Estate tags in 4.4!

Patch 4.4 preliminary patch notes are out, under Housing and they outlined the estate tags that we can use. What do you think about them? Do you think they cover a good breadth of house types? What do you want to see added, or maybe removed?

https://i.imgur.com/sn0oCZl.png

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I really like how they have the Tavern tag there; it seems like most every house has a bar area of some sort, so this is great! Eateries as well for the restaurant houses. I can see the Message Book tag being used for library houses.

The Aquarium I'm not so sure if it really warrants a tag (unless aquarium houses are popular somewhere?). I'm also bit confused about what Sanctum is supposed to portray... the icon more reminds me of accessory shops in RPGs.

That said, in the future I'd love for them to add the token RPG tags like an Inn, Weapon Shop (weapon display pls SE wink wink), and Armor Shop, the latter two especially since there are housing exteriors for those. A tag with a flower icon would also be nice for houses who have a lot of flowers and greenery in them.

Pretty meh feature imo. Maybe something people who enjoy RP been asking for?

Message Book, I'm pretty sure, is to say you have a Guest Book.

I guess with the updated limits to aquariums, you could have an entire aquarium-themed floor.

I think Sanctum is supposed to be like a church/chapel (Sanctum of the Twelve, wedding ring).

I like this system, and I hope it encourages people to visit each others houses, but I do hope they expand the tags soon and greatly. I worry that the somewhat limited number of tags will lead to more people having similar houses, as they design their estates around the tags, rather than designing their estates and then tagging appropriately.

I'll admit when they mentioned a blurb about rp awhile back I let my imagination run wild and I was expecting to see npc scripting (movement/emote/chat script). I was thinking of all the fun banter my npcs could have in the house, but I should have known better. Still, the tags will be useful for locating particular rp spots and the message book feature will be nice for hunting down houses to leave messages in! :)

Sanctum is pretty clearly a designation for a wedding chapel.

Aquarium could be a bit broader, something like garden/recreation spot. My apartment is an "arboretum"-like place, but it isn't an aquarium.

As a decorator, I am super thrilled about tags and I know the people on my decorating Facebook groups love them too. The only worry I have is that the tags will be overused. I can see people just using tags just because and not because they actually have something cool to offer.

The Tag for designer house would be amazing if only used by people who are seriously committed to decorating. That way it would be much easier to find designer houses on your server just by looking through the wards from the city aetherite.

However, I can also see people overusing that tag. Like every person who fills their house with seizure-inducing primal furniture and heavy metal music would use that tag. Or people use that tag if they want to tag but don’t know what else to tag. That would completely defeat the purpose.

Similarly, a lot of decorators have requested a message book tag to find houses with books on the map. This would help people find houses with message books to write in because that usually leads to the other person reciprocating and checking out the decorator’s house.

As for some of the tags, I think they could find more fitting tags. Very few people actually have an aquarium-themed house even if they use several fish tanks, so yeah, something like meditation/recreation/wellness/spa would be nice. There are a lot of forest or spa-themed houses.

Also surprised they didn’t add libraries, galleries, and museums seeing that there are tons of libraries and art galleries out there.

Not sure what an emporium is.

I like sanctum as many people have churches and shrines. I even have a Lakshmi temple. Although I don’t think the ring icon fits a temple or shrine.

Rather than just designer house, I’d like tags that tell us the style of the house like: modern, goth, Hingan, beach house, creature-themed, etc.

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Originally Posted by not_ya_wify

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I have no doubt that there will be people who will mark their house inaccurately for the lulz haha. Hopefully not too many though; I do love roaming around and checking what other people have going on in their houses, and this tag system makes it easier to know which houses are worth having a look. I had no idea there was a demand for a Message Book tag! It makes a lot more sense that that's there now.

What do you think the Venue tag is saying? The icon doesn't give us much to interpret, but my best guess is that it's for "cosplay houses" maybe? Houses that are modeled around other structures/places, like say for example, this Shinra mansion that someone recreated.

