A plea for commuincation

gusthermopyle · January 18

In light of all the exciting new developments with ESO, and the long awaited promises of transparent, regular communication between developers and community, it would be amazing if we could get the same kind of response in regards to the housing community.

At the moment it feels like the game developers are actively seeking feedback from players in regards to the direction of the game and some huge changes are happening that are in direct response to this kind of feedback. It would be a real shame if the housing community did not get the same kind of energy.

Responses from the team to forum posts would be so great to see. Some more information on what the housing team are thinking in terms of direction, features, QoL etc. Any kind of interaction with housing devs would be more than welcome and a feedback loop that responded to players would enthuse the community in exactkly the same way it is currently doing with the larger player base.

It was absolutely great to see the increased item limits being announced and I'm sure that made everyone in this section smile. But it does sometimes seem that there is very little regular communication about housing developments or direction, and many many posts asking for features never get a developer response.

How can the community best communicate with the development team? Is it simply through forum posts? If so, then some occassional developer responses would assure us that at least someone is listening. If requested features are impossible, improbable or simply not workable then it would be good to get that response so people can understand the issues. For example, I have been doing this for a long time now and I still don't really understand why there are not even a few generic weapons/armour furnishings, and the many many posts requesting that don't ever seem to get a dev response or explanation. It does seem that often many people in the housihng community request the same things - we all wanted more slots, thanks again for that! We all want weapons and armour furnishings, we all want bigger boulders for covering up large areas, we all want roofing, stairways, more structural pieces etc etc.

I realise that I am speaking on behalf of thoise of us in the "from scratch" category, and that is probably a small percentage of overall engagement wioth housing in game. But when ZoS wants to highlight housing in their promo materials, they showcase the incredible builds of people from this section of the community.

Would it be at all possible to form some focus groups to speak directly with developers? Could devs spend some time with some of the members of the major housing guilds, or speak to some of the prominent players who run and organise guilds/competitions? Could guilds issue some kind of survey to members on behalf of the dev team?? Any and all suggestions on how to better

If 2026 is the year of re-enegising ESO, then let's take this opportunity to bring the housing community up to the same levels of communication and enthusiasm as the rest of the game.

MoonPile · January 18

Agree!
Here's what I learned – just scroll down past the pictures:
https://moonpile.tumblr.com/post/795179582088232961/i-got-to-chat-with-the-housing-devs

I understood that bit of outreach, limited though it was, to be a motion towards better communication. (When that contest started I'd said "I hope the winner asks about [this and that]" – so in the end, I tried to do what I'd hoped someone else would, and share with other players.)

It would be great if it could continue. As said in the post, they were not allowed to respond here (and it really makes sense to only have designated people reply; the forums can be... hazardous, lol. Sure it'd be cool to know if something we asked was planned... OTOH, if they had to say they can't work on / deliver something, yikes, I'm sure that'd be a can of worms too. It would also take time away from the work we hope for – making the stuff!)

But yeah, I also wonder if there could be some "ambassadors" with whom there might be more regular communications.

While reading the "Week 1 Summary" on PTS , I thought it was great that they're doing that! I did notice, almost no Housing except the response to a glaring bug. But I thought it was because the Housing items so far were really great; few bugs. Not much that really necessitated a reply.

But, yes, we'd love to learn more about some things you mentioned if possible – a little bit of roadmap, + things that have been requested for a long time, like actual weapons / racks, etc. It feels like some long-requested items are being purposely avoided, and it definitely leads us to wonder why the reason seems to be a big secret.

LunaFlora · January 18

i would indeed also love to get more Housing communication.

have never gotten zos responses on my Housing posts, though also never tagged any zos member because i am unsure who to tag.

katanagirl1 · January 18

It would be nice to know what the housing devs are working on. We got the precision housing editor, which was a huge help for console players, and the Home Tours, which allows us to see more than one listed house from a particular player. I don’t think the EHT addon has made it to consoles, and I don’t know if it ever will. I would prefer not to use an addon, but we do need the ability to save our housing setups in case something goes wrong (it has in the past for some players). I’m sure there are other features that would benefit the whole community too. Things have been really silent since those improvements came out some time ago.

There have been posts about various improvements that could be made to housing, one that I am reminded about every week is the Luxury Vendor. One new item per week is not much, and for me personally it seems like it is an item that I am not interested in buying anyway. As OP mentioned, we have asked for a many things that already exist in game, like armor racks, straw target dummies, archery targets, mushroom barrels, and so on. Perhaps the devs don’t see these fitting into the categories that the Luxury Vendor has or something, I can only guess. Add a new category, have more items each week, whatever it takes. While we are on the subject, can you please get him off Daylight Savings time as well? He is showing up an hour later than the Golden during this time because she is on GMT.

MoonPile · January 18

MoonPile wrote: »

Agree!
Here's what I learned – just scroll down past the pictures:
https://moonpile.tumblr.com/post/795179582088232961/i-got-to-chat-with-the-housing-devs
...

Also, spotted this relevant article / post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1qgevzt/article_the_elder_scrolls_onlines_smaller/

"refreshing older aspects of The Elder Scrolls Online wasn't something "the previous way of doing things" allowed."

That is the sense I got from the Devs too. The team seemed small and stretched pretty thin (and the folks I met were even relatively newer additions to a previously-even-smaller team – it was clear that they were able to do some things like Weather Control with the addition of these devs).

A lot of us want tons of different furnishings from the game. Fact: they did have to prioritize tightly; doing something would mean some other thing wouldn't be done. Something always has to give. I imagine some of these old requests (mushroom buckets, etc.) had to be deprioritized versus churning out NEW housing items, houses, etc. & fixing them, in those inflexible schedules.

It does seem like communication is more of a focus now too. So yeah, I'm a bit hopeful.

katanagirl1 · 5:09AM

If there is no communication, then they are the ones prioritizing what gets done. I’m suggesting that maybe their priorities don’t align with ours.

katanagirl1 · 5:12AM

I am unable to edit the above post even after reloading, there is no gear icon.

What I meant to add was that if their priorities aren’t something that we want then it might be a waste of time. Many others have been asking for these old items, not just me. Many people feel like new housing items aren’t added fast enough, and yes, old mushroom buckets are new furnishing items.

gusthermopyle · 3:18PM

MoonPile wrote: »

That is the sense I got from the Devs too. The team seemed small and stretched pretty thin

That's great to know, thanks for posting!

I guess my take away message for the devs here woul dbe to emulate the current whole game approach of focusing on QoL and fixing current/older issues than new features. For a while at least.

How we can communicate this to them, other than forum posts like this remains mysterious. How they communicate with us seems still to be a major problem if, as you said in your article, they are NOT ALLOWED to post on forums.

How we can develop channels of communication could perhaps be a way forward