Housing Solution Proposals

TLDR: There is a severe housing shortage on many servers, and I think that Square Enix should fix it by giving us the option to buy island sanctuary lighthouses, regional instanced houses, customizable ships, or by adding more wards.

I am a sprout here, but when I play other games, I love playing with their housing features. I enjoy making a pretty customized house or business, then showing it to friends or opening it for public viewing. But here, it is nearly impossible to buy a house, due to the severe shortage. It took me several weeks to get even an apartment, as all of the apartment buildings on Balmung were completely full. While I do like the community housing system FFXIV currently has, it is quite vexing to be unable to buy a house or even an apartment in a timely manner. So, I have thought of some possible solutions to this problem, that would preserve the uniqueness of the current housing while giving sprouts and solo players another way to decorate.

1. Island Sanctuary Lighthouses. Island sanctuaries are already going to be instanced, so they are a perfect place to add new housing. Because they are islands, and to differentiate them from existing housing, we should be able to build lighthouses on them. These lighthouses could have a different interior layout (tall and octagonal perhaps?) than current houses, and different exterior designs than existing estates, to preserve the desirability of the current housing system. But it would still give us a cool place to decorate, hang out in, and show off to friends.

2. Instanced houses with a fixed region-based appearance. For instance, you could have a treehouse in the Shroud, a windmill in La Noscea, or an observatory in Coerthas. These would not have modifiable exteriors and would, again, be very different from current housing while still providing an alternative.

3. Add more wards to servers with high housing demand. This solution is likely the simplest, since it does not require designing any new structures.

4. Large airships, boats, or submersibles as housing. These vehicles are very cool, and would provide a way to add instanced housing that fits perfectly with lore and world design. Since these vehicles are often out at sea, or in the sky, it makes sense that they can only be visited by friends and associates of the captain. We often see them during quests, and ride them, so we should be able to buy them. We could paint them, swap out their major components, and decorate an interior with a ship-shaped layout for a change. This would also be great for players who roleplay as pirates, pilots, and fishers.

I think that any of these solutions could solve the housing crisis, or at least reduce its severity, by giving players (especially sprouts) a way to enjoy decorating a home without having to wait weeks or months for a vacant apartment or a lottery win.

Reinventing the already spinning wheel isn't a solution (#2). Instance the existing structure, I've laid it out how it could be done in another post.

#3 - Stop this mindset. Throwing more wards is not a long-term solution. Instancing an existing structure is one. I refer to this as the 'same turd, same smell scenario'.

#1 & #4 - We can't even get enough housing for people. Your proposals aren't solutions to a problem, they are really making more of a mess of an existing one, IMO.

#1,#2, and #4 are all suggestions for instanced housing, which would give enough housing for everyone. Just not the exact same type of houses that the wards have. I like the ward system, and I'm sure many other players do too. It is nice to look at other players' homes, and it is useful for roleplay events. Instead of just instancing the existing housing, I would prefer they add an additional housing system that is instanced. I would be fine with instanced versions of existing houses, but I think a new type of house for the instanced housing would be more exciting. Also, island sanctuaries are already going to be customizable and instanced. Logically, it makes sense to put housing on them.

#3 is not the best long term solution imo, but it would be the easiest and quickest one for Square Enix to implement. Which is why I suggested it. Any other solution requires them to create new systems at least, and maybe new structures, which will take time and money.

IMO, Island Sanctuary already showed us that they can instance housing. Everyone can get their own instanced island and expand it. I'm sure we would all love for them to make this a housing solution, but we know it won't be - at least not right away. This is me hoping that SE sees the potential for this and gives us the option to make it an option for housing at some point. With all the work that was done to current and new wards and locations, I seriously doubt it will ever come to fruition.

Time and money is something we know SE has, especially after posting their profits so far. Every single expansion has used the same excuse - more hardware needed. Nothing new here, and we know they need more hardware for housing which they have but are only adding two more wards. What they should be doing instead is instancing housing.

