I think hearthfire wil be a great add-on. And I've been watching the video over and over to try to get a better sense of what we are dealing with here.
1. Area: So as i watched the video, it seemed like it was located in in more than one location In between Falkreath Hold and Whiterun's hold near the lake. Also near the swamp between Solitude and Morthaal. And in the mountains (somewhere). I'm going to speculate here that this means there are multiple lands to purchase. Maybe 1 in each major hold. Hopefully.
2. Houses: As you watch the video, there seems to be a choice to buy a small house. Does this mean you can build the base for a larger home or a palace? hopefully so. The materials used to build the home look a bit upgraded as in details. Hopefully there is also more to it. Jst like Dawnguard, not everything was mentioned before its release date. Like the vale, and the shellbug helmet. The oven in the video may suggest there are new food Items to craft. hopefully they put more materials to craft in the other schools. it seems to hve more materials in smithing but just regarding the house.
3. People: The stewart seems just to be another housecarl. if you closely look at the options of diologue. They also seem to be a choice factor whether you want to build your home manually or just have them fine someone to do it for you. There are also the carrage drivers. They just don't take you to the big cities but also the smaller ones such as iverstead and riverwood. I think thats pretty neat. And then there's the bard. (I bet just sings) and finally, the children. The options there seems to be is giving them gifts, playing with them, telling them to do chores, and telling them to play outside. I hope they go in detail with the children. Hopefully giving them back stories and such. They have the dialogue option to ask why are they begging.
4. Immersion: There seems to be a lot of role-playing elements. I like the fact of the skeevers and giants. I'm sure they won't spawn giants when you're a low level. Maybe bandit raids on your home? I also hope there is a questline... But I highly doubt it. It just seems you could just purchase a plot of land from the stewart of the hold. Hopefully this isn't the case.
People need to realize this is an add-on and not a Major DLC. It is obvious that this is mainly targeted for console players. It is only 5 dollars which is seems to be a fair price. Just like Oblivion, you have the option to own a house but it seems they did it differently as to "sum it all up" in to one home for all character tyoes instead of seperate homes for each class type. This isn't horse armor material. Just like every game they produce a big DLC and then a smaller add-on or two and then Another Big DLC. I,for one will think this will be worth the five bucks.
Let's discuss more about Hearthfire.
Good insight. I'm hoping for complete freedom in the design process. I want to be able to give my home a deep basement/dungeon, towering turrets, maybe even a moat. Didn't they also say something about crafting items for your house? Not sure if that means decorations or equipment or what, but I hope it's more than just adding a few decorations to a few room templates, fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. I'm not really interested in the family side of things, but I'm very excited by the prospect of building a unique house to fit my unique wants/needs.
Seems a pretty fair summary to me
I don't really understand some of negativity towards Hearthfire. To me its an equivalent to the smaller plug ins that were offered for Oblivion - but a lot better. When you look at Hearthfire it has a lot more going for it than Horse Armour, or even the House mods like Vile Lair etc.
For $5 it seems like a decent deal. And if its not for you, then simply leave it alone.
That's highly unlikely. Atleast for this add-on. Goblins fit nowhere in skyrim region lore and thats where the falmer replacements come in. As for werebear and spears.. Don't se how that would go with a house DLC. Maybe in a much bigger DLC. Something similar (or even bigger) than dawnguard.
In the comments on another post (This Land is Mine), Conar Spence notes that the UESP wiki only mentions three plots of land (Hjaalmarch, Falkreath and the Pale) - perhaps these were just three examples and they'll be more, but I have doubts.