Player Housing promises from 2015

Like most players I wonder what the state of player housing is.

I got a little suprised when I read the blog post for the Town Hall meeting I assume was the first one dated June 14 2021.
https://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?2866-Blog-post-Town-Hall-June-14-2021&highlight=Town+Hall

The way I see it back in 2015 when the Kickstarter of this game was created, the devs made three promises to the community and future players:

• Player Housing
• Guilds
• Mounts

I call this a promise because these game functionalities were used as arguments to make people found the future development of the game.

In the trailer for the Kickstarter campaign the following was said:

"The founds of this Kickstarter are going to be used to help and improve the art assets and implement other vital game functions such as Limited Player Housing, Guild Functionality and Mounts."

To my understanding (keep in mind I am pretty new to this game. In this current space and time I've played 227 hours (according to Steam)) Guilds and Mounts are in the game. I mean I'm in a guild right now and I have amount. 2 out of 3, not bad ❤

But what about Player Housing?

In the forum thread I linked above (Town Hall June 2021) the official statement about Player Housing was that it was at 0% and "barely in the design stage at the moment".

How can this be? 😭

7 years. And now it's not even on the roadmap. Is there even a roadmap? If so, where is it?

Being transparent about development is in my opinion crucial if developers are using the community as part of the development and especially if foundings are being extracted from the community and players.

So.. what I wonder.. is that many players still ask about Player Housing and want it in the game. And the developers talked about it and wanted it too.

What went wrong?
Did anything even go wrong?

Maybe the focus of the development exactly has been where it should have been over the years.
I mean, developers could probably make a game where they think a specific feature would be a great part of the game but in reality, it could turn out not to be. Players can probably want other features even after getting pitched a new interesting game idea. Plans can change. And that's totally fine. As long as everyone is in one it. ❤

But since players still are asking about this and it still is not in the game I would argue that this is not the case.
Many things promised and talked about are probably in the game (I hope) but Player Housing is still something not in the game or even on the roadmap as of 2021 as we know it.

I want to hightlight the fact that this feature was part of the Kickstarter 2015 founding.

Also, please don't get me wrong. I love this game ♥ It has a beautiful game idea and for the most of it great game design. I want this game to be the best it can be. For both the players and the developers. ♥

But I do find it a bit strange to have this specific feature thing of all the things of this game not even of any kind of roadmap as of now.

The RoadMap is in Citan's mind, and that is the only place it needs to be :) How many game companies come close to following their published Roadmaps anyway? The updates keep coming, that is the main thing. Slowly, the features are getting checked off. Citan is developing the game as quickly as he can, and it has come a long way. He still keeps in touch with us by Dev Blog and Town Halls. Housing will come out when it is ready, every update moves us closer to when it will be Housing turn. I may have read some info on housing in the recent past, but couldn't re-find it, sorry.

I would like to argue the opposit about the road map. :) I don't believe the only place a games roadmap of development do good is in the head of the maker/developer. People have been supporting this game trough Kickstarter and now with VIP and I bet many of those would appreciate a public roadmap to see how the development is going and what the plan is.

And of cource housing will come out when it's ready but what I was wondering was how it could be at 0% after 7 years when it was one of the features mentioned in the Kickstarter. :) I love this game and I also have a strong passion for game development. I'm not asking this to highlight something bad, I'm asking this becuase I want player housing like many others and from a development point of view it's interesting how a featured highlighted can be at 0% many years after it was pitched as one of the "selling points".

If you or anyone else reading this find any information about the state of player housing after the Town Hall June 14 2021 please provide it here. Thanks :o

Quote:

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... Because that city, Statehelm, is also where we'll introduce housing ...

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I think this is probably the main point to keep in mind. So the Cross-Roads zone has to come first, and Statehelm is going to be introduced over several patches, so housing probably won't be in the first patching of it (i.e. the initial introduction, but kind of speculation on my part). I think the 0% development wasn't to be taken absolutely literally, I think it was more of a way to say throw your best ideas at him, because he was willing to rework and it wasn't all built and set in stone design-wise.

the player housing will be in Statehelm. The next things to do in order are, revamp Kur, then add Orc race, then build a crossroads to Statehelm, then build Statehelm, then add Dwarf race, then add player housing. So be patient.

Jack mentioned 'walking through statehelm' the other day. They've got a bit of it done. Houses are on the way, there has been continuous talk about them coming when statehelm gets here.

I'm really surprised you haven't heard Jack talk about it. He gets asked each and every time he logs in :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KPOP

Like most players I wonder what the state of player housing is.

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Look kid, if you have a view, perspective, or opinion, like you clearly do by all means articulated and share. BUT do not dishonestly and disingenuously pretend to speak for the entire community just to get what you want.

I couldn't give two craps about players housing. I personally feel like player housing and mounts are the biggest waste of development time in any MMO and that the focus should be skill design, character design, and unique skill/spell functionality.

So please, speak for yourself and acknowledge that it's your view and opinion and stop trying to be so petty and misrepresent the community for your personal needs and wants.

Nothing makes me want to see a player fail in a MMO more, then when they try to pretend to speak for me and others that they do not speak for, in a petty fashion for personal wants.

Housing hasn't started being implemented yet; it's only had some design work done. Housing is low priority because it requires a TON of engineering and art investment which need to be focused on other things right now.

We don't publish a road map because we don't use a "waterfall" design paradigm. We don't have a large staff, or an art department that's continuously cranking out assets. We're just a couple of people working on a HUGE game, so we have to be agile about what we focus on. We look at what seems most important each month, and we try to work on that.

Recently, I spent time trying to figure out why new players quit playing, and so my recent focus is... to try to keep new players from quitting. It turns out lots of players think Eltibule is especially ugly. That's is a problem because it's a new-player area. New players reach Eltibule, see those 90s-era ground textures, and they just can't deal... it's too ugly. So that needs to be the focus for the moment.

Before that, we had no plans to make big revisions to Eltibule this year. I'd made some minor improvements a few months back, fixing broken trees and such, and I was hoping that would be enough that I could focus on new areas. But I don't think it is. It still needs a lot more help! So that's delayed everything else while we get this fixed.

So anyway, that's why we don't publish a road map: because we don't use one. If we had a team of even a mere 10-20 people, we would NEED a roadmap. But we don't, and we don't!

Housing will happen when it can. But not in 2022. Same with the dwarf race, definitely not happening this year. Sorry. We just have too much else to focus on first.

i dont find eltibule ugly myself