I've said this before - we can still have the 'neighborhood feeling' that you and Yoshi-P want to experience, even though I've never seen my neighbors at all, I wouldn't mind that either. You can do it by having one ward per city, instance the housing at the entrance to the plot instead of the house. This allows people to pick what size, decorations, gardening, dyes, etc. to have at their plot they purchased. It gets rid of some of the most idiotic instancing we have to go through now for housing. It keeps the neighborhood, where the one ward is your common area. Teleport to your friends' houses using your Friends list like we have now, or pick from the list of houses at the NPC like we can now.

Instancing can help with their hardware issues - this is why we run VMs in a server environment, it's no different here. It allocates resources based off need, not dedicating resources to things that don't need it, or even over-dedicating resources. Empty wards still requires overhead to run whether or not they are filled with players. SE needs to really start thinking about efficiency with their structured mess of a system and stop making things more complicated than they need to be. Like I said in the past - we are all in this position because of a certain director's pride and not letting go of wards because he wants that 'neighborhood feeling'. Set the pride aside and start thinking.

Why do people always suggest instanced housing? There is a reason a lot of us are obsessed with housing in this game. It is very rare for a game to have non-instanced housing and it is the reason I started playing the game in the first place. I don't even participate in combat in the game; I just like the housing. So no, we can't just have instanced housing because it would ruin the whole point of housing for some people. More wards, and unfortunately more SE money spent on servers, is the only way.

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Originally Posted by Kaiproberts

Why do people always suggest instanced housing? There is a reason a lot of us are obsessed with housing in this game. It is very rare for a game to have non-instanced housing and it is the reason I started playing the game in the first place. I don't even participate in combat in the game; I just like the housing. So no, we can't just have instanced housing because it would ruin the whole point of housing for some people. More wards, and unfortunately more SE money spent on servers, is the only way.

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I mean you could have both. If we are able to have every player have their own personal island alongside wards already existing. Why can we not also have instanced houses o.0

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Originally Posted by Kaiproberts

Why do people always suggest instanced housing? There is a reason a lot of us are obsessed with housing in this game. It is very rare for a game to have non-instanced housing and it is the reason I started playing the game in the first place. I don't even participate in combat in the game; I just like the housing. So no, we can't just have instanced housing because it would ruin the whole point of housing for some people. More wards, and unfortunately more SE money spent on servers, is the only way.

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We always suggest it, because obviously the current structure of the NOC cannot support housing in its current state. 37 million active accounts, of those let's just take 1 million that are actively playing. Now count houses. Look at the boards at all the pissed off people. There is obviously a disconnect here.

It wouldn't ruin anything, and more wards is not the only way. They can support instanced housing to accommodate both the neighborhood whiners and the instanced housing introverts. I've explained how so many times, I'm tired of doing it again, but they can pull it off with the structure in place.

People keep screaming "MOAR WARDZ!!11" and SE keeps telling us "MOAR HRDWRZ!!!11" that they can't get a hold of. Use what you got, use it wisely. With how much they have thrown at housing already in total, I'm more than sure they can satisfy the player base.

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Originally Posted by Kailani

#1,#2, and #4 are all suggestions for instanced housing, which would give enough housing for everyone. Just not the exact same type of houses that the wards have. I like the ward system, and I'm sure many other players do too. It is nice to look at other players' homes, and it is useful for roleplay events. Instead of just instancing the existing housing, I would prefer they add an additional housing system that is instanced. I would be fine with instanced versions of existing houses, but I think a new type of house for the instanced housing would be more exciting. Also, island sanctuaries are already going to be customizable and instanced. Logically, it makes sense to put housing on them.

#3 is not the best long term solution imo, but it would be the easiest and quickest one for Square Enix to implement. Which is why I suggested it. Any other solution requires them to create new systems at least, and maybe new structures, which will take time and money.

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Whether you accept it or not, FF14 already has instanced housing in which is called FC room and Apartment.
Air ship may sound interesting at a glance, but practically impossible due to the size of "airship" in FF14.
You may suggest to force lore to have Ragnarok class airship from FF8 into FF14; but still not making sense because interior space will not be bigger than apartment and still no "garden"

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Originally Posted by Kaiproberts

Why do people always suggest instanced housing? There is a reason a lot of us are obsessed with housing in this game. It is very rare for a game to have non-instanced housing and it is the reason I started playing the game in the first place. I don't even participate in combat in the game; I just like the housing. So no, we can't just have instanced housing because it would ruin the whole point of housing for some people. More wards, and unfortunately more SE money spent on servers, is the only way.

