how can a game that came out in 2004 have instanced housing but this game cannot?

Everquest 2 launched on Nov. 8th 2004 had instanced housing that was purchasable by everyone and anyone. it launched with multiple types of homes from small 1 room apartments to massive houses ... all instanced

yet this game made by a much larger company can't do that. it makes no sense

instanced housing takes nothing from the game, the only people that would be upset over instanced housing would be those that like the exclusivity of having a home and the ability to hold that over those that do not have a home.

Toontown also had instanced housing.
Yup. Toontown. Granted I think the customization was pretty slim...

But regardless, coming from someone who has developed games, unless you plan for it, changing the design of something is not as simple as snapping your fingers.

What I would probably do in their shoes:
Build instanced housing and release it, but it can NOT be an FC house (because instanced FC housing would be challenging) and do what was first intended by having the current houses only serve to be as FC houses from now on, and just grandfather the individuals who currently own a house, but they cannot get their house back if they leave, they will have to take an instanced house, or they can only buy the public houses for their FC. I imagine they would want instanced housing though, ESPECIALLY if you can upgrade to a large, as a large house is extremely difficult to obtain on a lot of servers.

This would resolve the issue of instanced housing while saving time and not needing to do a TON of recoding so as to account for the FC features which would require time and effort to rework in an instanced area. If you wanted to in the future you could have instanced FC housing too and make it huge and massive with tons of gil sinks in the future, but the above would be a more solution that would solve the problems as an individual.

I would honestly be happy if they gave us apartments in which we could choose between small, medium or large. Some of us really don't care about having that plot or the yards. I've never once tended a single garden in the entirety of my time playing this game lol. Just don't lock the apartment sizes, let the player spend money on what size they want, with the future option to upgrade/downscale their private housing instance.

simple. Because housing was not meant to be such a big thing. In Japan and most of the EU, it's still relatively untouched. Only the NA side is having a "crisis" and it effects a pretty small amount of players in the grand scheme of things.

Why put resources appeasing a minor group when its better suited to appeal to the masses? Y'know. The ones actually playing the game?

Even my "Farm Together" game has instanced housing for all, and lots of it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kenky

simple. Because housing was not meant to be such a big thing. In Japan and most of the EU, it's still relatively untouched. Only the NA side is having a "crisis" and it effects a pretty small amount of players in the grand scheme of things.

Why put resources appeasing a minor group when its better suited to appeal to the masses? Y'know. The ones actually playing the game?

---

people who decorate houses DO play the game just because they don't play the way YOU do doesn't mean they don't matter. let me guess you are a raider and probably think things like storylines and crafting should be removed because they don't play like you do as well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Malicust

I would honestly be happy if they gave us apartments in which we could choose between small, medium or large. Some of us really don't care about having that plot or the yards. I've never once tended a single garden in the entirety of my time playing this game lol. Just don't lock the apartment sizes, let the player spend money on what size they want, with the future option to upgrade/downscale their private housing instance.

---

Why not both though?

Upgradeable apartments and balconies/common areas for gardening?

Garden plots are an economic advantage when it comes to making gil.

That way the demand for houses is reduced since a lot of people want the house for garden plots.

It wasn't supposed to be such a big thing, and they wanted to create a neighborhood feel. They didn't think it would blow up like that and now we've come to this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vulcann

how can a game that came out in 2004 have instanced housing but this game cannot?

---

The answer to your question is that this game already has instanced housing, it's called Apartments. They were added in patch 3.4 in 2016. You can read more about them in this wiki:
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Apartments

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Edax

The answer to your question is that this game already has instanced housing, it's called Apartments. They were added in patch 3.4 in 2016. You can read more about them in this wiki:
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Apartments

---

i am talking on full on houses not apartments, again a game in 2004 had "apartments" as well basically one room, it also had 2 bedroom houses, 3 bedroom houses and even 5 bedroom houses. And these were in every major city(which had their own unique look) and open to every character created (so if you had 8 characters each could have a different house) they later expanded instanced housing to guild houses which also had three tiers.

so again i restate my question why can a game made in 2004 do that but this game cannot?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vulcann

so again i restate my question why can a game made in 2004 do that but this game cannot?

---

Because Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. controls the intellectual property and chose not to implement your preferred housing system. It's the same reason you can't fly around space in Battleships like Eve Online despite Eve Online being a game from 2003. Square Enix choose not to implement it for FFXIV.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vulcann

i am talking on full on houses not apartments, again a game in 2004 had "apartments" as well basically one room, it also had 2 bedroom houses, 3 bedroom houses and even 5 bedroom houses. And these were in every major city(which had their own unique look) and open to every character created (so if you had 8 characters each could have a different house) they later expanded instanced housing to guild houses which also had three tiers.

so again i restate my question why can a game made in 2004 do that but this game cannot?

---

It may not be a question of can or cannot, but more it is worth it. SE has a finite amount of resources to devote to development. So if you're SE, where are you putting those resources. You're probably going to put them into things that affect the largest percentage of players, or things that will bring in more players, thereby increasing revenue. If housing doesn't fall into whatever those categories are, then the cost/benefit is probably not there. Yeah, you can patch, band-aid it to keep kicking the can down the road. They'll fix what they can within the current system. However, when it comes devoting large amounts of resources, the benefit has to be there for them. I'm sure they would make every aspect of the game perfect if they could, but that's just not realistic. So you put your resources where they'll make the most difference.

All these old games that people keep bringing up. How far can you customize the interior of their instanced housing? How flexible is their positioning of furniture and how many different kinds of objects do they have? Those things matter very much when comparing data loads.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Caitlinzulu

All these old games that people keep bringing up. How far can you customize the interior of their instanced housing? How flexible is their positioning of furniture and how many different kinds of objects do they have? Those things matter very much when comparing data loads.

---

there were multiple style of flooring and walls to choose from, you could place furniture and objects anywhere as well as resize them. clever people even were able to make stairs and a second floor with creative placements of items and pillars.