Dark Age Of Camelot: Grab Bag Friday

The poor little "questions" folder exploded this week with housing, housing, HOUSING. So, we're having a theme Grab Bag this evening. Guess what we're talking about? [p]
Q: I heard that we will be able to put "trophies" in our houses, like the heads of dragons and other fearsome beasts such as vicious pixies. Does this mean I should hang onto my wolf pelts and other objects I've already collected? [p]
A: Currently, trophy objects (monster parts that can be attached to the wall of your house) are not in the game - they are part of the housing patch. The objects will be labeled as such in the live game. [p]
Q: June? We have to wait for our house until JUNE?! I can't possibly wait that long! I'm too excited! [p]
A: Well, it would be up sooner, but there's this little thing called E3 - the Electronic Entertainment Exposition. It's happening in mid-May, and attendance isn't optional for many of us. It's the time of year where everyone in the gaming industry trots out their shiniest new material. Last year, we showed off our Shrouded Isles stuff. This year we're showing off our three expansions, and for a week we'll all be in Los Angeles. (And if you're going to be at the show, remember, you can email me and make an appointment to see the new stuff and meet in person.) [p]
Q: Didn't Mark promise that we wouldn't have to pay extra for housing? Why is it an expansion? [p]
A: Dark Age of Camelot: Foundations is completely free to every single customer. We're calling it an expansion because of the sheer scope of this project, and the level it's going to take the game to for many people. In terms of features, it's definitely more than just a patch. [p]
Q: Hrm. I recall you moving lathes/forges/merchants so that I couldn't craft in place - to cut down on macroing. But it sounds like now people can build their houses and make extremely macro friendly craft areas. [p]
A: Nope. You will not be able to place elements close enough together in order to craft in place. [p]
Q: While we're talking about home-based crafting, the 25% reduction in costs combines with player merchants will make a house practically pay for itself. [p]
A: Whoops, I better clarify - service merchants such as Healers, Emblemeers, and Enchanters will offer discounts, not materials merchants. Sorry for the confusion, we've corrected our documentation. [p]
Q: Will my alts be granted access to my house? [p]
A: Currently, in this beta version, you can't grant access to any character not currently online, which means no alts. We're still discussing exactly what we should do in this respect. On one hand, it sure would be handy to have a house that all your alts can go into - aka, use the personal vault to transfer items. On the other hand, granting automatic access might be a problem in some situations. Someone might belong to one guild with one character, and another guild with his alternate character. (Our system allows personal houses to become guild houses - if alts automatically get access to personal houses, we'd have to make sure that alts were automatically removed from the access list and possibly teleported elsewhere, and so on and so forth. No simple, snap solutions.) There are some other ramifications about alt character access we still need to discuss and decide on. The short answer is, we're still too early in the beta process, and we have not decided. [p]
Q: If I purchase a home and then make it a guild house can I then purchase another house for me personally? [p]
A: Yes. [p]
Q: Can a guild have more than one house? [p]
A: No. [p]
Q: What is going to be done to prevent a massive "land grab" when housing become live? [p]
A: We do in fact have a plan. It wouldn't be fair to have a system where the people who can log in at 10 AM automatically have a house. However, I cannot talk about the plan - you will see the details when they go into testing. [p]
Q: What if you run out of houses? [p]
A: We expect that we will. There are currently 400 housing foundations per realm and we are launching with at least that on each server. I have been assured that we'll open more zones if we (the powers that be at Mythic) decide we need to. Expect some serious crowding at the beginning, obviously.[p]
Q: If we have to pay rent on a weekly basis, what happens when we are on vacation for three weeks and can't play the game? Do we lose the house? [p]
A: Right now you can "prepay" up to four weeks rent. Obviously, this is a beta system, and the amounts that can be prepaid are not set in stone. [p]
Q: When can the testers post screenshots? [p]
A: Currently all screens must be approved (since we're in such early beta), but the testers have instructions on how to go about getting screenies approved. We'll tell you when the restriction is lifted... or, far more likely, our testers will tell you by posting zillions of screenshots! [p]
Q: How are testers chosen? [p]
A: Testers are currently being selected from the Pendragon community, and of course, the final stage of testing is open to everyone with a character on that server. [p]
Q: How much will houses and the various accessories cost? [p]
A: Prices are not the least bit set at this time, and are set extremely low on Pendragon to encourage people to test every single element. [p]
Q: (Insert other housing question here, along the lines of "are you going to add XYZ"). [p]
A: Not everything is implemented yet - we will be adding more stuff over the next month. [p]
And now, a word from our live team producer: "I would like to ask everyone to understand that we are in early beta. We are testing functionality of the systems. NOT EVERYTHING IS IMPLEMENTED YET," he says with a big grin. [p]
I second that - there are lots of things we're still implementing. If you're making muffins, and you dump in all the blueberries in at once instead of folding them in slowly, you get three muffins filled with mashed blueberries and nine that might as well be coffee cake. Why do I always talk about food right before I go to the gym? Man, I really want a muffin now. Anyway, my point is simply that this is a very complex project, with many elements and objects to be tested. We are only at the most basic stage right now, and we are adding more features as we go. [p]
Announcements - if you missed my post a few weeks back, I just thought I'd remind everyone that Team Kwip from www.neenerneener.net is going to the MS Walk on May 4th, and that they are sponsored entirely by gamers. Go to his site and click on "MS News" for more information. [p]
Speaking of web humor, the famous Woody Hearn of /Gu Comics has started to include Dark Age of Camelot in his extremely funny comic strip - and here's our first one! (Note to parents - like the games he so hilariously lampoons, the strips are rated Teen.) [p]
Thank you, crafters, for your fabulous essays and excellent feedback. I'm going to vary the theme a little this week - instead of something obvious like "Why RVR," tell me your best RVR story, and why it was so meaningful or exciting to you. If you include the name of your guild, be absolutely sure the rest of the guild is okay with having your common name slapped up on the Herald. [p]
Hey, speaking of crafters - seems like many people don't realize that there is a crafter listing here on the Herald. Click on your realm - there at the top is a "crafter" link. Click it, and a list of every crafter on your sever who was willing to have his or her skill displayed on the internet will fill your screen. [p]
That's it for me, everybody - have a terrific weekend!