Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Sondrelk]

Yeah, I see a lot of problems. I'm so confused.

Yeah. Though this was to be expected when they made the choice. Either this option or the other of completely isolated houses would have come with their own inherent pros and cons. Now we can only wait and see how it will pan out over time.

At the very least we can say with certainty that having a large neighborhood outside Stormwind and Orgrimmar makes sense in lore. So you won't be taken out of it having a random selection of houses there. Even if many of them might look kinda bad.

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What if they phase out houses that haven't been visited by their owners and phase in active ones instead?

That would make sense. Though probably only an option for Public areas.
Maybe private neighborhoods will have more options like expelling people or whatever, which would make it easier to handle.

Again. Hard to say for sure unless we know more about housing generally. Another issue I can see is if certain areas in the neighborhood becomes more attractive. Will houses be flexible enough that it will phase in a random assortment of houses from all the different plots to fill the empty ones. Or will only houses in Plot #27 show up in that area.

[Cheezits]

Yeah. Though this was to be expected when they made the choice. Either this option or the other of completely isolated houses would have come with their own inherent pros and cons. Now we can only wait and see how it will pan out over time.

At the very least we can say with certainty that having a large neighborhood outside Stormwind and Orgrimmar makes sense in lore. So you won't be taken out of it having a random selection of houses there. Even if many of them might look kinda bad.

Also, if we're being honest, they probably DO have a solo plot in their back pocket as they likely tested both ideas. They can just elaborate on it now in case they want it available by launch and/or early access.

[Joshuaj]

If they add more areas, I very much doubt they will be as large. The 50 house plots reek to me of the developers making it seem more ambitious than it probably is. I would be shocked if potential future housing areas have more than 20 plots.

Yeah, I think they'll add sub-towns or singular housing plots in other zones. That way, we have the main Neighborhoods in the Elwynn and Durotar-esc regions, as well as the smaller areas for folks that want to live in regions based on their culture.

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Also, if we're being honest, they probably DO have a solo plot in their back pocket as they likely tested both ideas. They can just elaborate on it now in case they want it available by launch and/or early access.

This is true. I can't imagine Blizzard didn't explore on the idea of solo plots.

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What if they phase out houses that haven't been visited by their owners and phase in active ones instead?

Maybe, but I think there are going to be different Neighborhood phases where anyone can have their house phased in.

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If they do end up phasing in and phasing out different houses, there is a high chance they'll just have it to where an in-active players house is just phased into a less populated or less-active Neighborhood.

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Yeah, made a mistake there. Meant to say that I feel 50 housing plots in a neighborhood might be too many to "police" so to say. If you want to live with other people who also want to have great looking houses. Or more likely, a guild of people who all want to have great houses. 50 is probably untenable long term, as people will stop playing, or stop caring about the house, or whatever. Something smaller like 10 house plots would make more sense in that regard.

But again. Hard to say until we know for sure what the system will look like in practice.

Yeah, but knowing how Blizzard's been these last 2 expansions, and considering they've been taking notes from FFXIV and whatnot, I think they'll have ways to handle this.

Funny enough, IRL Subdivisions in the US have a median of 50 housing units. This is probably where Blizzard got that number from.

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To compare, FFXIV has 60 plots in each ward.

[huth]

Also, if we're being honest, they probably DO have a solo plot in their back pocket as they likely tested both ideas. They can just elaborate on it now in case they want it available by launch and/or early access.

Remember their general approach. Adding features is easy to sell. Taking features away is not. So of course they'd start with the version they think is most likely to stay.

[Ersula]

It's gonna be rough wanting to live in like a nice immersive neighborhood and then having some meme neighbor who paints their house bright purple and slaps all the dumbest decorations on the outside.

No matter how open world its designed its not going to be constant. Phasing & merged realms exist remember. Each plot other than your own will have to be phased the same way players are grouped together in your current shard/layer. Its either that or each realm will have its own (instanced) version of the zone.

