numbers will sound low, for others maybe high. I don't know, but if you go way back to your early days, getting that first 250K gold was pretty tough. If you are new to the game and excited about player housing, this would be high enough to make it feel like you worked really hard to get it. Or maybe enough to motivate the purchase of a home from the crown store.

I'm usually sitting on about 1 million. My plan is to purchase a large home for my guild and a small one for myself. I just wish I knew how much is going to be needed.

Shadowshire

Mercutio wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno color me impressed. I cannot wait to dive into this.

While maybe you can't give specifics, will there be PvE benefits associated with housing/furniture? For all its faults WildStar had a really great housing system. Can we expect the UI to be as accessible as the one in Wild* was?

Thank you for your time.

What do you mean, exactly, by "PvE benefits"?? (Why not PvP benefits, too?)

If you mean that because you own a house, then one or more of your characters has a "special" ability or passive that helps them kill, avoid being killed, move faster, jump higher, or can buy a helicopter and fly?? If so, then what an assinine idea!

Give.Us.A.Break...Will.You?

Shadowshire

[deleted]

Shadowshire

altemriel wrote: »

Gan Xing wrote: »

What I really want to know is if you could decorate your house with items you have stolen @ZOS_GinaBruno ?

yes, exactly this I want to know too!!!

ROFLMAO!

Umm...... if they let you do that, then they would have to create a constable who has a search warrant and a tactical squad to participate on a raid of your house to recover the goods that you have stolen. Then again, maybe ZO really does want you to believe that you can "get away clean". But they, and you, know what you have done!

Shadowshire

Paneross wrote: »

So after reading about Homestead. Am I correct in understanding that house is 100% cosemetic and offers zero benefits to actual gameplay?

That is what a great many of us hope and do expect will be the case. Acquiring a home should not have any benefits to "actually playing the game" -- whether for combat, movement, or any other aspect of a character.

Some housing features could reduce the amount of time and effort that a player would otherwise spend in various activities. For example (according to one source), it will be possible to install one or more crafting workstations in the house. For some uses, at least, doing that could potentially reduce the amount of time and effort that a player would otherwise spend crafting gear or consumables. Home workstations would also make it more convenient to test crafted "builds".

That said, if owning a home confers some benefit(s) for characters -- to "incentivize" players to buy a house via the Crown Store, whether for some number of Gold Pieces instead -- then the game becomes "PAY TO WIN".

Doing anything that is tantamount to creating a game in which players have an "incentive" to Pay To Win is taking a very big risk of players abandoning the game, and of non-players who might be interested choosing another game(s) to play instead.

Shadowshire

phreatophile wrote: »

ZOS_RichLambert wrote: »

....

Just to expand on this some. Extra storage in your home is something we know a number of you would love. It's something we'd love as well, but when we looked at all of the things had to get in for the base system, we had to draw the line somewhere. Additional storage didn't make the cut.

That being said, we are looking at ways to add in additional storage space in the future.

When talking about player housing, storage shouldn't have needed to "make the cut". It's a baseline function of player housing, it ought not to have been eligible for cutting in the first place.

Again, I couldn't have made this up. If I told anybody who has played an Elder Scrolls Game in the last 15 years that housing in the MMO version would explicitly exclude storage of any kind, I'd expect lots of laughs. Once it set in, I'd expect people to conclude that you (ZOS) just don't get ES, and never will.

To start with, adding Player Housing to the game, considering all of the characters that may be present, as well as all of the furnishings and other items which can be present, will require a lot of storage space on the Bethesda megaserver system.

Maybe ZOS doesn't "get ES (Elder Scrolls)" as you want it to be. However, they certainly do know the time, effort, and expense of developing software -- regardless of whether the outcomes are less than perfect. Then there is the cost of providing the game to play. The resource limitations with respect to developing and offering the game for play are, apparently, what you don't "get".

