Upcoming Housing Improvements!

[Cloudrat]

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There is a long list of purposes for housing and I am sorry you apparently missed some content along the way.  Take some time to find out what is out there.

[Maisland]

Senya wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There's a whole group of players across all servers who love to decorate.  In fact that's what we do.  Some do it almost exclusively, instead of raiding or questing or pvp or whatever else because for us it's more enjoyable.  Some do it in addition to raiding or grouping or whatever.  Just because it's a feature you have no use or enjoyment for doesn't mean others don't love it. In fact if it were not for housing (and crafting) I'd probably be playing something else.

There's an entire decorating community.  I keep an empty slot on my account just to visit other servers decorated homes from time to time.  Likewise, I've gotten mail from cross-server visitors saying they'd stopped by my homes.There's currently a player hosted scavenger hunt that leads you thru tons of decorated homes/guild halls on AB.  Decorators have a world wide chat channel.  There are fansites dedicated to decorating.  SOE and other fansites host decorating contests with prizes.  Believe me, people are seeing it.  People with no interest in housing/ decorating may not be seeing it unless they happen to visit a house to buy something, but rest assured people are seeing them.

The housing (and other features that many consider "fluff") are also my main reasons for playing this game.  I have the greatest admiration for those who are good enough at decorating to have their homes featured on web pages.  I do what I can and am pleased by the results, but I also realize that I am not in the same league as those who win prizes in contests with their homes.

That said, here is a short compilation (in no particular order) of what would be cool housing features based on both my own thoughts and what various people have posted in this thread:

• Automatically give all alts trustee status for all homes on the account.
• An "Access Trustee" option added to the right click on housing doors which will bring up a list of only those houses at that address for which you have trustee status.  If there is only one such house, then it would skip directly to that house with no list to choose from.
• The ability to place a transportation object in houses where the owner has trustee status which will permit access to the prestige home of the owner of the object.
• The ability to name our houses.
• A right click option that allows people to access the homes of guild mates from the portal to member housing in a guild hall.
• Housing access objects placed in locations other than Freeport or Qeynos.

Thoughts on and additions to the list are welcome.

[ravendruid42]

Zarandar@Oasis wrote:

That said, here is a short compilation (in no particular order) of what would be cool housing features based on both my own thoughts and what various people have posted in this thread:

• Automatically give all alts trustee status for all homes on the account.
• An "Access Trustee" option added to the right click on housing doors which will bring up a list of only those houses at that address for which you have trustee status.  If there is only one such house, then it would skip directly to that house with no list to choose from.
• The ability to place a transportation object in houses where the owner has trustee status which will permit access to the prestige home of the owner of the object.
• The ability to name our houses.
• A right click option that allows people to access the homes of guild mates from the portal to member housing in a guild hall.
• Housing access objects placed in locations other than Freeport or Qeynos.

Thoughts on and additions to the list are welcome.

These, very much, please!  Especialy the Portal to member housing funcionality.  The main reason our guild bought one was because we thought that's what it already did.  We were all rather disappointed to discover that it only allowed you to go to your own home.  I woul dbe extremely haapy, though if even any two items on this list came with the next GU.

[KindredHeart]

I agree with other posters about:

• Need for guild hall amenity to allow easy transit to any other guild member's house.
• Additional houses SHOULD NOT equal additional broker spaces.
• Additional houses SHOULD provide additional house vault and moving crate space. (<--- PRETTY PLEASE)
• Give the house something it does for you, some benefit to being in it or doing something with it.  I liked one player's suggestion for having it provide a small vitality rebuild, but see little this would do for max level characters still working on AA.  But I think that was on the right line of thought.  Something not earth shattering, but nice to have

And, if we're going to get the ability to own as many homes as we want these I think are going to be essential to managing them:

• Ability to see a listing of all houses you own
• Ability to pay rent on all of them via one interface
• Ability to retrieve an item from any house via one interface
• Search for item capability across all houses - cause goodness knows I'll forget which house I put X item in.

