Hangin' my hat

[Veck]

I looked, and I couldn't see a topic about houses anywhere. Sorry to mods if this is a duplicate.

Anyway, this has been brought on by my recent purchase in Oblivion, a house in my favourite city of Leyawiin. After wandering around Vvardenfell for a long time with no place to call my home, I was hoping for a nice little cozy house in Blackwood. Instead I got some derelict and ugly shack, worth far less than I paid for it, and with some pretty weak upgrades. So I was wondering, how would you like to see houses implemented in Skyrim? Would you like the house to be there in full, or maybe give it a set of upgrades to buy after? What type of homes would you like to see? Would you like to see other features included that weren't explored fully in Oblivion, such as a full cadre of servants or a family? Discuss it here!

[Cactus]

Your post is confusing with its random references to Morrowind and Oblivion. It sounds like you bought a house in Leyawiin whilst exploring Vvardefell. Morrowind has some awesome real estate agents.

Anyway, how do I want to see houses? I mixture of Morrowind and Oblivion. I want normal buyable houses, but it'd be nice at some point to get the option to have a stronghold built. Imagine how much more awesome Battlehorn would have been if you'd inherited the land and had to spend time and money building it up, customizing it to your liking (think Raven Rock), and then having an awesome huge castle at your disposal. A lot more much, that's how.

[Argonanza]

I want to choose what stuffed animals to hang on the wall! Imagine a gaping daedroth head hanging above your fireplace as you sit in your couch reading the newspaper and smoking a fake pipe that blows bubbles.

[Veck]

Yeah, sorry. I meant how I'd gone from Morrowind to Oblivion, and really wanted to buy a house when I found out they were available. I was wonderi g if that might cause confusion.

One thing I'd possibly like to see is the option to buy a shack and a small piece of land in every city, so you can pick your favourite without having to worry about house quality. Then, you can decide to upgrade and improve on it, and even build a better quality house in its place, if you had the money. It would be a pain moving all your items out though.

[Cactus]

I despise moving, but I do it far too often. It's not even a game fault, it's just a "I'm bored with this house so I'm moving my 10000 pounds of loot to the other side of Cyrodiil."

[Mrs Cactus]

I tend to move every time I have enough money to buy a nicer house, so I end up leaving stuff everywhere and never knowing where anything is.

I'd like the option to choose what type of house you'd like, in each city. So in cityA, you could choose to buy a shack, a tiny house, a large house, or a manor. Then upgrades to not just hang crap on the walls, but also upgrades to redo the insides, so that the tiny house would look just as fancy as the manor. Just a lot more cramped.

[Ethelred]

Personally, I'll be farting sparks if I don't get an igloo.

Failing that, a tower made out of ice will be fine.

[lostlast]

I fart sparks every time I read how people think Morrowind is better than Oblivion. In fact just typing in now has resulted in a -5 effect to personal hygiene. Not to worry my +10 strength pants are in the wash.

I like Houses.

[Sav]

I would like something more customizable, instead of just putting an item in a display case. I would love to edit the case' shape, and color. Same for the house, too.

[Dan-Ru]

I fart sparks every time I read how people think Morrowind is better than Oblivion. In fact just typing in now has resulted in a -5 effect to personal hygiene. Not to worry my +10 strength pants are in the wash.

I like Houses.

As far as Storyline and immersion. yes it is better. If your the kind of RPG player who looks more on the Graphics and physics aspect on things, then Oblivion is better.
Neither is better than the other, thats nothing more than opinion. and don't forget the timeframe of release either.

I think there should be an ingame option that allows you to commondeer any form of dungeon (cave, towers, whatever) and turn it into a hideout or house (which would be even better if you could pick up and move containers to where you want them). That dungeon would then be taken off the respawn list for creatures (or humans) and containers. to avoid lackluster gameplay, this would only be able to be done to one dungeon at any one time.

