Can we please just have instanced housing already?

I think it is far past time that we did away with the inefficient and frankly archaic housing system that exists in this game.

The issues with the system, in case they need to be expounded upon for some reason, are not limited to, but include: The limited availability of housing, rewarding of furnishings from seasonal events that people without houses can't even use, the gating of game features behind housing, the issue of people selling their houses despite counter measures, the annoyance of said counter measures, and the conflict between FC and FC and between FCs and individuals all create a tremendous amount of strife and bitterness surrounding the system that are unnecessary.

Permit me to go ahead and counter some common arguments:

1. The neighborhood system fosters a sense of community.

I understand that some people like the feeling of community. Having been in several different FCs and having played since 1.0, I have never personally seen or experienced any sort of collaboration or interaction within a neighborhood. That is not to say such interactions don't happen, but there is no real way to get non-anecdotal data for this, and I would posit they are pretty rare and would further assert they do not outweigh the negative social impacts of the current system.

2. Instancing housing will draw people out of the world, and they still spend all their time in their home instance.


I don't know if you've been in the open world much in this game, but it's more or less dead anyway, and the systems Square implements actively exacerbate this issue. There remain no compelling reasons to spend time in the world itself.

That being said, why sit AFK at your house, which would ostensibly have no market board or other amenities, and would have no content within it other than your garden, your chocobo, and decorating?

3. Implementing such a system would be too resource intensive.

Many of the resources needed for instanced housing are already in use. In addition to housing within the neighborhoods, there are instanced apartments, and there are FC rooms, workshops, etc. all allocated on a house by house or person by person basis. In short, the resource creep would be likely, but it is not as extensive as SE stans like to claim and has already been done by companies with far fewer resources than a small indie company like Square-Enix.

Actually, instancing, if done right could have many more players out in the neighborhood.
Don't put every player in their own private instance like in other games, where you don't see anyone unless you invite them in.

Keep the current housing areas, but instance the entire plots. Each plot could have 1000 different owners, increasing the chance that they'll be running around. When you first enter your development, you see your own house on it's plot, and the others are randomly filled with ones that currently have occupants. (May increase load times though.)

You could choose to see and tour any of the houses on a plot by selecting them from the placard. This would also allow you to select what houses appear near yours. If an owner is out in the yard of a displayed house, you see them there. On hidden instances, you'd only see the owner appear when they walk out into the street.

If you're outside in your plot, you see everyone out in the street or other common areas within view.

Tandy computer limitations.
PSX limitations.
PS2 limitations.
PS3 limitations.
PS4 limitations.
Steam limitations.
Future proofed PC limitations.
Limitations limitations.

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Originally Posted by SamSmoot

Keep the current housing areas, but instance the entire plots. Each plot could have 1000 different owners, increasing the chance that they'll be running around. When you first enter your development, you see your own house on it's plot, and the others are randomly filled with ones that currently have occupants. (May increase load times though.)

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Considering my character has a temporary lockdown when a hunt train passes by, I don't think the servers would be able to handle that. Especially when multiple owners aren't just personal owners and you end up with multiple big FCs flooding their members in. I can just imagine the absolute meldown the servers that had to handle shiro plot 30 area would go through.

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

Considering my character has a temporary lockdown when a hunt train passes by, I don't think the servers would be able to handle that. Especially when multiple owners aren't just personal owners and you end up with multiple big FCs flooding their members in. I can just imagine the absolute meldown the servers that had to handle shiro plot 30 area would go through.

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I think individual instances for each house are the only reasonable way. This is how every game with instanced housing does it.

Housing competitions and housing buffs are a decent way to get people to visit each other ala Wildstar

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

Considering my character has a temporary lockdown when a hunt train passes by, I don't think the servers would be able to handle that. Especially when multiple owners aren't just personal owners and you end up with multiple big FCs flooding their members in. I can just imagine the absolute meldown the servers that had to handle shiro plot 30 area would go through.

