PTS Update 16 - Feedback Thread for Housing & New Homes

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for housing and the new homes. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• What did you think of the two new homes, the Orbservatory Prior and Pariah’s Pinnacle?
• Was the new quest to obtain your first home clear and enjoyable?
• Small and medium sized homes no longer have achievement requirements to purchase them. Does this make it more appealing to purchase?
• Did you look through the new furnishings in the Housing Editor? What did you think of them?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

JasonSilverSpring

I love both of the new homes, especially Pariah's Pinnacle. It was clever to have the limited time sale for the manor end before the PTS came out. Are these going to be crown only and limited time offerings? I really hope they are available for gold and achievements for Orsinium and Clockwork City.

Linaleah

houses look interesting, but weather affects inside the building are still an issue. it should not be snowing inside the pinnacle through all that stone.

new crafting stations look fantastic. in furnished version of the clockwork mansion, there were some very awesome furnishing items, especially all the various tools. its a little odd that the only way to get to the flat roof type area (when facing towards the main room from the entrance platform) is by building up to it, but glad that it IS accessible.

Tyrobag

In the Observatory Prior, there is a piston floating in mid air. I can't move it, so it doesn't appear to be a furnishing item


(I put in the sideways rug for some depth perception, otherwise it just looked like it was bigger and further away XD)

Lylith

can't wait to update the pts client and see these.

(goes and updates launcher for tomorrow...)

JamieAubrey

Is it wrong I went to both of these and jumped off the edge ?

SanTii.92

WROTGHAR NEW HOUSE IS SO CLOSE TO MA THAT IT'S PRETTY HARD TO FAST TRAVEL. YOU MUST FIX THIS ZENIMAX FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. thanks.

Jaeysa

SanTii.92 wrote: »

WROTGHAR NEW HOUSE IS SO CLOSE TO MA THAT IT'S PRETTY HARD TO FAST TRAVEL. YOU MUST FIX THIS ZENIMAX FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. thanks.

Holy caps batman.

Berret

I like the Wrothgar house but I feel like it needs one or two more small rooms, maybe a hallway leading from the big enclosed room with two rooms on either side. It just feels too OPEN right now. Also weather clipping through the big room. I could have missed something though! I had my UI off.

That's the room where the snow comes in, and also the one that I believe would benefit from having a room or two connected to it.

I just think that we REALLY need walls xD

Leogon

Pariah's Pinnacle has way too much space. You guys already know that the low item limit is an issue yet you keep making houses with tons of space. Speaking of houses, Pariah's Pinnacle isn't really a house, it's more like an open area. I waited a long time for a snowy house in Wrothgar so I should be excited right? Well, I'm not.

Here's a tiny version of Pariah's Pinnacle.

Mystrius_Archaion

SanTii.92 wrote: »

WROTGHAR NEW HOUSE IS SO CLOSE TO MA THAT IT'S PRETTY HARD TO FAST TRAVEL. YOU MUST FIX THIS ZENIMAX FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. thanks.

That's every house in a city the same way. Sorry, we just have to get used to it. Although, if you click on one when they are close enough it brings up a list to select one or the other to help you. That could just be gamepad mode though.

Mystrius_Archaion

Leogon wrote: »

Pariah's Pinnacle has way too much space. You guys already know that the low item limit is an issue yet you keep making houses with tons of space. Speaking of houses, Pariah's Pinnacle isn't really a house, it's more like an open area. I waited a long time for a snowy house in Wrothgar so I should be excited right? Well, I'm not.

Here's a tiny version of Pariah's Pinnacle.

I wish we had holiday stuff like that in game, and snow actually piling up and looking fluffy.

Mystrius_Archaion

Berret wrote: »

I just think that we REALLY need walls xD

Orcs are tougher than other races, or try to be, especially the ancient orcs. Check out the very breezy Orsinium Keep throne room for example. It's just the way they designed, and likely all doors that may have been there rotted away.

"You want a cozy warm home? Go cry with the Bretons, puny elf!"

SantieClaws

Most of the new homes seems to be very large and impressive and perhaps designed to generate many crowns yes?

Many travellers that Khajiit knows would like a medium or large sized home in a snowy place - presently there is no such home. Whist the Wrothgar place has snow it really doesn't have that winter cosy feel - perhaps a little drafty yes?

Artistically they are beautiful buildings indeed though.

Perhaps a balance might be sought between the very big and impressive buildings - castles, islands etc and something smaller? Most new homes appear to be very big and palatial - that is not to that taste of everyone - nor the pocket.

A farm perhaps? A snowy winter retreat? A Slag Town slum dwelling?

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Earrindo

Feedback on the new crafting stations:

First off, THANK YOU, I really appreciate that these were added in, and I am so excited to remodel my workshop to be clockwork themed.

Now the feedback.
The new stations are on much larger tables, which would be great, if the useability of the stations wasnt so touchy. It seems nearly anything can block their use, including furnishings set on an empty part of the table. I can understand clipping with other furnishings causing them to not be useable, but it is a bit unfortunate that you cant place some of the wonderful crafting themed furnishing accessories on top of them.

Generally I quite like all the new layouts, some feel emptier/smaller than others, but the one that seems really...odd is the provisioning station. I get it, it is a repurposed pipe vent, and I actually quite like the idea, but even moreso than the other stations, it takes almost nothing to render it unable to be used, and because it is so simple, I really want to build a proper stove around it, but cant without blocking its ability to be used.
The idea I had for the provisioning station was if it could be set into a table, instead of just being a bit of a giant beer can. It would be much easier to work it into a functional layout if there was a bit more to it.
Last note on the provisioning station would be that the ability to use it properly seems to be related to it having a "front" but because it is round and simple, there is no obvious front. If adding a table or counter is out of the question, perhaps some kind of marker of where the front is.

The transmutation station is gorgeous, no real commentary. I heard it was over a thousand vouchers though, which seems a bit high, considering the grind required just to get the crystals, it seems a bit overkill to require so many vouchers for the station, which is useless without the crystals, which are a bit grindy to get in their own right. Perhaps bring it down to 350, to be in line with the other top tier voucher items, instead of having it be so incredibly expensive.

Feedback on the rest of the new furnishings:
Please consider changing the prices of crown bought furnishings on the PTS to 1 or at least give us more crowns to play with, as I was only able to buy the new crafting stations before I was tapped out, and I will have to wait till they refresh before I can really have a look at anything else. What I saw in the Orbservatory Prior was awesome, though I wish the glass vessels/orbs were purchaseable outside of buying the Orbservatory Prior furnished.

If I have more thoughts, I will post them, but aside from the problems mentioned, The crafting stations are pretty amazing.

edit: I forgot to mention, it seems pretty arbitrary to have the house hlaalu flower emblem on the clothing station. Perhaps a symbol more apropos to Sotha Sil would be better.

Mystrius_Archaion

Earrindo wrote: »

edit: I forgot to mention, it seems pretty arbitrary to have the house hlaalu flower emblem on the clothing station. Perhaps a symbol more apropos to Sotha Sil would be better.

He had to belong to some house before becoming a "living god". Maybe he was Hlaalu.

Caff32

I agree with the majority that snow inside the Pinnacle is a bit odd. Maybe have a closed off area with gigantic doors?

The clockwork home has an issue with the railings. Specifically, you can walk right through them and fall off. I tried to jump on top and went right through them. Didn't end well.

UPDATE: Turns out it is not the whole length of the border, just a small spot that you can walk through. When you initially spawn in, if you turn directly around, the spot is right in front of you overlooking the giant turbine things. It looks solid, but it is not.

Also, it's a bit underwhelming to find that the clockwork house has a doorway on the right as you walk in that you cannot enter. Pretty lame. I'd at least make it an alcove like the one on the left. I understand that it takes you to a sublevel, but there are a bunch of "doors" that lead nowhere.

Lastly, I would say that you should make the bottom of the clockwork structure accessible. For example, I can jump off the ledge into the big grey conveyor belt looking things, run under the "sublevel" landing, and there is a gold disk that is floating. If you try to jump to it, you die before you hit that landing. It would be great to make that landing accessible. Just a neat hidden floor for stuff.

And while I'm mentioning the conveyor belt things, their animation is not smooth. it starts to go in one direction, then randomly stops, stutters, then goes backwards before stopping, stuttering, and reversing direction again. It would look better to have it just continuously move in one direction.

Bladerunner1

I toured the clockwork observatory:

Is there a lorebook or quest that explains the conveyer belts that move the metal plates back and forth across the rooms? They seem like they're either bits of data being whisked around inside a massive mechanical computer or perhaps the whole place is a license plate factory for all the automatons outside.

Awesome job on the place and the furnished version as well. Perhaps the doors that won't open could be converted into windows made from the same scratched glass material as the clear tube furniture?

Incognitius

I checked out mainly Pariah's Pinnacle, and encountered some bugs and issues.

It costs gold to travel to your homes

Snow
People have already said before, it's snowing in this house. What I find peculiar, is that it is snowing in the part of the house that has no snow on the floor.

Here in the picture below my character is standing on a floor that has snow on it, but for some weird reason it isn't snowing above her.



It's snowing further outside, it's snowing further inside the home, but at the part where she's standing, which is where the roof almost ends there is no snow coming from above at all!