Thanks,

[Curiel]

One poster here mentioned automaticaly having all alts on an account as trustees.  I don't want others who are trustees of my houses to see every alt I have via the trustee tab in the /house window. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who are my alts and who are mutual friends.  I like logging in and being alone sometimes.  So no automatic alt trustee function for me please.

Besides,  I don't think that's necessary since you can go in and very easily make which ever alts you want trustees.  

[SnoesieQ]

Sooo, I must have missed: How much SC will each extra house slot cost? Will it be per character or per account?

[Vellisse]

Cloudrat wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There is a long list of purposes for housing and I am sorry you apparently missed some content along the way.  Take some time to find out what is out there.

Please inform me then.

Until they have amenities, their worthless, except to the few that "decorate" their cute little pointless houses.

[Curiel]

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Cloudrat wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There is a long list of purposes for housing and I am sorry you apparently missed some content along the way.  Take some time to find out what is out there.

Please inform me then.

Until they have amenities, their worthless, except to the few that "decorate" their cute little pointless houses.

It has a "point" for other players though.  I can respect that for some players enjoyment of the game does not come from decorating houses.  But it does give enjoyment to others. Just because housing doesn't add uber stats to your character for raiding or give you level 90 guild hall amenities doesn't make it "pointless" for those who enjoy that aspect of the game.  It's a game after all and everyone has a different way of enjoying it.

[SnoesieQ]

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Cloudrat wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There is a long list of purposes for housing and I am sorry you apparently missed some content along the way.  Take some time to find out what is out there.

Please inform me then.

Until they have amenities, their worthless, except to the few that "decorate" their cute little pointless houses.

How very shaker of you.

.... it is all pixels on a screen, you know. Some like decorating houses, others collect raid gear to play barbies with. One is not more real than the other.

[Maisland]

Curiel wrote:

One poster here mentioned automaticaly having all alts on an account as trustees.  I don't want others who are trustees of my houses to see every alt I have via the trustee tab in the /house window. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who are my alts and who are mutual friends.  I like logging in and being alone sometimes.  So no automatic alt trustee function for me please.

Besides,  I don't think that's necessary since you can go in and very easily make which ever alts you want trustees.  

Yes, but it is time consuming and a bother if you have a lot of alts (I have 15 now and expect to make more).  Variations could be:

• Alts have trustee status but are not listed.
• A check box to enable/disable the function.
• A check box to hide/show access granted.
• Other ideas anyone?

Edit:  I have to ask, if you don't trust them to that point, why are they listed as trustees and not just as friends?

[Vonotar]

Zarandar@Oasis wrote:

Curiel wrote:

One poster here mentioned automaticaly having all alts on an account as trustees.  I don't want others who are trustees of my houses to see every alt I have via the trustee tab in the /house window. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who are my alts and who are mutual friends.  I like logging in and being alone sometimes.  So no automatic alt trustee function for me please.

Besides,  I don't think that's necessary since you can go in and very easily make which ever alts you want trustees.  

Yes, but it is time consuming and a bother if you have a lot of alts (I have 15 now and expect to make more).  Variations could be:

• Alts have trustee status but are not listed.
• A check box to enable/disable the function.
• A check box to hide/show access granted.
• Other ideas anyone?

Edit:  I have to ask, if you don't trust them to that point, why are they listed as trustees and not just as friends?

As well as as the current button (or whatever it's called, I'm going from memory here) have a button.

So if I add one of my characters and click all characters sharing an account with that character are given the access, in the window it can simply say [character name] (Account) or something similar, rather than listing all the characters (besides which, if you take the add all characters approach then what happens when I roll an alt, does the system automatically check all housing to see if the alt needs adding?  Simply flagging the account sounds easier). Sounds like a minimal addition to the interface rather than multiple check boxes.