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It would be possible to do this in an efficient way. Other MMOs have housing like this. The main one I can think of is Black Desert Online, which allows you to own nearly any building in the game world as a house or property while thousands of other people simultaneously own it too. Imagine if you could buy a room inside Eulmore next to the Aetheryte, that would be the equivalent. FFXIV obviously would be limited to the housing wards themselves, but it is entirely possible to have instanced plots like that without being overly taxing.

They could do something like a small area thats a cul de sac, so like 10 houses, but they can only all be medium houses. The area is instanced, so its only loaded when some one is in it, your house is spawned on a plot and is only there while you are there. Other plots are empty and you cannot walk in those plot areas unless someone else is decides to go to their instanced house.

When you chose to tp to your instanced home, the game will first check to see if someone is loaded into an instanced cul de sac and then try and place your home in one of the 10 slots, this is why the houses would need to all be one size only for it to work. And when ya leave, its not there, but timers and stuff for plants are still going.

The only other way i can think is to make it so you choose a size and its only the inside, no outside and anytime anyone from the people thats roomates or guild members access it, that is when its instanced. Also so people can do plants, add a green room thats another buyable room sor of like the barracks that you can put plants and maybe some outside things. Make it so the room has a view outside, but its still a "room" and its blocked so you cant just go outta the area

Full agree with OP especially the last argument.

The excuse that pretends instancied houses are ressources consuming have always sound to me like a bad joke. Any Inn room already works like as an instance and guess what : one character can't be in two instance so it wouldn't change anything. SE excuses are really, really poor excuses. The worst : we can loose seasonal event items if we loose house and never getting them back since no PNC sell them, even thought we have the achievment.

Instance houses were great in Wildstar! had people do all sought of creative things with em, even turning them into RP themed dungeons. but they were also kinda a double edged sword. i remember almost everyone on the EU RP server (Lightspire) making their home into a bar. then posting ads in the region chat, then getting upset when no one attended...

And then there's ESO haven't tried housing in that game but the houses seem to be pretty pricey. plus the limited time houses put me off. i hear roleplay in ESO mostly takes place in peoples houses.

Instanced housing/towns was perfect in White Knight Chronicles 1 and 2. It was literally the only good thing about the game by the end of it

For any who have played Dark Cloud or Dark Chronicles from yeaaaars ago, it was an online version of that.

Sorry for the reality check but you can’t always get what you want. Life doesn’t work that way, even in video games. Paying a sub doesn’t entitle a player to every single piece of content. Besides housing has been let go for far too long to be able to be fixed effectively

Everytime someone brings up instanced housing I’m just reminded that the devs were pretty clear about not wanting housing for everyone.

I think it’s time they added a new housing location because we’re a little short, and have them fix that go awful timer mechanic but other than that things seem to be pretty in line with the design they wanted. (Historically about 25-50% of a server population having access, depending on server pop)

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Originally Posted by EaMett

Everytime someone brings up instanced housing I’m just reminded that the devs were pretty clear about not wanting housing for everyone.

I think it’s time they added a new housing location because we’re a little short, and have them fix that go awful timer mechanic but other than that things seem to be pretty in line with the design they wanted. (Historically about 25-50% of a server population having access, depending on server pop)

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SE also wanted for housing to be only for FC and they changed their minds. They also didn't want to put a timer but changed their minds once again. In the beginning, the small houses lacked basements and the overall decor cap was lower, all of that changed too. My point: the game evolve.

Anyway, FFXIV already has instanced housing with the apartments/FC rooms. SE just needs to improve them by for example doing something similar to Kugane inn, interior and exterior area in one instance. You can't blame people to complain when a feature of the game is blocked "because" reasons but the devs still support it regularly and even reward yard decor in some events.

I think allowing each and every player to have their own house via instancing is the best solution and has all my support.

The talk of multiple size apartments which they said they were considering would do a lot to alleviate the demand. The current one room apartments really aren't very enticing for many. A split level with multiple rooms would make lots happy I suspect.

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Originally Posted by JowyAtreides

Instanced housing/towns was perfect in White Knight Chronicles 1 and 2. It was literally the only good thing about the game by the end of it

For any who have played Dark Cloud or Dark Chronicles from yeaaaars ago, it was an online version of that.

