A plea for communication

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 · January 19

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 · January 19

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 · January 19

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

ZOS_Kevin · January 23

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

LunaFlora · January 23

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

that is nice to hear Kevin!

hiyde · January 23

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

My fingers are crossed so hard for the super no-brainer choice of who it should be.

But I don't want to shade whomever gets picked if it's not who I'm thinking of.

So, for now, I'm just gonna be a little birdie on a ledge, watching this play out and keeping my fingers crossed.

gusthermopyle · January 24

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

That's really good news, thanks Kevin

MoonPile · January 24

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

+1, this is really nice!

MidnightDuel · January 24

For players, whose primary interest is housing, now is the time to speak up and be heard. We're already seeing development of the game shifting to harder content becoming the gatekeeper to furnishings and other housing-related rewards. Just look at what's happening in the Night Market Event currently on the PTS. The new Night's Den house is located in the "event zone" and the three wings of the house can only be unlocked by the purposefully hard group content in that temporary event/zone. Likewise, more difficult overland will only make collecting housing-related crafting materials more difficult to obtain. Double-locked Antiquity furnishings (those locked behind hard-to-get zone maps, large loot tables, poor drop rates and no-chance to purchase even with complete codex completion) will now be locked behind leads from short-term events, like the Night Market. All this means is that more time will have to be spent having to group for hard content to try to collect the new furnishings and plans and less time actually spent on housing.

MoonPile · January 25

gusthermopyle wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

That's really good news, thanks Kevin

P.S. Typo in communication in title ^^
(tried to find the thread to send someone earlier but it wasn't coming up in search due to that)

gusthermopyle · January 28

MoonPile wrote: »

P.S. Typo in communication in title ^^
(tried to find the thread to send someone earlier but it wasn't coming up in search due to that)

AArgh. Thanks for noticing, my typing is atrocious! Fixed now.

MoonPile · February 20

I was just watching the February Dev Update (I liked that they will be adding more content to older zones! And beyond the usual, formulaic 6-delves type to new ones)

At ~01:11:18 @ZOS_GinaBruno asked what we think of the stream, and it reminded me of this thread.

I enjoyed the stream, it's cool to see some stuff early, and communication has been better all around! I liked that they talked in depth about how certain things were designed (e.g. DK skills) or why they made certain decisions or can't do certain things. Even when it wasn't the content I cared about (I don't play DK), it was interesting.

But... it was mostly about combat. That echoes conversations here and elsewhere: We're not seeing as much communication for Housing. I'm glad Kevin replied above and I'm sure it just takes a while to set these things up!

So this is just a response to the feedback requested on-stream: wishing we could hear more from the Housing team and, similar to the content of that steam, hopefully learn some insights about long-standing player requests and questions. From the invisible wall at Buccaneer to weapons & armor to missing structural pieces to Antiquities issues to mushroom buckets – there's a lot we're in the dark about.

P.S.
It'd be so cool if we could have whatever flying powers Mike is using at ~ 22:40 for Housing! Yeah on PC we have Magic Carpet, but it uses a ton of Undo states so it's not great for building.

Supreme_Atromancer · March 4

I agree, OP! Good Call.

I understand that communicating about some things might be difficult or have issues.

But, what about "yeah we've seen you guys asking about WEAPONS FURNISHINGS for the last TEN YEARS and we decided against it because..."?

gusthermopyle · March 21

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

Any news on this @ZOS_Kevin ?

It's been a busy couple of months for the game, no doubt. My socials are full of excited content creators brimming with enthusiasm about the fantastic new direction ESO has taken, about how it's going to dominate the MMO world by truly listening & reacting to it's user base.

Please don't leave us in the housing community behind.

gusthermopyle · April 15

Still no comms from the housing team ... but some of the big boulders in the new update 50 furnishings look like exactly what we have been asking for! No pressure team ... but if you could start rolling that concept out to cover boulder styles fitting with all the zones that wquld be real progress.