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I am suggesting both for the reason you stated. I also like the existing wards and hope they keep those as-is. But there is also such a shortage of housing that, on some worlds, even more wards would not solve the problem long-term. Balmung has already nearly filled up all plots just two lottery cycles in, and that is after a new housing zone was added.

I think we need an alternative system of housing that is truly unlimited. Unlimited instanced housing would be a good alternative for players who do not care about being social or having neighbors (which would free up space in the wards), and would give the rest of us a place to decorate while we wait for a plot to open up or for a lottery win. While I want a ward house, I would rather have an instanced house on an island than my current zero houses. And instanced housing could easily coexist with existing wards, so I do not think it would cause any issues for current house owners.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Whether you accept it or not, FF14 already has instanced housing in which is called FC room and Apartment.
Air ship may sound interesting at a glance, but practically impossible due to the size of "airship" in FF14.
You may suggest to force lore to have Ragnarok class airship from FF8 into FF14; but still not making sense because interior space will not be bigger than apartment and still no "garden"

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Apartments are technically instanced, but they are not unlimited housing. On Balmung the supply of apartments often runs out. There are currently a few left in Empyreum, but all other apartment buildings are generally at capacity, and Empyreum will probably run out within a month or two as well. FC rooms are effectively unlimited housing, but they are only accessible to players who are in an FC that owns a house. If you are not in a FC, or want to help start and grow a new FC, you cannot get one. When I said instanced housing I was thinking of a form of housing that allows every single player who wants one to buy one.

And yes, I suppose the airships are a bit too small. I was thinking about the size of real airships when I wrote it, but FFXIV has much smaller ones. Lighthouses and sailing ships would definitely still be large enough (I think both could be the size of a medium house), and those would both fit well thematically with island sanctuaries. I am not worried about gardens since the island sanctuaries are already intended to be a way for all players to garden and raise chocobos without needing an FC or needing to compete with other players.

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Originally Posted by Kaiproberts

Why do people always suggest instanced housing? There is a reason a lot of us are obsessed with housing in this game. It is very rare for a game to have non-instanced housing and it is the reason I started playing the game in the first place. I don't even participate in combat in the game; I just like the housing. So no, we can't just have instanced housing because it would ruin the whole point of housing for some people. More wards, and unfortunately more SE money spent on servers, is the only way.

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Then why are you playing this game? It's already ruined for you since all apartments and house interiors are instanced.

In other words, nothing says all housing must only be wards or only instanced. They can co-exist.

ok ok hear me out
a) double the furniture cap on all forms of housing, including apartments
b) create a second instanced room in apartments called a patio; allow outdoor gardening/outdoor furniture to happen in this area. Bonus: Give players control of the skybox in this room.
c) (DREAM FEATURE INCOMING) create a glamour plate system for housing furniture loadouts, allowing people to decorate their housing area and then save what they have, wipe the slate, and decorate from scratch without losing anything

^This alone would get so many apartment-owners who want a house to just shut up and enjoy their apartment. Myself included. If I could decorate the same apartment, multiple times without losing any of my old work because I could save it as loadouts client-side or something, I would be in heaven. I would never even want a house. Let other people keep their neighborhood. I just want to decorate.

Beyond that, just open more wards but do it on a server by server basis. In other words, some newer DC that isn't having issues might not need any wards, so don't dedicate space to them for that purpose. But Balmung? Mateus? Yeah, they need wards. Give them more.

There you go, you're welcome.

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Originally Posted by Kailani

Apartments are technically instanced, but they are not unlimited housing. On Balmung the supply of apartments often runs out. There are currently a few left in Empyreum, but all other apartment buildings are generally at capacity, and Empyreum will probably run out within a month or two as well. FC rooms are effectively unlimited housing, but they are only accessible to players who are in an FC that owns a house. If you are not in a FC, or want to help start and grow a new FC, you cannot get one. When I said instanced housing I was thinking of a form of housing that allows every single player who wants one to buy one.