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Gods the hrs spent min-maxing substats while making a believable town & the early micro-transaction days for houses/decor with better/different sub-stats... don't get me wrong I cared WAY less back then about the small cost for items I liked to make my "digital" town but you can't say it wasn't there & honestly their are times I miss that game (which is why I still have my PS3 & the hard copy IRL)

you are right thou its "instanced" towns idea was interesting, FF14 could do it in a slightly different way, like signing up for a "Personal" Town instance that requires a min-"parties" signed count, my quess is 24, (be them FC or Player) to be made. All affected "parties" house's would then be moved perminity to this "mini" houseing zone thus freeing up space in reg zones (some system would be needed to transfer a house from this "new" instance back to a reg zone if they become the last house standing & don't wanna stay there or invite others... AND a way to merge houses from 1 instance into another in the case of their being NO reg zone space)

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Originally Posted by The_NPC

Gods the hrs spent min-maxing substats while making a believable town & the early micro-transaction days for houses/decor with better/different sub-stats... don't get me wrong I cared WAY less back then about the small cost for items I liked to make my "digital" town but you can't say it wasn't there & honestly their are times I miss that game (which is why I still have my PS3 & the hard copy IRL)

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I don't remember too much as I generally relied on the towns of better players to get me my cotton bolls which is one reason I whole-heartedly approved of their handling of instanced content and community feel :)

But people who own half of a ward wouldn't feel special anymore.

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Originally Posted by TwiibieTwuu

Instance houses were great in Wildstar! had people do all sought of creative things with em, even turning them into RP themed dungeons. but they were also kinda a double edged sword. i remember almost everyone on the EU RP server (Lightspire) making their home into a bar. then posting ads in the region chat, then getting upset when no one attended...

And then there's ESO haven't tried housing in that game but the houses seem to be pretty pricey. plus the limited time houses put me off. i hear roleplay in ESO mostly takes place in peoples houses.

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Loved Wildstar housing so much! My engineer had a western styled desert scrapyard(thanks to the ship parts we got one year) and my Rabbit gal had a gorgeous forest with caves and waterfalls Huge trees etc. SE would be amazed and proud of the things we could do with such a system.

All but one of the people that came with me from EQ2 have left because of the housing situation. Like Wildstar, EQ2's housing feature was instanced, large and adaptable. While five of six people may not seem like a lot to SE, It was quite a blow to me and left me pretty darn sad!

Also the limited number of mansions needs to go! Not so much because they are limited and only a lucky few get them( which is one reason) but more so because as a house decorator(builder) I want that space and higher object count!

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Originally Posted by MPK

But people who own half of a ward wouldn't feel special anymore.

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How naive.

Apartments are FF14's answer to housing for all. They're instanced, dirt cheap and to be honest, worth way more than they cost. So when you say that some players get furnishings that none of which they can use, that's just bulls**t because apartments are so accessible & easy to get.

Estates were not intended to be owned by everybody, they're a luxury item. I mean, think of how easy it is to lose them. We really shouldn't feel entitled to them. And on top of that, it's not like they're absolutely necessary in order to play through the game. Even if they were, there's nothing you can get from having your own estate that you can't get from being a part of an FC with a house or the MB, hell, if you have a friend they can even move you into their house. Please stop trying to make this housing thing seem like such a huge deal, it is not. There are much larger issues that need to be addressed, and thankfully SE realizes this too.

Also, if you're making a request for something, using an entitled/rude tone really isn't the best thing to do. I wouldn't be surprised if SE just skips right over this one. I certainly wouldn't be willing hear someone out who seems to be this unpleasant.

Working on an extra long post I want to add in relation to this subject.. one that 4 people will read and 1 will like so I don't repeat myself as much xD (like referencing airships or chocobo content), but YES PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THAL ADD INSTANCED HOUSE(s) <3~~! lol. I see this as one of the best ways we can give housing more power and features and also not take away power and features from those who already own houses.

I would love to see the ability for the game to give powerful feature filled housing for all, and the awesome features we could see from everyone being on that same page.

