PTS Feedback Thread for Player Housing

AzuraKin

i checked out the houses and to be honest, i think the houses are horribly done. i see no reason to spend in game gold let alone any crowns for the crap houses. i think they would have done better job in selling plots of land in each zone, then let players build the buildings piecemeal to create the look and feel that they prefer instead of some crazy person in the eso art departments craptastic house layouts. who would buy that island it feels more like someone just tossed some buildings through the air with magic from 1,000 miles away and they just somehow landed on the island in a barely connected way and built using below par building materials. zos should have taken another 2 years on this and made it a much more player involved process in house building.

Betheny

• Forgot to mention - I placed a large round rug onto a deck, and found it couldn't be moved again. The item wasn't even selectable. Can't remember exact model of rug, but it was a very large round rug - Redguard maybe?
  
  Here's a screenshot of the rug (in Editor mode, notice it can't be highlighted):
  
  
  
  
• With the pre-furnished houses, I think a few items placed out in the outdoors areas beyond a couple plants and rocks would be nice. Items like a few chairs and an outdoors dining area would make the outside seem "furnished" as well as the inside. Currently not enough effort has been put into furnishing the outdoors areas.

ziggr

How important is the zone name in the Maps / Houses list?

Because the inclusion of zone name makes it hard to find my house.

• home / zone / half-line-margin spacing costs 2.5x the space of just home.
• I have to scroll through several pages to find the home I want.
• Additional lines of zone clutter the display, hide the home name I seek.

Amplify important data. Silence unimportant data.

ziggr

"Staple / Classic / Notable" masks important purchasing details not available until after the purchase.

Specifically, whether a home is "inn / apartment / small / medium / large / manor". These fine-grained types describe important details such as furnishing capacity and

ziggr

"Staple / Classic / Notable" masks important purchasing details not available until after the purchase.

Specifically, whether a home is "inn / apartment / small / medium / large / manor". These fine-grained types describe important details such as Furnishing capacity (200? 400?).

Either make these details visible during home preview, or flatten this hierarchy

• staple
• inn
• apartment
• classic
  • small
  • medium
  • large
• notable
  • manor

Into something more descriptive (but probably difficult to render on a 1080p console screen)

• staple / inn
• staple / apartment
• classic / small
• classic / medium
• classic / large
• notable / manor
• notable / your own private island OMG

Betheny

• When we rename our houses, I'd like to see the new name show up as the place we're currently at in the Guild Roster and not the old name. Would help with getting people to want to visit the house as well, if we want to open our houses up to people, they'd be able to get an idea of the theme we've set for the place and would be more interested because of its name.
• The new name should also show up on the inner door of the house (doors within the housing area, like when you're within the housing grounds and walk from outside in a courtyard to inside the house itself)) so it looks like "Addams Family Home" (example, the name we renamed it to) and not "Old Mistveil Manor", and possibly as a subheader when entering the housing grounds from the surrounding area using the front door or gate also (eg "Old Mistveil Manor, Addams Family Home". That last one would be visible only to the person who renamed it (the owner).
• How about adding extra cellar/basement areas to each house. Would add to the floor layout greatly and give us more space to throw furnishings down, as well as open up new uses for the house (basement fight arena or dungeons).

JavaWho

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom These seating interactables are very glitched. If you notice the "Say" chat in area, guildmate tried about 20 times before he was able to sit in the chair proper.

If we are going to spend cash money to acquire these items from the Crown Store they need to be sorted. I am still awaiting a robe I purchased from crown store and listed under known bugs on forum to be fixed.

I hope these pics and the time we spend helps.

Betheny

• The suicide deck on Grymharth's Woe house in Windhelm needs some work...make it bigger and maybe give it a rail, you're going to get my cat killed.

Enodoc

ziggr wrote: »

"Staple / Classic / Notable" masks important purchasing details not available until after the purchase.

Specifically, whether a home is "inn / apartment / small / medium / large / manor". These fine-grained types describe important details such as Furnishing capacity (200? 400?).

