Guild Wars 2

So I know it is confirmed to be coming at some point down the road (hopefully soon), but they haven’t really said how it will be implemented.

Unfortunately, I have the feeling it will be instanced when they do do it…

I feel like if we actually thought it out though, there would be a successful way to implement it in the persistent world. Can you imagine owning and decorating your own home in divinity’s reach? I would die of happiness. Or having a small cabin in the norn wilderness? Awesome.

Another concept i have heard is Airships, which would be awesome, if, again persistent. They would also not clutter up the ground (But maybe the skies..?)

Housing would also open up a whole new market and crafting profession: Furniture and Decorations! One of my favorite parts of SWG was decorating my house. I literally spent HOURS upon hours decorating my Mustafarian Underground Bunker with random stuff, creating rooms (dining room with food, tables, chairs, candles, decor etc.) an art gallery of paintings, statues and small fountains collected or crafted, a weapons room, a bed room, a hologram room, etc, etc. The possibilities are endless, all that needs to be done is to develop and implement them!

I really hope it is instanced. The game world is incredibly immersive, so I’d hate to have to see the eyesore of player houses at every turn. I’d rather see player housing tied in with our character’s home instance. Then if we want to invite people to come and visit, we can – without affecting other players in any way, shape or form.

Garenthal.1480:

I really hope it is instanced. The game world is incredibly immersive, so I’d hate to have to see the eyesore of player houses at every turn. I’d rather see player housing tied in with our character’s home instance. Then if we want to invite people to come and visit, we can – without affecting other players in any way, shape or form.

Yea, you know I really do see pluses and minuses on both sides.

Even if it is instanced, I don’t think i would want it to be incorporated into our home instance, as this would make a lot of the elements of housing very restrictive, such as what type of house, where you want it, etc, etc.

Personally, I would just be happy if our home area was actually a home. The “home” instance has nothing related to our characters at all, it feels! Even if there were just a few empty houses scattered about within each environ, where, at some point in the story, the player could choose one to officially live in – and then have various upgrades happen to it during the course of the game, as they had said would happen in the home areas – that would be lovely.

TL;DR I don’t need some full housing but I wish our home instance actually had some kind of home.

facelessminion.3215:

Personally, I would just be happy if our home area was actually a home. The “home” instance has nothing related to our characters at all, it feels! Even if there were just a few empty houses scattered about within each environ, where, at some point in the story, the player could choose one to officially live in – and then have various upgrades happen to it during the course of the game, as they had said would happen in the home areas – that would be lovely.

TL;DR I don’t need some full housing but I wish our home instance actually had some kind of home.

Yes, agreed. Apparently we’re all homeless at the moment…??

I look forward to it. I really enjoyed my house in EQ2. I invested quiet a bit of time and money in decorating it. And know I will here as well.

daemonlama.5413:

I look forward to it. I really enjoyed my house in EQ2. I invested quiet a bit of time and money in decorating it. And know I will here as well.

Same, as long as we’re given the freedom and opportunities to create and decorate, ill take full advantage of it!

As an avid fan of player housing (and associated crafter professions) I can only agree that I’m in eager anticipation, though hoping it will be implemented in an adequate manner (as mentioned previously in this thread and elaborated on below).

Instanced housing? Building in open world? Instanced Neighbourhoods!

As “put houses into the open world” vs “instanced housing” goes, there could be the middle ground of instanced neighbourhoods, which show the local flair and flavour in a condensed manner. (I think LotRO had something like this)

They’d be instanced small zones with a number of open housing lots where you can place the desired house of course choice, and maybe even decorate the exterior and garden. This way, one can visibly be neighbours with your friends or guildmates, without the problem of having to find space in the open world for every character on a server.

Possible additional options could be to have general neighbourhoods (which people can freely move into when there are free lots, whenever free spaces fall below a certain threshold, new ones are automatically generated) as well as private neighbourhoods. The latter might take a hefty fee to create, but in exchange be exclusive to a guild or on invitation of a current resident (letting you choose on creation which of the two you want).

For convenience, such neighbourhoods could also have the basic NPCs: Bank, TP, General Goods Vendor, maybe even a crafting area or for private guild zones the guild vendors.

