Housing in Elder Scrolls Online

Muxje · June 2014

@hishikiroda, glad too see such a well thought-out proposal and useful discussion on the subject! I was rather disappointed to find that it will probably quite a while before ESO sees housing, and I don't think I will ever get involved in an MMO again that does not already have a firm commitment to player housing.

About placement of houses: be it in-world, instanced streets, instanced houses behind existing doors, or a combination thereof, this depends a lot on the number of players; I've no idea how much room would be needed to accommodate everyone. Personally, I would like to see a combination of the systems found in other MMOs: in-world houses, with free placement allowed in certain areas only (like in SWG). In other areas you could allow a few houses to be placed as the terrain allows (like in the UO forests), retaining the undeveloped nature of the zone. And some players might prefer to rent an apartment in town, in the form of an instanced house behind an existing shared door.

Looking back at other MMOs with housing, there are a few aspects of housing that I'd like to see:

1) Location: houses need a meaningful space in the game world. In town, in the wild, but not tucked away in a separate housing instance like in LoTRO.

2) Scarcity: not everyone should get what they want, and like in UO, not everyone will be able to own a castle in an A1 location. Owning a large house or a place in a desirable neighbourhood should afford bragging rights, but more importantly such scarcity imparts individuality to housing. So how do you get that one dream house before someone else does? Luck will play a role there, simply getting to the plot with enough cash in hand first may be enough.

3) Permanence: The game could enforce a degree of churn on the more desirable houses by only allowing a time-limited lease on them, but the limit should be fairly long (3-6 months). For smaller, regular houses I would strongly argue for an unlimited lease (as long as the monthly rent is paid). Another aspect of permanence is the ability to customize the house to some degree on the outside; if this is feasible it has the potential to turn anonymous tracts into real neighbourhoods.

One item I find lacking in the proposal, and something that I dearly miss from my days in UO and SWG, is player-run shops! MMOs need ways to express your individuality, make a name for yourself, and make the game world come alive, and player run shops are a great contribution to that.

Vendersleigh · June 2014

Nicely thought out post, OP.
I am against robbing other players' houses.
I would add in the ability to run shops/kiosks.

Sallakat · June 2014

I have no interest in housing unless it affects my character in some beneficial way like for example wildstar has implemented that you can get a buff from your house. Dunno the details of WS case but it could be something like +5% crit/spell resistance/you-name-it type of buff.

Also to have crafting mats "grow" on your plot would be helpful.

Other than that, if it's just gonna be house building thing with no REAL game benefits, I'd rather go play Sims if I wanted to do that.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · June 2014

Snowstrider wrote: »

I want housing soo much... Too bad it will probably take more then one year for them to release it..

You're far too optimistic, ZOS haven't even said if they intend to do it!

isengrimb16_ESO · June 2014

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Snowstrider wrote: »

I want housing soo much... Too bad it will probably take more then one year for them to release it..

You're far too optimistic, ZOS haven't even said if they intend to do it!

They did in a Road Ahead blog, but told us not to expect it until _maybe_ as long as the game's second anniversary; yes, it seems a long time. They did say they wanted to "do it right" ... and I'd give myself a largeish timeframe, too, to damper the excitement of people with poor comprehension who might think they mean "now" rather than "in a while, when we get it done, after we deal with other things."

moonsugar66 · June 2014

The OP's ideas make me want to reminisce on games I've played in the past that had fantastic player housing: Fallout 3 & NV, Skyrim, and Dark Age of Camelot. I'd love to see ESO follow their examples.

In DAoC, the housing was set within a zone with villages scattered around. Players could buy up plots within villages. As the OP was suggesting, they could get their friends to buy houses along the same street. The houses were highly customizable. There were several levels of homes, the highest being a Mansion (set up by either an individual player or a guild). You could set up crafting merchants and stations within the homes and bankers to store items.

hishikiroda · June 2014

Muxje wrote: »

One item I find lacking in the proposal, and something that I dearly miss from my days in UO and SWG, is player-run shops! MMOs need ways to express your individuality, make a name for yourself, and make the game world come alive, and player run shops are a great contribution to that.

