(Yet another) Wish List for furnishings

gusthermopyle · February 10

Yes, yes ... here we go with yet another "please please gib items ..." type post xD

But seriously, I want to make this one a bit different. Instead of asking for specific items, which we all know there are plenty of requests for, I wanted to add a list of general themes for furnishings that I reckon most house builders, from basic furnishers to master architects would like to see introduced to the game.

1) Structural pieces in all styles

This is probably the most important aspect that needs to be addressed. There is a huge discrepancy between the numbers of structural pieces available in the various styles. Of course, older styles like Nord have not had any reason to appear in updates, or new furnishings lists because the zones have not featured in game for so long. But there are literally ZERO Nord structural pieces in game, while new styles like Colovian have so many, and currently we are getting more Murkmire/Argonian/Alinor type styles with the Solstice update. Addressing the balance here would be so good for those who wish to create something in keeping with the styles of base houses.

I could list all the different pieces that I personally want, but a good general idea would be to try to create as many structural pieces as possible in all styles, especially addressing the older ones. Ultimately it's about having as much choice as possible. Walls, floors, archways, columns, beams, balconies etc etc.

It would also be great to see the introduction of smaller structural pieces that can be used to fill gaps, or create cust9om structures. Small sections of wall or floor in stone, wood etc. would allow more flexibility in creating shapes.

2) Roofing / Stairways / Doorways / Windows

Yes, it's been said many times, many ways ... but we still do not have door frames that fit most doors. The Solitude doors don't even fit into a Solitude archway wiithout doubling them up and fine tuning the placement (even then, it looks like a workaround at best). Although we do have some roof pieces, they are extremely limited and generally quite large.

We need roof pieces, smaller pieces that can be cobbled together if necessary (think Solitude shed wood lean-to but in many styles and a few sizes). We need gable pieces or at least triangular pieces that can be used to actually fit into gable spaces. We need stairway pieces, not like the huge Colovian pieces, but short sections of stairways (in wood, stone etc), bannisters that will actually sit upright when angled up a stairway. Many people have asked for spiral staircases, so adding rounded sections would mean a range of ways to create ideal stairways.

Windows have been requested again and again. Yes we do have some in game now, but a full range of windows in all styles is what we really need. Not just the windows themselves, but frames to contain them, or even complete window + frame sets.

For the "from scratch" builder, structural pieces are top of the list of requirements. We could probably all list the ones we most want, in the styles we most want, and there is a great deal of choise available now. However, it is these categories that are the most lacking.

3) Ruins

There are so many examples of ruins around Tamriel that look awesome, but so few furnishings that can recreate that effect. So the addition of broken or crumbling pieces would be great. Walls with holes blasted in them, crumbling sections of walls and flooring, garden walls with loose bricks. Again, smaller sections of broken walls or flooring would enable atmospheric custom creations.

4) Big boulders

Big boulders. Huge boulders. Gigantic boulders!! The kind of boulders that could cover large areas of large house plots in a single slot. Think about the recent vertical/horizontal sandstone boulders that were added, but several magnitudes larger. In all styles. Take a walk through Tamriel and think about the amount of background rock that is currently unavailable in game, and then add all of it! If we cannot get everything we want in terms of extra slots for Notable homes, or removal of base house parts, then at least we know we can cover up areas, or block off areas without using up many valuable slots doing so

5) Grass / Mud / Ground

Again, there have been many cries for grassy type furnishings to be added over the years. Every furnishing in the game that has any kind of mud-like texture or look has been used to create some kind of plantable area for those wishing to make their own gardens etc. But also just additional general ground pieces, like patches of muddy ground for creating our own planting area, sandy patches, moss etc. Snow-covered ground effects are also sorely missing.

Of course this is a list of my own personal wishes, but I know from my own housing guilds that these would be the things that most builders would love to see in game. As far as I can tell, everyting I have referenced here already exists in the base game. I have no idea if that makes it any easier to recreate them as furnishings, but the design team, doesn't have to do much pther than walk through Tamriel to see the kind of features I am asking about.

This is far from a complete list, so please add your own ideas below, but please do try to keep them to general categories of furnishings rather than specific individual items.