Somebody else mentioned adding extra vitality when in a house, I think these sorts of changes are very unlikely as it would result in a large scale increase in the use of housing instances by people who currently don't use them too often, that will put extra strain on the servers whereas allowing those of us who use our houses to own multiple houses won't since we still can't be in more than one house at a time.

[Vonotar]

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Cloudrat wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There is a long list of purposes for housing and I am sorry you apparently missed some content along the way.  Take some time to find out what is out there.

Please inform me then.

Until they have amenities, their worthless, except to the few that "decorate" their cute little pointless houses.

They -can- have amenities... they just aren't listed as such.  The fact that you don't know this shows how little you have looked at how houses work and house items.

There are numerous house items that offer transport to various zones around norrath, you can place all the tradeskill stations in a house, you can have a house version of the crafting supplies crate, there are scrolls that summon tradeskill writ givers, there are house items that offer buffs if you click on them...etc etc

Basically it sounds like you have no clue about housing in much the way that some decorators would have no clue about raiding.  Imagine somebody blundering into a raid thread and saying that surely doing the same zone over and over again is pointless - and you'll have an idea how your post just came over.

[Reality]

Zarandar@Oasis wrote:

Curiel wrote:

One poster here mentioned automaticaly having all alts on an account as trustees.  I don't want others who are trustees of my houses to see every alt I have via the trustee tab in the /house window. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who are my alts and who are mutual friends.  I like logging in and being alone sometimes.  So no automatic alt trustee function for me please.

Besides,  I don't think that's necessary since you can go in and very easily make which ever alts you want trustees.  

Yes, but it is time consuming and a bother if you have a lot of alts (I have 15 now and expect to make more).  Variations could be:

• Alts have trustee status but are not listed.
• A check box to enable/disable the function.
• A check box to hide/show access granted.
• Other ideas anyone?

Edit:  I have to ask, if you don't trust them to that point, why are they listed as trustees and not just as friends?

How about having a different setting for those on the same account? For instance not having trustee access for alts but having an automatic family/heirloom/relative access?  That way, trustee remains something you grant to a friend or guildie and all your alts have a seperate but private access set? 

Just a thought...

~ L ~

[Annakari]

I love the housing, and if there was not housing I would not playing. I want to decorate and craft and questing is ok - I think PVP is annoying, I think raiding is overrated, and since I have had accounts since the first days of Kunark in old EQ, I can assure you, I have done way too much of all of it (and do not get me started about other games, we have played and own accounts on literally dozens and dozens of MMORPGS).

So, I think the housing has to say, but I wanted to add that I second the motion for account access to all the houses. I was decorating yesterday and went to dump all of the extra stuff on Annakari to Jescha's house - and found out I never have set up her house for all my toons, do you know how much work that is when I cannot recall if Raaza is two "a"s and one "z" or two "z"s and one "a"? At any rate, heirloom access - family access, would be endlessly perfect. I would hug everyone for that.

That and getting my guild hall in a few days or so, and I won't leave the game again (as long as there is NO more talk about taking away all my stuff for some "bright" idea of a free-to-play-to make all the old timers pay for everything they have earned again... do you know I have paid lifetimes on STO, LotR and Champions, and such, which were less than half of what I have paid for this game? LotR went free-to-play, we got grandfathered in for all the money we paid - on EVERYTHING). *sigh, don't get me started...

Keep the housing, keep the very cool guild halls, keep adding more stuff for me to put in my houses, and new quests and crafting, and I stay and forget that other things in the world are cheaper (except alcohol, that is more expensive).

LOL

[SIERRYA]

Magnamundian wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Cloudrat wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There is a long list of purposes for housing and I am sorry you apparently missed some content along the way.  Take some time to find out what is out there.

Please inform me then.

Until they have amenities, their worthless, except to the few that "decorate" their cute little pointless houses.

They -can- have amenities... they just aren't listed as such.  The fact that you don't know this shows how little you have looked at how houses work and house items.

