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Dev Discussion #23 - Housing & Decor Tools

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  • ZephiriusZephirius Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I really enjoyed Everquest 2's housing system. Some of the things I liked about it were being able to place items virtually anywhere and being able to rotate them as well. I also liked being able to own multiple homes, although granted these were all instanced so it was not as immersive as open world freeholds. The ability to pack up all items into crates with a few mouse clicks and move just the crates, versus each individual item, to a new house was also extremely convenient.

    Dark Age of Camelot also had good housing, at least in the sense of customizing it (the housing area itself was vast and not easy to locate houses), such as decorating the outside, both the house and the grounds around the house. Being able to add an NPC consignment merchant to sell goods acquired in the game was also a nice touch.
  • Having the option to levitate something instead of having to glitch an item to make it go where you want it to go would be really nice. For example if you want to create a loft, getting a platform to attach to the wall without having to do millimeter gymnastics would be awesome. And also it would be really neat for the social aspect of being in a family/being married giving you quests rewarding you with recipes for furniture that would reflect the relationship and cultures of the two people. IE a human and an elf get married they do marriage quests and unlock a recipe for bedding or double bathroom sink, or a cool jacuzzi but meshing the architecture from humans and elfs.
  • Most important tool for housing: a grouping tool

    I have to be able to link items together to a base item so that when I move the base, it moves everything else. Bookshelves, cluttered tables, fences, any manually made structure shapes. All these need to be linked for convenient moving.

    Other tools I like for housing involve being able to add simple animations or basic state trigger commands to some objects. aka a cosmetic pet being set on a basic walk path, or a light turning on opening a door.

    A hefty item limit per house is needed if non-interactable clutter objects are needed to make a home feel lived in.

    ———

    As far as furniture goes, I love being able to show off trophies from dungeons and raids I’ve cleared. Plants and other landscaping options are good to have, lots of different styles of furniture to make a variety of looks. Depending how the freeholds work, structural pieces would be great to have to add additional cosmetic-buildings outside the standard functional-building cap.
  • This might not be the most reasonable thing to implement, but I love when you're able to collect elements from the world at large decorate with and display in your house. I would love to be able to pick herbs or flowers from across the world and grow them in pots in my house, or trophies from beasts I've hunted. It would be amazing to have large aquariums that you could populate with fish you've caught, but even being able to stuff and mount trophy fish would be great.
  • akabearakabear Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I thought Amazon`s New World has started on the right track with their housing system whereby some of the housing returned benefits to the owner such as status, buffs, perks.

  • ShoelidShoelid Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Honestly, any type of real customizability in housing is above and beyond what is expected in an RPG, let alone an MMORPG. As for what I like? the more choice, the better. Using examples from games I've played:

    Skyrim's housing system has zero creativity involved. You make three decisions on what rooms you want, then fill out all the furniture. This is technically player housing, but it's not the player's house. They did nothing to make it theirs.

    Runescape player housing hits a good mix of form and function, even if it splits everything into big square rooms. I don't like that it's incredibly expensive to decorate.

    When I briefly played maplestory 2 I really liked their housing systems. They make all the basic options free and give you reasons to decorate and put time into your house. You can go for complete practicality or make it look super nice, but if you manage to do both and advertise your house, you'll have lots of people coming through.
  • As someone who doesn't really like spending time decorating, some default setups or tradeable/sellable layouts would be great.
    Easy color swapping would be good. Easier to personalize a prefab bought/traded by players.
    And permitting clipping of objects. I have seen some seriously creative constructs by players that would no-clip a bunch of random things together and make something they could not if snap-to was used.
  • HalaeHalae Member
    edited October 2020
    I'm going to echo a lot of the thoughts stated in this thread already; pets. I recently picked up the Sabletooth cat from this month's set of cosmetic items, and I have strong plans to play a summoner, likely of the Necromancer class. Now, with that in mind, the things that instantly come to mind for me when speaking about my pets wandering around my housing is that I'd like for there to be more than just the cosmetic pets. For instance, perhaps a necromancer can figure out how to get undead minions doing animation loops like gardening/farming, or a beastmaster to have their allosaurus to take a nap under the awnings.