[Scyth]

Pretty disappointing that the houses will be mainly Human and Orc-themed tbh. I wasn't interested in housing to begin with but this has made me even less interested in it.
Hope they bring more options asap. Just doesn't feel right to have my Blood Elf in an Orc-themed house or my Nelf/Velf in a Human-themed house, although the latter is not as bad but still.

[Throren]

what I think would have been better; instead of 50 houses all packed into a human/orc neighborhood - 50 houses instead spread across the world

3 houses related to each core race - 24 houses in total
(For example: Dwarf themed homes in Ironforge, one in Loch Modan and one in the Aerie peak Or night elf themed plots in Bel Ameth, Ashenvale and Darkshore etc etc)

1 house themed for each allied race - 6 houses

So that's 30 racial themed houses in total.

Finally, 20 more houses plots spread across in faction agnostic areas/themed (A tuskar house in Azure Span, a vrykul house in Stormheim, a log cabin in grizzly hills etc) for a brand total of 50 houses.


One thing I've realized, if people can make their own private neighborhoods, then the vast majority of players will end up doing that. That way there is no competition for the prettiest plot and they don't have to have other houses around them, especially if they want a more secluded feel. Or they are RPers and dont want other people intruding or eaves dropping on RP

Which will end up with the whole forced social aspect of the neighborhoods being pointless anyways since most people will just be using private neighborhoods.

Again showing that the concept of forced neighborhoods was a misstep to begin with

[Cheezits]

One thing I've realized, if people can make their own private neighborhoods, then the vast majority of players will end up doing that. That way there is no competition for the prettiest plot and they don't have to have other houses around them, especially if they want a more secluded feel. Or they are RPers and dont want other people intruding or eaves dropping on RP

Which will end up with the whole forced social aspect of the neighborhoods being pointless anyways since most people will just be using private neighborhoods.

Again showing that the concept of forced neighborhoods was a misstep to begin with

I have a feeling there is going to be a set minimum amount of people you have to sign up with for a private plot. Otherwise the servers would implode if everyone got their own private fifty plot zone.

[Xilurm]

I have a feeling there is going to be a set minimum amount of people you have to sign up with for a private plot. Otherwise the servers would implode if everyone got their own private fifty plot zone.

That would... suck.

[Cheezits]

That would... suck.

It would suck if you need a group of people to get any private plot, which is why they should add apartments/solo plots. Having your own giant neighborhood to yourself is silly.

Hoods should be public or private with a group signup, and there should be an entirely SEPARATE option to have a house or room to yourself somewhere else.

[Wyrt]

It would suck if you need a group of people to get any private plot, which is why they should add apartments/solo plots. Having your own giant neighborhood to yourself is silly.

Hoods should be public or private with a group signup, and there should be an entirely SEPARATE option to have a house or room to yourself somewhere else.

It would be nice to have a guild neighborhood but also a private house somewhere else. I know my guild will always been in Elwynn even if more zones are added later, but I'd much rather be in Azuremyst on my draenei.

Trying to force player housing to be 100% social all the time is a huge mistake. Having guild/friend neighborhoods is good. Having neighborhoods with random people is a lot less so.

[Joshuaj]

That would... suck.

There would probably be different phases with different private Neighborhoods for guilds.

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what I think would have been better; instead of 50 houses all packed into a human/orc neighborhood - 50 houses instead spread across the world

3 houses related to each core race - 24 houses in total
(For example: Dwarf themed homes in Ironforge, one in Loch Modan and one in the Aerie peak Or night elf themed plots in Bel Ameth, Ashenvale and Darkshore etc etc)

1 house themed for each allied race - 6 houses

So that's 30 racial themed houses in total.

Finally, 20 more houses plots spread across in faction agnostic areas/themed (A tuskar house in Azure Span, a vrykul house in Stormheim, a log cabin in grizzly hills etc) for a brand total of 50 houses.


