The Communities Housing system is a marquee feature making its grand debut in Homecoming, the next major WildStar update arriving September 6. For the first time ever players will be able to join their Housing plots together to create an otherworldly neighborhood with near-limitless customization possibilities. Before you plunge head first into this rich new feature, let’s cover some of the basics that’ll put you on your path toward expert Community planning.
Social Engineering
At their core, Communities are designed as a social feature that’s structured much like the guild system. You can think of the logistics of Community membership as similar to belonging to a guild, and your Community can be entirely independent of your guild (if you’re in one). Various ranks can be set for Community members, beginning at the top with the leader, to customize permission sets and determine who has the ability to make a number of key decisions that shape the Community. And while up to a maximum of 20 characters may belong to a Community, it’s important to note that no more than five Housing plots can be actively displayed within the collective Community plot. In addition to the five Housing plots, there’s a common area to which multiple members can contribute decorations to help tie the neighborhood together. Express yourselves!
It Takes a Village
Any character that’s a home owner and can create guilds and Circles can also establish a Community. To get started with founding your Community, speak with the Protostar Community Director located in Illium and Thayd in front of each city’s Housing display. Just be sure to give some thought to naming your Community! It’ll cost 50 Platinum or 600 Service Tokens to register, so it may be worth making arrangements to split the cost among the people you’ll be inviting to be your neighbors. A character may only belong to one Community at any given time. To that end, if you’ve always dreamt of building a shared living space for your alts, and you have the funds to unlock a Community by yourself, more power to you! At its core, the Communities system is designed to be a social feature, but solo Communities are an option too.
Phenomenal Cosmic Power, Not-so-Itty-Bitty Living Space
Given that the Communities system pulls together characters’ existing Housing plots, it’s worth understanding how belonging to a Community will affect your personal living space. Whenever your home is occupying a physical space in the Community it won’t also be available to visit as a separate Housing plot. On the flipside, if you’re a member of a Community but your home isn’t currently occupying one of the five plots, you’ll retain access to your individual Housing plot. To put it simply, you get one location on which to display your personal property at any given time, whether that’s within a Community or on your own plot.
There are various options available to members for selecting or reserving plots depending on how ranks are established by the Community Leader—remember there are a total of five plots to display members’ homes. If there’s a vacant plot whenever you visit your Community, at virtually any rank you can choose to display your Housing plot in that space for the duration of your play session. The plot is then relinquished to be used by another member of the Community once you log out of the game. On the other hand, with sufficient permissions you can reserve a plot, which is a way of staking long-term claim to the land that persists whether or not you’re online. A reservation is removed when the plot owner or someone else with appropriate permissions revokes it. The goal with these placement options is to give larger Communities the opportunity to be flexible in how access to plots are shared, while also allowing smaller Communities to lock down who gets each piece of land.
Win Big in the Community Showdown
We know a lot of determined builders are enthusiastic about the introduction of Communities to the ever-expansive Player Housing system in WildStar. With this in mind we’re jumpstarting Homecoming with a brand-new Housing contest on a scale we’ve never done before! In the coming days you’ll have the ability to register a team to compete in the Community Showdown to make the coolest, most unique, and awe-inspiring Community in the galaxy! If you’re up for the challenge, we recommend you start gathering your team of up to five players and think of what to name your Community. We’ll open a signup page for you and your teammates to register, and you can get started on your shared masterpiece the moment the Homecoming game update goes live! Stay tuned in the coming days. We’ll announce when signups are open and contest rules are available.
We’re thrilled to be bringing this new feature to WildStar and can’t wait to stop by your neighborhood!