My biggest wish for 2026 is for the housing team to develop communication with their players in the same way the rest of the game is going. All the media surrounding ESO right now is so positive and it's so good to see the game turning around from last year. Bringing housing up the same levels of involvement would just be wonderful.

Ruj · February 10

I've been asking for the first two for years.

They finally gave us some roof pieces, but they have spikes on them. No way to remove the spikes.

Modular building pieces that fit together would be great. I love building castles, but the two Colovian walls don't even match side by side. The texture is different. The wall without the open doorway is overly plastered.

It would be nice if ESO asked a group of local gamers to build a castle from scratch and watch them struggle. Maybe then... whoever is making decisions for ESO's housing will understand that we need proper modular building pieces.

Transparent glass windows, windows that open/close, roof pieces, castle towers with interior stairs and open-air windows, etc.
Take Pantherfang Chapel and break it into modular pieces so players have access to tall walls and castle building.

Same with cottages. There are many in the world of ESO. Take them apart into modular pieces and give players a chance to build their own cottages. Transform every window into an open-air or transparent glass window.

Start with the basics. Not everyone likes spikes. We need some basic shapes. Spikes should be an optional addition.

Like you mentioned, there are so many doorways/doors that don't even line up. I'm honestly playing Enshrouded and WoW for housing now. I keep hoping ESO caters to builders one day. It's weird knowing there are homes and furniture I'd buy with real money, but ESO doesn't want to make housing instances/ modular building pieces that would sell well. I don't get it.

Every time I speak to someone in WoW about housing... they mention how ESO has so much potential, but the game doesn't give players the tools to easily build castles, cottages, log cabins, etc. The basics aren't there.

ESO has such great tiny furniture props. So much good decor for placing inside a home. It's the modular building aspect that is lacking.

freespirit · February 10

For me the last time we got a great set of structural items was with the Leyawiin items, even though the castle wall with the doorway has a different colouration to the walls and the wall with window!

Roof pieces and gable ends are still sorely lacking, all the end pieces are just too big.

I don't know if it's even possible given the apparent design limitations but at this point a re-sizing tool would be an amazing addition.

Also something along the lines of a "Hammer of Demolition", the ability to remove sections of a house/garden.

Put it in the Crown Store, I think it would be a instant top seller! However I suspect with this idea there could well be unseen issues such as creating actual holes in the house, depending on how it was layered when designed..... let me just remove this floor.... cut to scene of character endlessly falling! 🤣

gusthermopyle · February 10

Ruj wrote: »

It's weird knowing there are homes and furniture I'd buy with real money, but ESO doesn't want to make housing instances/ modular building pieces that would sell well. I don't get it.

Right there with ya!

I've lost count of the number of posts in which I have stated out loud that I will empty my wallet for the right furnishings

I assume housing is one of the biggest real money spinners for zos. They should milk the cash cow!

gusthermopyle · February 10

freespirit wrote: »

Also something along the lines of a "Hammer of Demolition", the ability to remove sections of a house/garden.

I think you're right, there are real coding issues to introduce something like that.

But give us the right pieces and we can cover up the original house with a boulder or two, and make our own!

freespirit · February 10

There are already some pretty huge boulders and as someone who frequently ignores existing structures to build my own, I find often those boulders are not needed.

Sometimes the trick is to think ahead in the build idea and then you realise the new structure can also be useful in the hiding of the old. 🙂

gusthermopyle · February 10

freespirit wrote: »

There are already some pretty huge boulders

Crucially, not in all styles though. In fact, there are very few really large boulders, and a sandstone boulder doesn't work well in quite a lot of environments outside coastal areas.

freespirit · February 10

The Boulder, Volcanic Plug(black/500g) from Vvardenfell Housing Vendor in Vivec is a good one, flatter on one side than the other.

The Boulder, Lunar Spine(light grey/Luxury Vendor or Guild Traders) is another good one, although I personally don't like the textures on this.

