The forum search came up with 110 results (but sadly they didn't show). So I guess, housing is a thing. Just how big will it be? Will we, for example, have a tradeskill class for creating a plethora of housing items? Quest rewards for the candleholder of doom?
How restricted will housing be? Will we be free to place items to our liking? Can we resize them? Can we rotate/pitch and roll them? Can we throw items together to create the illusion of something else (for example build a fish tank out of something else)?
Will it be instanced? Instanced housing can come cheap and opens the opportunity early. I'd actually would prefer that, so I wouldn't have to race to get a spot in the open world.
For me, functionality is not needed, so that housing can stay completely optional for the people who are just not into it.
From our FAQ: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/game/faqs/#q33
"Will there be crafted or player housing?
Eventually, yes, although whether it will be something we can offer at release or something we offer after launch is still up in the air at this point. We can say that our desire for creating housing, outposts, and other types of buildings is to be able to place them in non-instanced parts of the real game world and have them impact gameplay (as opposed to having housing that is purely cosmetic)."
While in-world housing areas like in Archeage can lead to really nicely decorated landscapes, the opposite is also possible where you have one boring standard house next to the other. This was often the case in UO as well. These open areas also caused lots of problems with cheaters/land hoarders (RMT problematic!), and also were really frustrating for those who could not log in in time (due to server problems) and found their favorite spots taken.
Making actual houses/appartments inside cities rentable might be a better alternative.
Otherwise I would prefer instanced housing. EQ2 and Rift had good solutions there IMO. It should also be a lot easier to implement, and you can still limit the amount of instances that can exist in a given city.
I tend to lean more towards personal housing being instanced in neighborhoods etc like in FFXIV but if they wanted to do open world housing I would like to see Guild Halls be in the non-instanced world but personal housing should be instanced so it doesn’t look like UO or Archeage which just became an ugly cluster. The guild halls could be used as "show off" pieces of land where guilds could display their accomplishments via trophies.
At least make the non-instanced housing require weekly rent or something so that if they are not paid for they disappear so others can get it as well.
I do like to see non instanced housing. But it has to be done right, like you all said land rush in archeage was just rediculous. There should be tons of land to put houses down, maybe even islands that are barren other than for housing thats near a main continent like horizons did (there was also a portal system throughout the whole land, and housing island non instanced were an option to port to just as the main cities). Also implement making houses only placable touching another, or enough space inbetween so someone else can place a house down. Archeage where you could angle housese, and provide small spaces so you could demolish and build more of your own building or save spots for giuldies as you seen fit was just rediculous. Their taxing system was a good thought, but poorly executed as well. Anytime you lay a mechanic down like that, people will abuse it. Not to mention you can pay for accounts with ingame currentcy in a sense made it that much more attrocious.
Instanced housing just broke immersion for me and makes me skip over housing till i'm bored out of my mind and its the last thing to do. I like to sit on a balcony and watch people and hte game world. Keep my doors open, allow others in and make new friends at times. If your place is interesting enough it will sure draw attention.
Rent is an ok option, but i'd' rather see something where you have to login x amount of days per week to keep your property active. This is more work, and will disuade people from retaining properties if they arnt playing the game.
I hope they take their time on housing, and release it after the release of the game. It would be nice for them to see how population settles over the first few months, adjust housing locations/numbers as needed so everyone can get land. This will avoid the initial launch rush from eating up all the land, and let the devs see how much property is needed, and make a proper decision on implementation at that time.
I also want to put in my 2 copper for instanced, but for something like FFXIV, however I know that's hard because I played FFXIV and there was NO housing available for most of the Free Companies there. Plus it was so expensive you had to be in a FC to get it. Do not want. I also played Archeage and hated, hated, hated the land rush, even though I was able to secure housing for myself and 2 friends. It was so restrictive you couldn't put down much, and everything was so clustered it was terrible. UO was the same.
Perhaps do it a little like EQ2 where there are different types of buildings in the cities, and you just click on the door of the style of house that is yours. That type of housing with its freedom of putting things on the wall, putting chair and beds wherever, so many things to make...was amazing. I'm sure you guys will do it right but my vote is 100% not for a cluster-fluff.
