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Custom guild hall and player housing design using Foundry?
sendrien
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 0 Arc User
We know the Foundry is going to produce a wealth of user-generated content.
It seems only logical that guilds should be able to use the Foundry to create their own guild halls and place the entrance at a location of their choice, just like starting a quest. The only difference is that the guild halls can only be accessed by guild members and it becomes a no-PvE zone. (And PvP enabled at the discretion of the guild?)
Custom player housing would be the next extension of this idea. This would allow everyone to have their own place to call home. Once again, access could be restricted to an individual account, for instance.
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I don't claim credit for this idea. There's some mention about this in the beta forum, but I wanted to gauge the popularity of this concept among the entire community, not just beta testers.
It seems only logical that guilds should be able to use the Foundry to create their own guild halls and place the entrance at a location of their choice, just like starting a quest. The only difference is that the guild halls can only be accessed by guild members and it becomes a no-PvE zone. (And PvP enabled at the discretion of the guild?)
Custom player housing would be the next extension of this idea. This would allow everyone to have their own place to call home. Once again, access could be restricted to an individual account, for instance.
--
I don't claim credit for this idea. There's some mention about this in the beta forum, but I wanted to gauge the popularity of this concept among the entire community, not just beta testers.
The world is not beautiful; therefore, it is.
Post edited by sendrien on
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Using the Foundry, to me, would both cheapen the purpose of and the community of the Guild.
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I don't see why that has to be the case (though, I haven't seen how base creation in STO works, so maybe I'm missing something). Perhaps they could include an option for guild leaders to grant building permissions to members (by rank, individuals or both), and maybe include some sort of farming for building materials that to be consumed when certain portions of the guild hall are created (still, this would depend on how Foundry map construction differs from bases in STO, but I'm guessing that Foundry would allow more freedom and customizability).
@daytonamax you may still keep that while allowing players to use the foundry, by requiring the guild some cash, materials, items, or whatever to enable the guild hall building in the foundry, they would still need to work together to achieve it and you would have the customization capability that the Foundry offers.
Anyone still searching for guilds you can check out HCG Hardcore Christian Gamers.
NW FAQ | HCG NW Host Site
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Yes indeed, unfortunately, as we both know, this can mean anywhere from 60 days post-launch to uh, well, never.
Check out SHADOW on YouTube!
Yah but atleast they said they will work on it
Anyone still searching for guilds you can check out HCG Hardcore Christian Gamers.
NW FAQ | HCG NW Host Site
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I really want guild/personal housing, however there is one HUGE very real reason not to do it. If the man power used to make housing would earn them more money doing something else (say what you like, but this is a business and it will be treated that way if not it will fail and there will be NO Neverwinter at all). Now to me housing is one of the key things I like in a game but that is not the case for a lot of people, so just because a few people want it does not mean that it will be profitable to do. Yes they can charge for things but if people don't buy them or not enough people buy them it will cost them lost revenue if they could have used those man hours to work on something that would have made them more money.
I loved EQ2 housing and I think that Neverwinter has the potential to totally over shadow it using the modified capabilities of the foundry. I am not sure of its monetization, I think the key part of it would be decorative items for sale in the cash shop, but 3d modeling is actually expensive. Now they could not allow access to all the decorations that are currently in the foundry and sell those resources for housing, but I have a feeling that would just generate a wave of screaming and wailing on the levels of the drow nightmare that is currently going on. Personally I would pay for stuff but I put more value on my fun than my wallet but, that does not seem to be the opinion of the vocal "I want it free and I want it now" people around here. But heres for hoping
The problem with housing is that if there isn't a reason to actually do it, most people won't give a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>. Sure it's nice to have a little custom pad, but if that pad doesn't offer anything of use to the player beyond looking pretty, a lot of people probably won't even bother. Now the issue with this is if the housing does have some tangible uses like being able to craft there or sell stuff from there or what have you, then that lessens the reasons people have to hang out around the mission hubs, which could potentially lead to dead cities in most cases.
I can't say for sure how this would play out in neverwinter, but it's something to think about.
I agree with most of what you are saying except the part "lessens the reasons people have to hang out around the mission hubs". This is often used as a reason and while it MIGHT be true, it is not something that I think is a good reason. I actually don't like people hanging out around mission hubs. I feel it lends itself to me needing to /ignore tons of people so I don't have to see their spam or for that matter shutting the channel off all together so i can actually read other things that appear in my chat window. Yeah I know roleplaying and people hanging out together, I think this is not a good reason too. Use a roleplay channel or something. Ok so roleplay channels break immersion. So does huge numbers of people all hanging out in the same area. If this was happening and a normal city the "mob" would be broken up. So that is killing immersion as well.
But that's true of a lot of things in MMOs. When there's exploration incentives (like lore boxes etc. etc), not everyone bothers to collect them all. When there's open-PVP zones, not everyone bothers to visit them. When then there's "hard core" end-game raids, not everyone does them. When there's dailies, not everybody bothers to log in and do them every day. When there's a transmogrify feature, not everyone cares about style and bothers to use it.
The beauty of MMOs (and RPGs in general) is they adapt to all kinds of play styles. It's a community. The way you play and the way I play will be different, but we'll both become paying customers, so what does it matter.
For the record, guild base construction became quite popular on several of the games that offered it. City of Heroes, which had an incredibly rich guild construction feature, had a fanatical fan base that created entire sites and a sub-culture exclusively devoted to designing and showing off cool bases. Sure most guilds, didn't do much with them, but they were loved by a decent percentage of the population.
