Seems to be only coming from people who sided with the Dawnguard, those who sided with the Volkihar are enjoying their amazing home which trumps all other current player homes.

Seems to me the game kind of does give the "good" guys the short end of the stick though.

I personally think of the Volkihar castle as home for my vamp character, I consider Fort Dawnguard a job workplace since you know they all went there for their own protection while they prepared to attack the Vampires..while the Vampires have lived..er..unlived in their Castle for 4000+ years.

It's so far away from anything. Despite Breezehome being a little hut I tend to use it the most because it's central on the map, it's just easy to stop through there on the way though. I found myself fast traveling all the time to Volkihar.

True but you wouldn't really expect a clan of reclusive Vampires to live in a town, would you?

Harkon and the other Volkihar aren't the most welcoming bunch to mortals, they only tolerated you because they planned on turning you and you sort of saved his daughter and brought him an elder scroll.

I buy houses in towns only as rest stops if its day time, since I only go out at night or well 7 PM exactly, lil bit of RP since my char is a Vampire. =P

Volkihar is my new crib. Once I found the place I never looked back. Just a question but does it get upgraded by any chance? I told one of the vampires(forgot his name) that he can revise the garden or whatever but that's it in terms of upgrades.

I like the castle in terms of a guild home. But for a regular player home, I prefer something with a bit more mannequins/less blood/me, my wife, and my housecarl only.

Only upgrades available to Castle Volkihar is opening the pathway to the Garden up and if you go back to and retrieve Valerica from the Soul cairn she starts a garden in the courtyard (pathway to garden leads to it) you opened up after a couple weeks, good place to get ingredients if you are into alchemy.

I personally love the coffins...Vampiric surge of energy is amazing..

Magicka resistance from just sleeping in a coffin. lol

I looted another magicka resistance item..a necklace from Harkon's corpse so I have almost 100% magicka resistance making fire do nothing to me if I have fed of course. (I didn't go with the overpowered Vampire build by the way so its useful for me)

=P

All my fledglings in some of the cities have coffins I can rest in, which is good.

Couldn't see myself living somewhere where corpses and blood stains litter the entire place. Messiest vampires on the planet (Nirn, that is).

I'll take Breezehome or Honeyside over any of the more palatial residences. I prefer cozy to grand.

I think they are both kinda meh. Pretty to look at from outside but I dont like sharing my home so they are a big let down. Plus inside they could be doing with some upgrade options on both sides.

I still prefer vanilla houses.

+10% magicka resist just for sleeping in a coffin. That puts me at the cap.

could thay add in the upgrades to fort dawnguard and castle Volkihar in a patch or would it be to much

They would have to do a lot of patches to fix both those roach motels of a fort.

I could understand the vampires being messy like that but if they consider themselves like royalty then wouldn't the place look somewhat decent?

Harkon's family is/was royalty but they became Pureblooded Vampires through Molag bal since Harkon and his family feared their own mortality..according to Harkon so the two opposite lifestyles mixed to become what Castle Volkihar is. =P

I could understand that but if they consider the others inferior to them you wouldn't you expect them to be...a little more organized. I mean they live in a castle not a cave, you'd expect them to have a nice place besides the flesh on the table and some of the other things.

They also consider themselves devout followers of Molag Bal and I doubt a fancy castle with no blood around would appease him. =P

Nice, clean, and fancy Castle leaves Molag Bal disappoint. v_v

I think the blood is a nice addition since I do love bloodshed but maybe clean up the damn bones on the floor I keep tripping on. Like I said, I don't mind the dungeon area with the thralls being messy, the table with bloody flesh, live meals and the cathedral having bones but we should of been able to improve it in some way besides clearing a path to the garden.

I'd have zero problems dropping 500,000g or more to fully upgrade Castle Volkihar.The docks on the western side,the undercroft,the north and east towers and the ruins all scream 'renovator's dream' to me.

Yup, big real estate should absolutely be added to Skyrim. The option to spend hundreds of thousands of gold will be a great gold-sink for the game's economy. And the ability to build or improve housing will be something I think many players want.

Upgrades would be nice but people act like Castle Volkihar is the ugliest player home in the game below Breezehome or some such nonsense when actually as of right now its the best.

I agree. In fact the ONLY negative I have with it is that it's really far from everything. If I used fast travel it wouldn't bother me. I do still use the castle as my main home though.

So are you saying the NPCs that you have to turn in the radiant quests get coffins in their homes?

Yes..the chick in winterhold's inn..if you go into the basemant of the inn she has a coffin, Markarth warrens in one of the rooms is a coffin for you and in riften where that one wood elf goes at night, I had to follow him to find his house. lol

Agreed. I would LOVE to renovate all the closed off wings of the castle, open them up for usage again. I'd also like to be able to bring more thralls and "freshly-turned" into the castle as followers and agents. One thing I really liked about the Vile Lair DLC for Oblivion was the minion you could order to "go out and murder in the name of Sithis". Something along those lines would be fantastic!

I would also like there to be a way that I can either steal the deeds to houses, farms, etc., or petition for ownership of locations to the respective Jarls. I mean, if a certain individual "happens" to expire the leave that place empty then why can't I pick it up? Maybe keep it or rent it out, or resell it for a profit? lol. It would be fun after all. Even if the current owner were still alive, it would make an interesting side-quest or mini-game. Buying out the current owner, persuading them to sell through "persuade" or "intimidate" options. Think of the possibilities! Imagine eventually owning an entire city. The Jarl paying you monthly tributes. You'd be a Don! lol

Just a wild but fun idea

Also there are some neat and interesting places out in the wilds that I've run across that I thought would make excellent "homes" or "safe houses". Like a small hatch behind a stump on a tiny island out in the middle of a small lake I recently found. It leads down into a small smuggler's den, which I ended up clearing out. Once cleared it would be cool if I could file for a deed of ownership with the Jarl of that hold for that lake area, then purchase some upgrades when it clears! But wait too long and bandits move back in.

Well, see, the problem is that they aren't homes at all. Not unless you're willing to count all other faction bases as homes, too.

I consider any place that lets you sleep anywhere and that has safe storage anywhere a home (if its not considered a home and just a guild housing you only have safe storage in one area..Castle Volkihar has safe storage all over..well except for the abandoned towers in the garden and the undercroft)..the fact Castle Volkihar has like..4 merchants in it is just a bonus.

Fort Dawnguard only has safe storage on the top floor, near the bed with the mannequin near it.

it reminds me of Deepscorn Hollow from Oblivion.

=P

Yes its sad the only way to justify Castle Volkihar as a legit home is to bring that up. lol