Constructing

[Stump]

First of all English is not my native language, so sorry for mistakes. I will try to be as clear as possible.

When I played UO, one of the most fun things to do was building your house (actualy I enjoyed it even more than a PvP). So, when I heared about Mortal Online, I as very curious about House constructing. In UO house building was fun, but in MO it can be even better.

Now I was thinking how to make realistic house building (in UO, houses just Magicaly Appeared by only consuming gold) with more players interaction. If you want to build a house in RL, you need bricks, logs, roofing iron and other materials. They can be made in factories. To make them, factories also need materials like wood or iron.

How to make something like that in the game? So, here is my idea:

• First you need to know what house do you want, how it should look. You can do this by entering house building tool (something like in UO) and build it. When you build it you chose to "save", and write your Project in deed (it should consume paper ofcourse).
• Then you need take it to the constructor (or architect, player that have architecture and building skills), so he could identify how much bricks, and other building materials you would need.
• Now you need to buy all that building materials from Blacksmiths, tinkers and other crafters (or make them by yourself). Crafters could buy an apropriate material to make building materials. For example: mason can make bricks from stone. He can get the stone by buing it from miners, or if he is miner, he could dig it too.
• Lets say you have your Project, you have gold to buy materials or you have materials itself. Now you need builders to build your house. You need at least one person with architecture skill (and lets say, to get that architecture skill, you also need to have some skill in building) and someone with building skill (it could be that architect too). Now, by combining the highest builder Building skill with highest architect architecture skill, the workers will be able to build more complexive parts of the buildings, like Arcs, Columns. Also, building speed would depend on Building skill, and builders building speed would increase even more from architect
• architecture skill. The bigger and more complex building, the longer it would take to build. The more people building the house, the faster it builds.
• For example, the Destroyers guild want to build a Castle. It would took forever for one or two mans to build it. So they hire that Smith's Builders company to build a keep for them (or use slaves ). If Destroyers guild have all materials, they would just pay them for work. If they dont have materials, they woul pay aditionaly that the builders would buy materials needed.
• Also, when you begin to build a house, you need a place for your house. It should consume your gold automaticaly from you, and send it to the guild/aliance or watever, to people that controls it.

As we all know, everyone will want to build their own houses, so being a builder or architect would be good money making profession. Also, that would incredibely boost trade routs between cities, because such amounts of building materials would be able to transport just with help of caravans.


So, comment, share your own ideas.

[Lachrymose]

Originally Posted by Stump

As we all know, everyone will want to build their own houses, so being a builder or architect would be good money making profession. Also, that would incredibely boost trade routs between cities, because such amounts of building materials would be able to transport just with help of caravans.

these are the biggest draws i see for such a system. i definitely hope that you'll actually have to purchase or collect the resources needed to build a house or do any additions to your house. if you want to place a house, instead of charging you money like it did in UO, it should charge you the necessary resources.

the fact that it would require caravans to construct a house is another good thing about such a system. my guess is this would be the #1 use for caravans or other vehicles use in transporting resources.

one thing to add though.. the architecture skill you described doesn't seem quite right. an architect is the one that designs the house. i would say that an architecture skill doesn't have any bearing on which types of houses you can build, but rather having a higher architecture skill would allow you to design a more complex house. so that deed you were talking about (more appropriately, a blueprint) could be made by anyone, but when you actually design your house, there will only be some basic features: door, window, wall, flooring. however, if you have a higher architecture skill, you would unlock more variety in designs and more advanced features for your house.

[Resin]

This is how I have always envisioned it as well (in terms of the ultimate dream game senario).

Logs cut down should be big and unweildy, so that it takes multiple players and/or animals to get the logs to a mill (nice if they had mills powered by rivers that you could float the logs to). It would be cool if you could get different types of wood from different trees - mahogany, oak, pine, etc.