Either make these details visible during home preview, or flatten this hierarchy

• staple
• inn
• apartment
• classic
  • small
  • medium
  • large
• notable
  • manor

Into something more descriptive (but probably difficult to render on a 1080p console screen)

• staple / inn
• staple / apartment
• classic / small
• classic / medium
• classic / large
• notable / manor
• notable / your own private island OMG

Manors, Inns and Apartments are all special cases. They probably decided it wasn't worth creating a new category to contain just 3 houses each.

Edit: They also need to fix the Collections UI, as it's showing all the Large houses as Classic when they should be Notable, like they are in the Crown Store.

Elara_Northwind

Betheny wrote: »

• Forgot to mention - I placed a large round rug onto a deck, and found it couldn't be moved again. The item wasn't even selectable. Can't remember exact model of rug, but it was a very large round rug - Redguard maybe?
  
  Here's a screenshot of the rug (in Editor mode, notice it can't be highlighted):
  
  
  
  
• With the pre-furnished houses, I think a few items placed out in the outdoors areas beyond a couple plants and rocks would be nice. Items like a few chairs and an outdoors dining area would make the outside seem "furnished" as well as the inside. Currently not enough effort has been put into furnishing the outdoors areas.

I had this same thing happen with the large Breton rug.

Enodoc

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for player housing! Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

I should probably answer some of these questions:

Did you complete the initial quest to acquire your apartment? Did you run into any issues?
Yes. The quest worked fine until it came to buying a piece of furniture. The purchase didn't register in the quest until I'd destroyed all the furniture that was already in my inventory.

If you have not read the patch notes, finding the quest is not very easy. It would be good if everyone was sent an in-game mail when Homestead launches telling them where to find the start, kinda like the mail you get for Undaunted Pledges at Level 45.

Were you able to successfully preview a home and buy it with gold?
Despite the template characters having loads of money, they don't have any achievements, so no gold purchases possible.

How did you preview the home? Did you do it via the Crown Store, Collections UI, or just walk up to the door?
Tried at least one house each way. No issues.

Were you able to figure out how to switch between previewing a furnished/unfurnished home?
Eventually. Putting the option under "Purchase" is not intuitive. The button needs to be labelled "Preview Options", "Preview & Purchase", or something more descriptive.

Were you able to purchase and place furnishings from Achievement Furnishers?
Template character, no achievements.

Did you understand how to use the various light sources?
Walking up to them and pressing E seemed to work.

Were you able to sit on chairs, both in a home and throughout the world? Was it clear which chairs you could sit on?
Couldn't find any usable chairs in the world in the expected places, like taverns.

Did you like the housing-related achievements and titles?
Yes, but I do wish it wasn't possible to effectively buy a title from the Crown Store. Titles are supposed to be rewards for in-game achievements.

What did you think of the prices for each home?
Mostly okay, too high for the Manors. Manor prices should be reduced 30-40%. Given that their item capacity is only 16% greater than that of Large houses, they should not cost more than double the price of Large houses.

Are you an ESO Plus member?
No.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Capacity
Item capacity is too low, even for ESO Plus members. This is particularly noticeable in the larger houses, but goes down to the small houses too. It's probably about right for the inn rooms and apartments.

Values without ESO Plus:

Inn   Apartment   Small   Medium   Large   Manor
15    50          100     200      300     350     Furnishings
1     1           5       10       20      40      Trophies
1     1           2       3        4       5       Collectibles

Particularly noticeable is the pitiful number of placeable Collectibles (pets, mounts, assistants). It's not even enough to fill the stables of the Daggerfall Manor without sacrificing all your pets. One of the purposes of a house would be to showcase your menagerie, so this number needs to be significantly higher. Given that there are around 40 mounts and 50 pets, and some people may decide to purchase pets specifically for their house, a maximum Collectibles cap needs to be nearer to 30 (15 without ESO Plus).

For Furnishings, considering the Manor again, if you want to lay out your trophies around the hearth and still have enough space to decorate the rest of the house and garden, you're going to need around 40 items per room, and there's 10+ room categories.

