housing..why??

lihentian · January 2017

personally after reading through the pts patch note i find little reason to bother with this housing system..

i means, there are no bank access unless you paid 50 dollars for that assistant, same goes for store. crafting station sound like alot of grind.. so why do we want a house when it doesn't really make anything easier? well except for showing off... which require you do basically all crafting on one character or purchase everything with crown... really???

p.s. was hoping for personal harvest node, fishing pond, wayshrine, bank, merchant, servant.. and Thieves/fighter/mage guild decoration, vampire coffin, cattle... but i guess it is just too good to be true T_T

AzraelKrieg · January 2017

Some people like housing in games. It gives them the feeling they own a piece of the world instead of just being in it. Plus it can also act as a gold sink that is sometimes necessary in games to keep the economy going

WarLord2905 · January 2017

Yeah cant say I care to much about housing either, ok if you want to do it but I cant see myself spending gold or crowns on any of it. I am more concerned about the upcoming PVE nerfs that nobody asked for.

Gilvoth · January 2017

lihentian wrote: »

personally after reading through the pts patch note i find little reason to bother with this housing system..

i means, there are no bank access unless you paid 50 dollars for that assistant, same goes for store. crafting station sound like alot of grind.. so why do we want a house when it doesn't really make anything easier? well except for showing off... which require you do basically all crafting on one character or purchase everything with crown... really???

p.s. was hoping for personal harvest node, fishing pond, wayshrine, bank, merchant, servant.. and Thieves/fighter/mage guild decoration, vampire coffin, cattle... but i guess it is just too good to be true T_T

i wanted so badly to have a place to put all of my personal things. and also be able to show off a hide away hole in the ground as a home like this below --
my wife and i live a life of stealing and killing for the dark brotherhood and thieves guild.
our lifestyle is spent 100% of the time in sneak and hiding, so we need a home that is hidden away from the law, guards, and people.
so we ask, please give us a small hidden trap door [placed on the edge of town, under the bushes] that leads to a small 1 or 2 room cave with wood walls and floor for me and the wife would be Perfect!
i don't want a huge house and something small is affordable for my wife and i because we spend all our time in pvp means we only have around maybe 50 to 100,000 to spend, [not millions, like for the large houses]
me and my wife's lifestyle in eso fits perfectly in a very small underground hidden home.
thank you for reading this message.
located on the edge of town in preferably "Balmora" Vvardenfell location.
if Vvardenfell cannot be had right now then i prefer Dahlmora edge of town in Bal foyen

just like this ^
but hiden in the bushes so is a bit more hidden, and not out in the open.

but my dream was just a dream, so after reading your post i have to admit, your right.

Pandorii · January 2017

I'm going to agree with you, OP, elaborate a little, and then disagree with myself.

I too feel a general sense of disappointment towards the practical uses of housing. It feels for the most part that the potential of housing was severely limited by ZOS's greed, which may bring them money in the short term but push people in the long term.

From a practical perspective, if ZOS wanted to make me buy into the housing (a hugely complex and elaborate system they created designed to milk profit from you at every corner), they would need to make it so that I would want to be in my house rather than anywhere else. Rather, they needed to make it so that I wouldn't need to be anywhere else. How could this be achieved? a. access to a merchant that can allow to me to repairs (which cannot be done by the crown store merchant), b. access to an NPC that allows me to us my bank and guild bank (the second not able by the crown store merchants), c. a crafting table with crafting sets (which they did add, but seems to be quite grindy, once again giving the illusion of content), d. exclusive activities that can only be done there like gardening, on-site storage, and other features.

As it stands, even if I had the best quality home, I still have to go to the main city for repairs and adding things to the guild store, so I might as well just park my character there. My house will be something I will have to make an intention effort to visit, and that's too bad. I truly believe that it was ZOS's responsibility to incentivize us to use their new content they wasted so many manpower hours on. But instead, they're trying to sell us the merchants and NPCs for money. They're trying to keep us dependent on the craft bag by not upgrading space with the addition of new items, and they fail to have enough to time to make cute, small quality of life features that the community has been hammering for (like guild management tools or gardening in a housing context).