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Originally Posted by Beckett

I think Sanctum is supposed to be like a church/chapel (Sanctum of the Twelve, wedding ring).

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Originally Posted by _Greyling_

Sanctum is pretty clearly a designation for a wedding chapel.

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That seems to be the case. I'm more surprised that it's popular enough to warrant is own tag that I had to second guess myself if Sanctum might mean something else lol. I haven't seen that many wedding venue type houses myself, but maybe it's a different story elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by nranola

A tag with a flower icon would also be nice for houses who have a lot of flowers and greenery in them.

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This is exactly what I feel is missing. A major reason why people want a house over an apartment is because of a garden they can decorate. There are also a lot of indoor plants and personally I'm planning on making an arboretum in my own house.

Already trying to decide between Sanctum, Tavern, Design Home and Boutique... this will be a challenge

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Originally Posted by Ramesses

Already trying to decide between Sanctum, Tavern, Design Home and Boutique... this will be a challenge

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You can at least have 3 tags, so you'll only have to drop one of them.

Am I the only one who thinks you could just have tavern OR eatery? I get that an eatery doesn't necessarily serve alcohol and a tavern doesn't necessarily serve food, but come on. We have sanctum and aquarium, we could do without two incredibly similar ones.

Also, for the prior question, "Emporium" is a store.

The question is, do these have any value outside of RP and letting people know you have these designed in your house? For example, would someone be able to come in, head to my small basement restaurant and pay a few gil to eat the food there? Or use my vendors to buy stuff like an emporium?

If not, the only real reason for them would be RP and letting people who like to visit houses what you've got going on. At least there's a message book option. Makes visiting houses to sign their book much better. No more guessing games.

Venue is too generic to give an idea of what the house may contain. Some of the other tags would fall under Venue as it is.

Tags I'd like to see added to the list:

Arboretum (lots of indoor gardens out there)
Inn (not the same as a Tavern)
Spa (very common with the hot tubs and saunas players have made)
Workshop (a lot of players/FCs have crafting areas with the workbenches)
House of Worship (as Greyling said, Sanctum is clearly a reference to wedding chapel with the wedding ring icon)
Theater (for live actor stages like A Stage Reborn)
Cinema (several players have movie house themed areas)
Library (probably one of the most common decoration themes)

I can think of a few others but they aren't common in house decorating so probably aren't worth adding to the options. Though my house could use a Moogle Incarceration tag.

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Originally Posted by Ryaz

The question is, do these have any value outside of RP and letting people know you have these designed in your house? For example, would someone be able to come in, head to my small basement restaurant and pay a few gil to eat the food there? Or use my vendors to buy stuff like an emporium?

If not, the only real reason for them would be RP and letting people who like to visit houses what you've got going on. At least there's a message book option. Makes visiting houses to sign their book much better. No more guessing games.

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Which was the point of adding these things at player request in the first place. To let us know what could be found inside. So those who actively RP would know it's a RP friendly space.

If you don't see the point of using the tags, then don't. I don't plan on using them with the current iteration of my house. The only tag that really applies to how I decorated is Message Book and part of my fun is seeing how many visitors actively explore every nook and cranny of the house. I've got the Message Book in a "hidden" room (though the room's existence should be obvious to any one who is observant) so if I get a new Like or message, I know someone has.

What exactly is a "Designer Home"? Isn't everybody's home a designer home (apart from the empty ones?)

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Originally Posted by Edax

What exactly is a "Designer Home"? Isn't everybody's home a designer home (apart from the empty ones?)

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Yes and no, some folks prefer utility, some folks don't try to decorate, some folks aren't really interested in showing off their homes. Designer Home is a lable for folks who value house decoration and want to invite others to come see what they've done. There's value in however anyone uses their houses, but I know quite a few folks who aren't interested in having a fancy house or showing it off.

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Originally Posted by Edax

What exactly is a "Designer Home"? Isn't everybody's home a designer home (apart from the empty ones?)

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I reckon designer homes are more like the ones shown HERE

There are quite a few other websites that show off amazing collections of FFXIV home designs made by players, that was just one example.

