ESO player housing will be instanced.

SpottyGekko

Even though player housing in ESO is still a long way off, it appears that ZOS are already changing the game world to accomodate the new system:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/275441/lets-talk-about-housing

So judging by the changes already appearing on the PTS, it looks like ESO is getting a housing system similar to EQ2, i.e. one or two buildings in each city function as instanced housing for the entire population.

Just like in vanilla Skyrim, you will be able to buy a specific house in a city. In ESO, everyone will buy the same "house", but the interior will be instanced for each separate owner.

In theory, they could also allow customization of the immediate exterior and garden (via phasing), but it's probably not practical to do on a per player basis.

Tiamat64

SpottyGekko said:

Even though player housing in ESO is still a long way off, it appears that ZOS are already changing the game world to accomodate the new system:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/275441/lets-talk-about-housing

So judging by the changes already appearing on the PTS, it looks like ESO is getting a housing system similar to EQ2, i.e. one or two buildings in each city function as instanced housing for the entire population.

Just like in vanilla Skyrim, you will be able to buy a specific house in a city. In ESO, everyone will buy the same "house", but the interior will be instanced for each separate owner.

In theory, they could also allow customization of the immediate exterior and garden (via phasing), but it's probably not practical to do on a per player basis.

Expected, I think.  Given that the game world was (probably) not designed with housing in mind, they likely didn't have much other choice (other than revamp a lot of the game world/cities all over to accomodate non-instanced housing)

Still kinda silly how everyone will be going in and out of the same building.

SpottyGekko

Tiamat64 said:

SpottyGekko said:

Even though player housing in ESO is still a long way off, it appears that ZOS are already changing the game world to accomodate the new system:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/275441/lets-talk-about-housing

So judging by the changes already appearing on the PTS, it looks like ESO is getting a housing system similar to EQ2, i.e. one or two buildings in each city function as instanced housing for the entire population.

Just like in vanilla Skyrim, you will be able to buy a specific house in a city. In ESO, everyone will buy the same "house", but the interior will be instanced for each separate owner.

In theory, they could also allow customization of the immediate exterior and garden (via phasing), but it's probably not practical to do on a per player basis.

Expected, I think.  Given that the game world was (probably) not designed with housing in mind, they likely didn't have much other choice (other than revamp a lot of the game world/cities all over to accomodate non-instanced housing)

Still kinda silly how everyone will be going in and out of the same building.

Well, they could soften the visual impact using phasing.

Like having a high garden wall with a gate. Everyone will still use the same garden gate, but at least phasing will allow you to personalize the contents of the garden and exterior fittings of "your" house. That would also mean you'd never have to see anyone else entering "your" front door...

Phasing can be put to good use in this case.

SpottyGekko

DMKano said:

It's a megaserver tech - non instanced housing would be impossible.

BDO does phased housing but were hardly the first.

AO anyone? 

EQ2 had it at launch as well iirc.

I never expected ESO to do anything other than what they seem to be doing. The megaserver population is simply too large to comfortably do anything else.

XAleX360

It was simply inevitable due to the way the game is structured.

Joseph_Kerr

Too bad, I was hoping for something like a VG/LotRO hybrid where actual large zones were dedicated to player housing/neighborhoods/guildhalls where once that zone's housing nodes were filled a duplicate of that zone would become available for more housing and so on, there are a lot of unused areas on the map that could accommodate that. This is kind of a let down and just one more thing that takes away from the idea of community in an mmorpg and takes a single player approach.

SpottyGekko

Joseph_Kerr said:

Too bad, I was hoping for something like a VG/LotRO hybrid where actual large zones were dedicated to player housing/neighborhoods/guildhalls where once that zone's housing nodes were filled a duplicate of that zone would become available for more housing and so on, there are a lot of unused areas on the map that could accommodate that. This is kind of a let down and just one more thing that takes away from the idea of community in an mmorpg and takes a single player approach.

The problem is that those instanced housing zones almost immediately become ghost towns. Then hundreds upon hundreds of empty instances (in a megaserver game) have to be constantly maintained. The ROI on that is abysmal.

gervaise1

Yep as expected.

Now will Housing come as part of a DLC with quest arcs that have to be completed before you can buy a house? I think this will be the case and why Housing is not releasing until next year.

Octagon7711

More long loading screens???

NobleNerd

gervaise1 said:

Yep as expected.

Now will Housing come as part of a DLC with quest arcs that have to be completed before you can buy a house? I think this will be the case and why Housing is not releasing until next year.

I was under the impression it was coming with the Aug. DLC that really isn't much of a DLC with only adding a few Argonian dungeons and the barbershop? Or maybe they are just teasing housing while talking about the DLC.

Either way housing will be nice, but what would have been better is Guild Housing along with more guild features.

Albatroes

I mean I get why people dont like instancing from an immersive view point and to be a douche selling open world plots etc, but I mean ultimately you have to want a house or not. If you do, instancing is the most forsured way to get everyone housing. If not, just find another game to be a douche in I guess? lol. I honestly liked how rift did their housing and even though garrisons were an implosion the longer you stayed and did crap in them, they were pretty good designed and kind of game a seemless feel. (But man was it buggy as all crap though when it first got implemented, nothing like trying to flight master to your garrison only to be hanging for like 10-15 mins till you crash and can't even log in for a hour. Or logging into your garrison only to see like 100 other people inside your garrison all freaking out, fun times).

gervaise1

NobleNerd said:

gervaise1 said:

Yep as expected.

