You want people to return - please add housing and

Recently a return to FFXIV promotion started. Good to see these. One significant feature that attracts many people is housing - probably houses more than apartments/fc rooms.

Since you have the housing neighborhoods instanced not open world (as in Vanguard, DAOC etc.) would it take that much to add more neighborhoods? On many servers, and not just the most crowded, plots are rarely available. A housing addition would be a great promotion to encourage returnees.

Another plus would be allowing people that buy an expansion to actually play it after finishing ARR. The 100 MSQ interregnum between ARR and HW is mandatory now and that annoys a lot of people that want to actually get to the new zones/jobs. IMO let people play HW after finishing ARR and play the new one after HW - the interregnum quests are good to keep us busy while waiting but you will sell many more expansions if people can actually jump in and play them.

I believe that it was already announced they would be adding more housing for 4.0. Whether this will be a new area, or expanding the current areas with more wards/plots hasn't been announced yet, but there are plans to. Hopefully, it won't be like the last expansion where they only added 4 wards to the existing housing areas. Didn't really solve much, since housing is still extremely limited. Especially since people have multiple houses still (literally, there is one guy on my server with 4-5 different houses--one for each of his alts, AND for his FC). I'd love it if they would also make the houses shareable/account-wide. That way, my alt can use my main's house.

Also, since the events of 2.x lead up to 3.0 (particularly the 2.5 events), story-wise, that is why they are mandatory, and it has already been announced that 3.x is required to enter 4.0 (since we have already started setting the stage for heading into Ala Mhigo in 4.0 in Patch 3.4. However, the 2.x quests could use some pruning. Get rid of the unnecessary fetch quests, and stick to only those that expand upon the story itself. 3.x still has some fluff to it, but not nearly as much as 2.x. So the devs did learn not to flood the between-expansion patches with unnecessary content--they made them Sidequests instead (Ex., Warring Triad storyline, rather than include it in 3.x like 2.x did the 3 Hard Mode primals).

I understand that yeah, not everyone cares about the lore or the story, but Final Fantasy has always put a lot of importance on their story. I do wonder how they will keep up locking expansions behind the between patches' content. I'm sure that once the game reaches 5.0 and 6.0, new players starting out will probably find all the quests extremely overwhelming, and get burnt out quickly. I think it's fine to leave them there for those that want to progress through each expansion and the between patches, but adding an option like an hour-long cutscene/movie summary of the events is also not a bad idea for those that want to get through so much content quickly. I don't mind the quests because I love the story, but having an option to do either or is something the devs should consider the more the game grows.

The MSQ slog is real, and pretty much the only thing hurts my pitch to friends to "abandon game X and come to FFXIV". It needs some serious pruning, and I'd think it wouldn't be that bad to simply eliminate some irrelevant fetch pieces and merge some others (so that all the cutscenes don't have to change). The rewards and XP for the consolidated quests could just include the rewards of the pieces that get dropped or merged. I'll get through it because I'm enjoying the game overall, but recruiting less committed (or more time constrained) friends is dicey in the current state of the MSQ.

The main reason people quit FFXIV is boredom from the never ending tome grind and stale cloned instance repeat cycle. While housing is attractive to some players changing or improving it is hardly going to impact the game's population. Every time I see someone leave its b/c the same reason, by day 2 of each week they are capped on scriptures and collectable scripts, their WT journals and weeklys are done in general and they are left standing around for the next 5 days.

Yes they announced there would be new housing in 4.0 - perhaps in Ishgard some are guessing - but that doesn't preclude adding extra neighborhoods to the instances they have without waiting half a year or more.

Ability to play around with houses (including some of the new things they added such as fish tanks) shouldn't be so limited on many servers so that almost the only way to get a plot if you aren't checking the housing zones 24/7 is to pay a player to abandon his or hers which may violate the TOS.

