Instanced "independant" housing

When will we get Independantly Instanced Housing (to bypass the painful insufficiency of the housing wards)?

I'd vote for moghomes, be that for personal or FC houses, that will look like this!

http://img2.finalfantasyxiv.com/acci...d7be95266c.png

That way we all get our home if our home is in an island isolated from everyone elses.

Come on SE, you can do it!

When I saw this cutscene I had the same idea, where my immediate thought was "Why can't we have this for housing? This better be the future of private housing I swear to gawd."

Not sure about personal houses, it nullifies the MMO in the MMORPG when it's just you in an instance, but that sound like a nice idea for FC housing. An instance were other members can build their personal houses next to the FC's. I don't like the setting very much though, not a big fan of the idea of living in the sky.

Still rooting for a version of personal chambers we can access from Moh Dhona or Idyllshire, personally.

I dont get this. What is the point of housing, when you are the only who can see it, only one who can visit, and you are totally alone? You might as well keep staying at inns. Most of the original appeal to player housing was that it was part of a neighborhood, a community. I agree that it would alleviate the problem, but I don't think it would be very enjoyable for most. I know I really want my own house, but if it comes down to this, then I will definitely pass and not even waste my time/gil. Surely, I cant be the only one who feels this way....

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Originally Posted by Jacosta

You might as well keep staying at inns. Most of the original appeal to player housing was that it was part of a neighborhood, a community.

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Honestly, if they instanced FC neighborhoods it would help a lot. Say a FC wants to buy a township; they buy the area and members of the fc pay a smaller price for land within that neighborhood. That way if people don't /want/ to live in a neighborhood with their fc, they can still get a personal home in the current neighborhoods. But each individual FC has their own instanced neighborhood to use. Personally, I'd give up my personal home immediately if that was the case. But I'm not too sure how feasible that idea is, so I have no idea how to help. I love the neighborhoods, though, so I'm not too fond of the idea of individual instanced housing. We just need SE to give the wards to be bustling hubs of activity again.

I'd like instance housing in Sea of Clouds, if only so that way if it can also be taken away, they can just say it was because Bismark ate the island your house was on and you weren't there to defend it.

The housing wards are insufficient because Squeenix don't have enough servers, or servers capable of running more (at this time...). Can you imagine the drain having something like this running? It would likely make the issue worse :(

Then it needs to be designed better for future housing.

If the current system is as bad as it is, then more of the same isn't going to resolve the matter. :(

But FFXI had instanced houses, right?

It can't be THAT bad to make it happen... right?!

Man, I've got no interest in moving to an Ishgard housing ward, but if it were in Sea of Clouds I don't think I'd be able to resist.

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Originally Posted by Jacosta

What is the point of housing, when you are the only who can see it, only one who can visit, and you are totally alone?

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Ask the people who build entire mansions in mod editors for themselves. Or the people who bought Hearthfire or any of the vanilla houses in skyrim. Or the people who kill NPCs to claim a house/castle/bunker as their own.

There appears to be a desire for a personal house or lair that's independent from any notion of community and in fact, many people would rather choose a house in a secluded place over one in the "neighborhood" if given that choice. That said, since we already have "neighborhood housing", it can't exactly hurt to add instanced housing for those who don't care about neighborhood. Although I wager there is a looming fear that this is the vast majority of people and neighborhoods died as a result.

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Originally Posted by Rofel

But FFXI had instanced houses, right?

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hate to point this out but FFXI's housing system is more like Private rooms rather than instance housing and you could only access your room from your home nation

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Originally Posted by Ageofwar

hate to point this out but FFXI's housing system is more like Private rooms rather than instance housing and you could only access your room from your home nation

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Hmmm I see... thanks for pointing that!

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Originally Posted by Austherus

it nullifies the MMO in the MMORPG when it's just you in an instance.

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Ok, let us go around the housing ward of my FC house right now...

Current Gallery of all MB/Bells in my ward

Yep, you saw right, in the entire instance it was just me, and two people on the opposite map from my general house (that I think were AFK).