For the actual house (interior) itself, I’d also like to point at Everquest II, where it is simply amazing, for the following reasons:

• you can place a large number of house items (depending on house size, ranging from 100 in new player inn rooms to >1000 for guild halls)
• these items have a very high freedom for placement: a very fine grid, so location can be chosen accurately; movement in all three dimension, rotation and even scaling
• there is a crafting profession solely for making furniture, with an available selection spanning hundreds of decorative items of various styles (including cultural styles of non-playable races)
• between quest souvenirs, lore books, crafted furniture and NPC purchased furniture, there are probably thousands of different house items to customize your humble abode with (of course, those accumulated over years of content updates, which is perfectly fine, no need to have everything right away)

A short reminder why sophisticated, rather than haphazard player housing is a good idea:

It has a strong appeal to players of the socializer type and is an additional, alternative yet lasting way for players to enjoy the game (those who like this aspect, that is).
Socializers are probably the most loyal and dedicated group and have a general positive influence on player numbers.
Decorating (and bragging with) a house also is a great pursuit through the elder game (commonly known as endgame). After reaching level 80, maxing all these crafting professions, knowing all dungeons and dynamic events… being able to hunt down trophies and neatly displaying them in your luxurious home adds a wholly new layer of elder game pursuits.
Some people even don’t get tired of redecorating every other week. (/me whistles innocently)

TL;DR I like player housing a lot. I hope there will be lots of furniture (and souvenirs) as well as means for detailed, custom placement of house items to make housing fans like me happy.

I love the idea of housing but instanced communities just seems the only realistic option.

Ekevu.9263:

As an avid fan of player housing (and associated crafter professions) I can only agree that I’m in eager anticipation, though hoping it will be implemented in an adequate manner (as mentioned previously in this thread and elaborated on below).

Instanced housing? Building in open world? Instanced Neighbourhoods!

As “put houses into the open world” vs “instanced housing” goes, there could be the middle ground of instanced neighbourhoods, which show the local flair and flavour in a condensed manner. (I think LotRO had something like this)

They’d be instanced small zones with a number of open housing lots where you can place the desired house of course choice, and maybe even decorate the exterior and garden. This way, one can visibly be neighbours with your friends or guildmates, without the problem of having to find space in the open world for every character on a server.

Possible additional options could be to have general neighbourhoods (which people can freely move into when there are free lots, whenever free spaces fall below a certain threshold, new ones are automatically generated) as well as private neighbourhoods. The latter might take a hefty fee to create, but in exchange be exclusive to a guild or on invitation of a current resident (letting you choose on creation which of the two you want).

For convenience, such neighbourhoods could also have the basic NPCs: Bank, TP, General Goods Vendor, maybe even a crafting area or for private guild zones the guild vendors.

For the actual house (interior) itself, I’d also like to point at Everquest II, where it is simply amazing, for the following reasons:

• you can place a large number of house items (depending on house size, ranging from 100 in new player inn rooms to >1000 for guild halls)
• these items have a very high freedom for placement: a very fine grid, so location can be chosen accurately; movement in all three dimension, rotation and even scaling
• there is a crafting profession solely for making furniture, with an available selection spanning hundreds of decorative items of various styles (including cultural styles of non-playable races)
• between quest souvenirs, lore books, crafted furniture and NPC purchased furniture, there are probably thousands of different house items to customize your humble abode with (of course, those accumulated over years of content updates, which is perfectly fine, no need to have everything right away)

A short reminder why sophisticated, rather than haphazard player housing is a good idea:

It has a strong appeal to players of the socializer type and is an additional, alternative yet lasting way for players to enjoy the game (those who like this aspect, that is).
Socializers are probably the most loyal and dedicated group and have a general positive influence on player numbers.
Decorating (and bragging with) a house also is a great pursuit through the elder game (commonly known as endgame). After reaching level 80, maxing all these crafting professions, knowing all dungeons and dynamic events… being able to hunt down trophies and neatly displaying them in your luxurious home adds a wholly new layer of elder game pursuits.
Some people even don’t get tired of redecorating every other week. (/me whistles innocently)

TL;DR I like player housing a lot. I hope there will be lots of furniture (and souvenirs) as well as means for detailed, custom placement of house items to make housing fans like me happy.

OOHHHHH MYYY GOODDD you are essentially me. Like exactly. This is pretty much exactly what i want. I know what you mean about EQ2 housing cause SWG had a very similar housing.

DAOC and EQ2 did pretty well with their housing systems. I liked having a ‘vendor’ to sell my wares at my house in DAOC.

Nefar.8135:

DAOC and EQ2 did pretty well with their housing systems. I liked having a ‘vendor’ to sell my wares at my house in DAOC.

Same, i loved my own vendors…

Open world not…Not enough space for everyone. They CAN do like aion and let it IN THE WORLD but TONS of people will not have houses e for sure that’s not what everyone wants.
By the way I agree with Ekevu’s post.