    Those little elements of making the characters and their minions feel more involved is something that almost no game on the market has handled, and it's the sort of thing I think a lot of people would appreciate. Even if you can't manage it for the Summoner minions, the cosmetic pets or animals acquired through taming and animal husbandry may well be doable for this sort of thing.
  • NoaaniNoaani Member, Intrepid Pack
    In terms of tools, EQ2 had the best that I have played with, and would be a good place to start.

    The ability to turn, rotate, raise, lower, and scale in size for any item in the game. The ability to ignore both clipping and gravity if you desire (but the game should also have the ability to enable both). The ability to make any of these changes easily on a very fine scale is also important.

    Additions to that would be the ability to create "sculptures" of multiple items, and be able to lock them in together so that they act as a single item rather than as a collection of items. This includes teh ability to move, resize, or even save or clone these sculptures as a player sees fit.

    The ability to snap items together at corners or other specific points would also be useful, as long as it is fairly easy to use, and also easy to turn off.

    With these tools in place, the only real thing left that is needed are options. The more items the better. The more housing options the better. The more content rewards that can be placed in housing the better. The more lore books the better. The more usable items the better. The more lighting options the better.
  • I hope the house has a workbench that can be used for all kinds of production, and then interactive furniture, which can be used with other players. Luminous statues, large platforms, replicas make furniture. It's better to have a photo frame to put in the screenshots with friends. The guild president can set his own house or the house of a member of the guild as the guild hall for all guild members and friends to enter. Trap furniture, decoy furniture, and food, mounts, pets, and other souvenirs. :)
  • VediaVedia Member
    edited October 2020
    Must haves

    1. Secret guild lairs in secret locations (e.g. in mountains or in a portal, but secret and not obvious how to obtain)
    2. First person camera where body is visible from inside the players head (do this by zooming camera into head) where body is more visible for added immersion and hanging out.
    3. Fortress player housings in the mountains
    4. Treehouse non instanced player housings in a large world tree village, or something like that, either in a village inside the tree trunk or in a village the branches and leaves
    5. Housing decor items with purpose (teleport objects, storage boxes, boxing rings, trapdoors, secret hidden rooms)

    Want really badly
    5. An empty court house for mock trials to complement the bounty system
    6. Bounty gold collectable on kill for each corrupted player, or a token redeemable for gold.
    7. Construction or carpentry skill to make furniture for houses
    8. Butler NPCs who can take things to the bank for player housings.
    9. Some form of permanent instanced housing if possible.

    Related to housing material and items
    9. Special wood and ore only obtainable in high level areas or preferably just PVP locations.
    10. Scrolls, crystals or runes that contain single use spells and an enchanting/imbuing skill which allows players to imbue objects with single use spells like teleports or heals (these would all have a 30 second cool down to prevent the use of multiple teleport scrolls or runes consecutively).

    Questing
    11. Narrative quests that are similar to Runescape's quests in their structure. (and require development of certain skills to a certain level to achieve eligibility to accept the quests)
  • I would really like to see freedom in house decoration.
    Having possibility to place any object on free surface would be a dream, if I want to partition my 2 square house I can do so as long as I have the materials and free surface.

