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Which game were you the most impress with Housing systems?
Brume
Member UncommonPosts: 62
I was just wondering,
I played MMO since the start of Ultima Online, and as far as im concerned it was the best housing experience i had with an MMO. I haven`t played that many MMO since that include a house system, but the importance that it took in Ultima Online was the best i had with any MMO so far.
At that time, the bank only hold a certain amount of items, you ran out of place pretty fast, even gold had a limited amount in bank. All the different decoration and the game mechanics that let you place a vendor at your house was pretty interesting. I played SWG but only the first 2 months and it was, for my experience, pretty bad. EQ2 house systems was decent, as you could customize it pretty well, and i know poeple dont like instanced house, but the appartment systems, at that time, was pretty neat in my opinion.. still it feel a little bit more like something you have to put money in, with no real benefit out of it. I have hear Lord of the rings Online ad a pretty solid systems but i only did the beta.
For me a house in a MMO should be an expanse for sure at first, but a little bit in line with an achievement. Something you are proud of when you finally get to that stage. It should be rewarding to a certain degree, and somewhere you can easily feel comfortable.
What are your tough on it ? What is your housing systems experience so far with MMO ?
Comments
Best I've seen: SWG had a great housing system.
To me EQ2 was and still is the best because you could make it look amazing.
Yes instanced and didn't really do anything but still it looked nice.The ability to have lots of choice in furniture was also nice.Yes they could have done better,everything SOE did/does always looked rushed but it was still pretty good.
SWG just looked bad,sort of like the way Wow looks to me,too dated for my liking.Wow had no excuse they simply went for cheaper ugly textures.
Really sad that we wait so long for equal housing,developers are more willing to make excuses for LACK OF in their games while willing to hype up ideas that are simple and cost effective.I never got to enjoy FFXIV housing because they obviously made it so you couldn't get it,which i thought was VERY lame,so i quit the game among other reasons.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
UO was always my favorite. Archeage has a pretty good housing system. Although, I don't care much for the game in its current state.
This. There may be a team of necromancers out there which may have resurrected this great beast with it's fantastical housing. Use the google, Luke.
Playing: Secret World: Legends
Waiting for: Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
Ditto. Really liked UO's system and liked much of AA's housing, just didn't care for a lot of AA's surrounding stuff, the business model in particular.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
The realm and ultima online which are 19 and 20 year old still silly...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Realm_Online
was my house on ultima online, back in the day.
http://uo.stratics.com/homes/famous/houses/jeff__edens_paradise.shtml
Ive yet to find a housing system giving me any creative opportunity like it was in The realm and Ultima online.
No question, SWG.
For personal housing no MMO can touch Skyrim. I used the creation kit to build exactly the house I wanted and loved every bit of it. No MMO offers even a fraction of the customization. As far as MMO housing goes, I'd have to say I actually like the SWTOR housing, even if it's ridiculously pricey. If you want to step into the way back machine and include dead games, then SWG has definitely had the best overall housing in MMO land.
For guild housing I still love Age of Conan's guild cities. It's truly a guild effort. Trying to build everything in a guild city solo would take months, plus there's several different zones to place them in with their own unique flavor. An architect of high enough level can even guild and erect lots of cool statues and monuments.
Having a guild city comes with character perks, and those perks increase as you build more buildings and upgrade the buildings you already have. Build a guild city large enough and NPC's will come settle there and have unique quests for mounts and vanity pets / vanity armor. It's one of the many things that AoC got right before they fired the good game director and then went through a string of useless whoresons.
Looking for a family that you can game with for life? Check out Grievance at https://www.grievancegaming.org !
Both UO and SWG had 'place anywhere' housing and that's bad for the server. Players would box in areas of UO and prevent other players from going there. So despite paying the same sub fee as them, those players would decide that part of the game was off limits to other customers. Unacceptable. See my sig about sandboxes and house cats.