Yeah, I didn't get that housing in FFXIV was so extremely expensive in the beginning. Then the houses were so super small, which was strange because it was instanced anyway. For me not the acquisition of housing land is the goal (as it seemed to be in FFXIV), only the means of it. For me it's the furnishing. The arranging and rearranging of all the little things. I can waste hours and hours in my EQ2 guild hall just to tile one small room in it - which needs precise placement so they won't overlap or ugly spaces can be seen.
So in Pantheon housing will very likely be open world, and I hope that it will be still affordable even for a non 24/7 player :) and while I am hoping, I do hope that land will be big enough to not have only 1-room-houses, but even if thats the case I am deadly determined to make the most out of it! :D
If housing isn't in at launch, perfectly fine. Haste makes waste!
I'm not sure if this has ever been done before, but I would be a fan of what I would could "double instanced housing." So first, you'd have an "instanced" area for housing, which would be like a nighborhood. This would allow say 30-50 properties. Then, the interior of the house would be its own instance. This would allow a few things:
1) An actual feeling of a neighborhood/overworld housing
2) Limits the "squatters" taking the best spots, because the "best spot" might be availible in a different instance, and so if you don't see the property you want in one, try another.
3) Not as big a server/CPU strain.
4) Lets us store things in our instanced house safely/can still invite people over, but inside the house is an "instance" like its own zone.
I don't really want to see the same 3 options of generic house over and over. I'd like to see an editor with options, sorta like a watered down version of the sims. (Obviously it couldn't be as powerful, but would allow slightly more variations of design). I don't think that would be possible over world, and while in an ideal world over-world is the most realistic, it's also ripe for the most abuse/grief, and the most draining on resources.
With the double instance, you could also have guilds own a neighborhood, and each plalyer gets their house within various plots.
What I do NOT want to see in player housing is the following:
1) I don't want to see a major hangout hub like a guildhall, that would lead to each city becoming a ghost town as everoyne is hanging out in their guild hall.
2) It shouldn't be like skyrim where you can put everything you ever need there. It should be a fun, personal place to stash some goods/trophies, but I don't want to see lots of training/crafting etc stations popping up. A bed, some trophy racks, some storage, maybe some homely things like a garden, but that should be it.
3) I'd rather them wait or not put it in at all over just making something generic, or having the rest of the game suffer as a result.
4) There shouldn't be a clear "best plot" within each neighborhood. Like, don't have 10 houses with a gorgeous ocean view, 30 houses in a bland area, and 10 facing a cliff for example. Even with instancing that would lead to an RMT and hoarding nightmare, where RMT and people with the best connections get better houses than people doing things the right way, or suffereing an internet outage.
5) I don't want a system where you get 1 unchangeable house and then "thats it." Let us but the plot, and if we want to demolish/start over at some point, it should be expensive, but not impossible.
At the end of the day, I'd like to see housing make it into the game, especially crafted housing. However, I'd rather there's a game worth logging into first, so obviously if this doesn't make it at launch, I won't be crying. If it never makes it, I'd be ok with that in favor of them making an afterthought/bland/uniform set of housing, or a system where chinese farmers get all/the best spots.
Housing has to be more than just storage area. Why not both instanced and open world housing???
Open world housing:
You can plant , farm etc etc around your land.
Decor in and outside.
Option to "rotate house" before completion.
Instanced housing (apartment)
You can grow plants on pots.
Decor inside
There are pros and cons for both and since we are discussing this topic I would really love to hear from the community. And (if they got time) VR's "vision" of housing.
Azraell said:Housing has to be more than just storage area. Why not both instanced and open world housing???
Open world housing:
You can plant , farm etc etc around your land.
Decor in and outside.
Option to "rotate house" before completion.
Instanced housing (apartment)
You can grow plants on pots.
Decor inside
There are pros and cons for both and since we are discussing this topic I would really love to hear from the community. And (if they got time) VR's "vision" of housing.