The tl;dr (~ish) of what I hope to finally get around to writing later is that those who already own a house now own a front or a face in the physical world. These slots will need a player to regularly visit or they will be auto-demolished as they are already. HOWEVER, these house owners will also now own an instanced personal zone and an interior house.

So if I'm explaining it right you can picture this. You buy a physical plot in a current housing ward, it's expensive- it gives you three things. A physical front that's connected to other players that you can decorate and such, a house interior, and the starting of a personal instanced zone. If you lose your place in the public ward you will not lose your house, your house will move exclusively to the instanced portion and your public slot will open up for someone else.

For those who don't buy that physical front this is how it would be- they start out with an apartment sized room for free (I think this is important to make seasonal events more interesting, to entice players to buy housing items and take part in the system, and also will give SE some more money in the cash shop), however they may upgrade their free room in many ways. For example they can spend 500k (price to buy an apartment normally) to get a second floor and some other details. Many upgrades and options made available, to comfortably upgrade yourself in ways you prefer at a schedule you can keep. These players may also upgrade to gain an exterior that is a personal zone, SE being allowed to add more and more features without having to redesign entire housing wards- like getting plots of instanced land and houses even larger than our current large houses. At this point instanced houses have /everything/ the first player has (or at least the potential to have) except the physical neighborhood front. Both players (& FC) may have access to all features of housing, and both will benefit to having a personal zone and all other features related to it. Like for example if in the personal zone you could build a large chocobo farm that lets you breed chocobos well not to worry if you own a house in the ward as you can also have those other features since you have the land for it.

If anyone has watched Howel's Moving Castle (Studio Ghibli film) you can easily picture the magical door in Howel's place, when they turn the knob they can choose where they leave to. So if you turn your knob to your physical housing front you go there, if you turn it to your personal instance you go there (so in Howel's case it'd be his mountain flower garden). Or if you did that FFXI flower girl quest to unlock fast travel with your mog room.

https://i.imgur.com/uaiuTRf.gif

The neighborhood is now exactly for the purpose of the neighborhood feelings, so those who are taking up space but don't want to take part in that system can get out of it and those who want it will be surrounded by others who want it. They will also gain all the unique features of having your own personal space could have (like Wildstar housing system, which gives a lot more customization), owning a physical address doesn't exclude you from the upgrades. In terms of how much customization imagine the last zone in Shadowbringers, using the magic to make a space like that, or a space like Azim Steppe, or a space like Ishgard lofts, whatever- the customization of your own zone that doesn't rely on consenting/disrupting other players goes through the roof. In fact I think that point in the story could be a big upgrading point in the housing system, until then things are more realistic but afterwards... new features like changing your skybox, weather, etc, ;).

Also as an aside I'd like to see FATEs, events, and other things to encourage people to visit wards and even instanced houses (that are set public), I think it would be quite fun to have those sort of social events. Perhaps housing competitions and leader boards, ways to easily find restaurants, etc.

Unfortunately changing the system such that they have the power to give everyone a space can easily be a monumental task.. so I don't want to make the above sound easy, just that I think having a housing space in a game, having the upgrades be gradual, the power you can have from instanced that you can't have from a public space, the amazing potential of using FFXIV's zones and assets to create your own space (like people in Wildstar created underwater cities, flying palaces, and more), market benefits of everyone having access (in game and out), all of that and more.. I think makes the system very cool and I really wish we had it (instanced houses).

As long as we still have the housing as it is I don't see any problem adding an instanced housing for people that can't get one.

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Originally Posted by TheForce

Apartments are FF14's answer to housing for all. They're instanced, dirt cheap and to be honest, worth way more than they cost. So when you say that some players get furnishings that none of which they can use, that's just bulls**t because apartments are so accessible & easy to get.

Estates were not intended to be owned by everybody, they're a luxury item. I mean, think of how easy it is to lose them. We really shouldn't feel entitled to them. And on top of that, it's not like they're absolutely necessary in order to play through the game. Even if they were, there's nothing you can get from having your own estate that you can't get from being a part of an FC with a house or the MB, hell, if you have a friend they can even move you into their house. Please stop trying to make this housing thing seem like such a huge deal, it is not. There are much larger issues that need to be addressed, and thankfully SE realizes this too.