It would be similar for rock quarries. I would like to see quarries of different types of stone and cutting the stone to be a specific skill (a secondary skill of mining perhaps). And that transporting the stone could then be a task in and of itself. If your guild happens to find and gain control of the black marble quarry I think you should be able to set your own price and charge the goths an arm and a leg (that is until they figure out it will be cheaper to hire mercenaries to steal the marble from you).

Architechts should be the ones able to alter blue prints as stated. They should be able to share these with the guild contracting them to make adjustments. The smaller the building blocks the better IMO dont give us hall A, B, or C premade but more like wall style A,B, or C for any given length plus window types a, b, or c, plus roof type plus floor type all with material dependent textures.

I know it seems like this is a whopper to ask for; but if its where the ultimate aim is, even if it is in an expansion, then the setup at release can at least be geared with that in mind. This kind of level of detail is what is going to make p2p rewarding gameplay above and beyond just the PvP (though the PvP still needs to be the heart and soul, the P2P might be more like the head and hands ). Diversity in crafting jobs and complicated interdependancies will make alliances and specializations important. It will cause people to RP naturally.

It will be the backbone of a player based economy, just make sure there are no infinite gold sources, or other resources really, the rate of forest growth and new quarry discoveries could equal the amount of attrition (non-recoverable materials) in recycling, just make sure there is a healthy amount of resources in circulation to start with. Stealth patches can always be used to help out in this manner. I would look forward to buying up all the mahogany and driving the price way up as long as no-one manages to break in to my storage facilities.

[Stump]

Originally Posted by Lachrymose

one thing to add though.. the architecture skill you described doesn't seem quite right. an architect is the one that designs the house. i would say that an architecture skill doesn't have any bearing on which types of houses you can build, but rather having a higher architecture skill would allow you to design a more complex house. so that deed you were talking about (more appropriately, a blueprint) could be made by anyone, but when you actually design your house, there will only be some basic features: door, window, wall, flooring. however, if you have a higher architecture skill, you would unlock more variety in designs and more advanced features for your house.

So, if I am the random guy who wants just to build a house for himself, I will be able just to chose a door, window, wall... and save it to the blueprint, because I dont have an architecture skill? Or I misunderstand you?

What I mean, is that Blueprint is like your wanted house vision "saved" on the paper, so like in RL the Architect should know what you want.
Now, lets describe what exactly Architecture and Building skills would do.

Architecture - Identifies how much Building Materials will need to build a house. The higher the skill, more additional design and features allowed for a house. Maybe fasters Builders building speed.

Building - Determine building speed. Also, maybe allow using better materials like Black Marble?

So, these skills would highly depend on each other.
Also I was thinking about How can you pre-build your house on the Blueprint, if you dont know what Architect will be able to build or not? Well, one of my ideas is that it would be simple system, that Architects can make "Building Blueprint" and give it to the customer. Then Customer would be able to design his house by using features that the Architect skill would allow. Now the problem would be to find that Architect again and give him back that blueprint, so he could begin to build it.

Any thoughts?

[Traceur]

i liked the first design better. i mean know architecture is a different skillset in RL then building... but i'd really rather that architecture - the design of the house - should be given to the players creativity, and not be stat-based.

plus i just really wouldn't like the "build 30 dozen little huts before you can build a tavern" or "build 50 taverns before you can build a castle". you would end up with a lot of buildings just built for skill progression and not of any real use.

[Lachrymose]

Originally Posted by Traceur

i liked the first design better. i mean know architecture is a different skillset in RL then building... but i'd really rather that architecture - the design of the house - should be given to the players creativity, and not be stat-based.

yeah.. on second thought, i'd say there wouldn't need to be an architecture skill. that way everyone can design their house the way they want without having to train it. unless... maybe if it were a deva or learning skill that would make things easier. although at that point it would seem a bit trivial, so it might be pointless to have.

[adrala]

Nice ideas^^
The most critic part for me is the house design tool.
I hope it will be some simplified version of the SIMs where you choose the shape and size of your house by placing the wall segements.
Everybody should be able to use this tool but players with higher archcitecture will have access to bigger variety of segments.
In order to rise your architecture skill you should make blueprints.
And for making blueprints maybe you will need paper and some other expensive materials.
Once done the blueprint of house can be sold to normal players.