You know what, I like this. Because really I can see some folk wanting condos and some folk wanting detached housing like IRL. Plus more options are always a good thing.
i think i've read black desert online does their housing a bit different. its not really intanced but its not really in the real world. basically you walk up to the stucture in the town, every house is within it. you select whos house you go to, and it brings that house to you in the real world, just that one. so your still in the real world, yet the house is instanced but you can see into the open world. I could be mistaken, but thats sure what it seemed like watching a video. Not to mention the houses were huge, and you could decorate them to your hearts desire.
Basically out of housing i want true furniture you can sit down in. I would like craftable games, time period/race type mini games (card games/chess/checkers type games of the era etc..), or any mini game would be really neat. it would add purpose to housing and give you that break from adventuring that some people long for without breaking immersion (as long as you did time period/race specific type games). I think all housing should be in some form or fashion near functional areas instanced or not. whether that be crafting stations within housing, or in the vacinity of a city for crafting. Now mind you if its instanced housing, only lower tier crafting allowed within the house, to make peopel get out there and craft in the real world and not stay couped up within their property void of the community
I've always felt the best way to handle housing was like Archeage, except with a strict 1 plot per account maximum, that all of your characters use as a family, as well as others you would like to give access to. I also think that buying a house should be a significant milestone in your character's life in Pantheon, it should be a very expensive purchase that requires some significant time investment into the game, so not just everyone has it.
Archeage had plenty of housing on a server for something like 6000 houses possible to be built, that is plenty overkill per server I figure. There should also be no monetary value to owning a house, so players have no reason to make a bunch of accounts and buy up land if they could afford it. Maybe with a large down payment being able to secure the lot for a certain amount of time, so you could have your house next to your friends. Nothing should ever be instanced, guild houses as well, but they should cost a fortune for even a guild to achieve. Maybe even stepping stone guild houses, tier 1 2 and 3 with each having their benefits, and giving something for a guild to strive for as a unit.
Rallyd said:I've always felt the best way to handle housing was like Archeage, except with a strict 1 plot per account maximum, that all of your characters use as a family, as well as others you would like to give access to. I also think that buying a house should be a significant milestone in your character's life in Pantheon, it should be a very expensive purchase that requires some significant time investment into the game, so not just everyone has it.
Archeage had plenty of housing on a server for something like 6000 houses possible to be built, that is plenty overkill per server I figure. There should also be no monetary value to owning a house, so players have no reason to make a bunch of accounts and buy up land if they could afford it. Maybe with a large down payment being able to secure the lot for a certain amount of time, so you could have your house next to your friends. Nothing should ever be instanced, guild houses as well, but they should cost a fortune for even a guild to achieve. Maybe even stepping stone guild houses, tier 1 2 and 3 with each having their benefits, and giving something for a guild to strive for as a unit.
That does sound like grinding to me. To raise the threshold to a point "not just everyone has it" just for some fun stuff like housing? Housing just isn't an achievement for me. Beating hard raid and group content is. Housing is something decorators love, not some mad landrush and then "you can have my land for 10000000000 dollar you peasant" thing. And since they plan to tie at least some functionality to it, I think it should be obtainable in a *very* reasonable manner. If housing has some functionality, it pretty much has lost its flag as being an option. So even if a person has absolutely no interest in this at all, he or she has to grind for it just for the amenities. So I think for sure, just everybody should absolutely be able to have it.
I agree with you on the guild house tiers, though. The first Tier I wouldn't make immensly expensive though, but also obtainable for small guilds, so they can have a place to call home, small or not.
Arksien said:I'm not sure if this has ever been done before, but I would be a fan of what I would could "double instanced housing." So first, you'd have an "instanced" area for housing, which would be like a nighborhood. This would allow say 30-50 properties. Then, the interior of the house would be its own instance.
