Housing functionality...

[FelledArbor]

I was just cruising some of the nice houses I saw around town (FP), and I realized that this aspect of the game, although huge to some people, is being almost completely ignored. Housing is really more of a fun-and-poinless type of thing in EQ2.... Why not make it more functional for friends, families, groups, guilds, friends, etc etc like SOE originally lead us all to believe? I don't know about you all, but I am clearly disappointed in what SOE has done with housing, or what they haven't done as it were. Here is a copy of my feedback submission:  --"The fucntionality of house items seems a bit lame. Why not allow wooden crates and other containers to be stationary storage units? This way one does not have to use the bank if they have aquired the money to buy their own storage. Cash boxes and piggy banks could even be used to store money. These both allow a way for items to be stored in an  in-game-basis (therefor allowing easier access to guild members, alts, friends, buyers, etc). Furthermore, beds, chairs, benches, fireplaces, etc can be used to gain some sort of lasting effect buff (Rested or Comforted: allows for higher stats, skills, tradeskills, regen, etc etc. The longer one is exposed to the in-house item, the longer their buff will last). Also, pets could follow around outside as minor familiars (perhaps rarer pets could even provide very minor stat buffs). I just feel that so many house items could become much more functional. I really think this is important, afterall, lots of time any money goes into making a nice house for oneself, why not make it more useful?? " I think all of these are feasable, doable, good ideas that arent too teribbly unbalencing. I can think of hundreds more ideas just sitting here and pondering (portal spires/gateways, closets that allow one to change to look/appearance of their current clothing/armor/etc, makeup/cosmetic stations that allow one to change hair/skin color/apply facial makeup, etc etc)... Why hasn't something been done about this yet? Please leave plenty of feedback with your ideas and opinions, thanks guys! =)

[Darktong]

Ive always thought it rather daft that you cant even use the items in  your house. I mean you cant even roleplay  if you wanted to . For example you cant sit down which seems really silly. I can understand the problems there might be with coding a lot of new ideas into the game but there are some that i think could be

 

Like for example, the house vault. It has two slots for two bags. Have the chests and crates in the house flaggable  as " Use as House Vault slot" then you could  keep items in them instead of clicking a cork board on a wall that destroys any immersion  you might have had. By all means use this to sell (leaving for sale signs on a board is ok )but to try and tell us we keep two bags/chests hidden behind a cork board is a no no

 

 

The chairs could speed up the vitality bonus when we are offline perhaps?

[msgnomer]

I've been thinking of posting an apartment suggestion or two and so I'll just add a couple of things myself.

 

(1) My biggest wish is to enter the game inside your house or apartment if you logged off there and are paid up.  I wouldn't mind my character returning dumped to the street if she wasn't paid up on her rent, but when she is in good standing it would add much to the immersion for her to "wake-up" in her apartment when she went to sleep there.

 

This applies to the crafting instances as well to a lesser extent.  After all if they catch you sleeping in their crafthouse I could conceivable see them kicking you out.  Currently it depends on whether there is someone in the crafthouse or not as to where you return.

 

This has to be possible, since it's already done in EQ1 - if your guild instance isn't up and you logged off there, you get a message to give it a few seconds to create the instance before you try again and return to the game where you left, in your guild house instance.

 

I even put this wish in the SOE Santa thread, but well, I didn't even get a lump of coal or a charcoal chunkette!

 

(2)  Although I understand the difficulties with scale, I too wish for more interactivity with the apartment objects.  As for the scale thing, I would be delighted if the designers didn't worry too much.  If an ogre tries to sit on a gnome thinking chair, well, she would look silly and probably even obliterative it.  Since furniture comes in different sizes, characters could just buy the right size for themselves.  If they plan to have guests, an oversize chair or two and a tiny chair or two could be brought out company.  It would be neat if carpenters could even be given the choice on some furnite as to the size they wish to make.

 

I've already noticed some interactively and I've found it delightful.  The frostfell food you can take a serving from.  I visited a house once where I rubbed a bottle and was transported somewhere magical!  The Frostfell trees and fireplaces were interactive, very cool.  I hope to see more of this in time.  It adds a lot to the game for me.