Aeson Thackery.5927:

I know what you mean about EQ2 housing cause SWG had a very similar housing.

That actually reminds me of a major difference, which I forgot to point out, accurate, custom placement is one thing, but it also matters how you can do that. (I played both games, even though the latter disappeared too soon.)
SWG was indeed very similar, but having to click direction buttons to move furniture got tedious, so having a phantom image / blueprint of the item displayed during placement, while moving it with mouse and rotating/scaling using mousewheel and hotkeys are so much more convenient (and a lot faster).

play archeage if you want to build your house and ship.

Ekevu.9263:

Aeson Thackery.5927:

I know what you mean about EQ2 housing cause SWG had a very similar housing.

That actually reminds me of a major difference, which I forgot to point out, accurate, custom placement is one thing, but it also matters how you can do that. (I played both games, even though the latter disappeared too soon.)
SWG was indeed very similar, but having to click direction buttons to move furniture got tedious, so having a phantom image / blueprint of the item displayed during placement, while moving it with mouse and rotating/scaling using mousewheel and hotkeys are so much more convenient (and a lot faster).

Oh man, that would be so much faster…cant believe they never implemented that…although you could type /move up 100 or whatever direction, and it moved it a lot quicker, which we got pretty fast at.

And no, i’d rather not play one of the numerous grindy korean mmos…-.-

I don’t care much about furniture, as long as my house gets a waypoint so I can go quickly there (or, even better, a teleporting stone much like HoM’s), and I can buy upgrades for it like crafting stations, bank, trading post access, access to guild services, a mine shaft that spawns a few ore nodes every day, a garden that spawns a couple of trees and some plants each day, a lusty naga maid, etc..

I see nothing wrong with having our own house built in the existing Home instances. I think it might even be a nice idea to have purchasable upgrades for your homes. Perhaps the houses start out small but you can purchase (in game or through gems?) upgrades that make your house larger.

People would still be able to visit your home by going to your instance (the party leader determining what house shows up if you have two players of the same race) and keep the game clutter free.

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

I see nothing wrong with having our own house built in the existing Home instances. I think it might even be a nice idea to have purchasable upgrades for your homes. Perhaps the houses start out small but you can purchase (in game or through gems?) upgrades that make your house larger.

People would still be able to visit your home by going to your instance (the party leader determining what house shows up if you have two players of the same race) and keep the game clutter free.

Yes, except then the only place we can put our house, is in our home instance…

It sounds like you want to put Aion style housing tracts into the game.

Good suggestion, i want to have my own house, not home instance :/

It would have to be instanced, but it would be nice to have an instance which I can decorate with items bought from NPCs and such, but probably will never happen. Only simple and straightforward suggestions get anywhere. I think this game will have stuff like duels, improved TP, player inspection and a dungeon finder, something cheap and practical, not a big content update such as housing. Still a nice idea if anything.

maybe in next big patch, or new expansion, housing is good suggestion, they can add special decoration items in gem shop too so only profit for anet :P guildhouse too :P

I really hope this will be implemented as well, because even I love the game, sometimes it feels too big, lacking of a cozy spot to just chill, also, I hope you can invite people to your house

Yea, same. Instanced guild towns do sound pretty great! Especially if we could choose the spot

There is an NcSoft game, it’s not out yet: WILDSTAR.

Awesome Housing system, it’s not like instanced, it’s an Part of the map where all players can decorate their own housing with another players…
It’s like it’s an Map of houses you can rent, if it is an biiig map or with possibilites to fast reach or explore friend’s houses, well, it may be possible.

Max Lexandre.6279:

There is an NcSoft game, it’s not out yet: WILDSTAR.

Awesome Housing system, it’s not like instanced, it’s an Part of the map where all players can decorate their own housing with another players…
It’s like it’s an Map of houses you can rent, if it is an biiig map or with possibilites to fast reach or explore friend’s houses, well, it may be possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQm7eOjyQSY

o.o

Anyone else have any good ideas or opinions?

It would be a clusterkitten if it weren’t instanced but it would be a nice thing to see I guess. An option to invite other players should be there also

Wow, the system Ekevu described sounds amazing and I’d love to see it implemented. Housing in home districts has limited appeal, and persistent housing doesn’t really work with lots of players, but instanced neighborhoods could easily be great if done well. I’d probably waste a lot of time setting up a house in a guild neighborhood, for instance. Here’s hoping!