I ran into no one else on my 'tour' through the ward. Not standing outside their house, anything. So the whole instance of LB1 subdivision on Balmung (One of the high population housing-intensive rp servers!) -- there is a grand total of three people in it. Me, and two people afk.

Really feeling that MMO feeling.

At least if it was instanced and I knew it was just supposed to be me + my friends it would not feel so dead/like a ghost town.

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Originally Posted by Titor

I ran into no one else on my 'tour' through the ward. Not standing outside their house, anything. So the whole instance of LB1 subdivision on Balmung (One of the high population housing-intensive rp servers!) -- there is a grand total of three people in it. Me, and two people afk.

Really feeling that MMO feeling.

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Im also on Balmung and I can tell you Lavender beds ward 2 has many people, as is home of at least 2 of the biggest FCs, "kupo" and "HEC" where I hang out a lot, and even in my personal home, in goblet 8 ward, a lot of people from "Roses" among others are around.

That being said, subdivisions have usually more personal houses than FCs, and because of that, they are a bit more empty.

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Originally Posted by Titor

Yep, you saw right, in the entire instance it was just me, and two people on the opposite map from my general house (that I think were AFK).

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The reason why no one is in most of the wards is because 1)many houses sit abandoned and 2)there's no incentive to hang out there. You can get rest xp from any town and most settlements. New players have leveling to do. Max level players want to hang out with other max level players(in Idyllshire now). There's absolutely no reason to hang out in the wards. I usually go to my personal house or fc house just to craft. But literally no one else is around in either of those areas. So while we want the neighborhood feel, it should also be addressed that it won't feel that way without incentive to chill "at home".

My point being, the current system is not conducive to a community feel but just makes the zone feel empty and like a ghost town. It is no better than instanced housing in its current state, and is actually worse since not everyone could have a house.
I could see if every ward was bustling with life and kinship, but they are not. At least with instanced housing, everyone should be able to have their own house, not just a few.

Right, but if they want to keep the community, which obviously they do or else they would have instanced it by now, then they should give players incentive to hang out there. Otherwise it will continue to feel empty and barren. SE doesn't /want/ us to have instanced housing, because they're trying oh-so hard to not be like every other MMO(which is biting them in the ass, imho). So because they want to be /oh-so/ different, they refuse to do anything that makes sense. If they like the set up they have, then they need to give players a reason to hang out at their personal or fc estates. A buff, a perk, whatever-just something so that the areas actually feel like the neighborhoods they were /trying/ to make.

And if I sound flippant and irritated, it's directed at SE and not anyone here. I'm fed up with the numerous poor design choices.

Hi, i was around and just decided to show in and bring in my own thougths to this.

I would prefer the instanced housing for players at all, but i have to explain it a bit, so everyone will understand what i mean.

Keep the housing for FCs like it is at the moment, but remove all privat houses from the actual housing plots. But increase the amount of available things like beds up to the double or triple.
Improve the workshop with workbenches, which you can use like the workshop itself to craft your regular crafts of the crafter you are but with a buff (+10% to craftingstats, maybe).
Restrict the use of the actual workshop (airship/houses/guildbuffs) to crafters at level 50+ or even 60 and/or a specific crafterclass as party leader and/or specific crafterclasses in the party.

Give every player the ability to buy a appartment in the inn of his GC in two sizes, normal privat chamber/first floor of small house and size of small house including basement. Give this rooms the restrictions of the actual rooms and small houses all with a balkony as garden, perhaps as an upgrade.

And finaly, what is with people who wants gardening but don't need a house.
In the gardener guild you can buy a garden spot with place for a huge ( 3-4) amount of beds and a small open hut where you can place a summoning bell and a guild chest. Perhaps let the amount of placeable beds be upgradeable.

Perhaps someone can leave constructive criticism on this and i know most will rant on the appartment idea.

Legion88 I like your ideas. Something has to be done, that's obvious.