[Stump]

Originally Posted by adrala

Nice ideas^^
The most critic part for me is the house design tool.
I hope it will be some simplified version of the SIMs where you choose the shape and size of your house by placing the wall segements.
Everybody should be able to use this tool but players with higher archcitecture will have access to bigger variety of segments.
In order to rise your architecture skill you should make blueprints.
And for making blueprints maybe you will need paper and some other expensive materials.
Once done the blueprint of house can be sold to normal players.

No, you dont understand very clear. Not architect is creating the house for you, but you create it and... Imagine that you paint it one the paper and show it to the architect. Architect then Analyze the "painting" of your house and then building process begin...
It is like you create the house, and then workers (or you) build it.

[adrala]

OK I see. But isnt it the same if you go to the architect guy and tell him I want such and such house. And he then uses his skills to create a blueprint.
When ready you check it and if sth has to be changed you tell him to change it. When you finally are satisfied with the design you buy it.
I mean if the architect role will be only to tell you how much and what materials you need it will be kinda...boring to be an architect. Dunno.

[Stump]

Originally Posted by adrala

OK I see. But isn't it the same if you go to the architect guy and tell him I want such and such house. And he then uses his skills to create a blueprint.
When ready you check it and if sth has to be changed you tell him to change it. When you finally are satisfied with the design you buy it.
I mean if the architect role will be only to tell you how much and what materials you need it will be kinda...boring to be an architect. Dunno.

Better to be boring for architect, than boring for his clients. And honestly, if I would be the Client I would be really pissed off of telling Architect what is wrong. And if my English Sucks, that would be even worse...
But you have a good point here, to be an Architect or a Builder would be boring. It looks like these professions would be just for making money, and not fun at all. Also this game is more about player skill, and I don't think that devs mean it only for PvP.
So, how make it more fun? The simplest solution would be to add some kind of mini game... Hmm...
Or lets say there is a part of wall (like in UO), and to build it we need 30 bricks. How about to just let workers to place the bricks? Just throwing ideas... Maybe you have some?

[Traceur]

so the architect is more like an engineer? ok, i like that.

[Lachrymose]

ok.. how about this:

HOUSING
housing can be done in one of two ways, similar to the way it was done in UO.

1. you can build a custom house on the fly, which would be more dangerous, since you could potentially be attacked while designing your house. in addition, what you can build is limited based on your building skill, which i'll describe below.
2. if you have a pre-designed house blueprint, you simply need to use the blueprint in the desired spot (like you would in UO) in order to have your house placed in that spot. there could be a few basic pre-designed houses created by the devs for players to use, but players with the architecture skill would be able to create blueprints that could be copied (only by other architects) and sold to other players.

those are the two ways one could build a house, but now i'll talk about a few of the competencies that would be required to plan and construct your house.

DESIGN
anyone should be able to design a house. therefore, there could be some tool that allows you to come up with a design for your house. the design by itself does nothing. the only thing the design is good for would be to convert into a blueprint (which is used to place a house), which would require a certain proficiency in architecture. the more difficult the design, the more architecture is required to convert the drawing. for example, if you designed a small shack, perhaps no architecture skill is required to create the blueprints. if you designed a single story cottage, that would require 25 skill perhaps, while a two story house would require 50 skill. however, a three story house or small tower might require 75 skill, and a keep would require a skill of 100 in order to convert the design into a blueprint. maybe the amount of resources that would be required to build the house could be a measure of the complexity of the house. basically, the more resources needed for the house, the higher skill required in architecture.

ARCHITECTURE
the architecture skill would basically allow you to do two things.