So here's my suggested higher caps:

Inn   Apartment   Small   Medium   Large   Manor
15    50          120     250      400     500     Furnishings
1     1           5       10       20      40      Trophies
1     2           5       8        12      15      Collectibles

Inventory
Considering the vast number of furnishing items, they should not take up space in the inventory at all. Just send them straight to the Housing Editor. When it comes to selling furnishings you don't want, all that's needed here is an extra "Sell Furnishings" tab next to the standard "Sell" tab.

Map
Please consider separating "Houses" from "Wayshrines" in the filter list. Splitting that again into houses you own and houses you don't would be a bonus. (And while we're on that, please consider separating off "Dungeons" as well.)

House Exit
When exiting a House Preview, you end up back where you started, which makes sense, so you can't use it as a free port, but doesn't help if you want to see the outside of the house. When exiting an owned house, you end up outside it, and potentially nowhere near a Wayshrine. As mentioned above, please consider adding a popup when you select "Leave House" to choose whether to go outside or port to a Wayshrine, or if that's not possible, please give us the ability to place our own Wayshrine (dungeon-sized "graveyard" wayshrine is fine, doesn't need to be a full one) as a furnishing item.

Comments on individual houses after today's patch!

VarilRau

Question:

1. Do the houses belong to the zone chat of the area, or do i have to get a house from a remote location to be able to be in peace / get the craglorn one to be able to keep an eye on pugs/wts in local?

2. Do the houses count as a dungeon, for the minor slayer buff for dps testing?

helediron

Can i have a bard? sweeper? stablemaster? guard? old nagging granpa?

SantieClaws

Did you complete the initial quest to acquire your apartment? Did you run into any issues?

Khajiit she completed the quest. The quest was well written but not so easy to find where to start. This one was most disappointed to find there was no skooma in the room at all.

Home Previewing •Were you able to successfully preview a home and buy it with gold?

No because template khajiit owned all of the homes already yes

How did you preview the home? Did you do it via the Crown Store, Collections UI, or just walk up to the door?

Khajiit was given all of the homes as part of the template yes. So generous!

Were you able to figure out how to switch between previewing a furnished/unfurnished home?

Yes khajiit was able to accomplish this and she was not even sober.

Furnishing Sourcing •Were you able to purchase and place furnishings from Achievement Furnishers?

No because template khajiit has no achievements.

Were you able to purchase furnishings from Zanil Theran the Luxury Furnisher?

Who?

Did you get any Undaunted Busts from dungeon bosses? If so, which one was your favorite?

Khajiit does not understand the question. Is this about underwear?

Specialty Furnishings •Were you able to find the reprints of Shalidor’s Library books, place them, and read them?

Read books? Do these books contain epic adventures of khajiit with possibly an orcish romance thrown in for good luck? If not then this one would not.

Did you understand how to use the various light sources?

Light goes on and light goes off yes?

Were you able to sit on chairs, both in a home and throughout the world? Was it clear which chairs you could sit on?

Oh this one had a world of trouble with the chairs. Sometimes this one could sit. Sometimes not. Sometimes this one she would sit and then stand up again. None of the chairs in The Rosy Lion allowed this one to rest her weary tail. She could find no others in the many other taverns she visited that allowed the seating either.

Were you able to allow or restrict other players to enter your home?

This is a little hard to test on template khajiit as this one does not have her usual lists of contacts.

Did you duel inside your home? How was the experience?

There was not enough room to swing a khajiit let alone duel with one.

Did you like the housing-related achievements and titles?

They make little difference to this one.

Which was your favorite home, and why?

Hunding’s Palatial Hall. Plenty of space. Nice views. Lots of outdoor space. Beach access. Nice patio. Shame the swimming pool cannot be jumped in. Khajiit would have happily gone for the medium home in Sentinel but there was no outdoor space. Outdoor space is a must.

What did you think of the prices for each home?

As insane as a Bosmer at an all vegetarian restaurant yes.

Are you an ESO Plus member?

Indeed khajiit is.

Do you have any other general feedback?