I think making the present wards FC only at this stage, would cause major upset. If I'd bought a personal house, I'd be deeply unhappy. While I agree putting personal housing into the wards was a mistake, I think it might be better to phase it out gradually as plots are relinquished.
Personally, I'd like to see the option of instanced housing, accessible from the wards, too. It would give people choice and provide a useful gil-sink.
I'd be happy to see any of the improvements you suggested for FC housing.
Lore-wise, being able to buy an apartment at the inn of your GC city makes sense and I think a lot of players would be happy with a small space they could customise.

The Gardner's Guild could be an interesting addition to the game. I'd make allotments and chocobo stables outside all the major cities available to every player who has an apartment rather than giving them pots on a balcony. Something like that would be used and might actually bring people together and give that feeling of community the present wards seem to lack.
Hopefully, Square would learn from their mistakes with housing and put mechanisms in place to deal with plots claimed but left unused.

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Originally Posted by Solarra

I think making the present wards FC only at this stage, would cause major upset. If I'd bought a personal house, I'd be deeply unhappy.

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I own a personal house and I still support having the wards clawed back for FC housing. As long as they move me to somewhere instanced with an equal amount of space and facilities I don't think I'd have much cause to complain?

Another idea on apartments, why not just let everyone who clears the 3.0 storyline use the Intercessory at Dragonhead? If you speak to the NPCs they're pretty insistent that's your space now.

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Originally Posted by Austherus

Not sure about personal houses, it nullifies the MMO in the MMORPG when it's just you in an instance, but that sound like a nice idea for FC housing. An instance were other members can build their personal houses next to the FC's. I don't like the setting very much though, not a big fan of the idea of living in the sky.

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Well of course you can search people and enter theirs, it just doesn't need to take up a physical space in the game world. It's like private rooms in a FC house, but as a whole house for each person. Search someone on your friend or FC list, select "enter home", and be teleported into a shared instance of it which can unload while nobody is using it.

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Originally Posted by Titor

Ok, let us go around the housing ward of my FC house right now...

Current Gallery of all MB/Bells in my ward

Yep, you saw right, in the entire instance it was just me, and two people on the opposite map from my general house (that I think were AFK).


I ran into no one else on my 'tour' through the ward. Not standing outside their house, anything. So the whole instance of LB1 subdivision on Balmung (One of the high population housing-intensive rp servers!) -- there is a grand total of three people in it. Me, and two people afk.

Really feeling that MMO feeling.

At least if it was instanced and I knew it was just supposed to be me + my friends it would not feel so dead/like a ghost town.

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You can't dismiss a whole system as being "not conducive to a community" with a single trip around your ward.

The housing system we have now is the result of many miscalculations and misunderstandings on SE's part, but the core ideas it was built upon are not bad at all. One of the major issues, the abandoned houses and plots, are just being addressed right now (I would guess that around 25% to 50% of the plots were abandoned prior to the relinquishment announcement).

It's not about wards being "bustling with life and kinship", but about being part of the world. That is what makes an MMO.

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Originally Posted by Austherus

It's not about wards being "bustling with life and kinship", but about being part of the world. That is what makes an MMO.

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Meanwhile, every dungeon, raid, trial and certain duties...

The thing is: Housing as it currently is likely won't go away. I doubt SE is ever going to remove the system entirely in favor of instanced housing, rather than just adding instanced housing on top, because that would piss off users for no benefit at all.

If you're dead set on a house within the current system, the only thing that would very likely change for you is a reduction in housing plot competition. Many people who are currently seeking a house to no avail would leave the competition because they'd be fine with just an instanced house. Leaves more room for people who actually care about the supposed community aspect.

As I said earlier, I can understand that there might be a fear that current housing would die out because nobody is really interested or everyone considers the cost too high (thanks to jerks buying up plots just to sell them), but...that's about it.

I'd be all for having instanced Private housing if it meant more room for FCs to move into neighborhoods. But some perk to hanging around neighborhoods would help a lot with giving us that community feel that SE intended for us to have. GW2 has my favorite guild housing system, but I know SE won't pull inspiration from any other MMO to make things better. But the fact is that these things need a lot of improvement. Idc how they improve, so long as they do.