One thing I've realized, if people can make their own private neighborhoods, then the vast majority of players will end up doing that. That way there is no competition for the prettiest plot and they don't have to have other houses around them, especially if they want a more secluded feel. Or they are RPers and dont want other people intruding or eaves dropping on RP

Which will end up with the whole forced social aspect of the neighborhoods being pointless anyways since most people will just be using private neighborhoods.

Again showing that the concept of forced neighborhoods was a misstep to begin with

Not to rain on your parade, but Blizzard said there will be more living spaces in the future. Meaning, after launch, we'll likely see more neighborhood locations. So, a potential Dwarven Neighborhood location is definitely still possible. Also, Blizzard said they don't much care for the idea of lots of separate houses across the world, or at least not now.

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It would be nice to have a guild neighborhood but also a private house somewhere else. I know my guild will always been in Elwynn even if more zones are added later, but I'd much rather be in Azuremyst on my draenei.

Trying to force player housing to be 100% social all the time is a huge mistake. Having guild/friend neighborhoods is good. Having neighborhoods with random people is a lot less so.

This will likely end up happening later on down the line. Heck, I'm certain the folks at Blizzard are taking notes regarding solo housing already.

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Saw folks talk about this on reddit, but imagine this:

Housing releases for the Midnight pre-patch, and the starting locations are Human and Orc based.

Then, during Midnight (Whether it be launch or later), we'll get 2 new housing locations: A Night Elf Based one and a Blood Elf Base one. The Nelf location is by Bel'Ameth, and the Blood Elf location is somewhere in Quel'Thalas, most likely a revamped version of the coastal region above Stratholme on the map.

[Ersula]

Housing releases for the Midnight pre-patch, and the starting locations are Human and Orc based.

Housing is coming well before the pre-patch. It's on the roadmap.

Seems like housing is being developed like Plunderstorm was; with a completely different team independent of the typical seasonal content.

[Joshuaj]

Quick question, has WoW ever had actual Neighborhoods before? or? Cause we know it's full of towns and villages, but idk if it's actually been shown to have normal Neighborhoods.

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Housing is coming well before the pre-patch. It's on the roadmap.

Seems like housing is being developed like Plunderstorm was; with a completely different team independent of the typical seasonal content.

Ah, fair enough. Well, still, maybe when Midnight launches, we'll see Elf based housing regions?

[milkmustache]

Quick question, has WoW ever had actual Neighborhoods before? or? Cause we know it's full of towns and villages, but idk if it's actually been shown to have normal Neighborhoods.?

I mean, it's just semantics. It's probably easier to convey the idea with that term, because Village can imply additional buildings like a blacksmith, inn, etc. that may not be available.

It's also highly possible that Neighborhoods is a working title like Timerunning was for Remix.

[Thomir]

50 houses seems like a massive amount of area.

[Joshuaj]

50 houses seems like a massive amount of area.

To compare, FFXIV's housing wards have 60 plots.

Both FFXIV wards and WoW neighborhoods are about the same size as your typical US subdivision.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

I have a feeling there is going to be a set minimum amount of people you have to sign up with for a private plot. Otherwise the servers would implode if everyone got their own private fifty plot zone.

I hazard private plots will be handled through Garrison-style phasing, not the creation of new zones.

[Joshuaj]

I hazard private plots will be handled through Garrison-style phasing, not the creation of new zones.

Maybe. And hopefully the whole area is revamped and whatnot.

[SunspotAnims]

I appreciate that they're condensing multiple zones' biomes into each neighborhood for more variety. I wonder how the situation with picking a plot will work. For a private neighborhood it's probably fine but for public neighborhoods I imagine some plots will be in more demand than others. Will you get to choose at all in a public neighborhood?

I do hope they at some point consider adding phased solo plots in different zones out in the world. I know it goes against the social aspect that they want but even they themselves admitted neighborhood zones take a lot of time to make and so even with the multi-biome neighborhoods they're pretty heavily limiting the options of where houses can go. Plus my introverted ass just likes the idea of an isolated home out in the wilderness.