The cost of everything is much too much - both in coin and in crafting materials. This one understands the reward principle but at the same time you do not wish to present an impossible mountain to new travellers yes? That kind of thing can be very offputting.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Giraffon

I don't think ZENI can see this feedback enough:

Double the slots available for every house for non subscribed and double that number for subscribed.

The current numbers are way too low.

Gandamir

**BUG**

Crafting stations cannot be used in homes if not placed perfectly level. Leveling with a right mouse click is not enough, but the ground needs to be level as well (patio, etc.).

This greatly limits the ability to create a crafting house for a guild where you have multiple attuned work stations in one location to reduce travel times.

I am using Forsaken Stronghold as my test house, and tried placing along the path that goes down to the left as you go in through the front door.

Additionally, a lot of the chairs that come with a furnished home cannot be used as their original placement puts them too close to the table. This causes a character to stand up immediately after sitting.

Ping: @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Elsonso

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for player housing! Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did you complete the initial quest to acquire your apartment? Did you run into any issues?
• Home Previewing
  • Were you able to successfully preview a home and buy it with gold?
    Yes. However, there is no confirmation of sale. It would be nice to get an "are you sure" before spending a million gold.
  • How did you preview the home? Did you do it via the Crown Store, Collections UI, or just walk up to the door?
    I used all three. I prefer the Collections UI for convenience, walking up for completeness. Walking up allows me to see the outside, where none of the others allow that. Unfortunately, walking up requires knowing where the place is in the world. Some descriptions do not even give the zone, so I have to teleport to it and use the map to find out where it is.
  • Were you able to figure out how to switch between previewing a furnished/unfurnished home?
    Yes. It is not intuitive. It took me a while to get over my instinctual fear that the "Buy" button was a one-way trip. Once there, I noticed that I could switch between furnished and unfurnished.
• Furnishing Sourcing
  • Were you able to purchase and place furnishings from Achievement Furnishers?
    I had the achievements but did not purchase or place any of the items.
  • Were you able to purchase furnishings from Zanil Theran the Luxury Furnisher?
    No. I never saw this person in the game.
  • Did you get any Undaunted Busts from dungeon bosses? If so, which one was your favorite?
    No.
• Specialty Furnishings
  • Were you able to find the reprints of Shalidor’s Library books, place them, and read them?
    
  • Did you understand how to use the various light sources?
    Yes. However, it was odd that some lights only stopped producing light, they did not actually go dark. (The fixture was lit but did not cast any light) Ran across lights that could not be turned off. Are we supposed to be able to light fires in fireplaces?
  • Were you able to sit on chairs, both in a home and throughout the world? Was it clear which chairs you could sit on?
    Yes. It was clear once close enough to get the activation prompt. Sitting on the stool was fail, I immediately stood up again. Sitting in the rocking chair worked, but do your people know that it does not actually rock?
• Were you able to allow or restrict other players to enter your home?
  Yes. It would be nice if the UI presented me with a list of my friends right on that panel.
• Did you duel inside your home? How was the experience?
  No.
• Did you like the housing-related achievements and titles?
  Councilor, Count, and Lord titles were Ok. I understand Clan Father, but it would be odd on a non-Khajiit, I think.
• Which was your favorite home, and why?
  Hunding's Palatial Hall, layout plus location. Want fishing.
• What did you think of the prices for each home?
  Many houses I previewed are over priced for what we get, which basically amounts to a building we have been in a zillion times already. It would have been nice if the team had made the houses different from what is already in the game. That would have reinforced the expensive price. The Riften large house is a good example of a 1 million gold version of a common building found everywhere.
• Are you an ESO Plus member?
  Yes.
• Do you have any other general feedback?
  It would be nice if the quest to get the free room let me know when I met the furniture requirement, if there actually is one. I purchased a stool from the guy, but I was not sure if that was enough.
  
  The means to get out of the preview is not obvious, which might be due to the fact that I picked the cavern as my first stop. I never actually saw the door (behind me) so I just teleported out (expensive). When I previewed the island, I thought to look at the boat to see if that would let me out, and it did. However, the boat said I was going to Grahtwood, and so I was not sure where I was going to end up. The text on the door does not always match what is actually going to happen, and that is confusing.
  
