PTS Update 43 - Feedback Thread for Home Tours

ZOS_Kevin

This is the official feedback thread for the Home Tours Feature being introduced in Update 43. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did you list any homes for touring? If so, was the process clear?
• Did you visit any homes through the Recommended or Browse Homes section of Home Tours? Were you able to find homes that matched your interests?
• Did you use Tags when listing or searching for homes? If so, did the current set of Tags work well? Are there Tags that you would like to see added?
• Did you Favorite or Recommend any homes?
• How do you plan to use Home Tours when they are available outside the PTS? Is there anything you'd like to see adjusted or improved?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

MyNameIsElias

This is a great system!

I would humbly like to request "Crafting" & "Combat practise" housing tags

Araneae6537

MyNameIsElias wrote: »

This is a great system!

I would humbly like to request "Crafting" & "Combat practise" housing tags

Great suggestion! Several time I’ve given a link to one of my homes to someone in zone chat who was looking for access to a trial dummy.

CyberDiva

I think the Tags need a LOT of work. Here are my thoughts.

"Artwork" is extremely vague. What does that even mean? You could think your house is a "work of art" and list it there...and yet if the tag means art galleries, the house does not belong.

"Colorful" is extremely vague and too broad. Most houses are colorful. I think perhaps you need to remove this tag completely.

"Festive" is extremely vague. It fits right in there with Colorful. Many, many, many houses are festive. You could fill a house with flowers and call it colorful and festive. No one would have any idea what the house was about. Did you mean to use "Party" instead, perhaps? Or "Festival"? As in, the place is decorated as if for a festival or party? I believe those would be more appropriate, if that is what you mean by "festive".

"Magic" is extremely vague and gives no concept of what it is for. Explain, please. What do you mean?

"Playful" is extremely vague. It fits right up there with Colorful and Festive. I am truly at a loss as to what would go under this category.

"Sacred" is extremely vague and gives zero concept of what it is for. Explain, please. This category makes zero sense to me. If you mean houses that feature Religious themes, you might consider using that instead of Sacred. It would make much more sense.

"Sinister" is an absolutely awful tag. The very definition of Sinister means Evil or Leading to Evil. Please change the tag to something more fitting, such as Horror or Macabre. This way, all those Halloween decorated houses that feature zero evil, as well as other houses that feature no evil but still fit into Horror and/or Macabre, have a nice home to go to.

CyberDiva

I would absolutely love to see the following:

More allowable characters for the nickname. Give us about ten more characters and I shall be a very happy person. As is, the number of allowed characters is very short.

The ability to post a Description of the house (such as we can do on EHT) in case there are certain things you want the visitor to know, such as "go in this door last!"

seecodenotgames

I would like there to be a long description, maybe 250 chars, which can be used to tell a story about the house, or give instructions to visitors. Obviously not all users will use English as their main language, but this is not different than the MOTD on guilds. There's already a report button for inappropriate nicknames, so it wouldn't necessarily create more work for mods.

I did notice on the report house option, there was an option to report offensive arrangements. I can see in some cases people could do some bad things, but I can also see people using it to report NSFW houses or gore, which may be within the game anyway.

I definitely feel the tags could be extended. More would be good, but too many would make it hard to find the ones you want. Not sure free text would work as the filters wouldn't work, but certainly feel the current choice lacking.

There definitely should be a guild house option, it wouldn't add any functionality, but it would allow people to find other guild's houses. It would also be nice if it showed the guild houses from your own guilds, presumably this would have to match based on the guild leader.

MageCatF4F

* Did you list any homes for touring? If so, was the process clear?

Yes. It was clear enough.


*Did you visit any homes through the Recommended or Browse Homes section of Home Tours? Were you able to find homes that matched your interests?

Visited one home through browse. Recommended means nothing to me.

To match my interest I would like to read a paragraph description like the more advanced EHT Community Housing function has.


*Did you use Tags when listing or searching for homes? If so, did the current set of Tags work well? Are there Tags that you would like to see added?

I used a tag. It's probably ok for some people. More tags won't necessarily improve things.


