Next addition to housing?

Hi, all!

I've tried researching this, but there's a lot of outdated information hanging around the web, and I haven't been able to find anything definite that points to a future update. Do we know when SE might be planing to add additional wards, or is that still up in the air? I saw some speculation about more housing being added with 4.0, but has that been confirmed, or is it just wishful thinking?

Saving up now to upgrade to a large, and trying to figure out how much time I have.

Thanks!

They've implied Ishgard housing will come with 4.0, but as with anything that could change and slip back. There's unlikely to be any new houses before then.

They may increase the number of apartments, but they've not said anything specific.

No further ward increases have been announced. As worldofneil said, they have announced a new housing district for 4.0, but if everything goes well that still isn't until summer of 2017. Start checking the housing wards regularly (especially Nov 10th and a few days after since that's about 45 days after the houses in the new wards had their timers activated) and you'll hopefully find one that opens up.

Thanks, guys! That's what I needed to know.

I have a small now, but want to move up to a mansion. I've been checking the wards here and there just to get a feel for the market (snagged some friends a mansion, that way), but right now, I still have some saving to do before I can actually buy. Wanted to figure out if I have time to be leisurely about it, or if I needed to farm like a mad-woman.

Thanks again!

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

They've implied Ishgard housing will come with 4.0, but as with anything that could change and slip back. There's unlikely to be any new houses before then.

They may increase the number of apartments, but they've not said anything specific.

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Actually the housing coming in 4.0 is likely not in Ishgard. Yoshi said he could not reveal the location because it would be a future MSQ spoiler. Housing in Ishgard would not be a spoiler so it's likely somewhere we haven't been yet.

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Originally Posted by Alberel

Actually the housing coming in 4.0 is likely not in Ishgard. Yoshi said he could not reveal the location because it would be a future MSQ spoiler. Housing in Ishgard would not be a spoiler so it's likely somewhere we haven't been yet.

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Now the question I have is will it be new wards with the same neighborhood system we have now or will it be instanced? Same system will cause shortages in the long run again but have the same feel. Instanced would solve the shortage problem (or should) but how would the player base receive it?

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Originally Posted by OliviaJ

Now the question I have is will it be new wards with the same neighborhood system we have now or will it be instanced? Same system will cause shortages in the long run again but have the same feel. Instanced would solve the shortage problem (or should) but how would the player base receive it?

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That's a good question.

Personally, I do kind of enjoy the neighborhood, but it's somewhat uncommon that I run into other players. There'll be a few clustered at an FC house sometimes, but even those are often empty.

On the other hand, I do feel for those who'd like a house, but aren't able to find one. I lucked into a small some time ago, but I know plenty of people who are looking for one or (like me) looking to upgrade to something larger, and aren't having any luck.

I think this is just going to have to remain one of those "you can't please everyone" situations. No matter what SE does with it, part of the player base won't like it.

It will most likely be Ishgard wards, an increase to the number of wards, new subdivisions, an increase to the number of available apartments, an increase to the number of items players can place inside their homes, and a lot of new furniture (hopefully, some for apartments in mind since some of what's available is just way too big for apartments). And, all of this really just depends on just what the PS4's limitations are. We might get balconies, or mirrors. But, most of it will go to item storage and new areas and mechanics, so we'll really just have to wait and see what will be available in 4.0, tbh.

I know it's a ridiculous hope, but it would be nice if they could introduce at least two new wards at the same time. If they release a new housing area, it's going to be absolutely flooded with people trying to move into the hot new thing. Tons of people and FCs that already have houses will want to move to the new area. If they introduced more than one area, it would at least somewhat slow the rush since the population would be split on which shiny new ward they wanted to move to.

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

They've implied Ishgard housing will come with 4.0, but as with anything that could change and slip back. There's unlikely to be any new houses before then.

They may increase the number of apartments, but they've not said anything specific.

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More houses will continue to not matter if they don't change the exploits in the system.

Housing is a shameful racket.

Apartments are a half assed solution too. SE can't get this right and they've proven it over and over and over again.

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Originally Posted by ckc22

Apartments are a half assed solution too. SE can't get this right and they've proven it over and over and over again.

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Apartments would be okay if they weren't just basically more expensive fc rooms. I think I speak for a lot of players when I say I expected them to have some sort of balcony where you could garden and put a few outdoor decorations. But no, you fork out 200k extra for a chocobo stable and not needing to find a fc with a house. There isn't even a mailbox! Absolute rip-off.