  The list of houses in Collections should be sortable by type, and it would be handy if the uncollected houses listed the Gold/Crown price in the Collections panel, along with location, type, and requirements. As Crowns might change, the Gold might be good enough.
  
  There should be some indication of which Achievements are still needed, vs already achieved, when looking at housing requirements.
  
  Hunding's Palatial Hall - You went to all the trouble to make that small island a ways off from the house, why bother blocking it with an invisible wall/slaughter fish? There is a railing missing on the tower platform that looks out over the ocean, the one accessible by bridge from the 2nd floor.

MornaBaine

driosketch wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

I was very disappointed to find that all the buildings with the exception of the 2 crown store only huge ones are nothing more than copies of existing buildings in the old world.

Agreed. It's definitely a shame. But I hope at least you weren't too surprised; I did say this would probably be the case!

I don't know that I entirely get this complaint. Has no one wanted to take existing set pieces and recreate that pub or castle scene?

I would not have minded those copies of existing buildings but for two reasons. One, they are wildly overpriced and show no care was put into the actual houses. Two, there should have also been a selection of houses that were ORIGINAL and at LEAST as elaborate as the mansions to be found in the DLC. This was lazy.

But if they are going to stick us with retreads of existing buildings then they ought to put many more of them in. Like the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild buildings and banks, etc. It would at least give us more variety in floorplans.

gibbs.donb14_ESO

I have only checked out a handful of housing previews, but I have toyed around with the housing editor. I haven't had a chance to do any furniture crafting yet. I have bought a couple homes... one furnished, and one unfurnished. I like the look and feel of the various styles, and the editor worked reasonably well, with a couple exceptions when dragging large items around and not being able to see your surroundings because the model takes up the entire screen. Maybe a semi-transparent model when editing/placing items would help alleviate that issue.

As others have also stated, I too am disappointed that there is no storage functionality with any of the furniture items I have used. I like the idea of hiring Assistants, as it does add some convenience functionality to the homes. But my main reason for having one is a place to store some stuff while I sort it out after a long adventure. I'm sure the technical details of database storage for 7 million users was at least part of the reason for not including any type of storage functionality. I am sure there were other reasons as well. I wouldn't expect unlimited storage. But I think if we had even some 'Basic' storage containers to add in, even if storage was limited by number of items, it would add a lot to the housing options, and make it feel even more functional and comfortable to players.

But all in all a job very well done ZOS.

Just my thoughts.

Valkrist

The Khajiit couches and stools (such as those that come with the Furnished Serenity Falls house) have a bug. You'll sit down, and then immediately stand back up again.

Universe

Feedback for player Housing:
1) Serenity Falls Estate:
A)The interior area of the main building is too small(compared to the other alliance manors).
Please add some more space to the interior of the main building.
I understand that this is a manor which has much bigger exterior but the current setting is making the interior way too small for any decent home design.

B)There is no entrance corridor and a throne room.
I would love to see an entrance corridor which leads to a small/medium sized throne room at the end of it(main building).
I can't find a good place for a throne inside the main building.

C) There is no a watch tower.
Please add a watch tower near the walls so it will be possible to watch the countryside from the inside of the manor(Just like Strident Springs Demesne and the Daggerfall Overlook).

D)The current balcony is too small, please double it's size.
Also, please add one more balcony for the front of the main building(double the size of the current balcony).

E) Alliance banners and flags - Please consider adding some Aldmeri Dominion decorations for the inside and/or outside of the manor, similar to the Daggerfall Overlook.

F) The walls of the manor - The walls of the other manors are much better looking.
Reason: They are made of stone.
Please consider replacing some of the wood in the walls to stone.
I don't like the current style of the walls.
I call those walls: The begger's walls.
I understand there is a need to respect all the styles of Aldmeri Dominion(Khajiit and others) but the walls of Mathiisen Manor(almost 1/4 of the price of Serenity Falls Estate) put this walls to shame.

