SE's housing system doesn't favor anybody...

Ya, the XI comparison is very poor for the following reason.

FFXI came out in 2002, Mog Houses were nothing more than an area that you by yourself could change your job, store items and place down furniture. If a player wanted to see your house they could only see it through a screenshot. It wasn't until November 2007 where players could finally visit other players Mog Houses however they could only go to said house if they were in the same party and the person in question allowed access to their Mog House.

Even then the limit would be based on the party size which is 6, so you and 5 others could go into someone's Mog House.

Now let's compare that to XIV, you have the ability to make your house private or public and by making it public nearly 200+ people could enter the same house without needing to be in the same party.

Can you see the fault in trying to compare the FFXI housing to FXIV housing?

*sigh*

"just make instanced housing. Now everyone has a house"

Requires more data storage

"Just add more storage"

Ok now we have tens of thousands of people accessing the server containing the housing instances... Remember all the complaints about Raubahn and Pipen EX at the SB launch? That is now your housing experience.

FFXI's "instanced housing" really wasn't instanced housing. As mentioned it was basically a single bedroom smaller than an FC room you could store stuff in, change jobs, check mail, and plant stuff in pots if you wanted to. The room in your home town was the only one you could put furniture in. The rental rooms in other locations were just a defaulted furniture theme for that area and only gave access to the things actually done by your moogle. However that system was there from the beginning. We have a housing system in place currently that was originally intended to be for FC's but due to the amount of unused plots it was decided to make them available for individual people. Once this decision was done there wasn't an option to go back without heavy backlash from the player base. Tearing the existing system out and replacing it with something else is not only a lot of man hours of work between hardware, logistics, and coding. It also is going to hit player backlash of varying severity depending on how the new system works which is likely why currently they have been keeping the current system and just adding more wards. Not the best solution but from a developer standpoint currently its more cost effective and has a more predictable reaction.

So bear in mind that while saying "Just add instanced Housing" to you is a simple solution because it takes no effort to type it, the simple solution really isn't so simple, quick, and easy for the people that would actually have to do the work to implement it... >.>

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

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I like you. You completely get it. :)

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Originally Posted by Zarabeth

I was an ffxi player and the "housing" was an inn room in your home town. One room. No outside at all. You could invite people into your room but they had to be in party with you and if you left they got tossed out. We had flower pots to grow things in. No gardens and definitely no crossbreeding and results were rng based. Basically what an apartment is now but smaller.

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XI housing actually now has a second story, patio option, and then your mog garden which is an outdoor (beach front!) instance which gives access to 3 garden patches and various nodes you can collect from. This is also where your monster raising takes place.

Yes, it is outdated, and each room itself is the size of an inn room(aside from the garden area which is larger), but you get so much more functionality. And every character gets this included with the sub.

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

Ok now we have tens of thousands of people accessing the server containing the housing instances... Remember all the complaints about Raubahn and Pipen EX at the SB launch? That is now your housing experience.

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You can use dynamic scaling. Put housing instances in a similar way to duty instances, and maybe add an extra server or two to give some extra buffer. And again, it can share between housing and duty instances, dynamically adjusting how many of each exist according to need. As for data storage? That stuff is dirt cheap nowadays. Not many people accessing duty instances but want to access housing instances, dynamically assign more housing instances. And vice-versa. Playing on existing hardware and making it work. Sure, there'll be Raubahn/Pipin EX (except in this case, Housing EX), but it'll last a few days while the novelty wears off, then it'll settle down. Like how Raubahn/Pipin EX settled down. And should demand remain consistently excessively high, then SE knows they need an extra instance server or 2 in there (but, there'll be a peak, since you're either in a house, or a duty instance, SE will be able to find a balance). Someone in another thread suggested hiring servers from another company, perhaps this could be a way to offset the excess usage, by dynamic "Pay as you use" scaling to shove off an excess peak temporarily and get them in?

