First Day Housing

I enjoyed AC too. I think you're right about requiring some sort of item to make a purchase. Maybe the devs will take a look and think about incorporating something like that for post-launch housing buyers.

 

I loved housing in UO. I was around since UO Beta and know that it was not too bad to place your first house. This was because on opening day no one had the gold to do so... it was a race to get your place when you could. I a lot of threads in here talk about the hell of Trammel house placement, however most people seem to forget that there were people like me who were around long before Trammel and had the gold to place a new house at release of Trammel. The first day housing will not be an issue... people who donated 500$ or more will get their house, but it will definitely not be near enough people to create a problem for others saving their gold for their first.

I just hope that they do and do not create customizable house designs. First of all a design not loaded in the games original specs will cause additional loading times, second of all some of the people who would make these houses would just lay a blank housing plan down and leave it there just to reserve the spot for another friend to take later or for the area to be full then sell at an inflated price. I think that the houses exterior should be preplanned by the developers and the inside of your house should be customizable.

Either way, I cannot wait for housing to be implemented in a MMO again. Some other games have tried, but not to the success that UO had.

 

After reading peoples comments on here, just can't help get excited about the housing side of things in SOTA so I bit the bullet and upgraded to the Citizen level as I wanted to grab one before they sold out.
Pretty sure if I didn't purchase it I would have regreated it and others have stated a home really gives you the sense of belonging to something and it does sound like player housing will be pretty limited.

This was a really great thread very helpful.

 

For just a game feature that is not needed, $500 is a heck of a lot of money.

 

The object is to raise funds for the game.

Plots have a high perceived value, so Portalarium is using that perceived value to raise funds.
They're also limiting the supply of plots to keep the perceived value high.

And yes, $500 is a lot of money for a virtual plot of land that is not really needed.

 

I think I am all for the housing idea because it will raise money for the game. I just think they need to re-think fo how much it costs to buy a house unless they offer us an alternative to buy differet houses for a lesser amount of money. Though overall as I said, I think it is a good idea.

 

It's not the house that costs money. It's the land.

 

Billions of money is made with things we do not need.
Most of the times we need it because your neighbor has it already.

 

Perhaps they should have different land plots then.

 

No doubt. People always buy things they never need but want it anyway.

 

They do. The have small, medium, and large land plots. They call them village, town, and city.

 

* Eligor looks-up from his Apple Store app for a moment

Amen.

 

I'm also very worried about that. From that last video posted, housing will be an essential part of the game.
Personally, if I see that I'm unable to get a house (without forking out $500 now), I will just skip this game.

 

Please point me to the video.

Housing is not essential. From the beginning, Portalarium has said that not everyone would be able to have a house. Why would they make a game where having a house is essential, having said not everyone would be able to get one?

 

Essential for you, me, him, her? Even if it is just decorating, storage, vendors or whatever houses will be essential for many players and everyone will not be able to buy/get one. Will it be a gamebreaker? Sure it will, some will skip the game cause they wont get a house.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.c...s-a-devoted-fan-of-all-ultima-until-this.html

SotA should have the same system as Star Citizen when you can get everything with ingame money if you put enough effort in.

 

The new housing decoration video. Notice all the crafting stations too...



And yeah, housing is an essential feature of a sandbox game to me, and I'm willing to bet that I'm definitely not the only one.

 

Looks nice. Loved decorating my house in UO.

It's sad that so few of the SotA players will be able to decorate a house.

 

There's another thing I wonder about...
They put all those houses for sale in the store already. Viking, village, tower, etc...

What if (just a supposition for now) purchase e.g. a Village Tower, but once in game, I'm unable to get a land plot because all are taken? I just paid real money for an in game item I will never be able to use. Maybe someone official can clear up things about that for me.

 

Well, let's see. I played Asheron's Call for years without owning a house, and there was no bank. It was not a game breaker for me.
They didn't start with housing, but later added some. They sold out quickly and were traded between players at that point for very high prices.
Eventually, people moved to other games, and the housing started to become available, but for years I didn't have one, and managed fine.

I played Horizons/Istaria for years without owning a house. It was not a game breaker for me. Again, once people moved on to other games, land became available, but it was far from game breaking to not have one.

I played World of Warcraft for a year without a house, and it wasn't a game breaker. They didn't have housing at all, but people managed.

So, we'll have to disagree about housing being essential. If a few people pass the game by because they don't get a plot of land, I suppose that's to be expected. Some people will pass it by because it's medieval fantasy. Some people won't try it because it isn't a fast action shooter. This game isn't aimed at everybody.

And that's OK.

 

I have 9 houses in LOTRO, and they are about worthless. Once every few months someone wants to take a look at the trophies since at this point im about 6 shy of having everyone in the game.. Beyond that never use them.

It was years until i got my first house in UO. When i quit i had 2 full towers, 2 l's, and a log cabin.... They meant something to me because it took years and hard work to get them... If they had been easy to get they wouldn't have mattered.

Nice to have? Yes

Essential? Ill agree to disagree

Id play without one.. And know that i have a goal... Or know that by 2nd or 3rd expansion ill be ready to move in, when they are more available, and enjoy that.

It really all comes down to as they say in psychology.. Choosing your attitude (thats not meant negatively.. Its a term in psychology!)