The floor
The floor is beautiful, but it works in a funny way. Those squares within the octagons work more like sand than stone, as your feet sink into it:



More a peeve than a bug:
Placing carpets across octagons is going to be a nightmare:


Also placing furniture on this floor will be a challenge:


Furniture
There are two pieces of furniture that aren't working properly:


No fire at the top, but there is some fire going on at the base of this brazier.
And this is only for the snowswept version. The regular brazier works just fine.

Similar problem with this craglorn brazier:


Review:
My first impression was: " OMG a snowy peak home, I'm in love, this is so beautiful!" And then walked from room... to room... to another room, and I got lost. And then I tried to place furniture on the uneven floor, and I fell quickly out of love with this home.

It's bigger than the Earthtear Cavern in my estimation, which makes it *way* too big for the number of item slots. I would have loved to have seen this a lot smaller - medium sized home small. And the floor - it looks so awesome! - but it will be a challenge (read:nightmare) when you start to decorate it.

Caff32

Also, if you buy the Clockwork house furnished, even if you remove all the tile conveyor belt things, in the lower level room on the west side, you can STILL hear that god awful squeaking noise constantly. I tried to figure out what was causing the noise and I think it is the conveyors but removing them still leaves a horrible squeak. That sound would drive me absolutely crazy.

If you want to give players the option of adding the noise by shutting off or turning on certain animated devices that cause the noise, that would be great. But to have the noise constantly will drive people insane and I would NEVER buy the house furnished.

I would note that when you leave the room, the sound is gone. I removed everything from the room and even tried to retrieve anything close but nothing was left and the sound was still there in the middle of the room on full blast.

Caff32

I would also note that the item:

Clockwork Illuminator, Powered Capsule

that come with the furnished clockwork house will repeatedly turn itself off. I don't know if this is working as intended, but none of the other lights do that.

(Also please add a stairway to the ledge above the front door. That space is usable and perfect for quick access to crafting stations, etc.)

OmniDo

On Wrothgar:

The atmosphere couldnt be better, especially for those of us who love snowy areas.
The "Courtyard" was a breathtaking sight to behold indeed; twin waterfalls flowing into an Icy Lake, which itself falls off the edge to the base many hundreds of feet below.
Superb job there!

As for the sentiment of my fellow Tamriel'ians, the little quirks such as uneven flooring will make carpets a bit of a challenge to compensate for; I imagine it will require placing upside down planks into the floor, or a myriad of other tricks to hide its uneven-ness, which will undoubtedly eat up more item slots in said efforts, due to flawed design.

They are rather spacious, but one has to remember that this is the home of an ancient Orc enclave.
Theirs is not meant to be "cozy" by any other races standards.
Suck it up, or freeze to death.

Overall, rather impressed with the home, but my sentiment is with the community: Not...enough...item...slots.

On Clockwork:

This place reminds me of something straight out of CyanWorlds; i.e Myst IV.
Gotta hand it to you here, the visual interest is such that decorating it really isnt necessary beyond the basics.
There is so much that is already animated and involved that I really dont need to add much more spice to it.
Good job with this theme, though it restricts what one could otherwise do with the home given that all the visual attention is strictly on that theme.
One wouldnt expect to find Khajiit curtains or Nord furniture in a place like this, as it simply wouldnt mesh well.
With other homes, its possible to mix and match to various degrees and not have the atmosphere clash.

Observation:
All the "Lights" currently in the Clockwork home have range limits before they just "turn off".
While theyre still technically "on", you cannot see the light they emit after traveling <x> distance away from them.
The player must re-toggle them off and back on again.

Final thoughts:
Very clever move there Z0$, with releasing Linchal as crown-bait, only to switch that bait with the new homes on the PTS.
Many will find these homes far more desirable than Linchal, and those who sunk their funds into a fully furnished version could face substantial buyers remorse when making the comparison to these new homes.

Also, the coldharbour house...given the aforementioned, I will be waiting on purchasing any of these homes until the Coldharbor house has been confirmed and is available for preview on the PTS.

Snowfaeriewings

I was soooo excited for a house in the SNOW. I adore the waterfall and pond area outside. I agree with a few other ppl that at first the house gets you a little lost. I do wish there was a bit more "rooms" and a little less open space.
I kinda like that it snows inside! lol
I do hope it is NOT a 5 day limited kinda deal since i missed the crown sale and i have to think long and hard about buying crowns at normal price for a home that while i love the snow... it could be a little bit better laid out. Also I wish i knew if there were more snow houses in the near future...... I am sure it will be limited time sell with crowns because that's all the ZOS seems to want to release lately. Which really sucks if you have 5-7 days to come up with the insane price they put on the houses.
I would also like to see more new houses purchasable with gold... except the latest one was really crappy for such a huge price tag I don't see why they can't add more home close to the size of my Forsaken stronghold with a similar gold price tag...
I don't mind buying things with crowns when they are actually priced decently and worth the money...


