Please, For the love of all that is Holy.... Do not instance housing

jacktors

As said in my title,  instance housing is boring, and yet again, isolates people in an MMO.  I loved Dark Age of Camelots housing.  Yes, it was instanced. But  They created instanced neighborhoods. So, once you entered the housing neighborhood, you were free to run around and check out all the other houses in the area. They even provided personal vendors. It was cool, because they kept the area interesting and useful.  

Personally, I do not want the same housing system as Daoc.  The games are completely different from one another.  But I am sure that ESO can create their own version of housing neighborhoods what give us all good reasons to enter the area.  Some of the ideas that I thought would be cool are: 

1. Named unique mobs wandering around the housing areas that require groups to kill. 

2. Personal vendors 

3. Unique resources hidden throughout the housing area.

4. Questing 

5. Unique crafting stations found only in the housing area.

6. Cool festivals and holiday gatherings that draw people, kind of like WOW's Dark Moon Faire. 

These are just some quick ideas. But I am sure the community can expand on this and give Zenimax some great  feedback, so we can have the best possible housing area, not just a boring instanced house in the middle of no where. 

GregorMcgregor

1. To hard on the casuals. Walk out of your home at 3am and get ganked. No thanks!

2. Yes, it worked well on DAoC and would save us using the awful trading guild/RvR only shop to sell crafted items.

3. No thanks. Homes should be a peaceful place, not some hovel with 300 strangers roaming about it.

4. No thanks, there should be ample out in the main world.

5. Again, no thanks. Way to much hassle to run about.

6. Yes, the would also open up RP events as per LotRO run by fellow players.

 

I personally would like to see more "hands on" features from the Dev's in fun things, for example, I remember in DAoC someone held a in game wedding, the Dev's set out a seating type plan with stage and torches to light a path etc., it was quite awesome to watch.

Reklaw

Hey Jacktors your post would have fitted very well in my already made topic about housing. But thanks for your inside

SavageHorizon

You really think eso a game that is made up of instances is going to have open world housing lol, the game is an instanced love in. You might get away with lotro approach to housing which is similar to daoc but no way in hell will eso have open world housing lol.

 

tawess

while non-instanced housing is out of the question these days... (UO and SWG show you why that is a bad idea) the idea of instanced housing zones is actually a good idea. It has all the benefits of instancing but none of the isolationist problems. Now that being said i am not sure i like to have my housing area turned in to a questhub... Seasonal events and stuff is ok the rest can stay in the "real" world.

 

Reklaw

Originally posted by SavageHorizon

You really think eso a game that is made up of instances is going to have open world housing lol, the game is an instanced love in. You might get away with lotro approach to housing which is similar to daoc but no way in hell will eso have open world housing lol.

 

So you don't think it's possible to create a new area/land on the map? Doesn't have to be housing in places we already seen or if possible buy/rent houses in city's or towns we do have seen.

I consider phasing-instancing a very young tech, sure other games have used it but ESO has taken it a step futher, but we're not there yet. But it also could help with that open-world issue you seem to have. Of course I understand that it can never be a complete open world for 100% of it's player base to see. Simply because it's more of a themepark-ish MMORPG expecting other wise would be foolish. Would ESO be more of a sandbox game I would have expected it to have open world housing for 100% of it's player-base to see.

 

Quesa

It sounds like you want to play Archeage, not ESO.

 

I can't see how non-instanced housing would work in the slightest, for ESO, let alone any game on the market right now.  I don't really like Archeage's system either.

Octagon7711

I liked SWG housing.  Player cities and such.  And the ability to pickup your house and move it somewhere else.

Traugar

Originally posted by Octagon7711
I liked SWG housing.  Player cities and such.  And the ability to pickup your house and move it somewhere else.

SWG housing was great..........at first.  As the players left, and their houses left ghost towns everywhere it wasn't so great.  If they could solve that little issue I would be all about open world housing.  Until then some sort of instancing has to be used.  I don't mean like the EQ2 method because that one leaves me with no reason to even deal with it.  I loved decorating my houses in SWG, but I never could get into it in EQ2.  I agree with some of the other posters that instanced communities may be an answer.  Sort of a hybrid between open world and instanced.  Another thing is something from SWG.  Let me place any object I can carry into my house to decorate with.  That was one of the reasons I didn't enjoy EQ2 housing.  I couldn't decorate with some of the items I wanted to.  

Bruhza

More than likely this will not happen.

 

Though out of the few ways they could do it, the neighborhood version would probably be the easiest to implement. 

Burntvet

Zenimax company motto should be: "That's too hard..."

So, since they "can't" do it, it will never happen, none of the stuff you listed.

jacktors

Originally posted by Reklaw
Hey Jacktors your post would have fitted very well in my already made topic about housing. But thanks for your inside

Yes, i saw that after I posted it. My bad. 

jacktors

Originally posted by SavageHorizon

You really think eso a game that is made up of instances is going to have open world housing lol, the game is an instanced love in. You might get away with lotro approach to housing which is similar to daoc but no way in hell will eso have open world housing lol.

 

re-read my post.  I said an instanced neighborhood.   I just hate the isolated housing in games like Rift. Where you port to a small carbon copy instance everybody else has. That is why i used DAoC as an example. They had instanced neighborhoods. I agree that non instanced housing is the  wrong way to go. I used to play UO, and all it did was clutter the land and cause horrible lag.  Plus, with instanced neighborhoods you can get a nice customization.  As far as my ideas, they were off the top of my head.  Looking back at the feedback, I found myself agreeing with many of the negative responses toward the quests/mobs/crafting areas.  But still, i like the idea of instanced neighborhoods. It is something that Zenimax can create. 

SEANMCAD

I do not think there is anything wrong with instance housing. non-instance is better but its not the end of the world if it is instance.

Sovrath

I'll have to agree with some others, here: it doesn't make sense to create housing that isn't instanced in a game that is all about different layers, instances, etc.

If this was one giant open world non-themepark game I would be more inclined to agree.

But this game is not about being "in a world". It's about exploring map upon map and doing quests.

 

SEANMCAD

Originally posted by Sovrath

I'll have to agree with some others, here: it doesn't make sense to create housing that isn't instanced in a game that is all about different layers, instances, etc.

If this was one giant open world non-themepark game I would be more inclined to agree.

But this game is not about being "in a world". It's about exploring map upon map and doing quests.

 

totally agree