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Friends integrated into Housing

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Mar 14, 2011
47
Good afternoon and happy Monday!

For a few years now I have worked in collaboration with friends on museum houses. In fact, I have worked with friends on a lot of homes! A lot of Discord servers use a collective effort of individuals to create a single home before an event. It is time we integrated our friends into Wizard101 housing, much like administrators of a Discord server can all work together with a single server owner. The idea behind this would be setup basically just like Discord has their hierarchy setup:

1. A homeowner can set a small group of individuals as administrators of their homes and those administrators can be given permissions to do small tasks, such as place or move items.
2. Administrators would never be allowed to touch or pick up an item placed by the owner.
3. Items placed by one administrator cannot be changed or moved by another administrator without the proper permissions granted by the owner.
4. Signs would be updated to have a "friends" category where one can select their friend's names so credit can be given where it is due.

Homeowners have been using the assistance of friends for their homes for years, through bazaar and tc trades, but now is the time to really make the decorating aspect of the game a group effort!

As always, thank you for continually making this game a better place for all.

Champion
Nov 22, 2008
447
I really like the idea of allowing friends to help us with our homes! I have to say, though, I wouldn't want even trusted friends to be working on my house while I'm away. I think an easy way to resolve this issue would be to invite people to a group with you and when you go to your house be prompted to allow the group to work on the house.

There would also be a warning to all group members before they place the first housing item that they may not be able to recover the item they place down.

I think its not unreasonable to use the groups feature that we already have to do this, since its other uses are about mounts, saving spots in battles, beastmoon and questing. It also makes revoking permission easy, as you can leave the group and then nothing can be done by the other party members.

Survivor
Jul 22, 2017
19
If I'm understanding where you're going with this, which I hope I do. Have the Actual home owner select a few of their friends from their friend list. Those selected few people can then can add stuff and/or move stuff around the house with proper permissions? Not to mention! The person who added said item, that item is still theirs! no body else can pick it up.

I love this idea honestly. It brings way more life into the game than it just being a game where people sit in the commons doing nothing or continuously questing or pvping.

Now this might sound a bit weird but maybe even having the ability to merge your houses together to create an even bigger area. Can use teleporters to move around! ugh the possibilities would be insane!

Survivor
Mar 14, 2011
47
Great feedback, and I think there is an easy way to resolve some of the concerns mentioned above.

Concern #1: "I wouldn't want even trusted friends to be working on my house while I am away".

Resolution to Concern #1: This would be a simple fix setup in the permissions of the house. You would simply have an on/off switch in your permissions menu that override all other permissions. When the switch is turned to off, no one other than owner can do anything. When the switch is turned on, all permissions last saved would be reactivated for friends who have permissions and they can resume with helping.
Concern #2: "There would also be a warning to all group members before they place the first housing item that they may not be able to recover the item they placed down".

Resolution to Concern #2: There would be a permissions menu for non-homeowners as well. In that menu they will have the option turned on/off for owners to be able to retrieve items placed. If the option is turned off, the item goes back to the original item owner's bank/backpack if the homeowner picks the item up. When the option is turned on, a warning menu would pop asking if you "are sure this is ok?" each time the option is switched from off to on.

I know this entire idea seems a little farfetched compared to the old Wiz days, but I promise you the people playing the game have grown up in the last decade and they have proven themselves in Discord to be able to handle a simple permissions menu. This really would be a turning point for housing so that it feels like a community effort and I think the people playing the game are familiar enough with permissions menus to effortlessly make this transition.

Thank you for the feedback!

Survivor
Feb 04, 2021
1
Wow! I love this idea!
There have been so many times when I have been inside of my friend’s houses while they are working on a project and all I can do is stand there and watch while giving suggestions... The ability to be able to actually help them place down items and actually show them in game what I am thinking would be a dream come true!!
Not only for me, but just about every other builder in this community!

Something I also often do is share my housing items with friends, and most of the time those are rare items that they cannot easily obtain for a project they are working on.

But... currently the only way to trade housing or reagents etc. is through the bazaar which has led to quite a few very expensive items being lost. Including one of the most expensive items in the game, a chain reel as well as gumball machines and many other unfortunate items being lost.