Also, if you're making a request for something, using an entitled/rude tone really isn't the best thing to do. I wouldn't be surprised if SE just skips right over this one. I certainly wouldn't be willing to hear someone out who seems to be this unpleasant.

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You can't use any outdoor furnishing in an apartment. You can't crossbreed either.

It's also amazing how people use some outliers to demonize a sector of the player base with valid complaints.

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Originally Posted by Driavna

You can't use any outdoor furnishing in an apartment. You can't crossbreed either.

It's also amazing how people use some outliers to demonize a sector of the player base with valid complaints.

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I mean, there has to be some incentive to own an estate. You can't have something cost literally sextuple the price of an apartment and have be the exact same thing. And like I said in my first reply, it is very important to remember that estates are luxuries.

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Originally Posted by SamSmoot

Actually, instancing, if done right could have many more players out in the neighborhood.
Don't put every player in their own private instance like in other games, where you don't see anyone unless you invite them in.

Keep the current housing areas, but instance the entire plots. Each plot could have 1000 different owners, increasing the chance that they'll be running around. When you first enter your development, you see your own house on it's plot, and the others are randomly filled with ones that currently have occupants. (May increase load times though.)

You could choose to see and tour any of the houses on a plot by selecting them from the placard. This would also allow you to select what houses appear near yours. If an owner is out in the yard of a displayed house, you see them there. On hidden instances, you'd only see the owner appear when they walk out into the street.

If you're outside in your plot, you see everyone out in the street or other common areas within view.

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No, I like my yard. I would rather not lose it.

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Originally Posted by Lycieus

1. The neighborhood system fosters a sense of community.

I understand that some people like the feeling of community. Having been in several different FCs and having played since 1.0, I have never personally seen or experienced any sort of collaboration or interaction within a neighborhood. That is not to say such interactions don't happen, but there is no real way to get non-anecdotal data for this, and I would posit they are pretty rare and would further assert they do not outweigh the negative social impacts of the current system.

2. Instancing housing will draw people out of the world, and they still spend all their time in their home instance.


I don't know if you've been in the open world much in this game, but it's more or less dead anyway, and the systems Square implements actively exacerbate this issue. There remain no compelling reasons to spend time in the world itself.

That being said, why sit AFK at your house, which would ostensibly have no market board or other amenities, and would have no content within it other than your garden, your chocobo, and decorating?

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I have rarely seen anyone in the neighborhood around my FC's house, and it's usually just members of my FC. That is of course anecdotal. The fact is the community it could build is gonna be primarily people who have houses. Many people are reluctant to buy houses even if they can, because they know sometimes life happens and they may have to stop subbing for a few months, meaning they could lose everything they put into they're houses including many limited time items. I don't know if there is a way to get back mogstation items, that people spend REAL money on, but most items are lost forever after a couple months.

I don't find that the open world is dead. I always see people around. They need to be wary of many of the mistakes made in other games. I think having vendors and the retainer bell was not the best idea. I hope the market board is never brought into housing (has it?). One of the huge mistakes Blizzard did was to have Mining and Herbing available to everyone in the garrisons. (I know garrisons are not housing, but it is cited as a reason against housing for WoW). The whole garrison thing killed cities and the open world for most of one expansion.

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Originally Posted by MsQi

I don't find that the open world is dead. I always see people around. They need to be wary of many of the mistakes made in other games. I think having vendors and the retainer bell was not the best idea. I hope the market board is never brought into housing (has it?). One of the huge mistakes Blizzard did was to have Mining and Herbing available to everyone in the garrisons. (I know garrisons are not housing, but it is cited as a reason against housing for WoW). The whole garrison thing killed cities and the open world for most of one expansion.

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There are multiple MBs spread around every ward, though they are positioned closer to some plots than others. I don't think it necessarily encourages people to stay there though, especially when the tax is so high on some higher priced items. If I can save myself 5-30k I will happily teleport to where I need to go to get things cheaper.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

There are multiple MBs spread around every ward, though they are positioned closer to some plots than others. I don't think it necessarily encourages people to stay there though, especially when the tax is so high on some higher priced items. If I can save myself 5-30k I will happily teleport to where I need to go to get things cheaper.

