Help me understand housing

Kng_Ayumayuma

This is not a bash!!!

I don't get what housing is for. I mean I have a couple homes at Inns for free fast travel. But other then that I don't get it?
I bought a bed (or made it) and can't lay on it. I have a chair and I sit down. I sit there looking around... are we having fun yet? But when I exit game my character stands back up. Whats with that? When I exit the game on a horse and come back in I'm still on that horse. Why not with the chair?

How do you all use your house to make it useful, worthwhile?

Cadbury

Role play. Plus, housing is a staple part of many MMOs. And many people like to collect bits and baubles ingame and would like a place to showcase them.

I also like to use them for free fast travel, too.

I do wish we had more interaction when it comes to beds, though.

Nightowl_74

My houses aren't useful....aside from maybe the snowglobe because it's so close to a wayshrine....collecting and decorating them is just an activity I enjoy.

bayushi2005

Creating my own pockets of oblivion with pre-defined in-game assets

Jaimeh

Kng_Ayumayuma wrote: »

This is not a bash!!!

I don't get what housing is for. I mean I have a couple homes at Inns for free fast travel. But other then that I don't get it?
I bought a bed (or made it) and can't lay on it. I have a chair and I sit down. I sit there looking around... are we having fun yet? But when I exit game my character stands back up. Whats with that?

How do you all use your house to make it useful, worthwhile?

For me, houses don't have much functionality, besides storing my chests and having a place for crafting stations and the target dummies, because I don't really role-play, although that's another way you could use houses for. Indeed a lot of players/guilds have come up with various ideas, like: hosting pvp tournaments, scavenger hunts, building an obstacle or challenging course, or other events, even theatre plays! So they do have a lot of potential, depending how you play. What I personally love about housing is mostly the building/decorating part, which is very creative and, for me, one of the funnest activities in game. However, afterwards I don't really use the house unless I want a port to that zone for instance.

Kng_Ayumayuma

I come from the single player Bethesda games (and other MMO's) and I find it strange that I can't sleep in a bed. That turned me off. Not knowing about other things to interact with. I guessed there wasn't anything else. I mean if they wouldn't make a bed usable why do anything else?

gusthermopyle

It's an artistic/creative outlet for some.

Speaking for myself, I love the art created by the ESO designers and I love to arrange pieces in a way that pelases my creativity. It's a fun part of the game to have a project that is completely self-built (lots of people take the base houses and completely redesign them).

It also encourages interaction in the game with achievements for special furnishings and antiquity hunting.

Take a look at some of the many youtube videos of houses that have been totally redesigned and you may come closer to understanding the artistic outlet that we get from it. But it is mainly that for most serious housing enthusiasts, its not really practical beyond perhaps a personal crafting centre.

Lugaldu

I have to say that housing in ESO is one of the best features. I love the opportunities to be creative and keep designing new buildings. Every new structural furnishing is inspirational.

MageCatF4F

As many others have commented - building stuff. Also some minor personal role playing.

I do reskin a few houses as castle keeps with less depressing interiors than stock, but my main interest, and that of another family member, is building steam-punkish airships.

These typically have skeleton crews (haha) because the target dummies have better personalities than half the house guests. I like to express my bent sense of humor with them as open houses.

As a side note - really looking forward to the day-night setting hourglass. Could have used it this past All Hallows Eve.

spartaxoxo

Decorating is fun in and of itself. They can also hold storage chests, crafting stations, target dummies for practicing and understanding your DPS, etc. So they can be like a little town.

Nestor

Houses are what you make of them.

Cireous

Kng_Ayumayuma wrote: »

I bought a bed (or made it) and can't lay on it. I have a chair and I sit down. I sit there looking around... are we having fun yet? But when I exit game my character stands back up. Whats with that?

You've nailed it.

