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Houses feel lifeless and pointless

Unit117
Unit117
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As title states. They really do. We need to make them feel more important.

2 ideas that I would like to see. Give us npcs to buy and fill our homes with that have simple ai. Like walk around, and sit in random furniture or lay on beds. With simple voiclines if you pair 2 specific ones together.

The second one is guild hall system. I don’t know why we don’t have this already. Allow a guildmaster to declare a home as a official guildhall. And we can get guild furnishing items that have a purpose. One item is a interactive board with papers for odd jobs that gives us daily guild missions. Upon completing them we can get gold, prizes and points towards a guild point system that gives rewards to your guild for hitting certain milestones. Theses milestones could be unlocking stations like alchemy gardens to get farm rare valuable herbs daily from the house, grocer that gives rare ingredients, miscellaneous merchant, etc... or expanding them for larger capacities as you hit higher milestones.


We need to give a reason for people to visit or homes and npcs that will make them feel not so empty. I think these ideas would really help! :)
  • Unit117
    Unit117
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    @ZOS_GinaBruno could you look at this and pass it on for me please? I’d really appreciate it <3
  • mayasunrising
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    @ZOS_GinaBruno I would like to second this. I really, really enjoy housing and think ZOS is doing a great job, but imagine how much awesomerest houses could be if they were more useful and interactive in day ahead. :*

    My wish-list would be something like; plants/gardening/fishing/resource growing type furniture and interactables, the ability to have team duels (4v4 or even just the ability to designate your house as an open, limited, or no pvp space), access to guild stores, and tools for guild events. B)



    "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anaïs Nin

    “There’s a difference between wanting to be looked at and wanting to be seen." Amanda Palmer

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  • rumple9
    rumple9
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    Just a gold sink to suck money out of the economy
  • mayasunrising
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    rumple9 wrote: »
    Just a gold sink to suck money out of the economy

    Damn ZOS for being a business that needs to make money to pay their employees and develop more awesome games and content! /sadpantsgrowlyface
    "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anaïs Nin

    “There’s a difference between wanting to be looked at and wanting to be seen." Amanda Palmer

    “A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.” Jane McGonigal

    “They'll tell you you're too loud, that you need to wait your turn and ask the right people for permission. Do it anyway." Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
  • Mason_King
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    As long as they're not crown store exclusives
    If I could hire certain NPCs through Out Tamriel that would be cool
    like 500-1000 Gold/month.
    I'd hire a Stable Master, a Treasurer, and a Fence.

    Or I might even Sacrifice my other characters, to be NPCs, in my homes when I'm not playing as them.

    Also, Perhaps if furnishings had more interactions?

    Storage Chests are very useful, however I still feel like furniture should be able to store things

    I want my house to feel like the other NPC houses I enter. Where I can open drawers, Cabinets, Place and Take things from them.
    Store the Beer and Wine in the Kegs, in the cellar.
    Make the decorative chests storage space also!
    Edited by Mason_King on November 14, 2018 3:58PM
  • emilyhyoyeon
    emilyhyoyeon
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    To me houses aren't pointless (I use them for story/character depth/RP), but yeah they really do feel lifeless. In addition to other suggestions, I think the animated furnishings really help to make a house feel less hollow; so more animated furnishings of all kinds would be good
    Zirasia Firemaker, imperial fire mage & sunbather _ Deebaba Soul-Weaver, argonian spirit minder & soul gem collector
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  • DBZVelena
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    if pets and mounts in houses would at least move from their spot a little it would help.
    What are Natch Potes? Can you eat those?
    I believe in Genie-Gina.
  • moonio
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    Housing would be more useful if they had a mount upgrade station.. Some people only log in to feed their mounts! lol
  • prtpj1ub17_ESO
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    I would like to see "more life" in my eso house.

    We can put mounts, pets and assistants...we could add to npcs to act as workers, guards, etc. Maybe not interactive if this can be a issue, but at least, be there to full fill our houses with life...
  • G1Countdown
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    While I agree on both of your suggestions to improve quality of life in housing. I don't think housing is pointless. That seems a bit harsh.
    • You can have 5 different crafted target dummies of varying life (including precursor).
    • You can have a safe place to put a banker, merchant, & smuggler (if you use the smuggler).
    • You can add 360 extra storage slots.
    • You can add crafting stations (attunable stations for sets too), an outfit station, & a transmutation station.
    • If you have the crowns to burn you can also add the Mundus stones.