*Did you Favorite or Recommend any homes?

Recommend? That is something I will never do. I think it is a bad idea.


*How do you plan to use Home Tours when they are available outside the PTS? Is there anything you'd like to see adjusted or improved?

I don't plan to use it very much at all unless Cardinal05 shuts down the Community Housing Server.
In that case I may just skip having any open houses.

I'd like to see a description paragraph field added and I'd like to see house voting gone.


*Do you have any other general feedback?

This seems to be a minimal version of the more advanced EHT Community Housing Server aimed squarely at console users (and those PCers who refuse add-ons). At that, this seems to be quite reliable and fast, where the EHT version has a lot of "character" shall we say.

Two things make it worse than the EHT version: 1) Lack of even the option of putting in a paragraph description of my house. 2) House voting. Although, of course, some people will be just crazy about this. For various reasons.

One thing is different - no guest book. I have to say the EHT guest book has pros and cons for sure.

That's all I got so far. As the big housing feature I consider it small. I wouldn't be nearly so, shall we say disenchanted, if you had given us this for the console and PC add-on haters, AND 50 more housing furniture slots for the rest of us. Or even just the ability to modify how we apportion our slots among the various furniture types. Is that really impossible?

ThelerisTelvanni

Well I think that there are missing a few things for utility:

• Tags for cultural stuff like houses with Imperial, Dunmer, Telvanni, Direnni, Aylied, Dwemer, Deadric (maybe one for each prince) and so on.
• Utility tags like crafting stations, combat dummys and so on.
• Housing intent tags! Is this an "artwork"? Is this a house to be lived in? Is this a minnigame?
• A description from the creator.
• Maybe direction informations. I mean it is suposed to be a tuor!
• Finer interation permissions like allow to used doors and time changers but no messing with the lights or so.
• Maybe a guest book

WolfCombatPet

Tags I would use:
Castle
Palace
Cottage
Cabin
Tower
Farm
Tavern
Inn
Restaurant
Garden
Spa
Store


Have a separate browsing window for utility houses:

Crafting stations & transmute
Combat dummies
Mundus stones

EF321

Allow to set permission to Decorator with some confirmation box that requires you to type something like CONFIRM.
Use case: house with 700 different furnishings that visitors can toy around with, see how different pieces fit together, etc. Could be useful service.

allochthons

Another vote for tags such as
> Crafting stations & transmute
> Combat dummies
> Mundus stones

But add one for "Guild only." I would love to open up my parse house to all of my guilds, without having to set it as my primary, but also without opening it to the public. And sure, that can be set in permissions, but this would save time for folks who see the listing in the new Home Tours window, but can't visit due to those permissions.

And, while it's not designed for this, the housing tours does go a long way to satisfying this request:
Please give us a way to visit non-primary houses [console]

allochthons

seecodenotgames wrote: »

...
There definitely should be a guild house option, it wouldn't add any functionality, but it would allow people to find other guild's houses. It would also be nice if it showed the guild houses from your own guilds, presumably this would have to match based on the guild leader.

I think this is a great idea. However, not all guild houses are owned by the guild leader. In fact, 4 out of 5 of mine aren't.

Jaimeh

1) Did you list any homes for touring? If so, was the process clear?

I visited quite a few houses and it was very easy and straightforward.

2) Did you visit any homes through the Recommended or Browse Homes section of Home Tours? Were you able to find homes that matched your interests?

I used the Browse section because the Recommended filter didn't work for me (maybe not that many houses had been recommended yet when I went on the PTS).

3) Did you use Tags when listing or searching for homes? If so, did the current set of Tags work well? Are there Tags that you would like to see added?

I also visited some houses through tags to see how they worked, and they did work as intended. However, the tags should be revised as some of were kind of abstract (like 'artwork', for example), and I think we need more tags related to game themes, like 'daedric' or 'dwemer', and so on.

4) Did you Favorite or Recommend any homes?

I recommended all the houses I liked, I didn't favourite any because I will wait for the live server update to do that.

5) How do you plan to use Home Tours when they are available outside the PTS? Is there anything you'd like to see adjusted or improved?