 

On the same note as making the apartments more immersive, I'd love if there was camping hear one could pull out to camp in the outdoors when you log off.  SWG has these really neat camps you can set up.  Perfect way to logout in some odd place.  Again it would be cool to have the camp there when you logged back in and first thing you had to pack it up.

 

Some think I'm nuts, but I like the housing, crafting, and fun events in addition to the constant fighting.  I like the adventuring part too, but I love the variety, especially when it contributes to immersion in the world.

 

-msgnomer

Message Edited by msgnomer on 01-04-2007 09:23 AM

[mappam]

I SOOO Agree!

I have just spent 2 days trying to save enough money to afford a 2 room home! I created items to sell on the broker. I hunted critters. I gathered and chopped and trapped and mined.

I moved in yesterday late afternoon - I was So excited! I decorated with what I had taken from my one room inn home.

I get into my sparkling new home - place my items - and wonder what to do now???

The point is that I LOVE to create a "nest". I think a lot of players have this same feeling. Maybe for RP (guilds or just friends to visit) or just for a quiet and safe place to enter the game for a short time. BUT I want to DO something while I am there!

I agree completely with the stat regeneration idea. I think it would be great to have vitality or stamina increase while in your home - just like in RL.

There is a reason that The Sims game(s) is SO Popular - people like to create and play house :smileyhappy:

I would love to see more items - stuff - place settings for the table, plants, comfortable chairs and sofa type furniture so I can sit in front of a warm fire and relax after a hard day of hunting or crafting. Room dividers - screens or maybe tapistries that can be hung from the ceiling. Let me interact with my environment - pick flowers, tame a stray cat (not for hunting just for the house - the better the skill the bigger/better the taming), reading a book that will give me vitality or rest - etc.

And PLEASE give me more options and Animations for my pets! I have the option to "pet" my cat but not my dog (not called a dog but can't remember what it is called ingame) BUT there are NO animations from my character - she just stands there looking dumb LOL.

There is a whole aspect to this game that would bring in new players that is not being taken advantage of by the devs.

[mezagetu]

I also agree with the ideas above.

I would like to see the ability to sell your house back to a house broker, so if you've worked up the ladder the money you put in improving the house your leaving can be recouped partially or fully.  Maybe have it so you can put your house for sale furnished to other players or change the ownership between toons.

Another thing I would really like to see is a way to expand your house, add a garden or another room limiting it within the scope of the property the larger the house the more you can expand.

Another idea I had was maybe a carpenter could create other custom wall and ceiling paneling to be change your house even more with other options to make partitions to break up the space.

Last of all the ability to mount old equipment that you've grown out of for sentimental attachment with an option to add notes people can read. Examples: "I took out with this sword."  "This shield saved me when fell the killing blow."

[Astrlidia]

I agree. I too moved, finally, to a bigger house. spent hours redecorating it. With the frostfell fireplaces. which I'm leaving up all the time, give it a very nice homey feel.

I too wish I had a kitchen to craft my wares in, being a provisioner, which it would make sense. I know I can buy them from the city merchant, but my provisioner is not guilded. I do find the gossip, the NPCs' do around the place interesting, than their usual rote speech. A tiny bit distracting, but interesting.

This frostfell had me saying some chioce words and getting a tiny bit scroogie-like, because of the frostfell decorations was nearly blocking the door to my new home.

[Etchii]

Insurance!!  Let me take out a 100plat policy...Then I can burn that motha dow*cough*....   I mean... be covered in case of an "accident"...

 

*hides the huge jug of lamp oil*

 

 

[Zenith]

I would like housing to work properly. Ceiling to work in houses with more then 1 floor, walls in the Qeynos halls to be flattened so you can mount stuff, 2 and 4 Bayle court to be fixed so they are not much laggier then their other 5 room counterparts...

[Jackula]

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ZenTouma wrote:

I would like housing to work properly. Ceiling to work in houses with more then 1 floor, walls in the Qeynos halls to be flattened so you can mount stuff, 2 and 4 Bayle court to be fixed so they are not much laggier then their other 5 room counterparts...