    I would really like my house to be a place that's useful. A Man cave where I can have my tools in good order and use them, store items and rest.
    "You're seeking for perfection, but your disillusions are leading to destruction.
    You're bleeding for salvation, but you can't see that you are the damnation itself." -Norther
  • SoggyBandaidSoggyBandaid Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Wow! I don't normally care all that much for decorating, but everyone has had such amazing input that now I'm pretty excited. I would want some combination of snaps and freeform. Mainly so a rookie like me can make some decent living space without stripping actual architects of their freedom.
    @Schlol and @Nyxxa had some stellar suggestions that I would want, and in addition to the various taxidermy trophies and gear mannequins everyone has mentioned, could we get a huge world map for the wall that would "fill in" as our character explores? I think it would be a great way to showcase a character's exploration (or lack thereof).
    Finally, I am very interested in the possibility of linking décor to other systems. Could scribes craft in game books to fill bookshelves, or food buffs be limited/increased in how many people they affect by having a feast table versus small table? Finally, would it be possible to have décor influence rest XP? For instance battle trophies giving a combat buff, religious symbols increasing NPC renown, book shelves increasing crafting, or some variation. For me, effects like this would tie a fun aesthetic into a place that actually relates to my characters adventures.
  • Purpose would be the word.
    Im not saying that all furniture and decor need to have a specific purpose beyond looking good.
    But having more items in your living space that you can interact with and haves a specific purpose. Like resting bonus in bed, cooking stuff, maybe some old school music box that plays different tunes, sitting by the fire and read a book to improve something or get a temporary buff. Would provide more of a reason for players to actually use and visit their home.
  • NoledinNoledin Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter
    I don't have a lot of decorating houses in MMOs experience, but I quite like how animal crossing new horizon works :D
    So, snapping into place, limited turning of furniture, because if I can turn it into every degree and place it everywhere I know I'm going to spend ages just trying to align everything.

    And I'd like to be able to save multiple blueprints of the decorated house, so you can easily switch between a couple of interiors you've decorated.
  • Hey, first time poster here, but I always thought Star Wars Galaxies got housing decoration perfect. I loved choosing what house to buy, finding the perfect little place to put it on one of the planets, and decorating the interior. The commands were typed and based on a freeform XYZ axis, and much of the furniture and decorative items had no mass, so you could stack things on top of each other to create the illusion of larger items. This allowed extremely precise control and people's creativities could really be showcased. People would use smaller objects to create more complex objects like statues. It meant every house was unique. I wasted hours upon hours decorating and redecorating my house. When you made a new friend in-game one of the first things we would want to do would be to showoff our respective house so people could admire it.

    I understand some people just view homes as a utility but I have always appreciated the softer side of MMORPGs. I appreciated socializing, exploring, building, and crafting sometimes more than fighting or raiding. Having the ability to create a completely unique space with freeform placement sounds great.

    tldr:
    1. Freeform coordinate placement system with written out XYZ, angle, and tilt coordinates for precise decoration placement.
    2. The ability to clip or noclip decoration so some can have physical presence and some items can be stacked and arranged on top of and inside each, other allowing more fluid capabilities.
    3. Allow us to visually scale decorative items in-game. Maybe a painting looks okay on a wall but it would look better if it was 13% bigger. Things of that nature.
  • Ability to hang trophies on the walls is definitely exciting
    “Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.”

    ― Plato
  • RisingPhoenixRisingPhoenix Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    A real looking fireplace that you can sit back and relax in front of. Would be so awesome!
  • mounted heads of raid bosses have already been mentioned but i like to see mounted pictures of the Metropolis you conquered or defended.
    Like a screenshot from the sky that happens the moment you win the attack or defense, with a neat little description.
    "Metropolis of XXXX. Conquerd at date XX.XX.XXXX"

    Another thing i haven't seen yet in other games is a black board to put up on a wall in my house so i can place a to do list on it.
    Hell if free form drawing is possible on it, i see raids using it for strategy meetings.
    The board itself could loose durability while using it and the chalk used to draw could be consumables to give another thing for artisans that need constant production.
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  • Xenotor wrote: »
    Hell if free form drawing is possible on it, i see raids using it for strategy meetings.

    We used to do this in Discord in the last game I played, but it would kinda cool to have a more RP way of doing it!
    This link may help you: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/
  • I have to say that Rift hands down had the best housing i have ever seen! You could take all items and move it around however you wanted. Bookshelfs became stairs because you made them hang in the air. Which allowed you to make an upstairs room. You could make your own art with flowers and mushrooms etc. Even the most simple house with no rooms you could divide into 3 room. The visiting each other and giving like or dislike.
    I would love Items that was easy and cheap to get in games. But also items that was super rare and you could show them off with pride.
    I would also be okay with cosmetic skins from the cash store. If it was just a skin of what you already had. Etc a bed.
    Lots of color options and different styles.
    Oh and shiny flowers like in ESO. Love making a beautiful garden that glows at night!
  • I would like to see trophies you can place from killing world bosses (such as mounted heads, teeth, claws, etc.)and special achievements (like say mastering a crafting profession, ranking high in a pvp tournament or other official contest, reaching a high rank in a social organization or religion)
  • Archeage did housing and owning property good. From a mere deco house up to a production facility.
  • vahrovahro Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    For me SWG had the best housing system in an MMORPG. Even garbage that you found somewhere could be placed and combined with furniture and other garbage. The creations out of this were absolutely brilliant. It would be so great if Ashes would allow this as well.