OK. But I said I would also disagree with myself. It may not have much practical potential or incentivize the regular player to actually spend their time in their homes, but maybe it's not intended for me (and my practical needs). Maybe it was designed for RPers, who will get uses for it that may not be important to me (non-practical ones, or perhaps they're practical from their perspective). So in a nutshell, I think that what I'm really bothered by is how the essential balance changes and small quality of life changes this game so desperately needed seemed to take the back burner to this project. Had they done those things right, I wouldn't be trying to search for meaning from housing. I'd be busy enjoying fresh new performing classes in cyro and PvE.

Qyrk · January 2017

....but...but ....this is just the beginning...they didn't mention that this is all there is. Additional iventory, for the most part, will be added. Quite possibly they will expand the housing system in the near future.

Taternater · January 2017

The houses can just be ported to once you own it according to the pts notes. If you grind in pub dungeons and delves a lot, your inventory will undoubtedly fill up. Once it's full, the ability to port to your house and decon the equipment at your crafting stations can be useful. If you don't want to buy the assistance with crowns because they cost too much, one thing you can do instead is try to get on the visitor list of someone who has the assistants in his house. In fact, I think guilds can own houses. So if you're in a guild with a house, and the guild has the ability to place assistants in it, and it has crafting stations, then you can just port to it and decon / sell all the loot you've acquired. Dividing the furniture grind between possibly 500 members should make it not seem as bad I think.

Betheny · January 2017

It's just another thing to do in the game. Lots of people get fun out of decorating their houses and bringing friends and guildees over.

Taternater · January 2017

Oh, and buying all the apartments and small houses might make it easier to port around.

Pandorii · January 2017

@Taternater but then you'll have to port to a main city to repair your armor. You'll need to go to the city to sell your wares on the guild trader. In my mind, I might as well just port into the city.

Annalyse · January 2017

Pandorii wrote: »

a. access to a merchant that can allow to me to repairs (which cannot be done by the crown store merchant), b. access to an NPC that allows me to us my bank and guild bank (the second not able by the crown store merchants)

This is my biggest issue with housing (aside from lack of storage, but they did at least hint about that happening in the future). If there is not going to be access to a normal banker and merchant, they need to make the crown store models fully functional. I would probably shell out the extra crowns to get a merchant if they did this, just to have my house be a good parking zone for alts.

For now, I will get one for fun and because I have money, but they don't seem all that useful. I don't like that it takes daily writs to achieve things like crafting stations, because you can only do one per day and there is only a chance (evil RNG!) you could get the item you need from it, so it could take a long time to get anything. I would rather have to farm something, which I hate doing, just because I could at least work at it all day if I wanted to and see visible progress. Or better yet, I'd love to have the option to just buy them from an NPC and do the writs to upgrade them to attunable stations, so that at least we could start out with semi-useful dwellings.

But seriously ZOS people... make the crown store banker and merchant fully functional! It's not like we aren't paying enough for them.

Taternater · January 2017

Actually, if you don't want to do all those grindey writs, I think you can buy the furniture from players who craft them. They'll almost certainly cost just shy of infinity, but for a trading guild buying it for their guild house that might be doable.

idk · January 2017

@lihentian

It is your choice to not participate in housing. Kudos to you to make that choice. I also think it is great that you stared the 100th thread on the subject.

Gandrhulf_Harbard · January 2017

lihentian wrote: »

personally after reading through the pts patch note i find little reason to bother with this housing system..

i means, there are no bank access unless you paid 50 dollars for that assistant, same goes for store. crafting station sound like alot of grind.. so why do we want a house when it doesn't really make anything easier? well except for showing off... which require you do basically all crafting on one character or purchase everything with crown... really???

p.s. was hoping for personal harvest node, fishing pond, wayshrine, bank, merchant, servant.. and Thieves/fighter/mage guild decoration, vampire coffin, cattle... but i guess it is just too good to be true T_T

I totally see where you are coming from. There are things I would expect to find in a modern MMORPG Housing system that are either not there as standard or need to to be unlocked via a Crown Store purchase (Storage Access for example). I really like the sound of attunable Craft Stations and imagine it is something I will spend time working on.