Laying on beds, remaining seated when we log out and back in. Both small things, if finally addressed, would please so many of us. And, I agree, we need stuff to do. Grow, loot, buff or even "debuff" ourselves with rare items we can craft and place in our homes. And, a better system that allows us to show off our homes to more people. Also, as I'm discovering in NW, it's so much more fun to pick out your new house inside the new content, right as it drops, and decorate it as you quest throughout the zone. But that's never been an option in ESO. There is always a gigantic time barrier to decorating a home in the same area as the new content. Whether its having to nearly finish the entire zone, first, or whether they've even decided to include an affordable home at all at the time the content is released. Either way, the excitement of it all wears off before you can even unlock whats available. Not to mention, how limited we are in choices to begin with. Why not open up 4 or 5 of these locked doors in each large city, and a few in some side-quest cites, and let us excitedly choose our favorite little condo-sized dwelling to slowly fill up with new furniture as we adventure? I can't express enough how much more I would enjoy the new content if we had a variety of smaller homes we could have access to immediately at a new DLCs release.

TeruKisuke

With housing you can make anything you want. Want your own little copy of Bag End from Lord of the Rings? You can make that. Unable to afford a big expensive library in real life but would like to roleplay the vibe of sitting in front of a fireplace with a book? You can do that. Just want a hub to chill at in between dungeons or trials? Make a scenic garden with crafting tables/banker/merchant/etc you can prepare in. Or display achievements or things you've accomplished and found on your adventures. Don't just slap down tables and chairs in a premade home. That's what's boring. Think about what's possible and make it happen.

Don't just place chairs anywhere, place it in front of a beautiful relaxing view, or in front of something you're proud of designing. Beds you can use emotes to lay down on them. (With some of the canopy beds, you can use precision to phase through them, jump up, and then lay down.)

Personally, I have a lot of fun remaking locations from my favorite series and being able to run around freely with a free camera, as if I'm able to explore as if I'm actually there or as if my character lives there (if it's a house), or making my dream home. I play ESO almost exclusively for housing because I really like the creativity and freedom of placing objects in other objects to make new things (we call it cobbling). And designing things can be fun.

As Nestor said, houses are what you make of them.

Kng_Ayumayuma

Thank you all for the wonderful replies. I'm not going to quote anyone because I could quote you all.

I love building. I didn't know we can build here. I posted in another thread about seeing empty lots. Now I know why.

Is there a good website telling how to start building? Or just search Google? ESO building a house?

We are talking exterior / interior walls, floors, etc?

Leighlaa

I would recommend a couple of things:

1. Visit this site and poke around some of the fun furnishings the game has available: ESO Fashion
2. Join a housing guild or discord. If this is something you are interested in, there are a TON of great housing guilds, just ask around!
3. Buy, collect, or build a bunch of *STUFF* and just start! Sometimes all inspiration needs is a small spark.
4. Install the "Housing Hub" addon by Cardinal05, who now works for ZoS, doing housing things!! It's a great addon for touring *other peoples'* builds and getting inspired.

I read in a previous comment that you do love to build, not just place and decorate- and that's ABSOLUTELY a way to "do housing" in ESO- and some of the most fascinating and awe-inspiring builders do that! Walls, stairs, arches, floors, and so so many more structural pieces are available. And then you have builders like Hachiko_Chan who create cobbles of items and structural pieces that blow. my. MIND!

Some people like to create art pieces that aren't even homes. Others like to create PUZZLE builds (my friend and guildie Crimson-3ye on PCNA has some increeeeeeeeeedible puzzle builds- try out his Coldharbour or Pantherfang for a treat!) that can really boggle your brain. Some people like to make quests their friends/guilds play through in voice or using RP/premade clues. Some people run guilds and have to provide EVERY mundus, EVERY set table, ALL the vampire stuff, MULTIPLE 21m dummies, BANKER/MERCH/ARMORER/RAGPICKER.... and somehow make it look nice and not like a crafting table yard sale trash pile (no, I'm not bitter about it, it's cool). Other people like to parse, duel, show of their battle trophies from pve and pvp or even just display "FLEX" achievement furnishings, like the vKA boat, vSS HM trophies, or Volundrung. Some people like to make homes with jumping games or races. Some people like to create holiday-specific places to enjoy the season or play ToT with their homies. Some people just like the practicality of having a parse dummy, storage coffers, crafting tables, and assistants all in one place, portable from anywhere, free. Some people (*AHEM TOTALLY NOT ME*) buy up each and every home just to use them as wayshrines when they create *yet another* alt and need to port to Alikir or Bankorai or something. Housing is a way to stretch out your creativity muscles and work with the legos provided.

