Welcome, this is part of a series I am creating to try to help to improve Elder Scrolls Online and make it more complete and polished. This Will Involve a variety of topics covering different areas in Elder Scrolls Online to overall attempt to give ideas to make ESO a better game overall. I hope you enjoy.
The Series So Far:
Part 1: Extra Activities:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/172838/evolving-eso-part-1-extra-activities-poll#latest
Part 2: Player Housing / Guild Halls
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/post/editdiscussion/172984
Part 3: Skill Lines And Overhauls:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/173730/evolving-eso-part-3-skill-lines-and-overhauls
Part 4: PvP Enhancement:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/186852/evolving-eso-part-4-enhancing-pvp
Some Music for you To Listen to while you read:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwp8UxIY_iM
In ESO at the moment no players have any specific area to relax and live in and everything is very public. I think ti would be a fantastic addition to the game to add some form of player housing so players can have their own personal space to customize and call their own. This would be some form of complex system involving the buying of a piece of land to construct some form of living accommodation there. This could lead on to buying furniture and accessories for your home to customize it and make it personal to you.
My first step to this was HOW this would be implemented and I cam up with a few ideas.
- Instanced Islands: The concept of this would be that after you reach a certain level you would be able to purchase an old Island from an NPC in the game. The Island type would vary depending on which zone you buy it in. (This would also encourage people to complete Cadwel's Silver and Gold to get a different looking island style) The island you purchase will have different whether conditions and a different Biome depending on where you bought it, for example if you bought an Island in the Alikr Desert your Island would be a Desert Island, or if you bought it in Stonefalls you get an Island of a different shape and it would be volcanic.
These islands would cost around 25,000 Gold each (I'm not sure what is reasonable) and would allow you to things in different locations on the Island. To try to explain this better, after you buy an Island you would be able to View a Letter on the Island Dock which would allow you to buy the base of your house and everything else. This would involve choosing which style of house you want, These would be the different architecture sets from ESO, such as the different Nordic style houses or the Different High Elf styles of building. You would be able to choose any style on any Island, so you would be able to buy a Redguard styled building on a Forest Styled Island bought from Grahtwood.
For the Building placement I have thought that you choose One of many Set places on the Island to build it or the player would be able to choose any location on the land if it was a suitable area for the home. To choose a location the player would be given a Birds Eye View of the Island and would be able to choose where to place their home. This would allow a player to place multiple buildings, as long as they are a certain distance away from each other. Or if building are placed with the Set locations then the player would be able fill a number of the many Set locations on the Island. This would allow players to add different building to their Island to serve different purposes and perhaps contain NPC's. Here are some of my ideas for these extra areas:
- Farmland: An area of land where you would be able to harvest a number of different Provisioning ingredients every 24 hours.
- Merchant House: Another building separate from the home which would contain a Merchant to buy, sell and repair stuff.
- Forge: An area which would be a Blacksmith Forge and would contain a Blacksmith station.
- Alchemy Garden: An area where you would be able to Harvest a number of different Alchemical ingredients every 24 horus.
- Fishing Dock: Where you can fish in an infinite fishing spot.
- Bank: Where you would be able to access your Bank, guild Bank and Guild Stores.
- Stables: Where you would be able to train your riding Skill up and view all your mounts in your collection. Perhaps if people don't want NPC's at their home it could be done via some kind of Letter nailed to a post next to the stable, to train up their riding skill.
- Mine: Some sort of cave entrance going into the side of a hill and underground where the player would be able to mine some Ore 24 hours.
I'm sure others can come up with plenty of other ideas for buildings and other things.
The inside of the actual house would also be able to be customized in a way similar to the Island with addons and exterior sections also. Homes would be accessed by zooming out to the World Map, and you would see Coldharbour, Tamriel AND Your Island. This could also be linked with the crown store to allow players to buy their Islands and their contents with crowns at the Island. Other people would be able to visit your Island if they were in a group with you and you were group leader.
- Harborage House: I thought an idea that could be used would be, after level 50 and you have completed the main story, you would be able to turn the Harborage into some form of living area with different crafting stations and things to customize inside. This idea is not my favorite but I think that it would be a really simple and easy way for players to have a home of their own in Elder Scrolls Online.
- Buying Plots Of Land: This is an idea I got from Archeage if you have ever played that game except In have changed it quite a bit. the main concept would be that in large variety of areas all over the world of Tamriel there would be a number of specified plots for people to buy a house at and live at. These plots would be all over the world, next to Towns and Cities, on the roads and in other areas which would be marked on the map. These areas would be split up into grids where each player can own ONE section of one of these grids to buy a home at. Different sizes and types of home would cost different prices and take up different amounts of space on the grid. However I do still think that these should look part of the world and be immersive so you would only be able to buy the style of house which fits in the zone that you are in. Also the housing plots would be in different patterns to make them fit the world they're in or the Town they're connected to. This would stop those chaotic looking and scrambled housing messes that were in Archeage. Players would be able to buy different props and furnishings and be fitted with crafting stations on the Interior and Exterior as long as they don't cross the boundaries of the section of the grid that your plot is in.
- Guild Halls: This idea is a form of housing except for an entire guild to use and socialize in. This would probably work similar to the Instanced Islands idea except on a much Larger Scale. With the ability to access Merchants, Bank, Guild Stores, Crafting stations and a massive variety of other things.
What do others think of this. Please provide feedback and show your opinion. Thank you for reading.
PS: I missed out the Guild Halls on the Poll So just type a message in the chat if you would also like Guild Halls