    Of course with a better handling :D Although I would also accept coordinate inputs.
  • akabearakabear Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    Whilst instanced is probably the only way to go with so many players having/wanting a residence. I like the idea of the current highest rank house(s) to be visible in their designed state to other players. (Again a little of an extension of the New World model)

    Ranking metrics perhaps measured by a number of means in line with the type of node they are associated with.
  • To Echo a lot of people, a tool that is easy to use would be appreciated. Haven't gotten far enough into any mmo with housing so i'll leave that up to smarter people.

    That being said, if i take Ark's building design as a reference, i hated clipping. Make a preset position for items and then let people rotate, lower or raise to their hearts content.

    Also, for freeholds if possible, i'd like to see the ability to make shrines dedicated to families with busts or manequin as was already requested.

    Have a nice one
  • maouwmaouw Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    For controls, if you allow free placement of objects can I suggest:
    • when we have selected an object to move, can you reserve the 'Z', 'X', 'C' keys to lock movement along the Z, X, Y axes?
    • Use 'R' to enter rotation mode (where the ZXC keys again lock rotation around the ZXY axes)
    • Use 'T' or 'tab' to toggle surface-snapping on and off
    • Use 'Alt' to place multiple copies of the same object (e.g. placing four chairs around a table quickly)
    • While surface snapping is on, allow rotation snapping at 15 degree intervals (0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, etc.) This allows snapping to 90* rotations, 45* rotations and rotations by thirds of a circle (So we can align things in triangular shapes)
    • snapping interval of half a player size works best for tiled placement of objects in my experience

    The idea is that I can use surface snapping to place a bunch of objects on a surface and snap major components together, then I can freely toggle off snapping and lock movement along certain axes to precisely place objects within each other from there.
    I wish I were deep and tragic
  • I haven't seen this in other traditional MMOs, but actually really enjoy the way that FO76 (I know, I know) handles their house item crafting. Instead of having players craft item by item at specific crafting benches and then take those items into their inventory for placement, they have all of the items that can be crafted available in a menu system and you can preview/place objects and then craft directly from that. When you're doing intricate builds it's sometimes hard to think through all the items you can make and then puzzle out if they'll be the perfect look/fit for a space (which may often be pretty far away from your bench). It's nice to have what's essentially a housing item recipe book where you can see everything you can craft and be able to stand in the exact place where you want to build something and be able to preview what something will look like in a space and craft it immediately there. And, also, be able to deconstruct items that don't end up working out with some (but minimal) material loss.

    FFXIV doesn't do that exactly but does at least have the option to store furniture items in a separate unused housing storage area once something has been crafted, so you can pick from and place (or not place) items from that list, which is helpful.

    I know it's the more traditional way to go to have the crafting bench/inventory method, but it's also annoying to have chest upon chest of unused furniture because you're guessing what will look good in a space only to find that it doesn't and needs to be stored. It's even worse when games do this with already limited storage/inventory space. I swear that half my chest and retainer storage is eaten up with random chairs and decorations in ESO. :( I'd love to see a more flexible system that gives more freedom in decorating without the hassle of having to play a "will it look good" guessing game and associated inventory/storage tetris.
  • An undo button and the ability to group items together for easy moving would be great!
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  • AruganArugan Member, Alpha One
    I love being able to put armor or heads of monsters in the home.
    -Like a hunting wall of the beasts killed
    -trophy room of armor collected etc

    In general, my favorite home building was City of heroes and Star Wars Galaxy.
    -I love you can customize the home so much with several different items and change the layout of walls etc.
    -Also, love how you can move any item in your inventory and place it in the home. So you could make a dinosaur out of random items.
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