Giving Housing portals that link between houses would give the illusion of more slots

FelisCatus

Portal Network Between Houses:

Problem: ZOS say they can't add more slots due to limitations with console player RAM constraints. Which unfortunately it seems to be the case that consoles hold back PC with most things.

Proposal: Unless console support is phased out, this is my proposal for the long asked for "more slots": instead of adding more slots, players could build interdimensional portals within their houses.

Functionality:

• Each house has a portal that teleports you directly to another of your houses.
• These portals create the illusion of different sub-zones within the same overarching property.
• For example, imagine all your houses forming a grand castle. Each house represents a different part of the castle: the courtyard, barracks, throne room, library, etc.
• The portals could appear as magical doorways within each house or they could look like magical portals if that's more your thing.
• When you step through, it feels like you’re entering different rooms within the same vast estate.

Benefits:

• Detail-Rich Rooms: With limited slots, players often sacrifice room details. Some houses are simply too big to decorate completely. Areas could be cornered off, then portals would allow them to focus on specific areas without compromising overall design.
• Multiple Themes: Each house can have a unique sub-theme (e.g., a farm, a bustling tavern, a mystical library). Whilst all being linked to an overarching theme.
• Solving House Overflow: Players with many houses can now use them effectively by linking them through portals. Instead of just using them as storage houses.

Drawbacks:

• Not a perfect solution, but it provides a compromise between player creativity and technical limitations.
• Some players may prefer more slots directly, but this approach adds depth and immersion.

In summary, whilst not perfect, the portal network allows players to maximize their housing potential while maintaining thematic coherence and detail. It’s a creative workaround that balances gameplay and technical constraints.

This could even be expanded where players can visit a portal hub zone and visit other player's houses, sort of like Runescape's housing system. The EHT add-on has an ability to create a catalogue of homes you can favourite/save or people can post publicly, and you can visit at will, except this is a direct teleport through a UI, which isn't always up to date (some houses are locked and not open any more but still remain on the catalogue). Perhaps this housing catalogue UI hub of public homes could be made base game, allowing players to share their creativity and designs with others. Whilst also inspiring new players to get into housing or find new locations to role-play at. This would also be helpful for guilds that have designated guild halls, making it easier to find.

LunaFlora

Would be awesome

VouxeTheMinotaur

kind of reminds me of the portal set up in the Hall of the Lunar Champion house. Thought that was a cool concept for the house, each portal having a different location and layout, but the same theme and area.

I changed mine to look like "portals of the 4 seasons" with the main room being spring. Lotsssss of overgrown hedges being used as makeshift grassy floor texture lol.

If ZOS adds a function where some of the target dummies can be activated to fight back when attacked by a player, i can see this linking portal idea being used to create a custom dungeon of some sort, could call that another benefit perhaps? Definitely would be useful to training and social guilds.

Malyore

I'd say they should aim to add both. The thing for me with more slots is I want more decor per room. Having more rooms wouldn't affect this, though I do think it'd be neat to have portals regardless!

Hamish999

FelisCatus wrote: »

Portal Network Between Houses:

Problem: ZOS say they can't add more slots due to limitations with console player RAM constraints. Which unfortunately it seems to be the case that consoles hold back PC with most things.

<snip>

Time for ZOS to drop the PS4/Xbox1 gen console support. To be honest they should have done it a year or 2 ago.

FelisCatus

Hamish999 wrote: »

FelisCatus wrote: »

Portal Network Between Houses:

Problem: ZOS say they can't add more slots due to limitations with console player RAM constraints. Which unfortunately it seems to be the case that consoles hold back PC with most things.

<snip>

Time for ZOS to drop the PS4/Xbox1 gen console support. To be honest they should have done it a year or 2 ago.

Yep, very unfair to PC players that we are held back. It's not like the game is cross-platform so I don't see why PC has to be uniform with console. PC already has some things console doesn't have, like earlier release dates, add-ons, etc. I don't think it's fair that PC players should suffer. I don't know the exact stats but traditionally MMOs have more PC players than console.

huntgod_ESO

Not saying I wouldn't like the feature, but you can pull up the map in any house and port directly to another house from there...

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Or they could just separate the interior and exterior into different instances.

Syldras

Malyore wrote: »

I'd say they should aim to add both. The thing for me with more slots is I want more decor per room. Having more rooms wouldn't affect this, though I do think it'd be neat to have portals regardless!