1. convert a player's design into a blueprint. the difference between a "player design" and a blueprint is that a player design cannot be used to construct a house. by itself, it's relatively useless until you give it to a crafter who can convert it into actual blueprints. blueprints can then be used to construct a house.
2. allows players to examine a house and create a blueprint based on that house.. if you see a house you like and would like to replicate it, an architect could examine it and produce a blueprint for you, with which you could create your own house. in addition, i would say that players can use blueprints and "edit" them. however, editing a blueprint would transform it into a design, so if you wanted to build your newly edited home, you'd have to find an architect to convert it into a new blueprint.

BUILDING
i think players should be limited to what they can build unless they have the associated building skill. so if you want a very fancy house, you'll either have to pick up the building skill yourself to design a custom home (remember, anyone can build a custom home, but the building skill will limit you to what you can build), or you'll need to find an architect to draw up the blueprints for your design, and then you'll need to find a builder who can turn those blueprints into an actual house.

the building skill would basically be in line with the architecture skill. what i mean is, if it requires an architect with 50 skill to draw the blueprints for your home, it would take a builder with 50 skill to construct it. so anyone could build a shack, but 25 skill would be required to build a cottage, and 100 would be needed to build a keep.

so ultimately.. anyone would be able to end up with the house they've designed, and if you don't want to design your house, you aren't forced to.. you'll be able to choose from a wide variety of player designed homes or you can go house shopping, looking for houses you like and then ask an architect to draw up the blueprints for that home so you can replicate it. i could see architects going into business designing homes and selling the blueprints, and for a truly talented home designer, this could be very profitable.

[Stump]

Cool.
You made it very clear. And that sounds really good. Now add that little economy upgrade of Building Materials and you get something really big. +rep

[Resin]

I like all of Lachrymose design except the instant copy thing. I think copying other architecht's designs should be all player skill not character skill.

I don't think any houses should be that instantaneous either. I want hard to move building materials (at least for the better materials like wood, stone blocks, metal gates etc.). that all have to be transported to the site. I want the necessary ground to need to be leveled and cleared.

I think of construction as the P2P parallel of raid endgame content, paticularly for the bigger things like taverns and castles. I do not want it to be at all easy or something that anyone could do solo, no matter how uber they are, they should at least need to hire some help.

[SkirmCard]

Originally Posted by Traceur

so the architect is more like an engineer? ok, i like that.

I don't want to troll but would just like to add one thing,

As a Chemical Engineer I have a number of friends who are Civil Engineers, and all 7 of them work in designing timber structures (they mostly work on houses).

All 7 hate architects.

All 7 have to completely redesign anything an architect draws. And this is including mansions in the Lake Tahoe area that people have hired well known architects to design.

If you want something to be built and be able to stand longer than 10 minutes, you better hire a civil engineer.

(No offense to architects, they come up with beautiful drawings and ideas, but with every pretty picture there is a thousand times more work to make it something real.)

[adrala]

I agree to everything said till now ( excelent job Lachry ) but one thing.
The architect still doesnt seem to be a real profesion. If I got it right, you design your house and bring it to the architect and he makes a blueprint. Unless the process of making a blueprint is an extraordinary funny one I dont see anyone putting skill points to rise his architectonic skills
How about combining builder and architecture in one profesion?
Or maybe add blueprint-creating abilities to other profesion such as librerian or monk, etc.

[Resin]

They should at least be complementary skills.

[Zenabi]

As long as building allows for plenty of variety I'm happy. It would be disappointing if player built cities had only a few types of buildings. However, I would like certain design choices to be race specific. Khurite buildings shouldn't look like Tindremene buildings, no?

[adrala]

My vision, as I said, is a tool that will allow you to combine diferent segments in order to make your house.
Examples of these segments would be:
-diferent types of windows,
-different types of doors
-different types of roofs, columns, and dedcorative stuff.
Of course you could also choose the material from which you will make the walls. And after you have your house built maybe you could even paint it ( some realistic colours)?
I guess it wont be that hard to implement and maybe it is not necesary for such complete contruction tool to exist at the launch of the game. Maybe it can be added in a following patch.

