A Player Housing Request Thread!

zebular · September 2015

Housing! Yes, please! I've said this before... but those threads have all fell into the realm of necromancy - so here's an immortal sticky.

For those curious on just some of these past threads, I've dug up 25 threads going all the way back to June of 2011 - yep, player housing has been requested since back in Alpha!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25.

There's way more than these, just these are the ones I found quickly using the search term, "Housing" alone. So, here is a new iteration of a housing request thread.

There's also been Guild Housing request threads, such as this one. There are far older ones too of course.

Here are some thoughts I've had since Alpha on housing:

I would love a housing system that makes me no longer miss UO's extremely customize-able housing system. I would like such to be persistent and public (choice between private and public is good too), as well as decorate-able, along with being thoroughly customize-able. I would like to be able to "live" in my abode when I am not adventuring.

That is the only one thing I have never stopped missing about Ultima Online was my Estate, that comprised of a Castle, a Keep, a Tower, and 3 other houses, all next to one-another. The 3 extra houses were all custom plots and I had a blast designing and decorating them. Even decorating the Castle, Keep and Tower was great fun.

Early on, I owned a ton of houses in UO, all little ones save for one Tower. When they introduced custom plots, I was in heaven. It wasn't until the last year or so that I played UO that I finally got the Estate that I mentioned. I would love to experience a similar feeling again in another MMO. EQ2 came close, with the decorating power of the inside. I prefer open-world housing though, not individually instanced.

Neverwinter should mix UO's Plot Customization with LotRO's Housing Community Instances with EQ2's decorating power... Indeed.

The Foundry System could be incorporated into the ability for players to design and place houses in new, "Community" zones in Neverwinter and other settlements we've reached. Similar to how LotRO does their instances housing community areas. I'd like for the exterior and interior to be seamless so we could see the outiside and people through our windows going by our houses, with porches or even house grounds. So like, mix UO's and LotRO's where you have Housing Instances but the housing instances are built on plots with foundry like tools with no transition zoning going inside or out.
With the Foundry used as the backbone/system Housing is based off of and public zones, with varying size plots for sale, let the owners enter into customization mode and build their houses from the ground up (or down!) within those plots. Akin to UO's plot and building system mixed with LotRO's housing community zones. Pre-made homes could also be sold that are entered through various doors through out the adventure zones, akin to EQ2.
- Some Zen or AD things could include "Pocket Dimension Rooms" where you get to place a type of secret doorway or transition of some sort that goes into a private instance that you can set privacy settings for, in regards to visitors and friends. Then allow us to customize those special interiors with foundry like tools.
- Also, we could buy chests starting with ones for gold, then better ones for AD and the best ones for Zen. We could then get "blueprints" for special furniture design unlocks in our "housing foundry tools" and oh, the possibilities are almost endless!
- This could also be a good Gold and AD Sink. Make the smallest plots cost Gold to buy and Upkeep while the best and biggest plots cost AD to buy and upkeep. Special plots and housing designs could even be sold in Wondrous Bazaar and Zen Shop!
Having such a housing design system would then open up for Community Events, Guild Meetings, Arenas, Official Design Contests, and so much more! Plus, and most importantly, all my 20-some characters would finally stop sleeping on the streets of Neverwinter! I'm sure Lord Neverember would love that and then enjoy taxing us (housing upkeep = gold & ad sinks).

So many possibilities, and with the foundry as the basis for a housing system.... yes... please!

Then add on these ideas of craftable props and such... and the possibilities for a truly amazing housing system becomes virtually endless, pun intended.

So, now that you've heard some of my thoughts and wishes for a Housing System in Neverwinter....

What are your desires for a housing system in Neverwinter?
How do you want it implemented or envision it?
What are some features you'd like a Housing system to have?