    I do however think that housing has hit a plateau as far as functionality goes. It would be nice to see some continued development on the functionality aspect of housing.
  • JJBoomer
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    I agree. I would love to have npcs in my house. A bard, a chef, guests that walk around and talk to each other. That would make homes so much more full of life
  • dtsharples
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    I feel the exact same thing, and due to this I am demolishing my Daggerfall overlook entirely and starting over.
    I plan to make use of all the wonderful features of the Add-On "Essential housing Tools'" to bring certain things to life.
    https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1959-EssentialHousingTools.html

    It really would be great though to have your inactive characters walking around your home.
    It really would make it feel lived in.
    And maybe you could set up a string of emotes to make it look like they are interacting with either their environment, or each other.
    With the already available emotes you could easily set up scenes for eating and drinking (although only stood up ;) )
    An argument, a welcome party, a dance performance + cheering crowd, flirtations, sweeping up, fixing stuff, passing out drunk....and plenty other ideas :)

    Like others have said. Housing has hit a wall and hasn't undergone any upgrade since its inception, which is a great shame as it could really add some great extra layers to the game (which itself is now getting pretty stagnant overall also).
  • phaneub17_ESO
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    Zos Think of it this way, if you let us place our offline characters in housing in fixed positions, it would increase the sales of character slots, outfit slots, and outfit tokens. Why you ask, because players will create outfits for their offline characters to be posing in their homes!! A table where all your other characters are dining and drinking in merry fashion. Your main(s) sitting in thrones with the others kneeling or bowing in reverence at them. Positioning 2 of your characters at the door acting as guards! It's a win-win situation, you get more sales we get our characters interacting with each other when not in play!
    Edited by phaneub17_ESO on November 9, 2018 12:13PM
  • Ertosi
    Ertosi
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    Zos Think of it this way, if you let us place our offline characters in housing in fixed positions, it would increase the sales of character slots, outfit slots, and outfit tokens. Why you ask, because players will create outfits for their offline characters to be posing in their homes!! A table where all your other characters are dining and drinking in merry fashion. Your main(s) sitting in thrones with the others kneeling or bowing in reverence at them. Positioning 2 of your characters at the door acting as guards! It's a win-win situation, you get more sales we get our characters interacting with each other when not in play!

    I've really wanted this to be added to the housing system. The most useful way of adding it would be if we could not only pick their location in a home but also assign each an emote. You could create a band with /drum, /lute and /flute or have them all /eat and /drink around a dinner table.

    The only real prob with this is the question of what to do with an alt that's used as a housing NPC when you enter that home with that alt. But the problem is easily resolved by simply having their NPC likeness disappear from the house when you enter it using their character, much like how a popular housing addon handles the Banker and Merchant when you use them at a house where they are already on display.
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  • daruma_lady
    daruma_lady
    Soul Shriven
    I would totally love to have npcs wandering around my house like they do in skyrim. One could be in the garden or stable, in the house or wherever you choose to put them. A guard would be great. After taking the time to furnish & decorate my home it feels empty being the only one in it (besides the mounts & target dummy).
  • kylewwefan
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    No offense, it’s just your house. My house is pointless as well.

    ( I know of 3 Players now, surely there’s more...that have every Mundus Stone, Every Attunable Crafting Station and testing Dummies out the wazooooooo)

    Not every house will have this. It’s very likely a group collaboration.

    Once you see these type houses, you’ll be able to really see the potential.
  • Unit117
    Unit117
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    kylewwefan wrote: »
    No offense, it’s just your house. My house is pointless as well.

    ( I know of 3 Players now, surely there’s more...that have every Mundus Stone, Every Attunable Crafting Station and testing Dummies out the wazooooooo)

    Not every house will have this. It’s very likely a group collaboration.

    Once you see these type houses, you’ll be able to really see the potential.

    Sure but that’s less than 1% of players.. also even thier houses feel lifeless as there’s almost no one ever in them. You might have a few people throughout the day stop by at best to craft a set. But no one really has a reason to hangout at a house. They are dead. I’m with one of the biggest guilds with a really popular and giant guild hall with everything. It’s still a dead zome
  • Jayne_Doe
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    moonio wrote: »
    Housing would be more useful if they had a mount upgrade station.. Some people only log in to feed their mounts! lol

    But this becomes completely useless after mount training is completed.
  • CyberSkooma
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    All I want is a way to officially dedicate a home as a guild house. Even just one is fine.

    If we could dedicate multiple homes, natively, for different purposes, that would be even better. It's not very much to ask .It really isn't.
    Edited by CyberSkooma on November 12, 2018 7:47PM
    I play this game a little bit I guess
  • MornaBaine
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    To combat the lifeless feel of houses they really need to give us all the little creatures they already have out in the world that makes it feel alive. Flocks of birds, squirrels, frogs, snakes, etc. Al those little critters you find outside.