If they can't add more instances without a real problem that's one thing but I see no reason to make housing so very hard to get otherwise. Telling new players they need to grind for money or levels is one thing - I am NOT suggesting relaxing the level or GC requirements - but telling them "all taken too bad" is a needless discouragement.

Isn't housing ingame already?
If you mean Ishgard housing, that will come with 4.0, i guess

housing isnt anything else than just another place to afk after capping tomes. I dont think, that it will increase the player numbers

I would be happier if they used the manpower and hardware resources on bigger/more maps/dungeons than more housing wards. Its a waste of time because its never going to be enough.
The system should've been houses are for high ranking FCs only and everyone else only gets a personal room.

No, less focus on things that don't matter to the overall gameplay and more refining of systems that do matter is what brings people back. ESO was awful now they've fine tuned a lot of the combat and the game feels much stronger, for instance I'm a level 10 dragon knight, my skills and stats give off such great feeling, where as in 14 when I pop a tank buff I don't feel that buff being activated. Aside from skills feeling much better, the MSQ is so quick in ESO that it's actually enjoyable, I can finish one MSQ walk to the town and be visited during my journey back that the next MSQ is open. Before the game took ages for the MSQ to open up each mission it was so dragged out it became an afterthought to exploring the world. It was very close to how 14 has its story flow, a lot of pointless quests that go A to B, pick up item X take to location Y, kill add at X location, run dungeon now or primal fight.

Honestly housing as is clashes a bit with the games lore at times it's a very hard to overlook, recall the end of 2.X when we thought the Sultana was killed, the Brass Blades were looking for us, but we owned a house and could go freely into and out of it, this was especially laughable if you owned a house in the Goblet. Granted ya you could go back into Ul Dah after this and it breaks the game, 14 needs less of this and craft a story that actually changes the world as we progress within the current story. For instance not even 3.0 does this, but we had Nidhogg preparing a massive assault, so why was the dragon presence so minimal in 3.0? Wouldn't a dragon seeking blood be sending out hordes to randomly attack us in the field? Nothing feels important in this game, which is hurting the integrity of the games foundation.

People don't want to keep playing a game that doesn't feel important nor as impactful as it should be. If SE wants to bring back people and keeping them hooked, the game needs to feel it's growing with the player and not staying stagnant, pushing forward and challenging the player is the only way this game can grow and foster more players. Adding more of X,Y and Z content that has issues that they haven't fixed yet isn't going to solve anything, it would make things so much more worse.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Isn't housing ingame already?

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Not for anyone who wasn't around with millions of gil in the initial land rush or don't camp the housing sales board 24/7 to try to grab one of the very few 'demolitions'.

SE DESIGNED the housing system to only be available to 0.000001% of players, in a game which is the follow-on from a 14-year-old game where EVERY CHARACTER gets a hose FOR FREE the moment they enter the world.

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And no, Apartments are not housing, they're a very poor substitute for what you can do with them compared to even a Small Cottage.

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Originally Posted by Pintsized

Not for anyone who wasn't around with millions of gil in the initial land rush or don't camp the housing sales board 24/7 to try to grab one of the very few 'demolitions'.

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This is an exaggeration. My brothers and I were able to find a lot fairly easily about 2 weeks ago. I know it can be pretty much impossible to find a lot on very popular servers, but it's not like that everywhere. And Adamantoise isn't even that slow of a server so it's not like there aren't other people trying to buy houses.

Seriously, at the same time we bought and built our house there was another group of three who just bought a lot a little but away from us too.

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Originally Posted by Jetstream_Fox

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The NPCs explain why you're able to return to Ul'dah despite the hoopla that went down. As for the dragons, you aren't exactly important to Nidhogg until you confront him in The Arey and even then, he doesn't think you're a threat until the final battle in 3.3. You also answered your own question on why Nidhogg's brood isn't just attacking you randomly; they're preparing the next assault. Even if you were to get attacked randomly, I don't think anyone would enjoy it if they are not doing the main story and wanted to do a side quest and are forced to slog through dragon after dragon in very boring battles. You want world impact changes, but at the same time, there will never be any major changes where things are closed off or the like because everyone needs to have equal access to areas.