We've been asking for a player housing system since before the game was even released, don't stop now!

killergilnyc1 · September 2015

yup heres my post on it.

http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/comment/12725229#Comment_12725229

rversant · September 2015

Please add more Storage space purchasable for your "house" if you add player housing.

skalt112 · September 2015

I would like it to be attached to the foundry, so that you could have a dungeon leading to your house. The owner gets to teleport directly to the house , as well as his friends, but others must traverse a dungeon to get to the "courtyard" area. In the courtyard area would be a chest and whoever makes it get whatever reward the owner of the house puts in the chest.

Players traversing the dungeon have only 1 shot per week at it. if they are brought to the down state, they immediatly teleport out. Traps would need to be more deadly , and mobs more difficult, depending on the "value" of the chest. For instance a dungeon which has a gmop as reward would have easier monsters and traps than a dungeon that had a purple mount.

Probably nearly impossible to implement , but it would fit neatly into the lore. Powerful wizards and fighters often create stop gaps to deny unauthorized entry into thier private towers or keeps. With the wealth of talent we have seen in the foundry community, I think these player made dungeons could be content worthy of some of the best dungeons in the game.

looomis · September 2015

I respect your effort with this thread. But in my opinion, there is nothing more unimportant and uninteresting

arabatur · September 2015

Player housing would do nothing to increase my waning interest in this game. I can suggest better things for the Dev's time than introducing more shiny things into the game.

sabre10 · September 2015

I really like the idea of player housing. The only experience i have of anything similar was my captain's ready room in STO where I could display trophies illustrating my achievements.
Whilst it is far from what I would consider a priority for the game, judging by the number of links there's clearly a desire from the community. Or at least....there was.
Considering the age of some of the posts, there's likely been a significant player turn over in the intervening years.

That said, were it to be on the cards, I'd like something tied to the Stronghold itself. I.e. using the house models within the map.
Maybe finding a key drop from an enemy or something.
If the interior of the SH keep were to be unlocked at some point, maybe a room within it would be good.
Whatever guise it took I'd want it to be customization ability. I'm not talking curtains/pictures etc, i'm talking shape and size of the room

instynctive · September 2015

One of the discussions I had while SH was still in Preview was the fact that designing and building the inside of the GH would be a time-consuming and problematic task. My solution was to have the Devs provide guild with an empty "map" of the interior and allow the guilds to design the interior of their GH themselves.

It really surprised me that they took the time to create this massive beautiful castle that the players cannot even enter (well, a TR can glitch his way into the gold room, and judged from the cracks in some of the seams, I'm sure they could get into the big empty main hall). Again, back on preview, I made several inquiries about when we would gain access to the interior of the GH... finally, Andy was able to get confirmation that we couldn't, and there were no plans being made to give us access. :-/

The odd thing is, I seem to recall there had been a blog about the "upcoming" SH mod that showed the interior of the guild hall... in my more "advanced" years, I forget things; I don't usually remember things that aren't there. Needless to say, I was super disappointed that we couldn't gain entry, and that there were no immediate plans to allow us entry. Hell.. we're still waiting for the doors by the East Gate to grant us access to the parapets as was stated would happen "before launch".

Regardless.. I think @zebular brings up some good ideas... I like the "seamless" thing (being able to see people walk past your window, etc.). Also, allowing players to gain squatters rights on houses on the SH is a much better use of map space than just wasting all that room. In fact, my partner and I have already called dibs on the house in the Fae Canopy if that ever happens. :-)

This game has literally infinite potential, and I strongly urge the decision-makers to realize this infinite potential and start $capitalizing$ on it... I often express disdain about others making comparison to "other MMOs" ("but that's how WoW does it" sort of thing), as I feel this game has the potential to set the bar for MMOs, f2p or not... and if I have to spend a few bucks here and there to have my own house (with additional storage space, etc.) in the game, I won't be able to get my credit card out fast enough.

So it comes down to this: what is it that we, the players, can help you, the developers, make this happen?

ironzerg79 · September 2015

arabatur said:
Player housing would do nothing to increase my waning interest in this game. I can suggest better things for the Dev's time than introducing more shiny things into the game.