LOTRO - instanced neighbourhoods and then many houses of varying sizes from small one person houses through to guild mansions. cost increased per size of house and plot. guilds took the big ones and you could utilise land space for trophies...
ok but wasn't great. As population dropped the people kept to their nice blocks in varied instances so while you had potential of creating a vibrant neighbourhood i never saw another person... interesting aspect was you had to pay upkeep on your property. if you failed your stuff got boxed up and someone else could take your house. I liked this.
What i enjoy - open world. avoid land rushes by making housing able to be created anywhere, within reason. I would envisage restriction of housing near established towns and villages so as not to impact npcs. I would like to find a place and think this will do me nicely. Build my house. Caravan gear to my site and build it. farm it with acquired skills. Build a shed and add crafting station... no vendors though.
May not fit in Pantheon but it's how i like it - Life is Feudal is fun for this reason.
I think for housing to "work" it has to be more than a storage unit and trophy cabinet. they should be places that require care and attention.
Re- guild housing. this should be hard to acquire. this should require guild investment not just coin, but crafting. the more effort put in the more benefit. As per another post of mine - i like te idea of guilds selling their wares from their guild houses/markets.
this is all ideals based and understand it is hard to fit into an MMO but i feel housing can add great depth to the RPG aspect - and instances can erase that.
EDIT: new thought
Housing should come with risk - if i choose a location i face the risk of having that area visited by roving orc bands, wild animals, weather. my crops could be destroyed, my house may not be accesible due to creatures. It would pay to have friends/guilides have housing close by to combat these issues
Duffy said:Yeah, I didn't get that housing in FFXIV was so extremely expensive in the beginning. Then the houses were so super small, which was strange because it was instanced anyway. For me not the acquisition of housing land is the goal (as it seemed to be in FFXIV), only the means of it. For me it's the furnishing. The arranging and rearranging of all the little things. I can waste hours and hours in my EQ2 guild hall just to tile one small room in it - which needs precise placement so they won't overlap or ugly spaces can be seen.
So in Pantheon housing will very likely be open world, and I hope that it will be still affordable even for a non 24/7 player :) and while I am hoping, I do hope that land will be big enough to not have only 1-room-houses, but even if thats the case I am deadly determined to make the most out of it! :D
If housing isn't in at launch, perfectly fine. Haste makes waste!
You and other posters are exactly correct -- while instanced, cosmetic housing can be added onto the game almost peripherally, doing non-instanced housing that actually impacts the game and has game mechanics associated with it (essentially, making having a house/outpost/ship/etc. have real in-game impact) is NOT something that can be just band-aided on. It requires a lot of forethought and planning. We don't want a land rush situation like you saw in other games, or any of the other problems. So we are determined to do it (I absolutely love housing done right, again having an impact and having real reasons to have these structures), it is indeed part of the Grand Vision behind Pantheon, but it will be a signfiicant endeavor. It's something we 'almost' got to and implemented correctly in Vangaurd, but like ships and other significant systems, we just ran out of time and money, so what you saw in Vanguard wasn't a true realization of the Grand Vision. Wiith Pantheon, it must be done right.
If you haven't read my post a couple weeks back about horizontal expansion, please do -- housing, etc. is a perfect example of adding systems to the game that allow other means to progress through the game, to build yourself and your possessions up, and to partake in gameplay that is meaningful but not directly part of the vertical core game that we will launch with. So it most likely will be something we do post-launch depending on when funding comes in, etc.
I know we 'could' do it the easy way -- make instanced areas, allow little neighborhoods to pop up, allow you to cosmetically design and decorate your house, but quite honestly, we're just not interested in that appraoch and question the 'bang for our and your buck'. The effort into adding such a system to me just doesn't result in the lasting and meaningful gameplay I'd like to see associated with and part of a real MMO housing system.
So yes, housing will be a major part of the game, and because it will be major, at least according to the development plan we have now, it most likely will not be present at lauch but rather a signficant, meaningful, and truly impactful and fun system that we add post-launch.
I personally don't care if housing is instanced or in the open world as long as it's vast with tons of customization options and players have the ability to visit or show off their work to other players. Something resembling EQ2 or Wildstar would be great. Something resembling Garrisons from WoW would be unacceptable.
