Player housing and player cities

[Tommycat]

It is one of the things that I like and dislike about Galaxies. Believe me I love having my guild's city and all the trimmings, but lets face it, you have to be well established in the game to get a city. Currently most servers are capped on Galaxies. After the engee'ee egress, many cities were left barren and dead. Ghost towns. The landscape was so large to accomodate all of these towns that were now dead.

 

But I took pride in my guilds' towns. My guild takes pride in their cities. Many people spent a great deal of time decorating their homes. But again, this kind of setup requires lots of real estate, server space, and could lead to ghost towns.

 

Here's my thoughts on it. Give people a ship that can remain in game when they are not. That way people can visit their friends' ships and even leave items for them to use. Give guilds the option to set up guild landing zones. This way a guild can have the "town" without so much town. When an account becomes inactive for 90 days, have the ship disappear from the landscape. Maybe even guild hangars, with multiple decks(instanced decks) to take up even less real estate and cause less lag. I use my ship in Galaxies as my home, and my houses as overflow storage(got just a few crates of pixie:D). Seems to me that being spacefaring and all many would keep their stuff on their ships as their home.

 

Perhaps have high rise buildings that can be used as instanced housing within the major cities for those without a guild home.

 

Or should we just have no housing at all. What we have is what we have.

[DarthParametric]

If they must have housing then a ship or maybe some sort of instanced apartment style setup would be the way to go. The housing thing in SWG was terrible. 3/4 of most planet maps were clogged up with damn houses.

 

Personally I'd be fine with no housing. It's mostly just filler to make up for the lack of real content.

[Tommycat]

See I think they kinda have to have some kind of housing. You will be able to have multiple companions(though only able to have one with you) so they have to have somewhere you "store" them. Like the ship in KotOR(s) and Mass Effect. See that was some of the fun of Galaxies as well. You get spiffy cool decorations for your house. The more I think about it, the more I like instanced housing.

 

But I would also like to have things like guild homes, or even guild hangars. That way you and your guild can have a central location for meeting up. Or even guild ships where you can dock with it in space(maybe instanced "travel to" locations). So a guild leader might might also be a fleet admiral on a flagship.

[SW01]

I like both of those ideas. I am hoping for the housing thing to be implemented - a nice new level of customisation for the character, after all! If we're going to be spending several hours on this thing, which I'll be doing to ensure I get my money's worth, I'd like to have something else to work at when I'm not busy killing things!

 

I am very fond of the guild idea. The ideas for the guild house and fleet are very appealing. Actually, if LF was to have a guild, it'd probably need a city for itself!

[Yar-El]

Knights of the Old Republic meets Martha Stewert? Argh... Why do we need homes in a game? The Old Republic is about gallatic war. We are not playing a game called Surprise Home Makeover.

[DarthParametric]

As long as they don't have housing taking up space I'm not fazed either way. Like I said earlier, some sort of instanced-based housing where you enter an apartment block, military barracks, etc. would be the way to go. I seem to recall that Anarchy Online had something along those lines.

[CrisG]

Personal instancing can take many forms, maybe they have come up with a new one? A ship at least seems a valid option, for that was one of the very well created parts of the earlier KoTOR titles. But who knows, maybe they have a galaxy up their sleeve?

[Scars Unseen]

I'd say ships and instanced apartments would be fine.

[John Galt]

I also like ships and instanced apartments, maybe with guild-run fleets, assuming that space combat is an integral part of this game. While I love the idea of player built and run cities, I don't know whether this would be implementable.

[Web Rider]

I think the ships in perhaps an instanced hangar of some kind. If half the player world is going to use it, then you have to make it pretty impersonal, because you're not going to feel like it's "your place" when 70 people are all heading for the door. So if you just head to a generic "hangar door" and then end up on your ship, it keeps it both personal and impersonal enough to work.

 

besides, I think the whole "ship home" is sort of a staple of KOTOR.

[adamqd]

I'd say ships and instanced apartments would be fine.

 

QFT

 

SWG (sorry I have no other mmo experience but swg) has about 90% of the universe as samey player cities with nothing to do but drive past, it's unneeded, apartments would be sweet, I wanna immerse myself in ancient Coruscant, not have a house in "Crabby town" discussing R/L crap, that's why I'm gonna go the single player/ Roleplay route, cause I dont wanna be pulled out of the game by R/L

[True_Avery]

Considering the fact we will be having companions unique to the class/player, there is no doubt in my mind that we will all have a private instance. From the Kotor feel, I'm leaning towards a ship.

 

I just hope we get a level of customization of the ship, even if we're the only ones that see it.

[Jeff]

I think having our own ship would be cool, but player housing is kind of lame IMO.

[SpartanPride]

The ships would be cool. They could have Guild Ships.

 

Actually, what if instead of guilds, they had crews?

 

The Crew Captain could find uses for his guild crew members, and assign them jobs, (I.E. Piloting, Turrets).

 

But the amount of members you could have in your crew would depend on how much room the ship had.

 

If your ship was full, you would have to upgrade or add a new room to your ship to add a new crew member.

 

It would add a whole new dimension to doing missions together.

 

Think about it, maybe the crew comes and drops off some shock troops, and then hovers over them while the turret operator covered the shock troops.

 

When somebody died, they could respawn in the med room on the ship. The time it took for them to respawn would depend on how good the ships medic was.

 

When the shock troops finished the mission, the pilot picks them up at an extraction point, and they fly off.