Please get a clue: "storage space" on your PC may be cheap and plentiful. But "storage space" on a megaserver system that can, at least in theory, handle at least seven million player accounts with the data for all of the characters and items, etc., which each player can have in play is not at all inexpensive. Also consider that the speed of access to that much data on the storage media will inevitably be affected by the amount of data that is stored. It will affect the performance of the game host running on the server to which your computer is connected.

Simply put: there are a host of complex technical issues that must be considered, as well as financial feasibility.

What this "issue" really boils down to is that most complaints about storage in the game are from pack-rats who just cannot discard or destroy hardly anything that any of their characters acquire. It wouldn't surprise me if they stockpile consumables, too. In my humble opinion, such players don't need more in-game storage, they need to discuss their acquisitive behavior, and their feelings which motivate it, with a psychotherapist.

Ralen

What intrigues me is the different number of player houses according to the different races.

As we can see on the UESP housing page there are, for example, FOUR houses referenced for Dunmer, Khajiit and Breton... Dunmer have a little house in Kragenmoor, medium house in Narsis, big house near from Mournhold AND a castle near from Ebonhearth...

So, what about the other races with only THREE houses ?... Is it the castle version that is missing ?

Enodoc

Ralen wrote: »

What intrigues me is the different number of player houses according to the different races.

As we can see on the UESP housing page there are, for example, FOUR houses referenced for Dunmer, Khajiit and Breton... Dunmer have a little house in Kragenmoor, medium house in Narsis, big house near from Mournhold AND a castle near from Ebonhearth...

So, what about the other races with only THREE houses ?... Is it the castle version that is missing ?

Since the article mentions 3 sizes per racial style, we are assuming that one of the houses in each of those styles may be Crown Store only.

FleetwoodSmack

Enodoc wrote: »

PriorityBalle wrote: »

Telvanni mushroom towers ZOS_GinaBruno and i cannot express how important this is to the majority of player base, there needs to be room for the strongest and most powerful Great House ever to have set dominance on Tamriel.
The elitist wizards of Morrowind needs to show their superior arcane powers with giant mushroom towers so the other houses will tremble in wake of the more dominant forces of Tamriel. ( I love roleplaying )

I think that would be inappropriate. Only high-ranking members of the House are allowed to grow their own towers, and you can't even join House Telvanni in ESO. Outside of that, the only existing Telvanni Towers will be in places that we don't yet have access to (Vvardenfell and Morrowind's eastern peninsula). Roleplaying is great, but I really don't like it when roleplayers supplant existing lore with something that doesn't "fit".

Pretty much this. Though I'd love to see some towers. Not quite like LotR, but... You know... ESO towers.

Dragon_Tale

How much are the houses gonna cost?

Opeline

@ZOS_GinaBruno So, I am really curious and excited about this entire thing.. Truly I am. And coming from an AVID RPer, to see houses where I can invite friends just tickles me pink. There is only one thing I am actually wondering and it's this:

Will I be able to turn off the offline visiting of people when I go offline or put myself into offline mode? I would really hate to have friends be allowed over and come back online to see them laying naked together in my bed. Not saying that would actually happen, but you get my point. I don't want to have people just chilling in the house all the time that I earned.

Will there be a way I can only have people tele into my house when they are in my group? Or will it just be that they can tele to my home when I am there. Or is it just when I am online?

Okay.. So I have far more questions than I should, but this is something I have been waiting for with bated breath and want to see done right. And things like I have mentioned above, I think, are how it can be done perfectly.

vanillexhope

I wish the pets would walk around. It would add such a nice interactive feel. In WoW, pets you have wander around your garrison. It's very cute. Especially when there is a pack of them.. sometimes I would just follow them because I thought they might be up to no good.

Music boxes!! So much wonderful music... it would be amazing to have a music box in the home.

Rouven

vanillexhope wrote: »

I wish the pets would walk around. It would add such a nice interactive feel. In WoW, pets you have wander around your garrison. It's very cute. Especially when there is a pack of them.. sometimes I would just follow them because I thought they might be up to no good.

Music boxes!! So much wonderful music... it would be amazing to have a music box in the home.

Let's up the ante - make your own script!

