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8/4/09 9:42 PM -
Player Housing, how would you want it handled? 
by Sleeper
, posted August 4th, 2009 at 9:42 PM
Well, another well hit topic, player housing.

[poll id="9"]

So, you want to show off the goods Trophies, crystals, weapons, rugs, furniture, and so on and so forth. If you want Star Wars Galaxies style housing, I would count it out. That requires a lot of empty space, and lots of loading time, a lot of people, including myself, enjoyed the Star Wars Galaxies style housing. It leads to a very large amount of immersion, being able to invite players into your own home, and "Show off" what you have, but at the same time, leads to complete clutter and misplaced items, and a very heavy lag spike in your home.


So the choices, if implemented, will be instanced, or open world. So you have EverQuest 2, or Star Wars Galaxies. The instancing option is not a bad idea, but it takes away the immersion. No one visited my home in EQ2 when I put my time and effort into creating it and making it organized and friendly, because no one had a reason to visit my instanced home. While in SWG I had three homes next to each other, with different merchants in each. So players were forced to go into them to buy my cheap goods. And being able to see who entered and when, it was a great pay off, because my time was well spent, and I often received comments on my homes. But having an open world with housing being able to be placed anywhere, leads to unorganized everything, and not to mention it also requires a Sandbox Environment.

So my question to you, would you, if given the option, like to see Open World, or Instanced, or maybe RESIDENTIAL area housing?
 
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46 Comments
Comment by RonKatarn made on August 7th, 2009 at 2:41pm
From the new Developer's Blog Update: "Some have hearts of gold and don’t worry about retiring to their own private moon." What do you think about residential moons?
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 7th, 2009 at 3:12pm
Perhaps the moons could be our neighborhoods. After all, Nar Shadaa is a metropolis moon of a confirmed planet.
 
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Comment by sado made on August 7th, 2009 at 2:45pm
It would be an interesting idea I just would doubt it would make it into the game at launch if it ends up being in it.
 
Comment by nevi made on August 7th, 2009 at 12:37pm
rather surprised at the poll results so far, i thought instanced would be more popular.
even though i myself voted for residential.
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 7th, 2009 at 3:11pm
I think people realize that to have others see your house you need to be with others, yet SWG style open world is an extreme that they dont want to see.
 
Comment by knapps made on August 7th, 2009 at 9:54am
I definitely think that Instanced neighborhoods are the way to go. If they are in the Cities or nearby, so much the better. As long as I don't see huge 'farms' of mineral extractors I'll be happy.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 6th, 2009 at 6:44pm
A poll was added to the post I see. I voted Residential, assuming it's in line with what I like about the LotRO housing that I apparently can't shut up about here. :P
 
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Comment by sado made on August 6th, 2009 at 8:46pm
Yeah we probably should have had the poll up from the start *cough* sleeper.
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 8:47pm
Dont blame him. Blame the complex rules for how you make polls.
 
Comment by TaboriHK made on August 6th, 2009 at 2:23pm
I have no experience with player housing whatsoever. But I like the concept.
 
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Comment by Sleeper made on August 6th, 2009 at 2:36pm
It helps with downtime, waiting for friends, explorers can enter your home and see where you have been and what not. Adds a great amount of immersion if done correctly
 
Comment by nevi made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:37pm
'if done correctly'

putting emphasis on that.
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 3:08pm
Its also a great currency sink.
 
Comment by TaboriHK made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:53pm
I'm such a girl about things like this that this is exactly what would happen. XD
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 10:10am
One thing I noticed in SWG, for the trial I recently did, was that most buildings fit into the atmosphere of the planet. Lots of the homes on Tatooine fit the architecture of the planet. While that looked nice, every now and then a big gray building would pop up and ruin the environment of Tatooine as they would be better placed on other planets. If housing is done similar to SWG I hope they put in a filter so buildings fit into the environment. I dont want a building from Nal Hutta in downtown Coruscant.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 6th, 2009 at 11:22am
Since Coruscant is already a built-up city-world, I don't think player-placeable housing would work there. The LotRO neighborhoods would probably better, letting you move into existing buildings/apartments. Apartments actually seems like a good comparison, with richer players buying the Penthouse suites on the top floor, and poorer players buying smaller apartments on lower levels.
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 11:36am
Good point, I dont want a Coruscant Skyscraper in the middle of the swamps of Nal Hutta. As for the LotRO way it sounds good, I just am not too familiar with it.
 
