Topic

So now that we don't have physical houses...

Does that mean that new players won't be able to experience the excellent and hilarious quest to go to the bureaucratic hall? That was my first time wandering out of the first few streets, realising that it's impossible to get lost, and I really started to love the game after that.

Posted 5 months ago by Avnas Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • And they'll miss the excitement of having enough currents to buy your first home.
    Posted 5 months ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • They still need papers for the subway, don't they?
    Posted 5 months ago by HeyHeyHolly Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I also wonder what'll happen to the Homesteader badge, because we don't need to buy a home anymore...
    Posted 5 months ago by Megha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Im sure there will be new ways to torture noobs
    Posted 5 months ago by ☣ elf ☣ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The lack of onion rings is already one...
    Posted 5 months ago by Atlantis Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I really think it was better when you had to earn/buy your house. Getting the paperwork and earning the currants to ride the subway and buy a house, was one of the first big and totally rewarding goals for new Glitchen to achieve. I think it's rather sad the way it is now, and new players are missing out on a great and satisfying achievement. I remember how great it felt having bought that first home, planting a tree and crops, and hatching my first piggy, and... and I definitely appreciated it more.
    Posted 5 months ago by ~Kaydee~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I will say, that even though I love the new creativeness of the houses, I really thought we'd not just be given them.  Or we'd still have to get papers to be able to expand them or do things to our property (building permits, etc) - matter of fact, I hit the bureaucratic hall to get a "general building permit" before the housing change to ensure I had it available, since I really thought it would be needed. 

    I was also really was hoping that there would have been some level of currant sink to get parts of the houses/yards, like no improvements to the base model until after you paid 5,000 currants (which seems like a huge amount to a noob) for engineering drafts or something creative.  I'd agree, figuring out the papers thing, and having to scrape together the currants was a huge non-quest satisfying goal to complete in game when I started as well. 

    Of course, this also begs the question...why do we have "general building permits" in game if we're not going to be using them for anything?!  Maybe make a general building permit one of the items needed for the first expansion whether adding a floor or expanding the width.  And then come up with some other bureaucratic paper (that goes along with BAIII for all future expansions) and make it part of the materials needed for building/expanding - maybe even have two additional permits - add a floor permit and expand the width permit, and you have to have the right one for whichever action you need to do.
    Posted 5 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Instead of being given a full fledge house on our beautifully established street, how about a wonky caravan (or a tatty tent) on a building plot  ~after we earned the building plot of course?!
    Posted 5 months ago by ~Scilly~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Or maybe as a "bonus" for figuring out how you get your papers to ride the subway, you find out you won your shack, but you don't get to do anything to it until you get the building permits.  Though I really do like the idea of having to earn/purchase the plot, and then you have to figure out how to build the shack, etc. I like things in a game where just as I think I have it figured out, I find out that I have to do something slightly different for the next step.
    Posted 5 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • New players? Here? What?

    Endless Beta must go on and on and on...no new players...
    Posted 5 months ago by MeherMan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes.  eventually players will drift away, and one of us will wander Beta-Ur, alone. 
    Posted 5 months ago by WalruZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree that earning one's first home was a big thrill. It seems a shame to have that gone from the world.
    Posted 5 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Agreed. When my husband started playing his level 1 character a month ago, he got his house and then I had to force him to leave it. He was more than willing to just go to my street and get stuff and ask me to make him stuff. I gave him some things, but told him to do his quests and learn skills. He got up to L10 or so and then he asked me what was the point. I had nothing, because for me, all of that was to make stuff to sell to earn currants to buy a house. Then sell that house to buy another...
    Posted 5 months ago by Jarhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I actually really wish that the houses still existed, and that you had the choice to EITHER have a home-street house or a world-house. I miss the houses I had, crumbling walls 'n all...
    Posted 5 months ago by gilbert whisper Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I thought this at first but there will still be earning that goes on. They'll have to earn the ingredients and build up the skills to expand. They'll also have to earn iMG to expand their yards. Then they'll have to earn credits or save up currants to buy the upgraded kind of furniture they want.

    The thrill of earning any house at all is gone but that doesn't mean the new houses don't bring a different kinds of similar thrills.

