Your Ideal Player Home

[chronosmagus]

Introduction

A little over a year ago I started working on my personal home (Adrift Sanctuary) and every now and then I add some new ideas to it (depending on what character I play and feel missing).

 

Immersion is what is most important to me while playing Oblivion. Quick travel was the first to go, but the quests aren't exactly build for walking. This was the main reason I started building a player home with an advanced teleportation system (which started out as a quick way to get home and return where you came from after). Once I was done scripting that specific feature however, I felt that a player home could be so much more than just storage and a place to sleep and started looking for other mods for inspiration.

 

The list of player home features

New ideas come occasionally and after a year I still don't consider Adrift near completed. As mentioned other mods bring inspiration and some have really clever ideas. I figure it would be a waste to keep reinventing the wheel, so how about making a list of features people look for in their homes? Obviously there's a lot of preferences, but combining all ideas would make a very inspirational start for any modder creating a new home.

 

Reply with your must have's, neat features and a link to your favorite house mod and I'll adjust my post to form a complete list! I'll place features in different lists depending on how often they're mentioned. This means that even if your feature is already mentioned in this list, name it anyway, so it might get bumped up a category.

 

 

Player Home Preferences List

Last update: 10-07-2010

Total added posts: 3

Must-Have

 

• Central Location / Easy Access - Either near existing markers, cities or through teleportation.
  
• Mage Altars - Either through COBL (mage-quest dependant) or stand-alone.
  
• Scenery - An enjoyable view to look at. Lakes, mountains, forests -- as long as it could make a fine painting
  

 

Common

 

• Plenty (safe) containers - So everything keeps organized. Named or unnamed is a personal preference (both as a option?).
  
• Alchemy corner - Sorter, Apparatus etc. Use COBL for easy implementation.
  
• Library - An area for books and a place to read them (a fire place!)
  

 

Personal

 

• Story - How did the home come to be
  
• Secrets - Hidden switches and rooms
  
• Lockable Doors - At least the outer door..
  
• Animals - A herd of wild horses to watch
  

 

Tips

 

• Keep loading screens minimal.
  

 

Player Home Mods

 

• Sinbloods Vampire Haven (1)
  
• Adrift Sanctuary (1)
  

[schijnn]

I'll take a stab at this:

 

Central Location - My characters find themselves in the Imperial City frequently, so a house in/near it is preferable. However, I use Better Cities, so just outside the city might be safer.

Numerous Storage Containers - I am a very organized packrat, so having 15 or more 'safe' containers is a must. However, I don't like having them named, because different characters have different priorities.

Mage Altars - These can actually be used without going through the Mages' Guild questline. My current favorite house, Sinblood's Vampire Haven, is an example.

Minimal Loading Screens - My current favorite house (already mentioned) forces me to go through no fewer than six loading screens before I get to the storage areas, and most of the rooms in between are essentially empty. This is also the reason I don't use Frostcrag Spire as my home, even though I use the Frostcrag Reborn mod.

Secrets/Story/COBL/etc. - I mainly use my house for storage, so would be unlikely to make use of most of these features. I'm sure other people would find them useful, though.

[Shadowfen]

My personal home is not uploaded/available, but here are the requirements that I had for building it:

 

Exterior:

• Convenient location - near enough to a road/fast travel marker to not need one on its own; mostly because my map is already littered with fast travel markers and I want people to have to work at dropping in on me.
• Stable for my horse
• A porch to sit on and watch the wild horses.
• A herd of wild horses. :)
• A view.

Interior:

• Open-concept living space that I can portion out to various functions at will. I hate feeling confined in a small room. (Minimum of two floors)
• A fire place to sit in front of with my book and glass of wine.
• Very minimal furniture: a bed, two dressers, COBL Luggage; dining table and chairs, a prep table in the food prep area, pantry cabinet, COBL Sorter, apparatus drawer; and some large bookcases for a library/display area downstairs.
• A combined mage altar for the magical work area.

Pretty much all other furniture, and named storage get placed according to the character's tastes once they are bought from Imperial Furniture or the Specialty Container Shop. Between those two mods and Decorator Assistant, I can personalize the home in-game for the character that is living in it.

[chronosmagus]

Thanks for the feedback, I've summarized your features and ordered the total list into different categories now :).

[rkc34]

I'm looking for a player home with a stable attached for my horses to stay. Cant seem to find one. is there an excising mod out there?

[MarkInMKUK]

I'd like a large but derelict castle or manor house, or maybe a monastery for a paladin, with outbuildings to be renovated as money allows. As work progresses, finding staff would be a series of mini-quests. Castel to be probably expanded Norman style - keep plus enclosed area, walls, corner towers and drawbridge, probably a moat. House to be in something close to 15th/16th century English style (think Skakespearean stuff - half-timbers and two or at most three stories, bayed wooden construction, etc.