There are numerous house items that offer transport to various zones around norrath, you can place all the tradeskill stations in a house, you can have a house version of the crafting supplies crate, there are scrolls that summon tradeskill writ givers, there are house items that offer buffs if you click on them...etc etc

Basically it sounds like you have no clue about housing in much the way that some decorators would have no clue about raiding.  Imagine somebody blundering into a raid thread and saying that surely doing the same zone over and over again is pointless - and you'll have an idea how your post just came over.

Well now you have been told about all the stuff you have been too busy raiding to notice! One more thing about the pictures. From my home I can port directly to places I could never get to in one click from my GH.Don't forget about the aa mirror. yes it is not as vital as it was when it came into the game but it is nice on many classes to have a solo set up and a group set up, especially healers!!

Also us "FEW" decorators prob surpass the number of "hard-core" raiders in the game. By hardcore I am talking about the mandaroty 5 days + a week raiding and cleared 80%+ of content in an expansion before the next comes out. Also unlike hard core raiders we help eachother out when one has a problem figuring something out. Don't get me wrong I love to raid but since I started having health issues a year ago I can not sit thru a raid anymore without getting up to move around. If not for decorating I would have left the game entirely. So please do not diss a part of the game just because you hate it, I hate PVP with a passion but if you like more power to you I will not tell them to take away battlgrounds just because I don't go there. If you never go into you home it is your loss.

[Curiel]

Just so long as it's optional or has optional settings and not automatic.  I'm okay with it. 

But really, who's fault is it if you can't spell your alts name?  /friendly poke

In any case, I'm in the other camp that says it's really not that hard to go in and add your alts to your houses. It's not like we don't have the option.  Type /house, Access Tab, Type name, select trustee, click "set access", done.

I guess there's other things I'd like the devs to work on than an option we already have.  I'm not against the ease of use factor in the core suggestion just so long as mentioned above that it has options instead of an all or nothing trustee flag for your alts.

And for the poster who asked me a question.  It has nothing to do with trust.  Two reasons:

1. I like being alone sometimes and not feeling obligated to group just because someone I know is on.  As a guild leader, often you just need a little personal space and if folks know all your alts they *will* send you tells.
2. I like it when I randomly encounter someone I know as an alt and roleplaying when they don't know it's the same player. It's the genuine, more organic RP you get from the interaction when they don't know its their good buddy "Bob".  That doesn't happen very often, but it's neat when it does.  If you're not a RPer, you may not relate to this as an aspect of the game that appeals to me and others, but its there.  If my friends knew my alts, I'd lose that part of the game.

[Freef]

Senya wrote:

Meowshi wrote:

Aerfen@Lucan DLere wrote:

Meowshi wrote:

I was excited to hear about new housing "improvements", but after reading the update I feel rather underwhelmed. It appears that housing isn't really being improved upon, but rather simply having caps removed.

Why couldn't we get real improvements to the gameplay of housing? The main problem with the housing system that needs to be addressed is the very PURPOSE of having a house. Why should I care about having fifty different houses when there's barely a use for one house? As it stands now housing is just a museum to toss in items that you collect in the game which serve no purpose. And if you want maybe toss in a bed or chair, for which you can't even interact with.

This is like going to a restaurant, having the chef promise you a great meal, and then just says you're now allowed to drink the ketchup from the bottle.

You're obviously not a decorator.   SoE actually pleased a lot of people with this, but it's impossible to please everyone.

Even if a person is just into decorating, the housing system doesn't offer much of anything. There's no way to customize rooms, add doors, interact with any item, or change the overall appearance of your house in any real way. All you can do is put a few tables and chairs in a space. It's just an open space that feels more like a museum of random beds and books you've come across.

As it stands now there is zero gameplay merit to a house and almost no real worth in attempting to make a home just for fun, since the design options just arent there.

