The problem with these kinds of ideas for ESO is Tamriel is an established land. It's not like they can just decide to say "hey... everyone lives over here". Housing needs to be instanced in each zone so that players can live in any zone they wish.

Now, I like the idea of making certain cities in ESO be player cities but I don't think they can do this without instancing.

Kvatch isn't in ESO and could be a player city to where a player accesses the gates and the entire city is instanced to a set of players. Now, how what players are chosen to occupy the city at that time... I'm not sure how that would work.

But... Kvatch gets destroyed in Oblivion so whatever we do wouldn't be considered "permanent"

Gidorick wrote: »

The problem with these kinds of ideas for ESO is Tamriel is an established land. It's not like they can just decide to say "hey... everyone lives over here". Housing needs to be instanced in each zone so that players can live in any zone they wish.

Now, I like the idea of making certain cities in ESO be player cities but I don't think they can do this without instancing.

Kvatch isn't in ESO and could be a player city to where a player accesses the gates and the entire city is instanced to a set of players. Now, how what players are chosen to occupy the city at that time... I'm not sure how that would work.

Well, there are different instances of Cyrodiil depending on which campaign you've selected. There could be a similar system for player housing cities. Maybe name the instances after the constellations, or after the eight divines or something. When you go to enter the city and choose which instance you want to enter (like with Cyrodiil) rather than it showing you population levels it shows you an indicator of what percentage of the homes are already owned.

You can still enter an instance where all the homes are owned (so you can still hang out with friends who have homes/guild halls there), but naturally you can't get your own home there unless someone sells their home (I'm thinking you buy the home from the local ruler, and if you don't want the home any more you sell it back to the local ruler for somewhat less than what you bought it for, and it then goes on the market again).

Have several such cities in each alliance (I'd say a minimum of 1 for each race in the alliances, with the local architecture reflecting the style of that race). A system like this would allow you to easily tell your friends and guildmates where your home is (oh, I'm in The Tower instance of Playertownville), and you and your friends could try to get homes in the same instance if you want.

would the "instances" be set @UrQuan or would they be randomly filled? If they're set... they would need create hundreds of instances, right? Lets say they open... 50 homes in a Zone for players... lets say 100K players want homes in that zone. That's 2000 instances. Does ESO currently create that many... do we even know?

Gidorick wrote: »

would the "instances" be set @UrQuan or would they be randomly filled? If they're set... they would need create hundreds of instances, right? Lets say they open... 50 homes in a Zone for players... lets say 100K players want homes in that zone. That's 2000 instances. Does ESO currently create that many... do we even know?

I'd say set (maybe start out with 9 versions each of 3 different cities per alliance, each with say 50 or so purchasable homes), but with new ones opening up as demand indicates. So if they notice that there are few homes available for purchase, they add an instance to each city, or start looking at adding new cities (or a rural farming valley with homes, or whatever).

UrQuan wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

would the "instances" be set @UrQuan or would they be randomly filled? If they're set... they would need create hundreds of instances, right? Lets say they open... 50 homes in a Zone for players... lets say 100K players want homes in that zone. That's 2000 instances. Does ESO currently create that many... do we even know?

I'd say set (maybe start out with 9 versions each of 3 different cities per alliance, each with say 50 or so purchasable homes), but with new ones opening up as demand indicates. So if they notice that there are few homes available for purchase, they add an instance to each city, or start looking at adding new cities (or a rural farming valley with homes, or whatever).

Ok.. I'm starting to warm up to the idea... I think that could work.

Lol^

This suggestion sounds similar to the player housing in LoTRO.

You can reach the front gates of the player housing, but when you 'Enter' it asks you to choose a ' District'. There are 4 different player housing areas 1 in the Human lands, 1 in the Shire 1 in the Dwarven area and one in the Elven area. And each look aesthetically different.

They also have stores and banking areas for players.

UrQuan wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

would the "instances" be set @UrQuan or would they be randomly filled? If they're set... they would need create hundreds of instances, right? Lets say they open... 50 homes in a Zone for players... lets say 100K players want homes in that zone. That's 2000 instances. Does ESO currently create that many... do we even know?

I'd say set (maybe start out with 9 versions each of 3 different cities per alliance, each with say 50 or so purchasable homes), but with new ones opening up as demand indicates. So if they notice that there are few homes available for purchase, they add an instance to each city, or start looking at adding new cities (or a rural farming valley with homes, or whatever).

50 homes is waaaaay to low. In DAoC Each instance had well over 200 homes if my memory serves me, and they were in somewhere around 25 neighborhoods (It's been 10 years since I played, my memory isn't the very best!).

Sl1ckTh1ef wrote: »

This suggestion sounds similar to the player housing in LoTRO.

You can reach the front gates of the player housing, but when you 'Enter' it asks you to choose a ' District'. There are 4 different player housing areas 1 in the Human lands, 1 in the Shire 1 in the Dwarven area and one in the Elven area. And each look aesthetically different.

They also have stores and banking areas for players.

In DAoC there was a portal right inside the front gate to the instance where you could choose other instances and the game kept track of the last instance you were logged into and that's the instance you would always re-enter automatically when entering the instance/zone. It also had a market zone in each instance with Banker NPC's so you don't have bankers at every house but at a central market in the center of the instance. they had Central Market NPC's that listed items from every house merchant in the game and you could buy the item right there with an extra tax or travel from that market via the portal to the correct instance and then mount travel to the house with the items being sold.