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QFE!I love my house (Ulric, 4 Bayle Court, SQ - Nek server).  I've spent a lot of time and money to make it look as fabulous as it does, have overcome and mastered most of the buggy placement through countless hours of practice in decorating, and sometimes I wonder why.  Aside from increasing the amount of sales slots and giving more storage room for  furnishings, what is the benefit to  upgrading a home?   It lacks alot of potential functionality and convenience.  I hope to see old housing issues addressed and new functionality added.A nice start would be to address the quoted issues, add real guild and shared housing, and implement a shared bank/selling feature for those of us who would like to set up a "real" shop in our homes.  As much as I would like to use all my crafting stations regularly, it's still more efficient to craft in a tradeskill instance which actually has a fuel merchant, deposit anything an alt crafted to sell into my shared bank, and pick it up with my main who then lists it to sell.  Why shouldn't any of my alts log into my potential craft center, be able to buy fuel, make a product, and use a merchant board to directly list items for sale on a "shared" selling account rather than me having to go through the whole alt/inventory shuffle?Why couldn't I gain some bonus vitality regen or other crafting/adventuring benefits  based on my house size and status cost?  Why is it necessary:- for it to be nearly impossible to place a chandelier without it being swallowed- to live with warped floors and out of plumb walls- to endure rain leaking roofs- to be  completely unable to sit in a chair, lay on a bed, or steal a soft cushioned green couch from Rivervale ?I am a housing enthusiast, but it could be much more than it is.  There is still room for improvement.

[mappam]

Mezagetu I LOVE those ideas!

To be a "real estate broker" :smileywink: - you could buy a house. Decorate it. Then sell it - Fantastic! It would give some of the Partners-that-don't-play a REASON to try the game, other than fighting.

I know that there are people that would love to BUY a decorated home. I know there are people that would love to CREATE a decorated home.

I also like the idea of expansion or remodel. And the carpenter to build partitions so the rooms can be separated into different areas. TeeHee and add a window! And your "The shield saved me when..." hanging on the wall or over the fireplace.

Why can't tailors create bedspreads, curtains, chair fabric etc? That would be super to have the option to DYE existing furnishings to match your decor......

[Jvaloth]

All I know that NWN  you can sit on chairs and lay down on beds.  It cant be that hard for them to code this stuff.  Theres so much they could do from the housing aspect that hasnt been done.   I own one of those giant places and its full of stuff but after your done decorating not much left to do.

Its pretty clear that housing is not a priority of theirs unfortunately.

 

[GrunEQ]

I love housing, and all my alts have their own place.  I love decorating and making each place different with basicly, the same stuff.  But I too wish I had something to DO in a home.  I want to SIT in chairs, LAY on beds, PET my pets, and have a HUG animiation.  It would be lovely to have place settings, curtains, and other decor.  There are no more paintings for carpenters after level 50, let's have more.  It would be nice to have crafting stations with a fuel vendor of some sort in the home.  It would also be wonderful if carpenters could make stoves.  Also I am hoping sometime soon carpenters will be able to make Fae furniture, as the other stuff is too big.  I would like preview options where you could see how upgrading your walls, ceilings, floor would look before you buy (other games have this option which also includes gear, showing how new stats would affect you before you attune).  Wall paper would be nice too.  But an oft asked for option, which I know there is a need .....  have a way to gather up belongings with out having to have personal space....for moving to a larger dwelling.  It could be a function of the asset screen or whatever, that you hit pick up all belongings for moving.  Then when you get to new place, you hit button that says take belongings.... or just a special NPC you can buy for moving that will hold everything and follow you to new place....but you get the idea.

BTW  Frostfell was terrific this year, yall did an outstanding job!

[Kadurm]

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GrunEQ wrote:

 It would also be wonderful if carpenters could make stoves. 