[Traceur]

i actually think modularity in construction is a high priority, at least with defensive buildings - see my bigger concern then customization is more on the PvP aspect:

what happens when you have a predefined level in a game? you end up with 6000 internet guides competing for the best route & improving upon each other.
with predefined keeps as defense systems, the same is going to happen to each keep structure they make, and with finally tuned strategies for each defense structure, siege tactics end up being nothing but a question of who has the more & better warriors with the better equipment vs. who can afford the best keep.

[Zenabi]

Hmmmm...

Could furniture be crafted?

[Resin]

That would be cool. Kind makes you wonder how much of the everything crafted Wurm type route devs want to go. My personal opinion is that it would add dimensionality to the game but should never be the primary focus over Pvp and PvE. Still if all the rewards from killing mobs are materials for crafting we better have plenty of stuff to craft.

[Lachrymose]

Originally Posted by Zenabi

Could furniture be crafted?

UO had it.. it was great for creating things to customize the indoors of your house. i would bet everything i own there will be a carpentry skill in MO that will allow you to craft furniture.

[Zenabi]

Originally Posted by Lachrymose

UO had it.. it was great for creating things to customize the indoors of your house.

Was there anything UO didn't have? :P

[Lachrymose]

Originally Posted by Zenabi

Was there anything UO didn't have? :P

UO didn't have motorcycles or gnomes... although i suppose that's a good thing.

[Kragos]

I have some concern over the conformity of the housing. Within cities I don't want to see a mismatched and odd neighbourhood -huts next door to tents next door to well built tindremene houses... I'm completely for customising your own house as you see fit, but what measures will be taken to stop this ugly site?
Perhaps player owned cities mass produce houses and sell them maybe?

[Resin]

What if individual architechts had to learn just one school of architechture,racially based on either the platers race or perhaps on the trainer he learns from. They could then build that style, if a city wanted multiple styles they would then need multiple architechts. Alternatively it could be restricted by region but that seems really rigid.

I don't think it would be that unrealistic to have some mix and matched cities. If it was a guild city then it should be up to the guild. Maybe there could be bonuses for using the correct style in the correct region.
If its snowy mountains maybe you need high pitched roofs to let snow slide off but in the desert such a construct would overheat. So you could have some houses that would be unsuitable for some environments but there could still be overlap.
Just thinking out loud.

[Traceur]

Originally Posted by Resin

Maybe there could be bonuses for using the correct style in the correct region.
If its snowy mountains maybe you need high pitched roofs to let snow slide off but in the desert such a construct would overheat. So you could have some houses that would be unsuitable for some environments but there could still be overlap.
Just thinking out loud.

i like that thought - style adapting to climate

as for mix & matches, i'd want them in very much, down to the modularity of the components (as modular as the game lets us), so that we can create our own styles.

and sorry, but if you find tents near to houses unrealistic, then you never seeing a RL modern bedouin town, not to mention in my last apt (in Jerusalem) my friends helped me build a husha (middle eastern hut) on the balcony - the apt complex itself was a mix, the area was an out-of-the-walls neighborhood during king david's reign of power and part of the building is actually hardened mud bricks where foundations for upper apt where laid during the roman periods and it actually became a market place area during turkish empire rule which is why the upper apartment layers are smaller but with 'balcony room' that results from the lower apt's roofs actually acting as another street layer.

i know it's not your fault, i've just happen to have being born into a country with a dense cultural mix...

but i just hate it when people define what is or isn't realistic simply out of ignorance about the scope of reality...
infact, as a general rule, always assume reality is bigger then your backyard..
reality is huge, make room for it.

[Scyan]

I think that an architecture skill would be great. To solve the issue of housing, perhaps allowing the players an alotted amount of pre-made desgins would be great (similar to UO). However, an architect could be able to gain skill by drawing blueprints, not necessarily having to build each blueprint he/she draws to avoid clutter. You could gain skill by drafting prints, and as skill increases, availability to new designs and features can be unlocked. This gives players the option to purchase a deed to a premade home or to hire an architect to have a unique creation built to suit their wants and ideas. This is kind of the way it works in reality... You can go buy something on the ground, or purchase a manufactured home, or hire an architect.