I thought SWG had a great housing system that blended really well with that of the guild strongholds.

Instanced housing of multiple players onscreen in a town at once?
ZoS can finally fulfill there promise of being able to have 200 players on screen.

Dixa wrote: »

dark age of Camelot was and is still a very small game player wise.

Actually, in fact DAOC was a large game for its time period and one of the most successful MMORPG titles before World of Warcraft and for a few years afterwards still. Wow was and remains an anomaly for North American and European based MMO games in its revenue and player count. A handful of non subscription games have a fraction of its playerbase but it still remains the outsized, abnormally successful MMO king.

FreedomDude wrote: »

The only way I could see housing work in ESO is by having them instanced, so each city could have one or two houses up for sale for the player then purchase. Or we could have our own little pocket of oblivion (An area in Coldharbour maybe?) where we could have public housing/player built city.

@FreedomDude
Freedom have a look at the front page now to the poll.
How important is player housing/guild halls

It will show you how housing should be in eso inc instance based because eso could only support it.

FreedomDude wrote: »

The only way I could see housing work in ESO is by having them instanced, so each city could have one or two houses up for sale for the player then purchase. Or we could have our own little pocket of oblivion (An area in Coldharbour maybe?) where we could have public housing/player built city.

I agree that the instancing would work plus you could use the grouping tool to allow access to your house, or your instance.

To expand upon my previous post... (The following is my own interpretation of how housing could occur)

In general, I think instanced areas within each zone should be used for housing, in addition to possible preset neighborhoods or just a couple houses per city. This gives room for both city dwellers as well as people who'd rather be out in the wilds.
Within each zone, there are six specific areas relatively 'closed off' (as in only one open entrance/exit). Each of these will be placed at random across the zone, possibly changing with the environment, such as mountainous or on the beach. These 'plots of land' can be purchased for a good sum from the nearest city, or wherever the jurisdiction resides. Upon purchase of this land you are given your own instance of the zone, which becomes fully customizable. The plot may be purchased by an individual for their personal use or a guild for a guild's total use and access. Both parties may limit their access to public or private, or by-name only. (Public= Anyone can come into the plot through a given list that is provided at the entrance to the plot (more further down), Private= Only allowance to include specified persons, possibly contacts, or possible guildmates, by-name= public, but can only be accessed by inputting the name of the plot exactly)

Upon first entering the plot, it will be entirely wilderness. The plot can be fully customized, allowing anything from a small cabin to a mini-fort to be built, the placing, design and creation entirely determined by the owner. The actual creation of the buildings would require a certain amount of types of materials (added) and found throughout the world. The acquiring of the materials should be through a multitude of ways. Ways such as purchasing lumber from a carpenter (medium price), chopping one's own lumber (low price), or hiring a carpenter to craft the wood structures (Highest price), or along such lines. Homes (if enough Dev manpower is present) could be built in stages, or 'at once'. However the 'at once' option should work along the lines of: 'This building will take xdays/xhours to build in game' to prevent 'insta-cities', as well as adding a level of immersion.

The plot should be large enough to accommodate multiple buildings, each separately build and placement decided by the owner(An overview mode may need to be implemented, or simply an outline similar to setting up a siege engine in PvP). This, coupled with possible guild ownership, will allow guild halls, guild towns, even keeps or farmsteads to be built. The naturally occurring environment may be altered given the buildings, things such as the removal of rocks/trees/ and misc within a certain radius of a built building (if such a thing is available).

To encourage people to make the public plots 'public', incentives should be given such as the ability to hire merchants to sell ones goods to travelers while they're away, or whatever works that does not cause discomfort. Each plots position will give it a single path to and from, of which along the way a player will be given a dialog choice, "The road here departs, where do you wish to trek to?", going further given a list of public plots, the players accessible private plots, and a 'search by name' choice. The naming of each plot is determined by the owner, the naming process with a single first name open to the player's choice, and a surname from a given list to describe the players plot of land. An example of this would be [Player Name]'s [Farmstead], or [Player decided name] [Hall] (Brackets removed ofc).

In addition to this, zones may need to be enlarged slightly to provide enough space, or areas that were otherwise inaccessible could become accessible in each zone (such as a massive part of the southern Bangkorai, mid Alik'r, and in Rivenspire as examples).
Within each major city and possibly a few minor cities in each zone a few houses/neighborhoods could be open to purchase from the city's respective 'steward' (or whatever name is needed for each culture). The exterior cannot be customized and are not instanced, as they are public given the city atmosphere, however the interiors may be decorated to one's own tastes. A similar merchant option may be given from the plot.

One may set their home from public to private if they wish and function similarly to the above, instead however when clicking on the door a dialog along the lines of, "You're trying to remember who's house this is. Is this: (List)?"
In addition to this, additional houses may need to be added to each city.

Overall, if implemented well, both could exist. The only issues with these, possibly large as well, would be the data required for them. Especially the built plots, it could be a heavy addition to the game.

Well, this is just what I'd like to see generally. Even if all we get is some minor housing I'd be relatively happy, but I feel the above would be quite exceptional as a system if implemented.

I REALLY want guild cities. Within those, a housing area where players can access their privately owned homes and private chambers within the main castle itself as well. And yes, instance it. I don't actually WANT every Tom, *** and Harry to see or even access ANY part of my home. I only want people I INVITE in there! And I want homes with every single architectural style in the game. My displaced Imperial needs to be able to build her new seaside Villa in Rivenspire dammit!