2) Mathiisen Manor:
A) Please add a watch tower.
The landscape outside of this manor is magnificent.
It will be great if there will be a watch tower for this large home(example: Imperial large home has a watch tower).

B)The distance between the gate and main building is too short, therefore it is much harder to bask in the glory of this home when entering(It is forcing the player to turn the first/third person view way up in order to catch a glimpse of it.

3) Daggerfall Overlook:
The exterior of this manor is a bit small - kindly consider adding about 20% more land to the exterior.

4) Strident Springs Demesne:
A) The interior of this large home is a bit too small.
There is not enough space for placing furnishings(first & second floor).

B)The rooms in the second floor are very small.
Please consider enlarging those rooms or just merging some of the rooms to one bigger room.

Detector

Daggerfall OverLook
1) Door of Tower – can’t use. The door is not active.
2) After patch 2.7.1 (new tower) too many objects in one place. Too close tower and 2 house.

Ilsabet

VarilRau wrote: »

Question:

1. Do the houses belong to the zone chat of the area, or do i have to get a house from a remote location to be able to be in peace / get the craglorn one to be able to keep an eye on pugs/wts in local?

House instances seem to be separate from the outside zone. I haven't tested chat at all, but I tested the dolmen outside Mournoth Keep in Bangkorai. I went out of the house, activated the dolmen (there was no one else around) and went back inside. I couldn't see or hear the dark anchor at all and the sky was nice and clear. So it was as if the dolmen hadn't been activated. This tells me that the estate is its own little instance separate from the zone outside.

feyii

As others have mentioned, some seats get bugged. Today I noticed, that this might not be the case immediately, as my char sat on a chair and couch before just fine. Then, after trying to sit on a chair that was to close to a table and forced my char to get up again, all other seats did the same, even those that worked before.

Enodoc

OK, specific houses, starting with the Crown Store ones:

Earthtear Cavern
Very nice, very spacious. Couldn't get over the inner boundary wall at all, so I don't really know why there's an outer boundary wall as well, or why that outer area is on the map. Since you can't get out there, it would be nice if there was a bit more of a landscape view visible from within. There are slaughterfish by the inner boundary wall, which is completely unnecessary since there's a wall there, so they should either be completely removed, or moved back behind the wall so they're not inside the livable space at all.

Alternatively, and preferably, given the size and cost of the home, remove the inner boundary wall and let us access the outer area. It's tantalisingly close but completely inaccessible, and having it on the map just makes the restriction worse. Players would then be able to use the outer area as a large garden space. (Caveat - I imagine the reason the outer area is not accessible is to avoid having to render a large vista of the landscape beyond. But given that the house is its own instance, a vista hopefully shouldn't be that hard to do.)

It's not possible to get onto the right-hand side ledge. It's completely bounded by the Cavern wall, so there's not really any reason to deny access to that. There's some more unnecessary slaughterfish by the edge of the rock wall just to the south of the ledge. There's also some in the eastern side waterfall, which is not necessary as there's nowhere they need to block you off from.

Rather a lot of the available surface area is taken up by water, which potentially reduces the available furnishing space. Unless of course you build over it. The actual interior 'room', in behind the main entrance, is rather small, and could potentially be enlarged to encompass a bit more of the dead space and make it into a nice Suite.

I also froze the Crown Store here by trying to mass-buy (spamming E) some blocks for makeshift stairways. Had to Alt+F4 to get out.

Take home points:

1. Remove all slaughterfish, they're designed as a blocker and they're not actually blocking anything.
2. Enlarge the small interior room, located behind the entrance.
3. Allow access to the right-hand side ledge.
4. Considering allowing access to the outer area, where all the grass is.

Grand Topal Hideaway
Rather impressive. The amount of outside space is staggering. I was surprised I was able to swim past the lava and very pleased to find I could swim all the way around the island without getting slaughtered. As suggested by the available space on the map, the distance you can swim out to the northwest without getting slaughtered is also pretty large. The two buildings have very spacious interiors, which is great, and will allow for many different furnishing opportunities. The little lookout tower to the east side, and the ruin to the west side, are a nice touch.