I have thought about the idea of adding in player run shops to the housing system, obviously this would be easier if housing were able to be done in the general world instead of instanced areas, but it could still have potential in an instanced area. One of the ideas I had would be to allow the player to stock a "community bar" with beverages and food that players who are invited to the house could purchase items from.

There could also potentially be a "friend chest" with the ability to place items that anyone could take from if they wanted to, this would be a great way to store some items you may not need, that your friends would be able to have access to, they could also place items in it for you and your friends to see and take. I think this would be a fun idea because it would kind of become like a ... friend bank... and give a bit more realistic oomph to the personal community in the game.

I know that a player run shop in some fashion, whether or not it is in the world, or housing, or in some other fashion is something I would love to see, however I don't know how that would impact the game economy, as it is I will admit that i miss having an auction house because it seems like selling items to any of my 5 guilds seems to have a very "hit or miss" quality to it. This could very possibly be because the game is still getting it's legs under it and the economy hasn't settled yet. If the economy settles over time and the guild stores end up working as well as they planned then great, if it doesn't then I am almost certain that some kind of player based shop will be implemented.

Vendersleigh wrote: »

Nicely thought out post, OP.
I am against robbing other players' houses.
I would add in the ability to run shops/kiosks.

I am against robbing peoples houses and changing having it change the way that they look, or allow someone to completely "clean out" what that player has stored there. A system like that would ruin housing for (myself) and almost everyone else because it would essentially be taking all of the work done in the past and turning it to nothing but a new full backpack for some enterprising thief. Any system that involves stealing from player homes would have to require a system where either only specific things could be taken from a home, or an instanced copy of the home is created for the thief and the original home remains un-affected.

hishikiroda · June 2014

jquestb16_ESO2 wrote: »

You pretty much described what they have for housing in WildStar

Indeed, a lot of what I see as an ideal player housing system would include many elements from what Wildstar has in it. There are also other housing systems I have seen details on that look like they have good aspects to them. In reality, I think any good housing system will have aspects that are the same as other games, but that can be said about many aspects of any game like this.

I know the housing system in wildstar and the war plot system are the only things I saw in that game that made me kind of want to play it, however that simply wasn't enough to draw me into that game. At some point in the future I may pick it up, but for the moment I am happy with giving ESO my love.

Thunderchief · June 2014

10 points to whoever quotes the entire OP first !!

Soloeus · June 2014

I don't want Zero-Sum competition for housing, or House Sellers on Ebay.

I think we need Instanced Housing that, like The Harborage is a private refuge.

isengrimb16_ESO · June 2014

@hishikiroda‌ - Say, I like that idea of a "friend", "community" or "neighbourhood charity" chest ... and perhaps the friend bar thing could be extended if you wanted to, say, throw a player-run block party?

And yeah, when the thief system comes out, if it does involve "stealing from players", perhaps it could be like when you loot a player corpse in WoW - those pennies you get don't actually come from the player, but are generated like NPC loot (but presumably could potentially be more rewarding than a couple of coins). That would be fine.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · June 2014

isengrimb16_ESO wrote: »

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Snowstrider wrote: »

I want housing soo much... Too bad it will probably take more then one year for them to release it..

You're far too optimistic, ZOS haven't even said if they intend to do it!

They did in a Road Ahead blog, but told us not to expect it until _maybe_ as long as the game's second anniversary

The quote I can find doesn't commit to doing it, which is what I was saying:

Creative director Paul Sage told IGN May 22nd, 2014...

Another feature often asked about is Player Housing; fans of previous entries in the series widely agree that owning property in Tamriel is a fairly integral part of the franchise, while MMO players tend to be keen to have somewhere to hang their hats, regardless of which fictional world it's in. Sadly, Sage says that while Player Housing would be nice, it's not likely to come until ESO has an anniversary or two.

"would be nice" is hardly a commitment to doing it I would suggest.

Theosis · June 2014

I think we should get buffs, although small for the items in the house.. the bigger the bed the higher your stamina..

the larger the kitchen the higher your health..