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Originally Posted by nranola

I have no doubt that there will be people who will mark their house inaccurately for the lulz haha.

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Some will no doubt. Many more will mark their houses inaccurately because they do not understand what the markings are supposed to indicate.

The idea is nice, but I don't know which tag I would even choose.
We decorated our home as if our characters were living there, so it's a little roleplay-like but we don't actually actively roleplay. Using the roleplay tag would be wrong because everyone who sees it would think we sit there typing messages in say to each other all the time, when all we did was making a home for our characters.

Designer home would be wrong as well. While we tried our best to make our home "pretty", we don't have floating stages or pillows as lofts, walls full of windows and so on, because we wanted a more noble, but still down-to-earth feeling for our house. And 400 slots aren't enough anyway without leaving parts of it empty. If we could, we would put so much more stuff in it. ^^

I think it's missing a simple "home" tag.
Also, things like library, bath etc. could be useful for many players. I've seen many houses decorated as libraries.

But if anyone uses one of the tags, chances are high that that person at least decorated their house and didn't leave it empty or only put 5 seasonal event furnishing in it. So it's nice to know which house is worth visiting.

My FC will certainly use Boutique, since it is a crafting/ gathering FC, and I am going to encourage the use of mannequins by FC members in their chambers for their own profit. I'm not sure what others will fit. Do I put eatery, since we have a cafe setup currently, and we would be willing to accept food crafting requests? I guess it is whatever we make of it.

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Originally Posted by Limonia

The idea is nice, but I don't know which tag I would even choose.
We decorated our home as if our characters were living there, so it's a little roleplay-like but we don't actually actively roleplay. Using the roleplay tag would be wrong because everyone who sees it would think we sit there typing messages in say to each other all the time, when all we did was making a home for our characters.

Designer home would be wrong as well. While we tried our best to make our home "pretty", we don't have floating stages or pillows as lofts, walls full of windows and so on, because we wanted a more noble, but still down-to-earth feeling for our house. And 400 slots aren't enough anyway without leaving parts of it empty. If we could, we would put so much more stuff in it. ^^

I think it's missing a simple "home" tag.
Also, things like library, bath etc. could be useful for many players. I've seen many houses decorated as libraries.

But if anyone uses one of the tags, chances are high that that person at least decorated their house and didn't leave it empty or only put 5 seasonal event furnishing in it. So it's nice to know which house is worth visiting.

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I think it l depends on your view point. I wouldn't say that designer homes have to be fantastic or using glitches. I'd say it goes for anyone that seriously put thought into the layout of their home and didn't just pile all of their vendors and house amenities in a cluster next to the front door, which I've seen, or are just using it as a catch-all for cool furniture. I think designer home is catch-all on "it's a decorated home without a commercial or civic theme". But it's also each to their own, as to what they feel comfortable using.

I was just thinking if emporium is a shop then why separate it from boutique? But then I realized this is to point out that there are mannequins XD

I honestly thought their main reason for introducing tags was because so many decorators have been wanting a way to see on the map who has a message book, so we don’t have to search every single house in the ward. Message books are used to get commissions, so it’s an important thing.

As far as designer home goes, that’s probably for decorators. There is a niche of people who view decorating houses as an art. If you look at https://housingsnap.com/ you can see that a lot of people take housing to the next level. I personally only play the game for housing. Square Enix recently had an official interior design contest in August. Also, it influences the game economy since sought-after house designers work for commissions that are often more expensive than the house itself and they often work on different servers too.

As far as sanctum goes, there are a lot of church themed designs probably because of the crystal stain windows. In Japan however, there are very few Christians but “Western style” weddings are very popular, so to the developers churches are strongly associated with Weddings. That probably explains the ring icon. I still think another icon would be better though. Someone in Eorzean Estates recently built a church to celebrate her grandma’s funeral. There are also a lot of temple or shrine themed houses. I personally have a Lakshmi temple in my apartment.