Aradune said:Duffy said:Yeah, I didn't get that housing in FFXIV was so extremely expensive in the beginning. Then the houses were so super small, which was strange because it was instanced anyway. For me not the acquisition of housing land is the goal (as it seemed to be in FFXIV), only the means of it. For me it's the furnishing. The arranging and rearranging of all the little things. I can waste hours and hours in my EQ2 guild hall just to tile one small room in it - which needs precise placement so they won't overlap or ugly spaces can be seen.
So in Pantheon housing will very likely be open world, and I hope that it will be still affordable even for a non 24/7 player :) and while I am hoping, I do hope that land will be big enough to not have only 1-room-houses, but even if thats the case I am deadly determined to make the most out of it! :D
If housing isn't in at launch, perfectly fine. Haste makes waste!
You and other posters are exactly correct -- while instanced, cosmetic housing can be added onto the game almost peripherally, doing non-instanced housing that actually impacts the game and has game mechanics associated with it (essentially, making having a house/outpost/ship/etc. have real in-game impact) is NOT something that can be just band-aided on. It requires a lot of forethought and planning. We don't want a land rush situation like you saw in other games, or any of the other problems. So we are determined to do it (I absolutely love housing done right, again having an impact and having real reasons to have these structures), it is indeed part of the Grand Vision behind Pantheon, but it will be a signfiicant endeavor. It's something we 'almost' got to and implemented correctly in Vangaurd, but like ships and other significant systems, we just ran out of time and money, so what you saw in Vanguard wasn't a true realization of the Grand Vision. Wiith Pantheon, it must be done right.
If you haven't read my post a couple weeks back about horizontal expansion, please do -- housing, etc. is a perfect example of adding systems to the game that allow other means to progress through the game, to build yourself and your possessions up, and to partake in gameplay that is meaningful but not directly part of the vertical core game that we will launch with. So it most likely will be something we do post-launch depending on when funding comes in, etc.
I know we 'could' do it the easy way -- make instanced areas, allow little neighborhoods to pop up, allow you to cosmetically design and decorate your house, but quite honestly, we're just not interested in that appraoch and question the 'bang for our and your buck'. The effort into adding such a system to me just doesn't result in the lasting and meaningful gameplay I'd like to see associated with and part of a real MMO housing system.
So yes, housing will be a major part of the game, and because it will be major, at least according to the development plan we have now, it most likely will not be present at lauch but rather a signficant, meaningful, and truly impactful and fun system that we add post-launch.
If I'm reading this right, it sounds like you don't like instanced housing and want it to all be in world. There's some awesome and ambitious ideas here. I think it would be awesome to see a game where players can clear out mobs and stake up a completely new town, with houses, shops etc where now the mob's no longer spawn, and the world has an organic town not grown by the devs. That sounds really cool if it's what you're hinting at (and if not, sorry that's how I read it).
My big concern is still the land rush. The big problems with overland are that the first players in get the good spots, whether they use them or not. New players see plots closed off to them forever just for not playing at launch. RMT and farmers get a lot of those best spots since they play the most and have mone in mind. Even with a harsh RMT policy, there WILL be RMT. I've never seen a game handle it to the point that it's not visible or viable. Even if plots are not permanent, people will take spots and put enough "rent" into them that it's theirs essentially forever even if they quit. Of course, you have the flip problem of people who need to go away from game for real life risking losing their house over not being able to play enough during a certain window, making "rent" for owned land also unfair.
Another big concern if the "change the enviroment route" is taken is that one persons ideal development plot is another person's favorite hunting ground. I could see a group being a little pissed if hunting an area, and suddenly some guild comes along and plops 5 house foundations down and now mobs will never spawn there again. Oasis of Marr would have made for great beach resort housing for example, but was one of the most popular hunting zones ever. There could be server political tensions there.
I think the reason other games went instanced is for these very reasons. I think the housing ideas I've read for the game sound awesome, and your arguments against instanced in the post above are great, but have you started brainstorming ideas on how to avoid problems like the land rush? Trolling (building a trade post in a strategic pve spot), RMT plot farming, and the likes?