I think SE need to change how their instancing works for the housing districts. I am inclined to think that they are so slow to add wards because the initial design of the instances wasn't intended to hold many. So I am hoping that they are working on this and maybe 4.0 is when we shall see the results.

ok housing i don.t think its going to be in ishgard but that going to happening in 4.0

as for more plots i think it may happen with 3.5 maby .... we can only hope

It won't matter. They'll all be bought up by rich alts on accounts that have like 5+ already. SE is too stupid to fix their housing system.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

Apartments would be okay if they weren't just basically more expensive fc rooms. I think I speak for a lot of players when I say I expected them to have some sort of balcony where you could garden and put a few outdoor decorations. But no, you fork out 200k extra for a chocobo stable and not needing to find a fc with a house. There isn't even a mailbox! Absolute rip-off.

I think SE need to change how their instancing works for the housing districts. I am inclined to think that they are so slow to add wards because the initial design of the instances wasn't intended to hold many. So I am hoping that they are working on this and maybe 4.0 is when we shall see the results.

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In fact, initially, there was no personal housing, only FC housing. But people probably made 1-man FCs to dodge that, and still have a personal house.

Sorry to semi-resurrect but I was thinking about the "new housing area" promised at next expansion. I'm willing to bet it's new apartments, instanced, or personal housing only. If it's in a new area locked behind an expansion, how could you possibly do a FC house there? People without the expansion would be locked out of it, correct? Just a thought.

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Originally Posted by OliviaJ

If it's in a new area locked behind an expansion, how could you possibly do a FC house there?

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They might just attach it to an existing area. Like if it's Ala Mhigo housing then it nught actually attached to Southern Thanalan and not a new area etc.

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

They might just attach it to an existing area. Like if it's Ala Mhigo housing then it nught actually attached to Southern Thanalan and not a new area etc.

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That would be smart and probable if they keep the same system. Smart thinking. What's your opinion about the idea that if it is locked in a new area, it would be personal housing only. Would that alleviate some of the hoarding in the original wards or would people still be creating 1-2 man FC's/still buying personals?

The more I think about it, the more I think it must be connected to something ARR players can get to, not just because of issues with FC people not having access like you pointed out, but also personal houses not being able to show it off to friends who don't have the expansion and that'll just cause annoyance.

History has shown us that SE likes to repurpose things (which I can understand it is more efficient use of their time) so I suspect we'll literally get 12 more wards and subdivisions at the new area, exactly the same design as we have now (but obviously a slightly different layout). So that'd be 24 wards and if it's 30 houses per ward like it is now, that'd be another 720 houses per server... doesn't sound so much now :S Maybe they'll increase the total wards overall, although I'm not holding out much hope of that...

From what I understand the reason they can't just keep expanding the existing wards are because each ward are a separate instance that always have to be running (like a normal zone) so with 72 instances per server and 64 servers, that's 4,608 zones constantly having to run. Although I think they're going to have the same issues with 4.0 (assuming they do it the same way), 24 new wards (12x2) over 64 servers is still another 1,536 zones/instances, but they likely have some budget in 4.0 for new hardware for just this.

An upgrade to hardware would be appreciated. I hate seeing things take a bit to load and I'm guessing an upgrade would help that. Honestly I don't know enough about it to say. I think we are all also curious about the move function too.

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Originally Posted by OliviaJ

An upgrade to hardware would be appreciated. I hate seeing things take a bit to load and I'm guessing an upgrade would help that. Honestly I don't know enough about it to say. I think we are all also curious about the move function too.

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Loading times have more to do with your own system then server load. Ever since I changed my ps4 harddisk with an SSD i load in, if not the fastest, very nearly the fastest into a new area.

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Originally Posted by Caitlinzulu

Loading times have more to do with your own system then server load. Ever since I changed my ps4 harddisk with an SSD i load in, if not the fastest, very nearly the fastest into a new area.

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It's not zone loading times (those are about 1-2 seconds) it's the outdoor furnishings in people's yards that can sometimes take a bit to load. Minor complaint, I know. Everything else in other zones loads fine. Sporting a 4770k, dual gtx 670's, and an SSD on 150mbps connection.

I swear it got a little worse with the additional wards but it's probably just me.

Its never been that bad for me i guess to ever notice it, but i do have to agree that data has to be stored server side if i play on pc i'm not quite shure about the processor but i do have an 980M in my laptop, and the game is installed on the ssd. There too i have no issue's with loading.

It's mainly things like chocobo stables and large objects. By "some time" I mean they don't pop into view from a far off distance, say 3 houses away for a good second or two. It's only in the wards so I don't think it's a DoV (might have that wrong) setting as in the rest of the world I can see for malms without anything taking time to load. Like I said, minor complaint.