In August of 2015, during Release 20, we responded to many requests from community members to be able to view a home in-game before they purchase it (either from the Add-On Store, Stretch Goal Store, or through a pledge upgrade) by building Hometown for the first time. Using the Island template, Starr “Darkstarr” Long built the town of Hometown on an island just off the southeast corner of Novia, near the starting town of Soltown.
Over many releases, Hometown morphed several times; changing biomes and becoming a community effort. Starting shortly after persistence in Release 32, we decided to take this back over as a developer effort versus a volunteer community effort. This was not an easy decision, but there was some negative perception around having players have access to the houses and decorations for “free”. So, rather than create unnecessary drama, we have just decided to take this back on as a dev effort.
Darkstarr has been feverishly placing the first sets of lots and houses on Live, and various team members will be claiming and decorating them as their own over the next several releases. Hometown is located off the southeastern coast of Novia, near Soltown (see map).
The dock area where you arrive includes links to all the other templates currently available so you can view those to see how they are all laid out. There is a large perimeter wall built with the White Stone Castle Walls that encircles the main flat area on the main island. All the houses in that enclosed area are available in the Add-On Store (ala carte or in in Bundles) or in-game (crafted or bought from NPC merchants). Everything outside of that perimeter wall is expired content.
The center of town near the main entrance is where you can find all of the various row houses. Directly behind them is Viking Avenue, which features all the Viking Bundle Homes. To the right is Kobold Quarter, which features the Kobold Bundle homes. And beyond that is what will become the Obsidian Section; featuring the Obsidian Bundle homes. To the left is the Elven area. The rest of the interior area is devoted to the various other home types and is roughly grouped by style (Adobe, Rustic, Shingle Roof, etc.). 
Join us in Hometown to select your next house design to call home!
Is this map still blank (of houses) on the QA server? Im running around everywhere in this map and see zero houses, but I do see all the boats/balloons to other zones. Do we need to wait for R34 to be live to see the new Hometown?
I have been searching all over the world since R32 for a Kobold Town home, and havent ever seen one. I cant see one in any of the pictures above, and I really want to walk around inside one. Can someone verify if a Kobold Town home will indeed be viewable in Hometown?
Correction, I see DarkStarr’s house :-P. One house…
Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
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Love the layout – very clean and easy to understand and navigate. And thanks for the time you will be devoting to this initiative. I think it will be a huge success once completed.