Mog House Thread [dev1002][dev1017]

[Psion]

Greetings yet again, on our new shiny forums, now with more subdivisions~♪

First off, before you begin reading, this is a rather long post, so long it took two posts to fit it all. Sorry about that, it's a bad habit of mine to elaborate. I tried to make it an interesting read, though.

Secondly, I'd love this to be a thread for all mog house related ideas, not just mine. If you have your own ideas on what mog housing should be, post them here! If you want to discuss mine or the ideas of someone else, post em! If we have one centralized thread on mog housing, it will probably be easier on the mods to communicate these ideas to the dev team, as well as give them a good idea of how much in demand such housing is. So without further ado~

Introduction

As the old general thread is now the more of an actual general talk for anything now, and we have new areas to post actual game suggestions, I thought I'd make a thread on my mog house idea that hopefully won't get smothered to page 20 in half a day from the flood of great ideas from fellow posters! (and Belgianrofl attacks <.<; )

One of the biggest concepts from FFXI that I miss to this day, and very many fellow Eorzeans as well, is the humble prison...er, abode we called the mog house. With it's four walls, leaky roof full of mice (and stars, and apparently chicken drumsticks?), and our ever faithful spinning moogle friend. It was a place to call home, a place to store our loot, a place to decorate like a palace while we pretended that one day our friends would want to see it! Oh wait, I'm supposed to make this thread a request to add mog houses in, not make them look bad. Right.

As a place to hide in while crafting, or just to relax in a chat free area to talk to linkshell buddies, the mog house was something that everyone used, and many enjoyed, even with the limitations we had. But we are in a new era! The mog house can be reborn!

The Quest

The basic idea is this. A quest we can embark on, an epic journey that takes us from our first tiny plot of land to a beautiful mansion that can become a hub for linkshell members and friends to come over and play, a place that can be a central area to call our own that can be connected to other content as well. Whether you decide to just use the land for gardening, to put a ramshackle roof over your head, or make a manor that makes fellow Eorzeans green with envy, it can be something that is unique to each individual and useful as well!

Of course, we should start with an actual quest, and half the fun of a mog house was our ever useful mog that changed our job, cared for our plants, and slept in our bed and shed fur all over the blankets. However, in Eorzean lore, moogles in this game are residents of Gridania's forest, and what kind of moogle would want to live in a desert like Ul'dah? But never fear, we have some other adorable mascots, The humble and ever comical mammet and the lovable qiqirn! Both are native to their own lands of Ul'dah and Limsa Lominsa, and can provide some variety of options to what kind of buddy a person wants. Our first quest would be a fairly simple one, where we save the caretaker of our choosing in the nearby forest/desert/cliffs, or the like, and somehow wind up the owners of a plot of land in the nearby city and a new companion. (OK, maybe the story writers should be the ones to do this, not me. ^^; ) The end result, however, would be us owning a plot of land in the city, the start of our new abode. An interesting side effect of having moogles exclusive to Gridania, is that nostalgia might wind up making it as popular as Ul'dah from all the players wanting a moogle.

The House

Of course, it's just a plot of land. There's no actual house yet, but never fear! The cities are full of willing craftsmen ready to build for a little compensation, and as an adventurer materials are easy enough to come by. First, every house needs a foundation. The first type could be made of a cheap material, such as some mudstones or the like. (OK, building a house on mudstones is a very bad idea, but we're cheap here.) Naturally, it would take quite a few stones to build a foundation, even for a small shack like what we're starting with. Perhaps 30, or even 50, would be needed, along with a crafter to make them, and gil to pay the crafters, perhaps 20,000 gil in this case for the first option. Once you have traded the items and gil, it's time for the crafters to play a role!

In this case, there are a few different options:

The first is simply having your moogle/qiqirn/mammet buddy, from here on out to be called Mog for simplicity's sake, magically make the item. This option would be simplest to implement, and removes both the items and gil from the economy (this is good!)