I disagree...I think what this game needs is MORE shiny things for players to chase...but shiny things that AREN'T tied to gear or refinement grinds.

Character customization and housing are two huge areas of opportunity, not only from a content standpoint, but from a monetization model as well.

You can have a variety of sources for items to fill your house (or customize the look of your toon).

Basic stuff can be sold from vendors for gold, or created by professions.

Nicer stuff or decoration packages can be sold for AD or Zen.

Very special items can be rare BoE drops from dungeons, skirmishes and other content.

Rare and exotic trophies can be handed out for completing achievements, or through very special events.

As for the idea, my only suggestion would be to let people pick any door they want in the world to be the entrance to their house. You could mark a door in PE, or your guild's Stronghold. Or if you really imagined your character living in Helm's Hold, or Ebon Downs, or even at the top of Mt. Hotenow in a Dwarven Ruin, then why not?

There doesn't actually have to be space set aside in zones for houses...it can all be virtual, like what Wildstar did (and despite all the failings of that game when it launched, housing was the one true bright spot...just google Wildstar housing to see how popular the feature was!).

ironzerg79 · September 2015

magenubbie said:
I agree. Thanks to the foundry we can already use many doors and other entrances in the game. It wouldn't be too hard to add a few in certain zones like Sharandar (for HR and elves?). I'd even settle for the Stronghold. It can even have 1 door for everyone if they want to be lazy about it. It's just a matter of a simple rule: Use it alone and you enter your own place. If you're in a party, the party leader using the door can take people with them. That system is not much different from the Foundry when you have multiple foundries using the same door.

Knowing the devs are always short on time, why not have a foundry competition for basic house designs for each class and or race? I don't mind doing the work if it means we're getting something awesome in return.

Paging Dr. @strumslinger. Awesome idea for a community contest that supports the Foundry, operating room 1...

locksanpockets · October 2015

What is first needed is a Massive influx of new players to create a Massive influx of cash to pay for a Massive amount of new staff members to create a Massive amount of new content. Then you'll have your house.

How do you do that? Stay tuned, the solution will be unveiled in my upcoming post.

wylonus · October 2015

my post got lost in shuffle of pages and pages, and deeply buried.
Guild halls/Strongholds, the idea was about having meeting room, banquet hall, and trophy rooms, and "armor stands".

and then personal Homes would be 3 tiers, single-duo rooms, 3-5 rooms, and a manor versions, plus decorated with personal armors on the stands that we all worn ages ago or collection of armor sets.

decoration options, ...
paintings, statues, bookcases, weapon displays and "quest reward items" as house items.

dufisto · October 2015

ironzerg79 said:

Very special items can be rare BoE drops from dungeons, skirmishes and other content.

if i ever got a set of drapes for killing traven. i'll quit the game on the spot. we cant get useable equipment to drop and you want to fill the loot table with frivolous junk? dont we get enough of that from lockboxes?

on second thought, please implement housing, make sure to include an xbox in it so we can watch our characters play the xbox version and get some attention to the broken stuff.

zorothegallade · October 2015

ironzerg79 said:

arabatur said:
Player housing would do nothing to increase my waning interest in this game. I can suggest better things for the Dev's time than introducing more shiny things into the game.
I disagree...I think what this game needs is MORE shiny things for players to chase...but shiny things that AREN'T tied to gear or refinement grinds.

Character customization and housing are two huge areas of opportunity, not only from a content standpoint, but from a monetization model as well.

You can have a variety of sources for items to fill your house (or customize the look of your toon).

Basic stuff can be sold from vendors for gold, or created by professions.

Nicer stuff or decoration packages can be sold for AD or Zen.

Very special items can be rare BoE drops from dungeons, skirmishes and other content.

Rare and exotic trophies can be handed out for completing achievements, or through very special events.

As for the idea, my only suggestion would be to let people pick any door they want in the world to be the entrance to their house. You could mark a door in PE, or your guild's Stronghold. Or if you really imagined your character living in Helm's Hold, or Ebon Downs, or even at the top of Mt. Hotenow in a Dwarven Ruin, then why not?