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I dunno, I think I would rather cook on a metal stove than a wooden one. LOL :smileytongue:

[FelledArbor]

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(1) My biggest wish is to enter the game inside your house or apartment if you logged off there and are paid up.  I wouldn't mind my character returning dumped to the street if she wasn't paid up on her rent, but when she is in good standing it would add much to the immersion for her to "wake-up" in her apartment when she went to sleep there.   This applies to the crafting instances as well to a lesser extent.  After all if they catch you sleeping in their crafthouse I could conceivable see them kicking you out.  Currently it depends on whether there is someone in the crafthouse or not as to where you return.   This has to be possible, since it's already done in EQ1 - if your guild instance isn't up and you logged off there, you get a message to give it a few seconds to create the instance before you try again and return to the game where you left, in your guild house instance.   I even put this wish in the SOE Santa thread, but well, I didn't even get a lump of coal or a charcoal chunkette!

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Nice Idea! And to everyone else, I love the ideas, great thinking everyone. Thanks for all the feedback, lets keep it coming with the great ideas; the devs will have no choice but to pay us some attention!

[btennison]

I like all of the ideas so far, keep them coming!

My wishes for a home are more basic:

I wish I could find 2 & 3 room status housing in the starting cities. I started in Nettleville, with a one room house in the bank. Talk about convenient! A bank, a bell, crafting, all within a few steps but limited to one room housing. I set my COQ to inside the bank and next to my room door, convenient for storing harvests and selling. Now that it's painfully obvious that I've outgrown the one room house, my options are not thrilling.

SQ, no bank, no bell, at least one zone away from transport. NQ, has bank, no bell, two zones from nearest bell unless you run overland from NQ gate to Ant bell. QH, bank, bell, no crafting and status housing is on 3rd floor of inn with chairs you must climb/jump over and NPCs to dodge.

I would like a 2 or 3 room status house in QH, with outside entrance and access to crafting as well as banking and bell. Shouldn't be too much to ask for, eh?

 

[TheDawsonator]

I am lovin' all these ideas. I haven't read all of them so I'm imsure if this has already ben mentioned but I would love the ability to mount anything on the walls of my house.  I mean, you sometimes spend 10 or so levels with this Fabulous sword only to replace it with a new one at the next tier and then either donate it to your deity or sell it to a merchant, what a waste.

I think it would be a great idea if carpenters could make a standard mounting (maybe teir related) to add to aanything, within reason.

That's my 20 cents worth <(^.^)>

[TheDawsonator]

I absolutely agree with this and have thought the same time and again.

[FelledArbor]

One thing I would really like to see soon is beds, chairs, benches, fire places, etc put to use by providing some kind of vitality bonus. Vitality is really hard to come by for hardcore crafters, and this would really be a nice reward for those of us who have ground our way through the tough levels to provide new and powerful weapons/armor/spells/etc to the market.

[mezagetu]

It would be nice if they introduced a next level of housing to have a personal dock, with the ability to do quests to get destinations for it or it just takes you to the villiage of your choice maybe this is a good idea for a guild hall, reach your guild hall by dock.

 

I'd like to see city merchants selling recipes at different guild levels to make the tradeskill equipment for the home, with recipes for all classes for special guild related items which become availible when your guild reaches specific levels, maybe recipies for city specific items like statues of famous npcs could also be available.

 

As for a fuel seller in the home, howabout a house item which allows you to contact a delivery person (merchant screen) you pay 5% more perhaps but the item is delivered to you at home with out the walk (maybe a job for the goblins )

[Heattanu]

I would like to have a way to leave a message for someone entering my house. Either a message pop up for anyone who enters, or a personalized message on the bulletin board or other house item for anyone who cares to check it out. Sort of like the personal bio some people make for their avatars. It would be useful for:

Carpenters to notify people of where to view example items that are for sale in their consignment containers.

A roleplay message. I know one evil gnome that placed a bookcase over his door so you can't leave his house without camping out of the game. Bet he would like a pop up message gloating that the visitor is now trapped in his miserable room. *sticks out tongue at Jaly*

And I still want a mannequin that I can display favorite old armor sets on. Sell one mannequin for each race.

