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Dev Discussion #23 - Housing & Decor Tools

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Comments

  • Lore DynamicLore Dynamic Member, Alpha Two
    What I think would be fun is...

    If there was some sort of 'painting' capability incorporated into the game. Which would allow creative-players/artists to Paint images onto canvases. And these canvas could be framed by Woodworkers and displayed on the walls of houses.

    Some particularly skilled artists could even make a name for themselves in game, by selling these paintings through trade or auction. And even eventually take commissions from other players to paint something specific.

    I used to play a survival game called Rust, that would allow players to hang up blank canvases in their bases. I would be 'hired' to paint a picture for the occupants to enjoy! It was a fun mini-game within the environment to make extra 'scrap' (the game's currency) as a side-gig.

    It brought a bit of humanity and personality to an otherwise very hostile game.

    ^_^


    Steven Sharif is my James Halliday (Anorak)

    Lore-Banner-Ao-C.png

    “That is not dead which can eternal lie,
    And with strange aeons even death may die.”

    -HPL
  • Lore DynamicLore Dynamic Member, Alpha Two
    Sokken wrote: »
    ...small things like food and plates, plants and rocks etc. Just something to spice up an eventual garden space if available or some small house plants. Decorating a table with bread, plates and mugs just made it a lot more immersive than an empty wooden table would be.
    In Conan Exiles, you can craft everything from a table, rolled up parchment scroll, to a wooden mug. Then place all of those items exactly how you wanted them arranged in your home. I would spend hours getting things juuuuuust right. To create that perfect "tavern settling" look. It was wild fun!!

    I 100% agree with this.

    /thumbs-up


    Steven Sharif is my James Halliday (Anorak)

    Lore-Banner-Ao-C.png

    “That is not dead which can eternal lie,
    And with strange aeons even death may die.”

    -HPL
  • MetacorMetacor Member, Alpha Two
    Everquest 2 housing was the best ive ever seen so far. pets wandering around, every item is free to place where u want it u can also scale rotate adjust high ect... u can use (for example) 4 transparent mirrors to create an aquarium (fishtank) or some other props to create a fireplace. i remember using smal crates to build stairs and some carpet to create an intermediate floor.
  • If other people can visit your house, then for me the most valuable thing is to show your character's history.
    If you can display medals for when you beat a certain quest, did a certain raid, etc, whatever it is. And also design ornaments that can display what kind of person you are - things like magic rushing through the walls/exterior, swords and shields on the walls, bows and arrows on the tables... Something that really shows people your story and your personality.
  • GrimfaldraGrimfaldra Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Metacor wrote: »
    Everquest 2 housing was the best ive ever seen so far. pets wandering around, every item is free to place where u want it u can also scale rotate adjust high ect... u can use (for example) 4 transparent mirrors to create an aquarium (fishtank) or some other props to create a fireplace. i remember using smal crates to build stairs and some carpet to create an intermediate floor.

    This!

    EQ2 had such a huge amount of fully scalable stuff (one mirror, but if you are a halfling or ogre, it mattered not). If you never seen them, google for "EQ2 guildhall contest" or "housing contest".

    Even if you do not like EQeque games, they got that stuff right. I remember spectacular guild halls and absolutely beautiful player houses. I cannot remember seeing anything like that anymore.

    But if you take inspiration from EQ2s System, please, for all that is holy...the placement tool was a very fiddly thing, make one that works without the player pulling their hair out to get it right.

    Basically:

    Every wall and floor should be individually placeable (like wooden floor, but glazed tiles on the wall), you should be able to craft variations of the same base item, depending on what ingredient there is, the rarer, the flashier.

    Also you should be able to freely scale furniture, to accomodate for different character sizes.

    Gief recipes, plx. Give us completionists something to work for. I would not mind spending a few months hunting for rare recipes that are BOP. Lots....of...recipes.

    Placement should be more-or-less like the 3d editors you can use online to plan your kitchen. Just not with a freely chosen layout but depending on the house.

    Simple, no frills but sufficiently accurate. If you want to add depth, make it that you need a tool to actually place floorboards and tiles and you need a hammer to put up a picture. But that is a bit over the top, even for my standards. :)
  • I like being able to change all the colors on the house the furniture and also being able to change the structure of the house itself either on purchase or remodeling later would be awesome.
  • AndAfterAndAfter Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Interesting ornaments and decorations (non furniture stuff) and variety in options for furniture/ornaments (racial themes furniture and such) are stuff Im personally interested in seeing.
  • I like alot of the ideas that people have posted so far!