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my point is that they are not in the houses or apartments. That is one thing that would encourage people to spend a lot more time in there.

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Originally Posted by MsQi

my point is that they are not in the houses or apartments. That is one thing that would encourage people to spend a lot more time in there.

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They are in the wards though so there's really not much difference. At pretty much all times it is me, myself and I in the entire housing ward.

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Originally Posted by TheForce

I mean, there has to be some incentive to own an estate. You can't have something cost literally sextuple the price of an apartment and have be the exact same thing. And like I said in my first reply, it is very important to remember that estates are luxuries.

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The price of a house varies according to the size of the plot, you can do something similar to apartments. Anyway, improving apartments is not going to take anything away from current states, unless, the whole value of an estate is to be rare so owners can feel special for having one.

Not sure if someone brought this up already, but I wonder if it's possible to instance the whole friggin' district. Get three or four of them for each and suddenly plot availability multiplies by the same number.

Individual instances would still have some advantages though. You likely wouldn't have to load in between interior and exterior for example. That alone would be a helluva QoL change. I still like the idea of having neighbors though, even though nobody is ever outside or home.

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Originally Posted by TheForce

I mean, there has to be some incentive to own an estate. You can't have something cost literally sextuple the price of an apartment and have be the exact same thing. And like I said in my first reply, it is very important to remember that estates are luxuries.

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Why though? In neither of your posts did you really offer a reason as to why things should be as they are. Why should they be a luxury item? Square has aggressively marketed housing and its various features since their inception, and they continue to dump resources into it even though most of the player base doesn't have access to say a yard or gardening plots.

My brother agrees with you. All my excitement for housing died the day they released it.

We buy the game, get a sub set up, then have the option to buy cash shop items, yet server space is always limited. Even after all the money they make every single month.

Excuses grow stale after years of regurgitating the same tired lines.

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Originally Posted by Riastrad

My brother agrees with you. All my excitement for housing died the day they released it.

We buy the game, get a sub set up, then have the option to buy cash shop items, yet server space is always limited. Even after all the money they make every single month.

Excuses grow stale after years of regurgitating the same tired lines.

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I'm sorry to hear that your brother and you bought a game and paid a subscription fee for housing.

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Originally Posted by Driavna

unless, the whole value of an estate is to be rare so owners can feel special for having one.

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It is part of housing yes.

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Originally Posted by Riastrad

We buy the game, get a sub set up, then have the option to buy cash shop items, yet server space is always limited. Even after all the money they make every single month.

Excuses grow stale after years of regurgitating the same tired lines.

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Has anyone ever stopped to consider for one moment that this might actually be the truth and that these limitations just simply can't be expanded on for other reasons?

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Originally Posted by hasana

It is part of housing yes.

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So you want other people to not have housing so you can have a sense of validation?

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Originally Posted by hasana

I'm sorry to hear that your brother and you bought a game and paid a subscription fee for housing.

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No we bought the game years before housing was even a thought. Snide comments won't get you very far.

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Originally Posted by JowyAtreides

Has anyone ever stopped to consider for one moment that this might actually be the truth and that these limitations just simply can't be expanded on for other reasons?

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It is the truth. No one is doubting that. The obvious answer is to the problem is to expand with their growing market/player base. You could retort that making a brand new server farm is expensive and you would be right. ShadowBringers is doing incredibly well at this point in time though. Bringing in players from multiple avenues and not being willing or somehow unable to expand where necessary is an issue that needs to be addressed. It is a cosmetic issue, I understand that, but it is one of many that has been around for far too long. Heck, during one of the Fan Fests held recently had the main costume designer for SE lament that she wanted a new armor rig system so she could make better glamours for the game. So even staff within the dev team want to have new avenues to grow and better serve the player base.

This game is wonderful and I would not have spent the better part of a decade playing it if I did not enjoy it. Something has to give though.

I want instanced housing but not in the way you think. The theatre company in SB had their own giant private airship that they lived and worked on. That is what I want for my FC.