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Originally Posted by VanilleFang

This is an exaggeration. My brothers and I were able to find a lot fairly easily about 2 weeks ago. I know it can be pretty much impossible to find a lot on very popular servers, but it's not like that everywhere. And Adamantoise isn't even that slow of a server so it's not like there aren't other people trying to buy houses.

Seriously, at the same time we bought and built our house there was another group of three who just bought a lot a little but away from us too.

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This might be the case for you, but on the handful of servers I've moved between, housing is absolutely packed.
I just moved to Balmung and did nothing but camp apartments for 3 days until one showed up - fat chance I was going to get a house... An open house on Balmung is rarer than a unicorn sighting.

I do agree with what Pint says - I think SE needs to rework their housing; in FFXI you had your own house with storage etc right from the get-go. I'm not sure on the logistics of how to implement something like that here (there's a reason I'm in healthcare and not computer science), but I would hope that 4.0 brings some awesome changes in that regard, and makes housing a bit more accessible.

Housing does need some fixing, in the sense that it's so limited, and that alts from the same account can purchase a plot each, further limiting the plots. I don't think that housing holds a lot of importance for new players, or even some returning players. And I don't think it's the main reason so many people take breaks from the game. But hopefully something will be done about it.

I still think a plot should be account-wide. Allow for sharing with all alts on that server. I don't see why this isn't a thing, and I don't think it would be particularly hard to implement. It would also stop those that have 4-5 alts, and each alt has their own house. Because that's the main issue I see on my server, at least. These alts taking up all the plots (and I know they belong to the same individual, as they all have the same last names/are in the same FC--at best, one is a main, one is a bond mate, and the other 3 are alts, but still....)

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Originally Posted by Jetstream_Fox

the Brass Blades were looking for us, but we owned a house and could go freely into and out of it, this was especially laughable if you owned a house in the Goblet. Granted ya you could go back into Ul Dah after this and it breaks the game

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If you talk to the various Blades you'll find out that a lot of the Blades (and Crystal Braves, for that matter) aren't really looking for you very hard, either because they're friends/fans and can't believe you'd ever do such a thing, or because they're too intimidated by your power to even attempt an arrest. That's why you can still go around Uldah.

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

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I'm well aware as to why they don't, but again that takes away from the overall importance of that scene, completely downplays the entire significance of it based off the hunch that we'd never do it. Same with Nidhogg, we beat him and he vanishes so he can prepare for the next assault while we deal with political nonsense? Him being a dragon and Ishgard not being truthful able to defend itself makes Nidhogg look entirely weak after the first encounter. They could have easily made his brood invade sometime during the events of the vault to keep Nidhoggs presence a vengeful powerful being, which in case would have lead to Archbishop transforming into Thordan, instead of him transforming because we're spreading the truth about the Dragonsong war.

The only time this games story really had the ability to add anything significant was with the Warriors of Darkness, which got written out almost immediately and how Bahamut and his brood was being constantly tortured. If this MMO is supposed to be story driven, yet can't drive a story when there is no significant values or fear of consequences. How is it supposed to bring players back? Because let's face it, reworking the entire battle system isn't going to do anything when every single fight is still going to be built within the trinity system resulting in more AoE dancing but this time in a new area. Hell I haven't done anything in this game since finishing relic, all I've done in the past 21 days according to my fc log is login and reset the counter on my house. Which I wouldn't even do if I wasn't sharing it with 3 other people, which is sad that I feel them losing a house is more impactful then 98% of the storytelling they've put out.

Its not housing, its the lack of content, also I think its how the content is delivered.

I noticed when I came back, there is only 1 place to get umbrite when I was looking it up, there is no way for someone like me to continue my relic and have it as a weapon I can use and I am sure others still who were playing don't have the time.