Or at least be able to take them off container respawn list so you can inhabit the area. (one of the major beefs i have with Oblivion, you can't use the containers if you choose to use a dungeon)

[Dark Spark]

Well, it would be nice if you could choose to decorate certain sections according to a certain theme, such as a "Hunter's" den fitted with trophies of beasts claimed in a hunt, or a "Soldier's" foyer decorated with shields, sword and armor from earned in the line of duty, a "Merchant's" abode filled with paintings and sculptures, or a "Mage's" study with relics and etchings of arcane research.

[ROFLcopter]

I hope there aren't 'house upgrades' again and we can buy furniture more individually.

[Dan-Ru]

I hope there aren't 'house upgrades' again and we can buy furniture more individually.

We don't want anything too complex. Simple Good and Evil furniture and light setting/ upgrades would suit.

Buy normal upgrages from a store manager (mage stuff, replica swords and whatnot), find a cultist to purchase evil home upgrades like necromancy books, dark lighting or red lighting, alters to daedric god(ess) of choice, Alchemical ingrediants like bloodgrass and vanpire dust, daedric armour and weapon replicas [wall mounted and display cases] that sort of stuff. That would make buying a house worthwhile, rather than it being a loot warehouse you hardly visit.

EDIT: yes, i'm aware of my contradiction there.

[Kerr]

It would be a pain moving all your items out though.

Moving all my stuff from my Imperial city house to my anvil house and from my anvil house to my skingrad house was hell! Still i would like to see a house in every major town maybe a few biger fort like areas, as long as we have a choice between a hovel and a huge manor or fort and stuff in the middle I will be happy.

[gamermanblue]

I think all these ideas are great. What if they combined all of them?

In the largest city you could buy a manor with pre-arranged furnishings for those who wish to roleplay a lord or lady. A hovel in one of the slums of any of the cities. It comes with no furnishings for those of the less privlaged class As well, you could purchase a plot of land in the wilderness on which to build your own 'stonghold' a la Morrowind. For this there could be five or six merchants from which you could purchase furnishings to more suit your characters 'personality'. I also agree that living in a cave or fort would be grand. How about a "home" spell. Cast in a cave, ruin, whatnot and until you cast another one in a different place, it cancels the respawn for that environment. Going along with this idea, why not have Conjuration have a set of conjured furniture for mages?

[ROFLcopter]

I hope there aren't 'house upgrades' again and we can buy furniture more individually.

We don't want anything too complex. Simple Good and Evil furniture and light setting/ upgrades would suit.

Buy normal upgrages from a store manager (mage stuff, replica swords and whatnot), find a cultist to purchase evil home upgrades like necromancy books, dark lighting or red lighting, alters to daedric god(ess) of choice, Alchemical ingrediants like bloodgrass and vanpire dust, daedric armour and weapon replicas [wall mounted and display cases] that sort of stuff. That would make buying a house worthwhile, rather than it being a loot warehouse you hardly visit.

EDIT: yes, i'm aware of my contradiction there.

But what if you don't want a Daedroth head dangling over your pretty pink bed?

[Dan-Ru]

I hope there aren't 'house upgrades' again and we can buy furniture more individually.

We don't want anything too complex. Simple Good and Evil furniture and light setting/ upgrades would suit.

Buy normal upgrages from a store manager (mage stuff, replica swords and whatnot), find a cultist to purchase evil home upgrades like necromancy books, dark lighting or red lighting, alters to daedric god(ess) of choice, Alchemical ingrediants like bloodgrass and vanpire dust, daedric armour and weapon replicas [wall mounted and display cases] that sort of stuff. That would make buying a house worthwhile, rather than it being a loot warehouse you hardly visit.

EDIT: yes, i'm aware of my contradiction there.

But what if you don't want a Daedroth head dangling over your pretty pink bed?

*shrugs* i dunno, console commands?

nah i joke. If they did do that i would imagine it would be theme set like Fallout 3, but with two variants, Evil mage, Vampires Den, Dark Knight, Corrupt noble. that sort of thing. And it would be opposite for good. Mage setting, vampire hunter/Rouge, Knights castle, nobles house, poor peasant.
And i guess, just like Oblivion, we'll be stuck with the setup they choose unless its moveable.