I will tour houses when I feel like I need a nice relaxing time in the game, or inspiration to do some decorating of my own, or want to take some role-playing screenshots. I would really like to see a short description of each home (much like the functionality in EHT). I also have some feedback on improvements below.

6) Do you have any other general feedback?

I think how the current iteration of the system is very easy to start using and getting into, and this is good for players who might not be familiar with EHT or even players who don't really do Housing altogether, because it might entice them to start looking at what's possible to do with houses in the game. I think the simplicity might bring more players into the Housing system in general, and it might make houses livelier with people touring or role-playing in them. For veteran decorators, they will undoubtedly prefer the EHT community version but since it's only the beginning of the Tours, we will probably see a lot of additions in the future.

The favourite sorting filter is a good idea--when the system goes live there will be countless homes added, so it's great to be able to find your preferred ones quickly. The recommended sorting filter will likely be divisive, because it has the potential to be abused. I don't think it should be removed but I think it shouldn't affect the order of the listings. It could be just be a metric, with no other bearing, and moreover I think the list should be randomized and shuffled each week, so that it's random which houses appear on the top, so that theoretically every player could have a chance to have their house on the front page, so to speak. Now why I believe recommendations are otherwise okay, is because while all housing efforts should be commended and there's something worthwhile to discover in every creation, there are some creations that are really inventive, and over the years I've seen houses from some players that really blew my mind with what they were capable of doing within the confines of the system. I don't mind seeing houses like that recommended (for eg., I toured a house on the PTS that presented a very concrete aesthetic of 70s geometric retro-futuristic designs, that was brilliant in its execution), or houses that may be simple in design but really effective in creating a specific atmosphere (for eg., I saw a house with simple decorations that managed to create a really unsettling and eerie scene that will surely haunt my dreams, so that was a good job ), so I don't mind if houses like these are featured in some way, but perhaps it should be a separate feature and not affecting the listings per se.

Bo0137

Housing Tour is actually a brilliant idea because it enables players to make content for the game and not encumber the devs with it. I see it as promising as Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout 4 official mod hubs. I envision Housing Tour as an ever-expanding, community-based platform for creativity and having fun - not just, well, touring and scoring people's houses.

Now, in order to make it truly great, I can anticipate three needs: 1. Reward the content creators with crowns; 2. Reward players for spending time in these activities (maybe gold and exp and why not exclusive furnishings); 3. Give the content creators more tools to use.

1. Crowns is the ideal currency for this. No gold, no tel var, no transmute crystals. Crowns. The content creators will spend real money and time to make stuff for Zenimax's customers to have fun. These costumers pay Zenimax. It is bound to have real life value.
There are very famous games that do that. I can cite Fortnite, Habbo Hotel, Roblox and, specifically being a MMO, MapleStory. Bethesda does this as well with their new official mod system.

2. Players NEED incentive to do these extra activities. I mean, sure, it's really fun socializing and completing these parkour challenges. But you reach the end and you receive nothing. So what happens is: you do it for a couple times; then you stop going to these hubs because you are forced to do something else in the game (like farming or grinding).
My biggest letdown with Tales of Tribute is it not being an alternative to mob leveling. I mean, I could spend hours over hours playing ToT. The game is really fun; but there is little to no incentive in playing matches! If I sink, let's say, 3 hours of my day into ToT, I feel like I am wasting potential instead of applying my time doing something more rewarding.
I can see myself spending hours in the Tour system, but I will need some positive feedback for these activities.

3. With both players and content creators having reasons to fiddle with this system, there will be need of more tools to use! I have in mind mob assets, trampolines, lava pools, drinkable furniture (make a pub, a coffee shop or a tavern), minigames (like mudball memento, but with scores). It will also be needed to raise the furniture and the player population cap (it's been heavily requested).


Do not stop the Housing Tour thing at "it's a tool to visit people's homes". It can be so much more than that! There is so much room for improvement. Housing Tour can become an organic source of community-based content. And I believe there's a good opportunity for it to entertain the playerbase even more than the official content does!

flizomica

I listed two of my homes and the process was very clear.