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...spca1muzp.jpeg

When I saw venue, I immediately thought they meant event venue. A lot of FCs hold events at their houses where they invite the entire server and play games or do some kind of party. Also, a lot of people decorate based on seasonal events.

Speaking of decorating for seasonal events, I've got to redecorate for Halloween soon. So i'm gonna have to spend some cash. Will probably dedicate one floor to it.

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Originally Posted by not_ya_wify

As far as designer home goes, that’s probably for decorators. There is a niche of people who view decorating houses as an art. If you look at https://housingsnap.com/ you can see that a lot of people take housing to the next level. I personally only play the game for housing. Square Enix recently had an official interior design contest in August. Also, it influences the game economy since sought-after house designers work for commissions that are often more expensive than the house itself and they often work on different servers too.

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As a Graphic Designer, I feel as though half of the designs on Housingsnap rely on just the photo filters. I get the strong impression some of those homes aren't that impressive if seen normally in-game.

That’s why you can look at the designer Home Tag and actually go to the house. I don’t really pay attention to the photo filters but rather the furniture combinations. A lot of people particularly when they make white houses do use photo filters mainly because some furniture doesn’t dye as well. But you can also get certain lighting effects with the furniture that’s in game. For example, a lot of people use fish tanks to get a blue tint in open window designs or indirect lights to cast shadows. I don’t pay that much attention to the filters because it doesn’t interest me for what I’m doing. I don’t use them myself because I think it might make it harder for people to see the furniture I used.

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Originally Posted by Edax

As a Graphic Designer, I feel as though half of the designs on Housingsnap rely on just the photo filters. I get the strong impression some of those homes aren't that impressive if seen normally in-game.

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I cannot stand the photofilters on housing images. All they do is make things harder to see, let alone actually figure out which specific items are being used.

I feel "Message Book" probably should have been its own separate tag that automatically turned on or off based on whether or not a Message Book was on the property, but I'll gladly take it as it is. There may be some people using it to reel people in for no reason or for certain library-themed houses, just because it isn't set in stone as an indicator of a Message Book. If it works the way I'm expecting, not much can be done about that.

The rest of the tags are obviously going to be very subjective. I could throw up "Tavern" because my basement has a simple bar, but it isn't really the main focus of my house. I could also use "Designer Home" because I tried to make my first floor look tasteful, but whether or not it qualifies as "high end" is going to vary based on the standards of visitors.

I don't know. What I'm going to be most interested in seeing is how often the tags are used "correctly." I know people who wear the RP tag on their characters for giggles and don't really do anything of the sort, so the same kind of thing may happen here.

We're hype about this on Balmung, RPers enjoying visiting restaurants, shops, etc during roleplay and this will make it really easy to see what type of venue the house is as well as if it belongs to roleplayers. :)

To return to the topic of tags, Imma post some screenshots from housing snap as examples of what I think the tags are meant to represent:

Emporium:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psfknqyssb.png

Boutique:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psx8toibue.png

Designer Home:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psbs0ihdhh.png

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psq2zny9vo.png

Tavern:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psbrf4c9zr.png

Eatery:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psoyrndqac.png

Role Play:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...snd1faill.jpeg

Aquarium:

I’m shook. I can’t find one. I know I’ve seen one before but I can’t find it. I’m thinking something like this:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...s2s3e4xke.jpeg

Sanctum:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psu6elhc85.png

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...psqgy5k0sa.png

Venue:

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4mfgv5tk.png

Also regarding role play: when you see the role play tag, do you expect that a role player lives there or that it’s a well-designed house that is open for role-players?

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Originally Posted by not_ya_wify

Also regarding role play: when you see the role play tag, do you expect that a role player lives there or that it’s a well-designed house that is open for role-players?

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I think most RPers will tag their house as an RP space, even if they are not logged in or in the actual house to RP. There is always the option of closing access to the public if you don't want people RPing in your house if you aren't there.

Most RP houses will state if it is OK to RP in there on the greeting on the placard outside. Or the days/hours the house is available.

