PTS Update 27 - Feedback Thread for Housing & Features

ZOS_GinaBruno · July 2020

This is the official feedback thread for Housing, including the new homes, furnishings, houseguests and character pathing. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?
Did you test out the new character pathing feature?
- Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function?
- Was anything confusing or unexpected?
Were you able to check out the new houseguests?
- Which one did you use?
- Did they appear to behave as expected?
Do you have any other general feedback?

Azorean · July 2020

Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery is not in-store or house list.
And if you find it on the map you can enter but not buy it because it says is not for sale.

Nord_Raseri · July 2020

I'm anticipating a tour of these new homes. Are either of the akin to the architecture of morthal?

SantieClaws · July 2020

Agreed - this one cannot find the galley house.

The ice house is very nice - the cave part is quite small and less of a living space than perhaps might be nice. The dwarven entrance - this does not feel like it fits and you might have been better just having the door being an ice cave. This one does not feel that dwarven interior space is really needed - or just make it a big ice cave instead?

The pathing system is very easy to use - though a little disappointing you cannot set them to perform an emote at a pause point or something like that.

This one took a little video. It's just things walking about. It works with flying things too. A shame they will be included in the existing limit as that really does contain just how much life you can add to a place.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

https://youtu.be/K0Djbxp-200

Barezz · July 2020

I am disappointed that the "Houseguests" count towards the Special collectible limit. That category is already loaded between non combat pets, mounts and assistants.

Epona222 · July 2020

Azorean wrote: »

Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery is not in-store or house list.
And if you find it on the map you can enter but not buy it because it says is not for sale.

Could you say where to find it on the map? Even if it is not purchasable right now I would still like to have a look and take some screenshots

bharathitman · July 2020

I hope the Stillwater house (ice lake house) is priced accordingly (similar to Moonsugar meadow). It's just a basic house with a small interior and a medium sized frozen lake. It's appealing for sure, but definitely not worth it if it's priced around 13000 crowns

karthrag_inak · July 2020

Is certainly a great start, yes? Perhaps this will precipitate limit increases? This one can always hope.

CaffeinatedMayhem · July 2020

What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?

Both are nice. I squeeed the moment I walked into Stillwaters and realized it's Dwarven! Then kinda let down when it's only 1 room and the Lake (plus alcove). The see thru ice is nice, but other than that... not really sure what to do with it. The 4 polished lights are nice, but will there be more updated Dwarven? I was hoping for the metal chairs and storage containers from TESV.

OMG THE ANTIQUARIANS GALLERY. Not a gallery, this is my lodge retreat. Not in the Crown Store... does that mean it's unlockable for gold? PLEASE???? The front of the house is... interesting. The interior alcoves mean no windows by the front door, which looks odd imo. Also the random half columns on the porch are... something. I hope they're re-moveable.

Did you test out the new character pathing feature?
Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function?
Was anything confusing or unexpected?

Yes.
Yes.
Kind of surprised that the maximum wait time is 30 seconds. I was expecting like 10, 30 and 1 min or 5 min. not 1 5 10 30 seconds. However, I don't plan to make a lot of use of this feature.

Were you able to check out the new houseguests?
Which one did you use?
Did they appear to behave as expected?

Yes, all of them. The voicing is nice, I expected them to be silent.

Do you have any other general feedback?

In Stillwater, I want to make the heads into fountains... but we have no generic "spigot with water" furnishing. The best I can do it stick an Alinor toilet... I mean fountain there and hide the lower part somehow. It would be nice to have a water fountain we could easily hide in walls/statues to make fountains. Yes, people will make peeing Molag Bal statues but hey, what's an online game without phallic references (coughs at load screen for this year).

Also, the Geode sketch... well, it could be worse, at least it's large. Nothing like the giant open gorgeous geodes in Blackreach but... *sigh*.

CaffeinatedMayhem · July 2020

Azorean wrote: »

Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery is not in-store or house list.
And if you find it on the map you can enter but not buy it because it says is not for sale.

The Gallery home is just west of Shademother. There is a small road on the South side of the river.

bluebird · July 2020

Epona222 wrote: »

Azorean wrote: »

Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery is not in-store or house list.
And if you find it on the map you can enter but not buy it because it says is not for sale.