I encourage you to look for out of the box builds, "transformation" builds, and anything that claims to have cool cobbles. These sort of builds will show you the extreme possibilities of even the lots with structures or limited open spaces. It's *CRAZY* some of the brilliant things people come up with.

If you find that you really like housing or want to give building/structures/playing around with it a bit of a more serious go, I DEFINITELY recommend a couple addons:

• Essential Housing Tools: This is the catch-all and for some may be *TOO MUCH*, but you don't have to use all the features and most of the UI can be toggled off if you don't want to see it or it is confusing at first. This allows you more versatile selection options, build options, including auto-build for shapes of things and crafting station organization (alphabetically), various convenience functions like bringing all your coffers to you in 1 click, resetting dummies in 1 click, and more, allows the addition of 'fx'- visual additions that overlap your game's UI and can add fun details, effects, and more (think text overlays, fake water/graphics, skyboxes), and something I'm too scared to learn but are WICKED COOL: actions... which basically automate certain furnishing functions so you can have greater control of your build... and if you're in your home, you can even program it to move furnishings in ways that have creative results (a little hard to explain, but an example would be: they press an ayleid switch and it causes a stone pillar to rise like an elevator, but only if you're in the game because it's actually the game sort of "replaying" your programmed build, which obviously only works if you're physically there to build, even if it's just automatically doing it for you). CRAZY cool traps/puzzles you can build with actions. The next addon is built-in to eht.
• Housing Hub: A great stand-alone if you just want to TOUR homes, but don't want all the build tools that eht offers. You can still see all the functions and see the descriptions the same way builders put them in using EHT. I *BELIEVE* you can also share your own builds, even if you only have the hub.
• DecoTrack: it's like inventory insight but for your furnishings in homes. Don't know in which of your 90 homes that one scuttlebloom is? Type it in the search and it'll pop up, along with a link to go to it. I believe EHT is required for this to work, or maybe just housing hub? Either way it's awesome.
• Magic Carpet: A GREAT standalone that works very well with EHT and was made by cardi as well. It basically provides a stable surface that moves with you as you build, removing the need for scaffolding as you build. It basically builds as you do, so don't accidentally click whatever you're using as a "carpet". the addon provides a list of functional carpets, choose one you like. I like the clockwork city sphere one, it's tiny and I don't accidentally click it. There are also fun selections like the rudolph nose, that works with an apple and as you run around, it keeps it on your face, over your nose. Lots of silly ones like that. Just good fun!

I really love housing, sorry for the rant, but I hope you find something you like too

Kng_Ayumayuma

Thank you @Leighlaa for that post. I'll look into all you mentioned.

airie

Kng_Ayumayuma wrote: »

Thank you all for the wonderful replies. I'm not going to quote anyone because I could quote you all.

I love building. I didn't know we can build here. I posted in another thread about seeing empty lots. Now I know why.

Is there a good website telling how to start building? Or just search Google? ESO building a house?

We are talking exterior / interior walls, floors, etc?

housing is an artistic / creative outlet for me ♡
⁠
providing some of my articles as follows ⁠—

homestead basics guide | https://eso-u.com/articles/airies_ultimate_eso_homestead_guide
cobbling basics | https://eso-u.com/articles/airies_guide_to_cobbling_housing
housing features & articles | https://eso-u.com/search?tag=Housing

Kng_Ayumayuma

airie wrote: »

Kng_Ayumayuma wrote: »

Thank you all for the wonderful replies. I'm not going to quote anyone because I could quote you all.

I love building. I didn't know we can build here. I posted in another thread about seeing empty lots. Now I know why.

Is there a good website telling how to start building? Or just search Google? ESO building a house?

We are talking exterior / interior walls, floors, etc?

housing is an artistic / creative outlet for me ♡
⁠
providing some of my articles as follows ⁠—

homestead basics guide | https://eso-u.com/articles/airies_ultimate_eso_homestead_guide
cobbling basics | https://eso-u.com/articles/airies_guide_to_cobbling_housing
housing features & articles | https://eso-u.com/search?tag=Housing

Thank you for those guides, fantastic. A couple of questions I may have overlooked in your guides.
I have some crafting tables I'm not able to place. It tells me I need to select something. What and how?
Sometimes I get a nice looking weapon. Am I able to put them on a wall for display?