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Originally Posted by Beckett

I cannot stand the photofilters on housing images. All they do is make things harder to see, let alone actually figure out which specific items are being used.

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That is a simple mind trick to make the picture look more "real". Horror movies rely on it all the time, using poor lighting to force the viewer to fill in the gaps with their own imagination. It is the cheapest way of keeping immersion when dealing a unconvincing monster costume or a cheaply made set.

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Originally Posted by Bahati

I think most RPers will tag their house as an RP space, even if they are not logged in or in the actual house to RP. There is always the option of closing access to the public if you don't want people RPing in your house if you aren't there.

Most RP houses will state if it is OK to RP in there on the greeting on the placard outside. Or the days/hours the house is available.

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Well, my question is whether I should mark my house as an RP space even if I’m not actively RPing except for like jokingly in my FC maybe. I’m always happy about visitors and it’s a nicely decorated space to hang out in. I’d often sit in the lounge in my basement with people from my FC just to talk or while people are waiting for Q pop

I love this new feature. Could we possibly get an Inn tag for rooms intended for lodging / houses that are RP inns but don't serve food and drinks like a tavern?

This is fantastic! I've already visited a few houses with the book icon. Only complaint is that I have to go to the skipper/entrance/etc. to look through the wards to see the tags (that I know of so far), when it'd be so much easier to see which houses have the book via map or something (I don't care about the other tags being on the map, just the book one).

Finished my grand tour of the wards on Excalibur this weekend. I went to all four housing zones and scoured every ward for estates with the message book tag. Then I visited those houses and commented in the books. I also went through the apartments and found the few with message book tags (people use the tags a lot more for the main houses than they do for apartments and FC rooms).

Overall, the system seems to be working well on my server. There were a few cases where the houses were locked without outdoor books or were lacking books altogether, but most people who did use the tag were using it correctly. It really is valuable because it helps to filter out the people who don't pay attention to housing much or don't want visitors while setting a more realistic goal in terms of number of houses to explore. Visiting every single house on the server is impossible, as even going for marked houses took me a few days of touring the wards casually. I already received one visitor to my house as well who was possibly aided by the message book tag I set up. Provided there isn't a large uptick in people abusing the tags and those who don't care continue to ignore them, I think the system is pretty good as it is. I would like to be able to see message book tags on the map, but that would be a small QoL improvement and isn't something I consider necessary.

Sadly, the book icon has gotten me nothing. :( My ward is boring. An FC mate of mine got more likes for her small in a week than I did in a month with my mansion. I actually run around my ward looking for others and rarely see anyone.

I'm having a lot of fun with this! I've visited several amazing houses that I might've never noticed without the estate tags.

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Originally Posted by Ryaz

Sadly, the book icon has gotten me nothing. :( My ward is boring. An FC mate of mine got more likes for her small in a week than I did in a month with my mansion. I actually run around my ward looking for others and rarely see anyone.

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Mansion. Personally owned. Sprinkle the salt fertilizer on your lawn, my dear friend.

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Originally Posted by Lissandra

Mansion. Personally owned. Sprinkle the salt fertilizer on your lawn, my dear friend.

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Wait, was that salt comment directed at me or other players?

Either way, it's not like my mansion was just given to me. Grinded my gatherers and crafters to 70 over the course of half a year, scrimped and saved, and checked the wards several times a day every day waiting for one to free up. I worked my ass off to get one and decorate it nice. No reason for people to be jealous of people working to earn things, especially when they have the opportunity to do the same. It just requires patience.

It would just be nice if people visited once in a while.

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Originally Posted by Ryaz

Wait, was that salt comment directed at me or other players?

Either way, it's not like my mansion was just given to me. Grinded my gatherers and crafters to 70 over the course of half a year, scrimped and saved, and checked the wards several times a day every day waiting for one to free up. I worked my ass off to get one and decorate it nice. No reason for people to be jealous of people working to earn things, especially when they have the opportunity to do the same. It just requires patience.

It would just be nice if people visited once in a while.

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Other players. I have no qualms with someone owning a mansion to themselves. :)