Concrete (and reasoned) ideas for HOUSING.

[Dragoonlordz]

Well you start off with one made of straw then progress to one made of wood and finally it upgrades to one made of stone.

 

But what if a wolf came along before you upgraded to stone?

 

Then you would have to hunt the wolf down to prevent him from huffing and puffing again, maybe going around to grandma's house wearing a red cape and picnic basket filled with grenades. "Grandma what big eye's you have and what big teeth... Here grandma, I brought you something to chew one *throws grenade* eat this!". Then you can go back and start rebuilding. Just remember to build the electric fence before constructing the building this time around.

[Milten]

A game that succesfully managed to implement some sort of castle management was Dragon Age Awakening: you would take some key decision (reinforcing the wall, setting the garison in the castle of making it patrol the land), react to some scripted events (like arbitrating disputes between vassals, reacting to a peasant uprise), but nothing that would come close to an actual simulation game.

Let me disagree here. It's inferior to NWN2's castle in every way.

Reinforcing wall is not a 'decision', it's grind-gold-and-get-your-damn-wall thing.

Choosing what to patrol actually changes nothing. And it requires zero brain activity.

[Cheffchantier]

A game that succesfully managed to implement some sort of castle management was Dragon Age Awakening: you would take some key decision (reinforcing the wall, setting the garison in the castle of making it patrol the land), react to some scripted events (like arbitrating disputes between vassals, reacting to a peasant uprise), but nothing that would come close to an actual simulation game.

Let me disagree here. It's inferior to NWN2's castle in every way.

Reinforcing wall is not a 'decision', it's grind-gold-and-get-your-damn-wall thing.

Choosing what to patrol actually changes nothing. And it requires zero brain activity.

 

exactly what i meant:) a disapointment from beginning to finish.

[Loki Ador]

A game that succesfully managed to implement some sort of castle management was Dragon Age Awakening: you would take some key decision (reinforcing the wall, setting the garison in the castle of making it patrol the land), react to some scripted events (like arbitrating disputes between vassals, reacting to a peasant uprise), but nothing that would come close to an actual simulation game.

Let me disagree here. It's inferior to NWN2's castle in every way.

Reinforcing wall is not a 'decision', it's grind-gold-and-get-your-damn-wall thing.

Choosing what to patrol actually changes nothing. And it requires zero brain activity.

 

Calm down , I was not saying that it was below/above/sideways from NWN2, as I have not played such a game.

 

My point is that I am not in favor of having integrated castle management features (which do not make sense for wandering adventurers, as managing a castle requires continuous presence).

 

I would prefer limitating the choices to some general orientations (grand projects, responding to some events), which gives the feeling that my character is the one in charge, that he owns the place (although he does not administer it, to busy he is with exploring the world and adventuring), and that the castle as a life of its own, instead of being another building thrown on the map to simply act as "player housing".

 

And the degree of interractions DA:Awakening offered was, IMO, very adequate (without regard to the quality of the whole game). Maybe the choices could be more intricate or morally tearing. But they should remain out of the "castle management minigame" side.

 

BTW, deciding on your troops location in DA:Awakening had some impacts on the ending slideshow, as far as I remember.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Loki Ador

[Cheffchantier]

A game that succesfully managed to implement some sort of castle management was Dragon Age Awakening: you would take some key decision (reinforcing the wall, setting the garison in the castle of making it patrol the land), react to some scripted events (like arbitrating disputes between vassals, reacting to a peasant uprise), but nothing that would come close to an actual simulation game.

Let me disagree here. It's inferior to NWN2's castle in every way.

Reinforcing wall is not a 'decision', it's grind-gold-and-get-your-damn-wall thing.

Choosing what to patrol actually changes nothing. And it requires zero brain activity.

 

Calm down , I was not saying that it was below/above/sideways from NWN2, as I have not played such a game.

 

My point is that I am not in favor of having integrated castle management features (which do not make sense for wandering adventurers, as managing a castle requires continuous presence). I would prefer limitating the choices to some general orientations (grand projects, responding to some events), which gives the feeling that my character is the one in charge, that he owns the place (although he does not administer it, to busy he is with exploring the world and adventuring), and tha

 

For me it was the balance between exploring the areas( getting gold and items for your castle) and then the brainstorming what i want to invest my little won money in the castle.

For me personally i found the Dynamics in nwn2 between adventuring and so called "managing" great.

[Thortxu]

I`d like to note some points:

 

- The idea i had for this post was not only to expose my ideas for creating a castle and all the things around it but add all the inputs the people that think like me has. So i thanks all those peolple who contribute to this post.

- There are another posts about houses to say "i don`t like the idea of a house" or "i don`t want to play the sims". I`d rather extra inputs or to question existing inputs. This post wants to be a small help for the developers of the game, the developers who said that there will be a house in the game when the reach 2.000.000 $.

- You surely know "game burners" players, players that finish a game in the less possible time, finishing only the main history quests ... All the games had many parts that you are free to enjoy. If you don`t like a part you don`t play it. In this game will occur the same. If you don`t like to be castle owner ... feel free to go oround adventure after adventure. Many likes can be gather in this game. The more rich and varied the game better for everyone, right?

[Milten]

Calm down , I was not saying that it was below/above/sideways from NWN2, as I have not played such a game.

Then you really should, Neverwinter Nights 2 is a very good game and castle management is one of most noticeable things there. You will also understand what a lot of people here are talking about.

[Sordel]

To be honest, I had only expected something like a Mog House: i.e. a single decoratable space where you can store your loot. I like the ideas in this thread more, but, like others, I find the idea of a castle to be too much. It constrains your roleplaying: what use, for example, would a Bard have for a castle?