[Haltair]

Stump, your idea is very nice, but you will need a lot of people, so it will be difficult to have a house (thats good, so having a house its not something you do in 5 minutes). Thats right, if you have a lot of posibilities to create a house, if not, it will be boriing and like in Oblivion, just buying it. The slaves idea sounds great, "Work for me or i'll kill you and loot all you have". This will obviusly make socializing and player cooperation grow, so you cant do everything, you should find others to work for you, and also you will work for others.
I have a question, will i be able to have a stable in my own house, to keep my mounts? this will be fun, like your own parking.You could also hire someones parking to keep your mount...economy grows...
And also, will i be able to sell houses? A group of players create a village and they sell the houses..what do you think?
Not only fighting, economy and crafting are also funny,(i prefer exploring and killing, but i would like to to see this in the game )

[Ravenwoods]

I love all of the ideas here so much!!!!I can't add more. I want resource being the main thing for the cosntruction of the house, not gold. It will help economy so much that way. Traders & crafters will always have soemthing to trade etc.But then there maybe even someone or a guild may decide to become a real estate lords. So, they go and have X amount of crafters of each sort and some architects. They would then build and sell houses as pre-built or even there should be option for rental. That would also ease things for casual players who want to own or pretend having a house without so much trouble. Though since it is costly (time and money wise) for the many players, it would be difficult to establish such real-estate power.

[Stump]

1. I have a question, will i be able to have a stable in my own house, to keep my mounts? this will be fun, like your own parking.You could also hire someones parking to keep your mount...economy grows...
2. And also, will i be able to sell houses? A group of players create a village and they sell the houses..what do you think?
Not only fighting, economy and crafting are also funny,(i prefer exploring and killing, but i would like to to see this in the game )

1. Well, horses lived in the wilderness before, you know. In fact of real life, you should be able to stable the horse practicaly in everywhere. You can stable it to that tree right there, there is food growing around it (grass), so you dont need to worry about it. Also anyone can steal it. So basicly the stables would be for the security (and maybe for something more, you should read some ideas in Breeding section). So, I guess you will be able to have a stable in your house.
2. Yeah, why not?

Ravenwoods: yes, yes yes!! Thats how I want it to be!

[Haltair]

yeah i know you can leave your horse anywhere, but having a stable out of your house and leaving your horse there its nice...its only visual stuff, but it makes game more realistic (as i always say)

[Mathael]

Originally Posted by Haltair

yeah i know you can leave your horse anywhere, but having a stable out of your house and leaving your horse there its nice...its only visual stuff, but it makes game more realistic (as i always say)

Aye, I love the idea of be able to leave your horse on a stable outside your home. I mean for a horse to live in someone's house seems unrealistic, though if they allow for stables, I hope it won't just be a walk in the park for a criminal to simply come and steal your horse.

[Volkira]

Vanguard had housing where you needed to collect all the resources.They became so expensive to build it was crazy.But then there was no real reason to go to your house to use it.There would be houses everywhere but noone around using them.

The best house system was in Starwars galaxies not sure how it is today but in the first years of that game it was awesome.

Being able to place merchants in your house and sell your wares really made housing useful.People would come from everywhere to buy your stuff.A good city database would tell them where you were located and what you sold.
As well you could place crafting equipment in your house that gave you better skill points for crafting so you found yourself in your home alot replenishing and adding items to your merchants or crafting in there.

Also it had a great system for decorating your home.
In Vanguard once I had a home there was no real use for it.Noone went there and aswell no real reason for myself to be there.

You really need to be able to use housing just like Galaxies did.I would travel worlds to buy items from merchants out of peoples houses in galaxies.

The best part was the guild towns would grow and so you almost had a shopping district as differnt players made different stuff so you would be using vendor merchants to buy mounts,weapons,armor,food etc.

