So.. the Animal Corssing-esc. Island Sanctuaries... thoughts and wishes

I hope that it is an island area, let's say atop a hill, where you can decorate the whole area with outdoor furnishings, and a more involved, new gardening system, with the ability to have some minions walk free, but I also would like a house in that island so you can decorate both the exterior of the island and the interior of your house, this way everyone can have a house (you'd have to pay to place it / expand it, so it would still be an investment). Ideally it would start as a small but you could upgrade to medium, then to large, so people would have that to work towards along with it being a gil sink. Also your friends could teleport there like they currently can with the housing system we currently have. Having this the normal housing wards could be a thing for FCs, RP venues, or for people that really like that area's aesthetics.


I think if it's not instanced housing there will be major disappointment and a lot of complains, I think the dev team is aware of that expectation.


The worst it can be is a place like the lost ark stronghold, a lot of systems and menus you have to interact with weekly to get extra rewards.

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Originally Posted by kaynide

I hope what everyone else does.

I expect something along the lines of Doma reconstruction.

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mmm Doma Reconstruction but inside something like the pixie dream land.

I think they have announced this too early. Allowing hype and expectations to fly into the air will only make things more disappointing when they're brought back down to earth.

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Originally Posted by Tigerlilley

...Allowing hype and expectations to fly into the air will only make things more disappointing when they're brought back down to earth.

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Looking in my crystal ball, I can see the English forums filled up with a few pages of complaint threads. "Why no housing, why no decoration, why is everything in fixed places and external mesh only, why no inside, why can I only click once every 18 hours, then nothing to do".

Meanwhile there will be a small thread on the Japanese forums saying it's cute, and making a tiny number of friendly twinkly suggestions in a highly positive manner.

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Originally Posted by Lubu_Mykono

(like the MMO that shall not be named)

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MMO? I seem to recall a pet collection and battling game though. What was it? Pokewow? Wowkemon?

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Originally Posted by Tigerlilley

mmm Doma Reconstruction but inside something like the pixie dream land.

I think they have announced this too early. Allowing hype and expectations to fly into the air will only make things more disappointing when they're brought back down to earth.

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The hype peaked right as it was announced. If it turns out to not be instanced housing the hard part will be convincing people that was not promised. It might have been best to say nothing at all. :D

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Looking in my crystal ball, I can see the English forums filled up with a few pages of complaint threads. "Why no housing, why no decoration, why is everything in fixed places and external mesh only, why no inside, why can I only click once every 18 hours, then nothing to do".

Meanwhile there will be a small thread on the Japanese forums saying it's cute, and making a tiny number of friendly twinkly suggestions in a highly positive manner.

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Don't forget on Reddit it will be called the bestest thing ever and everyone who says otherwise are just haters and trolls. And there will be 20,000 booba drawings of Cat/Dragon girls on their island.

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Originally Posted by Conundrum

Don't forget on Reddit it will be called the bestest thing ever and everyone who says otherwise are just haters and trolls. And there will be 20,000 booba drawings of Cat/Dragon girls on their island.

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Hey

Something good has to come out of all this.

*chuckles*

I expect it to be like every side content FFXIV has put out. Underwhelming at first, fixed through the patch cycle then forgotten because generic / repetitive. It will have its audience, and there will be some 'what a waste of resources' outcries.

While communication around it has been very vague, I don't expect much from it because "slow gaming" in itself is such a deep gameplay experience that requires a lot of careful design, and I'm not sure FFXIV can allocate these resources in there without having the rest of the game suffering from it. If it's bite size content I can do here and there to get some cosmetics rewards, then it's fine. Anything more than that and I expect less relic stuff, or less side quests...

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Originally Posted by Mansion

While communication around it has been very vague, I don't expect much from it because "slow gaming" in itself is such a deep gameplay experience that requires a lot of careful design...

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That depends as release of this feature was postponed as initial pitch got more intrest than expected - so they dumped way more dev time.

Please give me my Harvest Moon replacement.
I want a farm, livestock, and the ability to simp over someone using said farm and livestock, so make it a little profitable too.

I'm not expecting much, and even less so as a non-crafter.

If it is anything close to games like Stardew Valley/Harvest Moon I like it :p

I am keeping my expectations very low for this. I want a home of my own, but expect a shell of a house as only a graphic, some interactable points of interest & a pen to place three to five minions to wander about in a small area.