 

The way I would do it is this. There's a house that you visit fairly early on in the story while doing part of the Main Quest. That house, it later turns out, has a side-quest of its own, and if you complete that quest you get the house. Then there are some simple upgrade quests, but once you've done those you find that the house has secret lore associated with it, and by following clues you can do other quests or locate loot. It could even have a major optional dungeon in the cellar.

 

This way you end up with a decoratable house, but the house isn't so much a thing in itself where your character is expected to settle down. There would be no management of it as such, although certainly you could meet your out-of-party companions there if you wanted, and display armour etc.

[Oerwinde]

I still like my idea of an inn. Start with a slummy inn or newly rebuilt burned out husk, and you need to do quests or just pay to get it up to snuff. Depending on the character you could rebuild it differently, but it would all essentially be reskinned versions of the same building. A mage could maybe turn it into a small college by recruiting teachers and such, or you could recruit cooks and bartenders and turn it into a functioning in. You could build trapdoors and make it a front for organized crime, etc. Each companion would get his own room customized to their individual character, etc.

 

Would cut costs by essentially just re-dressing the same model for the customization options rather than having unique buildings for every class. Keeps the lower level/early adventure atmosphere of the game better than a giant castle or noble manorhouse would, and allows for a great variety of quests depending on the people you recruit for it. (Cooks/Bartenders/Musicians/Teachers/Criminals/Customers/etc.)

[Cheffchantier]

To be honest, I had only expected something like a Mog House: i.e. a single decoratable space where you can store your loot. I like the ideas in this thread more, but, like others, I find the idea of a castle to be too much. It constrains your roleplaying: what use, for example, would a Bard have for a castle?

 

The way I would do it is this. There's a house that you visit fairly early on in the story while doing part of the Main Quest. That house, it later turns out, has a side-quest of its own, and if you complete that quest you get the house. Then there are some simple upgrade quests, but once you've done those you find that the house has secret lore associated with it, and by following clues you can do other quests or locate loot. It could even have a major optional dungeon in the cellar.

 

This way you end up with a decoratable house, but the house isn't so much a thing in itself where your character is expected to settle down. There would be no management of it as such, although certainly you could meet your out-of-party companions there if you wanted, and display armour etc.

 

To be honest decorations is something i don´t fancy that much either. i meant with all the upgrading choices , rumors, etc; that you have to evolve your castle into something much bigger and more defendable, where the main goal could be to upgrade your castle as effeciently as possible against the future threats. i don´t care if it looks fancy as long as the upgrades and the castle life is realistic and has an impact. --> something like the nwn2 crossroads would be great, because you were involved in your land and castle and its future. it gave me the ffeling of having achieved something great( first a ruined keep, with only some rooms intact and no life in it; which later in the game was a fully build castle with florishing castle life and interaction ).

 

and it would be nice if your decisions have something of a impact, not these pseudo changes from awakening, where you can ignore or aid some of the nobles without feeling a big difference. i had the feeling( and i played it no for the third time) that nothing influences how your castle stands against the last darkspawn attack on your castle. the only thing that changes is the difficulty of winning against the darkspawn. id rather would have seen things like: you don´t exlpore the cellar and the darkspawn could have led a surprise attack through that cellar ,rampaging through your castle(destroying it and all your friends in it) and then there could be one survivor telling you about this and you have to decide, etc..... but that is just me:)

 

Awakening didn´t do much in that regard for me:)

[alphyna]

On the other hand, I would love to see it customizable for my companions. Not class-based, though, but personality-based. If I could assign rooms to them and they would decorate and rearrange them accourding to their ideas of a nice place, that would really be interesting.

 

Oh noes! Bioware Social Alert!!!

I'm sad to admit, but you're right — after a fashion.

 

I see The House as a cosmetical thing. All the non-cosmetical usefulness discussed in this topic seems to shift the focus of the game into a rather strategic direcion, and I'd like PE to be a pure RPG, so I'm probably against everything suggested. And as a cosmetical thing The House should be made use of. Customizing is probably the only way to go in such a case.

 

(Frankly, I'm not a fan of The House Idea in general, but that doesn't seem to be the point of this particular discussion.)

[alphyna]

On the other hand, I would love to see it customizable for my companions. Not class-based, though, but personality-based. If I could assign rooms to them and they would decorate and rearrange them accourding to their ideas of a nice place, that would really be interesting.

 

Uhm. Cool. Now maybe you will go back to your Sims. Or to watching Leliana singing at the campfire.

Well, isn't the idea of a house Sims-ish in the first place? Did you do anything useful with Breezehome, or did you decorate it with troll skulls like everyone else? I say, if you take the road, go all the way. Half-choices only spoil the game. If you give me a house (which I don't really need in the first place), please be so kind as to allow me to change its color palette. Otherwise I'll be more than content with a simple chest to store items.

[KenThomas]

It's going to be called Fort Condor. It's going to be defended by Fighter, Defender, Attacker, Archer, Engineer, tristoners, fire catapults and at the end you get to summon a phoenix.

 

I'm surprised by the serious thought put into this to be honest. I mean what's being proposed here sounds like a complete game within a game. For once I'm going to agree with the "not enough resources" argument and add my own: not enough interest. Not just from players but from the developers as well. This could be an interesting game, as a game on its own. I don't think it's what they're looking to make for this. The idea of this kind of rpg is to travel and adventure having an effect wherever you travel to. Having people come to you in a castle sounds like it's the opposite of that.

[Thortxu]

Obsidian:

"... Some of you wanted something that went beyond the standard player house, allowing you to take control of a full stronghold and its surrounding lands. Well-done strongholds provide players with the ability to make large scale changes, undertake special quests, customize the contents of the stronghold and the surrounding environment, and engage in light strategic gameplay between adventures. If we hit $3.0 Million, we will build a stronghold worthy of the title!"

 

Maybe a dream that can come true?