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Player Housing - Future

· 6 min read
Marlamin
Marlamin
Parrot

I think a lot about WoW's player housing and where the related tech might end up going. There's a long road ahead to get to some of these ideas and in lack of an official roadmap, I thought it'd be a fun exercise to make one of my own. One that goes into very speculative/pie-in-the-sky territory as time goes on. I'm going to make this list with the assumption that housing will keep getting major updates in major patches and smaller updates in the smaller ones.

Note: this is not a list based on datamining, but is just a glorified list of expectations and/or wishes.

12.1.0​

Yes, this is already on PTR, but lets get a baseline of what is coming (and what appears to be coming) down first.

  • Dyeable building piece decor
  • Dye system simplification
  • Moveable entry point (opens up making basements)
  • Large exteriors
  • Import/exports/save system through blueprints with shareable (cross-region!) codes
  • Pet beds and assignable pets
  • Resetting your interior, exterior or both with one button
  • Level 10, 11 and 12
  • At least 4 new artisanal rooms for each race (with maybe more incl. a bonus room with up to 4 doorways?)

Everything after this point is pure speculation.

12.1.x​

  • Copy pasting/duplicating decor with modifier keys (e.g. holding ctrl-d existing decor, incl. customizations if available opposed to current addon copies)
  • Decor locking (no more accidental pickups!)
  • Showcase codes
  • Blueprinted rooms now show previews in the floorplan when hovering over connection points
  • Dyeable books
  • Higher decor storage limit

12.2.0​

  • Community plot buildings that add some interactivity/social features (and a transmog/barber, finally)
  • Placeable mannequins/armor stand decor that opens up the transmog UI when customizing (secretly an NPC)
  • Weapon racks that function the same as above, but for weapons only
  • Level 13, 14 and 15
  • Higher exterior/interior decor limit
  • Higher pet bed limit
  • Placeable mounts
  • Undo/redo
  • Decor grouping
  • Blueprints for grouped decor
  • New endeavors
  • Decor thats just visual/spell effects

12.2.x​

  • Exact coordinate/number inputs for placement/rotation/scale are now available in advanced mode (but not available to addons)
  • You can now copy/paste entire rooms in the floorplan UI, behaves the same as making a blueprint for a room and placing that
  • Common decor items (e.g. from the neighborhood vendors) are now available to buy through the decor catalog UI instead of having to go to the vendors
  • A "web API/internet" permission is added under Export permissions (default off) that allows your house to be visible on the web API
  • The first M3 models as decor show up
  • A new feature is added that lets you suggest any model in the world as future decor, most popular suggestions are taken into consideration (maybe PTR only?)
  • You can now have framed pictures in your interior, but only those taken with the in-game camera (based on the Pinterest feature)

13.0​

  • New exteriors for the new race(s?) and a few existing races
  • A new neutral neighborhood set in Northrend. 50% plots are land, the other 50% are only water, both bigger than existing neighborhoods. Adds another house slot & ability to move an existing house to it
  • Placeable NPCs, an extension of the placeable pet/mount system, can also be a clone of your alts, very limited/generic non-interactable NPCs only for the first version
  • Dye system expanded to tabards
  • New endeavors (tuskarr surely one of them)
  • More levels/higher limits
  • Neighborhood system overhaul with a proper "neighborhood finder"
  • 10 additional water plots in existing neighborhoods
  • Lots of new Northrend-themed decor
  • Placeable fog/weather volumes
  • Housing instance player limits bumped up to 80
  • Neighborhoods will now be decorated for certain holidays and have special events
  • Crafting bench decor allowing for profession/crafting access in your plot/house
  • Important NPCs have a chance of appearing in neighborhoods and giving special housing-related quests
  • You can now select what kind of PvP zone your housing interior is, e.g. PvP-disabled, PvP-enabled or free for all
  • Iteration on the Hearthlight Armillary, now integrated in floorplan/room editor and with more options
  • Decor that has sounds can now optionally be muted on a per-decor basis through the customization menu

13.1​

  • New interactive movement decor, e.g. jump pads, grappling hook or wind/waterfall decor with forced movement
  • New exteriors for 2 races
  • Houses can now be named instead of UI/zone-in's showing "Marlamin's House"
  • Player-made delves, basically just the same features as interior house decoration but without a floorplan, shareable through showcase codes
  • Placeable NPCs can be made hostile but don't drop any loot and have limited combat range, can also be flagged to behave as dummies (never die, can't move, not stuck in combat)
  • New endeavors
  • Placeable spot/area lights
  • Neighborhoods change with the seasons, tree leaves will be the colors of the season and it can snow in winter (based on new Northrend tech)
  • More levels
  • Higher limits

13.2​

  • Ability to load a certain whole-house blueprint depending on which character you're zoning into the house interior with
  • Built-in first-party player-housing commission system, similar to profession work orders but for decorating your house instead
  • New exteriors for 2 races
  • New exteriors that have a (much smaller) interior that is in the overworld instead of in a separate interior instance (which is still available through a door if you want it)
  • Decor with state changes over time, e.g. plants/crops that can be tilled/harvested and exchanged for housing-specific resources
  • More neighborhood buildings get interiors and some flavor added
  • Guestbook feature
  • More levels
  • Higher limits
  • New endeavors

14.0​

  • A new neighborhood with another house slot
  • New exteriors for new races and 2 existing races
  • Terrain of exterior plots is now manipulatable to an extent (nothing ridiculous)
  • Dye system extended to character customization
  • Water volumes can now be placed in exterior plots (with reasonable limits)
  • New exterior-only decor that can interact with the terrain
  • Vast amounts of new decor from many new and existing assets, far more older player progression from pre-14.0 expansions ("old WoW") retroactively unlocks new decor (e.g. Shadowlands covenants)
  • Showcase codes/instances now work cross-region (as long as boths region are on the same patch & build, trading etc is disabled)
  • "Dungeon master" mode for dungeons/raids, an evolution on the player-made delves feature

14.x+​

  • A lot of content can now be made and shared by users through inviting people to their own phases/through showcase codes, but canonical official content is clearly separated