    Inside, yes we desperately need NPCs. A stable master for mount training is a GREAT idea! A FULLY FUNCTIONAL merchant and banker would also be really nice. Ditto a writ board from which you could pull all writs. Also an NPC that you can buy all the basic style mats from like you can in cities. I'd kill to have one of these in my craft station area. And while I love the music box I still really just want a bard NPC that plays instrumental versions of all the songs the bards in the game play. It'd be neat if we could have the flute option as well. And yes, a drummer bard!

    Also I really like the OP's suggestion on being able to designate a guild hall, separate from your primary residence, that you can assign to your guild. In addition, it would be great if you could assign "guild hall status" to any house for any guild you belong to, not just those you personally own. Lots of players would really like to be able to easily "share" their home with their guildies but this is impossible on console and can only be done on PC via the Port to Friends add-on and even that is unwieldy. A simple additional selection when you click on a guildie's name that says, "Visit @playername's Guild Hall" would be fantastic.
    Edited by MornaBaine on November 13, 2018 12:31PM
    PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!

  • KronikFlatulenz
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    I really like the guild house idea.
    I'd also like lootable houses. Not looting our own houses obviously, but able to loot and rob from dressers, desks, baskets etc when visiting another players house would have me visiting them all the time.
  • Mason_King
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    I really like the guild house idea.
    I'd also like lootable houses. Not looting our own houses obviously, but able to loot and rob from dressers, desks, baskets etc when visiting another players house would have me visiting them all the time.

    And maybe Craft Traps or place enchantments to deter thieves.
  • kimaeril
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    I would love it if I could see my other characters in my home. It would be cool to see them sitting or standing where I left them.
  • kadochka
    kadochka
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    I love these ideas, just like everyone else! PLEASE give us something, ZOS!
    if I could make another character, their name would be Cries-For-Character-Slots. AKA, I need more.

  • cyberjanet
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    @ZOS_GinaBruno I would like to third this and add some new ideas.

    This thread looks recent enough for me not to make a new one, and yes! Our houses need more life. I would like NPCs that walk up and down doing emotes, drinking wine, playing musical instruments, sitting at tables, eating and drinking. We saw it in the trailer for housing, with the khajiit sipping his wine.Maybe even NPCs at the crafting tables, looking as though they're crafting.

    I think to get housing NPCs as mementos would be nice, so that you place them in any house, same as mounts and pets, and the current banker, merchant and fence.

    You would earn the mementos through quests. You help a musician out, and they promise to come play for you in your home. Perhaps a drunkard follows you home because you gave him coin for a bottle of spirits. People you rescue need a place to recover, if you'd be kind enough to give them a roof for a while. That kind of thing. Could make for some interesting side-quests, and does away with the slavery/servant overtones. They're there because they want to be. Perhaps you meet someone when you're attuning a craftstation, and they ask if they can use the stations at your house. When you get M'aik achievement he wants to visit and see what you do normally.

    These quests could add some new life to areas we never go to anymore. Just think of all those lost souls in Coldharbour who would like a real house to feel welcome in.


    Edited by cyberjanet on November 26, 2018 11:49AM
    Favourite NPC: Wine-For-All
    Mostly PC-EU , with a lonely little guy on NA.
  • kind_hero
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    One great way to make the houses interesting, is to add interactions with the enviroment.
    There are addons that help you turn lights on/off or start machines, so the posibility exists.

    An other fun way to make them more interesting is to add events, like your house is being raided by pirates/bandits/daedra so you can fight them with your friends, something like in the arena,

    or add more interactable components, so we could create mini-games, puzzles, whatever. Essential for this would be teleporters and switches to enable/disable gates, platforms, fire/shock walls, spike floors, trigger events to spawn mobs or rewards (heavy sack, chest, drinks, whatever). I want to create my own dungeon/puzzle
    [PC/EU] Tamriel Hero, Stormproof, Grand Master Crafter
  • immozz01
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    just use EHT, use your own imagination for once and start animating/triggering. don't ask ZOS for every solution, start creating, my hunters is filled with moving npc's, moving doors, boatrides etc etc. a house is as dead as the decorator I guess :)
  • Veinblood1965
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    My thoughts exactly, right now it seems kind of pointless. A garden that actually grows plants like in Skyrim would be nice, useful things like that.
  • Unit117
    Unit117
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    immozz01 wrote: »
    just use EHT, use your own imagination for once and start animating/triggering. don't ask ZOS for every solution, start creating, my hunters is filled with moving npc's, moving doors, boatrides etc etc. a house is as dead as the decorator I guess :)

    @immozz01 what is eht? Also I’m guessing it’s a pc thing. I play on Xbox.
  • immozz01
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    Essential Housing Tools, addon that allows to do a lot more in a house, like animations, triggers and such
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