Which could lead the way to your own "delve master" type adventures. Ok, I know I took it too far.

Love the music idea, plugin for your own music perhaps?

Meathook94

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Chests are just decorative; you won't be able to use them as an extension to your bank. You will be able to place a personal assistant in your home, though.

As an extension, no, that would defeat the purpose of buying bank space and bag space, but wouldn't it be better if chests still allowed access to, and use of, your bank inventory, similar to visiting the Thieves Guild's Money Lender? Using chests as something more than a decoration will give it a familiar feel to those of us who bought Skyrim's DLC, and as a useful feature it would be more of an incentive to buy into housing.

Dormiglione

This is one of the features which I was waiting for!

However, there is one suggestion I would love to see implemented: stealing. There is one way which would make this possible: an additional option where the house owner allows this to happen. But then, stealing should not be as easy as everywhere else

Osteos

What style is the house in Bangkorai near Viridian Hideaway? Its the one I like

Elder_III

Osteos wrote: »

What style is the house in Bangkorai near Viridian Hideaway? Its the one I like

That is one of the Orc themed Homes. I believe that would be the largest one, and there is a medium sized Orc home near the Wrothgar Gate on the North edge of the map as well.

Krainor1974

Elder_III wrote: »

Osteos wrote: »

What style is the house in Bangkorai near Viridian Hideaway? Its the one I like

That is one of the Orc themed Homes. I believe that would be the largest one, and there is a medium sized Orc home near the Wrothgar Gate on the North edge of the map as well.

Yup Orc large and medium, I'm getting those two. See you soon neighbor.

Osteos

Thanks @Elder_III and @Krainor1974 , we'll bbq soon

Krainor1974

Osteos wrote: »

Thanks @Elder_III and @Krainor1974 , we'll bbq soon

Mammoth stakes and some mead.

Elder_III

Krainor1974 wrote: »

Osteos wrote: »

Thanks @Elder_III and @Krainor1974 , we'll bbq soon

Mammoth stakes and some mead.

I'll be there with bells on for that!

GarnetFire17

What would be awesome, instead of additional storage, you could put all your alts in your house or in their own houses and you could interact with them and access their inventory like a bank.

JkahrrRadnar

Nvm. I thought I found a new house on the map but it was just something related to the Thief Questline

Shadowshire

AdamBourke wrote: »

Thealteregoroman wrote: »

ListerJMC wrote: »

*Hopes desperately for an Eyevea option even though I'm sure there won't be *

I'm interested to see the list of locations and the pricing on them all.

There HAS TO BE an Eyevea option......

I'd like to see an Eyevea option, just so that I can finally have it show up on my map again!

Does the location of Eyevea show anywhere on the map of Tamriel?? Currently, the only access is via portals in three out-of-the-way Mages Guild halls.

If memory serves, Eyevea has a wayshrine which allows the character to move to any other wayshrine that is on the Map, but the Eyevea wayshrine itself doesn't show on the Map.

Indeed, I would love to have a house in Eyevea! Just a nice retreat bungalow would do. :-)

Shadowshire

BenevolentBowd wrote: »

We even have a little something for diligent Mages Guild scholars: copies of Shalidor's Library books, which can be placed as real books and read from your home, can be purchased from Mages Guild merchants after you've found and completed a set. (This is retroactive.) ....

I was wondering if visitors to your home can learn from the books in your library?
@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Probably not, that is, at least they would not get any Mages Guild "experience" from "finding" them in your library.

Shadowshire

jlboozer wrote: »

Is there anyway we could get a price range on housing? And off topic, shouldn't my shields on my sorcerer be up at least 10 seconds?...the 6 second duration seems entirely too short, instead of doing damage it seems like I'm having to constantly recast my hardened ward....thanks for reading!!

It should be up at least 12 - 18 seconds (the original duration was 20 seconds). It has become abundantly clear that the designer in charge of Sorcerer characters does not like the class and has no respect for anyone who plays it. Their obsession with six signifies that they need to buy a 6-pack and take their 6-significant partner for a stay at Motel 6.