Also placing items on the floor is a chore in the pariah's pinnacle. You have to set items on the raised diamondy areas which can limit you in your creative process..

ZOS_GinaBruno

Thanks for all the feedback so far, everyone! Regarding the issue with the lights turning off and it snowing inside, we're working on getting those fixed for you.

zassasaurus

I really love these houses!
I feel like the uneveness of the floor in Pariah's Pinnacle could be an issue with decorating but I have to say overall both of these houses are spectacular! I am SO HAPPY that they have nice views!!!! that was one of the things i felt was seriously lacking in many of the other houses. There is a minor bug, I bought Pariah's Pinnacle and it costs money for me to port there, as if it was a regular wayshrine.

I do have one suggestion for housing, you guys keep bringing out more houses and im sure most people will have multiple houses soon if they dont already, so it would be great if we could choose a secondary, maybe even tertiary residence so people can visit more than one of our houses without us having to be there, would be really awesome!

Tannus15

zassasaurus wrote: »

I do have one suggestion for housing, you guys keep bringing out more houses and im sure most people will have multiple houses soon if they dont already, so it would be great if we could choose a secondary, maybe even tertiary residence so people can visit more than one of our houses without us having to be there, would be really awesome!

This. I've almost finished decorating Mathiisen Manor and I'm considering my next house. I'd love to select a "show case" type thing for people to choose which house to visit.

Karmanorway

I really love the Observatory prior, but ive seen so many closed doorways in there and was thinking, since the house is listed as Notable, shouldnt it be a bit bigger? Because compared to the other Notable houses it is smaller

TonyRockaroni

As someone who has been complaining about interiors not being big enough for manors after seeing Hakkvild's High Hall and Linchal Grand Manor. I gotta say that Pariah's Pinnacle and the Observatory Prior are a breath of fresh of air! I absolutely love the looks of these places and how spacious they are!

Pariah's Pinnacle's outdoor area with the two waterfalls is breathtaking, and the interior is very open, which I like. And the observatory areas of the...well, observatory, also have breathtaking views. For a city that's tiny in actuality, the observatory has an AMAZING interior!

This definitely gives me hope for a manor in Abah's Landing in the (hopefully not too distant) future.
(*Crosses fingers that it ends up being Sulima's Mansion!*)

Florra

I really like both new houses, they look great.
PP is atmospheric, open places with full of fresh air. Great! Just was expecting a lil bit more unique items in furnished version. House full of blue, green and white craftable items which are BOP. According to me there is no point to buy furnished house - 2 gold items like Orcish Table Grand Furs and Orcish Head stone which I did not found in CS for sell is not worth to pay 3k crowns extra for furnished version of house. Gonna buy this house any way I hope the limit of slots will be at least doubled then, 700 slots is nothing for this house.
Observatory is a finished project, perfectly done! Full of unique items (furnished), but it could use a lil bit more space. Also I'd love to have this one.
I did check Crown Store for new items. I was really glad to find new building components and platforms there but I'm still missing big sized platforms which can be used to make walls, floors and stairs without using a huge amount of slots.
The Clockwork furnishing style is awesome!

IwakuraLain42

The problem with placing carpets on the floor is not new, this is a problem with a lot of the already published houses. Anything that is a little bit elevated (i.a. a lifted panel on the deck of Sleek Creek) will cause clipping problems.

Jaeysa

What did you think of the two new homes, the Orbservatory Prior and Pariah’s Pinnacle?

• Orbservatory Prior: Love the feel of the place but it feels kinda small for a notable home. I realize it's useless to ask for this not to be crown-only, but PLEASE don't make this limited time only.
• Pariah's Pinnacle: If I liked orcish architecture I'd likely love it. It's big and airy and the snow piles up indoors for days. Okay, maybe the last bit should be fixed.

Was the new quest to obtain your first home clear and enjoyable?
Haven't done it.

Small and medium sized homes no longer have achievement requirements to purchase them. Does this make it more appealing to purchase?
Doesn't effect me but I highly approve of this!

Did you look through the new furnishings in the Housing Editor? What did you think of them?
Gaaaah. Loved them. For the love of Solth-a-Sil don't make most of them crown only or the patterns prohibitively rare. I get you don't want us to get things right a way, but 3 months out of morrowind and telvanni still goes for 500k+ a pattern.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Yes, all specific items:

• Clockwork meal, dish & Clockwork meal, plate - I think they should be reversed? Plate looks more like a dish.
• Clockwork Goblet, recycled water has no water in it
• Daedric Brazier, cold-flame(new) & Daedric Brazier, Coldharbour share the same model