A Facelift For WOW

by Byron Mudry on Mar 27, 2006

A Facelift for WOW

You know you watch to many home renovation shows when...

Another month come and gone and it can only mean one thing, another interview! For all you usual readers out there, we have a new surprise and treat for you! No longer will you see the bickering between Hardcore Raiders and Casuals, but instead, WOW gamers who love the environment that Blizzard has given them, and want to improve it. These are the gamers who love to watch home renovations shows on Sunday night television, then apply it to WOW. Some of the things to expect are Guild Housing, New Cities, Tattoo and Hair Parlor, and more! Take a look at several people's great ideas on how to improve the World of Warcraft!

Troll and Gnome Cities!

Here we have a very popular idea brought up and discussed by Quicktoe, a level 25 Gnome Warrior on the server Dark Iron. The ideas behind giving Gnomes and Trolls there own cities!

I realize these two races were the last implemented into the game during its development cycle, but I was thinking it would make for an extremely cool patch or expansion implementation, to create some sort of huge challenge for both the horde and alliance to overcome in order to have all their races to have their own city.

I realize there would be immense design challenges to accompany this change, but it could be a world effort on the scale of 1.9 and its new instance.

Scenario: Recreate gnomergan into an extremely challenging high level instance. It would be the hardest yet for the endgame scene.Once the server has defeated gnomergan, it actually stays defeated, permanently. Then you would launch a "reconstruction effort" similar to the one for the

Gates that some servers are still struggling with. It would be cool if the city went through various changes as incremental percentages of completion were achieved, similar to constructing a building WCIII.

For the trolls, it would be similar, only on the Islands off the coast of Durotar that had been taken over by the bad trolls. You could easily change it into an instance by making it a boat ride to the area.(since the islands aren't to scale right now anyway). Make it a similarly challenging instance for players, and eventually a building effort would be reached, and the trolls would have a city dispersed over the islands, perhaps linked by boardwalks. (How cool would that be?)

Of course, this Idea is way out there, so I want to qualify it a little more. It goes without saying that these cities would be smaller than the other major cities, simply because they would not be major hubs and would exist in the same zone as other cities, but give them linked auction houses and their own special flavor and they would become a popular area to visit.

I know these two races were added merely to flesh out the number of choices available to players, but I also think they deserve more than just a little section of a larger city, and its also unrealistic that the leper gnomes and evil trolls are perpetually being defeated, I'm sure both races are frustrated their homes are being instantly repopulated by bad guys every five minutes or so.

Of course this would remove quests, and mess up level progression in some ways, but it wouldn't be difficult to offer new quests for durotar and gnomergon is becoming increasingly irrelevant as more and more players reach the end game.

I think this is a good idea, and I think I supported it pretty well. And if you guys agree with me, and would like to see this implemented, just express your support with a reply.

I think it would be cool to see the fans affecting more than simply class balance, and so I challenge Blizz to both listen and to make some sort of change so that World of Warcraft's story is at least progressed somewhat outside of major expansion packs.

Hair Salon and Tattoo Parlor

Here is Rasza, a human level 60 Warrior from Elune on the much talked about idea on tattoo parlors and hair salons inside cities!

Have you ever made a character, then 59 levels later, decided their hair style, color, or accessories (NE facial tattoos, earrings, etc.) didn't fit anymore? Or just plain don't like the color now?

We have a dressing room to preview or check out how equipment would look on us. I think a hair salon is the next logical step. However, this would allow you to change your character's physical appearance as well: hair style, color, tattoos and earrings, everything but perhaps your face (as that would involve major reconstructive surgery).

Here's a listing of the possible features of a barber shop and tattoo parlor:

* Alter your hair color and style, as well as facial hair and/or earrings if applicable.

* Alter the night elf facial tattoos.

* Skin tanning or lightening, also for a fee.

* One of many potential cost systems, such as increasing costs like resetting talent points, higher costs for more elaborate changes/tattoos, or just a flat fee for each haircut or color.

* Tattoo parlors would add either tattoos with temporary buffs, or permanent ones that stay with your character and can only be removed or replaced with a costly fee. Would likely require high faction reputation (exalted, perhaps?) for permanent tattoo buffs, giving players another reason to fork over all that runecloth.

* Additional hair styles and hair accessories, such as clips and funny hats.

* Hair streaking, perhaps?

Feel free to think up more suggestions (not breast implants!) as long as they're within reason, and within the spirit of the topic. Granted, this is mostly a cosmetic issue, but due to the amazing support this topic has gained, I can see many people would welcome such an addition.

Guild Housing

Psiphon, a very good Undead Priest, level 52 from Cenarion Circle has many ideas on how to add in a great Guild Housing Section!

The recent rumor is that Blizzard will be (or try to be) introducing Housing with the Expansion. They have been working on Housing in different iterations since early development of the game, but never had it implemented. If Blizzard does include housing into the expansion, this is what I expect, based on reports, articles, information, and speculation (by me):

Player/Guild neighborhoods, instanced in Major cities - Orgrimmar, Ironforge, Undercity, and Stormwind. Possibly also Darnassus and Thunder Bluff, but I doubt it. It is also theorized only Stormwind and Undercity will actually have housing, I but could see that as being imbalanced.

When you enter the instance, there are plots you can buy. Because of the demand, there will obviously be multiple different 'neighborhoods' (Instance IDs) from the same city entrance. Once you (or your guild) buys a plot, you can go about building your house, from rather small hut, to mansion-like, choosing from many different styles and decorations. Not only will there be options for decorations and furniture, but there will also be more household content added in future patches.