I can't think of any improvements to this house at all, aside from the fact that a player cap of 24 will make the place seem very empty. Nice job!

Take home points:

1. Needs a higher player cap (applies to all manor-sized homes, but this one in particular given its available space).

BenevolentBowd

Would it be possible to include the housing stats on the housing listing or preview? It would be nice to see how many slots were available before you buy. The stats only seem to appear when you using the housing editor.

Universe

BenevolentBowd wrote: »

Would it be possible to include the housing stats on the housing listing or preview? It would be nice to see how many slots were available before you buy. The stats only seem to appear when you using the housing editor.

I agree.
Also, It will be nice to know what is the population limit per home, like 24 players for a manor or 10 players for a large home etc.

Vudokan

Were you able to successfully preview a home and buy it with gold?

Yes, although I was very annoyed to realize once you've bought a house in the 'unfurnished' state, you can't buy the furnishings and have them automatically placed, nor can you drop the house and re-buy the furnished version. It really complicates any attempt to test things out. Also, I think ideally we should be able to buy the furnishing set for a house with crowns. For example, I could then buy the house with in-game gold, and auto-furnish it using crowns.

How did you preview the home? Did you do it via the Crown Store, Collections UI, or just walk up to the door?

I tried all 3. They are all working fine, although the Collections UI was the simplest way to access them all.

Were you able to figure out how to switch between previewing a furnished/unfurnished home?

Yes, although not before buying some unfurnished houses without realizing there was an option for furnishing. It would be good if there was a confirmation dialogue that came up when purchasing, such as "Are you sure you want to purchase this house unfurnished? [Preview Furnished] [Confirm Unfurnished Purchase]" just to ensure we are fully aware of the options.

Did you understand how to use the various light sources?

Yes

Were you able to sit on chairs, both in a home and throughout the world?

Yes

Was it clear which chairs you could sit on?

Not without approaching them.

Did you like the housing-related achievements and titles?

Yes, although I am concerned that the titles may not be available through alternate means. What if I want to be a Lord, but don't like the Daggerfall house? Or want to be a count, but dislike (and can't afford) the houses I'd have to buy to obtain it. In-game titles in this game are weak at best, it's terrible that you've chosen to block titles that have such a broad appeal behind a paywall like this.

Which was your favorite home, and why?

Unfortunately I didn't find any I was truly excited about. I liked Mathiisen Manor, but there was no view. I liked Daggerfall Overlook, but there were no natural features, no water features, and no balconies. I loved the location of the Grand Topal Hideaway, but it was too 'grass hut' aesthetically for my tastes and there were no solid buildings with hearths, etc.

I guess if I had to pick a favourite, I'd say it was Hunding's Palatial Hall, because it was a bit more affordable, it had a nice mix of solid buildings and natural features, there was indoor space and outdoor space, and a tiny bit of a view. My only complaint with that house is that it is very disappointing not to be able to swim out to the rock and tiny beach. It's not like you can swim to it from the landscape, so it has rather a pointless existence. It should be added to the usable area for this house, even if that means jacking up the price of it a bit.



What did you think of the prices for each home?

Some were outrageous given the lack of natural features, lack of a view, etc. The worst by far was Ebonheart Manor. Hugely overpriced for what you get. Fortunately I don't like the Deshaan aesthetic, so it won't bother me, but seemed a bit crazy.

Are you an ESO Plus member?

Yes

Do you have any other general feedback?

Why, oh WHY can't we mount up in our courtyard? That seems just plain absurd, and makes for some real tedium travelling around the larger properties. Some of the courtyards are huge, and anyway, it seems odd I can't mount up by my own stable...

Also, buying and furnishing a house seems like it's going to be an extremely expensive grind. With no storage or any utility to owning a house, it's hard to get excited about it all.

Enodoc

Moving on to the Manors:

Daggerfall Overlook
Nice name. A shame you can't actually see Daggerfall from it. The watchtower may help to some degree (when the door actually works), but it really needs a proper overlook from the top of the wall looking over the bay and the docks, exactly like the view over the sea on the other side. To enable this, build out the slope behind the barn and the stables, and add some steps to the top that go between them. When done, that should be a nice furnishable patio area which looks similar to what's outside the forge and behind the Mages Guild in Daggerfall city.