I'd like to clarify that I personally would LOVE to see over world and enviroment affecting housing. I think the idea of plopping my own claim down where I want is amazing. Having a town shoot up would also be really great. I'd love to have a house AND a shop I run for the public. However, I just wanted to play devil's advocate and see if you have thought that far ahead yet for possible answers to historic problems?
Duffy said:Rallyd said:I've always felt the best way to handle housing was like Archeage, except with a strict 1 plot per account maximum, that all of your characters use as a family, as well as others you would like to give access to. I also think that buying a house should be a significant milestone in your character's life in Pantheon, it should be a very expensive purchase that requires some significant time investment into the game, so not just everyone has it.
Archeage had plenty of housing on a server for something like 6000 houses possible to be built, that is plenty overkill per server I figure. There should also be no monetary value to owning a house, so players have no reason to make a bunch of accounts and buy up land if they could afford it. Maybe with a large down payment being able to secure the lot for a certain amount of time, so you could have your house next to your friends. Nothing should ever be instanced, guild houses as well, but they should cost a fortune for even a guild to achieve. Maybe even stepping stone guild houses, tier 1 2 and 3 with each having their benefits, and giving something for a guild to strive for as a unit.
That does sound like grinding to me. To raise the threshold to a point "not just everyone has it" just for some fun stuff like housing? Housing just isn't an achievement for me. Beating hard raid and group content is. Housing is something decorators love, not some mad landrush and then "you can have my land for 10000000000 dollar you peasant" thing. And since they plan to tie at least some functionality to it, I think it should be obtainable in a *very* reasonable manner. If housing has some functionality, it pretty much has lost its flag as being an option. So even if a person has absolutely no interest in this at all, he or she has to grind for it just for the amenities. So I think for sure, just everybody should absolutely be able to have it.
I agree with you on the guild house tiers, though. The first Tier I wouldn't make immensly expensive though, but also obtainable for small guilds, so they can have a place to call home, small or not.
I never said it should have functionality, I actually said exactly the opposite. Verbatim what I said "There should also be no monetary value to owning a house, so players have no reason to make a bunch of accounts and buy up land if they could afford it." Also, you claim they said there will at least be some functionality to it, and then in the next sentence say that if there is any functionality to it at all its worthless.. I hope we can both agree personal houses should be simply for decoration. Guild houses on the other hand can have functionality, I'm ok with that.
I just believe that owning a house in a system that makes housing NOT instanced, must be something that isn't easily obtained, or else like you said, people will buy up land just to troll people and sell it. If it's instanced, then who cares either way, it's almost irrelevent to everyone except interior decoraters.
Rallyd said:I never said it should have functionality, I actually said exactly the opposite. Verbatim what I said "There should also be no monetary value to owning a house, so players have no reason to make a bunch of accounts and buy up land if they could afford it." Also, you claim they said there will at least be some functionality to it, and then in the next sentence say that if there is any functionality to it at all its worthless.. I hope we can both agree personal houses should be simply for decoration. Guild houses on the other hand can have functionality, I'm ok with that.
I just believe that owning a house in a system that makes housing NOT instanced, must be something that isn't easily obtained, or else like you said, people will buy up land just to troll people and sell it. If it's instanced, then who cares either way, it's almost irrelevent to everyone except interior decoraters.
Sorry I am struggling with language and I try to be more coherent. When saying that there will be at least some functionality tied to it, then I was referring to Kilsin's answer to me at the beginning of this thread. He said: (...)have them impact gameplay (as opposed to having housing that is purely cosmetic). And my chain of reasoning was, ok, if housing now has functionality tied to it ("as opposed to be purely cosmetic"), then I think player will regard housing as mandatory and not an option, even if not in the least interested in housing because of the decorating stuff. Sorry if I came across as too heated.
Krixus said:If they can't do it without intsancing, they shouldn't do it. If someone gets the "best spot", that's kinda like, you know, life? I completely fail to see how instancing would promote a sense of "neighborhood". Everything that is instanced instantly has less value.