Neighborhoods will most likely be similar to other instances, where they aren't actually geographically accurate. It has become known that the 'portcullis gate' in Stormwind is the entrance to Stormwind's housing. I don't know of any other such portals, but the speculation is that the West Gate, or Drag areas of Orgrimmar would work for instanced housing. Undercity could use part of the Sewer Tunnels, or possibly a modified version of the 'Middle Ring', or even have an entrance somewhere in the Ruins of Lordaeron. There seems to be plenty of places in Ironforge, and Old Ironforge isn't out of the question, though it is more speculated as being a lowbie zone at some point.

Instances in major cities. This could either be only Ogrimmar and Ironforge, or include Undercity, Thunder Bluff, Stormwind and Darnassus. This would really boost the wonder of cities, Role play, and community aspect. They could also have House Instances in more remote towns in order to range the sizes and prices based on the Convenience factor and location. For instance, a little house way out in southern Barrens could be a lot cheaper than same sized condo instance in Orgrimmar.. Distance to wind riders and cities is a big factor.

This seems like it would be a practical addition for Blizz as well, as the empty houses seem to already exist, and instance technology is already in the game. With the addition of the Honor System, it is my understanding that the Officer's Barracks' are permanent instances, which probably solves most of the technical questions.

Convert current empty 'houses' into instances. There only needs to be a handful of these instances in any given city. There should be at least 3 or 4 different styles/sizes to choose from, all costing varying amounts. For example: a Small, single room could be the smallest, followed by a two-level house, etc. Possibly on up to a very large guild hall (described below in Additional Ideas).

Shared bank/box/chest. Since this is for guilds, and guilds currently do not have any sort of shared storage. A good example would be a ~20 slot box, similar to the bank UI, which can store regular goods, possibly as well as money. It might also be a good idea to offer a similar (much smaller?) 'deposit' box that you can set the rank required to open. This allows the Guild master, or other higher-ups, the ability to store guild money or certain items for distribution at their discretion, while allowing other guild members to donate to it. You don't necessarily want every guild member to have access to all the coffers.

Another good suggestion is to have the Shared Bank be a 'pay as you grow' system that requires the guild to pay for each Shared Bank slot, on an exponential scale like normal bank bag slots - which could keep guilds busy trying to buy more bank slots.

Guild board. This could be in any number of forms, but ultimately should be a way for guild members to communicate, post messages, meeting times, items in the Shared Box, etc. Maybe also to bind your Hearthstone, or be used for 2.C. Guild Auction House.

Main furniture could be static, thus limiting your tables and chairs, etc by the house size - i.e. small house only has a few chairs, guild halls have full tables with dozens of chairs. Customizable furniture is a possibility, and would be up to Blizz to implement. It would be very cool to have customizable (or craftable) furniture, but might end up being a bear to code (not to mention lead to all sorts of house litter - read: server load). Craftable furniture could tie into 3.B. Carpentry profession.

Aesthetics could include rugs, paintings, tapestry, etc. These could be all static to start. It has also been suggested that new aesthetic recipes added to all different professions could be geared towards house decorating. i.e., Tailors can make hanging tabards or tapestries, LW's can make masks and skin rugs, smiths chests (usable?), stoves and lamps, engineers can make toys or puzzles, Alchemists can make Bar items & drinks, etc.

Let's not forget itemizing the house with usable items - Chemistry sets for Alchemists, Anvils, forges, etc. Either crafted or bought.

Access would mostly be restricted to just guild members. This would work like a permanent dungeon instance. If guests were allowed, it seems best to have to be partied with a guild member to be a guest in their house. I would think that in a party, you would have to be party leader to bring guests into your guild's house. This protects infiltration by strangers who you are partying with. When a party member enters your guild house, a notification pops up. That way, if you're leader of a party, and someone sneaks off to infiltrate your guild house, you can kick them off the party and they would be ejected from the guild house. Or possibly have a toggle flag to set someone who is in your party as a "guest", which then allows them to enter. Obviously, guests would have no access to the Shared Box or Guild Board.

Hearth access directly to the Guild House, like an Inn. Either an Innkeeper present, or simply an option button somewhere to bind there. Similarly, You gain rest state in the guild house the same way if you were in an Inn (or major city).

NPC's. Being able to place different NPC's like guards, vendors, trainers, repairers, and even wind rider masters. I honestly don't see Blizz implementing flight paths into housing if/when they introduce Housing, but it's an interesting idea. As for other NPC's, if the Houses get big enough, the presence of NPC's would be nice, but I think just a little too convenient.

Static (possibly instanced as well) Guild Halls in remote areas. These would be actual buildings that would be occupied by the guild. One interesting suggestion also says they would be raidable by other guilds. Additional Guard NPC's could be purchased or trained by other guild members to help defend your house, in addition to the above-mentioned NPC's

Guild Neighborhood. An instance which is laid out like a small neighborhood. It starts empty, with two crossing streets and interlocking paths, and the Guild then pays to build (buys and places) guild halls, shops, crafting houses, officer meeting rooms, inns, player houses/apartments, etc. This could possibly include trainers, vendors, and other NPC's

Guild "Ranch". Expanding the Guild neighborhood, this idea also includes resource producing additions, bringing material benefits as well as stat bonuses. Obviously at an incredibly high initial cost, this could be a way for large guilds to 'farm' materials necessary to do MC, BWL and TAQ runs - I'm thinking along the lines of alchemy recipes most importantly (ie: growing fields of dreamfoil or icecap)

Thank you so much for your time, Quicktoe, Rasza, and Psiphon! You have put forth some great ideas and hopefully we will see some of them get implemented in the future!

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? We would love to hear from you! Please email me at memnok@tentonhammer.com

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016