I've started exploring some of the recommended homes on PTS, and my goodness, I have found some amazingly stunning ones (that I then recommended as well). I am so excited to explore this more on live when even more people participate in the system!

CyberDiva

Bo0137 wrote: »

2. Players NEED incentive to do these extra activities. I mean, sure, it's really fun socializing and completing these parkour challenges. But you reach the end and you receive nothing. So what happens is: you do it for a couple times; then you stop going to these hubs because you are forced to do something else in the game (like farming or grinding).

I assure you, there are thousands of us housing aficionados, and maybe .00001% might feel as if they need incentive to make houses. I feel like if you need an incentive just to create a house in the game, then housing probably is not for you. Creating houses is a great form of creativity, and most of us in the housing community enjoy just making houses just to make them and for no other reason.

If you feel that you need incentive, perhaps you should try entering a housing contest in a guild. Often prizes such as gold and/or furnishings are given to the winners of those contests, and it challenges you to get better at it.

CyberDiva

As there are no official Guildhalls in the game, it would be great to have a tag for Guild House.

Inari Telvanni

Definitely needs to include descriptions for listings! Makes it easier to know what the house is all about, because going off the name isn't enough.

Kashya_Vulano

Housing Descriptions, please.

That's the one big thing missing from this, and it's particularly a fuss for those that plan on using these houses as roleplay hubs. Without the ability to add a description, you're lacking the critical ability to convey what the house even is. Tours have really good potential for those that plan to use them for RP, but it's a concept that's nearly dead in the water if we can't convey what or where the house is even supposed to be.

Rizi

Yes to Descriptions for Housing!!!

Necrotech_Master

i didnt see if it was mentioned, but will the filters be able to filter to a specific player @ name? and i also agree with all those suggesting a description block

seecodenotgames

yes you can filter a player name

Necrotech_Master

seecodenotgames wrote: »

yes you can filter a player name

that sounds good then lol

was hoping it was going to be like the guild finder search, which still does not have the ability to search guild names that im aware of lol

tomofhyrule

Seems easy enough to use, if not something that will intimidate the everloving heck out of me since I can't imagine how some of these masters can make the things they do. There have been some times I look at a total rebuild and then I see the base house and wonder how they ever managed it.
...meanwhile here I am with my literally one inn room that I decorated as... an inn room.

Anyway, I'll absolutely step in and concur for the description block as well. Right now, all we've got is the ability to give the house a nickname. But there are some house builds that almost demand a paragraph of world-building. I'd love if the option to write a bit more (maybe with a character limit like we have in the /bug reports) so interested artists and their guests could have more explanation.

Gaebriel0410

I don't have PTS but I I like the feature (I really dislike the EHT interface, so I never used it) though I rreally hope that it has roleplay support right off the bat!

I think it would be great if I could list a house and tag it as RP. Many roleplayers make lore friendly houses of public locations (like a chapel, a roadside tavern, market etc.) and usually are happy to share them with other roleplayers when not in use by themselves. You just have to know who has what, and it can be very hard to keep track of across the community.

And it would be great if we could easily share our public houses with each other through an ingame system like this. Being able to publically list "mini random RP hubs" might even revive random roleplay (which is sadly hard to do in ESO due to the nature of shard servers). If done well, it could potentially also be a great and easy way to meet new roleplayers, since currently you have to look outside of the game to find communities. And something as integral to MMO enjoyment as RP should be easier to find in the game!

I have often ran into new roleplayers who wanted to get into ESO roleplay for years but never found the community because of shards, so just assumed it didn't exist until they bumped into it by chance. Which is a shame, since ESO is a fantastic game for RP and has a thriving RP scene.


Preferably a roleplay tag should come with an indication (a mouseover maybe?) that it is meant for actually roleplaying in the house!

I think most of us don't mind spectators, but just so people know what's up.

Kashya_Vulano

Gaebriel0410 wrote: »

I don't have PTS but I I like the feature (I really dislike the EHT interface, so I never used it) though I rreally hope that it has roleplay support right off the bat!