And yes, I suppose the airships are a bit too small. I was thinking about the size of real airships when I wrote it, but FFXIV has much smaller ones. Lighthouses and sailing ships would definitely still be large enough (I think both could be the size of a medium house), and those would both fit well thematically with island sanctuaries. I am not worried about gardens since the island sanctuaries are already intended to be a way for all players to garden and raise chocobos without needing an FC or needing to compete with other players.

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Again, Balmung problem is unique of its own because people refuse to get off that server.
Apartment on other servers are pretty empty so is FC housing.
They certainly can add more apartment space as they said they have that ability but there is really no point to do it just for one server.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Again, Balmung problem is unique of its own because people refuse to get off that server.
Apartment on other servers are pretty empty so is FC housing.
They certainly can add more apartment space as they said they have that ability but there is really no point to do it just for one server.

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There's also the fact that there are other house owners or prospective house owners who don't just want an apartment. One of the biggest draws for me is my yard.

I realize there are other players who are satisfied with their apartment, which is just fine. Yet, the players and devs should aspire towards more. One of the features that I love about this game is how accessible and welcoming it is to the playerbase. Unfortunately, housing in its current form does not live up to that standard.

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Originally Posted by Kailani

Housing Solution Proposals

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Here's a great new idea that will change the world...

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Originally Posted by Greyhawk

#3 - Stop this mindset. Throwing more wards is not a long-term solution. Instancing an existing structure is one. I refer to this as the 'same turd, same smell scenario'.

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This most likely also matters on how wards are handled. I think this currently is relatively inefficient. Caching can do a lot at optimizing here, but because everything is dynamic and also relies on collisions, its not as easy as it seems to apply this. But with caching a single ward can very likely be just as easy to manage as a single house (caching servers are often optimized for transfering data, and while delayed, they can handle mutations quite well). But as things like collisions matter, this atm doesnt seem to be an option, and as a result each ward needs to be calculated seperately. If those collisions would not be considered, then you can effectively handle the same number of players that are in for example limsa, but in all wards at the same time. And this scales up VERY well then.

Instancing is just efficient handling of a resource. And wards on that should just be handled similar to an instance like a house. A lot of collisions are relatively easy to check: basic collisions that are from the ward itself are always applied and dont need any extra check, houses themselve are already taken care if even if not built. Its only the objects that players can place that matter, and delaying here does seem to be an issue as collisions might end up strange.

I even think that while most regions do require quite strict collision detection, houses on that shouldnt care too much, client side checking would in most cases be fine. If someone ends up under the map, their client could still correct this. Since teleporting within such region is not that much of an issue exploit wise. There is nothing to gain other than a little bit of time (and obvious abuse can still be detected anyway since coordintes can still be checked on a speed aspect, even if that is just a rough check).

Now the object count is an insteresting discussion, since people also complain about not being able to place enough of thoes. A large house can store 400 inside, yet a ward (actualy its subdivision) can store like 800 of them. Wards are on that relatively expensive, but at the same time, the objects within do not change often and are very restricted in placement, both which are generaly well suitable for compression and caching. If wards are properly instanced, maybe even those object counts can increase.

More wards is because of that still a possibility. Its most likely however not a simple thing to do because it most likely requires a complete rework of code to make these wards work as instances. And thats why i think islands have a higher priority, they are a very good test for instancing with a lot more objects. And unlike wards, you can restrict the load here a lot better.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Again, Balmung problem is unique of its own because people refuse to get off that server.
Apartment on other servers are pretty empty so is FC housing.
They certainly can add more apartment space as they said they have that ability but there is really no point to do it just for one server.

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If they add another type of housing that is noncompetitive, more apartments might not be as necessary even on Balmung. But right now that server (and I think also Mateus) need some kind of additional housing. On some servers, even regular personal houses do not have a shortage, but that is not a good reason to ignore the servers that do have a housing shortage. All players, on all servers, should be able to get some kind of housing without having to compete against other players.