SWG on the other hand ended up looking un-Star Wars. The dune sea is described in canon as, "The Dune Sea on Tatooine was once the bed of an inland sea. Extreme temperatures and lack of water made the area inhospitable to most lifeforms. A Human could dehydrate after about thirty minutes from overexposure." but not in SWG, nope! A town every 50m made the dune sea the happiest place on Tattoine! Go see the silly sand people and the shaggy Banthas! it's fun for the whole house cat infested sandbox family! ...garbage.
EQ2 as you mentioned has the best looking houses and guild halls. (I'm not into the whole barbie doll play house of MMO housing, but some people are. In fact, I wouldn't mind if MMOs never included housing ever again) So to answer your question from someone on the outside of the whole homemaker thing looking at what others have decorated, EQ2 has the best items to make good looking guild halls and houses.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
UO. They eventually had an extreme customization, not only for the house itself but also with all the items (every item in the game) that could be placed anywhere in the house, stacked, etc. The house itself wasn't instanced, but the items inside didn't load until you entered the house.
You could also place items outside on the steps and porch areas. If you bumped the outside walls inward one hex, you could also place things on the walls (lanterns or whatever) but they also didn't load until someone went into the house plot area.
A slightly expanded housing system like UO's would be the ultimate. By expanded I mean allowing a number of outside items to show even to those who haven't entered, adding basements and tunnels, things like that.
Once upon a time....
SWG. It's the only game I've played where the housing and buildings in general were such a vital part of the game. No other game has come close.
Archeage is pretty good too because of the way it's integrated with farming but it's in a distant second place.
Second.
Without question, SWG was the best housing system I've ever experienced. I made a doctor's office out of a small Tatooine house. It was complete with individually placed datapads scattered across the receptionist's desk, plants in the waiting room, magazine racks, and a backroom filled with bacta tanks, chairs, and some droid I had picked up. In my large house next door, I made a movie theater out of stacked white bookshelves turned backwards. I sank lights inside the shelves to light it up. Everything was individually placed, and everything could be placed. I haven't seen that level of customization since. Rift comes closest I suppose, but it still can't touch SWG.
SWG
UO
VANGUARD
1. UO - Nothing comes close to UO for me. Our guild built an entire town with a full range of structures including a vendor, tower etc. UO allowed you a lot of freedom and the ability to build your own furniture and storage chests in many different styles.
My own tower featured a custom built throne room and a pet dragon to guard my valuables. My next door neighbor had the nasty habit of casting a blade spirit at my dragon from the top of his own tower and of course we had to remain vigilant against thieves who would hide and enter secretly behind us than wait for us to leave and rob us blind.
Like a previous poster I find it hard to believe that almost 20 years later a developer hasn't provided a housing experience with the same level of customization and immersion. Perhaps housing lovers are too small a niche to warrant an investment.
2. AC - In Asherons Call you could place Guild Mansions in the open world and while they all had the same outward appearance (at least when I played) there were quite a few utility trophies that could be earned which provided portals and buffs.
The thing I enjoyed the most is that the guild could run dungeons and select trophy rewards for the Mansion. For me the ability to have a non-instanced home paired with guild runs for housing upgrades made the housing experience much more immersive.
3. Tied for 3 on my list are Dark Age of Camelot and EQ2.
DAOC housing areas were instanced but I enjoyed building my garden and recruiting crafting vendors and stations.
In EQ2 I loved that you could select floor plans on city streets not to mention the plethora of customization options and the ability to broker goods.
4. Last on my list is LOTRO. I am a long time fan boy of LOTRO in terms of general gaming but the housing, for me, leaves a lot to be desired. Each racial area is fairly well designed and the different floors plans are nice but that's where it ends. The real motivation for a home lies in the added storage space and a place to hang your trophies that no one but you will probably ever see. There is a decent level of customization but Turbine has long delegated housing as a time and coin sink.
Del Cabon
A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.
I guess, for any feature, no standalone game can touch a hacked/modded equivalent game, but that's a rather odd road to travel.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre