Dark Age Of Camelot: A "grasp" on DAoC Housing

Any DAoC player that started playing when the game first originated can tell you something about DAoC housing. The earliest thing I can find on the Herald points to this simple post six days after the game had launched on December 7th 2001:

So, that's the list. In January we will be turning our attention to housing, server types and horses as well as lots and lots of other stuff. - Mark Jacobs

We can gather from this the idea of DAoC housing was in the development even before launch of the game, and as it says above the true process of starting to work on housing started as early as January of 2001. So we move on, into February of 2002 with a State of the Game posting by Mark:

Housing
This is arguably the biggest item in the list. Implementing a full housing system that goes beyond what is available in any of today's games is our number one goal. As such, it is not an easy nor trivial thing. The full implementation will take several months. However, in order to make sure that we get it right we are breaking it up into two distinct stages, the first of which we will implement in this update. Contained in this update will be the following.

5) There will be at least three types of buildings that can be purchased by the player and/or guilds.

6) Each realm will have at least 50 home sites set up for guild and higher level housing. These sites will be pre-selected by the world developers to not only fit in with the landscape but also in not a way to clutter the environment and inhibit gameplay.

7) The homes will contain a variety of features including vaults, guild banners, emblems, tradeskill tools.

Please keep in mind that this is only the first stage of the housing system. The second stage will include new areas that will be designed for the majority of player housing (vacation homes, crafter towns, consignment stops, etc.). While we could wait and put them both in together, by separating the two we will be able to focus on the core system over the next six weeks but also then be able to better gauge the impact on the game from a player's standpoint as well as the real demand for housing.

This is the first glimpse into what is really going on, and how is system is starting to work. We now know there will be three types of houses to choose from, the homes will include most of the things a small village in DAoC would include in their housing, and that it is futher under development. A note about the location of housing in this update it says one would have 50 homesites, which sounds like a good idea to me, but a a heavy task for any developer to take on to add 50 homesites seamlessly to the game without interrupting current zones. I believe this idea has been scratched, and the current stance is to have a whole separate zone outside of any other zone in the game, with a Portal Merchant taking you to your destination, such as ones found in Castle Sauvage that port you over to an enemies frontier. The whole concept behind the separate zone idea is reducing the development time, and making it easier on both parties.

A housing update in March of 2002 from Matt Firor, states now that you'll have four options for housing, instead of three. You will be able to see who owns the house, by right-clicking on the house. Houses will have levels (1-4) in which the higher the level the better the house, and more upgrade options. Depending on what house you pick, you'll be able to hang items inside of it such as weapons. You now get the option to add furniture as well. Crafting options such as lathe and forges have been added, and finally a bindstone.

In April of 2002 a small update in the "Strike Team" update basically stating housing is under development still. The same goes for May of 2002, another small update stating they are still working on housing. Starting in May of 2002, the focus now switches to Spellcrafting in a update by Sanya, basically saying Spellcrafting is an higher priority at the time, and there was no "ETA" on Housing.

A few months go by, and finally in September of 2002 Mark Jacob's has another State of the Game post (I will just extract the housing part from it):

5)Housing is still being developed and we are committed to adding this to the game as part of subscriber content - so it will not require the expansion pack. Like Spellcrafting we are taking our time with housing to make sure that it is done right the first time.

So now you may start realizing this housing thing is taking way longer then expected, but I believe the original idea did not call for the many additions they have added to this point.

As we enter 2003 we see the focus change Spellcrafting/Alchemy is implemented, and now the work on Housing can continue, and we can see this in the State of the Game post by Mark in January:

1) Implementation of a complete housing system. This is by far the largest of any of the items. This is our number one priority and all of Mythic's resources than could work on the housing system are working on the housing system. The scope of the system far exceeds what we originally planned on and is quite ambitious. However, it is only the jumping off point for a even more far-reaching system.

6) Players who have reached level 50 can create new characters at level 20. This is still on our list but is not as high of a priority as the housing system.

In the start of April (and the previous month) of this year we finally see some screenshots, and a detailed post on what is going on with housing. Things such as animal heads on the wall, pixies on the wall, and a chest with a bed located near it are shown. This post also states they plan to have housing on Pendragon around mid April. More screenshots can be found here.

Currently as of April 15th, housing has started closed beta on Pendragon with very few (I would say 10 more, or less) people testing. The plans as stated in the latest update on housing in a week or more, depending on how things go they plan to make the closed beta testing pool larger, and after that is done making housing open on Pendragon. Well I would have to say one could expect at least being able to test out housing on Pendragon in a month, or two.

I believe the long delay has grown from Spellcrafting taking focus, and the complete re-work of the housing system, but I believe when it does go live you will have many more options, and things to pick from. Some people will ask, well how do I buy my house? Most likely gold, and in some cases people have wanted the bounty points you earn from RvR to be in the equation which sounds like a good idea to me.

Today, a press release from Mythic goes into a full topic about housing. The housing system will be Expansion Pack that you can download for free. Named "Dark Age of Camelot: Foundations". You can view the press release here for all the goodies.