Also a couple of new Breton items like a wooden beam & a new panel seem like useful multi-purpose items to fill gaps, maybe even make roofs from?!? Nice one

Maybe somebody is reading/listening but just not yet managing to actually communicate directly with us here??

xencthlu · May 20

We're wrapping up another dev cycle on the PTS without an update on this. Will there be comms with the housing team for the u51 development cycle? What's the status on this?

LunaFlora · May 20

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

it is 4 months later and i wonder when soon is?

reazea · May 20

LunaFlora wrote: »

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.

I would love for ZOS to remove housing from the game. That's when ZOS started focusing on cosmetics and started letting their actual game die a slow, painful death.

MoonPile · May 20

xencthlu wrote: »

We're wrapping up another dev cycle on the PTS without an update on this. Will there be comms with the housing team for the u51 development cycle? What's the status on this?

LunaFlora wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback here. We are working with one of our housing designers right now to set this up. We'll have an update soon.

it is 4 months later and i wonder when soon is?

I'd like to know as well u_u

MidnightDuel · May 21

reazea wrote: »

I would love for ZOS to remove housing from the game. That's when ZOS started focusing on cosmetics and started letting their actual game die a slow, painful death.

It's only been housing that has kept ESO from being dead and burried years ago. Without the revenue from Crown-only houses and furnishings, ESO+ subscriptions, etc. ESO would not have been financially vaible to continue development and maintain the game.

gusthermopyle · May 24

I tagged @ZOS_Kevin about 2 months sgo asking for any further updates, and got no reply.

Guess they forgot about us :'(

gusthermopyle · June 24

I don't really like making this post, but I feel compelled to.

I made the original post here in January, @ZOS_Kevin replied later that month saying that they were "working with the housing team RIGHT NOW to set this up", and promised an update "SOON".

It's now 6 months later, and nothing.

I'm sure everyone is busy, but it is incredibly frustrating to hear developer livestreams talking about rebuilding trust with the player base, acknowledging that communication has been a great cause of player disatisfaction and promising to do better. The base game has seen such massive improvements this year, and that is wonderful to see, I'm sure we are all enjoying them. These new features are being talked about as the result of player feedback, listening to and reacting to the player base as a source for basing improvements on. Devs on livestreams are clearly pleased to report that they are responding to player feedback.

All I was asking for was for the housing community to get the same great response.

If there actually are any plans to create better communication with the housing community then this is absolutely NOT the way to go about it. It's been 6 months and I feel like I have been extremely patient in not posting a response like this over those 6 months. But my frustration is now too much.

I know and acknowledge that there have been a couple of things done to address ongoing requests for improvements to housing, namely the increased slots. That is a very welcome change. But there are so many things that housing enthusiasts have asked for that are still unaddressed.

The whole point of communication is so that we understand better, and feel like there is a real feedback loop between devs and players. Not just some unknown or unquantifiable dev agenda that seems to almost work against what many plares who invest a lot of time into the gameplay actually recognise as genuine and useful improvements. There is no shortage of posts on these forums that contain phrases like "do housing devs even do housing in the game?". Thsi is exactly the situation that lead to the complete overhaul of the base game this year.

If we understood, for example, why furnishing decon is impossible to implement ... or why better alignment tools cannot be brought into reality, or simply why some of the furnishings have badly aligned edges, or don't match up when placed beside each other ... or why there are still no weapons/armour displays (even just basic, non-interactable standalone racks like we see all over Tamriel). Or why some basic housing furnishings like rocks, stones, plants, trees, snow/ice are still crown store only ... etc etc.

Communication is key to good relationships. Given the rest of the game seems to be benefitting from it, why has housing been so thoroughly ignored?

As others have mentioned, surely the housing community generates plenty of real income from the crown store? The most expensive items by far are houses. Surely this part of the game is worth as much effort as the rest of it? As I have mentioned in my own posts before, when ZoS wants to promote the housing aspects of this game, they will use screenshots from some of the more famous builders in the game, all "from scratch" builds, and will happily showcase them to show off the crazy talented and creative people who enjoy making their own houses. The home tours feature was implemented purely so that other players could be encouraged to visit and see for themselves how amazing some of the builds can be. Yet here we are, with the rest of the game moving on at a rapid pace while one simple request for some communication with housing devs gets ignored for 6 months.