Another thing to consider for hiding stuff is any large structural item, walls covered in ivy can look aesthetically pleasing, as can hedges, the Hedge Overgrown, Large can be very useful too, it's even good for ground cover over big areas. 🙂

MoonPile · February 10

Great list Gus! Agree with all.
I'll add another vote especially for HUGE MOSSY BOULDERS!

Because they can also work as ground and will match a wide variety of styles. Been asking for a while:
https://moonpile.tumblr.com/search/mossy%20boulders

The Dawnwood structures were so incredibly helpful for landscaping and cover-up and I'm so grateful we got them! But mossy boulders would still be a great help for when you don't want a bunch of roots sticking out.

(FWIW, I'm extremely aware of every type of boulder and ground-cover option including, for example, Boulder, Large Mossy Limestone from High Isle – too small, blurry textures, and far too high-contrast. Options that blend better with more types of surroundings would be best.)

freespirit · February 10

If you are just trying to hide a house so you can use the remaining area for your own build I reiterate boulders are not the only option, far from it in fact!

@MoonPile was that a dig at me? The fact you know every type of boulder? I sort of feel it was.

In my defence I was mentioning specific boulders because not everyone has your knowledge and things sold by basic furnishing vendors can often be overlooked.

@gusthermopyle another item I have used quite often to hide buildings is the Elsweyr Platform, Ancient Rectangular, there is a square version too. They are pretty huge and do have an advantage in the fact they are totally flat surfaces so easier to put together, however their colouration is not suitable for some areas.

MoonPile · February 10

freespirit wrote: »

If you are just trying to hide a house so you can use the remaining area for your own build I reiterate boulders are not the only option, far from it in fact!

@MoonPile was that a dig at me? The fact you know every type of boulder? I sort of feel it was.

In my defence I was mentioning specific boulders because not everyone has your knowledge and things sold by basic furnishing vendors can often be overlooked.

@gusthermopyle another item I have used quite often to hide buildings is the Elsweyr Platform, Ancient Rectangular, there is a square version too. They are pretty huge and do have an advantage in the fact they are totally flat surfaces so easier to put together, however their colouration is not suitable for some areas.

Apologies freespirit, it was not intended as a dig at all, I can see how it came across that way though. A lot of my builds are landscaping-heavy, and I'm actually poking fun at myself for having a "What's that pokemon?!" approach to furnishings: I probably allocate too much brain-space to 'knowing them all' xD (that context is missing here). (Actually I mostly wanted to point out that specific Limestone boulder and why it doesn't fit the request – in case Devs would think "that exists". Likewise other extant ones; similar problems.)

From what I've seen of gusthermopyle's builds I think they're also a housing pro, but it's always fair to make suggestions. You never know who's reading and might benefit from the info.

For me (and others, from what I've heard around the community), such boulders would be immensely useful for a variety of reasons.
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LunaFlora · February 10

that is a good wishlist.

gusthermopyle · February 11

MoonPile wrote: »

(Actually I mostly wanted to point out that specific Limestone boulder and why it doesn't fit the request – in case Devs would think "that exists". Likewise other extant ones; similar problems

For me (and others, from what I've heard around the community), such boulders would be immensely useful for a variety of reasons.
.

This.

gusthermopyle · February 11

freespirit wrote: »

If you are just trying to hide a house so you can use the remaining area for your own build I reiterate boulders are not the only option, far from it in fact!

@MoonPile was that a dig at me? The fact you know every type of boulder? I sort of feel it was.

In my defence I was mentioning specific boulders because not everyone has your knowledge and things sold by basic furnishing vendors can often be overlooked.

@gusthermopyle another item I have used quite often to hide buildings is the Elsweyr Platform, Ancient Rectangular, there is a square version too. They are pretty huge and do have an advantage in the fact they are totally flat surfaces so easier to put together, however their colouration is not suitable for some areas.

Thank you for trying to help! Just for clarity, Moonpile & I are very experienced house builders. I realise some who read this post may not be so your advice above is great for anyone inexperienced, but the purpose of my post here is to highlight to the devs the things that serious builders feel are still sorely missing, or that would give us greater scope to create compatible builds in the environs of each house and it's background zone styling.