A couple other questions.
Housing plot that already has a house. Can I remove that house and build another? Or add to the existing house, add a floor, etc?
Do housing guilds have an area to build on for the members?
Can that build be saved and placed on another lot?

TeruKisuke

Kng_Ayumayuma wrote: »

I have some crafting tables I'm not able to place. It tells me I need to select something. What and how?
Sometimes I get a nice looking weapon. Am I able to put them on a wall for display?

A couple other questions.
Housing plot that already has a house. Can I remove that house and build another? Or add to the existing house, add a floor, etc?
Do housing guilds have an area to build on for the members?
Can that build be saved and placed on another lot?

@Kng_Ayumayuma I'll try to answer some of your questions. I hope I understand what you're asking.

Crafting tables are functional, but they need space around them in order to work. They're finicky like that. Just like benches and chairs, they'll have a green or yellow glow around them. Green means functional, yellow means something is in the way of it. Typically this means something is jutting up from the ground, too close to the wall, or to another object. Sometimes housing is buggy and when you go to place the crafting station, it's sunken into the ground by default, so you'll need to manually raise it up until it's green.

Anything you can make for your house will be in the "furnishings" tab in a crafting station, and you will need furnishing plans if you want to make them, like designs, blueprints, etc. Equipment your character wears is unfortunately not convertible into a furnishing for your house.

Once you own a house property, the land and existing structure cannot be removed. That's why it will be important to choose the right house property for you. (Some of them can be quite expensive). All houses come with some furnishings like trees or some lights; any furnishings it comes with can be moved or removed.

While you can't remove what's there, you can add to it. This is where building comes in. You'll get a sense for this as you go along, but in the Housing Editor, there's different categories and one of them is Structures. You can make your own floors and place then anywhere you want (the one exception being if it obstructs the load door. It's a countermeasure against people getting stuck and crashing on loading in.)

Say, for instance, you have the house Daggerfall Overlook. You don't like the floors that are there. So you can take another set of floors, like the High Isle Tile Floors, and replace them by placing them over the existing floor. You'll have to be careful if there are several stories in a house and the platform is really thick because it might jut through your floor and into the space below.

Or maybe you want a loft, or a second floor. You can do that by raising your floor into the air and add some stairs to it. I would look through the furnishings and coordinate so that it looks prettier, but just know you don't HAVE to only build in one style. Mix and match them!

If there's space, you don't have to use the pre-existing house at all. You could give it a total makeover (we call this reskinning), or block it off and build your own house outside. This is why people like open plot homes so that they don't have to block anything off and can just make their own thing, but having a prebuilt house will save on slots. Just keep in mind every wall, door or even spoon costs one slot and we only have 700 slots at most. Your slot limit will be dictated by your house of choice and can't be raised unless by ESO Plus subscription.

Housing guilds depend on the guild. It is difficult to keep a property set for everyone as "Designer" because you might have the occasional vandalizer come along to ruin it for everyone else. So a guild hall is typically just like any person's house, but a guild pitched together a lot of work to get all the armor set crafting stations and other amenities like Mundus Stones, and this ultimately takes up at least half their available slots.

However, one of the guilds I'm a part of hosts events from time to time where anyone can build in them. But one drawback of housing is that only the owner of the home can place items, so you have to work with what they put down or request they put down a certain item for you, which can be tedious.

As for whether a build can be saved, I'm not sure. I'm a console player so I don't have access to add-ons, but maybe one of them has a function like that, though it might be unlikely to work as you think it does. But just know that an account can only own one of a property, so if you make a design for one house then it might not fit another. (Unless it's completely custom and you have the space to put it out there.) If you want to move your furnishings from one house to another then you will probably have to start from scratch.

Hope I answered all your questions to the best of my ability. I would take a look at other people's homes and see what they've done with them. People have made some really crazy things with housing despite all the limitations, as I think ESO has some really nice exclusive features.

TheImperfect

Recommend for ideas for housing to watch JHartEllis on Twitch - he also has some youtube videos. He does stream housing tours as well as other things.

Kng_Ayumayuma

@TeruKisuke fantastic.
@TheImperfect I'll check that out