    It would be neat if the first expansion required Your Papers and a building permit though.
    Posted 5 months ago by SkyWaitress Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Id buy an onion ring house and then lock myself inside and eat it

    with a honey mustard pool in back, a chili making hot tub, a milkshake bathtub and chicken finger bushes.

    and bacon trees

    and cigars, and also a pony (for dessert)
    Posted 5 months ago by ☣ elf ☣ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't like the new house streets and houses. I liked the old way of having a world to explore and to find resources. Picking the right place to buy the style house you want, close to the area and vendors you like. It just isn't the same experience it was.
    Posted 5 months ago by Suzy Spring Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 to Suzy Spring and Gilbert Whisper. My new house is all right - I like it OK....but I LOVED my old house. And not just the house itself (which I would gladly pay TS real money for the option to keep), but also the process of choosing a location; scoping the real estate listings until the right house became available; the suspense of whether someone else would get it first; the excitement when I got it. That was all fun for me in ways that just aren't present in the new system.
    Posted 5 months ago by Gelderlin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Before the new housing people were complaining that there was no outlet for creative expression in the game. Now there is--I think that is better.
    Posted 5 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just wish i could build most of my new house where the old house was, in Salatu near Costco and the Hot Dog Hut - close to the subway I never used.
    Posted 5 months ago by ☣ elf ☣ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like some of the suggestions in this thread about how the new imagination based houses could be made to a bit more of a reward and rewarding experience.  I think there are still some really cool ideas that could be brought over from the old housing system, too.  It would be really wild if there were somehow anchor points throughout Ur that could turn into cross roads for getting to the streets, but I'm not sure how those would be structured!

    Think about it for a minute.  In a game with an every growing and changing user base, how do you scale the old housing street signs while still being user friendly.  They were already overwhelming as they were!

    On another note.  This little prank could not have happened if someone hadn't been regularly visiting Ur to collect the resources!  And the prankster(s) seem to have visited many personal streets as well, in the process, exploring and making contact with people.

    In the end, even with all the quests and houses and resources and things to collect, this game is an MMORPG, or an MMOG at the very least.  It's about contacting other people, or being contacted, even if just by using the auctions or brushing shoulders at a vendor.  For me, this game didn't really pick up until I participated by helping to photoshop other people's Glitches into real life settings, photos and illustrations!  And then, oh boy did it grab my attention for months!  Not everybody is rewarded in this way, but many, many people are.  And those that aren't can be perfectly happy holed away in their houses (or playing a different game).  It's those that crave the attention and community but don't know how to connect that we should worry about losing.  

    So, while us players can create community outreach actions, like delivering flaming bags of poo or photoshopping snaps for each other, perhaps the changes that the Devs are continuing to make to the game mechanics should endeavor to help new players make those connections as well.  It might be something as subtle as user interface.  Perhaps a portal on your very home street that takes you to a place in Ur?  Perhaps more quests that require exploration (there are already a few)?  Perhaps your butler recommending certain Glitchen streets as being particularly resourceful?

    Things like this are surely on their way, as the game is still in development.  But maybe we can pinpoint, or highlight, the ideas in our suggestions that will also serve this purpose!
    Posted 5 months ago by Carl Projectorinski Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i do not feel the satisfaction of owning my new home the away i did  my old home, for which i had to earn and save.

    and i miss having my home be in a place. it was someWHERE and going there meant being in that place. visiting friends meant being in their neighborhoods. going to other areas put me near so-and-so's house.

    the lands had people in them, or near them. or not.

    now streets are just streets. pretty and all that, but just streets.

    and just because my signpost links to my firebog friend, we are not a neighborhood.

    i LOVE the no cost transport to my house. i miss having my house be in a PLACE.
    Posted 5 months ago by flask Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would miss my old street if there had ever been anyone else there, but there never was. I have run into and chatted with more people on my street under the new system than was ever the case on the old one. I like it! I may not be able to see other houses from my house, but for some reason I feel less alone now.
    Posted 5 months ago by Mollie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Flask, but that doesn't mean that the new housing can't recreate that feeling and setting someday.  Maybe there are things that the Devs can do or alter that will bring that back.  Do you have any ideas about how to do that?
    Posted 5 months ago by Carl Projectorinski Subscriber! | Permalink
  • By the way, the Housing Resource Routes are definitely a neighborhood.   They are detached from Ur, so they don't satisfy that lost connection, but they are a community of Glitchen that are connected to each other creating a place with a common theme that you can explore and interact with.

    They are not the same as the old neighborhoods, but they are far more active!

    And if there were to be a way to connect to the housing streets from Ur, I would suggest that it be through the resource routes.  That, I think, would be incredible and powerful.
    Posted 5 months ago by Carl Projectorinski Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Actually, I'm hoping the promised group halls/streets would provide communities of interest, and that those might connect to somewhere in the world.   Somehow I envision the group hall itself to be one large street project for a specific group. And maybe a second street project for the hall itself (like a barn raising). And then we would be able to have a street big enough that it links each person's home in the group to the street, which has a building facade that we get to choose (or maybe if there are lot of people in a group, it's a full neighborhood signpost on the group street like the old neighborhood posts, and then folks would have to sign up for which numbered street they want to be on). Only members of the group get to enter the group street and the group hall on the street would be a community center of sorts - up to our group's choosing if it's just a big meeting place, farmer's market, etc.  To get to the group halls you have your own signpost that only you can see where you can put up to 7 of the groups you belong to on it (like the old max requirements for groups).  That would provide a neighborhood and community feel to me.  I have very specific friends in game, and frankly the routes thing doesn't do it for me...
    Posted 5 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the way you think b3achy!
    Posted 5 months ago by Riverwalker Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Omg it took me forever to earn 15k currants when I first started. I just had to have that meadow home. 
    Posted 5 months ago by Polly Nomial Subscriber! | Permalink
  • carl, my only idea about bringing that back would be to tie something about your house to a PLACE in ur.

