I had an idea that I wrote about on the official European WoW forum over a year ago. It was pretty much shot down by the majority that replied, but I’ve seen it suggested countless times since and I still hope it will happen.
Hopefully everyone will like this as much as I do! I apologize in advance for the length. Since I first wrote it, I have edited to update where appropriate.
I think a nice addition to the game would be the ability to buy your very own house. They’d start off small and bare of features and options, but the more money you spend the more you’ll be able to do. If you had the ability to upgrade then you could buy your first home, and just spend more on it as you can afford to (instead of having to sell / demolish and buying new).
All the different races would have their own type of house also (ideally based on the races main city buildings). For example:
- Humans – brick outside and wooden panelling on the inside as seen in the various shops and inns in the human towns
- Dwarfs – houses built of stone as that fits in with many of their buildings
- Night Elfs – carved out mystical looking tree trunks
- Gnomes – round metal buildings as seen near Gnomeregan
- Draenei – broken pieces of their space craft with glowing crystals
- Orcs – stone buildings with skinned roofing
- Undead – creepy looking stone tombs like the one you wake up in when you first start your character
- Taurens – totem built houses
- Trolls – wooden huts on stilts as seen in Senjin Village
- Blood elfs – marble spiralling buildings
Players that don’t have a character of a certain race but want that building style would still be able to get it the same way they would to get a mount based on level of reputation.
My idea is that houses could help with professions, resting and having a private area. Characters would pay for their house at a city or town to a special vendor and would have a full description and picture of all the different ones available to them (varying in size, content, shape, colour, etc.). Upgrades could include changing the outside or inside colour appearance or buying profession objects as well as increasing the size. There would need to be several upgrade options for this.
To get to your house you learn a portal spell to direct you there (each house would be its own instance to make it personal to the player). You could have the ability to invite players though while you’re in your home by adding an invite home command, which would work a lot like when inviting someone to a guild or party. As soon as you leave they do too so you have to be online to have visitors. The inviting players (perhaps the amount you can have in a party) would be a nice feature so guild members could meet up privately until something like guild halls are created (which would work in the same way), and even if guild halls were created this would be a suitable option until they could be afforded as a hall would cost a lot more.
Leaving the home could be done two ways. Using your hearthstone would take you to any town, but everyone (owner and visitors) could have a portal spell to transport them back to the exact place they were when they went to the house (so no one would have to manually run back to wherever they were).
Here’s a few ideas as to why anyone would want to spend the money on a house… Not sure how much would be basic and what would be more expensive but something to think about.
Basic things all houses could have would be seating areas, a bed, a stove or campfire (for cooking) and things that make it look and feel like a home. A good idea would also for all houses would be to have a small garden with a fishing pond.
There could be randomised mining and herbalism nodes (slow rate before it’s recreated) depending on your house choice and upgrades you buy. Pay more and you get a small area for fighting too.
In the small fighting area (fenced off so you’re not attacked while exploring your home and garden as they are safe areas) there could be random spawn humanoids and beasts. Because these are just for profession purposes you gain no experience but they drop meat, cloth, green weapons and armour, soul shards, and various other items needed for various professions and uses. None of this would have any sale price so can only be used to build profession skills (green items for enchanters), as it is worthless in value. This will stop players from just grinding in their home area because they will not receive any money or experience (any items made can only be used by them or visitors in their home area and disappear once you leave).
The more you pay for your home the higher you can build your profession up by. It could be one home would only have enemies dropping linen cloth, buy an upgrade and the enemies are dropping woolen cloth etc. and so on. The most expensive houses would have access to all professions (for you and your visitors to make use of while there) instead of a few.
All houses would have experience points bonus if you log out while in your home just like if you were at an inn.
There could be your own private mailbox usable by all. Content viewable by all but not usable could be a stable area, deposit box connected to the bank and cupboards separate for additional items as well as a wardrobe with a second set of armour / weapons.
These are just my ideas so far. I’m sure there are many players out there who can build on this.
Thoughts are welcome!
As before, I welcome comments. I hope it gets a better response on my personal blog than it ever managed to on the forums!
Thanks for reading!