 

Facilities (once restored) should include (either on-site or in a nearby village) a chapel with resident priest (plus associated graveyard and crypt(s) ), a forge with blacksmith, a carpenter and workshop, and wood store, a stonemason (maybe itinerant - needed to work on restoration), herbal garden, gardener, Stable block and groomsman/men, barracks with guardsmen and officers including off-duty, sleeping and training areas, laundry, kitchen, dairy, food store including an ice house and dried food store, heated orangery or greenhouse for exotic plants, and servant's quarters. Sewerage or at least SOME thought about realistic water supply and effluent disposal should be provided ... a cess pit would be sensible as I don't wish to wash raw sewerage into a mountain stream).

Staff (once acquired) should have daily routines, including meal breaks and seasonal variations.

 

Main accommodation should include:

Sleeping accommodation - sufficient bedrooms for up to 6 non-staff couples and 4 singles, including the Master suite, all with wardrobes for clothing/outfit storage/control. En-suite lavatorial facilities (water closets would be nice, guarderobes if not - whichever way some poor sod has to be a gongscourer to keep the piles of excreta low). There's a horse-drawn wagon resource which could be used to transport such stuff "away".

Bathing facilities - a Roman-style bath house would be nice, but each room should have a wash-stand and water jug/bowl/cloths for washing, and each bedroom should have a fireside bath.

Entrance hall

Ballroom - large enough to host a formal dance for 8 couples, plus a musician's area for a quartet of players or thereabouts.

Dining room - meals to be provided at regular times, and served at the table, and cleared afterwards. Scripting to provide one meal per non-staff member in residence, up to maximum of 16 places.

Library - suitable for both research (so large table and massed information storage) and private reading (fireplace with two comfortable chairs nearby and small chair-side tables). Storage for (mostly) books, and a small rack for scrolls. Drinks cabinet. (used glasses to be removed by household staff at intervals, and replaced with clean ones in the drinks cabinet)

Living rooms - at least two, one possibly more feminine in decoration.

Conference room for those "councils of war" and the like.

Alchemy lab / mage altar area - I suggest away from the centre of the building as alchemy has traditionally involved the occasional bang, and rebuilding the whole house gets expensive.

Storage area - chests for general loot, wardrobes in each accommodation room for clothing, staff clothing area for loot to be deposited and thus added via script appropriately to staff wardrobes. Looted artworks to be used to replace existing similar artworks, which are then placed into an "artwork storage" room for re-use or later sale. Priority of display given to higher-value items.

Should be companion-friendly - beds should allow two people per bed. Clothing choice scripts should be used to ensure npc's cycled through clothing with at least ONE change per week (for staff) and up to three per day for visiting npc's to suit time of day and activity.

 

Secret passages. Every castle or grand house should have them. Excape routes to the local village or cave system; smugglers accesses; some quest with a mysterious secret using them,; and if all else fails, a hidden entrance to something dark, nasty and evil which requires dealing with.

[vastion]

I too, have worked for several months to really build a fine place to house my toons. I am in no way a mod'er, but I can use the CS to build quite well. I wanted to post here because I can relate to the OP where stated; "I felt that a player home could be so much more than just storage and a place to sleep and started looking for other mods for inspiration". I stand in awe of such mods as Gold Coast Estate, of how it is so heavily scripted, and requiresthe player to complete so many quests to advance. Also, I admire both of Korana's house mods Shadowcrest Vinsyards, and Millstone Farm, for thier cooking scripts, as well as the other little things like paint a picture...

I differ with the OP in that my home is off the map, and requires FT to arive there, It is quite large and completely built form the ground upevery tree, rock and water way. other then that aspect, I agree with everything else. My player home titled The Autumnmist Plantation has a stable for my horse along with wild horses that run around in the gated area, also Ive added the cows, pigs, and chickens with the sheep so that the surrounding farmland looks full. there are several gradens as well as the massive foodcrop garden. Inside there are many areas for the player to feel cozy. Features include a foyer, reading room, dining room, kitchen, den/bar, guest rooms, master bedroom, and also, areas for cluttered and uncluttered storage. along with that, I have included a secret mages room with alters for enchanting, and spell making and sorters for ingredients. As well, a basement for crafting and forging. most of it is eye candy, but it makes me happy.

The main house doesn't have a massive ballroom, but it does have a large english style garden, and pool. There are many places to wonder through or sit, and view the area surrounding.

 

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x85/LordVastion/MyScreenShots270.jpg

 

heres a little tease, just to so a part of the size if what I call fun with the CS.

Edited July 11, 2011 by vastion

[MarkInMKUK]

Hi Vastion,

 

Nice looking setup :)

 

it's a tad formal looking for MY personal tastes - stuff in the 15th century tended to be a little more haphazard rather than laid out like the centre of Milton Keynes - but you certainly have the fine house and the support structure in place, along with a lovely front view from the house. :)

 

I actually watched a programme today which showed Burghley House, which has its own restoration experts on site. They have a converted stable block for their workshops, and that's the sort of impression that strikes a chord with me. I guess there's a frustrated craftsman inside me struggling to escape...

 

Obne idea which is a tad unusual for siting a house is - how about built into the landward side of a cliff, with the rear rooms looking out to sea having walked THROUGH the cliff. The roof would be the cliff itself, and the structure would (of necessity) be mostly carved stone.

Edited July 11, 2011 by MarkInMKUK