    Having some options for rugs/flooring, wall art, a fireplace, armour stands, lighting(different holders for candles), maybe having an inhouse storage chest would be nice to have, and having interactable items such as a lute where your character could play some music would be a nice touch. Also having real-life based seasonal items which can be bought/gathered to decorate your home, an example of this would be for Christmas there could be a Christmas tree and lights, or during Halloween you could buy/gather pumpkins of which you can carve from a few designs and add a light inside for the night time cycle.

    The potential scope for the house decoration mechanic is huge, it could go as detailed as 'The Sims' which would be too much imo.
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  • BobzUrUncleBobzUrUncle Member, Alpha Two
    Magical furniture would be ... magical.
    Hovering lights, glowing plants, objects that slowly morph, etc.

    I would have said moving paintings, but I think the 'other franchise' might object.
  • Please include elf stuff for houses, like Lord of the rings styles. I hope there will be girly stuff also.
  • ogreogre Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited October 2020
    Having the ability to place objects freely vs. a "socket" type system where certain pieces always go in certain places would be great. The ability to place little decorations or items onto surfaces such as tables, shelves, the floor, etc. would also be very neat. Adjustable lighting with lamps, candles, torches, blinds, or drapes could add a lot to the experience. There should be extremely rare furniture and household items available via crafting & drops from monsters/chests/etc. I'd also expect a slick UI to adjust and make changes to everything house/freehold related.
  • DiamahtDiamaht Member, Braver of Worlds, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited October 2020
    Basically as close to SWG and Skyrim as you can reasonably get. I definitely want in game objects like weapons and armor to have housing deco models. The idea of finding something cool while out in the game world and being able to display it in your home is amazing, one of the best features of SWG and Skyrim.
  • RitchieSHRitchieSH Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Make some of the decor seem personable, involving your past adventures. So someone could walk in and be like "Oh wow you have the head of that boss that came out when the server was like this all of those years ago"

    Also furniture needs to have a purpose.. A bookshelf is cool and all, but a functioning bookshelf that can store server event info or various lore found throughout the world is even cooler
    Subscribe to RitchieSH. You know you want to
  • T ElfT Elf Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Something I considered a missed opportunity was like in EQ2 where you completed a collection of bugs, butterflies, etc. and only got rewarded with coin. Instead I would have liked to have gotten a collection shadowbox of said butterflies to place in my home. I would hope we would have shinies to collect and when completed give nice house items that reflected this achievement.
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    Formerly T-Elf

  • DamoklesDamokles Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Let me be able to take the skulls of worldbosses/dungeon bosses/raid bosses and then make it so I can mount them on my walls! :D
  • CosmicBlacksmithCosmicBlacksmith Member, Alpha Two
    If renting is available ( I Desperately hope it will be a feature as I want to be involved in the real estate business of buying renting selling etc.)

    Enable an option to rent a housing with its furniture or without it as well as selling buying it in such a manner & of course renting furniture.
  • daveywaveydaveywavey Member, Alpha Two
    If renting is available ( I Desperately hope it will be a feature as I want to be involved in the real estate business of buying renting selling etc.)

    Enable an option to rent a housing with its furniture or without it as well as selling buying it in such a manner & of course renting furniture.

    Well, you're able to allow access to certain players, and allow functionality to those players based on if you want them to be able to use your buildings, plants, etc. So I don't see why you couldn't charge a player to "live" there. If they don't pay, you take away their access.
    This link may help you: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/


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  • CosmicBlacksmithCosmicBlacksmith Member, Alpha Two
    daveywavey wrote: »

    Well, you're able to allow access to certain players, and allow functionality to those players based on if you want them to be able to use your buildings, plants, etc. So I don't see why you couldn't charge a player to "live" there. If they don't pay, you take away their access.