The second is to have it simply open market, where you get a slip for the item you want to make, a cheap foundation in this case, that you can put up in the bazaar of your retainer or in your own, along with the amount of gil you are willing to pay. A crafter then sees your request, and if they are the appropriate level, they make it. To avoid the pain of losing so many items, it's probably best that failure in crafting doesn't cost any materials or at least loses only a couple at worst. No one wants to lose 30 mudstones in one go because a helpful goldsmith got disconnected from the game, much less future and more expensive items! This option would remove items, but because it is direct player to player, no gil is lost in the economy, just exchanged.

The third option is through a crafting workshop, one in each city, where crafters can go to pick up work and earn some experience and gil. This is where Yoshi-P's idea of multiple crafters working together can come into play! The gil and items a player gives to Mog are then sent to this workshop, and a list of available requests from players to be crafted is shown. Naturally, the lion's share of the gil goes to the workshop for its role in providing a building area and handling fees. Basically, it's gone from the economy. In our foundation example, 15,000 gil might go to the workshop, or is lost, while the remaining 5,000 is the reward earned by the goldsmith who makes it. In this option, some items will also require multiple crafters of different types, and the reward is split evenly among the crafters who will build it. A simple maple chair might simply require a carpenter to make, but a rosewood chair covered in gold gilt might require a carpenter and goldsmith of much higher levels! Once the right crafters are all ready and have chosen to build that item, they work together to build the actual item at the workshop for all to see! To help prevent a single set of crafters from monopolizing all the items, it would take time to actually make the item, and the higher the reward the longer it takes to build! Like the picture that was shown of multiple crafters, the item would slowly take shape from scratch, giving a sense of immersion to the game. As the crafters build the item, they gain skill points, with a bonus amount for staying till the item is finished. If a crafter has to leave early, the item will remain in its unfinished state and that crafter who leaves obtains a portion of their gil payment corresponding to how much work they did. Another relevant crafter can then jump in and finish the job, collecting the remainder of that reward. Once finished, the item can then be sent back to Mog and become available for the player's use. This option is probably the most involved, and gives crafters an option for making gil and adding an interesting twist to the game. Items are also removed from the economy in this option, and much of the gil as well, providing a useful gilsink to a game that currently has almost none.

Wow, all that from a foundation that will crumble in a hard rain! Of course, now that we have our foundation, we need a floor, walls, a roof, and windows! . . .Eh, this is a shack. Maybe some walls, a door, and a roof. Walls can be made of cheap arrowwood lumber and nails, a door from the same and a doorknob, along with some hinges, and a roof can be made of straw. (I wasn't kidding about the shack part!) Like the foundation, you need the items and gil, and it gets made. One interesting possibility in this game, however, is wall "sections" instead of just a box. With sections of wall, maybe some that have windows or some that do not, a wall section with a door, and so on, you can customize your house to have lots of windows, none, multiple doors, or inner wall sections to create multiple rooms. Let's think outside the mog box, and make an actual house!

Now, here's where things can get interesting. As you get the cheapest option for things like foundations and walls, you open up new options, better ones, for new looks and bigger houses. For instance, once you have your mudstone foundation a new option might open up, a limestone foundation, which can support heavier walls and a bigger house. Likewise, making some arrowwood walls might open up maple walls and oak walls, which require a level 2 foundation like limestone to support them. Obtaining either oak or maple walls might open up even more options, such as rough stone, brick, and mahogany walls for level 3 options. The idea is each level of options increases the amount of different types of materials you can choose, allowing for greater customization of your house's look. Higher level building parts might even provide bonuses of some sort, similar to moghancements in FFXI. Some building options might even require certain quests to unlock, or various achievements to be done. For instance, unlocking the ability to make a house that resembles Gridanian buildings, would require you to beat Gridania's storyline up to "Fade to White".

And since this idea is too big to put on one post, apparently, this is continued on the second post! ^^;