Could you say where to find it on the map? Even if it is not purchasable right now I would still like to have a look and take some screenshots

South of the Shademother WB.

Epona222 · July 2020

On the issue of pathing - it seems the maximum amount of time you can set for an NPC collectible (including pets etc) to idle is 20 seconds - this is woefully insufficient, this is my home not a racetrack.

I want to be able to set my cat to idle in front of the fire for a LOT longer - say 30 minutes - before taking a stroll to its food bowl for a minute, then into the bedroom for another hour. Not bombing around the place like it's had too much moon sugar!

bharathitman · July 2020

I have a strong feeling that the Antiquarian's alpine gallery house will be tied to an upcoming promotional event in September / October (just like Summerset & Elsweyr events).
It's really good and interior's are spacious. We need more of such houses

Mix · July 2020

What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?

Stillwater is huge and beautiful. I am sure many will like the "clean" dwarven look of the interior. Outside begs for House Guests with skates lol.
Antiquarian looks great, I hope all the structural things are movable because not everyone will want to use it as a display for antiquity furniture which is obviously set up for in the preview. I really love the Morthal Jarl Hall feel (that or modelled after the inn?) with 3 levels inside. Lake and exterior is great, I think this is more what people were thinking when asking for the Falkreath house.

Did you test out the new Character Pathing Feature?

Yes.

Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function?

I did find it very easy to figure out, took me about 5 minutes.

Was anything confusing or unexpected?

I actually expected it to have more features for customizing. Guest could not interact with things like chairs or be set to have certain emotes/idles. I think the pathing is a great start and I really love it and I hope there are plans to expand the function.
Unexpected, if you put a path that goes through a wall, the Guest will ignore collision and walk through the wall. They will also walk into mid-air - which was hilarious and I get why that is part of it but for terrestrial creatures it is pretty funny.
We could use a 'jump' option in the future. To have your pet can jump up onto the bed for instance and while we can walk/run them through mid-air it won't look as natural as a jump from point A to point B would.

Were you able to check out the new houseguests?

Yes.

Which one did you use?

I tried all 3!

Did they appear to behave as expected?

They have appropriate dialogue. They are dressed nicely for their roles.
I would love it if they had additional functionality. For example, if Jorn could be placed into a combat stance or told to practice his moves, special emotes or something.Would be nice for each to have special moves, Keldora could have a pose without tray as well as with and Biro-dar is the khajiit version of Tythis atm, same scribbling away lol.
Not sure if equipping costumes on them would be doable but it would make them more customizable.
We need all races. No argonians in the current selection to come live at my mudball!

Do you have any other general feedback?

As a first step, pathing is amazing but is has so much potential as well for future functions like interacting with items, emoting, jumping, etc.

I love the new Solitude structure pieces as well as the new mastercraft craftables. Seems to be suspiciously missing the vampire alchemy equipment...Q4 maybe?

Mix · July 2020

@Epona222 Antiquarian is just SW of the Shademother WB, there is a fork on the road that points at it.

Zyva · July 2020

Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery--- PLEASE make this a notable house. Its currently listed as classic, and there is no WAY this can be properly appreciated and furnished as a classic house.

It is, by far, the best house ive ever seen. its beautiful. I want it.I want to make it a new guild hall and make it amazing. If it only has a classic limit on not only traditional furnishings, but collectibles and special items, this simply will not be possible.

Zyva · July 2020

^^ and it is worth paying a notable price for it as well, regarding the above post. between the waterfall and the gorgeous scenery, the wide open space inside the house and plenty of room outside to build your own structures as well, its a good mix for creativity and decoration.

MopeyHat · July 2020

What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?
Loved both of them so far. Obviously can't test out the Antiquarian's as it is currently unbuyable, but just from visiting it it's already on my short list for purchase.

The frozen lake house was missing a door, but otherwise looked pretty nice, if not to my taste.

Did you test out the new character pathing feature?
Love this. Definitely going to see plenty of use for me and all my roleplay friends

Please consider adding:
- Sitting on chairs or other emotes for the houseguests
- Paths for dummies

Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function?
In a few minutes I was able to work out the speed, wait, loop/ping-pong toggle, node add before/after and remove just fine.

Was anything confusing or unexpected?
Not particularly.

Were you able to check out the new houseguests?
Yes. I bought them from the Crown Store menu.