I just don't understand what is happening, and yes I am frustrated and it's now just got to the point where I feel I have to voice that frustration.

LunaFlora · June 24

yes please some Housing communication please

JolonBard · June 24

I have been excited to see, hear, and feel the positive energy from guildmates as new and interesting content has been released. The most recent dev livestream had great energy, largely due to Kira's infectious enthusiasm, which made the whole stream fun for me. And yet, we housing aficionados are left bewailing the abysmal drop rates of the newest structural housing plans, while our laments echo into the void, with no response from devs who understand and share our passion for housing.

gusthermopyle · June 27

Here is a great example of why I am here asking for communication.

The new nord tile on the lux vendor this weekend. New items are always welcome, but it's fairly low res and pretty useless for anything other than a decoration. It dosn't even look like something recognisable from general nord houses. Now, it's not that bad and this post is not a complaint about the nord tile itself, it's fine for what it is & I'm sure some people will like and use them (even though low res items really ought not to be in game any more at all, but a new one, really??).

Nord furnishings are something that have been requested many times on here, there is a huge discrepancy between the availability of structural pieces across the styles and literally NONE in a nord style. I realise that it perhaps is designed to fit with the other items on the vendor list this time, but it's got to be pretty far down any list of most wanted nord furnishings for any housing enthusiast.

Meanwhile, literally everyone in every housing guild this week is asking whether this furnishing is available ...

It isn't.

I get that the lux vendor is on a set rotation, but that has always been a rubbish idea. Changing it to at least reflect the current in game events would seem like an altogether better approach, no?

But the main problem seems to be that somewhere, someone (or someoneS) is/are working on new housing items to add to the lux vendor, but seemingly without any reference to anything that players actually want/need. That dev time would surely be much better spent on something that people actually want and need (a weapon/armour rack is perhaps the most requested item of all time).

This might not be so bad if there was a fully stocked catalogue of all the basic requirements we need for building houses. But while the community cries out for roofing pieces, doors that fit door frames, windows, gables, eaves, and smaller pieces of structure that could be made modular to fit into gaps etc. we get a low res tile.

The disconnect here is obvious, and as above, very frustrating. It always has been frustrating, but while the rest of the game gets a massive overhaul based on player feedback and players rejoice that their most requested changes are being implemented, it is more frustrating than ever to feel so left behind. To have had a promise of better communication 6 months ago that now appears to have been forgotten is why I now feel it is important to continue to highlight this issue.

If the deafening silence from the housing dev team is happening because behind the scenes they are working on something so massive and exciting that we're all going to be blown away by how great it will be ... then TELL US!! At least let us know that there even IS a housing dev team working on something.

But if there is, then wouldn't it be better to do so with the input of existing housing focused players, who spend hours of every day desperatly trying to manipulate the limited existing furnishings into things that will actually enable them to build houses with proper roofs etc? Isn't that what the whole game is working on right now? Input from the players?? The housing community probably collectively knows evey furnishing piece intimately, has tried to flip them, cobble them, sink them into walls etc etc, all to try and create pieces of houses that don't exist in game.

We know the issues, we know the limitations, we have tried everything with every available piece. We could be a vaulable resource to help focus on what is most needed.

Talk to us.

reazea · June 27

MidnightDuel wrote: »

reazea wrote: »

I would love for ZOS to remove housing from the game. That's when ZOS started focusing on cosmetics and started letting their actual game die a slow, painful death.

It's only been housing that has kept ESO from being dead and burried years ago. Without the revenue from Crown-only houses and furnishings, ESO+ subscriptions, etc. ESO would not have been financially vaible to continue development and maintain the game.

I think it's people who actually play the game that's kept it going all these years. Playing "doll house dress up" didn't even exist in the game originally and still shouldn't.