People created huge shopping malls and got a reputation so people would travel to joe blogs mall to check out the best crafted weapons etc.

If you werent a merchant then you could place so many items on the floor for storage eg have spare armor sets,resources etc.

Allow us in MO to have uses like this then I'll build a house otherwise what point is there if there is no real use for it.

[Resin]

I agree that houses need to have functions. Selling and crafting are good uses. I could also picture having home altars and res points in homes. If a rest requirement or function was added that would be good, otherwise its just a storage spot.

[Stump]

Originally Posted by Resin

I agree that houses need to have functions. Selling and crafting are good uses. I could also picture having home altars and res points in homes. If a rest requirement or function was added that would be good, otherwise its just a storage spot.

The first thing what your house is, it is your home. You worked hard to build it, you payed alot for it. Now what can you do in your house?
You can make food, you can make your house like a little smithy, it can be converted to the keep. Your house can become every shop: butcher shop, jewelers shop and etc. Everything. It all depends on what are you do in your house and how the people get know what they can do in your house (this can be made by the signs on the house, like "Stump's Logs". It is building that can by used in any ways you want. That's how I imagine them.

[Dalixin]

Houses could also have gardens where you could grow herbs to sell, but you would need to go out and find seeds for these herbs and they would be really rare to find them. You would also need the skill to grow them, maybe a subskill of herbalism?

I would also like to see defenses for houses. Maybe something like guard dogs. I thought about a magic tower to hurtle fireballs at would be thieves but that seems far fetched lol. Some kind of guard animal(s) would work though.
You all know if there is housing in the game, and they are actually useful like for storing items and money and crafting equipment, then there will be theives trying to get that stuff from your house.

[adrala]

I have some concern over the conformity of the housing. Within cities I don't want to see a mismatched and odd neighbourhood -huts next door to tents next door to well built tindremene houses... I'm completely for customising your own house as you see fit, but what measures will be taken to stop this ugly site?
Perhaps player owned cities mass produce houses and sell them maybe?

Maybe each player-town will have some sort of mayor that will decide the style of architecture he wants in his town. So if you want to live in his town you should first seek his permission on your house design and then build it. Or you can go and kill him and tehn build your house
I think a good manner to limit for example elf architecture mostly being available in the area where elves live is make building such house requiere some sort of material that is abundant only in the same zone elves live.
Of course you will still be able to build an elf house in the middle of the halforc sttlement but the transportation of the needed resources from the elf forests will cost you so much money that it will be sth not everyone can afford.

[Resin]

Originally Posted by Dalixin

Houses could also have gardens where you could grow herbs to sell, but you would need to go out and find seeds for these herbs and they would be really rare to find them. You would also need the skill to grow them, maybe a subskill of herbalism?

I would also like to see defenses for houses. Maybe something like guard dogs. I thought about a magic tower to hurtle fireballs at would be thieves but that seems far fetched lol. Some kind of guard animal(s) would work though.
You all know if there is housing in the game, and they are actually useful like for storing items and money and crafting equipment, then there will be theives trying to get that stuff from your house.

I like these ideas of gardens (and farm plots?) lootable housing, and guard animals. I think extra protection against thieves could come from hexes and locks (these should not just be jokes but should be well balanced against theives). The other form of protection could be building in player towns.

Originally Posted by adrala

Maybe each player-town will have some sort of mayor that will decide the style of architecture he wants in his town. So if you want to live in his town you should first seek his permission on your house design and then build it. Or you can go and kill him and tehn build your house
I think a good manner to limit for example elf architecture mostly being available in the area where elves live is make building such house requiere some sort of material that is abundant only in the same zone elves live.
Of course you will still be able to build an elf house in the middle of the halforc sttlement but the transportation of the needed resources from the elf forests will cost you so much money that it will be sth not everyone can afford.

I like the idea of mayoral approval to build in towns. I also like the general idea of local materials supporting local architechture. For the elves I actually imagine it one step further - as I kind of see them building Ewok village style houses up in the trees - particularly suited for swampy jungles.