Yes. The main problem is that it's hard to decorate big houses with only 700 or even only 600 slots because the number of items per room is very limited, so it will still look empty when all slots are full (unless you shut off a part of the house completely and leave those rooms empty; but why have a huge house at all, if you can only use half of it in the end).

Alinhbo_Tyaka

I know this doesn't help consoles but on the PC Essential Housing Tools will allow you to add portals to other houses. This also means it should be possible to add it to the game just as the Precision Edit was.

LostScot

Reminds me of the opulent houses of the elite in the WorldWeb from Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos novels. Imagine a house where all the doors lead to rooms in houses on other worlds, and the more worlds a house connects to, the more prestigious it is considered to be.

You could be dining on a veranda overlooking an ocean, then step back into a lounge in a tower above a sprawling city before retreating to the bedroom in a serene valley. Each window you look out of would have its own skyline, its own weather, allowing for a change of atmosphere simply by walking through a door.

I like your idea, and not just because it reminded me of an excellent concept from a brilliant author. The notion of portals we can add and define which of our other properties they lead to results in a far more immersive experience than opening the collections menu and selecting the option to travel to another of our residences. Plus it lets friends and guild mates quickly explore property portfolios without needing to be given links to each house a player owns.

FelisCatus

Syldras wrote: »

Malyore wrote: »

I'd say they should aim to add both. The thing for me with more slots is I want more decor per room. Having more rooms wouldn't affect this, though I do think it'd be neat to have portals regardless!

Yes. The main problem is that it's hard to decorate big houses with only 700 or even only 600 slots because the number of items per room is very limited, so it will still look empty when all slots are full (unless you shut off a part of the house completely and leave those rooms empty; but why have a huge house at all, if you can only use half of it in the end).

I agree, you can't ever put the amount of detail you want into a banquet hall or a tavern or even a garden without having to sacrifice another part of the house. It's very unfortunate.

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

I know this doesn't help consoles but on the PC Essential Housing Tools will allow you to add portals to other houses. This also means it should be possible to add it to the game just as the Precision Edit was.

Oh it's definitely possible but more of a question of will ZOS add it.

LostScot wrote: »

Reminds me of the opulent houses of the elite in the WorldWeb from Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos novels. Imagine a house where all the doors lead to rooms in houses on other worlds, and the more worlds a house connects to, the more prestigious it is considered to be.

You could be dining on a veranda overlooking an ocean, then step back into a lounge in a tower above a sprawling city before retreating to the bedroom in a serene valley. Each window you look out of would have its own skyline, its own weather, allowing for a change of atmosphere simply by walking through a door.

I like your idea, and not just because it reminded me of an excellent concept from a brilliant author. The notion of portals we can add and define which of our other properties they lead to results in a far more immersive experience than opening the collections menu and selecting the option to travel to another of our residences. Plus it lets friends and guild mates quickly explore property portfolios without needing to be given links to each house a player owns.

That's another benefit I didn't even consider it removes the needs for having to spam someone with a list of links to each house.

LunaFlora

FelisCatus wrote: »

Hamish999 wrote: »

FelisCatus wrote: »

Portal Network Between Houses:

Problem: ZOS say they can't add more slots due to limitations with console player RAM constraints. Which unfortunately it seems to be the case that consoles hold back PC with most things.

<snip>

Time for ZOS to drop the PS4/Xbox1 gen console support. To be honest they should have done it a year or 2 ago.

Yep, very unfair to PC players that we are held back. It's not like the game is cross-platform so I don't see why PC has to be uniform with console. PC already has some things console doesn't have, like earlier release dates, add-ons, etc. I don't think it's fair that PC players should suffer. I don't know the exact stats but traditionally MMOs have more PC players than console.

there are PCs with weaker hardware and software than PS4 and Xbox 1 that can still play eso.
And zos only dropped support for Windows 7 with update 41. which is much older than the previous Console generation.

"Earlier" release dates for PC is only because the quarterly updates need two weeks to be certified so it doesn't break anything, the release dates aren't early we just get the updates on PC immediately as we get it from ZOS directly.

Only zos knows the exact numbers but it is pretty likely that all platforms are roughly a third of the entire playerbase.

