I see a big problem coming for housing, the neighborhood desolation.
I noticed how my neighborhood started to feel more and more empty because people bought a house, played for a bit, and then stopped. So my neighborhood is full of boring level 1 houses. At the same time new player start housing and new neighborhoods are spawned. Repeat this process for a few years and we will have hundreds of neighborhoods with only a hand full of active houses.
Did Blizzard implement something to stop this?
I think inactive houses (like 1 year+) should be removed until the owner comes back and neighborhoods should be somehow merged if possible.
This idea isnt very good, but i wanted to start somewhere so you get an idea. What do you think?
That itāll face the same issue as every and any system. High initial popularity, quick drop-off to the base-line of players who are really invested in it. And yes, many probably need to move neighbourhoods regularly to see the bar fill up properly.
I argued before that the endeavor bar should be faction-bound or something in that ballpark, so at least youāre not āpunishedā for being abandoned by your neighbours.
According to Hollyās original intro to Housing post it was stated your home is yours forever even if you logged out for a very long period of time. However, when housing was launched in early access, there is Jay intro vid where he states that if you offline for an extended period of time (he never states what the time period is) your house will be packed up into storage. On your return you can repurchase a property and your house will be restored to its original state.
I do wish they would provide clarity on this time period contradiction. Is it forever or is it time limited.
We also have guilds wanting control over their neighbourhoods and at present the only way to move inactive players is to boot them from the guild. Some would rather be able to move the inactive to an inactive phase of the neighbourhood allowing active members to be on the same active phases.
Or the system can automatically move you to any one of the public neighbourhood with the same available plot or closest. There are plenty empty and half full and I doubt there are so many kicks from guilds that it will impossible.
I am a returning player, and Iāve done exactly that so far; put a house down and left it like that for now. Thatās simply because Iām not spending time with it yet before Midnight comes out. It doesnāt mean that Iāve quit the game or wonāt be working on it eventually. Itās just not where my focus is right now because of how overwhelming everything is in terms of new systems to discover from previous expansions. I didnāt know what delves were, how the crafting worked, what currencies are needed where and how the Reknown system worked.
That said, I understand what you are saying because not everyone is doing as I am and the desolation is inevitable in the long run. All Iām trying to say is, maybe leave it for a while and see what really happens. I would expect Blizzard to come up with a solution like youāve proposed eventually, or at least the ability to move your house to another (active) neighbourhood at some point. If theyāve made it all work for dead/new/active server merging, Iām sure they can do it for housing too.
Itās a complicated topic.
On one hand I understand and agree that people abandoning neighborhood are a problem. But on the other I have some friends that are not playing right now (long business trip/waiting for DLC release/dealing with sicknesā¦) and they just took the plot next to me so we are neighbors but they are inactive.
I think the system needs better features for active players rather than dealing with inactive. Wouldnāt be fair to kick them as then I (and our active friends) would be forced to leave neighborhood too.
For example you should be able to see how active and how much online people are in every neighborhood so you can select more āactiveā neighborhood. And you should have a possibility to āmove in a groupā. So you create a group with all your friends and you say you all want to move while keeping the plots you have selected => the game would filter only neighborhoods where the plots are free and show you the activity level I mentioned before.
That way you could yourself change neighborhood to one you prefer.
Iām in two different guilds for my neighbourhoods to avoid that. They are both active but not huge.
But I can understand how itās going to be an issue for larger guilds and I donāt think itās unreasonable for GMs to be able to move inactive players homes.
Mhm, knowing how some guilds have been ranā¦gotta be careful with this. Any power granted to players can and will be used (and abused).
In the end we choose a plot, and even pay for it - afaik? Plenty of players choose a plot next to, or near, other players they interact with most. Giving some other player the power to just move me, inactive or not, is tricky and should not be something taken lightly.
Then you also have to define what āinactiveā means. Inactive in the neighbourhood? Not logging in at all? For how long? Plenty of players take a break halfway into the season to just lean back till the next season hits. Let alone doing house-related activities. How fun is it to log back in to see your plot being moved to some place you didnāt want nor chose or paid for? Making this too short ā will be abused. Making this too long ā meaningless.
The players remain in the Guild, right. So the GM, or whoever may get these privileges, still want them there. Donāt want the player due to inactivity? /gkick exists. Want your guild free of inactive accounts? There it is.
They should figure out different ways to prevent desertion. And honestly, currently, it doesnāt look like it was so well thought-thru yet - while they know very well that the drop-off in activity is huge in every part of the game.
I donāt think itās such a big problem to be honest. If you donāt play the game (donāt have sub for 6-12 months), your plot will free up. This has been confirmed by Blizzard. If your neighbourhood is full of inactive houses, you are free to move to another neighbourhood. Even guild members can decide to create their own charter neighbourhood or move to a more active shard, if they are not happy with participation. You donāt have to leave your guild or kick people out.
In general the system is built around positive interactions. Itās really easy to move your house and thereās very little penalty. (Currently thereās zero penalty since the 1K gold cost is waived.) You can live with friends, guild or community or just randoms in a public one. Itās super easy and convenient to visit other peopleās houses as well.
Endeavor Progress will require some tuning for inactive neighbourhoods but I donāt think itās such a big issue as you think it is. The only thing you are missing out on is the 50 bonus currency for max progress since you can just buy all the decor in other neighbourhoods. Endeavors are meant to bring the people together and should not be completed by just one very active member.
Hmm when I actually tried to find the source, all I could find was a beta interview by Taliesin and Evitel called āOrc Houses In An Alliance Neighborhood! Gamescom Housing Interview w/ Laura Sardinha & Toby Ragainiā. They are very careful about not implying concrete action or times. So I might have mixed in forum discussions with actual dev statements. Apologies.
Iāve been neighborhood hopping a lot because the spot wasnāt that important to me but I wanted a neighborhood that was cozy, with a lot of active people.
What I noticed that if you see a map with only a few spots, so well populated, you often get the message that the spot has been taken in red. That can happen of course but itās not possible that you get the same message with ALL of the other spots on that map. That must be a bug and if they want neigborhoods to really be active and fill up the empty spots this absolutely needs fixing because now it contributes to the āempty neigborhood syndromeā.
I logged in, claimed a spot, messed around a bit and havenāt been back in weeks. I donāt like the feature that much to be honest. Thx for this post. Iāll remove my place and free it up for someone who will enjoy it more I hope