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Originally Posted by Brygd

There's also the fact that there are other house owners or prospective house owners who don't just want an apartment. One of the biggest draws for me is my yard.

I realize there are other players who are satisfied with their apartment, which is just fine. Yet, the players and devs should aspire towards more. One of the features that I love about this game is how accessible and welcoming it is to the playerbase. Unfortunately, housing in its current form does not live up to that standard.

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Yes, I agree. Apartments are better than nothing, but they are very inaccessible on some servers currently, and they do not have as many customization options, space, or features as houses. If wards need to be capped at their current number for technical reasons, I understand, but then we need some form of accessible instanced housing.

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Originally Posted by Greyhawk

We always suggest it, because obviously the current structure of the NOC cannot support housing in its current state. 37 million active accounts, of those let's just take 1 million that are actively playing. Now count houses. Look at the boards at all the pissed off people. There is obviously a disconnect here.

It wouldn't ruin anything, and more wards is not the only way. They can support instanced housing to accommodate both the neighborhood whiners and the instanced housing introverts. I've explained how so many times, I'm tired of doing it again, but they can pull it off with the structure in place.

People keep screaming "MOAR WARDZ!!11" and SE keeps telling us "MOAR HRDWRZ!!!11" that they can't get a hold of. Use what you got, use it wisely. With how much they have thrown at housing already in total, I'm more than sure they can satisfy the player base.

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This game has 37 million total created accounts. It does not have 37 million active accounts. At best the active sub count is probably a little over 2 million.

Either way, instanced housing isn't going to happen. Yoshi-P has stated that very clearly in the past that its not going to happen.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

This game has 37 million total created accounts. It does not have 37 million active accounts. At best the active sub count is probably a little over 2 million.

Either way, instanced housing isn't going to happen. Yoshi-P has stated that very clearly in the past that its not going to happen.

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Well, we either need more wards, at least two new housing zones, or instanced housing. Based on the number of bids I saw on personal placards this cycle, I would estimate that at least 1000 players have entered this lottery already on Balmung, and there are probably more who either did not play this week or have not placed a bid yet who also want a house. It is not quite as severe on other worlds, but all (except maybe oceania ones) have a shortage. I am not a programmer but I would guess that instanced housing would be the least demanding solution in terms of server use. Either way, I am hoping we can get Square Enix to notice this issue and do something about it. Any kind of added housing would be helpful at this point.

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Originally Posted by Kailani

Well, we either need more wards, at least two new housing zones, or instanced housing. Based on the number of bids I saw on personal placards this cycle, I would estimate that at least 1000 players have entered this lottery already on Balmung, and there are probably more who either did not play this week or have not placed a bid yet who also want a house. It is not quite as severe on other worlds, but all (except maybe oceania ones) have a shortage. I am not a programmer but I would guess that instanced housing would be the least demanding solution in terms of server use. Either way, I am hoping we can get Square Enix to notice this issue and do something about it. Any kind of added housing would be helpful at this point.

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I would argue they don't see it as an issue because their intent was never for everyone to have a house. They want players to share houses with their FC because they want the housing to be a neighborhood. Everything outside of the MSQ has always focused on some type of social design and housing is no different.

Except it turns out that people already have to share living spaces with others in real life because housing is prohibitively expensive. No one wants to share a house in a VIDEO GAME. On top of that, the item placement limits are abysmal for more than 1 designer. Most of us use 1 floor in our house to decorate and block off the other 2 floors. The whole system was designed for an older game and it was left largely untouched. They need to modernize it somehow, maybe instanced wards, maybe more wards, who knows.

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Originally Posted by Ransu

I would argue they don't see it as an issue because their intent was never for everyone to have a house. They want players to share houses with their FC because they want the housing to be a neighborhood. Everything outside of the MSQ has always focused on some type of social design and housing is no different.

