Housing - Hope, we have that

mh0ram

In the AMA it was stated that Guild Housing was supposed to be released, but they had to release IWD instead.

I've been wanting guild housing to be released for many reasons:
AD Sink
Something for folks to look forward to
Something for folks to farm for

If Mod 6 delivers on this and isn't a rushed product release to appease the WOTC folks, I believe it will breath fresh life into this game.

If not...I don't know what to say.

ambisinisterr

Yeah, just note Rogers specifically said they "...planned to have it out by now..."

First of all...they never said they didn't want to have guild housing. Priorities are just not always what would be the coolest thing but what is the best thing to do for the time.

Secondly he did not say it was being worked on now. More or less it was repeating what was already said which is that the devs have always wanted to release such a feature but they will only be able to when priorities allow them to.


There was never no hope that it would get released. That was purely in your mind. It's just that when it can be worked on is up in the air.

mh0ram

It was supposed to be released instead of IWD in their plans.
It's always been planned for release (A different article)
It's something huge.

I have hope still ^^

charononus

God I hope not. Housing is the most worthless part of games. If a major mod focused on it, that would be a break factor at this point.

zebular

Aye, Housing was originally wished to launch with the game but had to be pushed back and then it got pushed back again for IWD.

I am a huge fan of player housing in MMORPGs and cannot wait to see what will be done in that regard with Neverwinter. My only hope on that regard is that it is nothing like STO's or CO's and is instead an open-world and highly customizable system using the Foundry as a backbone for player housing creation and design. I'd like to see housing be seamless with the zone they're in. In other words, when I enter a house, I don't want to enter into a new private zone. In my opinion, housing in Neverwinter should be similar to Ultima Online, where you can either choose a cookie cutter house or build it from the plot up.

Here's my deeper thoughts on housing in Neverwinter.

As for those who don't want housing... that is fine. Don't buy a house then.

charononus

zebular wrote: »

As for those who don't want housing... that is fine. Don't buy a house then.

The fear (at least on my part) is that from some of the dev comments on priorities, housing would seem to be a large undertaking. We've had one year of what I consider to be very bad modules. I don't think we've had a good one since module 2, and even the first two modules don't compare to the original content of places like CN. So if housing is as big of a project as it seems, that means that other content that module will be light, making it to me a bad module. After a year of bad modules this game can't afford anymore of them imo.

zebular

charononus wrote: »

The fear (at least on my part) is that from some of the dev comments on priorities, housing would seem to be a large undertaking. We've had one year of what I consider to be very bad modules. I don't think we've had a good one since module 2, and even the first two modules don't compare to the original content of places like CN. So if housing is as big of a project as it seems, that means that other content that module will be light, making it to me a bad module. After a year of bad modules this game can't afford anymore of them imo.

A year of bafd modules? I disagree. I don't find any of the modules to be "bad." Sure, they've had issues but have been quite enjoyable for me over-all. Besides, they've been working on housing since Alpha or Beta. As well, they have many departments. Not all staff work on the same things, so just because there is a team working on Housing, that doesn't mean there isn't another team working on other things.

zebular

magenubbie wrote: »

Oh now you're just showing off. I mean yea the foundry can do something like this I suppose. The mechanics are there in essence. But before it can be used like that oh man.. you're asking quite a lot from the devs.

Then there's the problem of space. There's no way we're going to have enough free land to actually build the place like that. To use Archeage as an example: 2 days into the open beta every single piece of land available to non-patrons was full. There's too many HRs for sharandar to host. Helm's Hold might be big enough for clerics, but Blacklake will never house all the TRs.

I don't mean having open housing in our current zones. Such could be done well enough with Residential Community Zones, similar to LotRO.

magenubbie wrote: »

As for actually entering a house while not leaving the zone you're on, that's asking for even more given the problems above.

If a game that was made in 1997, and is still going strong, can handle open world style housing... surely games in this century can figure out a way to handle such too. Even Asheron's Call has open world seamless housing.

magenubbie wrote: »

And I"m not sure I'd want people roaming about my house without an invite. Even if I did, it's pretty safe to assume that the game would want us to build that house within Neverspam walls and I'm not sure that's... enjoyable with all these bots yelling about.