Which one did you use?
All of them.

Did they appear to behave as expected?
Yes.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Just that I really love the direction with the houseguests, the paths and the structural items. I would really love to see even more structural items, especially things from the older styles (racial, daedric/coldharbour etc).

Elwendryll · July 2020

Did you test out the new character pathing feature?
Yes!
Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function?
Yes, pretty clear interface and functionalities.
Was anything confusing or unexpected?
Yes. While trying to make an aerial path for a bat, I noticed some weird teleportations when some nodes were too close to the ground. If I had a trajectory at a downward angle, it would sometimes just "teleport" at ground level then go forward. I managed to avoid that by elevating the nodes.

Were you able to check out the new houseguests?
Yes!
Which one did you use?
Biro-dar
Did they appear to behave as expected?
Yes, just following the path that I set for him, with a selection of different dialogs if I talked to him.
Do you have any other general feedback?
Yes, when you set a path, it automatically disables all the linked items (as I was expecting, it makes sense), I was a bit sad about that. I wish it was possible to keep some furniture from the environment category linked to "pathable" furniture, Visual FX like Sapphire Candlefly Gathering, Monarch Butterfly Flock, or Shadow Tendril Patch.

I have this New Moon Senche with Shadow Tendril Patch in my house on the live server, and if the visual FX could follow it while it's roaming around the house, I would absolutely love it. This is the first thing I tested on the PTS.

Thannazzar · July 2020

What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?

Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery
- Fantastic, well sized open and airy with a real nord feel, great work on this one, its much better than solitude dwelling and looks able to be decorated for 700 slots.

Stillwater House
-Great building opportunity, a nice sized plot and a high deco limit, have yet to test how high you can build but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Do you have any other general feedback?
- Didnt try the house guests as they didnt appeal to me, hopefully there is more variety (hint: vampires, assassins or npcs ive previously worked with)

Mix · July 2020

Could we get please an easel?

We now have a painting in-progress and a palette but no easel...

bellatrixed · July 2020

The Antiquarian Alpine Gallery is a classic home which is way too small! Please reconsider and make it a notable. It's MASSIVE and I can't imagine trying to decorate it with a classic item cap, to say nothing of the fact it would be amazing for RP events/guild halls yet it can only fit 12 people.

Also, pathing is neat, but please let us make our NPCs idle for longer than 30 seconds. It would also be neat if we could set them to do different animations while idle.

Internet_Mask · July 2020

bharathitman wrote: »

I have a strong feeling that the Antiquarian's alpine gallery house will be tied to an upcoming promotional event in September / October (just like Summerset & Elsweyr events).
It's really good and interior's are spacious. We need more of such houses

Yeah I got that feeling as well. Could be that's what the Lost Treasures of Skyrim event is.

bluebird · July 2020

1) What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?
Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery:
Beautiful house! Great surroundings! Excellent use of the new rustic Skyrim style! Just 2 things:

I hope all those tables are removable furniture, not permanent fixtures (like that cursed fireplace in Proudspire and some columns in Bastion). Otherwise, they will get in the way.
Please increase the house type from Classic to 'Notable' limit. Proudspire is a Classic house, and it has 3 floors and a minuscule patio. The Antiquarian's Gallery has huge grounds with a waterfal area and also has 3 floors. It should definitely have more slots. (Otherwise, you'll repeat the Lucky Cat Landing situation again, where you add a smaller house, but add a smaller item limit too... which is basically the same as adding a large house with a large limit and doesn't solve people's issues at all.)

Stillwaters Retreat:
Big sigh... I'm shaking my head, honestly. Where to start...

This is Frostvault Chasm all over again. Which one of the housing devs has a fetish for the Dwemer = Ice combo? Frostvault Chasm is a medium sized Dwemer platform with smaller side areas, in a giant ice cave. Stillwaters is a medium sized Dwemer hall with smaller side areas, next to a giant ice lake. Like, wow...
Layout-wise, the house is rather small. Do you know how huge your Dwemer items are? Like the giant fan platform, and the huge Forge, and the loooooong tables and looooong stair platforms? A lot of Dwemer furniture won't even fit inside this house due to its smallish interior and tiiiiiiny side rooms.
The 'Dwemer' house DOESN'T MATCH DWEMER FURNITURE! I complained about this when Frostvault was released, and you do it again. I really don't understand why???? This is the SECOND faux-Dwemer house that completely misses the mark. Why??? It looks more similar to a Meridian Shrine (white and gold) than Dwemer (brass and slate). You have PLENTY of actual Dwemer-coloured Dwemer assets ingame, most of your Dwemer delves and Public Dungeons use those. You added a handful of 'new Dwemer' furniture, and matched the house to those... while it doesn't match 95% of the actually existing Dwemer furniture. I don't understand why you won't add - just - a - regular - dwemer - house.

Disclaimer: I clearly feel very strongly about this, and I'm quite confused and frustrated by the decision to add another medium-sized non-matchy Dwemer ice house when we already had one. But I hope my writing comes across as incredulity, rather than rudeness.

Just.... WHYYYYYyyyyyyyy? Confused.

2) Did you test out the new character pathing feature? Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function? Was anything confusing or unexpected?
Yes, I tested it. It is really much more detailed and polished than expected, well done!!!

The different coloured path markers are great! It's easy to see even though it has many settings.
The pause option and the various speeds and patterns are awesome
The only starnge things I noticed are in this video:

https://youtu.be/RNAyIaz4Vkw
It may be working as intended, just thought I'd show it just in case. Path type was set to Loop, and all the nodes had their Speed set to Walk. NPC seemed to not hit 2nd node, but instead miss it by a step every time, and does a strange motion after turning to loop around after the 3rd node.

3) Were you able to check out the new houseguests? Which one did you use? Did they appear to behave as expected?
Yes, I tried them all. They seemed to work, it's nice that you gave them a variety of animations to cycle through.
The issue will be the Special Collectible limit. If you introduce more of these, it will be even worse. It's already bad with hundreds of pets and mounts, and we can only use 10 of them in even our largest houses, and less than 10 in the smaller homes. If you want this system to have longevity, consider re-working the collectible limit. Can't they share slots with the Undaunted Busts and other collectibles? Must it be Special Collectibles?

4) Do you have any other general feedback?
I'm glad to see you were only holding out on us with the Structural furniture. Those are awesome additions, I'm glad you added them.

Doors and Doorways especially!

carly · July 2020

Regarding the 'Solid Tile, Ornate Platform' - the underside is exactly what I envisioned for the main floor of the ProudSpire home - it's the same dark wood as the upper floor. Please, please, can you make a thinner version of that wooden floor so I can hide the tile in the PS home? I flipped this new tile over and tried to overlay the existing blue/white tile in my PS home but it's so thick it goes right through the floor into the downstairs.

Please and thank you

Kiyakotari · July 2020

I noticed a couple of visual changes outside of the houseguests and pathing (which I'm still playing around with at this point.

One that stood out like a sore thumb is that a "heat wave" effect seems to have been added above fires. This isn't a positive thing. Not only is it visually intrusive, in any location in housing where a fire has been submerged below a surface, and is being used purely as a non-visible source of illumination, there is suddenly a visual disturbance seemingly without origin intruding into the area. (There are heat waves coming out of my floor in a number of places, which immediately caught my attention.) At first, I thought that a water effect had been misplaced!

While I do see how some players might appreciate this change in certain circumstances, it could perhaps be improved by being made into a toggle option ("hot" and "cold" as options for items that display this effect, for instance).

Loralai_907 · July 2020

1) What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?

Love the Antiquarian house, NEED it immediately. I bought some other house just for this purpose, but this one is
exactly what I wanted in the first place. Don't care for the other house at all. I mean, its lovely, but not for me.

2) Did you test out the new character pathing feature? Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function? Was anything confusing or unexpected?

Yep, worked fine, easy to figure out. Checked out a pet, a mount, and two of the new npc's, all worked great. Still need
to do some more extreme things with them, longer pathing, pathing that collides etc just to see if I can break it.

3) Were you able to check out the new houseguests? Which one did you use? Did they appear to behave as expected?

Yep, used the guard and the tavern girl. They both were interesting and behaved differently, which I liked. Eventually
adding more to what can be done with pathing would be nice, like other people have mentioned, specific actions such
as sitting in chairs, dancing, whatever.

4) Do you have any other general feedback?