    Allowing to use and renting is different... Citizenship is at stake here :#

  • maouwmaouw Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    @CosmicBlacksmith
    I know we can only own 1 freehold at any time - not sure the exact reasons (?) but this suggests renting and a property market aren't going to be a thing, except mayors approving freehold locations?
    There probably is a way to monetize that, but you'd need a lot of coordination.
    I wish I were deep and tragic
  • CosmicBlacksmithCosmicBlacksmith Member, Alpha Two
    @maouw
    You can transfer static housing within the node which can turn from single house to apartments. If I am not mistaken that means you get multiple apartments in 1 building? So therefore can't u have the option to rent them out and provide citizenship like that?
  • TyranthraxusTyranthraxus Member, Alpha Two
    Free-form placement is the most-essential thing on your truly's list. Star Wars: Galaxies allowed some of the most-creative outlet ever, for housing, in that anything could be placed anywhere. Rotated and turned upside-down? Different items could be combined into new things that looked like other things. The downside was that sometimes players would purposefully fill a space with just wierd-looking stuff - but when you consider the fact that some players won't decorate or fill their houses with much of anything at all, isn't it free-form placement the better option?

    Some players are just straight-up decoration artists. The difference of placing a couple of meal-looking items and drinking glasses around a room can really make a house look lived in - as opposed to having default stuff sitting on a table.

    NOT having tables with default decoration on it is another important aspect. If someone uses the same table 3 or 4 times in their house, it's kind of annoying to have the same exact, static stuff sitting on every one of those tables.
  • TroublesTroubles Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Housing-
    Everyone wants their place in the and Player housing is a way to give that to them.

    My experience with player housing is Asherons Call, SWG, EQ2, ESO, Black Desert, ArcheAge, and SWTOR.

    The more personal choices that you have in player housing is better. It will make players who care about these things very happy. Beware though that if you have to many crafting options in the house it takes away player traffic in main areas and may cause the world to seem dead.

    Adding personal pictures (meaning importing photos to place on wall) is an iffy choice because you can never trust the public not to do bad things. But screen shots of your kills and groups would be fun.

    The choice of different wall papers and floors I do not think is necessary as long as there are many rugs and wall hangings to place. To be able to make my home different than yours.

    My biggest thing is making most things craft-able. Maybe like an 80-20 thing. You can store bye or get items from mobs 20% of the items. Crafters can make 80% of the items. (I am obviously a crafter =) )

    So, for me.
    More hooks = good. More items = good.
    More craftable items = good.
    More limits on what can be placed in and outside of house = bad.
    More models of homes = good.
    More home spots in the open world = good.

    THX for your time =)
  • MalphusMalphus Member, Alpha Two
    An armour stand that you can equip your cosmetic armour to so you can display it when it's not in use.
    It would be like a featureless dummy in a static pose that you can render it on similar to a player or NPC.
  • I'd say the more the better, smaller details matter a lot in making a person feel like their home is unique and one of a kind. If things are too similar and there is only templates and skins, it will feel like everyone has a somewhat similar place to call home.

    Being able to decorate wallpaper, carpets paint and the like is a good step. Of course there's plenty more I'm sure people have already suggested but the main point is the have a lot of variety and options to make people feel like their home is really theirs and unique !
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  • CrosimCrosim Member, Alpha Two
    I agree with most everyone else here on the main and most frequent aspects: Allow for XYZ movement and scaling. Armor and weapon racks rock. Trophies are always fun to show off. Pets and plants are essential. Ways to show off your achievements.

    I feel like homes/freeholds should be useful and have great in-game incentives to use. We know freeholds will have uses as far as processing goods etc. But when it comes to decorations specifically, I feel like there can always be more.

    1. Rested XP: Generating this in your homes seems like a no-brainer, but when it comes to having a freehold where you can do interesting things like having a tavern for travelers to visit and resupply, this becomes more interesting. I think it would be neat to have a kind of meter you could fill up to generate a greater amount of rested XP based off of the amount and quality of decor you had in/around a building. Obviously there would need to be a limit, but I feel like it would add an interesting incentive to not create simple, spartan, structures.

    2. Trophy/Achievement Buffs: Getting a little something extra from your decorations sounds neat. I think there should be buffs you can choose to get from specific earned or looted decorations. If you make trophies a little bit hard to come by, be it making them a rare drop, or crafted from an item that is a rare drop, etc, it would lend to a proper amount of prestige, while also granting with it an interesting potential for small buffs for a character … and their friends/customers who visit their home/freehold. You really couldn’t have a character get a buff from EVERY mounted head, metal, and plaque they might have in their home, so it would have to be something you’d choose. In the same vein as only having one ‘food buff’ but this could make things very very interesting. With exclusive buffs you could have a meaningful variation and scale to them. Say you really like killing dragon-type creatures. Maybe there is a stuffed hatchling you can get as a trophy and interacting with it would give you a small 1% fire resist buff. However, if you manage to chop the head off a drake, and put it on your wall, it could be a 2% resistance buff. Perhaps going all the way up to 5% for a full grown dragon trophy from a raid boss. Small numbers like that in isolation won’t break the game, but would be noticeable. This would give players great incentive to not only earn trophies from themselves, but perhaps even work them into the system of trade. I could easily see people wanting to take a dragon trophy from node A for its fire resistance buff and ship it to node B, to be lucrative in nearby a dungeon with lots of pyromancers. This could be done with all kinds of things, not just the bodyparts of beasts. Perhaps as you master the alchemy profession you could place a trophy in your freehold that causes potions to last x, y, z% longer based on your level of skill. Other milestones and achievements could add into the system as well. Perhaps having some trophies for maxing out an archetype that others can get a thematic buff from etc.