Comment by smugglerfrtyto made on August 6th, 2009 at 9:09am
I think ships represent a better option for player housing. My idea is to have a large spaceport in the major cities, which will be instanced, with which you can go and view your ship in a hangar area like KOTOR. The hangar will have permission granting and all that and terminals to intereact with the outside of the ship. The interior is accessible through the boarding ramp obviously and can be decorated at will. Now the problem with this plan I know is the smaller fighters and other craft of a single pilot nature. So I propose this, renting the space complete with a storeroom and lounge type area for goods and trophies. I also believe this might open up the possiblities of random encounters where criminals attempt to break in and steal cargo or sabotage the ships.
Sorry this was so long for my first post on this community.
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 10:04am
Long posts are good, they let us know what your thinking. And welcome, http://darthhater.com/faq/ for the new guy.
 
Comment by smugglerfrtyto made on August 6th, 2009 at 5:42pm
thanks for the welcome
 
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Comment by sado made on August 6th, 2009 at 6:09pm
Glad to have you here.
 
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Comment by Sleeper made on August 6th, 2009 at 9:43am
Welcome aboard! I like the lounge idea
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 10:05am
Me too, lets Old Ben train Jedi on the way to Alderan.
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 7:30am
Very tricky thing to balance. On one hand you get a home people will to in urban sprawl, on the other you have a clean world with few visitors. I like the lot idea, give people the option to design the buildings in towns that otherwise are just there for looks. The outside should stay the same, but the interior is up for all forms of alteration.
 
Comment by Sedit made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:18am
I've always wanted my ship or one of my ships to be my house. However, I was a big fan of SWG style housing, but I'm also a big fan of sand-box MMOs. There are not a lot of people liked it because it created clutter on some plantes.

What I don't want to see is instanced type housing, unless it's the ship idea. I don't want to have to go into an instanced neighborhood just to go to my house. I want to be able to just run from the starport to my house not have to go from the starport to load into an instance then run to my house and then again maybe have to load into an another instance again to get inside my house.
 
Comment by nevi made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:43pm
I'm not a big fan of the sandbox mmo idea SWG had going on.
Some planets were nothing but cluttered cities that added no immersion to the game at all.
Maybe its the 'Space Cowboy' in my, but I loved the ship from KOTOR, especially moving around inside it 3. But I think Rogue brings up a very good point that if you got a ship, that sucker is going to move! That may or may not be a big issue, depending on how travel is done.

Maybe we can convince Bioware to please us all :P
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 6th, 2009 at 11:33am
The problem with putting them on ships is that players can't come and go to look at your ship. If you ever leave that world and go to another(or just chill in space), no one can come look at your nice stuff. Maybe Han Solo lived in his ship, but most normal people in the galaxy had a house somewhere. Even the likes of Luke and Leia(and her husband, Han) had nice little homes on Coruscant. A space-Winnebago is nice, but it's nice to set your roots down somewhere for when you're not out saving the galaxy.
 
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Comment by Sleeper made on August 5th, 2009 at 11:12pm
I have always wanted to see a game company make use of empty lots and buildings in cities, make them homes, or shops. Bigger buildings could be guild halls, or other event places.
 
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Comment by Sleeper made on August 6th, 2009 at 8:17am
Would be a very cool idea implemented into a game, in all games the whole city not bneing used, allow players to open shops in the unused buildings. Allow players to create a shop sign using a basic template, add a high upkeep for the merchants and building as to keep the wanted space used, and not left to be a placeholder. Someone doesn't want the shop, allow it to be "bid" on, furnished with the current items in there.

Make the shop section its own instanced area of the city as to cut down the amount of loading and lag.

Imagine setting your merchants to have their own dialogue writing, and people could even threaten them, which gets logged, as a hostile action towards you. Allows the player who owns the shop to issue a bounty, I think we got something here!
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 8:32am
That sounds fun, you should make your own mmo called Shopkeeper Express.
 
