Houseguest Letdown - Suggestion For Future 'Guest' Implementation

AlekoB253 · October 2020

I was so excited to get my first house guest. What are they going to do, I wondered? I was thinking I could interact with them in various ways. Maybe they had a special quest or lead to give? Maybe they were a house repair person? I was hoping for something, and got so little. With how detailed this game is and how life like the taverns and towns are with people drinking, dancing, singing I was hoping for more than a person just looking at a map.

SUGGESTION: Please give us NPCs that we can assign more customizations and functions too. Like be able to assign one of the emotes or personalities you know to the houseguest. Dress them in outfits you have acquired. Allow them to play and instrument, or sing. Make to where we can have a lively tavern or party going on. The possibilities are so great, I'm shocked it hasn't happened sooner!

Don't get me wrong I'm grateful to have a guest and the new 'pathing system', but my house still feels stale compared to the world outside. Please, please, please keep working to improve the customization of the house and it's guests so we can have a place where other players would enjoy visiting.

SteveCampsOut · October 2020

It would be nice if talking to them bequeathed a random lead once a day!

PrimusNephilim · October 2020

House guest is great and so is the "free" house, just goes to show you can't please everyone.

volkeswagon · October 2020

i heard they just day random phrases when clicked.

Shaie · October 2020

I agree that it would be neat if they actually did some things, but perhaps the new Pathing housing ability is a step in the right direction? If the devs see that players are making serious use of it, perhaps they will expand the options we have for the "living decorations" we have in our homes - such as Humanoid guests emoting/animals making noises or moving around like they do when they're with us, or giving us the ability to turn our Humanoid guests into living mannequins by dressing & arming them. Wouldn't it be cool if we could outfit them in armor & then animate them to be "practicing their skills" on our target dummies? Or if we could say... Take a wolf mount & combine pathing with hunting - the wolf moves around to a "target", then stalks & "kills" it? Or a bear mount fishing in one of the bodies of water that are present in several homes? Equi/Bo/Cer/etc.-vine mounts grazing?

The possibilities are endless, but sadly developer time & energy is not. It took them a long time to bring pathing into the game from idea to implementation. Hopefully they have a wee team working on more options & we'll get more in time.

Kiyakotari · October 2020

I'm absolutely delighted with this houseguest, though I do wish that she didn't always have her map out. It makes pathing her around, then setting her to look at things in the house, a bit limited. It would be nice if her "ponder poorly drawn map" emote was mixed in with some other idle, so she put it away once in a while.

Despite that one thing, I really, really love her. And I've talked to her a lot, and haven't yet encountered any repeating dialogue! That's cool. I'm curious if that's the "eternal" gratitude aspect...

Stinkyremy · October 2020

I haven't messed around with it but it would be nice if the house guest can walk around, turn the music or lighting furniture on and off. It may be able to do that already, let me know if it can because I doubt I will use it.

Kiyakotari · October 2020

Stinkyremy wrote: »

I haven't messed around with it but it would be nice if the house guest can walk around, turn the music or lighting furniture on and off. It may be able to do that already, let me know if it can because I doubt I will use it.

The new Houseguests, including this free one, can be set to walk around using the new Pathing system that was introduced with the last update. Our Mounts and Non-combat Pets, and our Assistants, can also be set up with paths to walk around houses.

They can't be made to interact with things in the house, though, so they can't sit in chairs, turn lights or music boxes on or off, or do things like open and close doors.

barney2525 · October 2020

As long as they can go to the fridge and get me a beer, I'm good.

AlekoB253 · October 2020

After having her in my house for a bit now, i wish she would put her map down for just a minute while she talks to me. lol

Old_Foggy · October 2020

A Bard would be a good one but I'm sure others will come along.

Work in progress, I had to work on the bar first of course

and promoted my merchant as barkeep for now. I see Tomb Hanks has had some grog already

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Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo · October 2020

She could find a random lead for us once per week...it would be better indeed. Some sort of utility. In 2020 people want efficiency and options.

Eifleber · October 2020

I'd still much rather had the option to place my characters in my house(s) so they will also show up when I logon with another character.

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo · October 2020

Eifleber wrote: »

I'd still much rather had the option to place my characters in my house(s) so they will also show up when I logon with another character.

That's an interesting idea. I think the RP community would love such a feature. Character houses and presence when Roleplaying on another character would be useful and nice.

Fischblut · October 2020

If the devs see that players are making serious use of it, perhaps they will expand the options we have for the "living decorations" we have in our homes - such as Humanoid guests emoting/animals making noises or moving around like they do when they're with us, or giving us the ability to turn our Humanoid guests into living mannequins by dressing & arming them.

I tested pathing system on PTS, but I don't use it on live exactly cause it's currently missing all those cool options

I want my wolf mount go into the fountain and "bathe" there - or at least use sleeping/playing animation. I want my senche to come to Dye Station and sit near it for some minutes - as if he's chosing his outfit

New Moon crate (and newer) Apex and Radiant Apex mounts use certain idle animations when they stop moving on their path, but these animations are random/not always performed. And not all mounts have appropriate animations; all older mounts don't even have any fun animations :'(

I want my mounts to lie down and rest on the hay in their barn.
And of course, it would be so great to make houseguests perform emotes/use costumes and personalities from our Collections!

Many people already use pathing feature now, and I'm glad that it was added. But for me, it's too limited.

Bethgael · October 2020

Eifleber wrote: »

I'd still much rather had the option to place my characters in my house(s) so they will also show up when I logon with another character.

I've said this in a previous thread, but I agree. I think it would be amazing if we could have "houseguests" that are our other own characters. Just for pictures.

It would be, I imagine, as simple as when our pets despawn when entering a house. If the houseguest is the currently played character, revert to a "default" NPC instead.

Firstmep · October 2020

They can't even sit in chairs, just walk around.
Big letdown for sure.

hexnotic · October 2020

In fallout 76 you can have npcs hang with you in your camp, and they have a whole quest line. Would be cool to see something like that in TESO.

ArchMikem · October 2020

volkeswagon wrote: »

i heard they just day random phrases when clicked.

The guest is just like the Abnur Tharn statue. Except not a statue.

Danikat · October 2020

I think it's probably better if house guests don't give quests and things since this one is only available for a limited time to people who have Greymoor and others will be crown store items (and probably in crates at some point too). I imagine a lot of people would be annoyed if they have to buy an item they're otherwise not interested in just because they want to eventually do all the quests in the game.

But it would be great if we could set them to use specific emotes at certain points in their path, and even better if they could also interact with interactable objects in the house, like lights and chairs. We've got a very, very basic version of this with the ability to set them to walk, run or sprint between nodes on the path, but it would be nice to set them to use emotes when they stop as well.

The same goes for pets and mounts. I've got a cat in one of my houses prowling around the table and "jumping" up on the chair to look at the food. If I'm lucky she will do the emote like she's about to pounce then changes her mind while she's up there, but I'd love to be able to set it to happen to complete the effect of looking like she's trying to get at the food.

Shardaxx · October 2020

She isn't exactly interesting to have around is she.

Synnastix · October 2020

Should be able to change clothes & assign emotes.

That would being life to housing.

MoonlightShadow · October 2020

I am going to use her as a librarian. That way it is well within character for her to be wandering around reading something.

Chiriri_Gleameyes · October 2020

I was somewhat disappointed that she had the map out all of the time, but it ended up looking good when I put her in the hedge maze I had made. Now just just wanders back and forth in the maze with map in hand, sometimes pausing when the path branches.

I'm just sad I had to remove a different pet to put her in. The 10 limit is a little rough when it is in one of the very large houses with a lot of land. Initially I was looking forward to more guests, but I don't want to give up the other stuff I already have placed (like my flying mini-dragons).

TheImperfect · October 2020

I like the house guests a lot and would like to see more. Other people have suggested bard house guests and I'd like that as well as dancers.

MoonlightShadow · October 2020

mrsrobot wrote: »

I like the house guests a lot and would like to see more. Other people have suggested bard house guests and I'd like that as well as dancers.

Great!! Then we can listen to "Red Diamond" in our own houses - all day - every day . . .

Michae · October 2020

PrimusNephilim wrote: »

House guest is great and so is the "free" house, just goes to show you can't please everyone.

And I guess some people are just easily amused.

Ascarl · October 2020

PrimusNephilim wrote: »

House guest is great and so is the "free" house, just goes to show you can't please everyone.

I think you may be right for the free house guest, but if ZOS wants to make money with houseguests, they need to improve some stuff.
First of all I think the 10 mount/pet/servand/guest limit has to go. I am reluctant to spend money if I have to remove somebody else. Houseguest should have a seperate limit.

Then having some more different idle action would help for immersion.

Last but not least I find the idea of placing you other characters in the house brilliant. Maybe open one or two slots for all. Then ZOS has something people can spend money on and keep them happy.

Alphawolf01A · October 2020

I wouldn't call Houseguests a "letdown", It's a good start, with room for improvements. Many great ideas have been suggested throughout the forums.

I agree that the Antiquarian needs to put the map away from time to time, or at least while jogging or running. It really looks dumb to be running around with a map in front of her face.

Also, the guard needs to have a torch or lantern that auto activates when it's night time or in dark areas. Give him a little more "functionality".

Emote use at the pathing nodes would be nice and the mounts need the "roar"/ "rear up on hind legs" action at nodes and "jump" action in between nodes.

shimm · October 2020

Our homes need Stripper poles and strippers need jobs. All are welcome. Females, males, cat, orc, non combat pets. No discriminating. Take our money ZOS!

Alphawolf01A · October 2020

shimm wrote: »

Our homes need Stripper poles and strippers need jobs. All are welcome. Females, males, cat, orc, non combat pets. No discriminating. Take our money ZOS!

Well, if they give us the ability to add emotes (like dancing) and outfit creation (or lack there of) to the houseguests, it would be do-able.