I was giving this some thought the other day, and the “broken” portals in Lion’s Arch gave me an idea. What if, when housing was ready, these portals were fixed? And each one led to a housing region themed after one of the five races? That way we could have entire open maps for free-range house and guild hall placement a la SWG, without cluttering up the questing landscape. And since Lion’s Arch is sort of the hub of all regions, it would just be one or two quick teleports to get from anywhere in Tyria to a housing neighborhood.

The only thing I’m having trouble solving with regard to this idea is how to deal with an inevitable housing crunch. Maybe having multiple similar regions on each portal, and when you walk through it you’re presented with a menu of destinations?

ChyldeMyst.5098:

I was giving this some thought the other day, and the “broken” portals in Lion’s Arch gave me an idea. What if, when housing was ready, these portals were fixed? And each one led to a housing region themed after one of the five races? That way we could have entire open maps for free-range house and guild hall placement a la SWG, without cluttering up the questing landscape. And since Lion’s Arch is sort of the hub of all regions, it would just be one or two quick teleports to get from anywhere in Tyria to a housing neighborhood.

The only thing I’m having trouble solving with regard to this idea is how to deal with an inevitable housing crunch. Maybe having multiple similar regions on each portal, and when you walk through it you’re presented with a menu of destinations?

Hmm yes i like this idea as well, but i dont think it should be based on race, because like i said before, that will limit your choice in where you want your house/guild village to be.

Housing seems like a fun addition. Has it really been confirmed and where and when did that happen?

Just don’t do it like Aion. I hated having to maintain my home and bid for a new one if I took a break.

The home instance in Kryta is perfect for housing.
Different player houses for each Noble/Common/Slums

The thing you must ask yourself is what type of hose do you want?
A static house or a dynamic house.

A Static house can be part of the home instance making decorations, furniture and upgrades limited.
A Dynamic house wold be better to have it’s own instance to be accessed from the players personal instance. This will allow you to add rooms, furniture, gardens, crafting stations, ect. so you can start with practicably nothing and build a mansion customized to your character.

Ether way, you can bring others into the home just as you can with home instances. Just have them in your party an they can accept to join you when you enter with you.

Did I mention you should get trophies form events you can hang on the wall lol

Well the issue with in world housing has already been raised, their’s too many people and not enough room to do it correctly.
However if people feel so adamant about showing off their homes you could create instanced housing areas where you can cram all the homes into so that people can see them (like Ekevu.9263 and ChyldeMyst.5098 proposed). If people really so feel like it they can walk around and look at other peoples homes. I doubt they would mind you, much in the say way I doubt people would like stumbling upon someone’s house in the middle of nowhere. But at least you’d give people the option.

I think perhaps Guild housing / hall in-world would work better, you have a fixed number of them and Guilds can fight over them (we could call this mini-game guild wars). Of course then again I guess you could also have a fixed number of in world houses, but how exactly they’d exchange hands is unknown (since it would be pretty unfair if one person just owns it forever). Would be a nice status symbol though, everyone else has instances houses / housing areas but a select few have in world houses.

Alexander Quess.1932:

The home instance in Kryta is perfect for housing.
Different player houses for each Noble/Common/Slums

The thing you must ask yourself is what type of hose do you want?
A static house or a dynamic house.

A Static house can be part of the home instance making decorations, furniture and upgrades limited.
A Dynamic house wold be better to have it’s own instance to be accessed from the players personal instance. This will allow you to add rooms, furniture, gardens, crafting stations, ect. so you can start with practicably nothing and build a mansion customized to your character.

Ether way, you can bring others into the home just as you can with home instances. Just have them in your party an they can accept to join you when you enter with you.

Did I mention you should get trophies form events you can hang on the wall lol

haha is this even a serious question? Of course we’d want “dynamic” housing..

Well done housing is always a nice addon to a great game. There is a reason for the success of “The Sims” – lots of people love to build and design their perfect home. It also provides a good opportunity to add both special furniture drops to the game as well as provide for some more skins availiable via the Black Lion Trading Company.

There probably needs to be some instancing at work, but I kinda would like having real neighbourhoods, like that Salma district home zone from Divinity’s Reach – fill the plots in one of them up, assign it an instance code or something so that people can go and visit each other, then fill up the next village instance. That way you get the best from both worlds: A neighbourhood of real players while maintaining a visially appealing area (a real village/city district and not just a flat field filled with as many buildings as possible).

I don’t understand why it has to be instanced? 1house per account, 2 million accounts atm divide among 40-50 servers, leaves50.000 houses per world. I don’t really see any difficulty in having 50.000 in this massive world, just don’t make it a cluster fk.

