Neohomes 2.0

[Bacon]

This page says it all: http://www.neopets.com/s/index.phtml?cat_id=54

Honestly, it'll be better than the homes we have now...

[Veo]

Any idea what they plan to do? I mean . . . .3-d or what? *confused*

[Bacon]

Apparently, they have 3 neohome shops in the NC-Mall Soon...according to Jellyneo Forums

[Officer 1BDI]

Well this could prove... interesting. I've never been fond of the Neohome system; it would take something of Sims 2 proportions for me to give them another try.

[Huggles]

"Sorry, that category is not published yet."

So what exactly did it say? I'm actually terribly curious to see what they've come up with. The top down view was very limiting and the size and proportion of the furnishings seemed completely random at times.

Oh yes, I would like toilet. Okay, here a you go. It's going to be smaller than a breadbox, but larger than your sofa. Have fun!

[Wingsrising]

As someone who's spent a LOT of time and a LOT of NP on my Neohome, just finishing it to my satisfaction a few months ago, I'm very, very apprehensive about this. I liked the old Neohome system fine, thanks. (The Neogarden system not so much, but I've spent so much time on my gardens I don't really want to change those around, either.)

I don't think the top-down view was at all limiting. The top-down view is what lets you be creative by manufacturing furniture Neopets doesn't have with other bits of furniture: coral wardrobes and glass tables into a tropical pool, some Esophogor clocks and BaaBaa lamps into video game consoles, etc. I find the Neogardens, where everything pretty much HAS to be exactly what it is and nothing else, much more limiting.

Sure, the interface could be improved (although the Neohome interface is so much better then when I started Neohoming, it isn't even funny). I've love to have the ability to put my pets into the Neohome, too. But I like the creativity that the top-down interface allows and if they mess with the way all the furniture looks like, they'll screw up everyone's Neohomes. I realize that doesn't matter to most people, but I'm really only a semi-serious Neohomer, and I've put countless hours and more millions of SP than I care to think about into my Neohome. Would Neopets mess all that up? Of course they would, just like they did with pets last spring. But it doesn't mean I have to like it.

Geez. Last spring Neopets messed with all my pets, now it's going to ruin my Neohome, too? Maybe for their third go-round they can kick my puppy.

Maybe it will be really nice and won't screw my entire Neohome over, but after the pet customization debacle, I'm not hopeful.

This just makes me more depressed I didn't win the Neohome spotlight. I don't know that I'll ever get it if they trash my Neohome and I have to rebuild from scratch.

[Veo]

Lord, I just moved to faerieland . . .and now I'm apprehensive. God knows that they'll do, now that I think about it . . .

I mean, if they want to make the Neohome ideal more "important," go for it. Because frankly, your Neopet could be living in a cardboard box and no one would give a damn because it doesn't affect the Neopet in anyway. You build a Neohome for the fantasy of it all, for the warm fuzzy feelings of giving your pet its own little bedroom, with matching furniture and a rug or two. The site doesn't link "home" with "happiness" like they do with "food," for example.

((On that note, it's the same for "grooming . . ." our Neopets are dirty little things, now that I think about it . . . LOL))

Then again, what kind of standard would you need? Would a cardboard mansion make a Neopet more happier than one with a single gold or silver room? How would all of Neopian fair? What would it do for the rest of the players?

And for crying out loud, isn't there more pressing issues in Neopets anyway? Has anyone seen the economy lately?

[Goldenchaos]

Well..maybe theyll keep the old neohomes? Kind of like when they gave you a choice between converting redraw pets or not?

[Huggles]

That's what I was thinking with version two. Pets aren't exactly on the same wavelength because they're so representative and fundamental to the site, while neohomes aren't. Because it's done in flash, all the items, rooms, and gardens will have to be completely remade anyway. There really wouldn't be a reason not to keep the old neohomes up, at least for a while. But then this is Neopets, and Neopets is stupid.

And to be honest, the interior designer in me hated the old system, but loved neohomes anyway because it was all we had. When I think of building and designing a virtual home, I think of a 3 modeling interface that lets you do it mostly from scratch and furniture and accessories that look like what they are and not 2-d collages of round things and square things that could be anything.

[daisybell]

The current system of being able to use any old item, however inappropriate, in order to build up something which looks right really puts me off from doing very much in the current system. It's dated and terribly limiting. Windows look uniformly awful, however pretty they are in their item images.