Theist_VII

Was just about to say…

There are weaker PCs than the original Xbox One still being supported, so I don’t believe it’s fair to assume console is holding back ESO. Weak hardware is.

SilverBride

My houses all are their own things. They would not work as different parts on one huge house. Also, portals would ruin the decor in almost all of my houses.

If they ever do something like this it would have to be optional.

freespirit

After seeing this earlier......

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/658412/deconstructable-furniture-in-update-43#latest

I am now unsure as to whether that is the "housing system" being talked about for later this year, whilst it would be great, I want more!!

Especially after I read this a little while ago......

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/the-elder-scrolls-online-devs-hired-a-modder-from-one-of-its-most-popular-addons-to-fine-tune-its-housing-tools-it-was-really-cool-to-get-james-on-the-team/ar-BB1l4vcb?ocid=BingNewsSearch

There is so many things in EHT that console players totally miss out on, that would be valid additions to the ingame housing editor!

On the subject of Portals. personally I would rather have an item that lets me set my port in point to my houses, so much time wasted running from current entrances to preferred entrance point!

Desiato

Telos_Tim wrote: »

Was just about to say…

There are weaker PCs than the original Xbox One still being supported, so I don’t believe it’s fair to assume console is holding back ESO. Weak hardware is.

I think the difference is that the PC version has a much lower quality floor in terms of graphics than the xbox version. For the Xbox version, they probably made it look as good as possible with the limited memory available on the Xbox One S. If I recall correctly, it is limited to 7.5 GB (because some of it is reserved for the OS) of low bandwidth unified RAM that is shared with the GPU.

I'm also not sure if xbox games can utilize a swap file the way a low memory PC would.

I could be wrong, I am definitely no expert on the console versions or playing on a low end PC.

FelisCatus

Telos_Tim wrote: »

Was just about to say…

There are weaker PCs than the original Xbox One still being supported, so I don’t believe it’s fair to assume console is holding back ESO. Weak hardware is.

When my old laptop could no longer handle running ESO due to its lack of support for DX 12, I had to wait until I could afford a new PC to continue playing. This hiatus lasted several years. However, I believe it would be unfair for me to hinder other players just because my hardware couldn't keep up. While some players have weaker systems (especially on consoles), low-spec workstations can be gradually upgraded over time by adding more RAM or other components. Unfortunately, laptops and consoles lack this flexibility.

I find it unjust to impede the game’s progress and its innovative potential merely due to the limitations of players with weaker hardware. When a game fails to improve itself or introduces lacklustre expansions with unwanted features, (the card game for example) it inevitably begins to decline. We’ve already witnessed a significant exodus of players from this game. How much longer must players wait on consoles and low spec PCs before experiencing thrilling new content or graphical updates? Must we wait until even more players abandon the game? The scarcity of veteran players for end-game content, particularly tanks, highlights this situation.

Theist_VII

FelisCatus wrote: »

Telos_Tim wrote: »

Was just about to say…

There are weaker PCs than the original Xbox One still being supported, so I don’t believe it’s fair to assume console is holding back ESO. Weak hardware is.

Certainly! Here's a rewritten version of your text:

When my old laptop could no longer handle running ESO due to its lack of support for DX 12, I had to wait until I could afford a new PC to continue playing. This hiatus lasted several years. However, I believe it would be unfair for me to hinder other players just because my hardware couldn't keep up. While some players have weaker systems (especially on consoles), low-spec workstations can be gradually upgraded over time by adding more RAM or other components. Unfortunately, laptops and consoles lack this flexibility.

I find it unjust to impede the game’s progress and its innovative potential merely due to the limitations of players with weaker hardware. When a game fails to improve itself or introduces lacklustre expansions with unwanted features, (the card game for example) it inevitably begins to decline. We’ve already witnessed a significant exodus of players from this game. How much longer must players wait on consoles and low spec PCs before experiencing thrilling new content or graphical updates? Must we wait until even more players abandon the game? The scarcity of veteran players for end-game content, particularly tanks, highlights this situation.

Horrible re-write.

I’m all for increasing the bottom-line specs required to play the game, I just feel it’s disingenuous to point at console when a Series X has the power to smoke the overwhelming majority of PCs by today’s standard. Not to say it’s the best, but both of the Series consoles can handle the stress.