If the owner of a home was able to add us to a list of approved builders for their house I think it would be amazing to be able to integrate the ability to trade housing through that same system.

This would be done in a multitude of different ways. One idea I had is that the owner could request to pick up one of my items I have put down and I could either accept or decline. The owner could also choose to simply just move the item back into my backpack if they don’t want it in that location or in their house at all.

This is something I think is desperately needed within the housing community and I would LOVE to see this added into the game!!!

Love the suggestion Storm Dealer!
(I hope KI likes it too )

Survivor
Jul 23, 2015
14
I love this idea. It could not only provide an activity for friends to to together, and provide a common goal for people to work towards, but it would also promote teamwork, and much more easily allow for people to teach each other their tips and techniques for decorating.

Everyone has their own little flair when it comes to creating a house, their own shortcuts and tricks to create some truly awesome final products, and even their own methods of using rug glitches, advanced move, and castle magic for efficient results - Allowing people to build upon each other's uniqueness in decoration will bring a level of stunning and staggering builds we haven't yet seen.

I really like the ideas above by previous posters to allow collaborative teleporters / signs, and pooling items. Maybe take things one step further, and allow authorized people to access the houses from multiple characters - Including one's own? So my storm could visit my fire's castles and decorate, but if a friend allows my fire access to help collaborate on a house, my storm could assist them as well.

All in all, making housing into a more social activity in any degree is going to be a fantastic idea that will breathe new life into people of the community who enjoy this aspect of the game.

Survivor
Sep 05, 2010
2
I too really like this idea! we should only allow it while other players are online, to prevent grief-ing.

Survivor
Dec 27, 2010
5
An incorporation of cooperative builds would be fantastic. Handing authoritative power to the owner or leader is a great way to solve any griefing. However, there is always a reality where a well organized and structured system isn't put into place for many reasons. In a lightly-policed state, I'd argue that if you have the power to choose who builds, you need to have the responsibility to accept those builds (or lack thereof).

Or if we had an undo button, or some way to create save states it would solve everything as well.

As a side note, there may be a technical issue with having multiple individuals working on a house at the same time. A type of housing I refer to as "x and check housing," which is basically the application of magic onto items requiring you to "x" out of the housing tab, and "check" where the magic-adjusted item's location sits, is a fairly popular style of housing used in many degrees. The issue here is not only the exiting of the housing tab, but in many times a necessity to exit the house entirely to reset targeted objects. Amongst multiple individuals, I'm not entirely sure how the house will look during a build relative to one another.

I'm sure the devs can figure something out though, because I'd love to see this happen.

Explorer
Oct 24, 2019
89
Storm Dealer on Feb 23, 2021 wrote:
Good afternoon and happy Monday!

For a few years now I have worked in collaboration with friends on museum houses. In fact, I have worked with friends on a lot of homes! A lot of Discord servers use a collective effort of individuals to create a single home before an event. It is time we integrated our friends into Wizard101 housing, much like administrators of a Discord server can all work together with a single server owner. The idea behind this would be setup basically just like Discord has their hierarchy setup:

1. A homeowner can set a small group of individuals as administrators of their homes and those administrators can be given permissions to do small tasks, such as place or move items.
2. Administrators would never be allowed to touch or pick up an item placed by the owner.
3. Items placed by one administrator cannot be changed or moved by another administrator without the proper permissions granted by the owner.
4. Signs would be updated to have a "friends" category where one can select their friend's names so credit can be given where it is due.

Homeowners have been using the assistance of friends for their homes for years, through bazaar and tc trades, but now is the time to really make the decorating aspect of the game a group effort!

As always, thank you for continually making this game a better place for all.
I feel like this is a lot of trust to give to someone and the Idea is all over the place.

What if that friend no longer becomes your friend shortly after giving them Admin abilities?

I know that they can only place and move items but what if they move everything in your house to smite you to such a disarray that it becomes too tedious to put everything back in place?

Also your 1 and 2 bulletpoints don't add up when it comes to Touching, wouldn't they already be "Touching" your things should they be moving stuff around and placing items?

Number 3, Items placed by 1 Administrator cannot be moved by another without permission from the Owner.