There doesn't actually have to be space set aside in zones for houses...it can all be virtual, like what Wildstar did (and despite all the failings of that game when it launched, housing was the one true bright spot...just google Wildstar housing to see how popular the feature was!).

Finally someone who speaks my language. After hearing from a friend of the declining quality of the game, I played it myself for a few months and experienced it firsthand...all the "flavor text", character customization and bragging rights are being constantly discarded in favor of cold numbers and a dumbed-down metagame with a steep difficulty slope.

If I had had a time sink to tend to, such as a house, or even a piece of land from the stronghold, maybe I wouldn't have left after the umpteenth disappointing update, because there would have been at least ONE aspect of the game that I liked and I could still play the game "my way" and have fun like that. Instead, the game seems to want to hammer in more and more that if you're weak, you aren't entitled to fun and have to grind over and over until you can move on to the moderately "fun" stuff, such as trouncing greatly underleveled players in PvP or lead newbies in dungeons you can actually clear without dying. Heck, half my guild was bored of the game soon after SH's novelty wore out and its true colors as a diamond black hole were revealed, and most of them quit soon after. What if we were able to customize an area of the SH and have a party in there? It wouldn't have turned the situation around, but it would have encouraged us to stick around a bit more because it would have reminded us of one of the best things in online games: playing together as friends.

That's another point Neverwinter tries to brush aside to leave more space to the grinding power trip: playing with your friends, or at least people you know. Right now all of the content (100% of it, no exaggeration) is only viable if you have just the ideal party for the task, or go with a random group. Stronghold HE's were the only thing doing as a guild was fun and rewarding to do, and of course PWE yanked the plug on that by slapping a nerf on rewards, and we stopped even doing that. Dragonflight was fun as we started making progress and managed to kill two dragons some times, but a lot of guildies got put off by the fact that the reward for killing a dragon was essentially PWE begging for more money. "You won this prize but you have to pay to use it". That's ripped off of TF2, and not even well. At least in TF2 you only get cosmetic items, or alternate weapons which you'd get from playing normally or trading anyway. NW has binds everywhere and severely limits access to everything you need to progress in the game, not realizing that that is the reason bots exist: when you have to sweat and bleed to reach endgame status, it's much more profitable to just find a good farming method and exploit it. The answer is not nerfing the latter, it's encouraging the former!

Anyway, I kinda started to drone on in that message. But yeah, these are the main reasons I and most people I know quit the game: no encouragement to progress, no variety in content, no time sinks, no advantage in playing with friends, and blatant money-grabs at every turn. Feel free to use this feedback as you will.

banaanc · October 2015

heres smth i wrote in another thread

banaanc said:

Add personal(account wide, could be too expensive to build a house for every character) housing - 1 or few map markers that allow to travel to a base location you can build on, building could be either foundry like free build or preset housing options(for ppl who dont want to build every detail, to add more houses types you could make foundry contest with top votes getting their houses added to item shop and getting zen rewards. building could take resources, some existing could be used(ores, wood, cloth etc.) that would add value to those resources and allow new players to earn some ad while leveling. huge profit options selling stuff for houses and house designs, like furniture, armor stands etc. this instance should be permanent so players arent kicked out like in strongholds

valwryn · October 2015

I like the housing system of both LOTRO (I don't like the rent) and Star Wars. In both you can craft or win decorations. Stars Wars gives everyone a chance to purchase new decorations with every event. The Collections Points from the Journal and Collection Pages can be used to offer more unique decorations to those that reach'd ceratin levels.

wylonus · October 2015

Everquest 2 has "prestige homes" and they are rent free once you buy it, older home zones still has rent cost.
i didnt like Turbinegames' Asheron's Call 1's home format, if you let it lapse over 30 days, you lost a home and items in chests and wall hooks are all lost forever if someone buy and you cant get it back, if due by internet problem or bad cable.
eq2's has way better format, but with limited tools and rifts has more decorating options for rollovers/tip-overs which eq2 didnt have unless if you add "3rd party site" for tilting tools.

my idea still stand for three tiers home format, 1-2 rooms, 3-5 rooms, and manor.