Now will Housing come as part of a DLC with quest arcs that have to be completed before you can buy a house? I think this will be the case and why Housing is not releasing until next year.

I was under the impression it was coming with the Aug. DLC that really isn't much of a DLC with only adding a few Argonian dungeons and the barbershop? Or maybe they are just teasing housing while talking about the DLC.

Either way housing will be nice, but what would have been better is Guild Housing along with more guild features.

MF in the recent mmorpg.com interview - said more news towards the end of the year; Housing itself next year.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/821/feature/10947/Elder-Scrolls-Online-One-Tamriel-Interview-with-Matt-Firor.html

Vorthanion

I expected nothing better from Zenimax and they were happy to oblige.

SEANMCAD

Vorthanion said:

I expected nothing better from Zenimax and they were happy to oblige.

exactly what I was thinking and about to post so i guess I dont need to. why are people acting surprised. I am just waiting for Zenimax to say anything else is 'not possible' or 'its what the fans want'

filmoret

Vorthanion said:

I expected nothing better from Zenimax and they were happy to oblige.

It only took them 3 years.  Meanwhile WOW ....  Well I guess I don't have to go there.

SEANMCAD

Albatroes said:

I mean I get why people dont like instancing from an immersive view point and to be a douche selling open world plots etc, but I mean ultimately you have to want a house or not. If you do, instancing is the most forsured way to get everyone housing. If not, just find another game to be a douche in I guess? lol. I honestly liked how rift did their housing and even though garrisons were an implosion the longer you stayed and did crap in them, they were pretty good designed and kind of game a seemless feel. (But man was it buggy as all crap though when it first got implemented, nothing like trying to flight master to your garrison only to be hanging for like 10-15 mins till you crash and can't even log in for a hour. Or logging into your garrison only to see like 100 other people inside your garrison all freaking out, fun times).

I am not understanding what you are saying. but I will say for me personally instanced or non-instanced either way is not even remotely close to deal breaker anyway. As far as douches in open world non-instanced games I have not a remote clue what game you might be thinking of. I know it doesnt happen in Wurm anyway

jacktors

I wish they had a separate instance for housing, just like DAoC.  We had neighbors, villages and even vendors.  Plus, the house wasn't instanced, it was a real thing, much more immersive imo.  This type of housing could easily be made. Just add villages as needed. 

SpottyGekko

Judging by the screenshots coming out of the PTS, it seems they are indeed implementing many properties with a high perimeter wall and a "garden gate". That will definitely allow for phasing of the entire enclosed space, both house and garden.

That may mean there could be a variety of external decoration options on offer. Some of them may even be Crown Store exclusives. These kinds of cosmetic options are ideal cash shop fare.

One of the screenies even shows a property that looks suspiciously like a small castle...

If they go with cosmetic housing upgrades in the Crown Store, I'd imagine that player housing won't be a DLC exclusive, because that would severely limit the potential sale of housing upgrades and trinkets.

baphamet

jacktors said:

I wish they had a separate instance for housing, just like DAoC.  We had neighbors, villages and even vendors.  Plus, the house wasn't instanced, it was a real thing, much more immersive imo.  This type of housing could easily be made. Just add villages as needed. 

daoc had multiple servers though not a megaserver.  the housing area was dedicated to that server only.

Sayzon

No surprise. I am glad for the addition.

Tiller

Thing is they could have used phasing which a better use of instancing like what BDO and many other games do. I get devs are scared shitless of ever implementing something similar to what SWG had years ago with their open world housing system, and AAs in world housing is a joke, so the closet thing they can get is phasing. If I remember even in SWG the items in your house were phased.

BeansnBread

I like the direction this game is taking. I hated the focus on RvR or whatever they call it in this game. Maybe next year I'll take another look.

gervaise1

jacktors said:

I wish they had a separate instance for housing, just like DAoC.  We had neighbors, villages and even vendors.  Plus, the house wasn't instanced, it was a real thing, much more immersive imo.  This type of housing could easily be made. Just add villages as needed. 

7M+ copies sold and only 6 megaservers - so Z would have to allow for 1M+ non-instanced houses per megaserver. Desolation.

SpottyGekko

BeansnBread said:

I like the direction this game is taking. I hated the focus on RvR or whatever they call it in this game. Maybe next year I'll take another look.

The focus in ESO has very obviously moved away from the RvR component.

The majority of the DLC's have been solidly PVE-oriented. The introduction of "One Tamriel" indicates that they've abandoned the attempt to create "faction pride" and loyalty by trying to force it. The reduction in the available number and duration of RvR campaigns showed that there just simply wasn't the level of demand that they had initially anticipated.

Luckily for ZOS, they didn't bet the farm on the RvR design, otherwise this could have been a total disaster.

Sovrath

SpottyGekko said:

Luckily for ZOS, they didn't bet the farm on the RvR design, otherwise this could have been a total disaster.

I think it's because "someone" on their team thought they were going to hit it out of the ballpark with RvR not realizing that joining it with the Elder Scrolls name would mean attracting a whole different type of player.

SlyLoK

I prefer housing setup this way.