Then what is even the entire point of having co-decorators if they can't move something someone else already moved and everything has to be based and run by your decisions as the Owner? Wouldn't it make more sense then to share your screen on Discord and have other people watch your Stream and have them share ideas to you that you could decide whether or not works with YOUR house ultimately? Cause you know, its your house. Not theirs. You'd be making the decisions ultimately, why have cooperation if you're gonna decide what you want and what is and is not acceptable?

Number 4, what if a friend is no longer registered to be an Admin for your House? Does their name get erased? Can they receive credit still even though they've been delisted as Admin?

I think your idea was morally sound but the practice of it WILL have a LOT flaws that you YOURSELF may NOT encounter but others WOULD. Too many risks letting people take advantage of your house, regardless of appropriating rules and conditions. Thatd be tedious to code too, having that many different types of Administrative Powers.

This entire idea would make more sense if it was related to Guilds and Guild Halls.
The entire Guild would decide on a Guild's Decorative Style and only the Guildmaster would be able to decorate the Hall as they see fit.

Survivor
Mar 14, 2011
47
Wolf Spellrunner on Mar 6, 2021 wrote:
An incorporation of cooperative builds would be fantastic. Handing authoritative power to the owner or leader is a great way to solve any griefing. However, there is always a reality where a well organized and structured system isn't put into place for many reasons. In a lightly-policed state, I'd argue that if you have the power to choose who builds, you need to have the responsibility to accept those builds (or lack thereof).

Or if we had an undo button, or some way to create save states it would solve everything as well.

As a side note, there may be a technical issue with having multiple individuals working on a house at the same time. A type of housing I refer to as "x and check housing," which is basically the application of magic onto items requiring you to "x" out of the housing tab, and "check" where the magic-adjusted item's location sits, is a fairly popular style of housing used in many degrees. The issue here is not only the exiting of the housing tab, but in many times a necessity to exit the house entirely to reset targeted objects. Amongst multiple individuals, I'm not entirely sure how the house will look during a build relative to one another.

I'm sure the devs can figure something out though, because I'd love to see this happen.
Wolf,

Honestly, I would abandon this entire idea if we could just get the "undo" or "saved states" features, haha! Great input, thank you!

Survivor
Mar 14, 2011
47
JValhalla on Mar 8, 2021 wrote:
I feel like this is a lot of trust to give to someone and the Idea is all over the place.

What if that friend no longer becomes your friend shortly after giving them Admin abilities?

I know that they can only place and move items but what if they move everything in your house to smite you to such a disarray that it becomes too tedious to put everything back in place?

Also your 1 and 2 bulletpoints don't add up when it comes to Touching, wouldn't they already be "Touching" your things should they be moving stuff around and placing items?

Number 3, Items placed by 1 Administrator cannot be moved by another without permission from the Owner.

Then what is even the entire point of having co-decorators if they can't move something someone else already moved and everything has to be based and run by your decisions as the Owner? Wouldn't it make more sense then to share your screen on Discord and have other people watch your Stream and have them share ideas to you that you could decide whether or not works with YOUR house ultimately? Cause you know, its your house. Not theirs. You'd be making the decisions ultimately, why have cooperation if you're gonna decide what you want and what is and is not acceptable?

Number 4, what if a friend is no longer registered to be an Admin for your House? Does their name get erased? Can they receive credit still even though they've been delisted as Admin?

I think your idea was morally sound but the practice of it WILL have a LOT flaws that you YOURSELF may NOT encounter but others WOULD. Too many risks letting people take advantage of your house, regardless of appropriating rules and conditions. Thatd be tedious to code too, having that many different types of Administrative Powers.

This entire idea would make more sense if it was related to Guilds and Guild Halls.
The entire Guild would decide on a Guild's Decorative Style and only the Guildmaster would be able to decorate the Hall as they see fit.
Hey JValhalla,

This thread was a bubble diagram with ideas spurring off into directions for how we could further incorporate housing into a collaborative activity. As with any bubble diagram, the idea is fresh and never complete. I am glad we were able to get the conversation started with so many comments! You are right, this idea would not be for everyone and I think any player against this could just opt out of sharing their home with friends. I would hope that would not ruin the fun for the rest of us though, as many of us are looking for something like this since we have been building homes together for so many years.

Thanks for the great feedback!