Cities And Housing Archive
Thread: ::Rant:: Homes in SWG
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InfiniteWeird
Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:52 am
#1
Alright so this is something I’ve been giving a little bit of thought to pretty much since I started playing this game and I figured I would like to share my ideas and qualms with the rest of you to see what you think.
One thing that has kind of bothered me for some time now is the apparent lack of imagination put into the various different types of homes and structures in this game. One thing that comes to mind is the difference between corellian styles homes and generic homes, or the lack there of. I mean for pete sake the only difference between the two that I’ve been able to spot is that the exterior uses a different texture. Not to mention the fact that the look and the layout of these homes is rather bland and boring, and with the larger style generic and corellian houses the layout in my opinion doesn’t lend well to the third person perspective of this game. The larger homes to me have a rather cramped and unorganized layout and the small to medium style houses just have that same bland two or three room round design.
I feel these are things that could be changed, leave the bland round style homes in the generic category and create something a little more imaginative for the corellian style houses, something a little more player friendly as well. Heck if you gave me a week or so I could probably sit down in front of the computer, fire up 3d studio max or lightwave and design something far better than what we have now, and I doubt that adding a new style of home would add much to the games size seeing as game models use low polygon meshes and from what I’ve seen of this game the textures don’t appear to be a very high resolution either. If you can have countless small items such as the veteran toy rewards floating around the galaxy I don’t see what the harm in making the universe at least appear a little more diverse by adding better housing to it is going to do to overall performance and size of the game.
One other qualm of mine is that of the tat style houses. Now to me those homes where made quite nicely and lend well to the atmosphere and look of the game, even the layout of the tat style houses are nice and open and very player friendly IMO. However, I’m not too sure about this but due to the curvature at the top and the bottom of the walls it makes it impossible to place items such as paintings or hunting trophies flush with the wall, rather they appear to float about a foot or so away from the wall out in space. Now I’m sure this has something to do with the blocking volumes or what ever is used to keep players and objects from going through the walls but it seems like it is something that could easily be adjusted.
I suppose the last thing I’d like to talk about is possibly making a new class of structure specifically for merchants. This could be something that could be earned as a merchant works his or her way up the skill trees of that profession and only they would be able to place these types of buildings. They could have a more open layout to better accommodate a storefront and could be capable of holding more items than houses for storage purposes seeing as most merchants are crafters and need to store vast amounts of materials and the things they create, this would do away with having to use vendors for storage. As a merchant works their way up say maybe the management tree they could be given the ability to place bigger and better types of stores, and once the merchant masters the profession they would have the ability to place a mall of his or her choice, that way they wouldn’t have to use guild halls anymore. You could create different style stores to mach each of the different types of homes in the game that way everything would look right, and of course you would only be able to place certain classes of stores on certain planets just like with homes. Anyhow, that is just my two cents I’d like to know what everyone else thinks about all this.
One thing that has kind of bothered me for some time now is the apparent lack of imagination put into the various different types of homes and structures in this game. One thing that comes to mind is the difference between corellian styles homes and generic homes, or the lack there of. I mean for pete sake the only difference between the two that I’ve been able to spot is that the exterior uses a different texture. Not to mention the fact that the look and the layout of these homes is rather bland and boring, and with the larger style generic and corellian houses the layout in my opinion doesn’t lend well to the third person perspective of this game. The larger homes to me have a rather cramped and unorganized layout and the small to medium style houses just have that same bland two or three room round design.
I feel these are things that could be changed, leave the bland round style homes in the generic category and create something a little more imaginative for the corellian style houses, something a little more player friendly as well. Heck if you gave me a week or so I could probably sit down in front of the computer, fire up 3d studio max or lightwave and design something far better than what we have now, and I doubt that adding a new style of home would add much to the games size seeing as game models use low polygon meshes and from what I’ve seen of this game the textures don’t appear to be a very high resolution either. If you can have countless small items such as the veteran toy rewards floating around the galaxy I don’t see what the harm in making the universe at least appear a little more diverse by adding better housing to it is going to do to overall performance and size of the game.
One other qualm of mine is that of the tat style houses. Now to me those homes where made quite nicely and lend well to the atmosphere and look of the game, even the layout of the tat style houses are nice and open and very player friendly IMO. However, I’m not too sure about this but due to the curvature at the top and the bottom of the walls it makes it impossible to place items such as paintings or hunting trophies flush with the wall, rather they appear to float about a foot or so away from the wall out in space. Now I’m sure this has something to do with the blocking volumes or what ever is used to keep players and objects from going through the walls but it seems like it is something that could easily be adjusted.
I suppose the last thing I’d like to talk about is possibly making a new class of structure specifically for merchants. This could be something that could be earned as a merchant works his or her way up the skill trees of that profession and only they would be able to place these types of buildings. They could have a more open layout to better accommodate a storefront and could be capable of holding more items than houses for storage purposes seeing as most merchants are crafters and need to store vast amounts of materials and the things they create, this would do away with having to use vendors for storage. As a merchant works their way up say maybe the management tree they could be given the ability to place bigger and better types of stores, and once the merchant masters the profession they would have the ability to place a mall of his or her choice, that way they wouldn’t have to use guild halls anymore. You could create different style stores to mach each of the different types of homes in the game that way everything would look right, and of course you would only be able to place certain classes of stores on certain planets just like with homes. Anyhow, that is just my two cents I’d like to know what everyone else thinks about all this.
teh_n00b123
Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:54 am
#2
A good vet reward would be to have a new style house, it'd be neat. I wish arcitects could design the inside of houses to how they like it but just have minimum floor spaces and stuff in it.
Slysix
Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:56 am
#3
The homes would actually look a lot better with working windows. They got it working for POB ships...so I don't really see how they can't implement them in houses (which are POB's anyway).
bluejanus
Sun Jul 03, 2005 1:41 pm
#4
teh_n00b123 wrote:
A good vet reward would be to have a new style house, it'd be neat. I wish arcitects could design the inside of houses to how they like it but just have minimum floor spaces and stuff in it.
Architects were not too keen on a free housing deed as a vet reward. The announced bunker was not well received in the Architect community.
Balrozgul
Sun Jul 03, 2005 2:42 pm
#5
Crafters are usually not too thrilled about the idea of loot/reward infringing on their business. Shipwrights were the first to taste the bitter pill and now weaponsmiths are finding out about the same issues with ROTW, frankly Im amazed at any crafting community actually forcing the devs hand on that issue.
MSenli
Mon Jul 04, 2005 8:49 am
#6
Arch's shouldn't worry about a bunker as a vet reward, since these would then be available for 2yr players. I assume all 2yr players already have a home.
bluejanus wrote:
teh_n00b123 wrote:
A good vet reward would be to have a new style house, it'd be neat. I wish arcitects could design the inside of houses to how they like it but just have minimum floor spaces and stuff in it.
Architects were not too keen on a free housing deed as a vet reward. The announced bunker was not well received in the Architect community.
Balrozgul
Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:05 am
#7
Its the trickle down effect, where those 2yr players who already have houses decide to trade in their house for a bunker. They then turn around and sell their old houses at significantly reduced rates, thereby flooding the market. Its also the fact that architects do not tend to get a lot of repeat business. As such they get even more hurt by loot/reward issues than do any other crafting profession.
MSenli
Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:52 am
#8
You really think that 2yr vets will sell there house deed if they change to a bunker ? Nah don't think so, they take there stuff and just destroy the deed or use the bunker as a 2nd home to stack loot or whatever.
Jutewr
Mon Jul 04, 2005 11:11 am
#9
But then if they're using this bunker, they're not buying a house from an Architect. Why not make it an Architect product and then find something else to be a vet reward, then you can have your cake and eat it to.
InfiniteWeird
Mon Jul 04, 2005 12:08 pm
#10
I'm sure if something like I said was done they would make it so crafters made the new buildings.
bluejanus
Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:02 am
#12
MSenli wrote:
You really think that 2yr vets will sell there house deed if they change to a bunker ? Nah don't think so, they take there stuff and just destroy the deed or use the bunker as a 2nd home to stack loot or whatever.
How many people have you ever met that destroyed a vet reward?
bluejanus
Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:27 pm
#13
InfiniteWeird wrote:
I think we are getting a little bit of topic here guys.
This is old hat, man. We've been talking about this since the game went live in the Architect forums.
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