Cryptic's STO have very limited tools for house format, go see "Ship Bridges" and that not alot of "decoratings" and they have Starbase as guild halls, still very limited decoratings. they have uniform display and ship model display.

so i doubt that we may get any Stronghold indoor guild hall that soon.

grifter1 · October 2015

To Cryptic-

This is the biggest cash cow in every single MMO, and it surprises me you have not gone down this route yet. Especially in a game as RP heavy as a D&D game.

1) Housing offers an entirely extra dimension to crafting.
a) Crafting housing items requires new mats
b) Also boosts the ecomony with tradeable housing materials

2) Guild Strongholds are the perfect place for instanced housing.
a) There are myriad ways to introduce housing in the stronghold. Very surprised you have not introduced that yet.

Are there any plans for player housing in the works?

hawkeyel · October 2015

It is rather shocking they have yet to do this.Being able to hang a trofhy head on the wall and furnish your home not to metion having a chest for more storage .Ton of reasons to look at doing this .Win win for both.

skalt112 · October 2015

once again another mod will pass with no work on the foundry, so i would not even imagine something like this would ever be probable.

cesuke · October 2015

The house maybe a personal stronghold with boons like the guild stronghold... but farly lower requirements maybe be the soloplayer solution.

regenerde · October 2015

In one word, Strongholds.

All the Devs have to do is adjust the resources needed to build and upgrade a Stronghold to a more solo/casul player friendly level. And before some start screaming, i'm just talking about the first 1-5 ranks of the structures, any rank beyond that would still require a lot of resources and active players.

It shouldn't be to hard to implement a house instances for players to the Stronghold area, that you could upgrade in time with different things too.
Maybe even with some new daily quests of saving NPCs from the Orcs, and those NPCs would then look after your new home, when you are away on adventures...

yokki1 · October 2015

if you want REAL housing look at this. too bad this will NEVER EVER happen to this game.

pterias · January 2017

The recent survey they mailed out about things you liked/disliked and things you'd like to see got me thinking about player housing again. When Strongholds came out, I was really bummed about the massive SH boons and that solo players were hung out to dry with no way to make up the difference. I started hashing out some ideas back then, but I've revisited/revised it and thought I'd post it for feedback. Probably just hamstering in the wind and will be ignored and/or buried under a mountain of "join a guild, you dork!", but why not? It sounds like clearing out the upcoming River District could offer up some interesting real estate options in the not-too-distant future!

- Keep (or Manor):
(I'm using the term "Keep" throughout because I think it sounds cooler, but Manor may be an overall more appropriate name.)
A Keep would be an account-wide, solo semi-replacement for a Guild Stronghold. It would act as personal housing and feature conveniences like the Protectors Garden, plus some. It would also double as a place for solo players or un-guilded alts to gain some reduced versions of Stronghold Boons. For fairness towards the group effort, it should obviously not replace a Stronghold, but the benefits should not stack on top of a Stronghold either, that would defeat the whole purpose.

The Stronghold boons go up to +8000, and with an offense and a defense boon at Ranks 10, that's ~23 Rank 12 mono enchants! That's not even including the Utility boons! There are currently ZERO ways for a solo player to make that up, not even 1 point of it. Someone who is willing to invest their own resources, but doesn't want to be at the mercy of a Guild, should be able to make up some of that ground. For a similar personal investment, being able to make up half of those stats (up to 4000 each) seems more than fair. It could also be used to open up Masterwork Professions for solo players.