This is just a worry based upon not having information on how housing privacy could work. In UO, you can only enter a house if it is either set to Public or if it is set private, you have to be on the house's friends' list. Furthermore, the spam worry is baseless. Such would be like it is now: You see a spammer, you report and ignore them. Spam squelched.

ambisinisterr

Yeah, personally I am not against perhaps having the option to use doorways in the zones but I don't see open world locations being an option mechanically both in the form of server (let alone dev) resources or even ideal for players.

I mean look at the current buildings. They are tiny. I wouldn't feel cool or epic building within any current building. And even if they built extra open world areas with building shells...eh...not really sold on shell limitations. Some of what I liked in NWN, Runescape and other POH systems is that it allowed for building unique layouts because there were no exterior shells to build to.

Also such systems are better apt to allow housing to build with the player. You can start with only a few rooms and allow your house to grow with your wealth instead of having to buy whole new house plots as your wealth grows.

I mean it would be awesome to have a free building plot like the systems in Minecraft and Landmark but that's asking for a hell of a lot from the devs.

zebular

magenubbie wrote: »

A for the spam, how often do you go to PE these days? After Simril ended I had to spend a few hours there cataloging and storing rewards, companions and stuff. There isn't much talk in PE anymore. I don't know if people moved to IWD or not but go there for half an hour between noon and 2100 CET, count the spam and see if you can spot some normal trolling in between. IF people are reporting at all, it's not an effective counter-measure. It's 5-10 spams for every normal chat line and I'm not exaggerating even a little.

All my characters log out in PE and I enter PE daily, upwards of at least 28 times while doing professions, if not more while actually playing. I rarely see Gold Spam for two reasons: One, I report them and they get ignored. Two, my default tab is not set to Zone. You are exaggerating quite a bit, as I have yet to see spam ever be that bad, even when I do have Zone open. Close, but not every 5-10 lines.

ambisinisterr

magenubbie wrote: »

A for the spam, how often do you go to PE these days?

I never see spam. It's very simple: don't look at zone chat.

I actually only look at zone chat when I want to report gold spammers. Gold spam is a non-issue for everybody I speak to because they don't look anywhere they spam unless they have a direct purpose to do so.

And when I say it's a non-issue I don't mean from the company stand point. It's a big issue to the company.
It just doesn't phase players who realize it makes more sense to hide zone, trade and LFG channels when they are not using them as they really are not...erm...enjoyable places to be unless you are there for a purpose. Frankly I get more complaints from inexperienced players that they read the toxicity in those channels than the spam bots and glow when I teach them how to get the nasty garbage off their screen

mh0ram

Personally I'd be fine with something similar to STO's fleet bases.

It gives everyone something to contribute to
Possibly unlock guild only boons

It's not just the AMA I'm mentioning here, there are several articles that mention this. Heck, there are several posts I've made. I personally have been preparing for this since day 1. Everyone has their own wish list, this is high on mine.

I've kept it constructive, and will continue to do so.

bioshrike

Another issue with player housing is that if you offer too many amenities in a player's private home, there'd be little need for them to go to the main town areas, like PE, so it'd become emptier. A balance between keeping PE a bustling city, while offering people their own little home, is a delicate one.

mh0ram

I'm not saying a player's private home. I'm saying Guild Housing.

rayrdan

i dont have played many online games, what a guild house is supposed to be and to do?

overdriver13

Fun thread about something other than what all the others threads are about anymore. Thanks.

murthag1990

Hopefullly.....not
This game has a huge leak of content on pve side and is way off balanced in pvp. That should be the last thing on dev's to do list! With the current situation they should not even think about it and adress the real issues in this game -.-

zebular

mh0ram wrote: »

I'm not saying a player's private home. I'm saying Guild Housing.

Personal Housing and Guild Housing are interchangeable. There's not been a precedence of Guild Housing without Personal Housing. Edit: Correction, DDO has Guild Housing (Airships) without Player Housing.

henry404

I just don't see housing as a priority in this game. There are much better things to spend dev time on imho.

onecoolscatcat

henry404 wrote: »

I just don't see housing as a priority in this game. There are much better things to spend dev time on imho.

This. The words "polish" and "<font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>" come to mind whenever I think about housing with regards to Neverwinter. "SIlk Purse" and "Pig's Ear" also apply.

