Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:
Fortifying Housing with Pillars
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:
Boundless Self-Expression: Our highest priority is to allow players to build a house that shows off their own personal tastes or their Warband's, acts as a desired backdrop for roleplaying, or just allows players to create something in a flight of fancy. The toolset should be easy enough for someone with no 3D experience to be comfortable with and use successfully, but it should also be powerful enough that players can surprise us with their creations or drill down to get the tiniest details just right. The gamut of decor options spans not just the cultures of Azeroth but the many expansions of World of Warcraft as well.
They are setting high expectations for bare minimum FFXIV/ESO level of housing capability here, not SWTOR wall sockets.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:
Deeply Social: World of Warcraft is more fun with other players, and Housing should be no different. While players can enjoy housing purely on their own, its systems are designed at a fundamental level to encourage interacting, playing, and progressing with friends, neighbors, guilds, and the wider community in a meaningful way.
I anticipate some RPers making barracks for their Alliance brigade RP guild to hang in, mansions for noble house guilds, dim cellars for criminal guilds, etc. And maybe FF14 styled casino venues advertised in group finder where anyone walks into sit down and /roll to play blackjack and gamble their gold away.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Long-Lasting Journey: Housing is being built as an evergreen addition to the game, with its own roadmap, reaching across multiple patches and into future expansions. Housing isn't something players should expect to "finish", but instead continually look forward to the next housing release, be it new content or systems. This is a long-term commitment for us as developers and offers players rewards all along the way.
Yes, I do quite like how FF14 adds new housing decorations each patch. Each patch I go to my house to preview the new furnishings in case there is something I want that can enrich my house. Last patch added the new floral overhangs/ceilings which I spent a lot of time floating into position.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Two Housing zones available at launch, one for Alliance and one for Horde, with more possible places to live in the future.
Disappointing, especially if it's going to Durotar/Orgrimmar or Elwyn Forest/Stormwind. Hope new housing districts/locations are rolled out every patch and we are not waiting years to get some real variety in locales.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:The Alliance zone takes inspiration from Elwynn Forest with touches of Westfall and Duskwood
Darn. Maybe the Westfall part of this zone will look more picturesque in 2025 like the golden fields of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms or Bastion.
The phrasing suggests that this will be a seperate zone/instance you need a loading screen to get into rather than a part of the open world, which is interesting. On the one hand, it would be hard to retrofit housing districts into the small old world continents, but on the other hand I think the almost seemless open world was one of WoW's greatest strengths. On the other hand, designing new instanced zones from scratch would look way better than making players stare at old 2004 zones.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:the Horde's is inspired by Durotar, its coastline, and Azshara.
If the Azshara portion has an autumnal forest slant with a picturesque view of the sea, that could be great.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Having many housing zones conflicts with the second pillar of designing a feature that is "Deeply Social." In a world where players can live in many different zones, they become increasingly spread out and even with aggressive sharding, the chance of seeing other players, much less interacting with them, drops quickly.
Housing districts being mostly devoid of players is simply just how it's going to be most of the time. Only on RP servers where RPers spend most of their playtime RPing rather than doing world quests or raids will they have above average activity.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Putting it bluntly, zones are a lot of work. We'd much rather do a great job with a small number of zones than do a passable job on a large number (or come up with solutions that take the player out of the world into their own personal instance of a zone). We chose these as our starting points because of how iconic they are for their respective factions and how much they feel like home to so many players already.
If they are going to be stingy about releasing new housing zones/districts then they really need to maximize bang for their buck with the next districts they release. Don't give us more mundane zones like generic forest or barren desert, but give us really fantastical nice locations.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:
Concept art for the new rugged décor.
I do like how there is some greenery in here, makes it a more liveable space and the rugged plants are differentiated from your usual soft pretty flowers.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Similarly, there have been discussions in the community on whether Housing will be pay to play/win or not, along with other conversations around real-world money. We've been very aligned in our internal conversations that Housing is designed to be primarily player-first and not revenue-first. Housing will offer hundreds and hundreds of decorations and house customizations via in-game rewards but will also offer a smaller number of items in the cash shop as well. This is comparable to how transmogs and pets are currently handled in game versus the shop. We want to allow players to have as many options as possible for creating their perfect home in Azeroth.
Due to the WoW token, it does not sound like crafting will play a part here, which is a shame because one of the few motivations for being a crafter in FF14 is to make housing decorations, the only thing people are interested in buying besides the latest raid gear and consumables. In WoW if you aren't a raider or a goldmaking spreadsheeter, there is little point in bothering with professions.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:As a part of our focus on wide adoption, we wanted to ensure that Housing is available to everyone. If you want a house, you can have a house. No exorbitant requirements or high purchase costs, no lotteries, and no onerous upkeep (and if your subscription lapses, don't worry, your house doesn't get repossessed!).
Hahahaha thank you very much! People RMTed to afford a house in FF14, and the main reason why I have not unsubbed in spite of the lack of things to do is because I don't want to lose my house after having spent so many hours tediously glitching items into position and the unlikelihood that I could get another nice plot like that again.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Your houses are also shared amongst your Warband with your different characters being able to come and go as you see fit (so your Orc character can hang out in your Alliance house without a problem).
Oh dear, does this mean an Alliance farmer is going to walk outside of his house in core Stormwind territory, and see an Orc (those unrepetent lightdamned aliens who ravaged humanity for the past 40 years) also in the same housing district! Haha. Understandable given that they didn't make a 3rd housing district is a neutral lore location for neutral RP guilds to hang out in, but it will feel odd for patriotic RPers. Best thing you can do is just /e spit on opposite faction players when you see them walking down your street.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Furthermore, it's not just Warbands that cross factional lines but friendships as well, so you'll be able to live in or visit your friends' or guildmates' houses and their neighborhoods with minimal restrictions regarding faction.
Will this be like FF14 where there is a UI menu where I can add my friends as tenants to my house, and they gain the ability to teleport to my house and stable their chocobo mount there, and can even edit/decorate the house if I tick that box too?
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:For example, while it's not possible for your Human character to buy a house in the Horde zone, your Troll character in the same Warband can, and then your Human can use it as if it were their own.
Don't care about non-RP realms, they can do whatever, but here on Moon Guard I sure hope the playerbase will remain sane and I won't see a lot of humans or Night Elves right outside of Orgrimmar or a lot of savage evil beastmen and zombies in an Alliance residential district.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:
Hrm, I was expecting that the autumnal forest Azshara area would be the only redeeming factor here, but the beige sand and rocky cliffs area in the middle with the cool/shaded tones is somewhat attractive too. Reminds me a little of Frostfire ridge with the jagged black rocks sticking out of the soft snow.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment wrote:Private Neighborhoods created by groups of friends or guilds to inhabit, progress, and customize together.
Very interesting. I wonder if this will become the norm for Moon Guard RPers then. Horde Vanguard guilds all organized in the same private housing instances? Grand Alliance and Stormwind Law Project guilds all organized in the same private housing instances? That way all of the RPers and their friends are in the same wards/instances rather than being bunched up with some randos who rolled on Moon Guard but don't participate in RP.
Overall sounds good. Only real question is 1. how robust will the actual placing of decorations will be like, 2. how much variety in decorations and house structures/tilesets/kits will we get (and often will they be added), and 3. how often will new housing zones be added.
