ESO Housing -- Let's have a discussion
OK. !st thing we do is strap Dogma and Batosai in the Iron Maiden in the corner. You know........just to keep the neighborhood safe.
The Ultima Online housing was exceptional...........building brick by brick and creative decorating. DAOC had housing much as Heori describes. Instance zones with little town centers. Around the towns were numerous little neighborhoods of about 15 home sites. There were like 5 home models you could pick from. We had a huge guild house and members built what they could afford around it. You could recall to your house and set up crafting tables and storage chests as well as some decorative options.
I liked UO's house building tools a lot. My house was located in what was essentially a war zone between my guild and a player killer guild, so I built my house into a defensible fort that we could fire projectiles out of. The whole first floor was designed for battle, but the other 3-4 floors (can't remember) were luxury. At one point, I actually bought gold so that I could kit out my house and show off to my guildies because they were there so often.
I never played DAoC, but I heard great things about it. I just think having instanced areas like neighborhoods is the best option, especially in a game taking place before firmly established lore in the series. We could "settle" towns that are lore-friendly, such as Anvil in the southwestern most area of Cyrodiil (not currently in the game, I believe, but should be a coastal town).
I guess I was lucky cause my first 2 mmos that I played had player housing. Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard. I thought both had awesome housing. Galaxies had open housing and people made their own towns. Vanguard had zones set aside. Both had guild halls that kinda made for the city center. Oh... I miss Galaxies (sigh).
DDO had a guild airship, but no other guilds could see it. The ship and the upgrades in it, many of them cost real dollars. A lot of dollars. I remember putting in like $200 for our guild ships alone. But it was gated by "guild level" so you couldn't have a top airship by just throwing money at the game, your members had to work hard to accumulate guild renown over many years. Neither could you have the best if you didn't throw cash at it.
I think the housing itself should have as few barriers to entry as possible. For instance, if it required the Guildmaster to have completed certain content or achievements, that would be unacceptable in my view. So would charging money for the base house. Having decorations cost crowns is another matter.
I guess I was lucky cause my first 2 mmos that I played had player housing. Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard. I thought both had awesome housing. Galaxies had open housing and people made their own towns. Vanguard had zones set aside. Both had guild halls that kinda made for the city center. Oh... I miss Galaxies (sigh).
Galaxies is a sad story for me. I wanted to play it so badly, and I bought it at release. However, I was a relative PC-gaming noobie and did not understand how system requirements worked. I mean, surely since SWG was made by the same guys who made EQ and I can run EQ on my family's PC, then SWG should also run on it. Right?
No, wrong. Ignorant and wrong.
It crashed every time I attempted to open the game. I asked a guildie in EQ that knew a little about PCs, and he suggested upgrading my video card. So I bought the first one I could find at Walmart, even though I knew zip about compatibility. It did not fit, and I gave up in frustration. I did not return to SWG until years later, after the combat upgrades. I never really experienced the housing, even though that was one of the features that I had been most excited about.
Funny thing is, though, that a year later World of Warcraft released and I was able to get it to run on that same PC. Well... "run" in the sense that I could log in and kill things, just so long as I never stepped foot in a major city and always ran through zones in first-person while staring at the ground to minimize lag. Whenever I needed to sell stuff, I'd mail it to my real-life friend who'd auction it off for me since he could enter cities. WoW was actually the reason I learned to build PCs.
DDO had a guild airship, but no other guilds could see it. The ship and the upgrades in it, many of them cost real dollars. A lot of dollars. I remember putting in like $200 for our guild ships alone. But it was gated by "guild level" so you couldn't have a top airship by just throwing money at the game, your members had to work hard to accumulate guild renown over many years. Neither could you have the best if you didn't throw cash at it.
I think the housing itself should have as few barriers to entry as possible. For instance, if it required the Guildmaster to have completed certain content or achievements, that would be unacceptable in my view. So would charging money for the base house. Having decorations cost crowns is another matter.
I hate the idea of having to pay for housing with crowns/real money. The only housing-related stuff that should involve real money is purely cosmetic decorations. I know that it can be argued that if you pay for a subscription fee that you are technically paying for everything in the game with real money, but it feels different to me. I don't mind the idea of having to build up renown to build a guild hall.
Agreed, Heori.
OK. !st thing we do is strap Dogma and Batosai in the Iron Maiden in the corner. You know........just to keep the neighborhood safe.
Ummm...I have minions, ya know. 
Brotherhood of Redemption
BoR Birthday Commitee Coordinator
Elder Council
Go calmly amidst the noise and the haste....
...as you slice your way through the flesh & bone of the most formidable of foes!
Anyone still playing ESO? I started quite recently. I found this article about ESO Housing. I think you might find it helpful: https://steemit.com/elder/@snfpartner/elder-scrolls-online-housing-come-inside-make-yourself-at-home. I have read many guides. In this, everything is described quite clearly.