I beg to differ.  This house for example at Manors of Erolissi in New Halas was entirely player built/designed from the ground up (walls, ceilings, windows, storage sheds, etc) by Daenee of Antonia Bayle server.  And yes, the doors open/close.  Doors that open and close have been on the festival merchants at the city festivals for a few months now.

Woah!  That is amazing!  I am trying to figure out how the spherical roofs were made.

[Rill]

I'd like to know how all that was accomplished. I have been around this game since launch and totally under the impression that you had one instance home and you could decorate it with "decor" items only and you had to buy a house skin and that was it. If you can "build" a house like that how do you do it? Also, will we ever be able to drop what ever we want in our house...it is our storange space after all and if I wanna drop feline meat or something stupid in there shouldn't I be allowed to?

[Filly67]

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Cloudrat wrote:

Velo@Antonia Bayle wrote:

and..?

The housing STILL serves no purpose.

Give it some form of function besides "decorating" something that no one will ever see.

There is a long list of purposes for housing and I am sorry you apparently missed some content along the way.  Take some time to find out what is out there.

Please inform me then.

Until they have amenities, their worthless, except to the few that "decorate" their cute little pointless houses.

Doesn't seem to be a need to inform you, you have made up your mind and clearly this upcoming option is of no interest to you which is fine.  I enjoy most aspects of the game and like my toons to be very well rounded but I draw the line at raiding.  I have seen too much of the hard core raiding guilds (first hand) and no thank you.  The tradeskill/decorating community is kind and giving.  Most do enjoy other aspects of the game and will assist in those areas too. 

[Kamimura]

Rill wrote:

I'd like to know how all that was accomplished. I have been around this game since launch and totally under the impression that you had one instance home and you could decorate it with "decor" items only and you had to buy a house skin and that was it. If you can "build" a house like that how do you do it? Also, will we ever be able to drop what ever we want in our house...it is our storange space after all and if I wanna drop feline meat or something stupid in there shouldn't I be allowed to?

It was done in the Halas home using teleporter pads (came from a few live events in the past, and we'll probably see them again in the future) to travel out to the dock area you can see from the standard home's deck. The structure is made from standard items - cobblestone squares, icy tiles, pillars, hitching posts, Freeport doors, and dividers for the roof. The roof was made using the layout editor (you can get this from the homeshow forums). Takes a bit of practice to use (and you CAN make basic houses without it!), but you can make all sorts of things when you get the hang of it. There are also tutorials in the forums for it.I suggest visiting the house (address is in the linked thread) if you can, so you can better see how it's being done. There are several other breakout homes of all sorts of styles and themes you can look though, as well.

[Maisland]

Lizabeth@Lucan DLere wrote:

Zarandar@Oasis wrote:

Curiel wrote:

One poster here mentioned automaticaly having all alts on an account as trustees.  I don't want others who are trustees of my houses to see every alt I have via the trustee tab in the /house window. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who are my alts and who are mutual friends.  I like logging in and being alone sometimes.  So no automatic alt trustee function for me please.

Besides,  I don't think that's necessary since you can go in and very easily make which ever alts you want trustees.  

Yes, but it is time consuming and a bother if you have a lot of alts (I have 15 now and expect to make more).  Variations could be:

• Alts have trustee status but are not listed.
• A check box to enable/disable the function.
• A check box to hide/show access granted.
• Other ideas anyone?

Edit:  I have to ask, if you don't trust them to that point, why are they listed as trustees and not just as friends?

How about having a different setting for those on the same account? For instance not having trustee access for alts but having an automatic family/heirloom/relative access?  That way, trustee remains something you grant to a friend or guildie and all your alts have a seperate but private access set? 

Just a thought...

~ L ~

That would probably work well.

Edit:

Curiel wrote:

And for the poster who asked me a question.  It has nothing to do with trust.  Two reasons:

1. I like being alone sometimes and not feeling obligated to group just because someone I know is on.  As a guild leader, often you just need a little personal space and if folks know all your alts they *will* send you tells.
2. I like it when I randomly encounter someone I know as an alt and roleplaying when they don't know it's the same player. It's the genuine, more organic RP you get from the interaction when they don't know its their good buddy "Bob".  That doesn't happen very often, but it's neat when it does.  If you're not a RPer, you may not relate to this as an aspect of the game that appeals to me and others, but its there.  If my friends knew my alts, I'd lose that part of the game.

Your reply just confuses me more.  With that play style, why have you given anyone  trustee status?  That is, after all, why there is a "Friend" setting.

On my own houses, my alts are the only ones that have trustee status.  Even friends that I know in real life are only given friend status.

[Curiel]

Zarandar@Oasis wrote:

Lizabeth@Lucan DLere wrote:

Zarandar@Oasis wrote:

Curiel wrote:

One poster here mentioned automaticaly having all alts on an account as trustees.  I don't want others who are trustees of my houses to see every alt I have via the trustee tab in the /house window. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who are my alts and who are mutual friends.  I like logging in and being alone sometimes.  So no automatic alt trustee function for me please.

Besides,  I don't think that's necessary since you can go in and very easily make which ever alts you want trustees.  

Yes, but it is time consuming and a bother if you have a lot of alts (I have 15 now and expect to make more).  Variations could be:

• Alts have trustee status but are not listed.
• A check box to enable/disable the function.
• A check box to hide/show access granted.
• Other ideas anyone?

Edit:  I have to ask, if you don't trust them to that point, why are they listed as trustees and not just as friends?

How about having a different setting for those on the same account? For instance not having trustee access for alts but having an automatic family/heirloom/relative access?  That way, trustee remains something you grant to a friend or guildie and all your alts have a seperate but private access set? 

Just a thought...

~ L ~

That would probably work well.

Edit:

Curiel wrote:

And for the poster who asked me a question.  It has nothing to do with trust.  Two reasons:

1. I like being alone sometimes and not feeling obligated to group just because someone I know is on.  As a guild leader, often you just need a little personal space and if folks know all your alts they *will* send you tells.
2. I like it when I randomly encounter someone I know as an alt and roleplaying when they don't know it's the same player. It's the genuine, more organic RP you get from the interaction when they don't know its their good buddy "Bob".  That doesn't happen very often, but it's neat when it does.  If you're not a RPer, you may not relate to this as an aspect of the game that appeals to me and others, but its there.  If my friends knew my alts, I'd lose that part of the game.

Your reply just confuses me more.  With that play style, why have you given anyone  trustee status?  That is, after all, why there is a "Friend" setting.

On my own houses, my alts are the only ones that have trustee status.  Even friends that I know in real life are only given friend status.

...Because sometimes to allow a friend or guild mates to use certain items or to do certain things in your house, being a "friend" is not enough and they need "Trustee" access.

[Zabjade]

I've done more on my Alt's-Halas Break-out(I have a theme) but so far I've only made a Forest

My Mains-house in Qeynos(also a break-out, but too many holes in the ground to do much past a certain point.) is mostly finding places for items I get in quest where the semi-make sense.

My Mains's first Alt house will be a Tinkerer's Workshop with for a certain flying machine.

BTW why is the Hotwired Gnomish Hoverpad not mountable?

[Aneova]

Someone mentioned an Inventory Search feature? I guess I thought we already had it .... course i'm also using profit so maybe it's only for that ui

[Filly67]

Aneova@Kithicor wrote:

Someone mentioned an Inventory Search feature? I guess I thought we already had it .... course i'm also using profit so maybe it's only for that ui

Your search looks different but you are correct.  Recently we were all given an inventory search option through our main character window.  It's a great option that allows you to see exactly where you left your stuff, in inventory, house vaults etc.  It lists the place, the bag and the location in the bag.