    i have no ideas about how to do this, or even if it is practical.

    i loved my groddle meadow home because it was in groddle meadow. i went over the real estate listings and found the best house for me and saved to buy it. i lived in groddle meadow, not groddle heights, not bortola, not alakol. i had a feeling of home, near home, and far away.

    when i went into the swamps, the hippie herb-raising firebog people seemed culturally different than me and my crop-raising neighbors. they were exotic, and i rode the subway to get there.

    i loved visiting other streets where people lived in houses not like mine but similar to their neighbors, and i could imagine that the foods they ate used spiced differently.

    the closer you lived to ix, i imagined, the more you ate ix-style recipes. you had to come to groddle to get a proper groddle sandwich and in groddle forest junction as well as jutuan central nobody from the city could understand the wild rural people of aranna.

    even though i have my friends on my signpost, it does not feel like a neighborhood to me. it feels like a wormhole shortcut to their houses, off in some other undefined nonplace.

    "it isn't really anywhere
    it's somewhere else instead."
    Posted 5 months ago by flask Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the new houses, but I also wish they just weren't handed to us. I think newbies at least should have to pay currants/img to get their own home. I would be willing to give up a lot of currants or img too. 

    And I think beyond signposts, there should be a different way to travel. I like how convenient signposts are, but they don't make the housing streets really feel connected to each other. Or maybe we could have both signposts and something else that would make the streets feel more homey.
    Posted 5 months ago by Reirei Umezaki Subscriber! | Permalink
  • As is well-known, I'm entirely in accord with @flask on this. I liked having a LOCATION. I liked the restrictions born of geography. I liked having a neighborhood with a distinctive character. I loved having a home that reflected that sense of place.

    One way to restore the sense of place would be to ask us to choose our "back to the world" point, and have it be either permanent or relatively expensive iMG-wise to change. We would give up the ability to teleport anywhere in-world from home. One could go even farther and make the characteristics of that in-world access point determine what kind of resources and backgrounds one could have on one's public home street (I think backyards should stay ad libitum as they are now).

    I, for one, would willingly give up the map freedom from home for that sense of being anchored somewhere in Ur.
    Posted 5 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It was a lot more realistic back when the houses were a, you know, neighbourhood. 

    I spent a lot of time comparing styles and locations when I was picking my house. Now it's gone...

    I'm not really complaining, but I feel that we could combine the systems. Like, maybe, the Home Street is something the whole neighbourhood works on but the background is based on where you live. And then inside the house can be just like the current houses- you get to decorate and all. So, instead of just one house on the home street, there can be many houses with a bunch of spare land and resources. Admittedly, it means no more expansion for the front yard but I'd happily trade that for having a neighbour right next to me, a house away. And maybe a little plot of land beside each house is reserved for a tower, or something.

    Or, expansion can be a community project- the neighbourhood votes to expand, and everyone contributes some iMG... and everyone can cultivate. In that case, then similar interests will start flocking together- you can start a forum thread and ask around for the nearest mining housing block, or gardening...

    ETA: The idea of that is a BALANCE of iMG usage and currant use. Buying the actual house is a currant sink, but the cultivation and stuff uses up iMG.
    Posted 5 months ago by KitkatCat Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think you guys are missing a point. Yeah, we had to raise money to buy our houses (i mined AB for days until i sold enough for my first modern home) but now the new players will, instead of going crazy for currants, will be going crazy for iMG. We were spoiled when the housing reset happened because a lot of us had millions of iMG. The new players will have to grind for the iMG to do anything to their house. 200 iMG for me is a cake walk, i do have all 11 icons but to a new player without all the fancy upgrades will have to work for the iMG, and decide if they want to spend it on upgrades or expansions. 

    But I do agree on the idea of location. I miss having a region and streets that i visit frequently. I feel like all i do lately is teleport to the resource i need and then /home. There is a lack of reason for exploration. But again, i think about how the new players won't know what streets to hit for what they need so they'll have to explore. 
    Posted 5 months ago by Papa Legba Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Other games do give you some sort of home base to start from, which I appreciate; I always thought it was a little odd that Glitch didn't.  I think it'll give new players more of a sense of belonging and permanence if they start out with their own private spaces.  Unfortunately, being able to buy a house was a major early goal of the game which has now been lost.  It's been replaced by furniture making, I suppose, though that can only provide entertainment for a little while.  Ultimately, we need a lot more for higher-level players to do. 
    Posted 5 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink