Ingame Houses

[Lendri]

We don't use the major cities really, like Orgrimmar, Undercity, Thunderbluff, and Silvermoon City. The Exodar, Darnassus, and Ironforge are probably really vacant too. I was thinking, maybe removing all the npcs from inside buildings, and then putting a bed and range in every one of them, and sell them as houses! Like.. We have a salesman who sells us the house and we give the money for it. Like a GM or a really trusted player that's always on! Or, we can pick 8 people for all the different major cities, make them the Realtor, and they can collect the money and give it to a GM or just keep it! They have to be on all the time though..
Your probably thinking; Thats what inns are for.. But this is like, your own personal house! Thats pretty darn sweet. Also, your probably thinking.. How are we going to keep track of who's house is who. Well! Maybe you can make custom signs and put them infront of the house like; Marjai's House. And it would be a little sign. Or if that's not possible, then a chart of all the houses labled 1-xxx. Or just rely on the characters to remember their own house.. =p One stories can be cheapest, two stories medium, and three stories + can be the most expensive. Also the location of them can vary their prices too.
It seems like a BIG project, but most of those places anywho in the cities have beds already in them! I was just thinking about it since it can be your own little home for privacy things and to return home to after traveling. (Edit: Also, to actually visit the cities more often. Yay!)

So, give me your thoughts!

[Lendri]

Also, if you vote no, please explain why.

[Rosencrat]

There are...A lot of ways that this would prove to be problematic.

The GMs cannot be expected to build, rebuild, shift and put down furniture and items along with every other little duty they had. Houses are very expensive IC, costing much greater amounts of In-Game Currency that most players logically would have. Deleting NPCs in houses would alter quests, vendors and lore figures. People who have their own little 'houses' would probably forgo traveling in favor of just sitting around and role-playing in the cities. Members would buy houses, lay claim and then never show up... The list of difficulties and impossibilities is rather long.

That, and the fact that Home RP can be accomplished easily enough by using an existing empty house for a scene before vacating it. You can pretend it is in a different section of a town so that when other people role-play in it and keep you out then it makes sense IC-wise. The apartment in Cut Throat Alley in Stormwind is a perfect example of this.

All in all, doing all that just to have your 'own house' is just excessive. Just use empty houses and a little bit of imagination for the same result. There are plenty of empty or sparsely populated abodes in many cities.

[Lendri]

They can make it not so easy to buy a house. Money is hard to come by on this game, and theres always that one NPC in the middle of the room that just.. Ruins everything! They can make buying a house between 500-1500 gold if they wanted to make it hard. Between 150-350 to make it easy. They wouldn't have to rebuild.. (I didn't understand that.) And if you pay that much money for a house, your going to use it!

Also, they can just put the npcs somewhere else that are important and have quests. Like, in the bank, or Auction house, Or battlegrounds house. Or even on the streets!

[Benislav]

Ehh, to be completely honest, the answer "it would take too much of the GMs time" doesn't really cut it for me. While GMs should under no circumstances be worked to death, if certain utilities are installed server-side, spawning houses is relatively easy. A house should be a house. As far as I know, the default furnishings stay the same unless removed, and beyond that is just people getting pushy.

The problem I -do- see with this is RP vanishing from everywhere besides houses. Unless strict guidelines are set, everyone and their uncle's fight club is going to want a house.

[Aphetoros]

500-1500 gold

Thats very easy to get at 80.

Also something in this thread reminded me...opening up the battlegrounds for RP. (Alterac Valley RP, Eye of the Storm RP etc. )

[Lendri]

I doubt that rp will vanish from everywhere and go straight to their houses. =o It's like. Everyone has their secret parties and things they do in private. So when you rp out in ratchet, find someone nice, rp with them for awhile, you can invite them to your house.

[Rosencrat]

500-1500 gold

Thats very easy to get at 80.

OOC, yes. It's very easy to pull in the big bucks.

But In Character, where your character doesn't romp through dungeons and fights off slavering ghouls to single-handedly overthrow the Lich King...It is a very hard amount to get. The only way to get that kind of money is to roll a Noble (Which requires a special profile and the approval of GMs) or run a very prolific business.

