Wilderness Housing

Sounds like having a cave transition to Underworld housing away from "normal" civ hexes might be an option. That way it's out of sight at least, and wouldn't interrupt the normal scenario flow in any particular hex with this feature.

All you'd need in any hex is a stone, well, cave, crack, or similar, to click on for the transition. Just like the existing basement implementation, but transitioning to the Underworld/catacombs instead of just your basement (obviously). Then you could have as many underground plots as you'd want, and more to the point as many layers/levels of underground plots as you'd want.

 

For wilderness housing there would be a limit to the type and size of houses that can be placed. Also, there would be a limit to the number of houses that could be placed.

That problem is rendered moot by the way SOTA limits the ability to place houses only on lots which the devs designate. We can place a house on any available lot. But the lots will be placed by the devs in a way that they cannot interfere with our ability to navigate the environment.

No... You are against wilderness housing as it has been presented in past games. The problems you cite here (which I agree have been problems in the past) are rendered moot with the methods Portalarium is using in this game.

It should be noted here that there is no 1:1 scaling ratio in SOTA concerning the size of the zones we can enter (scenes as they are referred to in Unity) and the size of its hex on the world map. One hex could lead me to a sprawling city, while another could lead to a small run-down shack on a hillside. So in theory, a hex could have many scenes associated with it. It could have a Dungeon, A small forest settlement, A shrine in the middle of a clearing, and the set of random forest adventure scenes for hunting/harvesting. The scenes inside could be interconnected with each other, so walking out of one would load you into the other, or back to the world map.

 

I appreciate your arguments. Once we see SotA in action (instead of demos) we will be able to see better how it will work.


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That sounds too much like instanced housing that exists in some other games. Blech. If your house doesn't actually exist in the game world, then it's fairly pointless in my opinion, and thankfully this development team seems to feel the same way. If any solution centers on going someplace that's dedicated solely to housing, then no one will ever go there except to drop off their junk in their chest.

Wildnerness housing can still be a part of the game world, and still hit the goal of creating more housing plots. Create hexes that show up on the game map that are POIs, but have a portion of the hex dedicated to housing. This could be a fort where there are a few village plots ringing a town plot, or something bigger in scale, depending on the POI.

 

It exists in the game world. It's underground. There is a complete underground portion to SotA, non-instanced.
And so far, all hexes that have player housing are dedicated to that (player housing).

 

I understand your idea, I'm just saying that it's effectively the same as instanced housing zones. If you make a place that's dedicated to housing with no other incentive to visit, then they'll be ghost towns.

Well that's not true. The six month progress video shows that player housing is based around settlements, e.g. Kingsport and Owl's Head. Those places serve other purposes in addition to player housing.

 

Ok, they're called civ hexes, and there's no other place where player housing is found. In kingsport for example, there are exactly 10 structures that aren't player lots. The rest of the settlement/hex, as shown, is for player housing, only.

It may be better for you to investigate the two-map system SotA is going to use. The world is not seamless, and every hex is, by your definition, an instance. I wouldn't call it that because it's shared amongst the current selective multiplayer options for each character, but that's the system that's been described.

Semantics jousting is fun!

 

Give me a house figurine i could have in my backpack and click on when i want to enter my instanced house. A house only i can see.

That would not clutter the wild with never ending houses and also give all players a place to call their own.

Make it so your friends in your party can visit your instanced house since then you wont feel all alone in there.

 

I started out as a beta tester for UO, and played from launch through the Renaissance split. On our server the world had become so crowded that there wasn't a single plot of land open even for a little single story home. I don't want to have that happen here. The hex system will hopefully be customizable enough that adding extra little villages or towns won't be that difficult, and the same could go for spaces that allow sparsely wooded areas that would allow a few homes in the area.

 

Haven't read through all 5 pages, but RG has stated he thought UO housing was a mistake, with all the suburban sprawl out in the almost nonexistant wilderness, hence SotA will preserve the wilderness, and housing will be in towns.

 

I agree. Since houses must be placed on explicitly defined lots on the map, there is little concern about running in suburban sprawl in this game.

It would fit into the canon as well : A mysterious wizard's tower atop a mountain, a dreary hunting lodge in the center of a dank forest, or a solitary crossroads inn where two main roads meet.

My only concern would be these locations would be highly sought after, since they would be few and far between.

 

Buildings in the wilderness as a point of interest, sure, particularly if they are non persistent surprise additions that come and go. Not as player housing, however.

 

if really wants a wilderness house you has to hope for them to add a small village settlement in a forest environment

 

i agree, would add to immersion in my opinion to be traveling the world, and run into a small settlement, or village , or lonely hermet, on a deserted beach, or coastline, or in the forest somewhere.