[Housing Suggestion] Life beyond the walls...

illutian · April 19

Having just previewed Castle Skingrad, and noticing the guards patrolling the wall outside of the actual house 'area'.

I'm left kind of sad that places like Alinor Crest Townhouse don't have NPCs down in the crafting area. Just makes the 'world' feel empty.
...especially in places like Water's Edge; literally smack dab in the middle of town and yet....no one walks the streets.

Skingrad proves that it can be done.

Note: Just to head it off, I'm not talking about NPCs inside the area we can edit.

LunaFlora · April 19

yes!
it feels so odd to be in Water's Edge and look at a completely empty Leyawiin, and feels lonely.

katanagirl1 · April 19

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the npcs that you see (the guards) still inside the housing instance? I don’t think they are in the overland part of the game that you see outside the house.

ghastley · April 21

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the npcs that you see (the guards) still inside the housing instance? I don’t think they are in the overland part of the game that you see outside the house.

Pretty sure any NPC you see would need to be part of the house instance. Doomchar has some, too, which are more obviously part of the house, but outside the build area.

illutian · April 21

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the npcs that you see (the guards) still inside the housing instance? I don’t think they are in the overland part of the game that you see outside the house.

I'm pretty sure the area outside the house is actually part of the instance of your house.

Veinblood1965 · April 21

My thoughts also. I think the house in Solitude Western Skyrim has that problem. It's right in the middle of town and out the windows you can see nothing. It's the reason I didn't buy it.

katanagirl1 · April 21

illutian wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the npcs that you see (the guards) still inside the housing instance? I don’t think they are in the overland part of the game that you see outside the house.

I'm pretty sure the area outside the house is actually part of the instance of your house.

Right, so you won’t see any npcs or players that look like they are outside the house because the house really isn’t in the same location.

Why do you say it is done in Skingrad?

illutian · April 21

katanagirl1 wrote: »

illutian wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the npcs that you see (the guards) still inside the housing instance? I don’t think they are in the overland part of the game that you see outside the house.

I'm pretty sure the area outside the house is actually part of the instance of your house.

Right, so you won’t see any npcs or players that look like they are outside the house because the house really isn’t in the same location.

Why do you say it is done in Skingrad?

In Skingrade, if you go outside to 'your' wall and watch the castle ramparts. There's two guards that patrol up to a third one, and back down. AFAIK, it's the only house that has "ambience NPCs"; the rest are empty of life beyond the house wall.

I'm not asking for them to repopulate [house] world. But like add just half a dozen NPCs that wander around in the towns that have homes with 'outdoor areas' (ie Alinor and Water's Edge). And/or traders that path along the roads on some of those castle-ish homes; pretty sure there's one that has a 'main road' that branches to your place while continuing on into the distance.

....feel like I need a dog and a mustang (obviously the horse one).

katanagirl1 · April 22

illutian wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

illutian wrote: »

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the npcs that you see (the guards) still inside the housing instance? I don’t think they are in the overland part of the game that you see outside the house.

I'm pretty sure the area outside the house is actually part of the instance of your house.

Right, so you won’t see any npcs or players that look like they are outside the house because the house really isn’t in the same location.

Why do you say it is done in Skingrad?

In Skingrade, if you go outside to 'your' wall and watch the castle ramparts. There's two guards that patrol up to a third one, and back down. AFAIK, it's the only house that has "ambience NPCs"; the rest are empty of life beyond the house wall.

I'm not asking for them to repopulate [house] world. But like add just half a dozen NPCs that wander around in the towns that have homes with 'outdoor areas' (ie Alinor and Water's Edge). And/or traders that path along the roads on some of those castle-ish homes; pretty sure there's one that has a 'main road' that branches to your place while continuing on into the distance.

....feel like I need a dog and a mustang (obviously the horse one).

I previewed this house but don’t remember seeing them, I will have to check it out again. Maybe they are responding to player feedback about this issue.

I remember commenting that Potentate’s Retreat should have dragons flying over it (after seeing those giant creatures moving about in the lava around Doomchar Plateau) and they of course did not add them to that house, but the new Southern Elsweyr house has dragons flying over it. They aren’t the same dragons that you see in the overland but they’re something.

I too wish they would change these things after release as I have Potentates and it would add a lot to the value of the house.

EDIT: clarification

cyclonus11 · April 22

I was just wondering the same thing - all of the missing dock workers when looking down from the Princely Dawnlight Palace wall

Supreme_Atromancer · May 19

The guards in the Skingrad Castle house were an awesome idea. They really bring stuff to life. I really hope they do more of this stuff in the future.

Danikat · May 24

I'd love to see this with more houses. I understand they can't show what's actually going on outside the house but it would be nice if more of them had a bit of life beyond the walls, especially when it's in a town and looking out over busy streets. It doesn't have to be anything big, Skingrad just has a few guards and that's perfect.

There's also some houses where I like the quiet. My main house is Mournoth Keep and I like that when I look out it's all peaceful outside. (In reality it's a very popular house, especially for access to the nearby wayshrine so there's constantly people coming and going and the dolmen in front kicks off regularly.)