However, this is just the first version of Housing for ESO and I would expect improvements to be made to it over time. The main content of ESO is, IMO, much improved over how it was at launch, and we should probably expect the same from Housing.

Overall reading through the PTS Housing information I am pleasantly surprised at just how much ESO are doing from the start.

All The Best

Mojmir · January 2017

Shhhh it will keep the rp'ers busy so we can duel in towns.

Rev Rielle · January 2017

Because, it's a game.

And decorating our housing and having a place to call our own, that truly is unique to our own personal style in an MMO world is an enjoyable pastime for many, and rare thing to have.

I agree, it would be nice to have more reasons to visit our homes, like flower pots that we water and harvest once a day/week etc etc, but what we have is a first step, not a final step.

If housing is embraced and well received there is no reason why it won't be continually built upon and developed for years to come.

mandrakethebard_ESO · January 2017

I believe that housing will be a lot of fun, but I also agree that practical applications would be nice so I'd like to point out a few that do exist. First I'd like to explain why housing will be a good thing.

(1) As already stated by another poster, it provides a piece of the world that you can call your own.
(2) It provides locations that people can meet at which outsiders cannot interfere. (RPers rejoice)
(3) I gives people more things to do, more achievements to go out and work for.
(4) It lubricates the game economy by providing something for people to spend their money on, as well as providing another commercial outlet for in-game crafters.

Now for the practical stuff.

(1) As already stated you can port directly to your house. This expands your quick movement potential.
(2) You can have useful stations at a lag-free centralized location, such as Bankers, Merchants, and crafting tables.
But (3), and I can't stress enough how stoked I am about this, it provides homeowners the ability to clone set crafting stations. Seriously, I cannot stress enough how awesome that is. Suppose, for example, you're quite fond of a particular set that can only be crafted in the Imperial City? All you have to do is get there one time, clone the crafting station(s), then set them up in your home. Now you don't have to go digging around in the Imperial City every time you want to do a little crafting. Epic. Just like I tell people that the Crafting Bag alone is worth the price of subscription for me (I don't care if you don't agree, I'd subscribe with or without the craft bag but I love it), I also think that the ability to clone crafting stations would make the entire Homestead experience worth it, even if I didn't already love it.

JWKe · January 2017

I personally think housing in MMOs should NOT encourage isolation but rather it should encourage interaction.

From the MMOs I've played. Runescape I think has a pretty solid housing system where the housing plot is instanced but the house itself is "sandbox" where players would match various pre made room designs to create a house that is unique to them. One of Runescape's housing feature that I really loved was the "dungeon" system where players could create an underground dungeon and fill them with monsters and visiting players can run through them to fight the monsters or to run through it as a maze/ obstacle course.

Regarding, your post I would agree with you. I believe the houses should provide more utility function whether it be a quick teleport to a distant capital city, using someones "workbench" to create certain furniture, or as mentioned above a "sandbox" type house where it gives players incentives to visit other peoples houses other than their own.

mvffins · January 2017

Attunable crafting stations, target dummies, large selection of furniture to collect, and new buildings to explore? Those are 4 reasons to get housing when they come out, and I'm certain that ZOS will add more elements onto housing depending on how much money the community spends on them.

A lot of top players are saying that target dummies will be a big thing, but for me an attunable crafting station for Alchemist's or one of the Imperial City sets is the deal breaker. Not to mention the fact that these stations are nowhere near wayshrines for easy access, but what if someone buys a house, does masterwrits, but doesn't put money into the crown store to buy anything? Then he gains access to craft a DLC set for free.

jircris11 · January 2017

lihentian wrote: »

personally after reading through the pts patch note i find little reason to bother with this housing system..

i means, there are no bank access unless you paid 50 dollars for that assistant, same goes for store. crafting station sound like alot of grind.. so why do we want a house when it doesn't really make anything easier? well except for showing off... which require you do basically all crafting on one character or purchase everything with crown... really???

p.s. was hoping for personal harvest node, fishing pond, wayshrine, bank, merchant, servant.. and Thieves/fighter/mage guild decoration, vampire coffin, cattle... but i guess it is just too good to be true T_T

30 for the assistant

Darkonflare15 · January 2017

mandrakethebard_ESO wrote: »

I believe that housing will be a lot of fun, but I also agree that practical applications would be nice so I'd like to point out a few that do exist. First I'd like to explain why housing will be a good thing.