My last post was sort of just listing off what i would like in an Evil house (and i briefly covered what i would want in a good characters house). The only reason the majority of that post was of evil stuff is thats the persona of almost all my characters, i get no joy from playing the good guy in RPGs. There is no thrill or excitement. Kill bandit, bribe him, don't join DB or Theives guild, bribe them. I just find evil characters alot more open to RP.

[Doctor Meaticus]

Skyrim's houses should have shelves and bookcases that you don't have to painstakingly place books on one by one. The option to 'insta-fill' a shelf with certain objects and/or books in your inventory is a must-have, placing series of books next to each other in chronological order etc...

Maybe that's a big ask, maybe not. But it would help a lot.

I also think that there should be abodes of varying levels of splendor available in EACH town or city - a poor one, a middle-class one and a mansion or even palace!

[Dan-Ru]

Skyrim's houses should have shelves and bookcases that you don't have to painstakingly place books on one by one. The option to 'insta-fill' a shelf with certain objects and/or books in your inventory is a must-have, placing series of books next to each other in chronological order etc...

Nah, its possible. Remember the Crusader Relics?

Just make it so it takes all books in your inventory and places them in alphabetical order on the shelves. Then the PC can take whatever ones they didn't want placed out of the shelf.

once you eliminate the need for multiple commands it really shouldn't be that hard for experianced coders.

[MasterShadow]

Great title for this thread!

A few things based upon the suggestions here:

1. Have variations of house qualities in each main city (plain homes, middle-class homes, and mansions)

2. Have homes that you can purchase in small villages

3. Have the option of taking over some of the smaller dungeons and making a home fortress out of them (only one at a time). I mean comeon, who here DIDN'T want to take over Fort Faragut (Lucien Lachance's Lair)

4. Have in game mod tools that allowed more creative (and wealthy) players to do their own interior designing using in game purchasable objects. I would love to be able to go on youtube or on the forums and see each player's custom homes. The type of home I would build would be akin to the safe-houses used by Durzo Blint in the Way of a Shadow book. They look like your typical abandoned shack or ruin, but like the Dark Brotherhood sanctuaries, they opened up into full blown lairs. I would have a library with all of the books I've collected in my travels, an alchemy lab (ZOMG) with my own caged animals/monsters to test my custom recipes on, a training room with training dummies, along with armor and weapon racks. Yeah thats right, I don't want to hide my weapons and armor in crates in my own home. I want them to be on displays for all to see. Oh and please allow me to have guard npcs, or dogs, or monsters, something to protect my lair from Radiant AI crazed thieves. Once again, only those with the cash should be able to enjoy this privilege, thus relegating this honor to the more rich and high level players who have earned it.

[Dan-Ru]

3. Have the option of taking over some of the smaller dungeons and making a home fortress out of them (only one at a time). I mean comeon, who here DIDN'T want to take over Fort Faragut (Lucien Lachance's Lair)

Fort Wooden Hand (i think its that one) is another, would need CS interior redecoration though. right at the end of it there is a wrecked chamber with a throne at the end of the room.

[Ethelred]

I like the idea of being able to take over a dungeon location. It could be integrated into the game mechanics by your character buying a title deed from a local lord or something.

You could even extend this to buying existing houses - making the current occupants homeless! Of course, only one title deed can be held at a time, preventing rich characters buying up the whole city and filling the streets with unwashed families, begging for coins.

[Dan-Ru]

preventing rich characters buying up the whole city and filling the streets with unwashed families, begging for coins.

I think there would be a bloodbath if that were the case. I for one, would quickly get sick of "Have pity sir, i gots nothing to eat" or "Have pity on an old war veteran" or "A coin for an old begger"

*draws sword* "DIE CURR!"

[MasterShadow]

Oh, and yes, give me back the option to kill off NPCs in their homes and take up residence there. Sorry about that Ra'Virr.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Ra'Virr

[Rat Kiosk]

I don't want container respawn or enemy respawn if I make somewhere my home.