There is a Roleplay tag available in the PTS version of housing tours.

kind_hero

Tours is a good feature, especially if there are plans to improve the system after this base is laid without major issues.

Based on housing tours, I would like to see a way to trade listed houses, so I could sell houses I don't use much, but also make crowns or gold doing what I love to do in ESO, housing. I am sure many would like that.

But to be honest, without increasing the interactivity and what can be done in houses, this feature won't bring much people to housing.
Consider how cool it would be to have a custom PvP arena, or some puzzle/treasure game if housing would support triggered actions, timers, teleports, traps, grappling hooks etc. That would make visting houses much more interesting, and could add to their replay value. Because face it, after you are done visiting a house, chances are very slim for a 2nd visit.

Bo0137

CyberDiva wrote: »

Bo0137 wrote: »

2. Players NEED incentive to do these extra activities. I mean, sure, it's really fun socializing and completing these parkour challenges. But you reach the end and you receive nothing. So what happens is: you do it for a couple times; then you stop going to these hubs because you are forced to do something else in the game (like farming or grinding).

I assure you, there are thousands of us housing aficionados, and maybe .00001% might feel as if they need incentive to make houses. I feel like if you need an incentive just to create a house in the game, then housing probably is not for you. Creating houses is a great form of creativity, and most of us in the housing community enjoy just making houses just to make them and for no other reason.

If you feel that you need incentive, perhaps you should try entering a housing contest in a guild. Often prizes such as gold and/or furnishings are given to the winners of those contests, and it challenges you to get better at it.

You envision Home Tours as a showcase of houses, which is a perfectly fine iteration. I envision Home Tours as a "game mode hub"; micro universes within the game, pocket realms if you will, for people to actually play the game in different ways.

I talk about arenas, jump puzzles, roleplay lounges. This would attract players from otuside the housing niche. People who don't mind housing at all but would enjoy partaking different, creative activities.

While touring houses is fun for the sake of touring houses, I feel it's a great opportunity to explore player-made content.

And this new form of content will have to reward players that are not interested in housing. Otherwise these people will not actually spend much time in it.

I myself don't spend time in houses, at all. But I was really hyped for this announcement because I saw opportunity for good quality content in a much faster cadency (driven by the community). And rewards like gold and exp would prevent me from thinking "right, this is cool; but I'm wasting time doing this activity instead of XXX or YYY"

Gaebriel0410

Kashya_Vulano wrote: »

Gaebriel0410 wrote: »

I don't have PTS but I I like the feature (I really dislike the EHT interface, so I never used it) though I rreally hope that it has roleplay support right off the bat!

There is a Roleplay tag available in the PTS version of housing tours.

Thanks for showing! That is awesome!!

tsaescishoeshiner

Large, Medium, and Small homes could use player cap increases to better accommodate Home Tours. This would improve group touring events and not make players have to wait turns.

It could be something like:

Inn Rooms: 2 -> 3 or 4
Apartments: 6 -> 8
Small: 6 -> 8
Medium: 12 -> 18
Large: 12 -> 24 (some Large homes are bigger than some Manor homes)

If needed, this could be an ESO+ bonus or a bonus for listing your home in Home Tours.

Necrotech_Master

kind_hero wrote: »

Tours is a good feature, especially if there are plans to improve the system after this base is laid without major issues.

Based on housing tours, I would like to see a way to trade listed houses, so I could sell houses I don't use much, but also make crowns or gold doing what I love to do in ESO, housing. I am sure many would like that.

But to be honest, without increasing the interactivity and what can be done in houses, this feature won't bring much people to housing.
Consider how cool it would be to have a custom PvP arena, or some puzzle/treasure game if housing would support triggered actions, timers, teleports, traps, grappling hooks etc. That would make visting houses much more interesting, and could add to their replay value. Because face it, after you are done visiting a house, chances are very slim for a 2nd visit.

there is already a pvp themed house, the elinhir private arena

so you could decorate that up and list it on the housing tour to make it more easily accessible for people to just go there

i dont know if you could tag it to focus on the pvp aspect of the house though