E
eneq
Guest
It's been almost a year since our last public update on Player Housing. Obviously, with the development and release of Shrouded Isles, we've been busy in that time. As Mark told you all a month ago, Player Housing is now our #1 priority, and has been since the release of SI. So, now's the time for an update on the status of Player Housing.
We've almost completely revamped the system since it was presented back in 2002. The houses have been redesigned, and we have a LOT more features - some of which I'll talk about today, and some that I'll hold off on for the moment so they will be a pleasant surprise for the community.
The basics of the system still hold true - there will be four different models of house per Realm, from least expensive to most expensive. Players will be able to tint parts of the exterior of the house and choose different door types, and other features to distinguish their house from others. On the interior, there will be furniture, wall hangings, and other items that can be purchased and placed. We've had our artists hard at work on pumping out a lot of different items that can be purchased to decorate a player house.
In order to ensure that we have lots of building lots to cover the anticipated enormous demand for houses, we are creating at least one new zone per Realm. This zone will contain a series of small villages of houses, connected by roads, with stables and horse routes to make navigation easier. We've decided to go with the separate housing zone idea to reduce the impact of having houses litter the landscape of the different Realms. We can expand the housing zones based on player demand for housing.
The obvious question from the community is going to be: "When?!". The answer to that is that we expect to have housing up in some form of closed testing in about six weeks. Housing is a feature that will need a lot of testing, so the final date for it appearing on live servers depends how the tests go.
Sanya or I will keep you all posted as housing moves along. Until then, here's three shots, one from each realm, to show you the new direction housing is taking. Click each thumbnail for a full-size view.
We've almost completely revamped the system since it was presented back in 2002. The houses have been redesigned, and we have a LOT more features - some of which I'll talk about today, and some that I'll hold off on for the moment so they will be a pleasant surprise for the community.
The basics of the system still hold true - there will be four different models of house per Realm, from least expensive to most expensive. Players will be able to tint parts of the exterior of the house and choose different door types, and other features to distinguish their house from others. On the interior, there will be furniture, wall hangings, and other items that can be purchased and placed. We've had our artists hard at work on pumping out a lot of different items that can be purchased to decorate a player house.
In order to ensure that we have lots of building lots to cover the anticipated enormous demand for houses, we are creating at least one new zone per Realm. This zone will contain a series of small villages of houses, connected by roads, with stables and horse routes to make navigation easier. We've decided to go with the separate housing zone idea to reduce the impact of having houses litter the landscape of the different Realms. We can expand the housing zones based on player demand for housing.
The obvious question from the community is going to be: "When?!". The answer to that is that we expect to have housing up in some form of closed testing in about six weeks. Housing is a feature that will need a lot of testing, so the final date for it appearing on live servers depends how the tests go.
Sanya or I will keep you all posted as housing moves along. Until then, here's three shots, one from each realm, to show you the new direction housing is taking. Click each thumbnail for a full-size view.