I don't like the idea of people not being able to lease for extended times.. it is a good idea but people would get so angry with this idea. Better to just have considerably higher rent.

I think they should sell addresses to houses already in the game. They should also add small neighborhoods in towns already in the game and sell addresses there as well. People can have the same address and the house would just be a very small instance within the mega server. the solution would be a small pop-up when you knock on the door. You would see the persons name on a mailbox and would attempt to knock on their door if they are home.

This would solve much of their problems to adding so much more to the game.

IN EQ there was places to put trophies. All those neat things we got in our banks and in out bags, we would have places to put them. Would be nice to show them off and see what they look like. Would be spectacular to see a wall dedicated to all those adventures.

I also think that their should be buffs to your char by completing your trophy case. Magicka perhaps. Just a thought.

hishikiroda · June 2014

Theosis wrote: »

I think we should get buffs, although small for the items in the house.. the bigger the bed the higher your stamina..

the larger the kitchen the higher your health..

I don't like the idea of people not being able to lease for extended times.. it is a good idea but people would get so angry with this idea. Better to just have considerably higher rent.

I think they should sell addresses to houses already in the game. They should also add small neighborhoods in towns already in the game and sell addresses there as well. People can have the same address and the house would just be a very small instance within the mega server. the solution would be a small pop-up when you knock on the door. You would see the persons name on a mailbox and would attempt to knock on their door if they are home.

This would solve much of their problems to adding so much more to the game.

IN EQ there was places to put trophies. All those neat things we got in our banks and in out bags, we would have places to put them. Would be nice to show them off and see what they look like. Would be spectacular to see a wall dedicated to all those adventures.

I also think that their should be buffs to your char by completing your trophy case. Magicka perhaps. Just a thought.

I could certainly see some kind of a buff system working in conjunction with a housing system, however that would all depend entirely on how the buff and balance system is working when housing comes out. Whether or not it's 6 months or 2 years from now the game itself will most likely be quite different than it is now. I would assume that the best method of a buff would be some kind of temporary buff depending on what you are doing, and it would have to be something that anyone who owned a home would have equal chance to receive.

Obviously, certain things like buffs for completing certain actions, or having certain things aren't always going to be something that EVERYONE can get with the SAME amount of ease, but to help with balancing, I would think that everyone would have to have at least a decent chance of getting it.

rynth · June 2014

nice post, I too would love to have housing. but, I think its a good idea they wait a year or so to shake out bugs (I'm in no way shape or form complaining about the bugs cause what new game doesn't have its problems starting out), add content, and to have a good solid core of players that stuck with the game and would probably use it......

Though and this is just my opinion....housing seems for of an "rp" thing, or at least those of us that rp would get the most use out of housing. I mean I see lots of people buying houses and decorating/ crafting for the house and storing stuff......but then I see the houses being forgotten about because its no longer the "new" thing.

But don't get me wrong I'm all for houses and again think its a great post, I can just see the other side of the coin too.

Fleymark · June 2014

I completely disagree with the above poster who said you shouldn't be able tomatoes items in a house.

Taking the opposite view, I think personal banking should absolutely be part of housing.

Rylana · June 2014

I just want a hut somewhere that i can drop all of my crafting crap so I dont have to use 5 char slots as mules

kthx

Fyrakin · June 2014

At this point we are homeless wanderers without firm racial ties.

I would expect simple housing at the beginning. Such as the ability to buy abandoned house which is allready in game. With current in-game mechanics I see no big problems making instanced interrior. You could buy them from an npc if/when you compleate related story. What you could do with interrior is another story.

Fleymark · June 2014

Rylana wrote: »

I just want a hut somewhere that i can drop all of my crafting crap so I dont have to use 5 char slots as mules

kthx

Exactly.

hishikiroda · June 2014

rynth wrote: »

nice post, I too would love to have housing. but, I think its a good idea they wait a year or so to shake out bugs (I'm in no way shape or form complaining about the bugs cause what new game doesn't have its problems starting out), add content, and to have a good solid core of players that stuck with the game and would probably use it......

