I think I'd like it to be put in. I think it allowed for more player creativity, allowing them to utilize the wide variety of deco being provided to us, allowing further development of themed housing, more depth for future additions (whatever we and Telamon can come up with really) and it's just something else fun to do. People can hire out as home builders or architects whatever, there are a lot of people here who would be good at that sort of thing. I think no private houses should be added of course but I really believe this would add so many different perks that it should be considered. Maybe even make being able to customize your house an endgame quest reward crossing all templates and etc, then you know the long term players will take time to put effort and to do justice to the freedom and the material provided.
I'm torn on custom housing. I liked it because it was true to the spirit of the UO sandbox experience - you could do what you want. It's a unique feature for a game- not only can you decorate a portion of the game, but you could alter the way it looked. But I hate it for that same reason...too many of the custom houses people created on OSI servers were downright hideous. If only the interior of houses could be customizable, I'd be on board with that (the outside stays the same, but you have the ability to redesign the inside). That or make it an extraordinarily expensive platinum reward to reduce the wide spread appearance of weird looking houses. It sure would make for a nice new gold sink, though....I spent a decent chunk of gold redesigning my house on OSI a number of times.
I would love some staff made perfections to houses much like the large keep and fort. For example, combining the patio and 2-story house would be awesome. I am sure there are lots of people out there with large bricks or patios that would love a second floor. As long as Telamon controls the creation and implementation, if anyone is allowed to make their own house things are gonna get messy real fast. A medium tower would be amazing! Just what it sounds like, something between the 17x14 and 8x7 (must have a roof )
I love the flexibility and creativity, but the eyesores that can be created... When we built Wintermoor on Siege, my guildies were trusting enough to allow me to log on to their accounts to design the houses. We had a single cohesive vision for the village: wood and plaster variations for residences, a certain style of stone fortress for the external buildings, giving it a look of a complete fortress with a town inside. There might have been better designers around, but we had a style that melded, that was consistent with the core game aesthetic. If a player wants to create an Egyptian disco pyramid with a lava pool and a mongbat graveyard... next to a marble maze ... happy for them to be off creating it, but I don't want to see it in the woods north of Britain.
While I enjoyed putting together some custom houses on OSI, I agree that the classic houses or staff created additions that maintain the same style and class be all that is allowed. There were just too many eyesores and too much that broke immersion in the world.
The landscape was littered with eyesores and dirt plots. It was awful. I thought a UO Tornado ripped through all of Sosaria. No. I would, however, be open to the idea of adding in a lot of new house designs that kept with the style/theme of this game.
Sadly I find myself in agreement with lightshade here. The custom housing thing was the biggest eyesore in UO history, and it truely made you feel like you had entered the modern crappy era of UO once they were introduced. Some people did make some awesome looking houses but when you ran through the landscape it was just so much information to take in. I am also however, always in favor of a couple more custom staff created houses. Never really played on a shard were these werent nice houses that fit within the framework of the shard. Small house with a CY anyone?
I always hated it myself, but then you see a house someone did a great job on and it is super impressive. If you go to google and check best custom houses in uo, you'll find quite a few impressive ones. Maybe by making the ability limited to towers and under would be a compromise. I dunno, it just popped into my head that it'd be a fun thing to do. And I wouldn't want it to be a gold sink, that's a big part of what made houses look crappy, I'd rather it be like the tamer bonding slot quest type thing. Anyhow, I was just throwing it out there to see what everyone thought
Against. UOR does a great job of adding in a bunch of fun custom stuff, while still maintaining the classic UO appearance. People looking for nostalgia will be put off when they come and see custom monstrosities everywhere. It's not in the shard's best interest in my opinion.
House customization tool is not safe in the hands of the masses. For every fantastic, creative masterpiece, there were 100's of eyesores, not to mention the barren plots of land. Now more custom house options... May not be at the top of the list to do, but I think even Wulver was working on a Swamp House design. Not just using paint or some graphics program, but rather UO Fiddler and other tools to come up with all the pieces and parts that make up a UO house...
this means that for 10 great masterpieces we'd have to endure 1,000 eyesores.. that means 10 great artists, not houses. I'm no Dalavar_Mathmage, but with about 600 peak players who can have ~15 houses per player, that means if we got to the 1,000 peak players range we could expect approximately 1,000x15 = 15,000 eyesores... my eyes bled as I wrote this. So yeah, if this happens I vote we also have custom Shark-nados to come and sweep up the eyesores!
Yay, I get to post these again! I only would like it if they fit a theme and were created, tested on test center and placed by a deed, not custom tile by tile eyesores. Tower Sandstone Trinsic Tower Nujelm Duplex Papua shack Papua Large
Lethius first two posted houses are great. Custom housing can be good. Maybe any system of a quote if house style is ok could fit. I vote for more options of houses. For example Lethius first posted house: Why not? PS: And Wulvers ones are also great. Vote for more house options: yes Custom: Critical