New World – Player Housing

Player housing is a fairly important feature for most sandbox MMORPGs and Amazon Game Studio’s New World is no exception. If you’d like to learn all you need to know about owning and personalizing houses in New World and how that feature fits into the game’s bigger settlement system, you should check out this recent developer blog. Have a look:

Player Housing is an exciting recent addition to New World. This highly requested feature will give players the opportunity to own and personalize homes across Aeternum. We want players to feel like they have roots in the world, to experience ownership, security, and stability in a threatening and unpredictable land.

If you have not yet read our Settlements and Governance article, please check that out first. It will provide you some additional context for this blog.

Home Ownership 101

In Aeternum, every Settlement has a variety of houses available for purchase. Multiple players can purchase the same physical home location but they will only be able to see their property and decor unless they are visiting another player’s house. If you want to spend time in your home with guests, our houses support a full player group of five. All you need to do to have someone visit your house is have them in a group with you.

In order to be eligible to purchase a house, you must first raise your Standing within that Settlement’s Territory. To raise your Standing in the Territory you want to live in, it is important to get involved in the daily activities of that Territory, such as killing creatures, completing Faction Missions, working on Town Projects, and crafting items. Once you have reached a high enough Standing level and your character has reached Level 20, you can unlock the ability to own a home in that Territory’s Settlement. If you want to own more than one house, you can do that, too! As long as you meet the requirements for house ownership in a Territory and you do not own the maximum number of houses, you’ll be able to buy another one.

Housing Variety

Houses range in size, features, and cost. Some houses overlook the center of town, while others have balconies with nice views over the Settlement walls. Some houses have exterior areas for decoration, while others simply feature a front or back porch. There are a variety of locations and styles to choose from in each Settlement. The Settlements themselves also have distinct aesthetics with house designs and floor plans specific to that Settlement.

Personalizing Your Home

After purchasing a house, you can personalize your space. We have added hundreds of items for you to use to customize your home. Everything from tables and chairs to decorative garden plants and hanging vines can help you design a property to reflect your tastes. Pieces of furniture and ornamental items can be crafted by players and purchased, while other items must be found by exploring and looting the world. On your adventures in Aeternum you can even find pets to bring home with you.

House Keeping

Once you purchase a house, you must pay a small property tax on it to maintain it. This property tax is paid to the controlling Company of the Settlement. While failing to pay your property tax won’t get you evicted from your house, it will stop mechanics like House Recall and Trophy Buffs from being functional to you. Additionally, while you can still visit your decorated house while the property tax is unpaid, you cannot rearrange your decorations, nor will your house be eligible to be displayed to others (more on that below.)

Rewards of Home Ownership

Once you own a House, you’ll be able to use it as a Recall point. Aeternum is a vast, dangerous place and the ability to recall home over great distances is a powerful one. In addition to the Recall ability, it’s possible to create powerful magical decorations that give your character buffs when they are placed on display in your home. These Trophies can do things like give you an advantage in combat against particular enemy types or improve your crafting abilities. However, each house can only have so many Trophies on display at a time, so you will need to consider which advantages you want to have on your adventures.

There are social benefits as well. When you pass through a Settlement, you can see homes owned and decorated by other players. To determine which home other player’s see by default, there is a competition behind the scenes. By decorating your house expertly and earning lots of Territory Standing, your house gets shown off to everyone that comes through a Settlement who does not own the same house as you. You can even see where you stand against other players that own the same house through the housing menu, so you know who your competition is.

Building A Community

When a player finds a place to call home in a Settlement, they are joining a community of allies, skilled crafters, adventuring partners, and even adversaries. Players can invest in making their house in Aeternum feel like a home with furniture and decorations, pets, and Trophies that give them bonuses on their adventures or in their favorite Trade Skills. We hope that our players’ homes become special to them not only as a familiar place to return to after an exciting adventure, but also as a place to share with friends and show off to others.