Though and this is just my opinion....housing seems for of an "rp" thing, or at least those of us that rp would get the most use out of housing. I mean I see lots of people buying houses and decorating/ crafting for the house and storing stuff......but then I see the houses being forgotten about because its no longer the "new" thing.

But don't get me wrong I'm all for houses and again think its a great post, I can just see the other side of the coin too.

Houses are generally just an RP thing for the most part. There is certainly a potential for some things to help effect the game in other ways such as buffs you can only get at your home, or certain items you can craft only at your home. There could also be the potential for things like setting up a bar and bar tending for friends who come to your house.

I am personally okay if the housing system were pretty much only for RP purposes because I would love a place to call my own, decorate in a way that suits me, and invite people over to chill and look at all my awesome accomplishments!. However, if they can find a suitable way to add in some other things to it that effect the game in other ways I don't see any issue with it.

As an MMO people need to have things to do and spend their money on that are not only combat and quests, and housing is one of those things that MANY people would spend hours on and be happy with the time spent.

omc_seamonkeyub17_ESO · June 2014

Interesting read, although a bit over thought. If anyone one of you have ever played Asheron's Call, the housing system that was introduced was a good one and ahead of its time. That system allowed pretty much housing for all levels and budgets. Not to mentions that in order to get a deed you needed random things looted from critters. Once you found these items you could get a place. This system also required monthly rent/maintenance too keep your house.

Apartments:
One chest, allowed for a few pictures or weapons on the wall, a bed and that's it.

House:
Chest, lots of additional storage, usually in a settlement of houses

Villa:
Big giant house a few chests and a TON of storage

Mansion: (Guilds)
Multiple chests lots of rooms and etc.

Something like this would be nice. If they were to do this system, you could give permissions to friends and guildies to access your place and even chests if you would like. I would love to see houses come with cooking fires and the ability to add an alchemy table (at a price).

Anyhow thats just my 2 cents

kelly.medleyb14_ESO · June 2014

Anlaemar wrote: »

I'm also looking forward to housing. Though like you said, don't expect it any time soon. I'd rather the game get nice and polished first, anyway.

^ This. They had a chance to hire real testers and delay release a few months to get a clean release, if they had done so they could use this time to release solid new content, as it is, they will be spending the next year scrambling to patch up the bugs.

butterfly442 · June 2014

Stupid.

Sindala · June 2014

butterfly442 wrote: »

Stupid.

Lol, did you use all of your 5 brain cells to think of that comment?
You must need a lie down now, don't over do it.

hishikiroda · June 2014

butterfly442 wrote: »

Stupid.

Which part in particular? Or were you referring to the entire post? Maybe a particular comment on the post?

kagome77543 · June 2014

i would love to have a house to store and display weapons and trophy's of beasts iv'e defeated to just show how kick ass i am when other players come inside.

Natjur · June 2014

I have an in game house in ESO, its in Cyrodiil and its all mine, I would tell you the exact spot but last time I did that a few players came over and killed me.

But its still its mine, I have the ownership papers around here somewhere, a player sold me the rights for 42k. They laughed a lot when I brought it, but it was a bargain. My very own house. Having issues 'moving' stuff around and it would be nice to be able to 'port' to my house but I am sure that will be fixed in a patch or two.

kagome77543 · June 2014

Natjur wrote: »

I have an in game house in ESO, its in Cyrodiil and its all mine, I would tell you the exact spot but last time I did that a few players came over and killed me.

But its still its mine, I have the ownership papers around here somewhere, a player sold me the rights for 42k. They laughed a lot when I brought it, but it was a bargain. My very own house. Having issues 'moving' stuff around and it would be nice to be able to 'port' to my house but I am sure that will be fixed in a patch or two.

How would you go about buying/selling a house in eso?

Knightpanther · June 2014

Everquest 2 has hands down the best Housing system of any MMO.
Basically in the original post this is what you have described.

Be safe

RazielSR · June 2014

Good ideas, really.

Problem is we'll have to wait 2 years...