Basen.8506:

I don’t understand why it has to be instanced? 1house per account, 2 million accounts atm divide among 40-50 servers, leaves50.000 houses per world. I don’t really see any difficulty in having 50.000 in this massive world, just don’t make it a cluster fk.

See, in theory some things look okay, but then when actually executed, it does not go so well, and is indeed a clusterkitten. :P

Why in housing only you think in houses? My elementalist want his tower of sorcery… maybe a necro want his swamp, or crypt… in fact… there can be a lot of other places that one toon can call home

I think the main problem with player housing, as cute as it is and how cool it was in games like EQ2, is that it makes the cities so, SO dead. With so many players sitting in their houses decorating its going to take away the liveliness of cities fast. Heck right now I’m already struggling to find another living soul in Black Citadel although I suppose my time zone has much to do with it.

I think when they start to make housing they could let a guild have it own guild hall that can be used for guild meetings and events, etc.

aedra.8361:

I think the main problem with player housing, as cute as it is and how cool it was in games like EQ2, is that it makes the cities so, SO dead. With so many players sitting in their houses decorating its going to take away the liveliness of cities fast. Heck right now I’m already struggling to find another living soul in Black Citadel although I suppose my time zone has much to do with it.

I disagree, people will still need to go into cities for things, and it’s not like people will be sitting in their homes 24/7 :P

I just wrote a thread about this. I’d LOVE to see non-instanced housing in Divinity’s Reach.

aedra.8361:

I think the main problem with player housing, as cute as it is and how cool it was in games like EQ2, is that it makes the cities so, SO dead. With so many players sitting in their houses decorating its going to take away the liveliness of cities fast. Heck right now I’m already struggling to find another living soul in Black Citadel although I suppose my time zone has much to do with it.

The city is dead as it is. That’s why using existing housing structures in areas such as Divinity’s Reach and turning them into non-instanced housing for players would make the city become more alive. The game is beautiful, they’ve put a tremendous amount of effort into many details. However, almost seems like a waste of time since they haven’t put any purpose for players to stick around.

Player housing would be the beginning of that purpose. I’d pay extra just to own land/housing in Divinity’s Reach.

miracle.4216:

aedra.8361:

I think the main problem with player housing, as cute as it is and how cool it was in games like EQ2, is that it makes the cities so, SO dead. With so many players sitting in their houses decorating its going to take away the liveliness of cities fast. Heck right now I’m already struggling to find another living soul in Black Citadel although I suppose my time zone has much to do with it.

The city is dead as it is. That’s why using existing housing structures in areas such as Divinity’s Reach and turning them into non-instanced housing for players would make the city become more alive. The game is beautiful, they’ve put a tremendous amount of effort into many details. However, almost seems like a waste of time since they haven’t put any purpose for players to stick around.

Player housing would be the beginning of that purpose. I’d pay extra just to own land/housing in Divinity’s Reach.

Maybe on your server, but the cities are definitely alive on mine!

miracle.4216:

I just wrote a thread about this. I’d LOVE to see non-instanced housing in Divinity’s Reach.

Really this isn’t going to happen – It would require changing the design of the whole city for starters. And, of course there never would be enough space for everyone. Further when people are offline for extended periods or when they’ve finished playing the game their “house” would just be wasted space. Maybe you might get to rent a flat in an apartment block or something.

roqoco.4053:

miracle.4216:

I just wrote a thread about this. I’d LOVE to see non-instanced housing in Divinity’s Reach.

Really this isn’t going to happen – It would require changing the design of the whole city for starters. And, of course there never would be enough space for everyone. Further when people are offline for extended periods or when they’ve finished playing the game their “house” would just be wasted space. Maybe you might get to rent a flat in an apartment block or something.

The “there never would be enough space for everyone” argument is simply not valid. Just like in real life, not everyone can/should have own a property. Furthermore, with a brainstorming, there could easily be a mix of non-instanced housing, instanced apartment/housing or no housing for those who don’t want/need it.

Unused housing would never be an issue. I don’t know what games you come from, but obviously there would be on-going costs to owning a non-instanced property in the form of taxes/maintenance.

I don’t think much change of the city would be needed. As it is, much of the city AWAY from any main vendors is pretty much EMPTY/DEAD/USELESS. The game is beautiful and there’s a lot of depth to it, unfortunately it’s also dead once anyone strays away from “hand-held” questing. Housing would add a vibrant sandbox element to this beautiful game and also additional income for Arenanet and money sinks to help the economy.