Regarding Apartments and their (lack of) features...

OK, so 500,000 gil for a Free Company Personal Chamber by another name? Is that it?

I was kind of hoping that players who purchased an apartment would have access to some cosmetic feature that was unique to apartments. For example a shared balcony overlooking the residential zone they are in. Or a room that was a bit bigger than an FC chamber. But no, it appears to be a room the same size as an FC chamber.

Somehow that just seems a bit wrong since the apartments are meant to compensate for the limitations of the existing housing system, allowing those unable to obtain a plot to still participate in housing. But in the end, it's just another FC chamber. I had though that they were re-using some elements of the FC Personal Chamber system to implement this, but I also thought that they might expand the actual chamber a bit - especially as it costs 200K more.

Perhaps they will expand on it in the future? I hope so.

Either way, for full disclosure, I do not have an apartment, and will wait a week or so before trying to get one.(See edit below) I don't want to be that house owner taking an apartment that someone else could have had. Though I did log on with my son's account last night while he was sleeping and purchased an apartment for him.

SE, how about it? Add some feature to the room, or expand it a bit, or have some facility such as a shared balcony only available to tenants? Make apartments that bit more special for those owning them since you asked them to fork over 500K instead of 300K?

Edit : Well, after arriving home from work last night I find that my wife decided she'd surprise me by logging on as me and getting an apartment in the Lavendar Beds.

Apartments are meant to be a cheap solution to the residential issues of the wide playerbase that doesnt have a FC with a house.

No reason at all why apartments should have extra features that HOUSES don't. In fact, considering that they have the same item limit and you can place all kind of items in them, i think is kinda unfair for us house owners, regarding server space utilization, apartments should have lower item caps, and those should have been added to the proper houses.

They've been saying all along its housing for people who don't have a home or FC. That's all you were ever getting. Did you not catch the threads earlier saying they can't wait to see people realize what it is they were hyped up for despite showing off exactly what they're buying? It's like the people who are trying to buy up apartments to resell later, they're worthless.

Still think it could be a little bigger.

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Originally Posted by Alexander_Dragonfang

Apartments are meant to be a cheap solution to the residential issues of the wide playerbase that doesnt have a FC with a house.

No reason at all why apartments should have extra features that HOUSES don't. In fact, considering that they have the same item limit and you can place all kind of items in them, i think is kinda unfair for us house owners, regarding server space utilization, apartments should have lower item caps, and those should have been added to the proper houses.

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How would it be unfair? Houses have several features that an apartment can never have. You'll never see a Moogled Apartment exterior, you have no exterior features at all with an apartment. They have the same size and capacity as a Free Company chamber, and yet cost 200K more. Access to something as simple as an exclusive location (shared balcony), or one of the features you get for free in an Inn room would have been a nice gesture.

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Originally Posted by Daranion

They've been saying all along its housing for people who don't have a home or FC. That's all you were ever getting. Did you not catch the threads earlier saying they can't wait to see people realize what it is they were hyped up for despite showing off exactly what they're buying? It's like the people who are trying to buy up apartments to resell later, they're worthless.

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To be fair, I've always thought it was re-using the FC chamber systems. However, the apartments are there to compensate for the horrible lack of housing. As for "despite showing off exactly what they're buying", I'm not aware of any preview that showed the interior of an apartment.

Why would anyone buy apartments to resell later, they've already indicated that they can increase the number at will.

I view these apartments as Grand Company rooms as opposed to Free Company rooms. The extra 200 k is a fee that insures you will never get kicked out, unlike FC rooms where the leaders can kick you or hold your room hostage at will.

It's like people have conveniently decided to forget that this is a common thing that SE does. Charge more for a hyped up product and have it be the equal to something that already exists. This is exactly what I thought would happen.

The main issue and its blessing in disguise is that it's the same as an FC apartment. It makes them unappealing to house owners who just want more living space but it does make them unappealing to the majority who wanted more from them. Unfortunately, it is just a glorified FC apartment.

/shrug

its a nice place if you doll it up right.

I guess I dont understand the disappointment of SE "hyping up a product?"

We all knew it was pretty much an FC room but now you dont have to worry about your FC kicking you out and you losing all your furnishings.

I'd like a house too....but i have other things to do ingame that it isnt breaking my immersion

I would like to see penthouse expansions sometime in the future. Just more space really.
I can't get a real house because all the plots are bought up, even though I have the money. It would just be nice to have an extra floor or something.

Apartment owners have the highest security of not losing their place of anyone in the game cause there no reclaim timer like regular house or chance to lose your room cause being kicked from FC or wanting to go to a different FC/them moving to different size house.

