Guild Wars 2

Have there been any announcements on future plans for home instances? They were the one thing about the game I was “most” excited about, but a little…. underwhelmed with.

However, I can see a LOT of room for exciting improvements. Has there been any “We plan to do this…” or should I wait with bated breath?

As a side note I’d ask: What would you most like to see in them?

This was one of the things I felt most disapointed in. There was almost no change in my home instance from when I started my story to when it ended. I was under the impression that the home instance was the place where the consequences of my actions along the way was played out.

The people i’d saved, help and even some people I would have expcted to be there just was’nt. The decisons i’d made along the way just didnt seem to have made any impact on it at all.

Oh, and once you go in. You need to pay for waypoint travel to get out.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

I can’t make any promises, but the home instance is something that we plan on developing over time.

Oh, please DO make promises! The home district expanded is actually on my top 3 wishlist…

Right between ‘Guild Hall’ and ‘More Townsclothes’.

The home instance can add so much depth and flavor to the game, in my opinion in this area the player should be able to interact with NPCs in ways that are not possible in the game. Maybe start some type of event that will make the player some type of thief or one that act like an undercover agent. this event can cascade to other event where the player need to steal items, in any part of the events the player will be able to become a double agent.

it will be nice to add the ability to decorate the player house with trophies from his.hers adventures.

Thanks for the response Jeffrey! I’m extremely glad to hear that.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

I can’t make any promises, but the home instance is something that we plan on developing over time.

Here is hoping you will make promises
The way the home isntance was presented before launch it sounded very promissing. Instead we have ended up with players with max level characters stating on the forum they have no clue what the home instance is.
At least the human instance has a coupel of vendors in it, the other instances though are just an out of the way place you are send to on a couple of occasions during the first part of the personal story.
After you are out of the first region though, the racial capital is a place you’ll never really go to anyway and you soon forget that there even is something called a “home instance”.

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Oh, and once you go in. You need to pay for waypoint travel to get out.

At least for my personal story instance, you can walk back to the entrance area and there is a green star that allows you to leave without teleporting.

yeah I’m disappointed too about the lack of things happening in there. + it isn’t encouraging to go there if there is no direct teleport to it. Would be nice to have a free port to it imho.

The minor race just standing in there having nothing to say at all… hmmm not what I expected :-/

Would love, love, LOVE it if we could design/decorate it as we wish .. usher out/evict a few of those extra NPCs inside and start putting in beds, lamps, couches, trophy wall, etc … have one of the professions (or hey, even a new one) be able to craft these items .. have rarer items available for sale in the store … it’d be fabulous to be able to customize our home — and have housing choices (EQ2 is making a small fortune on these at the moment, something similar would convince five of my friends on EQ2 to come over here as it’s the one thing they adore about EQ2).

Mr. Vaughn, I ask for:

1. Trophies. As a Norn, I’d like Issormir’s carcass mounted somewhere. For 100% Explorer, a world map of Tyria on the wall perhaps. Trophies collected from clearing dungeons, Dynamic Events, WvW achievements, whatever it may be, on the walls.

2. Bank and GBank access from inside the home instance. Makes it practical rather than just a spot for an RP moment.

3. Many more faction representatives. I have one lonely Order of Whispers agent in there.

4. Punt some of the NPCs out of there. Why do I have Hylek in Hoelbrak in my home instance? Yes, I helped you. Why are you on my doorstep? You’re an amphibian. The only water available here is frozen. Please go south.

I would gladly pay gems for cosmetic upgrades (furnishings, et cetera).

Lvl 80 Human Noble. My home instance has been changed by my actions in the world. Spoilers Ahead
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I had not been back in a while so I don’t know when things were added. But here are just a few.

1. I choose circus as an option. I saved a bunch of kids from the Ringmaster. There is now an orphanage that I can enter with tons of kids and priests.
2. I choose to be an ambassador to the Hylek (sp?). I now have about 5 or 6 of them in my instance. They talk but give canned responses.
3. Several NPCs will comment on how things have changed in my home instance.
4. The NPCs that worked for the Ringmaster are now in my home instance. When I talk to them, they recognize me and the adventure we had.
5. Some of the NPCs that were there from the beginning will make comments about my adventures when I talk to them. There are a few dialogue options when I click on them.
6. The bartender makes a comment about me not coming around a lot anymore. This happens if I visit the bar and click on him. Before I started adventuring, he would just give pat responses about having a seat or drink or something.

Those are all that I could remember. I will go back again after I finish the personal story to see if anything else has changed.

I know these are not huge changes but I was pleasantly surprised when I went back and saw even these. Hopefully, Arenanet will expand these type of things more in the future and eventually add an actual player home.