The thing is, MMOs require ongoing investment, both from the player (through our sub fees and mog station purchases, as well as purchasing the game + expansions), and from the company creating the product (feeding enough of what we pay back into the game). SE right now is not investing, giving a token budget to FFXIV, despite it being a cash cow for them. Now bear in mind, I've worked with UNIX servers in the past, and dealt with SQL databases, so while I'm not an expert by any stretch, I do have some experience of working with servers.

As for the work needed to implement it... sometimes you have to just do the grind work (for example I had to learn 6 months worth of UNIX in 5 days, I subsequently failed, but it's where I got some of my knowledge from) to make it work. Instead of just sticking to a system that continually fails out of pride. I get people don't want to admit their mistakes (and for the most part, FFXIV is an awesome game. I give credit to the devs for it.), but sometimes you have to just swallow your pride, accept it didn't work out, and move to fix it. Instead of just applying elastoplast after elastoplast over the laceration, get it stitched up.

EDIT: I know Stormblood got a budget increase compared to HW, and quite a large one at that, but for all the money FFXIV brings in, it's still what I'd consider a "token budget".

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Originally Posted by Moonlite

You mean like it was fixed for those people on full servers in 3.3. Defending this system is (looking for a non offensive word). It is a permanently flawed system and all you will only think its fixed because you a) don't want one or b) have one. The system puts strain on smaller servers by forcing them to have more house zones then needed and large servers by not having enough for players and FCs.

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I think defending the current system is really logical given how we know how instanced servers work in this game. I don't wanna be denied entry to housing instance because its full (heres to you Rhaubhan ex) I really think whatever system they have planned will help alleviate some of the housing pains. The auto demolish feature being reimplemented will help as well. Still think all OP and some of the people here are offering overly simplified/extreme solutions to a complex problem that we don't even know all the inter workings of but alright, good luck.

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

So bear in mind that while saying "Just add instanced Housing" to you is a simple solution because it takes no effort to type it, the simple solution really isn't so simple, quick, and easy for the people that would actually have to do the work to implement it... >.>

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You act like no other dev in the world has this working in an MMO? I get that Japanese MMO's are generally behind the rest of the world. But off hand comments that dismiss it as something so hard and costly to do. Is it work, everything is work. Does SE have a multiple scale pay model, yes. They should at least to be able to have the same amount of money Aion has for housing. So if they supposedly are more successful then most other MMOs maybe something else needs to be looked at.

You know what maybe FF housing has a million more features. But maybe they should have created a system that would work and build on it. They wouldn't increase bags to an unlimited size, but they put to many features into housing that the game can't handle it for everyone. That seems like a poor choice. Aren't MMOs suppose to built upon an ever growing system? Yet they already failed at launch in in 2.X and going forward. The system seems to run on a hope and prayer. What will it be like if the game keeps growing in 5.0?

I like my neighbourhood thank you. It brings something more than an instanced house imo.

I was fortunate enough to find a small house plot close to my FC headquarters, as have some other members, and we have a market board nearby - so our corner of the Lavender Beds *feels* busy, even though it's mostly only our FC.

Actually I'm not certain that I've ever seen anyone else around - even with another FC's headquarters next door to my private house. Though it seems to be a relatively quiet server - the plot I found was at minimum price, so not in super high demand.

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Originally Posted by Soupa

I think defending the current system is really logical given how we know how instanced servers work in this game. I don't wanna be denied entry to housing instance because its full (heres to you Rhaubhan ex) I really think whatever system they have planned will help alleviate some of the housing pains. The auto demolish feature being reimplemented will help as well. Still think all OP and some of the people here are offering overly simplified/extreme solutions to a complex problem that we don't even know all the inter workings of but alright, good luck.

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Even doubling the current wards wouldn't cover half the playerbase. And this isn't even considering FCs or the fact people can own multiple houses split amongst their alts or dummy FCs. Their planned solution won't do a damn thing as plots will be sold out within ten minute. Even if they do implement a lottery system, the overwhelming majority of players won't get a house. It's, frankly, ridiculous they cannot figure out how to offer a feature other MMOs already do.