Where Form Meets Function

Traditionally in MMO's, the player housing, while often pretty, has been devoid of any real purpose in the game aside from general storage or bragging rights. Currently, the housing in landmark is no different. It serves as a holding tank for resources and crafting stations and a place to brag about, but aside from that, there is no real functionality to it. What I would like to put together in this article is a list of ideas and refinements of what functions the house could play in terms of having an actual impact on the game and game world.

Personal
We are already seeing some basic personal functionality, but it is shallow, and I think we can come up with something better.


 * Rest XP bonus - EQ 2 offers a rested XP bonus for when you have been offline. It would be awesome to integrate the house into that by offering modifiers to that bonus based on things such as the quality of your bedding.
 * Gardening - We have these nice tracks of land, why not let player's grow rare herbs or other components on it as a way of augmenting their harvesting.
 * Bonus Points: Gardening affected by biome.
 * Double Bonus Points: Some plants have AOE affects that apply long duration buffs/debuffs when in bloom. (encourages visiting)
 * Mega Bonus Points: Having more gardened copies of a type of plant encourages more to spawn in the wild.
 * Bonus Storage - We are already seeing this, but it bears mentioning again as the concept could be expanded upon. (Storage Progression)
 * Equipment Sets - Manequins that allow players to set up sets of gear and store them as a set for one click equips. (Expanded to include weapon racks, display cases that are not for permanent display only)
 * Household Management - Allow players to hire retainers that perform certain function (mining, logging, hunting, gardening, marketing) and manage them through the household interface.

Social

 * Interactive props for social events - nuff said.
 * Merging claim areas to form guild, towns, cities, etc
 * Pigeon Coop/Mailbox Prop for home message access.
 * Some form of tie in to factions so that helping/donating to players of a faction increases your own.
 * Allow household staff to give food/drink to visitors from house stores.

PVE

 * Allow claims to be temporarily damaged or taken over by hostile environmental agents (orcs, giants, etc) with a small fee for repairs. (this would make an awesome story hook)
 * Allow for traps, mercenaries, guards, and other such for protecting your home.
 * Make different materials of different strength/durability so that they are more than just paint.

PVP

 * Allow for factions to gain bonuses in territory that they control the majority of.
 * Allow for temporary control changes. (someone takes over your claim for a set duration unless you get it back)
 * Penalties when fighting in regions dominated by another faction.