[Amarillan]

I am currently building a stable complex complete with paddock in Freeport about the area of the guild hall.. the ground is pretty stable everywhere below the tunnel up to the Temple and Mage building.

[Alenna]

Rill wrote:

I'd like to know how all that was accomplished. I have been around this game since launch and totally under the impression that you had one instance home and you could decorate it with "decor" items only and you had to buy a house skin and that was it. If you can "build" a house like that how do you do it? Also, will we ever be able to drop what ever we want in our house...it is our storange space after all and if I wanna drop feline meat or something stupid in there shouldn't I be allowed to?

it is possilbe to "Break out" of some houses. which is what happened here.

[Curiel]

Freef wrote:

Senya wrote:

Meowshi wrote:

Aerfen@Lucan DLere wrote:

Meowshi wrote:

I was excited to hear about new housing "improvements", but after reading the update I feel rather underwhelmed. It appears that housing isn't really being improved upon, but rather simply having caps removed.

Why couldn't we get real improvements to the gameplay of housing? The main problem with the housing system that needs to be addressed is the very PURPOSE of having a house. Why should I care about having fifty different houses when there's barely a use for one house? As it stands now housing is just a museum to toss in items that you collect in the game which serve no purpose. And if you want maybe toss in a bed or chair, for which you can't even interact with.

This is like going to a restaurant, having the chef promise you a great meal, and then just says you're now allowed to drink the ketchup from the bottle.

You're obviously not a decorator.   SoE actually pleased a lot of people with this, but it's impossible to please everyone.

Even if a person is just into decorating, the housing system doesn't offer much of anything. There's no way to customize rooms, add doors, interact with any item, or change the overall appearance of your house in any real way. All you can do is put a few tables and chairs in a space. It's just an open space that feels more like a museum of random beds and books you've come across.

As it stands now there is zero gameplay merit to a house and almost no real worth in attempting to make a home just for fun, since the design options just arent there.

I beg to differ.  This house for example at Manors of Erolissi in New Halas was entirely player built/designed from the ground up (walls, ceilings, windows, storage sheds, etc) by Daenee of Antonia Bayle server.  And yes, the doors open/close.  Doors that open and close have been on the festival merchants at the city festivals for a few months now.

Woah!  That is amazing!  I am trying to figure out how the spherical roofs were made.

It should be mentioned to those that have not looked into break-out housing, or know that there's a 3rd party layout editor, or the ability to edit your saved housings files that all these beautiful houses and custom made objects are outside the intended function of the game and they are all essentially work arounds to be able to move/place objects in ways the game UI does not support. Because of this, it can be buggy, slow to load all objects, and yes, you can fall through the world in some housing zones.

If SOE is not going to condem it, or somehow keep players from doing this, then I feel they should consider supporting it. Obviously there's a market for it. There's an entire community of players devoted to decorating housing.  SOE should consider giving players optional editing tools, such as a zone editor for housing and zone templates to choose from like the way you can edit in other games, like Neverwinter Nights, and create your own zones.

[Stubbswick]

Curiel wrote:

It should be mentioned to those that have not looked into break-out housing, or know that there's a 3rd party layout editor, or the ability to edit your saved housings files that all these beautiful houses and custom made objects are outside the intended function of the game and they are all essentially work arounds to be able to move/place objects in ways the game UI does not support. Because of this, it can be buggy, slow to load all objects, and yes, you can fall through the world in some housing zones.

If SOE is not going to condem it, or somehow keep players from doing this, then I feel they should consider supporting it. Obviously there's a market for it. There's an entire community of players devoted to decorating housing.  SOE should consider giving players optional editing tools, such as a zone editor for housing and zone templates to choose from like the way you can edit in other games, like Neverwinter Nights, and create your own zones.

The layout files that you can save and load are most certainly supported by SOE (they were the ones who developed the functionality).