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Originally Posted by Lan_Mantear

I view these apartments as Grand Company rooms as opposed to Free Company rooms. The extra 200 k is a fee that insures you will never get kicked out, unlike FC rooms where the leaders can kick you or hold your room hostage at will.

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This. Mainly because this has happened to me. Never again will I buy a room that relies on another player's authority to even exist.

You know, they could eventually create "expansions" for your apartment, increasing its size. A bit like the aquariums? Since there's like 4-5 grades for those, why not the same for apartments?
Or better yet, treat apartments like the ships in FC houses. You collect mats etc to extend the size of your apartment, maybe up to 3-4 times? Right now the apartments are fine, I abandoned my FC chamber for an apartment and, atm, I don't really feel I need more room. Not yet.. anyway...

In my new apartment like;

https://media.giphy.com/media/pkUDad439VgMU/giphy.gif

It's a great market board and retainer teleport. That's a pretty good feature right there.

I hope we could get a mail box or a postal moogle please. Or even a new furnishing like a tiny mail box for indoors. There's currently no where to get mail in the wards if all you have is an apartment there.

On a side obviously way down the road request ... perhaps a small balcony with a small 4 patch or so garden. Just enough to cross breed.

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Originally Posted by Lokier

You know, they could eventually create "expansions" for your apartment, increasing its size. A bit like the aquariums? Since there's like 4-5 grades for those, why not the same for apartments?
Or better yet, treat apartments like the ships in FC houses. You collect mats etc to extend the size of your apartment, maybe up to 3-4 times? Right now the apartments are fine, I abandoned my FC chamber for an apartment and, atm, I don't really feel I need more room. Not yet.. anyway...

In my new apartment like;

https://media.giphy.com/media/pkUDad439VgMU/giphy.gif

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lol I didn't get an apartment, not interested in one but I had to post and give you a "like" because your picture gave me a good chuckle lolol

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Originally Posted by Gramul

I would like to see penthouse expansions sometime in the future. Just more space really.
I can't get a real house because all the plots are bought up, even though I have the money. It would just be nice to have an extra floor or something.

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That's be nice. I'm not really an advocator of the whole "put x item from XI in" but I sure do want the Moghouse to come over and be the "for all players" room.

If they allowed some form of gardening with the owning of an apartment, then I think it would generally give all the benefits of a house...

500k was worth it for the cheap teleport to market board alone.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

It's a great market board and retainer teleport. That's a pretty good feature right there.

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This is exactly why I bought one. I now have cheap teleports to all cities of frequent visitation.
Limsa, Mor Dhona and Ishgard are favorites
Idyllshire as my home point
Ul-dah (Goblet - FC house)
Gridannia (Lavender beds - apartment)

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Originally Posted by Chiapet

On a side obviously way down the road request ... perhaps a small balcony with a small 4 patch or so garden. Just enough to cross breed.

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I'd really like to see this added.

Or alternately, something I suggested a while back was indoor planter boxes with two plots. That'd be smaller than the gardens houses can have, and would be small enough to look suitable indoors, but would be just enough to allow for crossbreeding. (But then SE added the pots instead, for just single plants. I'm afraid that lowers the likelihood of that two-plot planter idea, since they seem to think gardening is covered, but without crossbreeding, it really isn't.)


p.s. I have a FC house now, so can garden, but I feel bad for those who can't. I don't think anyone should be cut off from significant game features just because of housing plot shortages that they have no control over.

200k more for Chocobo stable use without a FC, a FC room minus the FC part, no auto-demolish system, easyest acess to MB/Retainer items (slightly better than Limsa, "Slightly") & u can techically (if u'r rich/collector/whatever) own this, a FC house & Personal house all at once... I'd say worth the 200k on the "no auto-demolish" or "room loss from FC kicked" alone as its a possible 500k u'll never have to re-spend unless "YOU" want to move to a different ward/sub-ward/server

won't say no to a small 5 item outside buyable/unlockable addon as a balcony or something (instanced seperatly or threw a built-in door that auto-exits which ever "Housing item place menu" u were in at the time of u cross the door threshold)

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Originally Posted by CaptainLagbeard

If they allowed some form of gardening with the owning of an apartment, then I think it would generally give all the benefits of a house...

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Technically, they do. You can use pots to grow plants (but since you can't cross breed, it's a fairly useless feature).

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

It's a great market board and retainer teleport. That's a pretty good feature right there.

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We had Limsa for that since the beginning.

Apartments are not subjected to auto demolition. That beats out FC/Private houses by a malm and then some.

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Originally Posted by CUTS3R

We had Limsa for that since the beginning.