However. Considering the amount of work it would take to change over to a new system and the potential for screwing it up I'm not sure I can totally look forward to a new version of Neohomes. For a start, there are hundreds of items of furniture which would need to be redrawn, and quickly, and that would almost certainly result in corners being cut so that all chairs had the same basic form etc.

Neohomes at the moment are more of a minority part of the site, which makes it surprising that they wanted to do something with them. But on the other hand, there will be fewer people to get really upset by their neohome gets altered- I think even if many people have a neohome most of them will be filling their rooms as I do, using the furniture as it was intended and without layering items in complex patterns to create features.

There is the possibility, of course, that they allow people to keep their old neohomes and run the 2.0 as a separate thing, with separate furniture so they don't have to redraw all the back catalogue... that would also mean the spotlight could still be won by the original neohomes for a good while until the new neohomes had enough furniture.

[Wingsrising]

I would like it if they let us keep our current Neohome and start a new one on a separate account if we wanted with the new version. However, I'm skeptical. Remember the entire point of this exercise is to sell Neocash items, and if the new Neocash items are unusable in the old Neohomes,they won't be wanting people to keep those.

I really don't see how a system where everything has to be exactly what it actually is, is going to be less limiting than the current system. Having worked with the current system extensively, I think that the opposite is true. Now if you want a piano or an aquarium or a staircase with landings or a treehouse or a balcony, you can have it -- you're only limited by your creativity in assembling items. In the new system you'd only be able to have those things if Neopets deigned to make furniture for them. I think most fancy Neohomes (including mine) have a tremendous amount of rockwork that would be impossible in a system where everything had to be exactly what it was, for example. Matching colors could also potentially be a lot more limiting, since you couldn't (for example) use a dresser as a bookshelf or a kitchen cabinet because the colors matched better.

I'm not saying the current system couldn't use some tweaks but I really think we would lose a lot if it was replaced with some sort of 3d system.

[Sagrei]

Error: Sorry, that category is not published yet.

The way Neo gets things done, I don't think we have to worry about this for another year or two yet.

[Huggles]

I think it's limiting because it's ugly. Even the prettiest neohomes are fundamentally ugly because of the poor quality of art. I can't really explain it any better than that. Perhaps Neopets is going to just make a suckier version of what we have now, but what I'd like to see is a 3d home like the buildings and models you see in their newest shockwave games. The top down view is great for floor plans, but it's not the natural view of the world for things that can't fly. It's all about the 360 side view and it's the difference between Subeta's human avatar and a 3d character model in Warcraft or Guild Wars or the sims. So yeah, if it's not going to be like that I have no idea what they're going to do other than making unified sizes and proportions.

In Animal Crossing objects are sized according to how many cubes they take up. So most beds are 2x2x1 cubes, 2 cubes wide, 2 cubes long, and 1 cube tall. Chairs are 2x1x1. Sofas are 3x1x1 and so on. Basically, that would prevent you from getting a chair in a furniture set that's 3 times larger than a bed or a table lamp that's bigger than the table. You'd still have the top down view, but all the sizes of the items would be completely different, and of course screw up your home if they don't keep the old ones around. Sucks for old players, but makes more sense to new ones.

Edit: Dur. I can't believe I didn't realize I was talking about Cybertown's 3d homes. Cybertown is a chat community, that's kinda like a mmorpg, with 3d worlds. You'd get a house in a neighborhood that came with its own chat room and message board, along with the option of buying a 3d home. This all runs inside of your browser and the website is virtually identical to what it was nearly 10 years ago. You'd have a 3d avatar that could walk through, or fly, through your home. If you had an apartment, when you loaded the 3d house you'd start off inside. The windows would have a background based upon whatever world you chose to live in, but you couldn't go outside. If you could afford an actual house, that house would be placed on it's own plot of land where you could walk outside. The houses were created by the site staff, but nearly all of the objects were created and uploaded by users to be purchased at a Flee Market. It was like There or Second Life, only first and with the 3d portion being completely optional.

[FaerieInGrey]

There is the possibility, of course, that they allow people to keep their old neohomes and run the 2.0 as a separate thing, with separate furniture so they don't have to redraw all the back catalogue... that would also mean the spotlight could still be won by the original neohomes for a good while until the new neohomes had enough furniture.

This is what I hope that they would do.

Wingsrising, I thought of you immediately when I saw this topic. I hope that they don't ruin all the work that you put into that beautiful Neohome . Here's hoping that you'll win before they change anything, just in case.

[Kantark]

As long as my Neohome remains on Bracknell Road then at this stage I'm not too fussed what happens to it.