(1) As already stated by another poster, it provides a piece of the world that you can call your own.
(2) It provides locations that people can meet at which outsiders cannot interfere. (RPers rejoice)
(3) I gives people more things to do, more achievements to go out and work for.
(4) It lubricates the game economy by providing something for people to spend their money on, as well as providing another commercial outlet for in-game crafters.

Now for the practical stuff.

(1) As already stated you can port directly to your house. This expands your quick movement potential.
(2) You can have useful stations at a centralized location, such as Bankers, Merchants, and crafting tables.
But (3), and I can't stress enough how stoked I am about this, it provides homeowners the ability to clone set crafting stations. Seriously, I cannot stress enough how awesome that is. Suppose, for example, you're quite fond of a particular set that can only be crafted in the Imperial City? All you have to do is get there one time, clone the crafting station(s), then set them up in your home. Now you don't have to go digging around in the Imperial City every time you want to do a little crafting. Epic. Just like I tell people that the Crafting Bag alone is worth the price of subscription for me (I don't care if you don't agree, I'd subscribe with or without the craft bag but I love it), I also think that the ability to clone crafting stations would make the entire Homestead experience worth it, even if I didn't already love it.

I love how in depth it is. I like that the more motifs, researching, and how how you crafting in crafts dictates how much of the currency you will get from writs. It like collector's dream come true.

JWKe · January 2017

mvffins wrote: »

Attunable crafting stations, target dummies, large selection of furniture to collect, and new buildings to explore? Those are 4 reasons to get housing when they come out, and I'm certain that ZOS will add more elements onto housing depending on how much money the community spends on them.

A lot of top players are saying that target dummies will be a big thing, but for me an attunable crafting station for Alchemist's or one of the Imperial City sets is the deal breaker. Not to mention the fact that these stations are nowhere near wayshrines for easy access, but what if someone buys a house, does masterwrits, but doesn't put money into the crown store to buy anything? Then he gains access to craft a DLC set for free.

I was not aware of the attunable crafting stations and also masterwrits. You make a very good point.

lihentian · January 2017

mvffins wrote: »

Attunable crafting stations, target dummies, large selection of furniture to collect, and new buildings to explore? Those are 4 reasons to get housing when they come out, and I'm certain that ZOS will add more elements onto housing depending on how much money the community spends on them.

A lot of top players are saying that target dummies will be a big thing, but for me an attunable crafting station for Alchemist's or one of the Imperial City sets is the deal breaker. Not to mention the fact that these stations are nowhere near wayshrines for easy access, but what if someone buys a house, does masterwrits, but doesn't put money into the crown store to buy anything? Then he gains access to craft a DLC set for free.

crafting station but no repair, no guild bank.. target dummies? what for? does it actually tell you anything? what is the different between that and any wild monster? large selection of furniture..which are useless? in FO4 you can only wait while siting down.. in fo you could sleep for eight hour for a well rest exp bonus..

p.s. you need to actually travel there to attune to the set crafting station.. so if you don't have dlc you can't reach there, and meaning you can't attune to the set station.. as of time saving.. how often do you craft a specific set item? or should i ask.. how often do you craft?? i don't really craft that many cp160 set due to shortage of crafting material.. it cost 1k material to craft a full set of armor. also you do realize that you will spend countless of hour to build these crafting station for your house right?? imo running for 2 minute each time to craft a specific set is far more reasonable then spend a week or two just to get a crafting station locate at an area with no bank, merchant or wayshrine to fast travel else where.

Ke Jun Wen wrote: »

I personally think housing in MMOs should NOT encourage isolation but rather it should encourage interaction.

well, will forcing all player to craft, sale, repair with npc in the public do any good? i thought mmo is all about people playing together.. plus if it provide enough utility they could be used a guild hall.. where guild member all used a base.. which will most likely strength the bound between friend/guild member.

