With GamesCom over, and the drool from the developer walkthrough video finally being mopped up, a number of news sites and fans have started to break down every last detail of what was mentioned during the conference. While a many frame-by-frame breakdowns of the video have sprung up, a number of folks have latched on to a particular statement made about “typical MMO features”. More specifically, amongst the vague talk about PvP, auction houses, and crafting…housing was VERY briefly mentioned.
Housing has been a topic of great discussion ever since the game had been announced. Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) players had it, Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) players had it, World of Warcraft players YEARNED for it, but how would it be implemented, if at all? It is no doubt that if the developers over at Bioware Austin are going to give players a place to hang their trophies, they’re going to look at how the other games have solved the problem of placing thousands, if not hundreds-of-thousands, of houses.
There are two basic approaches to player housing: open world and instanced, each of which can be seen in SWG and LOTRO, respectively. One would think that an open-world solution like that in SWG is simple: buy a house, find a lot, and boom your character has a place to live, right? Wrong. Between player-based cities, taxes, house-type planet limitations, utilities (yeah, you pay utilities hourly), and voting for mayor every three weeks, the system in SWG is incredibly complicated. But it’s hard to argue that this amount of detail provides a certain level of immersion that could not be captured any other way. I invite you to check out the SWG Wiki for all the gritty details.
LOTRO, on the other hand, uses an instanced neighborhood system. Similar to player cities, there are four racially styled homesteads (Men, Hobbit, Dwarven, and Elven) which appear in the open world, with 250 instanced neighborhoods per homestead. Each neighborhood has 30 homes, 4 kinship houses, 10 deluxe personal houses, and 16 standard personal houses, which can then be customized upon purchase. The result? A highly organized, pre-planned place for players or groups of players to hang their wares. (All information about LOTRO homes was found HERE)
So which of these methods will we see in SWTOR? The speculation and hopes from the player-base have been far and wide. This forum thread covers just about every possibility from open-world, to instanced, to ships acting as homes (similar to the Ebon Hawk in KOTOR). As with every other detail of the game, the developers are waiting for a finished product before confirming anything, but there’s no doubt that they are keeping a close eye on the community.
What do you think of player housing in SWTOR? Vote in the poll and give us the details the comments!
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