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People can change their minds. And hopefully when they see how how much demand there is for personal housing, and how many players want a house or even an apartment and cannot get one under the current system, they will change their minds and make it so everyone can get a house if they want one. Also, they are currently working on island sanctuaries, which are primarily solo content, customizable, and instanced. The social aspect is that you can invite people to see them if you choose to. A new form of instanced housing could easily work the exact same way, and in my opinion, would make sense to have on the same island as the gardening and chocobo content.

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Originally Posted by Kailani

People can change their minds. And hopefully when they see how how much demand there is for personal housing, and how many players want a house or even an apartment and cannot get one under the current system, they will change their minds and make it so everyone can get a house if they want one. Also, they are currently working on island sanctuaries, which are primarily solo content, customizable, and instanced. The social aspect is that you can invite people to see them if you choose to. A new form of instanced housing could easily work the exact same way, and in my opinion, would make sense to have on the same island as the gardening and chocobo content.

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That "demand" has been a thing since 2014. I wouldn't expect them to change their stance on it. Island Sanctuaries is likely their answer to the content locked behind housing like gardening.

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Originally Posted by Greyhawk

Reinventing the already spinning wheel isn't a solution (#2). Instance the existing structure, I've laid it out how it could be done in another post.

#3 - Stop this mindset. Throwing more wards is not a long-term solution. Instancing an existing structure is one. I refer to this as the 'same turd, same smell scenario'.

#1 & #4 - We can't even get enough housing for people. Your proposals aren't solutions to a problem, they are really making more of a mess of an existing one, IMO.

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Y'all need to stop saying "instance houses" and ruin the neighborhood experience. WE HAVE INSTANCED HOUSING. It's called apartments. Rather than ruining the experience for people who already have houses in neighborhoods and want the foot traffic by making everything instanced, just take the instanced housing that is ALREADY IN THE GAME and make it better. Give us options to make apartments and FC rooms bigger. Let us share our apartments and rooms with other players. Give us a balcony with a little garden section. Boom problem solved without fucking with the system already in place that a lot of people are enjoying as it is.

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Originally Posted by not_ya_wify

WE HAVE INSTANCED HOUSING. It's called apartments

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You have to be trolling at this point.

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Originally Posted by not_ya_wify

Y'all need to stop saying "instance houses" and ruin the neighborhood experience. WE HAVE INSTANCED HOUSING. It's called apartments. Rather than ruining the experience for people who already have houses in neighborhoods and want the foot traffic by making everything instanced, just take the instanced housing that is ALREADY IN THE GAME and make it better. Give us options to make apartments and FC rooms bigger. Let us share our apartments and rooms with other players. Give us a balcony with a little garden section. Boom problem solved without fucking with the system already in place that a lot of people are enjoying as it is.

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1. As I said earlier in the thread, there are not enough apartments to meet demand. Apartment expansion might work fine for a less populated server, but Balmung is frequently out of apartments.

2. Instanced housing would not ruin the neighborhood experience. It would be separated from existing housing wards. Both systems can exist at the same time, so players who want a ward house can keep trying to get one, and players who do not care (or actively dislike wards, like all the people mad about Paissa and candy houses) can stop worrying about lotteries and competition over housing.

3. Instanced housing could still be shared with players. The last MMO I played had instanced housing, as well as a public directory board that let people choose to open up their house to the public. Then other players could use the board to visit strangers' houses. Basically, it worked like apartments in that regard, except you don't see closed homes.

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Originally Posted by Kailani

1. As I said earlier in the thread, there are not enough apartments to meet demand. Apartment expansion might work fine for a less populated server, but Balmung is frequently out of apartments.

2. Instanced housing would not ruin the neighborhood experience. It would be separated from existing housing wards. Both systems can exist at the same time, so players who want a ward house can keep trying to get one, and players who do not care (or actively dislike wards, like all the people mad about Paissa and candy houses) can stop worrying about lotteries and competition over housing.

3. Instanced housing could still be shared with players. The last MMO I played had instanced housing, as well as a public directory board that let people choose to open up their house to the public. Then other players could use the board to visit strangers' houses. Basically, it worked like apartments in that regard, except you don't see closed homes.