My 1,200 rig I picked up from Best Buy is only barely better than the X, which is crazy considering that it was 700 dollars more.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

FelisCatus wrote: »

- snip -

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

I know this doesn't help consoles but on the PC Essential Housing Tools will allow you to add portals to other houses. This also means it should be possible to add it to the game just as the Precision Edit was.

Oh it's definitely possible but more of a question of will ZOS add it..

- snip -

ZOS hired the developer of Essential Housing tools which got us Precision Edit. To the best of my knowledge they are still employed by ZOS to work on implementing EHT functions into housing. Here is a recent article with quotes for Rich about housing.

https://msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/the-elder-scrolls-online-devs-hired-a-modder-from-one-of-its-most-popular-addons-to-fine-tune-its-housing-tools-it-was-really-cool-to-get-james-on-the-team/ar-BB1l4vcb

It doesn't guarantee any particular function will be implemented but if enough people request certain functions be added to ESO I think it improves the odds of it actually happening.

Hapexamendios

Portals between homes would be cool, but I don't see how it leads to an illusion of more space.

FelisCatus

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

FelisCatus wrote: »

- snip -

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

I know this doesn't help consoles but on the PC Essential Housing Tools will allow you to add portals to other houses. This also means it should be possible to add it to the game just as the Precision Edit was.

Oh it's definitely possible but more of a question of will ZOS add it..

- snip -

ZOS hired the developer of Essential Housing tools which got us Precision Edit. To the best of my knowledge they are still employed by ZOS to work on implementing EHT functions into housing. Here is a recent article with quotes for Rich about housing.

https://msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/the-elder-scrolls-online-devs-hired-a-modder-from-one-of-its-most-popular-addons-to-fine-tune-its-housing-tools-it-was-really-cool-to-get-james-on-the-team/ar-BB1l4vcb

It doesn't guarantee any particular function will be implemented but if enough people request certain functions be added to ESO I think it improves the odds of it actually happening.

The copy and paste function is needed, along with the housing hub and portal system!

Olav_the_Stout

EverQuest II had this and it was fantastic.

https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/House_Portal

You could link themed housing together in a chain.

For example in ESO if you had a boat or ship in your house at a dock or in water, you could place a portal to The Fair Winds on it and make it seem like you entered the ship from there. (I get that you can technically enter any house from any house, but this gives your visitors a story to follow.)

hiyde

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

FelisCatus wrote: »

- snip -

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

I know this doesn't help consoles but on the PC Essential Housing Tools will allow you to add portals to other houses. This also means it should be possible to add it to the game just as the Precision Edit was.

Oh it's definitely possible but more of a question of will ZOS add it..

- snip -

ZOS hired the developer of Essential Housing tools which got us Precision Edit. To the best of my knowledge they are still employed by ZOS to work on implementing EHT functions into housing. Here is a recent article with quotes for Rich about housing.

https://msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/the-elder-scrolls-online-devs-hired-a-modder-from-one-of-its-most-popular-addons-to-fine-tune-its-housing-tools-it-was-really-cool-to-get-james-on-the-team/ar-BB1l4vcb

It doesn't guarantee any particular function will be implemented but if enough people request certain functions be added to ESO I think it improves the odds of it actually happening.

Yup, @cardinal05 is still on the team at ZOS working on housing improvements.

But writing an addon as a hobby and what ZOS ultimately decides to implement for everyone on all platforms are two very different things. We've definitely benefited from EHT things being added to the game and hopefully we'll see more innovations.

As for platform support, as others have said, it's about dropping support for pre-2014 hardware at this point including consoles and PCs made in 2013 and earlier. I whole-heartedly believe it's time to do so if that means the game can evolve in lots of ways (including housing limits), but ZOS is going to decide if/when they feel the time is right.

FelisCatus

hiyde wrote: »

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

FelisCatus wrote: »

- snip -

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

I know this doesn't help consoles but on the PC Essential Housing Tools will allow you to add portals to other houses. This also means it should be possible to add it to the game just as the Precision Edit was.

Oh it's definitely possible but more of a question of will ZOS add it..

- snip -

ZOS hired the developer of Essential Housing tools which got us Precision Edit. To the best of my knowledge they are still employed by ZOS to work on implementing EHT functions into housing. Here is a recent article with quotes for Rich about housing.

https://msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/the-elder-scrolls-online-devs-hired-a-modder-from-one-of-its-most-popular-addons-to-fine-tune-its-housing-tools-it-was-really-cool-to-get-james-on-the-team/ar-BB1l4vcb

It doesn't guarantee any particular function will be implemented but if enough people request certain functions be added to ESO I think it improves the odds of it actually happening.