Oooh home instances would be fantastic. I’d love to make a really massive home – make you build it from scratch though. Depending on the wood you use it looks very different.

Yes, please! While I’m sure there are some differences in my Charr home instance… I can’t really see them. Partially because I don’t feel like I, personally, have a home there.

One of the great rewards to the personal storyline could easily be getting promoted from living in the barracks to having your own quarters.

But I’ll admit, having more town clothes is higher on my list. I just want to have the same options as the townsfolk.

I’ve never actually been to my home instance. The NPCs never mention it, and it’s not like there’s any real reason to go there, other than to get points of interest, I suppose. I guess if I liked the story more, I’d want to go check it out, but honestly, it’s all so disjointed and impersonal, I just don’t care at all.

I have an Asura. I noticed that the NPC from the Order quest, where you have to pick a race to help out, ends up living in my in home instance. Very cool! Except you can’t talk to her or anything. And one of the story NPCs from my low-level storyline is staying there too.

So there are some hints of neat things to come. I’m just hoping that it gets expanded. Player housing can be awesome, and it’s something many of the larger MMO’s never touch on.

AnubisXy.5713:

I have an Asura. I noticed that the NPC from the Order quest, where you have to pick a race to help out, ends up living in my in home instance

Oh, bloody…
This made me check, and I just realized that insufferable git Iowerth is polluting my treehouse. I hated him to such an extent, it almost made me avoid going with the Priory, which is a selection I’d planned on making since the Orders were first announced. Was exceptionally relieved to find out that I wasn’t stuck with him once I joined and got a new (and much better) partner instead… Would have loved her to be there had it been sensible story-wise, but him? Just no. I now want the ability to serve eviction notices. :-/

On that note though, if the story is still adding NPCs into our home instances at that point, I’d like to see it do so at further story steps as well… I specifically chose an option suggested by an NPC later on in the hopes it would get her added to my home instance, but no dice.
Come on! If I gotta get stuck with Iowerth, the least you can do is throw me a bone and give me Sayeh as well.

Just noticed a couple of other NPCs crashing there too that I don’t recall seeing early on though. Some Charr scholar with a drake, and a human named Mira. No idea why they’re there, as the Charr only greets and Mira affords no interaction at all…

The Charr home is…. lacking.

Where do I sleep? Where is that Torch I earned? Where is my Chalice? Where is my third Warband recruit? (he is in there, but won’t show up in my quests anymore and acts like we never met…. how rude)

Lox.1089:

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What player housing does do though, is help me not get to that “bored” disconnected point. It keeps me playing and feeling like my character is a part of the world not just observing it.
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I love options in a game that let me waste time without taking part in any combat. Weather it’s an involved crafting system, house/lair decorating, tweaking chatacters armor fashion, stuff like that.

Having my home instance evolve based on my race/profession/storyline choices would rock. I would also like to see it use the achievements in a way sort of like renown levels in the old republic, where at achievement levels that are acount based you could unlock new decorating options and vendors. The vendors could offer town and armor clothing, all kinds of things.

Achievement points could also unlock other abilities for my account characters, not to have more powerful items no, but to maybe have cosmetic and utility ablities to make life more convenient. But tie this all into the home instance so if at 500 achievement points all my characters could teleport for free once every 4 hours there would be something cool to add to the home instance which would reflect this.

There are three things I would like to see in the personal instance:

1 – To be able to have an actual conversation with the NPCs that spawn there about the events that lead them to want to live in my instance and hang around. There are several NPCs that have appeared for my main where I am like “What? Why are you here, I didn’t invite you?”

2 – For that conversation to change over time sort of in the way that the “conversation” you could have with the heroes ensconced within Tannakai temple would change as you progressed through factions.

3 – Some sort of recognition that you’ve completed the personal story. I know its possible to change the way the instance looks via spawning due to the choices a Human Commoner can make, I would like to see some sort of area in the middle of every instance that gradually gains trophies related to your exploits. Maybe when you join an order it’s banners will appear, maybe when you complete certain events you get a commemorative statue?

These three things would make the personal instance have worth for me. I understand that the conversations would take a lot of time to add in for every NPC that can possibly appear, but I honestly don’t see any value in the place as it stands without the ability to do more than greet the people I have supposedly saved. The trophy cabinet idea I am not really fussed about, I mean yeah I would absolutely love to see it and the changes that it brings about, I’m not asking for a giant statue to depict the defeat of Zhaitan (although that would be all different kinds of awesome) but just to be able to see in some small way that this place reflects my character, would be awesome.

