Housing is incoming! A little sooner for the pre-orders. Still, not all Midnight features are available yet. But there are lots of previews, guides and interviews out there. It’s a huge new system. It will grow a lot, and nowadays Blizzard seem lot more on top of community feedback. So, let’s give em some! So:
What is yet missing from Player Housing, Neighborhoods and the new systems, that would be a big win to see added, according to you?
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I suppose I’ll kick it off with my own current wishlist and reasonings:
- Teleporters.
I would love to be able to have teleport pads (ideally ones that people can also move into the ground to create custom looking teleporters/portals top of as well) to get around my place. It would open up many opportunities for secrets and puzzles and roleplay adventures, and you could make rooms with different styles, accessed by teleporter, and pretend they are other places in the world, such as the homes of your alts.
- Neighborhood Social Areas.
Houses and yards are nice, but the Neighborhood itself also has great hangout potential. I was disappointed to see there is not many great social-supporting places there currently. Suited as like, a Guild Hall, a Tavern to hang out in, an Arena, Stables, etc. I realize that:
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Blizzard doesn’t want all the players to hang out in the Neighborhood and ignore the open world, and;
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You could build those to some degree.
But, the open world has all the PvE content, the AH, all that stuff. Adding this, lures in only those looking for roleplay or socializing. And yeah, it would be great if there were plentiful nearby taverns with empty spaces and no NPCs that spam dialogue or offer quests, places suited as guild halls, as empty sparring arenas, and so on, in the outside world to create hubs of social and roleplay activity consistently… But there aren’t.
The world just wasn’t built with that in mind. Especially the old world. With all the available space and gathering like-minded friends and guilds together for neighborhoods, I was hoping to find it here.
And yes, you can build some of it. But people gather more easily, where they see people already are. If they can’t see or hear if people are inside the “Tavern” someone built, due to the inside being instanced, a lot less folks are going to enter. Also; someone would have to give up their chance to build a home, if they have to build a Tavern instead.
- Cooperative Building.
Some people will be genuine artists (or just really hard workers), and build amazing stuff. Others will want such things too, but will struggle to even get started. Being able to work together, help people out, gift creations to others, would be an incredible boon to the social aspect and enjoyment of this system.
- Saving Projects.
Imagine you have made the most amaaaazing Winter Veil holiday project. Snowmen made out of objects painted white. Decorations all over your house, inside and out. Weeks making a winter paradise that everyone loved to see. Isn’t it a shame to tear it all down and have to do it aaaaall over again next year? Ideally, you could mark all the objects used, as a group. Then save that group. And when the time is right, pop it up again! Naturally, saving object groups is useful for all sorts of build projects, but the holiday thing, as a returning event, makes it especially sad that it’s lacking.
- Neighborhood Control.
Eventually, it feels like there will be 2 problems that private and neighborhoods are going to run into:
- Lack of variation. Sure, housing plots change. But this is our neighborhood, and we can’t really change much about its appearance.
- Useless Empty or Unused Housing Slots.
Sure, as “Mayor” in charge of a neighborhood, I can change the mood a little bit by selecting an endeavor. But I can’t control anything beyond that, and my house. No neighborhood decorations, features, themes, buildings, npcs, music, time of day, weather, skybox, animals, or vegetation to have any influence on. Many of those are off the table anyway, of course.
But, I can’t even move or evict inactives without kicking them from the guild itself. And empty slots are going to waste. Now, I know we are not going to be able to hide easter eggs all over our neighborhood for Noblegarden fun with our friends any time soon. But anything that can give us more ability to shape our neighborhood itself would be very welcome. An easy recommendation would be to allow us to fill empty slots with generic buildings. It feels very unlikely, even for most active guilds and communities, to reach 55 actively maintained plots. No one living in plot 53? Why not have a Barracks there? Or a Stables? Or an Arena? A Tavern? Or a Meeting Hall?
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That is my list of specific features I would like to see Housing expanded with at the moment. Overall though, very hyped! I am giving feedback, from myself and those around me, because I want the feature to be successful.
I am sure most of us have generic desires for more racial options, more assets, and less restrictions. But I am very curious to learn what more specific features they could add, that would make you very happy. 
