Reading the player housing preview this quote took the wind out of my sails…
We decided early on that there would be two Housing zones available at launch, one for Alliance and one for Horde, with more possible places to live in the future. The Alliance zone takes inspiration from Elwynn Forest with touches of Westfall and Duskwood, and the Horde’s is inspired by Durotar, its coastline, and Azshara. There are two main reasons for this decision:
So, there won’t be housing in a current area of Azeroth than? this is just a portal… to an instanced area?
Before you start freaking out about… OMG what did you think replies… yes, I expected instance areas.
What I don’t like is it’s seems to be just another portal in a portal room. IE… a housing port next to the SW port in Dornagal. That… that would suck
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I’m unsure how they would fit housing inside existing cities or zones without ruining them. There’s a lot of players, they can’t just add that to existing zones and not break a bunch of things.
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It’s a shame but I guess what did you expect, not being mean but asking did too think you could build a house in Westfall for example?
Where?
What would it look like to other players? In your group? Strangers? Opposite faction?
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This I think anyone who is getting them too hyped up for this is really setting themselves up for disappointment.
I am personally expecting a better, more personalized garrison
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Instanced housing is infinitely better than trying to fit millions of players into existing zones.
And this is the best of both worlds, as they took the neighborhoods idea and used it kinda like Wildstar.
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You’re just so out of touch with this game if you thought there was going to be literal house buildings out in the world.
Of course it’s an instance zone.
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My expectation was not to let us build houses on current zone land, but more create a delve like instance in the existing areas that basically phases us into a dedicated area.
My example would be Goldshire for example. they could great a “entry way” portal across the road from the inn where once you go through it you’re presented with a “town” of player housing. Looks like Ewynn. Just housing.
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Did… you think they were just gonna let people put up houses all over Azeroth? Gosh idon’t want to know the level of greifing people would do with that.
Enjoying your nice view? Too bad, I decided to make the ugliest thing in existence and make it very in the way just to spite everyone around me.
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Everyone with the expectation that they were going to be able to just pick any zone and drop a house in it was really fooling themselves.
I mean if you read any thread about what people wanted or expected out of housing, yes, many did. Not saying it was ever realistic but people have overblown expectations of everything Blizz announces.
Where did you think they were going to physically put hundreds of thousands of houses?
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Garrison 2.0.
Or more likely, Sunsong Ranch 2.0.
Is anyone surprised? Did anyone really think it was going to be some kind of open-world player housing? The developers don’t even want you seeing other players’ toys!
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They did at least say neighborhoods would have up to ~50 people living in them and you can choose to have your house in the same neighborhood as friends, guildmates, etc. I think that alone is a solid change.
They had a number of good ideas, but obviously it’s going to depend on how well they execute.
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Eventually, they may do that if they create more “zones” for neighborhoods. But I don’t see these neighborhoods as being much different than what you describe. Just in a more unique looking area that’s larger.
Imagine how massive the map would need to be if they werent instanced
Yeah I’m not at all surprised by them conveying their limitations for housing like this announcement did. Having kept my expectations low it seems like Blizz will roughly meet them. That isn’t to say housing will be good only that I won’t be personally disappointed because I never expected it to be.
I doubt we will ever see a game housing system like Ultima online or Star wars galaxies again.
It was nice “claiming” your part of the open world and having your house being part it but I don’t see that working in WoW.
An instanced community was the best possible outcome in my opinion.
If I want player housing, I’ll just fire up Fallout 4.
What would suck more, take a portal to the housing zone. Or take a portal to org/sw and then fly to a spot where you click something to get instanced into the housing zone?
Those are your only 2 possible options.
Otherwise they would need a new zone only made for housing, which would mean no nostalgic area like they are diong now, and when you walk into that zone it would put you in the right instance for your house. This would feel a tiny bit more organic with the world but it still not full fledged in-world housing, which is impossible.
Part of the garrison complaint was that it’s a fixed location, instead of having a phased area in each zone so there are a few choices.
The port to your house can be anywhere, but the house itself should have at least 40 possible locations. Especially if it’s instanced, the outdoor portion can be any zone, it doesn’t have to be an actual spot that exists on the map.
Isnt this how all housing is handled in MMOs?
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