The problem with changing the UI is how do you even display some of these fields (look at how many people's eyes glaze over when working with the 3rd party Layout editor, or raw text files)?  As far as in game, between Shift, Alt, and the mouse wheel, there are only so many things you can do.

The way I see it, the layout files are meant for "power users".  A normal user who buys a house in this game would be happy to put tiles and rugs on the floor, paintings and tapestries on the walls, furniture on the floor.  Power users want to move these things in unique ways to create something different.  And that separation makes sense for me (similar to the option to use 3rd party tools like Profit UI and ACT to enhance your experience of the game.  All the data is there, all the UI functionality is built into the game, it's just manipulated by someone outside SOE)

Also, I do believe that SOE supports these kinds of things.  Even the breakouts.  To me, adding in the layout editor, more floor tiles and the like from city festivals, and all of the outdoor areas was essentially the devs throwing us a bone.  They're going "look, we may not have the resources to completely revamp housing, but here are some cool new tools to really help you guys show off your creativity".

Housing in EQ2 is sometimes frustrating, and can feel like you're doing a lot of "workarounds", but I love how sandbox it is compared to many other games on the market.

[Curiel]

Wubbah@Butcherblock wrote:

Curiel wrote:

It should be mentioned to those that have not looked into break-out housing, or know that there's a 3rd party layout editor, or the ability to edit your saved housings files that all these beautiful houses and custom made objects are outside the intended function of the game and they are all essentially work arounds to be able to move/place objects in ways the game UI does not support. Because of this, it can be buggy, slow to load all objects, and yes, you can fall through the world in some housing zones.

If SOE is not going to condem it, or somehow keep players from doing this, then I feel they should consider supporting it. Obviously there's a market for it. There's an entire community of players devoted to decorating housing.  SOE should consider giving players optional editing tools, such as a zone editor for housing and zone templates to choose from like the way you can edit in other games, like Neverwinter Nights, and create your own zones.

The layout files that you can save and load are most certainly supported by SOE (they were the ones who developed the functionality).

The problem with changing the UI is how do you even display some of these fields (look at how many people's eyes glaze over when working with the 3rd party Layout editor, or raw text files)?  As far as in game, between Shift, Alt, and the mouse wheel, there are only so many things you can do.

The way I see it, the layout files are meant for "power users".  A normal user who buys a house in this game would be happy to put tiles and rugs on the floor, paintings and tapestries on the walls, furniture on the floor.  Power users want to move these things in unique ways to create something different.  And that separation makes sense for me (similar to the option to use 3rd party tools like Profit UI and ACT to enhance your experience of the game.  All the data is there, all the UI functionality is built into the game, it's just manipulated by someone outside SOE)

Also, I do believe that SOE supports these kinds of things.  Even the breakouts.  To me, adding in the layout editor, more floor tiles and the like from city festivals, and all of the outdoor areas was essentially the devs throwing us a bone.  They're going "look, we may not have the resources to completely revamp housing, but here are some cool new tools to really help you guys show off your creativity".

Housing in EQ2 is sometimes frustrating, and can feel like you're doing a lot of "workarounds", but I love how sandbox it is compared to many other games on the market.

Sorry I don't call that support, it's passive support maybe, but not true support. If they were supporting it I could /bug report issues in break out areas. So it's passive support meaning that they don't disallow it, but they are not going to go out of there way to improve it either. Sure the devs throw us bones with tiles and such, but I'm talking about real active support that actually works with the game. I would rather not have buggy work arounds, but I'll use them sadly.  And how much effort would it be to toss together a few zone templates which could improve over time.  We also know zone editors exists because if they didn't, they would not be able to make the zones in the game.  If there's a real desire for custom housing and tools for creation then SOE could actually profit from it if they actively supported it.  And I don't believe any other MMORPG is doing that so SOE would be doing something innovative with its players rather than reactive; like for example, Free-to-play.  They saw other companies making profit on Free-to-play and so SOE followed. It would be nice if SOE lead on something instead.