    Colors:When you want to create the right look for your home, colors are key. Nothing makes me personally cringe more when I am trying to decorate and objects might share the same fabric color, but are made from a different/clashing wood or material. I feel like the furnishing system should just utilize the same dye system that is used for armors. That being said, I feel like furniture made out of different materials should require those different materials. I am not in the loop as to what kinds of lumbering will be done in ashes, but I feel like if you have different kinds of trees harvestable from different regions it would add a level of marketability and prestige to have a set of furniture made from a type of wood that only grows across on the other side of the world, or the highest tier/rarity. Every ‘simple dining chair’ might share the same model and require X wood, but depending on the wood used it could be a ‘simple pine dining chair’ or ‘simple birch dining chair’ etc.

    Planning Ahead: I would really really love the ability to not only preview what items might look like in your home/freehold, but an ability to actually do so with every item possible to be placed. I know that may sound like a lot, but it can be really heartbreaking to seek out a rare item for ages, only to realize that despite its interesting design and colors, it has some kind of reflective surface that super clashes with the theme of your home, or that the thumbnail of that neat piano, was actually a miniature piano meant to be placed on a table as a curio, and not the corner piece of your lounge.

    Space/resources: Something I have not seen brought up in this discussion a lot is what the limitations are going to be like for housing as far as what you can place and if items in a home/freehold would be rendered while outside of it. I can understand the technical necessities of wanting to limit the amount of items placed, but I would implore the team to only do that as a last resort. Not only does it stifle the creativity of your avid decorators, but it often leads to unused space/rooms so that other areas look properly fleshed out (looking at all you folks in ESO with a barren basement). I would happily pay extra in-game currency as a kind of taxable upkeep fee based on how many items I had placed etc. Oftentimes you can’t put a price on something looking good.

    Other wanted things: Advanced lighting tools, customizable signs, customizable access/permission lists, hireable NPC vendors the player can Dress up, ways to play music from the game, ways to add ambient effects (fog, smoke, floating spores, sounds etc).
  • I would like the ability to mount a weapon and/or armor on my wall/armor stand permanently. Since weapons won't last forever, I would like to keep memories of my first major kills or perhaps my first sword in game so I can look back on it years from now with fond memories.
  • George_BlackGeorge_Black Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha Two
    Yooo new topiccc
  • daveywaveydaveywavey Member, Alpha Two
    Yooo new topiccc

    Seconded!
    This link may help you: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/


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  • Im not a creative player so I don't know much about decorations, but I want my house to be the base were I do most of my crafting/processing, and I think it would be cool to have several useful furniture items in my house to do just that. By example If I want to age ale or wine, I wish to have barrels I could place in my freehold to do that, or having a mortar and pestle table were I can turn my herbs into dust for other recipes I believe by making crafting an immersive activity you will find a lot of ideas for items to place in your freehold that are useful and help in making your house feel more like a home or a base of operations than just the room were you have your singular crafting bench. I want a cauldron to mix potion ingredients and make soup, I want a oven to make baked food, I want an alchemy station to distillate potions and alcohol, I want I want specific storage for items, like a shelf with sacs to store herbs and dust, a potion shelf, a crate to store ingots and if feels like it would be a pain you can always link those different storages to a main chest were you can place anything so people wont complain.
  • YuquiyuYuquiyu Member, Alpha Two
    Rabbit wrote: »
    I'm a minimalist. I need just enough room to setup my crafting stations and storage, without having to run all over the damn place. My perfect in-game house only has two rooms: Crafting and Banking. Unless I'm doing one of those two things, I'll be out in the world.

    MY MAN
    your someone i definitely see myself getting along with kekw
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