[Skydrop]

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Heattanu wrote:

I know one evil gnome that placed a bookcase over his door so you can't leave his house without camping out of the game. Bet he would like a pop up message gloating that the visitor is now trapped in his miserable room. *sticks out tongue at Jaly*

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/house

Brings up the house dialog box anywhere in the house so you can exit. :smileytongue:

[Grimlux]

I think it would be "neato" to have a friend over to visit, plop down and play some cards, chess, etc. *interactively even*

/gems anyone?

[FelledArbor]

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Grimlux wrote:

I think it would be "neato" to have a friend over to visit, plop down and play some cards, chess, etc. *interactively even*

/gems anyone?

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    Heattanu wrote:     I know one evil gnome that placed a bookcase over his door so you can't leave his house without camping out of the game. Bet he would like a pop up message gloating that the visitor is now trapped in his miserable room. *sticks out tongue at Jaly* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /house Brings up the house dialog box anywhere in the house so you can exit.

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Great ideas guys, keep em coming =)

[Cuz]

A better occlusion in the appatments in SQ close to the QH entrence would go a long way. Right now our "guild hall" never ever has anyone there because EQ2 becomes a barely interactive slide show. A real guild hall would be rather nice too.

I like the idea of society games being playable in there too

[btennison]

I was riding through QH a few days ago and stumbled across a few adventurers who had placed a table in the street. There were a dozen or so folks gathered around, just beginning a "Drinking Contest" sponsored by one of the participants, who also supplied several varieties of ale. Despite the bragging of at least one drunken dwarf, I managed to uphold the honor of my barbarian ancestors. At least I was still on my feet when the tap ran dry. :smileyvery-happy:

I could see many more activities like this if the houses were more functional.

[FelledArbor]

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btennison wrote:

I was riding through QH a few days ago and stumbled across a few adventurers who had placed a table in the street. There were a dozen or so folks gathered around, just beginning a "Drinking Contest" sponsored by one of the participants, who also supplied several varieties of ale. Despite the bragging of at least one drunken dwarf, I managed to uphold the honor of my barbarian ancestors. At least I was still on my feet when the tap ran dry. :smileyvery-happy:

I could see many more activities like this if the houses were more functional.

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OMG! How fun! And the idea is just dripping with RP goodness! If things like this could happen more, it would certainly moisten up some of EQ2's massive dryness. Seriously, if SOE doesnt get in gear, they are going to be trampled by Vanguard (which sounds like it is very much focused on this kind of fun RP stuff!).

[Cuz]

Vanguard is focused on fixing it's bad PR and that's about it.

[FelledArbor]

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Xanumten wrote (on Mistake on tradeskiller class thread): doh and one more thing as far as houses go.. and you might add this to your other thread Felled.  Why on earth do Heritage quest rewards not provide even minimal status reduction?  My main adventurer is a mage and can't use roughly 3/4 of the heritage rewards sure I get status points to spend for doing it but an adventurer that can use the item gets both status and a useful reward...  If I want it to place is my house why not make it more than just fluff and add a little status red to them.  even if it was as little as 25 for lower lvl HQ items it'd be something...

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[JoarAddam]

The one thing I'd really like to have, that would best improve the functionality of my player home.

 

REMOVE THE CRACKS FROM MY WALLS

 

Ok, i get it, the gods smote the planet with big rocks from the moon, earthquakes abound, freeport houses suffer a little from it, but it doesn't seem to have affected qeynos houses.  They had the same rocks, same moon, same Gods same Smiting, and same craters created in the nearby countryside.

 

I can't hang a painting on 50% of my wall space because cracked wall geometry protrudes into it and makes it look like i've got a broken and trashed painting.  I paid plat and status to get this 5 room place, but for wallspace for actually hanging something and having it look OK, it may as well be a 3 room place....

 

If fixing this issue means that every item i have in the house shows up in my overflow, SO BE IT! i'll put it all back, no problem, but just "being from freeport" doesn't mean I have to live in squalor.  There are plenty of evil rich people in beautiful homes IRL (Kim Jong Il...  George Clooney... The Olsen Twins)

 

 

[FelledArbor]

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JoarAddam wrote:...

There are plenty of evil rich people in beautiful homes IRL (Kim Jong Il...  George Clooney... The Olsen Twins)

 

 

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LMFAO, Classic! Hahaha