A possible solution to the housing system that wouldn't be too hard to do, maybe...

I've mentioned this before but I think FF14 should consider a different approach with the housing system since wards / demolition timers aren't really practical or fair to the player base, especially new players who will have to wait until about June to try and get a house.

Idea:
They could have each house as an instance where the exterior becomes whoever you went there last and the sign post at the front lets you change the house to whoever else lives there.

It could default to your friend or FC mate's house if someone you know lives there, otherwise it could be whoever got voted highest or something for that week.

Voting system? Why yes! People could rate houses if you wanted your house to be ranked. Just get a guestbook and enable it in the settings.

People don't go around visiting houses as much as they could at least in the US servers (Not sure about Japan) but having it instance based this way would eliminate the need to have demolition and everyone could get a house if they wanted.

FC could have a house, mansion and perhaps in the future some sort of private instanced island? These are just ideas but I think that the ward/demolition system is pretty bad and people have complained about it since it its inception. There are many ways to go about this and making it instance based wouldn't, in theory be too difficult to implement (but this is a huge assumption on the leeway they have), the wards are already there overlapping each other.

I know, some of you just want dungeons and raids, but what about the rest of us who spend a huge chunk of play time crafting furniture and re-designing our house a lot? With WoW refugees coming in left and right, and world visit system coming, FF14 is about to embark in some serious membership momentum and wards will not hold especially when the next IRL disaster happens and the timer stops again.

Dear SE,

Please create a solution that doesn't punish people with houses currently. I love the wards system, I worked hard for my existing home and don't want to lose it to instanced housing.

Make ishgard instanced to stop everyone else from complaining and leave the existing housing wards alone please.

I don't want 100% instanced housing. Your current ward system is really unique and lovely. Do a hybrid before destroying the current system if you're considering something.

Honestly, they just need to add separate instanced housing in addition to Wards.

Wards are great and some people really make the most out of them.

Others are not so bothered about Wards.

Creating separate instanced housing, means that players whom don't care about wards, can always get a house. In addition, players that are waiting for a Ward plot to become available, can still have a house while waiting.

Allow a player with a Ward to transfer their home into instanced housing if they wish (Such as, if they have a house within a Ward but aren't particularly concerned about being in a Ward)

Instead of demolishing old houses, simply transfer them into instanced housing.

Simple. Everyone is happy as everyone gets a house and people who enjoy Wards get to continue to enjoy Wards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Honestly, they just need to add separate instanced housing in addition to Wards.

Wards are great and some people really make the most out of them.

Others are not so bothered about Wards.

Creating separate instanced housing, means that players whom don't care about wards, can always get a house. In addition, players that are waiting for a Ward plot to become available, can still have a house while waiting.

Allow a player with a Ward to transfer their home into instanced housing if they wish (Such as, if they have a house within a Ward but aren't particularly concerned about being in a Ward)

Instead of demolishing old houses, simply transfer them into instanced housing.

Simple. Everyone is happy as everyone gets a house and people who enjoy Wards get to continue to enjoy Wards.

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This, I'd completely support this. I do not want them to touch the current ward system and force us out.

I like the ward system but it does not work.
I actually think they should just go instanced or make the houses useful.
Wards are getting to be too many and they are dead.
If they stick with wards they need to make a reason for people to go to there homes by making them actually useful for something.
Something needs to be done.

or they could create free company islands with their own plots and locations that would create alot more room

Since interiors are instances, they could add areas that are full instances.

I understand people who want to keep wards but considering how areas are dead empty, SE really should consider to add instances that are not wards.

How to access these plots? Islands (sea or floating), NPC or central aetheryte, there are many possibilities.

It even would make possible to upgrade from a little house to bigger one, depending of the in-game incomes or crafts.

I agree this current implementation is horrible. Whatever gets rid of the ridiculous demolition and gives access to a house to everyone is good. Wish I could upvote OP a thousand times.

I really dislike instanced housing and would prefer they keep the wards. Ideally they'd allow for the creation of infinite wards and simply rearrange the houses based on activity every three months or so to concentrate active houses in the lower number wards and push inactive houses to the higher number wards. This should allow 1) for wards to remain mostly intact as they are now 2) let everyone have a house and 3) avoid the problem of having active players sprinkled throughout otherwise desolate and barren wards devoid of life.

Maybe they could add in "cul de sacs" to existing wards - where it's an area that leads to your private property via a zone line. You are then in a small, restricted area of the ward where you can purchase a small, medium, or large home, and then choose the style and etc. That way the instanced housing also has access to outdoor usage, like gardening, as well as indoor. Market Board and Aetheryte are placed outside the instance near the zone line. The player would have to zone out of their instanced home area to get to the main ward to use the MB/Bell, but that's a small concession I think.