Taternater · January 2017

mvffins wrote: »

Attunable crafting stations, target dummies, large selection of furniture to collect, and new buildings to explore? Those are 4 reasons to get housing when they come out, and I'm certain that ZOS will add more elements onto housing depending on how much money the community spends on them.

A lot of top players are saying that target dummies will be a big thing, but for me an attunable crafting station for Alchemist's or one of the Imperial City sets is the deal breaker. Not to mention the fact that these stations are nowhere near wayshrines for easy access, but what if someone buys a house, does masterwrits, but doesn't put money into the crown store to buy anything? Then he gains access to craft a DLC set for free.

Actually the notes say the player has to go to the set's crafting location to attune the station. However a player without the dlc I believe can visit the house of another player that did that.

Gandrhulf_Harbard · January 2017

Ke Jun Wen wrote: »

I personally think housing in MMOs should NOT encourage isolation but rather it should encourage interaction.

There's an obvious way to do this.

Have the largest Housing only available as a Guild House, or add another layer that can only be used buy Guilds, call it a Stronghold or Keep or something. Then add in things like a Mine, Farmland, Ruins for gathering mats. Add in a Stable that allows Guild Members to upgrade their Mount Skills once every 12 hours. Allow "rested XP" to accrue IF players log out at the Guild House. Give Guild House Crafting Stations a 10% Increase to to get Tempers etc when processing raw mats, AND a 20% decrease in the number of Tempers etc needed to upgrade the quality of items. Give players passive reasons to be in a guild and use a guild house and players will actively engage with the guild much more.

Then here's the real bonus to encouraging interaction, allow Guilds to "rent" access to these services to Non-Guild Associates. You'll soon get loose alliances of guilds, and guilds offering these services to players who have so far been solo, and so solo players (of which I am one in the main) would soon start to be drawn into the more social parts of the game.

There's tons that could be done IF Housing as is proves to be successful .

Heck you could even put Guild Keeps in the vast empty spaces of Cyrodil and allow PvP Guilds to raid one another's Keeps.

All The Best

SantieClaws · January 2017

Why does anyone need a house yes?

To keep the cold rain and the burning sun off the shoulders of course.

If a house is to be a home then it becomes the physical embodiment - in bricks and chairs and candlesticks - of the inner self. A means of expression.

A place to hold parties and show that you have many more sweetrolls than your neighbour.

Also the sitting and a place to store booze.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

AzraelKrieg · January 2017

Housing can easily promote communication in game. I'm planning on making one of my houses a guildhall for Gold Dragons. I will have the IC crafting stations in one of my homes as well so I don't need to go into PvP to craft them because I don't like having to deal with the threat of getting ganked just to make something for someone.

Gandrhulf_Harbard · January 2017

Part of the joy of being back on the forums is to see @SantieClaws posts.

A pleasure to read.

All The Best

sparafucilsarwb17_ESO · January 2017

I for one would have liked to be able to build my house from scratch. Housing as it is now doesn't really interest me.

AzraelKrieg · January 2017

SantieClaws wrote: »

Why does anyone need a house yes?

To keep the cold rain and the burning sun off the shoulders of course.

If a house is to be a home then it becomes the physical embodiment - in bricks and chairs and candlesticks - of the inner self. A means of expression.

A place to hold parties and show that you have many more sweetrolls than your neighbour.

Also the sitting and a place to store booze.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

No doubt you'll be taking the room in the Rosy Lion.

SantieClaws · January 2017

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

SantieClaws wrote: »

Why does anyone need a house yes?

To keep the cold rain and the burning sun off the shoulders of course.

If a house is to be a home then it becomes the physical embodiment - in bricks and chairs and candlesticks - of the inner self. A means of expression.

A place to hold parties and show that you have many more sweetrolls than your neighbour.

Also the sitting and a place to store booze.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

No doubt you'll be taking the room in the Rosy Lion.

Of course! Now Khajiit will have her very own bit of the floor to sleep upon. Free from the wandering boots and endless undaunted singing.

In time this one she hopes to purchase a medium sized property somewhere where the sands they are warm yes. This one she will need to visit Wayrest Castle one or two or several hundred times more though before this is possible.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws