Hello everyone,

I want to argue for an update of the Bastion Sanguinaris playerhouse. I hope that I can convince some of the responsible developers and that this is also in the interest of other players. I do not claim that these are concerns have not been voiced before by anybody else, but it seems there is currently no ongoing discussion regarding this.

Firstly, I want to say that I really love this house. The design and the textures are very beautiful and the Blackreach setting is really gorgeous. It is however the only Greymoor/Vampire themed house that we have now and possibly the only one that we will get. In that sense I feel that, while the exterior certainly looks like a great vampire castle, the interior falls a bit short of my expectations.I have no issues with the ground floor. There are however, two things that I find lackluster about the upper rooms:



The scale and magnitude of the castle is lost in the upper rooms, as we have two instanced rooms without any connecting elements. We have to imagine any stair cases between the groundfloor and the rooftop and it is not clear where those two rooms are, as none of them has the windows that we can see on the outside. I think it would add a great deal of flavour to the house if we had a hint of a great staircase and a small section of corridors. Further, it would be nice to see the windows on the outside as elements inside the house (as for Daggerfall Overlook). As daytime doesn't change it the light from these windows doesn't have to be dynamic. The Bastion should be high enough to reasonably allow for another room that could incorporate these elements, based on the following assumption: Both the upper chamber and the withdrawing room are connected by the secret entrance in the fireplace. That leads me to believe, that they are on the same floor, as there would be no reason for the exit of the secret passage to also be hidden inside a fireplace, if this exit is not also part of a connected chimney. This brings me to my second point.

There is technically enough space in the upper rooms, but most of these areas are behind the secret passage. This make the "publicly" accissble area quite small and it just doesn't feel like a castle this way. You wouldn't expect to regularly traverse a secret door in the only other accessible room, because any "guest" can see you.

Considering these reasons, I suggest adding another instanced room to the castle. It could be connected to the groundfloor door that currently leads to the withdrawing room (or arranged in another sensible way. I have more ideas but I want to keep this comprehensible). I provided an image to explain this layout. This room could be oriented in such a way (as in the figure or flipped by 180 °), that the outside windows are incorporated in the "room a" or the connecting corridor. From this floor you could reach the withdrawing room and from there on everything can be left as it is. This way the castle will feel much larger and it will be an opportunity to bring in some style elements (windows, corridor, stairs). In my opinion, this would be an upgrade to the house that can be achieved with little effort. I can not speak for others, but it would make me very happy.




I want to adress some possible concerns that could be raised:

"The house is too large anyway considering the decoration limit"
-> I can not understand the obsession of some players to fill every inch within a house. The vastness is what makes this house so amazing. It is something that just goes perfectly with a vampire themed castle. I would not necessarily see lower decoration density as a detriment.

"I will have to redo everything"
-> I can understand this concern, but as this will still add only an instanced room a small portion will be affected. If ZOS also provides the wall elements as decoration you could block off the rooms and just have a corridor, which should be fine if left undecorated.

"The house is expensive enough as it is"
-> I will not consider how an upgrade of this or any house would be monetized, I think it is also justifiable to provide this as a free update.


Concerns that the devs might raise:

"There are technical limitations"
-> I will not be convinced of this. You could add the instance for the room inside any of the nearby existing terrain. I am sure this is doable without causing a lot of additional load to the house.

"There is no incentive to do this extra work"
-> It is often times stated in streams and promotions, that you have a passion for this world and you care about the player experience. This would be a nice and easy way so add something for the playerbase, to keep already released content relevant and create incentives for people who have not been convinced by this house so far. Looking at the brilliant work you have done with the other Greymoor-Style castles it should be easily doable to add one instanced room. And if this ends up being an independent one time extra purchase, I could also live with that.

"We might upset some players if we listen to one guy"
-> That is true. It is ultimately up to you. You could do a poll if you think that the people who can vote here are represantative of the general playerbase. Or you just decide. I think you guys have had to make more controversial decisions.

"This is not part of the current update"
-> Please never let this hold you back. This game is a great as you decide to make it.

I hope I am not upsetting anyone with these mock questions, I'm sure you get what I mean. Ultimately I think this would improve the Bastion Sanguinaris. I think there are more houses that could do with little tweaks, but I can not make a case for those. I hope that you see this, that you maybe even consider it and I would be really happy about a developer response. If you need more input from me I'll gladly help as much as I can. I would also appreciate any support from you guys (the other players). If you feel this is right help me to keep this thread up.

Best,

Vaqual