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You really need to get off Balmung when you have a chance
Levithan is a big server and most of apartments are empty
Again, don't expect SE to fix this "Balumung" only issue

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

You really need to get off Balmung when you have a chance
Levithan is a big server and most of apartments are empty
Again, don't expect SE to fix this "Balumung" only issue

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I have one now, I just don't want other new players to have the same trouble finding an apartment that I did. Even if it truly is a Balmung only issue, they should still do something to fix it. And the overall shortage of houses exists on nearly all servers.

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Originally Posted by Kailani

I have one now, I just don't want other new players to have the same trouble finding an apartment that I did. Even if it truly is a Balmung only issue, they should still do something to fix it. And the overall shortage of houses exists on nearly all servers.

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Doesn't change the fact that new players shouldn't go to Balmung isn't it?
They should go to other servers to when first start playing

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Doesn't change the fact that new players shouldn't go to Balmung isn't it?
They should go to other servers to when first start playing

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Why should new players be forced to pick other worlds if they'd rather play on Balmung (short of SE placing Balmung back on a Congested status)?

Most players don't think much about starting worlds at all (unless they've previously played other MMOs with server congestion problems). If they do, they're usually looking for worlds for one of 3 reasons: strong raiding community, strong RP community, or getting the heck away from both. Otherwise they'll either let the game pick for them or pick a world on some other factor, like they like the name.

Fun fact: last fall I made a new alt. What world did the game suggest for that alt as a starting world? Balmung.

All of NA is technically congested at this point. We're waiting on the new worlds this summer to thin things out a little (we're still not going to drop to JP levels even after the other 4 worlds are added next year). The only drawback to Balmung at this point is the housing situation due to high RP demand, and few new players are going be thinking about specifics of the housing system when first starting the game.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Why should new players be forced to pick other worlds if they'd rather play on Balmung (short of SE placing Balmung back on a Congested status)?

Most players don't think much about starting worlds at all (unless they've previously played other MMOs with server congestion problems). If they do, they're usually looking for worlds for one of 3 reasons: strong raiding community, strong RP community, or getting the heck away from both. Otherwise they'll either let the game pick for them or pick a world on some other factor, like they like the name.

Fun fact: last fall I made a new alt. What world did the game suggest for that alt as a starting world? Balmung.

All of NA is technically congested at this point. We're waiting on the new worlds this summer to thin things out a little (we're still not going to drop to JP levels even after the other 4 worlds are added next year). The only drawback to Balmung at this point is the housing situation due to high RP demand, and few new players are going be thinking about specifics of the housing system when first starting the game.

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All NA is congested, but Balmung abnormally host much larger population than other servers
Most of NA servers apartment are empty
Now give me a good reason why you need to stay or play Balmung when there is now cross world links hell and world visits?
You don’t have a house but you want an apartment at least, at what reason one would be M enough yo stay or play there.?

Am I going to see people still going to use RP again?
Isn’t there a world visit and incoming data center travel?
It is more logic to just find a new server than expecting SE to do something on a problem that only exist to one server
It is clearly SE is passively trying to flush people off Balmung

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Greyhawk

Look at the boards at all the pissed off people. There is obviously a disconnect here.

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To play devil's advocate a little, an official forum of pissed off people is situation normal. The best way to tell the state of your class on these forums is simply to see how few people are talking about that.

There's absolutely a supply and demand problem for housing, but citing a displeased player representation on the forums is like saying "instanced housing because sky is blue".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Doesn't change the fact that new players shouldn't go to Balmung isn't it?
They should go to other servers to when first start playing

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How are new players supposed to know that? The game's only way of telling you whether a server is highly populated is the congested status that blocks you from playing on it at all. When I made my character it was obviously not congested, or I wouldn't be on Balmung. It is the first server on the list for Crystal when I made my character, and it was open for new characters. I thought it would be fine. Sure, there is also a preferred world status, but that world (I think Brynhildr?) was listed as congested at the time.
Also, for all aspects of the game aside from housing, Balmung seems to be a good server for new players. Login times have not been bad, and there's always a lot of people around doing stuff. I'm pretty sure it isn't too crowded overall. It just has a higher amount of players who care about housing than some other servers.