One of the joys that comes with playing ESO is getting to grips with the player housing system. There are tons of houses available and you can decorate them to your liking, with all the stuff you’ve looted and gathered in your adventures. You can even invite friends over to enjoy what you’ve created but there are limitations. Those limits will soon be eased, as the next update for the game will introduce a whole new player housing browser.
In a livestream held earlier today, Zenimax Online Studios showed off a little of what The Elder Scrolls Online players can expect in the next update. The biggest introduction for the MMORPG is the Home Tours system – a way of browsing through player housing and getting to see some of the most creatively decorated abodes on Nirn. It means all that time you’ve spent making your chosen home can finally be properly displayed – instead of just showing a few screenshots of what you’ve made, the public can wander in and take a look.
That’s only if you let them, of course. The way that Home Tours works is you’ll create a listing for your house, giving it a nickname and assigning a few tags so players can find it. You’ll also decide what kind of access players will have when they hop into your house – though you’ll only be able to choose between Visitor and Limited Visitor, to ensure no-one messes with your stuff too much while you’re away. Interested home browsers will then be able to select your house, loading in for a nose around. If they like it they’ll have the option to recommend it, meaning your home will rise in prominence to the front page of the browser.
One of the things that interests me most about this is the opportunity to take a peek inside people’s homes, something you can’t really do too much in real life. My home in ESO is, frankly, very poorly decorated so a bit of inspiration will go a long way. When you head over to a house you’ll also see other visitors if they’re there – and even might get a chance to meet the homeowner, if they’re home and not fighting Daedra on a far plane of Oblivion.
In addition to the Home Tours system, there’s a few other tweaks and features heading to ESO in Update 43. The Infinite Archive area will be getting two new arenas themed around ice and fire, giving you more space to fight monsters and earn rewards. There’ll be new class sets, improvements to mount previewing, and a few other small changes that should make adventuring through the West Weald a little more pleasant.
Update 43 will launch for ESO on Monday August 19 and you’ll be able to test it out on the public test server from Monday July 8. If you’d like to read more, you can head over to the official site for the complete lowdown.
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