Instanced Housing: Ideas and Details

A lot of us are calling for instanced housing, even more so now that the 6 new wards are almost completely full. But what does that look like to you? Note: This isn’t a “get rid of the wards” post, or “instanced can’t/won’t work” post, just a brainstorming thread for what those who want instanced housing want to see.

This is my wish list:

Choose ward theme: the neighborhood you want your house to be in. Lavender Beds, Mist, Goblet, Shirogane or Empyreum. Possibility exists to have a generic background from any place in the game, but for starters let’s just keep it simple. The existing wards are basically a model for your instanced area.

Choose size: small, medium or large, with the option to switch between them at will. Upgrading could require extra gil, or maybe add something like a remodeling permit. Either way, you should be paying the same sticker price as you would for a ward house.

Choose plot: while it should be fairly simple to pick any existing plot as the model for an instanced house, maybe limit it to the 3 most popular of each size per neighborhood, but only if necessary. You would teleport to your plot on the street in front of it. Background scenery would be the same as the normal ward, but neighboring plots, if any are shown at all, would be generic scenery houses. I’m thinking just enough room outside the plot so you can zoom out and take some nice screenshots of your home.

Full indoor and outdoor functionality: everything inside the house and within the outside yard functions the same as ward houses do.

Bonus idea: ability to add extra rooms, much like the current FC apartment system. This might need some limits placed on it, but it gives more extra decorating space!

I'd want nothing more than to have a house in Ishgard with no neighbours. I have the gil to buy whatever but the supply just isn't there, and even if I did it would be easily ruined by other players who think they are so creative for putting Chocobo houses in the middle of Empyreum for all to see.

I would take the choosing a ward theme a step further and actually have them accessed from within their respective wards like an apartment. Perhaps by way of talking to a guard NPC stationed at a gate. There should be an aetheryte and a marketboard next to the access point as well.

Definitely agree on the part about being able to choose house size and building site. The plots don't necessarily have to be duplicates of specific ward plots, but some variety to choose from would be nice.

Interiors are already instanced, so having those behave the same is a trivial matter. What they need to add are the instanced exteriors, which I agree should have the same functionality as ward exteriors. They could even have the bonus perk of effectively having an extra exterior item slot due to not needing a miniature aetheryte if they are accessed in the same way as apartments.

Just like apartments, they should be immune from auto demolish.

They should be mutually exclusive with ward housing. Players should have to make the choice between having a traditional ward house with a neighborhood or an instanced house with flexible size and site choices that doesn't have to deal with autodemolish. This would help to reduce a lot of demand for ward houses. Players who absolutely need the neighborhood experience will have a better chance of getting a ward house due to lower competition. Players who just want a house of their choice without the hassle will be able to do so without having to deal with the uncertainty of the lottery.

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Originally Posted by Pablomaldito

I would take the choosing a ward theme a step further and actually have them accessed from within their respective wards like an apartment. Perhaps by way of talking to a guard NPC stationed at a gate. There should be an aetheryte and a marketboard next to the access point as well.

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I like that the NPC guard should be within the current wards, so that it will at least give a community or neighborhood sense as you stroll along the wards first, for those who are concerned about the loss of neighborhood sense. However, it would also mean it’s behind 2 loading screens before you get to your instanced exterior. It would be 3 loading screens before you get to your instanced interior.

But which ward would the NPC guard be? Ward 1? Ward 2? Because it doesn't matter right - it's instanced.

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Originally Posted by Hycinthus

But which ward would the NPC guard be? Ward 1? Ward 2? Because it doesn't matter right - it's instanced.

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I think the simplest way would be to have it just like the apartments. Each ward main division & subdivision would have its own directory of instanced houses.

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Originally Posted by Pablomaldito

I think the simplest way would be to have it just like the apartments. Each ward main division & subdivision would have its own directory of instanced houses.

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Oh I like that idea! Definitely a good way to keep it organized, and probably easier for the devs if they can use an existing directory UI.

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Originally Posted by Pablomaldito

I think the simplest way would be to have it just like the apartments. Each ward main division & subdivision would have its own directory of instanced houses.

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It should be part of the apartments system to start with.

Maybe you get incremental upgrade options, expanding the size of your apartment to the equivalent of a Small/Medium/Large house, plus additional options of an outside terrace/balcony area which then turns into an upgrade for a full blown instanced housing plot.

Interior: Apartment > Duplex Apartment > Triplex Apartment > Penthouse Apartment
Exterior: No Garden > Small Terrace > Large Terrace > Private Lodging Plot
Gil: 500,000 (incl. both as default) > 1,000,000 (each) > 5,000,000 (each) > 10,000,000 (each)

You upgrade either option as many times as you like, so Interior 4 and Exterior 1 = Penthouse Apartment, while Interior 2 and Exterior 4 would be a private Cottage lodge, and 4 for both would be a private Mansion lodge, and would set you back a total of 32.5 million.

In either case, you enter at the same place, and zone into either your apartment, or your private housing plot.

After all, apartments are instanced housing, it's just too limited for some people to seriously consider. We have 27,000 apartment slots per server, enough to cover all active players.

Why bother with wards when we have an entire island we already own, let us build a house on the Island Sanctuary.

It's the easiest option, the area is already instanced and allows visitors, it already has its own construction system and materials, there's plenty of extra space that could be cleared for a plot, it has no real theme like the wards so any house type would fit in, customizable paving already exists and could be expanded to fit ward themes if need be. You can't unlock it until you reach Sharlyan, so SE won't have a ton of newbies with trial accounts taking up server capacity.

We could buy basic and island exclusive furniture using island materials and/or cowries adding more life to the currently fairly hollow Sanctuary rewards. Everyone gets a beach front view, the only negative would be the lack of a marketboard.

Wards would still be available for those with the gil and patience, but using island materials to build and furnish a home means even those without massive amounts of expendable gil could enjoy the housing system, and could dip their toes into crafted furniture when gil or crafting level allows.

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Originally Posted by Ramiren

Why bother with wards when we have an entire island we already own, let us build a house on the Island Sanctuary.

It's the easiest option, the area is already instanced and allows visitors, it already has its own construction system and materials, there's plenty of extra space that could be cleared for a plot, it has no real theme like the wards so any house type would fit in, customizable paving already exists and could be expanded to fit ward themes if need be. You can't unlock it until you reach Sharlyan, so SE won't have a ton of newbies with trial accounts taking up server capacity.

We could buy basic and island exclusive furniture using island materials and/or cowries adding more life to the currently fairly hollow Sanctuary rewards. Everyone gets a beach front view, the only negative would be the lack of a marketboard.

Wards would still be available for those with the gil and patience, but using island materials to build and furnish a home means even those without massive amounts of expendable gil could enjoy the housing system, and could dip their toes into crafted furniture when gil or crafting level allows.

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Bozja was already instanced too, but it's not set up to feature the housing system. We don't know that Island Sanctuary would manage with Housing on it either.
It allows other players, but only when you yourself are in there, and only those on your friends list.

We know larger Apartments would work, because they already do. How hard could it be to simply change the layout of them?

Whilst I'm not a fan of the instanced housing idea, I can understand its merits and actually had an idea, "lore wise" of how it could work, might make people unhappy though.

Use the massive skyscraper like buildings in Amaurot. The place was previously rife with creation magic, so spinning some kind of story about how your character created some kind of personal house there, in a zone you wanted, so you were able to have an environment that you actually liked such as Beds, Goblet etc. Needs a fair bit of fleshing out, but it's at least some way of making instanced housing, right?