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Comment by Sleeper made on August 6th, 2009 at 8:36am
Yea make fun of me Zoid... Atleast I'm going to PAX! ZING! That fuzyness your feeling, its just the burn...
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:37pm
Stronghold was a good game.
 
Comment by nevi made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:35pm
^i used to play stronghold, and just free build, for that very same reason :\
 
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Comment by Zoidberg made on August 6th, 2009 at 8:46am
I wish I was joking, but I am a boring person that likes tycoon games and building my own shop is my idea of fun. And it isnt a burn, just very smelly gas. I dont even know what I ate to make that horrid stink.
 
Comment by nevi made on August 6th, 2009 at 3:52am
i think thats a neat idea right there.
Using empty lots/buildings/neighborhoods inside of cities and allow players to 'purchase' them. As long as it didn't have that 'sandbox' setup that SWG had, I think it would be a great idea.

My main issue with SWG housing is that you had all this extra open space, and you'd come across a random, abandoned player town. All the houses looked the same, no roads, no people. Really cut the immersion out of the game for me, at least.
I never really touched LotRO - But I imagine traveling through a city then running into a loading screen every other street would get very annoying.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 6th, 2009 at 11:18am
Nevi, the little player communities aren't random loading screens in town. The neighborhoods have an entrance outside of each main town. When you go there, you right-click the neighborhood gate, which opens a menu showing a list of all the neighborhoods/instances. This allows you to visit other neighborhoods, not just the one you're living it. It's out of the way and convenient, but still leaves a lot of room inside for housing. The neighborhoods even have huge buildings that serve as guild halls.

As an added bonus, when you purchase a house, you get a new spell that lets you teleport back to your house. When you join a guild that has a guild hall(or your guild buys one I assume), you also get a spell to teleport to that guildhall. I suppose it helps you get back to your house or guild hall when you need something(I assume it has a cooldown to limit non-stop traveling, but I could be mistaken).
 
Comment by nevi made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:33pm
Bioware has stated more than once they're trying to make a game that will give someone with an all around subpar computer an amazing experience. Because of that, I could see an idea like this (or instanced ships with 'passcodes') working pretty well. Almost meeting both sides of the player housing spectrum halfway.
but still not an ideal

Honestly, i'd be a little hesitant.. but *only* because i'm not very familiar with the concept.
 
Comment by nevi made on August 6th, 2009 at 4:34pm
scratch that 9th line, should have deleted that.
 
Comment by RogueJedi86 made on August 6th, 2009 at 1:01am
LotRO is kinda like what you want, Sleeper. You have instanced neighborhoods(each instance is named like a street) with houses with fenced in yards along streets. You buy a house, you have your whole house and yard to decorate with goodies, along with an address for your home. You still pay a maintenance for your house, but you also have a house of your own in an instance to reduce lag and clutter in the "real world". Each race has their racial-themed neighborhoods, with houses looking like their style.

It's a good mix of Open World(SWG) and Instanced(EQ2/FFXI).
 
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Comment by sado made on August 6th, 2009 at 12:13am
It would definitely make the world feel more real.
 
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Comment by sado made on August 5th, 2009 at 10:45pm
For me I would rather not see moisture farming but it would be nice to see player housing in some facet along with guild housing. Though if it ever were in the game it would likely be instanced.
 
Comment by PurpleCliff made on August 5th, 2009 at 10:43pm
If there is no player housing I will play this game for an average of an hour a day until I'm bored.
If there is player housing I will play the game 24/7.
 
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Comment by sado made on August 6th, 2009 at 12:14am
I sank a ton of time into SWG building cities ;).
 
Comment by Norm made on August 5th, 2009 at 10:09pm
I would like to see buildings in cities utilized for this, even if they are instanced, I enjoyed the housing in SWG to a certain extent until it got to the point of being silly, specially when you had all those empty buildings in all those cities
 
Comment by Feo made on August 5th, 2009 at 10:03pm
Long Story Short Version: I think player housing is lame, unless it's in the form of a ship like the Ebon Hawk in the KoTOR series. TOR isn't a moisture farming simulator.
 
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Comment by sado made on August 6th, 2009 at 12:14am
I'd definitely have to agree on the moisture/resource farming buildings. Always found that aspect of player buildings lame.