All in all, the idea of House RP isn't bad. It's just that you can do it by using pre-existing empty houses instead of laying claim to your own private little 'pad'. The idea has been put out before with similar results; GMs have said no.

[Piroska]

Keep in mind, too, that we have a very strict policy on not allowing players to physically own any building in game. This is because ownership potentially (and almost invariably) leads to conflicts between players. With a situation like this, we do avoid problems between knowing who owns what, but how long does that ownership last? What if people want to use that building who aren't the owner? What if they leave? At what point do we claim that the building is available again? What if that person comes back?

I'm not personally fond of the idea; there are already numerous empty buildings available for use without having to make an investment or claim on them.

[Lendri]

This server has been the same for years! They are changing to a new core.. Everyone is redoing their characters, it's like the New Beginning! Whats a better way to start it off, with a brand new housing system! =o!!! I think it's a fantastic Idea!

[Heitrusan]

But it is the decision of the GMs to make. Although many would agree with your idea, it all comes down to the team in the sky. /nod

[Lendri]

...but how long does that ownership last? What if people want to use that building who aren't the owner? What if they leave? At what point do we claim that the building is available again? What if that person comes back?

1.] The ownership will last as long as the player actively goes to the house and uses it. 2.] If a person wants to take the building that isn't the owner, they can discuss it with the person OOC. If they don't use it much or if they decide to make a deal, thats cool. But a strict rule will be enforced: NO taking other characters homes without the permission of the person who owns it, and NO fighting!!! First dips is first dips.. 3-4.] If they leave, the house will immediately be up for sale again, and if a person wanted that house when someone owned it, they will get it if not already in another house. 5.] Once you leave the house, you cannot claim it back again within a short amount of time. (Like a week. Because some people might want it.) So after a week, if it's still vacant, they can have it back!

[LuckyDave]

Hmm, initially I did vote that this would be a good idea. However, upon reading through the cases that were made against it, I agree that there are a number of alternatives to home ownership (pretending that vacant apartments are your own; roleplaying within private rooms in inns) that get the job done for roleplaying purposes. I'd say leave it alone because it is too much.
The magic of roleplay is that the skies are the limit as long as the people involved can imagine it, no matter what setting. Think of MUDs and D&D! WoW has way more visual queues for what's going on than people ever needed before it came out. Just because this is a private server doesn't mean the custom content should get overboard. That way leads to madness and a proliferation of bugs (And those are common enough this time of year (north of the equator)).

[ThePharaoh]

Unfortunately I can't post my reason why I think this is a bad idea because the topic is locked. I'd just copy paste my response but.. Here's the link I'm on the first page so it shouldn't be hard to find. http://www.conquestofthehorde.com/forum/...23&start=0

I understand the optimism and the idea but it just would be a bad idea to own anything. I've RP'd Raphael having a house, but it was the same house a character Valira had. OOCly of course. It would be wrong for me to tell Rosencrat she couldn't RP there because, "It's my house" What if I leave and never return? Or what if I'm simply not online, and that house model suits her RP or anyone elses perfectly. And if ONE person got a house, -everyone- would want a house, and houses for their alts, and characters that wouldn't last 3 weeks. It'd be horribly confusing, more stress on the GM's when we would have the inevitable juvenile arguement of "He won't leave my house!" ... "I was here first!" ...."It's mine!" Bleh.


Just find a house, if nobody is there. >.> <.< it's yours. But you can't own anything OOCly or tell someone they can't RP somewhere. Ultimately it's just not necessary.

[Grakor456]

This has come up a lot of times. The answer has always been "no."

IC housing is always a difficult thing to implement, particularly in a server like ours, and where we're going into the restart and new core hoping to mostly keep the world in-tact without major changes. Where would these houses be? Who would take the time to spawn and furnish them? What happens when someone disappears or doesn't use the house anymore?

I've got a simple answer for this: use inn rooms, use the empty buildings in the capitals, pretend that it's yours for a particular RP. Just keep in mind, it's NOT yours, if someone else is using it, it's in use. There's no other way to solve this that's feasible for our GM team.

As this subject has come up very often, and the answer has always been the same, I don't think that this thread will be very constructive. Therefore, I'm locking it.