Plus I know from the Hall of Monuments in Eye of the North that this kind of thing is possible for you guys to pull off inside an instance

Just curious, but has anyone who’s played through the sylvari storyline seen any change in their home instance? I went back to visit mine recently, after reading this thread and well after hitting 80, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single change to it, whatsoever. But it has been weeks since I was last there so I may not realize there’s a difference. If there is, it’s not apparent to me.

I thought all home instances were supposed to change in some way to reflect our actions, even if minutely.

Home instance was so remember-able that I forgot about until after I was level 80 and completed my personal story. So I go there and I then remembered why I never go home.

Home instance is a waste of the time it take to get into it. There is nothing there. No personal story items to remember your adventure. no heads of your enemies on the wall or even a part of the dragon you killed. The NPCs do not even talk to you about your exploits or tell you what a great hero you are. Nope there nothing worth going to you home instance at this time.

exception the frog people are there now eating flies so I guess something may have changed but I do not remember if they were always there or not.

Do the personal instances change based on your starting story pick during character creation?

@arabeth
you have the same instance regardless of your choices. Apparently in the human personal instance some cleric npc standing ona corner changes based on your god. Minor changes like that, if there are any. Apparently the Sylvari has no difference at first.

Thanks for the response!

That’s a shame; I was hoping the difference between a noble and a street urchin (for example) would be pretty big – at the least, where you personally lived should be different. I like the idea that various NPCs come and stay in the area, but more changes would be better.

Yes, for human that is rather strange. The other races don’t have such glaring differences between backgrounds, but it felt odd to me as well that a noble would have the same neighbourhood as a street kid.

Blacklight.2871:

Just curious, but has anyone who’s played through the sylvari storyline seen any change in their home instance? I went back to visit mine recently, after reading this thread and well after hitting 80, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single change to it, whatsoever. But it has been weeks since I was last there so I may not realize there’s a difference. If there is, it’s not apparent to me.

I thought all home instances were supposed to change in some way to reflect our actions, even if minutely.

Basically, a few NPCs show up.
In mine I’ve got:

Kahedins
The White Stag
Those ugly, obnoxious twins
A repulsive Priory weed that needs to be pruned
Shashoo the Quaggan randomly floating in the shallow pool (seriously… at least give her a small Quaggan house or something. Just looks awkward.)

and I don’t know WHY the following are there, but:
A Charr named Scholar Octavian Inkblood with his pet Salamander Drake
A human named Mira.

They all afford only a greeting save for Mira who cannot be interacted with at all…

In order to make the personal instance a great more memorable and worth peoples time is simple.

1) Being able to edit your home and build it from the ground up (start with a flat field) even if we only get the editable home instance at level 80 or have to buy it from the gem store.

2) Put memorabelia in it (enemy heads, skulls, trophies, map or badges, flags, guild banners).

3) Home chest which is magically linked to your bank like the xunlai chests in gw1.

You could fund this as a special update to the game that has to be purchased from the gem store as an upgrade and that’ll produce revenue because face it, if you made the 3 things above as a buyable update… EVERYONE WILL BUY IT.

Speaking of trophies, what are the trophies mentioned in the personal storyline for?

The home instance was one of the things I was very excited about pre-release. It ended up being one of the biggest disappointments with the game. The story never takes you back there after level 20 or so, and there’s just not a single reason to go there anymore. It’s pretty much the same it was when I started my adventure. Nothing interesting to do, nothing interesting to see.

I was also really excited for the home instance. No one in there cares about my character, no one wanted to be friends with my character, no one fancied or fell in love with him. IMO, the people in there need to care about you so that you feel engaged in the game. The relationships of the people to the character is what will help us understand our character more, and the world he or she comes from in addition to where the world he or she is in now. The character creation questionnaire helps a little bit with this, but all in all we really don’t know that much about our character as the relationships with other characters define who they are in addition to their choices.

For those that played sylvari here are some of the things that changes in you personal instances.
In the biography I chose.

The white stag so I get it in my home instance

Act with wisdom, but act:- I get these people for my home instances Carys, Tegwen, and Larra

The pale tree awakened me during the cycle of noon:- I get

Niamh the luminary of the cycle of noon.

The order that you join:-

Iowerth

When you save dupty Mira in the battle of claw island

Falooaloo because I chose the Quaggans and many more I can remember their names.

I have to say that the whole “home instance” was one of the things I was MOST looking forward to, and not surprisingly, MOST disappointed with.

The hype, from the Guild Wars 2 website:
“These key decisions not only determine the story’s direction, they also change and update your home instance, a personalized home area located in your character’s racial capital.”

The reality:
A few additional npcs will be scattered in your home area that have no personalized content or effect whatsoever.

The hype, from the Guild Wars 2 website:
“These key decisions not only determine the story’s direction, they also change and update your home instance, a personalized home area located in your character’s racial capital.”

