Front/Back yards

Will house plots have a "yard", or will your yard just be the space in front of your house that isn't part of your plot, like in UO?


Or, will we have to build our houses so they don't take the whole plot up in order to have a yard, like in UO?


All I care about really, is being able to have a tree in front of my house.

More specifically, a willow tree.

 

I think different houses are supposed to have different designs. However, these will be prefabs (at least for Episode One) instead of how UO handled houses. This would vary the "space" you could call a yard. For example, most Village houses would allow outside spaces for farms or gardens, but city houses would more closely fill to the edges and have less "yard".

If I remember correctly they talked that all plots would be about the same size, but all houses wouldn't fit between City and Village plots. There is a Dev chat about housing where they go into this, but I am too lazy to look it up.

 

I would like to avoid having to use my "indoor" space as "outdoor" space just to put flowers and trees so that my house is nicer looking.

That always bugged me in UO that I'd have to sacrifice parts of my 18x18 plot to decorate my yard when there's a ton of grass all around the house that can be used to decorate.

I vote that every houseplot come with a yard also.

even if its only a little bit of extra space tagged onto all houseplots, it'd be neat.

 

Well, like I said houses will be prefab, so you should be able to choose one that has a garden or yard space. This may be harder on city plot houses.

Either way you will not be free-building houses like in UO and plots are supposed to be limited as well, so not everyone will be able to get a house: or at least things may fill up and be unavailable until they add content to expand the world.

 

Well the UO houses were great for the good designers, but some were so poorly done that it ruined the landscape. I couldn't stand seeing boxed shaped houses with Guild abbreviations etched into the roofs.

Prefabs with some options would be fine. Maybe there will be house skins or additions later.

 

Well I was under the impression all homes would have farms. That is why they were talking about public farms for non-home owners.
Now like the floating duke castle there will be a farm across the bridge on the land.

 

I think they said Village homes would have farms or gardens. City houses would be less likely to have gardens and might have this like flower boxes or planter stands. This would be because City houses would take more of the plot than Village homes.

Its probably still in the air though. B said in the Dev chat they were still discussing plots.

http://youtu.be/uUbZkDEW_Wg?t=26m37s

 

I'm slotted for a lord plot, so I hope I don't end up with some foofoo looking rich-person house with no front yard. I like trees and grass. I think I used most of my lockdowns on UO for plant life, and decoration.


Agreed though, custom houses in UO often resulted in terrible things.