 

^

 

As cool as I think that would be, I'm just rambling, and it's highly unlikely anything like that would happen.

 

However, I think spaceships would offer a new fresh breath of air from housing or guild towns.

 

Oh, another thought that occurred to me: players could buy there own small ships, and harbor them in the Guild Ship.

 

That in itself would be a good reason to join a guild.

 

For example, let's compare a player advertisement to join a Guild in Guild Wars, A Guild in Warcraft, and a crew for the KOTOR MMO.

 

Guild Wars - "Join *Guild Name* today! We have full hall, 90+ active members, capes!

 

WoW - "Join *Guild Name* today! We have awesome tabard, guild bank, 100+ members. We run instances daily!

 

My Idea of a Ship Crew - Looking for a pilot to join the crew of the *ship name!* We have 9 active, fun, expert crew members! We have a large sized room and a spot in the hanger for your ship!

 

^However, in Star Wars, there are large ships. If a crew got prosperous enough, it could be possible to have 500 crew members in one ship - or more, or less. But you get the idea.

 

I personally, would like to be a smaller, tight-knit crew

 

^ And there I go again, rambling off, for something that probably won't happen XD

[Tommycat]

See I would love to have some method of being able to walk into another person's house(ship) because some people are very creative out there.

 

However, I don't want to run around through dead cities either.

[Nedak]

I'd really like housing and ships.. Helps build a strong community.

[SW01]

However, I don't want to run around through dead cities either.

 

They should try to implement some sort of forfeit thing, as mentioned above. Maybe if you aren't online for three or four months, the custom housing/ship could save to your profile but be removed from the map? (In case you decide to come back.) That way, the maps wouldn't be cluttered with 'dead' housing, etc. but you also wouldn't lose everything you have made/customised simply because you can't get online.

[Titanius Anglesmith]

Housing seems kind of pointless to me, but having your own ship would be nice.

[Miltiades]

Well, I don't know. I don't really have any experience with MMO's to really know if it really has an impact. Right now, I think a "Guild Hall" is the only thing I want. A personal Spaceship would be nice, but I wouldn't know what to put in there or what to do in there.

[playloud]

While I loved the housing system in SWG (an actual structure, not some instanced crap), it just goes to show how little this game will have in common with KOTOR. Darn MMO. If I need a place to stay, I'll just take some old abandoned apartment. That's KOTOR style. I should be on the move anyway, not busy decorating. Bah, I need to play K2 again. Can't wait for TSLRP to be finished.

[gianner]

Your idea is awesome SpartanPride. Capital ships like a Cruiser! The whole ship being customize-able (crew quarters, bridge, storage rooms, medical rooms etc) and with a hangar for personal ships. That would be excellent for a guild.

 

PS playloud we are all waiting for TSLRP. And our patience is being put in a tough test.

[SpartanPride]

^ Thank-you XD

 

I think if they did that, I would be sold on the game XD

[Steve-O Kreesh]

Umm... TOR is not Galaxies! >

 

If anything you'll start at an enclave, temple, or academy. Then you'll be given missions, which means you get a ship. You'll travel to other planets, meet up with other Jedi or Sith, and then fight!

 

The game takes place during a war. Not a time of peace. The idea of apartments on planets is stupid. That's why Galaxies is garbage.

 

If you want to house and interior decorator, play The Sims!

[Rev7]

Housing seems kind of pointless to me, but having your own ship would be nice.

QFE

[Tommycat]

Umm... TOR is not Galaxies! >

Thank you Captain Obvious! Can we also point out that it is not JK KotOR, Battlefront, and a host of other games. Galaxies is not the only MMO to have player housing. It is also not the only MMO to have persistent housing. It is also not the only MMO to have persistent housing that can be decorated. So your point is moot.

 

If anything you'll start at an enclave, temple, or academy. Then you'll be given missions, which means you get a ship. You'll travel to other planets, meet up with other Jedi or Sith, and then fight!

Not if you aren't either a Jedi nor Sith. There are other professions in the game. And even if you start in one place does not mean that you will not have the opportunity to have some kind of housing at some point. Heck even KotOR had the ship as your "home"

 

The game takes place during a war. Not a time of peace. The idea of apartments on planets is stupid. That's why Galaxies is garbage.

 

If you want to house and interior decorator, play The Sims!

 

Galaxies may be garbage, but not because of the player housing. In fact the player housing and space are the two things that kept Galaxies alive as long as it has been. Cities build community. Community keeps people playing the game even when the rest of the game gets ripped apart and dumped in the trash bin.

 

Quite frankly, I loved The Sims. A whole lot of people loved The Sims for decorating houses and such. Keep in mind that some people may like to show off some prize they got from completing a hard quest. They may have an "I Love Me" wall in their house for all of the lightsabers they have "taken" from fallen Jedi. Trophy rooms to show off to others. Heck they may just want to have a "Safe House" where they can log off without being killed(since MMO's don't have a pause button). I mean I know I have been killed by a BH at least once while I was logged off in an open area.

 

Like it or not, there WILL be some form of housing, because there will be some place where you "store" your companions. It may not be the great housing as there is in many other MMO's, or it might just be your own ship. It might be a house in the Jundland Wastes. It may be an apartment on Coruscant. but you will have some place of your own. Whether others will see it or not, or whether it will be able to be decorated, or just a pre-packaged "home" where your companions stand around looking at the walls is all up for grabs, but there will be some place where you can call your home.