The reality:
A few additional npcs will be scattered in your home area that have no personalized content or effect whatsoever

^^ QFE

I can’t wait to see improvements to the home instance if any are made. It’s by far my favorite concept in the whole game despite it being pretty much nothing right now. It just has so much potential! The ideas and possibilities are almost endless.

Spoilers I’d like to see Quinn added to the Street Rat’s home instance if he was saved. He was a big part of the personal story, but I can’t find him anywhere. I found Riot Alice, Andrew, Petra, Mira, minor race, etc., but no Quinn.

I’d like to be able to interact with npc’s from my personal story, otherwise they are just scenery. Put a few dailies in the home instance (gathering, puzzles, etc.), spice up the dialogue, add a little customization.

I have only checked out my human’s home instance a couple of times. I feel sorry for those quaggans sitting in the fountain. Quaggan needs rooOOOoom!

Human lost sister storyline spoilers hidden below.

It would be also be great if the friends (in my character’s case, Petra and Andrew) would greet you with different messages depending on your stage in the storyline. While it’s true that they acknowledge you going away, that doesn’t seem to change later so there’s room for more. Perhaps recognise major stages like joining an order, getting to Orr etc. You could always make it so the player can choose whether to start up a conversation about it rather than them miraculously knowing all your business.

At least they should put a merchant disguised as a locker/chest/hidden stash/case with the starting items in there, like you initial profession-specific piece of equipment, your starting level 0 gear or your starting town clothes (or even things like the Rytlock miniature). Only usable by the ‘party leader’ while there’s several people in the instance.
So if you delete or accidentally lose them because of a glitch you can go ‘home’ and grab a change of clothes.

It’ll be a relatively simple thing that would truly mark your current lore house as ‘home’.

Right now only noble humans, norn and charr know where “home” is. The rest of the humans and races are never told clearly where do they used to sleep. And while iron legion charr have a personal storyline step that tells them the exact bed (they had a hidden stash next to it), the rest of charr and norn only know “One of these beds”.

Wow a home instance? That sounds likes great idea, they should totally do that. While they’re at it they should also make a personal storyline. You know a story that is about your adventures (and not some weird Sylvari necro).

*that was snark for those whose snark detector is on the Ritz.

Seriously I was soooo excited about a home instance, I love “housing” in games and was rally looking forward to them here. To say I was disappointment would be a massive understatement.

Anet, I will pay gems for a customizable home instance.

having just finished my personal story I decided to take a look at my home instance, and on seeing how little it had change (after all my character didn’t even seem to have a ‘home’ there). There are quite a few people just wandering about and few I remember from quests I have done, but they give very little interaction, which is a shame, especially when some of them would have died if not for my character pulling their fat out of the fire.

The personal instance was something I was expecting a lot for, and reading the other posters here I’m not alone in that, but I come away feeling disapointed with how little there is there, and how little it feels like a home.

Also something needs to be done about actually using furniture correctly, after all Mira looks a little odd standing on the bed, and it would be nice to be able to sit on the chairs and things you see.

Personally, I would like it if you could add parts to your Home Instance. For example, my Human Thief is a Lightbringer in the Order of Whispers. I think it would be great if I could create a small Order hideout in my home instance, one where I controlled what was in it, and where I was the highest ranking Whispers member. I believe that they should have setups like that for all home instances. If you are Vigil, have a Vigil castle/camp in your instance, Priory would have a library, things like that. Although This game is by far the coolest mmo I have played, I wish there was more of an rpg aspect to it. That was one of the things that I loved about LotRo. Their home setup was great.

Dark Saviour.9410:

Just noticed a couple of other NPCs crashing there too that I don’t recall seeing early on though. Some Charr scholar with a drake, and a human named Mira. No idea why they’re there, as the Charr only greets and Mira affords no interaction at all…

I believe Mira is the girl you save on the battle of claw island. the first one. And the Charr scholar is from later in the game when you are on orr. he is there for most of the battles as a part of your “squad”

I really would love it if they tweaked the home instance a bit more. My only regret for my human thief was making her and the sister Ascalonian. I was going more for an Asian/Canthan decent. Not that it really matters since I can’t find Debs anywhere.

I also can’t find Quinn, that ingrate. I save his butt so many times and he can’t even show his face to me anymore? Maybe he’s too ashamed…not like Riot Alice can say anything about it. All she says is ‘hi’. But that’s better than ditching a friend who saved your life.

i could be wrong about this, but i am fairly sure the Charr Scholar (with the pet drake) found in the home instance is from the quest where the Pact is first formed and is supposed to act as marker that you are past that point (same as Mira acts as marker for Claw Island)

unfortunately, both seem to be glitched and appear even for newly made characters