Neverwinter has fundamental game mechanic issues. Fix these, then move on to fripperies.

mh0ram

Well, some folks don't care a whole heck of a lot about PVP. I dare say some could care less that folks are getting one or two shotted by TR's.

Guild Housing is something that is more for PvE oriented folks, it can incorporate lots of the existing PvE content and add additional. Add in dungeons for guilds (Similar to GG possibly) to work on upgrades.

Guild Boons
Guild Armor? (Doubt this one)
Guild cosmetics
Guild companions

The list is endless.

Likely we'll see boons as ever single piece of new content has had boons. It would (to me and at least a few others) be a heck of a lot of fun to run around and gather this or gather than, donate to and complete projects.

And, it would strengthen the economy.

vinceent1

yeah it will be great. guild housing bonuses. we need more power to fight enemies at pve ....

ysil6969

I'd love to see something like this. I wish PWE would update their forums so posts can receive votes. It'd be easier to see the forum consensus for what it's worth.

charononus

ysil6969 wrote: »

I'd love to see something like this. I wish PWE would update their forums so posts can receive votes. It'd be easier to see the forum consensus for what it's worth.

Those are not exactly beneficial especially if they have downvoting enabled. Better to keep it the way it is.

lifesaverm

My wife and I have said from day one we'd love to see player housing or at least guild halls in the game. If I had to choose I'd rather see guild halls first. Even SWTOR has player housing now in this last year, and I agree I like the style of residential zones like LotR. Housing in CO is ok, and well your have your ship but STO doesn't have any what I'd call real housing unless you allow you to begin to seriously start to customize your ship interior.

Sorry going down a rabbit hole..... guild halls I'd like to see first. In this game outside of the social aspect, and grouping there isn't a lot of benefit to guilds. In STO you get buy special ships and gear, in SWTOR you get an XP bonus. Most games have some type of player benefit besides the obvious social element. Having guild halls would be a stepping stone that could lead to lots of possibilities down the road. As an example Runes of Magic, they really did something really unique with guild halls that made them more than just a place to hang out. You could harvest materials, craft, siege in guild vs guild (another potential module), etc. as you upgraded your guild hall, it provided additional benefits during guild PvP. It was a way to rally groups together for purposes other than just raiding / dungeon diving. It is also something that can easily be released in phases over the course of time. I could really see some PvE, PvP/GvG, crafting possibilities with guild halls.

imaginaerum1

Before they start adding in something entirely new, they need to support what they already have.

No housing unless and until they support Foundry.

mh0ram

And, housing on the horizon.

oclos

Have any of you guys played DCUO? It has a housing system, it doesnt look as fancy as what Zebular describes, but it is customizable and though I wouldn't want to see housing implemented with the exact same philosophy(in DCUO if they could charge you for chat, they would!), it is customizable and you can invite other players to come visit and see and even make it accesible publically. Also you get item drops for it through game(luckily) and generally I would be happy with such customization options. The folks at SWTOR didn't make a bad job either. Their housing looks pretty good, though they are expensive too.

I like STO housing(or rather roomsets in your space ship)it's well polished but not much customization there(maybe it's not to violate anything that is core-Trek?). But NWO team has proved it does things in a different way to STO anyway and STO benefitted from them in the past, so I keep my hopes up. If you ask me, I think Housing and guild projects ala STO will one of the 2 big things.

My wish is that AD is not sinked in anything, cause it will be needed to get things for refinement or whatever else. Also if they will add equipment through Guild projects(ala STO) I wish they'll do it differently. I was in a big guild but couldn't ever get any of the equipment on time, they run out as soon as a project is completed, cause a handfull of people took a piece for each of their alts or whatnot. That's one of the reasons I abandonded that game and only returned recently.

zebular

mh0ram wrote: »

And, housing on the horizon.

So far we just know that Guild Housing is. Hopefully, this means Player Housing is too as almost all MMO's that I know with Housing, released either Player Housing first or both Player and Guild Housing at the same time. DDO is the only one I know with Guild Housing and no Player Housing. So, I do correct my earlier statement that there is no precedence for it. Either way, I am still happy to see that any sort of housing is coming after Mod 6.