I don't deny your claim here, but I just caution this concept that unless it fits a mainstream gaming profile, the development isn't worth it. That's a reactionary view that will guarantee nothing innovative will come from your design.
You can offer guild/player housing without TOO much effort, because of the Foundry. Even if it is just a place to congregate, people will use them. If it offers some crafting tables/bonuses, so much the better. If it offers hearth stones that take you to key zones in the game, even better. If guilds must earn these things with points, play and accomplishments even better.
But it doesn't have to be that elaborate to start. It can just be as simple as some basic maps that are flagged as "guild maps" that you can decorate and customize to give your community a sense that it has a "home". Trust me, a portion of the population will use it and delight in having it. And those players are just as valid as the ones running around as fast as lightning trying to soak up as much XP as quickly as possible.
Check out SHADOW on YouTube!
It would be much more stable and customizable if worked into the base game rather than a foundry addition but could possibly have a foundry-like feature that can be manipulated by the guild master to add customization which could be purchased/unlocked through either guild bank alpha diamonds (which could be earned through guild activities/questing/pvp/delves/etc...) or zen.
Some of the unlockable/purchasable features could include:
A guild merchant with ranks (10/15/20% reduced vendor prices)
A guild stable with ranks (5/10% off mount prices)
A guild crafting station (reduction in crafting material costs)
A guild priest (bonus to astral diamond gains when using invocation in the guild hall)
In Guild Target Dummies (for looks or to test new skills on)
Guild Calendar: To list guild events and guild only foundry/delves/questing events for coordination.
A door to each player's personal housing through the guild hall (a portal if you will) rather than leaving the hall and running to the player's house in the physical map.
PVP Sparing Area (1v1 dueling area)
This could also lead to a plethora of other guild features such as mini-games.
I think Cryptic needs to make guilds a feature, which is something a lot of people clamor for in an MMO, especially one that has a deep RP background.
As for player housing the idea of using the foundry is amazing.
At a set level a player is given access to build a single house using the foundry. Maybe even make it a reward for authoring or reviewing so many Foundry quests, this way the use of the Foundry to build a house is tied to use of the Foundry in general.
When a player decides to create their house they open up the Foundry as normal. They are then given an option to build a player owned house. Doing this sets immutable restrictions, as well as changes a few key rules.
First, no encounters can be placed.
Second, while "flavor" NPC's can be placed (like a butler or cook), they only have dialogue options. No objectives or quests are actually put in.
Third, your house is not published to the host of Foundry content. Admission is by invite only. This could possible be changed to allow public access and have a special section of the foundry dedicated to player housing. (much as Rifts dimensions are)
Fourth, throughout your adventures you will find or be given special housing items or effects. These can range to trophies, furniture, pets that roam around your house, NPC's you can place that offer services. Options are unlimited.
At first you are given access to just a house, with limited amount of "floor" space. This size increases, to also include a full yard or property around your house, as you author or review even more content.
Tie in the housing as a tiered reward for the Foundry promotes further participation in it.
To help eliminate the ease of junk quests however.
If you author a foundry quest, it has a to receive a set number of reviews, the average review rating will be taken. This will then break down the amount of credit you get towards your housing upgrades. For example: A one start reviewed quest gets nothing. 2 stars get 1 credit, 3 gets 2, 4 gets 4 and 5 star rating gets instant upgrade. These reviews MUST BE BY NON-GUILD MEMBERS...no cheating.
To promote people to actually review however, and if you wish to get upgrades to your house as a reviewer and not content creator, then you get one one 1-3 credits for every quest you play and review.
Reviewing any quest gets you 1 credit
However, if you review a quest that is still in the grace period of needing so many reviews to give the author credit, you get 3 credits for playing it and reviewing it.
Its convoluted but it can be worked with a little bit of effort. This will also force Cryptic to create a more robust review system of Foundry content, something people have been asking for since it's inception in STO.
The Foundry is one of THE MAIN points of this game, and it is not unreasonable to make the Foundry the way you make or build a guild hall. Of course for those guilds who rather not spend time just building their own, many pre-made guild halls will be available to just drag and drop and be complete in a few minutes. But the option for full customization will always be there.
Ask the CO players how those 'talked about' Supergroup bases are coming.
on the other hand..
STO did get them..
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain
A leader of The Blackwatch Defenders
upgrade it with zen and BAM! have special vendors who get even better stuff with every upgrade, you can get some kind of guild based currency or just have it use AD. Easy way for both sides to get something from it
Anyone still searching for guilds you can check out HCG Hardcore Christian Gamers.
NW FAQ | HCG NW Host Site
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
No. Nonononono.
No premade anything, please. Leave creativity in the hands of the players. Let -us- build our guildhalls and homes, please. This is what the Foundry may be able to do.
Sure, package up some neat items to place in our homes and halls and sell them via the store...but for the love of all the gods and goddesses....please let US build our own homes.
Also.....yes to individual housing. I for one, do not join guilds. I solo or pug most times, and still want my own housing.
Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
What I said is that they'd probably premake some, but give the option to make your own for cash. If they update it to the foundry for free they'd probably miss out on too much income.
But that's not unreasonable, in my opinion. Seems like Cryptic gets it, in terms of what players expect for free and what players feel is a "fair" item to charge money for.
Name one MMO to launch in the last 5 years that didn't promise Guild Housing "sometime post-launch"
Lord of the rings online.
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