...Bit late in the day for this home, but not long returned to the game and PTS.
Made a video review to show what I mean with certain areas:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wzg96VzEfLo
(Don't know how to embed)
Summary of Feedback:
Overall, it’s a beautiful home from any angle, and it’s clear there has been a lot attention to detail in many areas of the creation and design. However, there are a few flaws that let down the overall design. Given the expensive cost, these few flaws in the design are things that could be improved upon before it’s made available on the live servers; which would only benefit sales of the property.
I find the following main issues with the property:
1) DOORWAYS and BALCONIES: Only 2 doorways, front and side, with no doorways leading to the many well-designed balconies and viewings areas (in comparison, the much smaller Hunding Palatial Hall has 6 balcony doors, 7 including the front door).
• At least 2 doorways could be added to lead to balconies, as well as some stairs on the balconies themselves, leading to upper balconies.
2) UPPER BATTLEMENTS - No stairways: Upper areas on the battlements, such as the nicely crafted domes, have no stairs leading up to the tops; meaning they are inaccessible without creating your own way to get up there such as using wooden planks. However, this would take away from the beauty of the palace.
• This could be remedied by either:
1. Adding stone stairs leading up to such areas.
2. Bringing redguard textured stone stairs into the game as purchasable or craftable furnishings.
3) LIGHTING: Terrible lighting inside, where windows appear false; letting in no natural light.
• The current windows inside could be reprogrammed with windows that simulate natural light; lighting up what is a beautifully designed indoor palace main hall.
4) INVISIBLE WALLS: While the height of the invisible walls is generous... The invisible walls at the back and to left-back of the property still feel too close to shore in sea area.
While invisible walls are important to stop players getting out of the area, within the sea area at least (docking area and private beach area), they feel less necessary as there is no where to go.
• In this case, you (devs) could afford to move the invisible wall area further out to sea, allowing for more creativity on behalf of players wishing to design and create structures in those areas outside of the palace. I think this small change would add so much design creativity and potential to the home.
5) SLAUGHTERFISH: Slaughterfish are still too close to shoreline, thus limiting creativity: i.e. meaning any potential to create islands or structures to explore in the sea, would be impossible to swim to without creating a bridge close to the shore, which ruins and limits creativity.
• In this case, as the invisible walls ultimately stop players from getting out of the water, the slaughterfish could be moved to just within the invisible walls area; allowing players to be able to swim out further, create islands to swim to, or even use the water to create enclosed and lit swimming areas, such as sea caves.
6) UNFINISHED BUILDING: When you build up high, players can see that the palace behind the property is unfinished. It would be nice to see this area fixed, so that if players do build up that high, it looks natural and doesn’t break immersion.
• This could be done by either raising the sandstone mountain, or by creating more of a wall beneath the current palace wall.
UPDATED:
7) UNMOVEABLE TREES: The palm trees on the private beach area are unmoveable; this means that if any player wished to remove these and build in this small beach area, they would be unable to. This seems unnecessarily limiting!
• This could be remedied by making the trees a moveable item; allowing more design potential in that area.
I find the following minor issues with the property:
8) Swimming Pool: The swimming pool in the front courtyard is a little narrow.
• It could easily be widened to create a slightly wider swimming pool. This isn’t a major issue, or as important as the other issues, but it would be a nice touch. There appears to be a pointless large stone step around the swimming pool that could be removed, thus widening the pool (see video).
9) Outside buildings: The two outside building/cover are not moveable, limiting design placement of those areas
• By making these objects moveable, owners could choose to place them against the walls, or put them in different areas, making the grounds more personal to the owner; giving greater choice over placement and design.
Obviously an expensive home that will probably sell in game for around 13,000 crowns, which in real money is approximately £65 -70 UK pounds, and around $100 US dollars.
I feel, if fixed, these fixes would make the property more appealing and would allow for more potential in home design and creativity.