Yup, @cardinal05 is still on the team at ZOS working on housing improvements.

But writing an addon as a hobby and what ZOS ultimately decides to implement for everyone on all platforms are two very different things. We've definitely benefited from EHT things being added to the game and hopefully we'll see more innovations.

As for platform support, as others have said, it's about dropping support for pre-2014 hardware at this point including consoles and PCs made in 2013 and earlier. I whole-heartedly believe it's time to do so if that means the game can evolve in lots of ways (including housing limits), but ZOS is going to decide if/when they feel the time is right.

I think 10 years is a good enough run and I think to compensate players that are being left behind, ZOS should allow them to migrate their accounts to PC with all their characters and progress. IIRC GTA V online had this option when PC was released.

NoticeMeArkay

In my case I'm afraid portals wouldn't help create that illusion. I'm currently sitting on Forgermaster's Falls, which cost me 80€ while it was discounted and I had to move the interior of the smaller house to the hammerdeath bungalow already and the longhouse itself remains empty. - Why? Because I decorated the outside area by the docks and Blacksmith to make it look like a proper, inhabited stronghold. With 600 slots alone, it's not possible to decorate the house itself in the most obvious of ways. If the housing reveal won't contain an increase of slots, I'll have to decide wether or not I want to use and decorate the entrance area with the implemented smithing station or the interior of my house and that's not what I had in mind when I bought this house.

MreeBiPolar

Telos_Tim wrote: »

Was just about to say…

There are weaker PCs than the original Xbox One still being supported, so I don’t believe it’s fair to assume console is holding back ESO. Weak hardware is.

Weak PC hardware has no issues running ESO even with heavy load. One of my older PCs is i5-2300 and it runs with 150+ add-ons including EHT pretty well.

Theist_VII

MreeBiPolar wrote: »

Telos_Tim wrote: »

Was just about to say…

There are weaker PCs than the original Xbox One still being supported, so I don’t believe it’s fair to assume console is holding back ESO. Weak hardware is.

Weak PC hardware has no issues running ESO even with heavy load. One of my older PCs is i5-2300 and it runs with 150+ add-ons including EHT pretty well.

@Desiato referenced what I believe to be the reason why you can run ESO on your old PC easier, and that’s because you can scale back the settings much more heavily than is available on console.

For console you have Performance and Fidelity, that’s it. You can’t set the FPS caps, you can’t lower the texture resolutions at all.

When I was experimenting with getting my PC hooked up to my entertainment center TV as a display, I sifted through the settings and you can quite literally make the game look like Spyro from the original PlayStation. If you were to run the game with the same settings that the original Xbox One is locked into, a PC of that spec would melt.

Never quite found a way to get rid of the input delay from the PC to the big screen, and that’s the main reason why I still play my Series X more. I would imagine most people who play console do so for the device compatibility and the cost.

onyxorb

I'm a PC player , which means I have the ability to load up the EHT Housing Hub.

While I would LOVE more slots, I'm able to visit amazing builds on both PC/NA and PC/EU which show that the current housing slot limits isn't an issue for the top tier housing people out there.

So I'll be content with the existing limit, and the knowledge that at least nothing is getting broken if they don't touch it.

As for the new feature, I would love if we had some server where we could upload our houses so that people from any platform could visit (clearly base game stuff only, no EHT effects). There are a ton of amazing houses on console that I would love to visit.

vsrs_au

What the game could really use is for the older-generation consoles to not be supported any longer, because other threads have indicated this is what is really holding ZOS back from increasing item limits in houses.

Araneae6537

I don’t see how portals between houses would give the illusion of more slots, although being able to move the login point could be helpful when one only wants to use part of a property. The only way I could see it giving an illusion of more furnishing slots is if one house was used for the inside and another for the outside, or if the whole build was an entirely custom remake and there was a divide where a portal made sense — which I have no doubt some very creative builders would pull of to great effect, but generally, I think it would be challenging to match things up convincingly.

Personally, I think I would only make use of such a portal as a portal, like to give some of my builds access to realms of Oblivion, which would be cool, but not #1 on my list of desires for housing.