I have zero expectations.

The developers have even said that we're over-hyping it. They probably made a mistake in not being more clear in what they're planning, so speculations ran wild a bit. There'll certainly be no instanced housing or large customizable environments.

If I can grow my chocobo onions on it I'll be happy.

Personal space - so instanced somehow

Relaxing and stress free - so totally optional with no timers to juggle (though I'm sure there will be some timer regulating how fast we acquire whatever resources there are) and no other content gated by it. Do it when you feel like it, ignore it when you don't care.

No character progression - nothing you will do will add to your character in any way (no achievements, titles, gear, new minions/mounts, etc.), only to the Sanctuary itself.

Non-competitive - nothing that can be acquired to sell for profit, no leaderboards or rankings to compare what you do to what other players do (though I'm certain some players will attempt to turn it into some sort of competition).

Farming style activities involved - we'll be growing crops and/or raising livestock

Minions will be able to run around - there will be some sort of preset layout for where players are able to add their "upgrades" so it won't interfere with minion pathing AI

Inspired by games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley though not the same as them with fewer features - sounds like we'll have a personal instanced area with a starting plot for growing things. We collect what we grow to turn into add more features (decorative buildings, additional growing plots for new items needed to purchase additional types of decorative features, etc.). We'll be able to pick a few minions we own to run around to make it look like a living place... and that's about it.

Friends will probably be able to visit Sanctuaries belonging to friends if guest access is enabled (probably would enter via the Estate teleportation option) though it might be limited to when the sanctuary owner is online. Maybe there will be some NPC that sells/buys different sanctuary goods that are random by instance to encourage visiting?

As for those looking to grow Thavnairian Onions - that is most definitely not a relaxing, stress-free activity so it clearly won't happen in Island Sanctuary.

If it's anything like ocean fishing I won't even consider it.

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Originally Posted by MidnightEquinox

If I can grow my chocobo onions on it I'll be happy.

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Yeah, pretty much if it finally allows Gardening for everyone...a feature that has been in the game for years but only a FRACTION of the player base has been able to enjoy i'd be happy.

Maybe let us raise some livestock.

It will probably be more Farmville than Stardew Valley.

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Originally Posted by Teno

If it's anything like ocean fishing I won't even consider it.

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With a little luck and practice ocean fishing is great. Probably the best way to level fishing and gives a cool mount and some minions.

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Originally Posted by Maxilor

Yeah, pretty much if it finally allows Gardening for everyone...a feature that has been in the game for years but only a FRACTION of the player base has been able to enjoy i'd be happy.

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The same could be said about airships and submarines. A cool feature locked to FC...and not just FCs, FCs WITH a house.

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Originally Posted by Conundrum

The same could be said about airships and submarines. A cool feature locked to FC...and not just FCs, FCs WITH a house.

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I hope we get FC spaceships.

And also rented workshops at GC HQ for those unfortunate FCs without a house.

to be honest i'm a bit concerned they've shot themselves in the foot with how little information we've received about island sanctuaries.
i feel people are hyping it up, believing it to have all these features that haven't been outright promised, and when we finally get more information and it turns out these features are not there people will react by being upset or outright angry.

anyway i have no real expectations currently, i'm just hoping it's fun and chill, i guess.

Judging by the side content in the past they came up with so far being a solid "MEH", I think it will be very lackluster for me already not all that hyped about it.

Anyone expecting Story of Seasons, Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley etc are setting themselves up for disappointment. I'd recommend looking at SE's past concept of this called Mog Gardens in this game's cousin FFXI for a more reasonable expectation of what we could receive. If we get some version of this maybe combined with WoW's later attempt Garrisons, we could have something fairly relaxing and fun to do daily or weekly.

If it's a private garden and some kind of material gathering system beyond retainers I'll be happy enough.

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Originally Posted by SilverObi

Anyone expecting Story of Seasons, Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley etc are setting themselves up for disappointment. I'd recommend looking at SE's past concept of this called Mog Gardens in this game's cousin FFXI for a more reasonable expectation of what we could receive. If we get some version of this maybe combined with WoW's later attempt Garrisons, we could have something fairly relaxing and fun to do daily or weekly.