Although as you point to, there are some existing workarounds, they are extremely limited for those with genuinely artistic intent. Just because there are some big boulders in game does not mean that they fit in every environment, and the colour/style of background rocks is vital to some builds. Same for items like the elsweyr platforms - fine if you want a black(ish) brick backdrop, but they only wwork in limited places.

Moonpile has done some amazing work in communicating with the housing devs, and has some very in depth posts about pretty much every aspect of furnishing. The purpose of this post is to ensure that the design team are aware of the things that would be great additions to the game, and we don't want any of them to dismiss these ideas on the basis that they think there are existing workarounds. We have done every workaround over the years you can imagine and then some!

ellmarie · February 11

Roofing is definitely a wish list item! I'm trying to build a boat house on a dock and the look I want is a roof with shingles.
And definitely more doors and windows!

ESO_player123 · February 11

Definitely a YES to roofing. It's a shame how many slots I have to waste to assemble a triangular piece that fits.
On the subject of rocks: can we please have more sandstone rocks with a rough but relatively flat face like the ones from Skingrad? The huge ones are great, but I would love to have medium ones as well.

Ruj · February 17

freespirit wrote: »

If you are just trying to hide a house so you can use the remaining area for your own build I reiterate boulders are not the only option, far from it in fact!

@MoonPile was that a dig at me? The fact you know every type of boulder? I sort of feel it was.

In my defence I was mentioning specific boulders because not everyone has your knowledge and things sold by basic furnishing vendors can often be overlooked.

@gusthermopyle another item I have used quite often to hide buildings is the Elsweyr Platform, Ancient Rectangular, there is a square version too. They are pretty huge and do have an advantage in the fact they are totally flat surfaces so easier to put together, however their colouration is not suitable for some areas.

I prefer ESO simply gives us the options to remove pre-existing buildings from homes.

I hate spending precious item limits covering up buildings I don't want in my home instance.

Ruj · February 17

ellmarie wrote: »

Roofing is definitely a wish list item! I'm trying to build a boat house on a dock and the look I want is a roof with shingles.
And definitely more doors and windows!

Absolutely!

I was devastated because ESO will finally have gothic arched ceilings.. and they have spikes on them. :c
The spikes ruined it for me.

I hope they release the same ceilings without the spikes.

We need more modular cohesive roofs, doors, TRANSPARENT or open-air windows, etc.

And they need to stop releasing pieces of a set that don't match. The Colovian wall and Colovian wall with doorway are not the same material. The Colovian wall without doorway has so much excessive ugly plaster on it that it doesn't match the Colovian wall with doorway.

Why do the pieces in a set not match??

Sambucca1973 · February 17

I was just thinking about this and would really like climbable ladders or ropes. I've been working on a tree house/fort and it would just look better than trying to cludge together stairs/plants. (Also, especially since we have trapdoors. Those work with stairs, but a ladder would be more in keeping with the lore IMHO.)

(Seriously. I'd been daydreaming about housing and wondering about ladders/ropes, popped in here, and saw this question. Just a nice little coincidence.)

MoonPile · February 17

Sambucca1973 wrote: »

I was just thinking about this and would really like climbable ladders or ropes. I've been working on a tree house/fort and it would just look better than trying to cludge together stairs/plants. (Also, especially since we have trapdoors. Those work with stairs, but a ladder would be more in keeping with the lore IMHO.)

(Seriously. I'd been daydreaming about housing and wondering about ladders/ropes, popped in here, and saw this question. Just a nice little coincidence.)

YAY! That makes at least two of us!

It'd be awesome if climbable ladders and ropes also had some toggles for short / medium / long, and could be "climbed" (instant teleport probably; I doubt a climbing animation would be possible) so we could actually place them vertically – rather than having to layout a bunch of diagonals around a structure. As you said, it gets really cumbersome.

Requested in a couple of places and in-game, just for ref:

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Supreme_Atromancer · February 18

gusthermopyle wrote: »

Yes, yes ... here we go with yet another "please please gib items ..." type post xD

...Instead of asking for specific items, which we all know there are plenty of requests for

Honestly, I think a lot of us just want to feel heard by the devs.

Not to take from OP's post; Its good food for thought!