300 a umbrite then you have sand by the time you are done, the next patch rolls out and the work you have done is obsoleted.

When you finish content also there is nothing to do but stand around, there is no NM's to hunt for gear on the outside world, hunts aren't even a viable source because you've done all your gear.

Deep dungeon is fun but when you get done with that what then?

Wish there were more things to do outside in the field as a server.

besides gear and other stuff just something to do golden saucer needs a big update also.

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Originally Posted by Zeonx

Its not housing, its the lack of content, also I think its how the content is delivered.

I noticed when I came back, there is only 1 place to get umbrite when I was looking it up, there is no way for someone like me to continue my relic and have it as a weapon I can use and I am sure others still who were playing don't have the time.

300 a umbrite then you have sand by the time you are done, the next patch rolls out and the work you have done is obsoleted.

When you finish content also there is nothing to do but stand around, there is no NM's to hunt for gear on the outside world, hunts aren't even a viable source because you've done all your gear.

Deep dungeon is fun but when you get done with that what then?

Wish there were more things to do outside in the field as a server.

besides gear and other stuff just something to do golden saucer needs a big update also.

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What you mentioned is a problem with gaming in general, there will never be enough
content to satisfy the playerbase, never. The best thing to-do is play other games if possible other hobbies etc.

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Originally Posted by Faeon

What you mentioned is a problem with gaming in general, there will never be enough
content to satisfy the playerbase, never. The best thing to-do is play other games if possible other hobbies etc.

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Actually they have a lot of content, it's how they have built it and designed things that correlate within those systems.

Battles are painfully scripted
Crafting is dull
Gathering is boring
MSQ is all scattered

SE can facilitate the changes needed to revamp the core of the game, the problem lies within their willingness to actually do just that.

The game is plagued by "memory limitations" as per Yoshi. Acccording to him he can't add such features without stressing the game server or the game engine or both. So it takes time to implement new plots. I don't know how exactly they coded the game and how the code is running on their servers and what servers they have but this is what he answers when we ask something "more". Whatever those "limitations" are the dev team must overcome them if they want the game to grow more. There are some other games where a player can own up to 5 houses. For such a big MMORPG by a well established company the game is rather too limited.

Tbh Housing problem is the least reason that the player base is dropping or stopping people from coming back. Like someone mention on previous comment. Its the lack of content that's hurting the game...Sure every patch they will add in new raids/dungeon/msq. But its just feel repeatly and they're just a revamp of the older content. Everyday i login just to do my daily roulettes then afk or go to sleep. I just hope when the ps3 support is gone,the game itself will improve overtime compare to now...

Unfortunatly, the main problem sounds rather to be the routine. Daily roulettes, weekly tokens (if need/want) and as soon as you are capped... nothing else to do. The hunt, the Diadem or so? Boring and nothing that looks like a real free open world. We miss fun and surprises. Now, it would be a lie if I would start do pretend it is not similar or worst in others MMO's.
People are ready (if using a high end gaming PC, but is it yet enough? XD) for real time generated open world in which all actions have a real impact but technology isn't. The middle step would be to add interactions in real life (with mobile and enhanced reality) but... people will not have time for work anymore :p

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Originally Posted by istvana

Another plus would be allowing people that buy an expansion to actually play it after finishing ARR. The 100 MSQ interregnum between ARR and HW is mandatory now and that annoys a lot of people that want to actually get to the new zones/jobs. IMO let people play HW after finishing ARR and play the new one after HW - the interregnum quests are good to keep us busy while waiting but you will sell many more expansions if people can actually jump in and play them.

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I was liking FFXIV quite a lot until I realized how many MSQ there were until HW and how damn boring they all are. I had to take a break from it even though I had subscribed for an extra two months, and now I only have a month left... I bet it wouldn't even have to be 100-200 quests, cuz most of those add absolutely nothing to the story. I got to a point where I just skip every dialogue and cutscene, and I'm not even halfway through.