If it's a private garden and some kind of material gathering system beyond retainers I'll be happy enough.

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The fact that so many people appear to be hoping for just this kind of thing should be a wake up call to the developers. Maybe they should wait a bit longer and do this right before they release this new feature. I have no dog in this hunt as I will barely be able to afford a medium house, once housing becomes available again. However, I have a guildmate who is hoping to be able to purchase an island and set up a farm. There is a real opportunity here for the game to be expanded significantly in terms of play. I only hope SE takes the time to do it properly. I think, if they do it right, the players will be patient for the release.

really hoping for HM/SoS gameplay with minions ;; ... They mentioned the island sanctuaries are gonna be more than just housing, so I really hope they don't drop the ball with this.

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Originally Posted by Eraden

The fact that so many people appear to be hoping for just this kind of thing should be a wake up call to the developers...

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Honestly yeah they should've put out SOME info in all this time, leaving a complete void just makes people speculate and overhype themselves. That being said I don't necessarily think a whole farming sim is the -only- way for this content to exist, it can still be something fun without having SoS/ACNH gameplay even if it boils down to minigames with cosmetic elements. The devs are setting up the boiling pot of backlash for themselves at this point by keeping completely quiet.

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Originally Posted by SilverObi

The devs are setting up the boiling pot of backlash for themselves at this point by keeping completely quiet.

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They really are!

We've had more information about the new PvP modes than Island Sanctuary, despite Island Sanctuary being mentioned first and even having artwork created.

What you say is completely correct. People will be disappoint.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

They really are!

We've had more information about the new PvP modes than Island Sanctuary, despite Island Sanctuary being mentioned first and even having artwork created.

What you say is completely correct. People will be disappoint.

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What difference does it make?
Either way NA community is going to complain and never happy

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Either way NA community is going to complain and never happy

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I recall many many years ago, in a game far far away... Wrath of the Lion King era from memory... Blizz gave everyone something as an apology for something they did wrong (a rare gift) and yep, people complained about the gift.

I seem to vaguely recall the same thing with the EQ2 forums, some gift of free play time, and people complained about it not being enough.

Oh, and recently here, where we got 14 days free time for the EW server congestion, yep we had the same thing too, people complaining about the gift.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

What difference does it make?
Either way NA community is going to complain and never happy

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Look at me look at me....I bashed America on the internet, can I has cool points???!11

Despite your sensitivity, the NA community is bigger than only players from the USA.

It's called the NA community, because the servers are in NA. It includes English speakers from Europe, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, South East Asia, India, and more.

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Originally Posted by Conundrum

Look at me look at me....I bashed America on the internet, can I has cool points???!11

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If this were Reddit you'd get points and a medal of a seal head.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Despite your sensitivity, the NA community is bigger than only players from the USA.

It's called the NA community, because the servers are in NA. It includes English speakers from Europe, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, South East Asia, India, and more.

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I don't think Brits are primarily flocking to the NA servers, not when there are servers in Frankfurt.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

I don't think Brits are primarily flocking to the NA servers, not when there are servers in Frankfurt.

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There's a decent amount of European players over on the North American servers simply because ARR didn't launch with servers that were actually located in Europe. I chose to start on Balmung when I first started playing and only moved over to Cerberus because I wanted a house and a better connection when finally Square Enix added authentic European servers.

I know a lot of European players who opted to remain on the North American servers due to being unwilling to abandon the friends they had made there. Others simply didn't want to give up their house or played so casually that a stronger connection wasn't a worthy concern to them.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

I don't think Brits are primarily flocking to the NA servers, not when there are servers in Frankfurt.

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There are quite a few, but more my comment was about the NA forum community. It's more than just the USA, and it loves to be contrary!

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Originally Posted by Shibi

There are quite a few, but more my comment was about the NA forum community. It's more than just the USA, and it loves to be contrary!

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I'm sure JP would be contrary too, if you started calling them the CN community.

QED

(10 chars)

At this point I'll settle for a nice instanced place to ERP.

Epic Roleplay, that is.

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Originally Posted by Beytran70

At this point I'll settle for a nice instanced place to ERP.

Epic Roleplay, that is.

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I don't want to know what you're going to do with that Bismarck minion, but I fear for what the innocent little Amalj'aa minion might accidentally come across while roaming your island.