Couple things. First, how dare the soul shriven not work with pathing. I hope this will be something changing in the
future. And then, not sure what the deal is with the Antiquarian house not being able to be purchased right now, and it
was a bit of a struggle for me to find it in the first place so I could at least check it out. But, I would like to be able to
test some things out in it and get an absolute for certain idea on if the tables etc come with it as "unfurnished", if they
can be moved, and what the actual count is going to be for housing items etc. Oh, and a few of us decided we would
LOVE if some of the target dummies could also move about a bit, like my dear Mournful Aegis for example.

Kiyakotari · July 2020

Having taken a closer look at both the Houseguests and Pathing, I'm thrilled. The Pathing feature is great. I wish we could have them do specific emotes, and would be delighted if that was added in a future update. Like others, I wish we could set pause points of longer than 30 secs. (Especially with the pets, which often have a much longer period of time between their various idles than the Assistants and Houseguests.)

While I'd be absolutely delighted if we were given the ability to dress any Houseguests we purchased in Costumes that we own (and it might make me actually interested in getting Biro-dar, whose garb is otherwise far too fancy for the majority of my housing projects, and who seems to me to fill the same "animation" role as Tythis without the side benefit of offering bank access), I beg that we at least be permitted to dye their costumes. Heck, make Costume dyeing on Houseguests an ESO+ perk, just like Costume dyeing on our toons! It makes ESO+ more appealing, and allows us to make the Houseguests fit in with the look of their surroundings. Keldora, in particular, is a Houseguest that I would love to use in many of my builds - except I hate the bright, semi-gaudy default colors of the Tavern Maid costume. The inability to dye her dress would make her a hard pass for me, just like Biro-dar.

I also think it's time and then some to start looking at separating out the various Special Collectibles a bit. As it currently stands, that's a lot of different types of items crammed into a single, low cap for furnishings.

dcam86b14_ESO · July 2020

What did you think of the two homes currently on the PTS for testing?

Both homes are well designed.

Stillwater home-The interior of this home is nice, I would tone down the brightness of the walls a bit, feels like the dwemer are still living in it, it's so clean.
The frozen lake should be a bit more lively, maybe not have the entire lake frozen as I know some people like water resources for homes. It has a pocket of water but needs more for the price it will costs.

Alpine home-beautiful. I would suggest increasing the item limit on this home, there's way too many opportunities for it. People will be happy to pay the price for more items slots. Also please allow the few stone platforms to be moved around.

Did you test out the new character pathing feature?

yes.

Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function?

yes, it was quite entertaining.

Was anything confusing or unexpected?

very simple to follow.

Were you able to check out the new houseguests?

yes

Which one did you use?

All of them.

Did they appear to behave as expected?

yes but they were defying the laws of physics by phasing through walls and walking in the air lol

Do you have any other general feedback?

Make it so we can swap out their clothing, race, emotes, dialogue and maybe even have them sit/kneel/dance etc

SeaUnicorn · July 2020

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/537373006205288451/732355721546563645/unknown.png

May be rename the category to "Housing" or move them in the same section with banker assistants. My new friendo Biro-Dar does not like to be called furniture. He has pride!

Elsonso · July 2020

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Housing, including the new homes, furnishings, houseguests and character pathing. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:
Did you test out the new character pathing feature?
Were you able to easily figure out how to use it and make everything function?

Was anything confusing or unexpected?

Were you able to check out the new houseguests?
Which one did you use?

Did they appear to behave as expected?

Do you have any other general feedback?

Hi.

I am mainly giving feedback on line items in /feedback, so 'ware the duplicates.

I love the pathing. Brilliant! Someone needs a raise... however, not before...

1) When editing a path, all of the other paths disappear. This makes it harder to place path nodes when it is important to not have collisions.
2) It was unexpected that the NPC follow the literal line between nodes, which involves no clipping or pathing... or gravity. They will walk through walls, columns, blank areas, even across open space, etc. Unexpected, but easily remedied. Beware long paths that need more precise node placement, given the 50 node limit that will probably be changing to be lower before this is done.
3) Probably should not be unexpected, but paths cannot go through doors between areas of larger homes (Psijic, for example) so they cannot move between indoors and outdoors.
4) Lines between nodes do go below the terrain in some places, including hills and stairs.