People in Guilds could obviously also have their own Keeps as well, but should still only be able to choose 1 offense, 1 defense, and 1 utility boon from the combined Keep/Stronghold boon pool. This is the only way solo players can make up some of the boon gap. It would also allow guildies to have different (albeit, weaker) boon options than their guild built for. Like if someone's guild never built a Temple, that someone could build a Keep structure that offered Life Steal and eventually build it up to +4000 Life Steal. This would also be available to the rest of their alts that may not be in the guild. As extra incentive for guildies to also build Keeps on the side, they could also offer some bonuses not available to Strongholds like Crit, Recovery, Deflect, and Move Speed boons.

- Implementation:
A Keep's add-ons would have to be somewhat different from a Stronghold's add-ons, but there would be some conceptual overlap. Since it would be account-wide, you could also include some class requirements to build certain structures, like needing a lvl 70 DC or OP in order to build a Chapel, or a lvl 70 CW/SW to built a Laboratory, etc.

Below are some ideas on structures and their boons. I tried to distribute the boons across structures in ways inspired by their Stronghold counterparts or their own theme, but also with an eye towards not making any of them a perfect have-to-have. Certain structures could also give utility boons for looting different skill nodes, increasing the yield from them, and/or eliminating the need for skill kits for that kind. I placed those ideas in parenthesis as alternates.

One last note is that the Keep building materials should not overlap with Stronghold materials too much so as to not create a conflict like "Do I put these vouchers into my SH or my Keep?!" A good way to do this is to use profession resources to build your Keep. That would finally give a use (and value) to all those stacks of mithral ore piling up! Some additions could even automatically generate profession resources, or skill enhancement boons could cause skill nodes to give additional resources. Obviously things like AD and Gold would be used as well.

- Current SH Boon Structures include:
Barracks: +Power, +Inc Healing, +XP Gain
Explorer Guild: +Group Stats, Ctrl Resist, +Gold
Merc Outpost: +Crit Sev, Crit Resist, +Comp Overloads
Stable: +ArPen, +Defense, +Mount Speed
Temple: +Life Steal, Potion Group Heal, -Revive Sick
Training Yard: +Slayer Overload, AoE Resist, +Glory
Wizard Workshop: +Ward Overload, +HP, +Pot Healing

Siege Workshop: +PVP Slayer Overload, +Stamina Drain Overload
Siege Smithy: +Resist Slayer Overload, +Stamina Drain Ward

- Ideas for new Keep Boon Add-ons:
Chapel: +AP Gain, +Lifesteal, -Rev Sick(Religion) - lvl 70 DC/OP (/Druid)
Garden: +Recovery, +Regeneration, +Pot Healing(Nature) - lvl 70 DC/HR (/Druid)
Laboratory: +Control Strength, +HP, +XP Gain(Arcana) - lvl 70 CW/SW (/Bard)
Library: +Crit, +Control Resist, +Gold - lvl 70 CW/SW (/Bard)
Obstacle Course: +Crit Severity, +Deflect, +Move Speed(Thievery) - lvl 70 HR/TR (/Monk)
Stable: +ArmPen, +Defense, +Mount Speed - lvl 70 GF/GWF/OP
Training Hall: +Power, +AoE Resist, +Glory(Dungeoneering) - lvl 70 GF/GWF/TR (/Monk)

- Profession Structures (unlock Masterwork professions? other benefits?):
Armory: Leadership (since no Masterwork, maybe allow queuing up tasks?)
Smithy: Weaponsmithing / Mailsmithing / Platesmithing
Tannery: Tailoring / Leatherworking
Workshop: Alchemy / Artificing / Jewelcrafting

- Additional Structure Ideas:
Barracks: Companion Related, Sword Coast Adventures?
Dungeon: new adventuring zone
Shop: self explanatory, other structures improve contents
Storage: Account Bank
Trophy Hall: PVP related?

These are just my ideas and would need a lot of filling in, but it seems sound to me.
Thoughts?

chemjeff · January 2017

With the direction the game is going, I don't want player housing. With current trends, the housing would likely (1) offer some must-have boons, that can only be acquired by (2) some insane grind, and we would have to (3) "pay rent" in order to keep our housing. It wouldn't be housing, it would be feudalism.

A Player Housing Request Thread!

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