The rest of the courtyard is a very tidy exterior. The fountain, the stables, and the barn are all very in-keeping with the manor vibe. For a better use of space, I think the stables should be backed up against the wall; this would also assist in the above suggestion for the wall patio as it would allow for more room to put the steps in. The lookout over the sea is very nice; should it not be possible to see Betnikh from here? It's quite close and quite large.

The house itself is the standard three-floored Breton castle/manor that you see in all the cities. Unfortunately it suffers from the same mismatch between the exterior design and the interior floor plan that they do. At the very least, it should be possible to reach the balcony which runs along the front of the building between the two towers and above the front door. A bonus would be to allow access to the top floor room behind the big window. Finally, as others have said, it would be good if it were possible to remove the Covenant banners from the interior. No other house has branding like this.

The trap door to the 'Overlook Shore' seems pointless, as there's no easy way to put anything there. So I guess that's there to rescue you if you fall off the wall, rather than as a functional location.

Take home points:

1. Create a patio area on top of the wall overlooking the docks and the bay.
2. Provide access to the front balcony from inside.
3. Remove the Covenant banners.
4. Provide access to the top floor room(s).

Serenity Falls Estate
A very spectacular exterior area. I like the waterfalls and the stream; they add a nice touch. (I see how the estate got its name!) For some reason it isn't possible to go all the way behind the main building; it's walled off and I'm not sure why, as there's already a cliff there. The wall seems unnecessary.

I'm not sure if Khajiit do watchtowers, but if they do, it would be nice to have one here to be able to see a bit more of the surrounding countryside. Reaper's March is beautiful, and you don't really get to see much of it from here. It's quite a loss to not be able to see the stream as it flows down the hill towards S'ren-ja. If they don't do watchtowers, one of those little hut-sized structures, like the one in S'ren-ja being used for barrel storage, may be tall enough to see over the wall.

The interior of the manor itself seems rather smaller than what I was expecting, but it is the same size as the S'ren-ja Clanmother's House, and the inns in Dune and Rawl'kha, so is probably the largest Khajiit building available. The side balcony is tiny and pretty pointless (the view options are a cliff, or the rooves of S'ren-ja), but it's nice that it exists at all.

The outbuilding (workshop/servants' quarters?) is a nice addition to the courtyard and somewhat makes up for the lack of space inside the manor. A second outbuilding, such as the hut-sized structure mentioned above, would add to the available space without greatly affecting the existing plan, due to the space that would still be available underneath.

Take home points:

1. Remove the wall around the back of the house.
2. Add a small Hut structure to compensate for the small interior space of the manor (and provide a better view down the stream).

Ebonheart Chateau
After the initial feeling of being cramped, this property opens up into a nice courtyard. There are seven towers around the yard, all of which are completely useless as you can't get inside any of them. One at least should be replaced with a functional watchtower, to provide a view of Ebonheart and the surrounding land.

The courtyard itself contains a fountain and a stable/barn, but little else that's noticeable. Unlike Daggerfall Overlook's lookout and Serenity Falls' stream, it has no distinguishing feature. This is despite the fact that it's built on the edge of an active volcano! The solution here would be to add a lava channel across the courtyard, either down the left (northwest) side, or across the front (southeast to northwest). Based on the map, the lava channel is already severed by the house, so providing an outlet for it makes sense.

The interior of the house is the standard three-level Dunmer Manor found in Ebonheart and Kragenmoor. It has ample furnishing space, although I always found it a bit odd that there's no room underneath the entrance hall.

Take home points:

1. Increase the value of the property to players by adding a functional, furnishable watchtower with a view over the city.
2. Enhance the appeal of the manor by adding a gimmick feature, specifically a lava channel across the courtyard.

Bowser

The Ebonheart Chateau needs some better scenery! Demolish the rock walls on the northwest and southeast sides and build terraces overlooking Ebonheart and the lava river.