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Except Limsa isn't 3 cities. If you buy stuff from mb regularly at all, having all 3 cities on cheap tele saves a significant amount of gil over time.

Exclusive Features:
Cheaper than a house
Doesn't get demolished
Is not dependant on you being in and FC or not.

I'm sorry if you are disappointed, but this is more than enough for me.

The fact it's not reliant on a FC is a huge selling point for me.

Consider this - if they had unique features that houses didn't, then everyone who already has a house and personal chamber would be grabbing up an apartment too, completely defeating the purpose.

It would be nice if it could be slightly longer or wider, with windows that actually look outside. I really wanted a community feeling with the apartments, so I hope SE will take into consideration some of the changes people have requested (like having a mailbox in the lobby).

Also, I'm not convinced by people who say that apartments shouldn't be interesting because they're an alternative for people who don't have housing. If that's the case, then don't let people with housing purchase an apartment.. because I know plenty of people who are still buying an apartment despite already having something.... But since limiting people is not a great idea, it would be nice to have interesting apartments so people who only have an apartment can still make it unique and feel like they're living in an apartment, rather than an empty inn.

It absolutely could be bigger. I mean, they're instanced areas, no? They could've set it up on two planes similar to a studio and fleshed it out a little. I mean, they do cost half a mil.

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Originally Posted by Gramul

I would like to see penthouse expansions sometime in the future. Just more space really.
I can't get a real house because all the plots are bought up, even though I have the money. It would just be nice to have an extra floor or something.

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Honestly this is how player housing should have been dealt with in the first place. Expandable instances and unique layouts.

I expected it to be a FC room because they never showed how an apartment room looked like. But I was desperately hoping to be proven wrong.

That said, I was still hoping for something to differentiate between an apartment and a FC room.
Part of me was hoping we'd get more windows. Or the same type of large window we find at the Inn rooms. I love the giant window in the limsa room. Or a room the same size of the Squadron room.

But nope, copy/paste FC room. I can only hope that someone in the near future, that they add more apartments and that they allow us to buy up to two or three of them. That way, I can at least pretend to have a house with different rooms.

I wish hope they work more on apartments. A balcony perhaps or maybe more item slot. I mean, there's room to improve, right?

If I recall correctly, wasn't it said that the apartments would be slightly bigger than a FC room?

Either way, I'm happy to have gotten mine, as I don't have a house. I can now finally have a proper place of my own. ^^

The apartment space is only a tiny upgrade from a shipping container. Way too tiny...

I was thinking we get a real appartment >.<

Like: We can walk a floor and see the appartment doors :U

But its just a Click and buy/visit room :(

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Originally Posted by Daranion

They've been saying all along its housing for people who don't have a home or FC. That's all you were ever getting. Did you not catch the threads earlier saying they can't wait to see people realize what it is they were hyped up for despite showing off exactly what they're buying? It's like the people who are trying to buy up apartments to resell later, they're worthless.

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Summarises everything. Spot on

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Originally Posted by Lokier

In my new apartment like;

https://media.giphy.com/media/pkUDad439VgMU/giphy.gif

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HAHAHA Love this! x10!

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

Apartments are not subjected to auto demolition. That beats out FC/Private houses by a malm and then some.

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Exactly. The security this has actually suits my preference since sometimes there are life situations out of one's control and the thought that I'd have my private space intact afterwards is a great relief.

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Originally Posted by Vydos

Part of me was hoping we'd get more windows. Or the same type of large window we find at the Inn rooms. I love the giant window in the limsa room.

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Oh, I agree. Those big windows that really let light in on sunny days are so much better than the tiny dark windows that housing has (for either houses or apartments).

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Originally Posted by Vydos

I can only hope that someone in the near future, that they add more apartments and that they allow us to buy up to two or three of them. That way, I can at least pretend to have a house with different rooms.

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It'd be something, but I'd prefer the ability to upgrade our apartment to a bigger/nicer one over the ability to buy multiples. Have the current apartments be the basic version, but then let us upgrade from that to a larger room, with nicer windows and a balcony. (If it's too difficult to make the balcony of an instanced room work with the outdoors, it could be an enclosed sunroom balcony.) But either way, let it support a small garden and a few small outdoor furnishings.

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Originally Posted by Doki

The apartment space is only a tiny upgrade from a shipping container. Way too tiny...

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They do at least start to seem bigger once you start filling them up. I checked out a few of the apartments people had set up if they opened them up to visitors. The ones that had subdivided the space into multiple areas and had well organized furniture filling them seemed a lot bigger than the ones that hadn't been furnished yet and were still just a bare room. (But yes, I too wish there were at least options for bigger ones.)