Ok so here I'm going to post a shot to show you what you can do with instanced housing.
That is all one neighborhood, in one area, "Pine Bluff St. Section 1" for example. There are multiple sections. It takes a bit to run from one end to another, and each one is a seperate type of house. You have to go through a "gate" to get there. That "gate" is an instance, and while it's not outside in the world for you to just run by, it is it's own fully thought out area where events happen and such.
Someone still can get "the best spot" if they have the money and are quick, but look at that. That's a neighborhood if I ever saw one. Plus down the right there off camera is a beach :)
What land rush...?
I tend to think this is the problem... when people read what Visionary Realms is aiming at, then come in with their "ho-hum" ideas based on what they don't like about other games... games which were not designed to be in play 4 years from now (let-alone 17 years)... and were based on arcade mechanics & quick revenues (ROI). These People's understanding & scope is not aligned with 2017 release of a modern MMORPG, but stuck in the past.
For instance (pun intended), Arche Age is a PAY TO WIN game.. and the "land rush" was it's problem because the plots of land were essentially FREE & houses could be bought from outside the game, from the developer. So consequently, houses in ArcheAge were not difficult to own, therefore everyone had one... or two... or 4 houses. With another 40% of the server still waiting for land to place their already owned (but not placed) house... again, housing in ArcheAge was a joke and ploy, literally a joke on the consumer/player and was meant to fuel internal revenues for XLGames. That is why ArcheAge is dead and nobody plays that game, because everything was given to them, or was purchasable in an in-game item mall. Unlike, Castle or Keeps in Ultima Online or Mortal Online, which required unheard of amounts of money for deeds, purchased from the king's court, etc.
I owned land and had a house day 1 in Arche age... But imagine if that process was based on effort and not entitlement, or being purchasable threw an item mall.. and where 80% of the player base didn't own a houses. There would be no land rush...
In Pantheon, don't expect because you have an account, that you will have a house. You will have to earn that house... I suspect like any true MMORPG you will have to find building plans, find someone to harvest the materials to build the house with, then find someone to build it (crafter). I would suspect, a house may take an individual 4~6 months to build themselves. Or a small guild sharing a single home (as a start-up guild hall), something like 3 weeks to build.
So, when the time comes in Pantheon you will not be seeing a massive influx of homes going up at the same time.. but over time.
Instanced housing is fake, so please look at Vanguard/ArcheAge/Mortal Online/SWG for what it is like to go find & visit a friends real in-game house. Anyone who wants instance housing is because they don't want to earn a place in Terminus to call their own, they want to be given a place... based on unlimited amount of instanced space. These people essentially want a fake plot of land.. to call their own..?
Coincidentally, ... if Oasis of Mar was a prime location (beach resort), do you not think that the local Lord, Baron, King, Regent would know this... and have higher costs associated with it? Such as uber lot prices and uber taxes in that area..? So that even the savvy uber rich people would find another location more suitable to their coinpurses..? Why do some here think other Players will just arbitrailly be ploping down houses everywhere..? Who wants that...? Why suggest it without a follow up rhetorical to answer you own problem..?
Game mechanics are endless: Anyone ever notice the keys on the wall in HighHold Keep.. and all the rooms with non-working doors..? Rooms & Apartments would be a cheap alternative to those who wants a house, but can't afford one. These players would be able to rent an instanced apartment in towns (a month at a time), while not owning them. There can be both types of housing in Pantheon, one Pristigious the other insignificant. One being a simple door that doesn't open, the other as free standing full-functioning house for all to see.
I predict housing in Pantheon will be done correctly. Not cheaply engineered & developed and thrown in game just so Visionary Realms can say they have "housing".
Archeage housing has a lil flaw in my eyes. Lets say you own two plots (side by side). You loose a lil space between both lands. It should connect to each other thus creating 1 big plot with lets say two farms in it. Only thing is such a limited choice of house styles and size (not adding the upgraded ones). Breezy bungalow is sweet tho...