instance based housing your ideas

Lets all share our ideas for what would be the most ideal instance based housing since we know we won't be getting any new houses anytime soon i feel like this would be a good time to throw out ideas i will go ahead and start with my own ideas let me know what yours would be
and just to say it ignore and block anyone who is trying to derail our discussion dont engage with them let their comments get buried into the dust dont feed them attention we'll all feel better for our own sanity that way.

Ahem, so what i think could work are a couple of things we've been teased that the loporritts had wanted to build us our own living space since endwalker and now they've been branching out to other bodies of habitable life it would be cool if cosmic exploration ends up with us claiming our own little star to make base on with fully customizeable layouts much like the island sanctuary this would leave room for futher expansion as well on our own little star in the future as well.

my second idea would to be to copy the Sharlayan's Labrynthos idea and to have our own special little dome somewhere on some island or such where we can create our own environment an be able to change day and night cycles as well as background settings like say you want a snowy mountains scape you can change from default to that with our little dome back drop or like say you want to have bodies of water cast out in the background then that could be placed as some sort of glamour etc and from there we could customize the instance to our liking and call it our permanent home settlement etc.

to note i would also want our instance home to be any size we choose whether its small, medium or large. more freedom of choice is super important and have the house be fully open too no loading zone to get inside have it be like island sanctuary buildings that way with doors that open and close like how we normally have in open areas and cities

So the apartments and FC rooms, make it to where you can pay to upgrade them to house sizes and allow gardens to be placed inside maybe as a different furniture

Make upgrading a bit cheaper for FC houses to incentivize joining FCs.

It would be lighter than creating whole wards.

With less demand for houses they could up the time it takes for auto Demo from 45 days to 5 months if not get rid of auto demo all together. (This is a self serving suggestion though)

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Originally Posted by Kahnha

So the apartments and FC rooms, make it to where you can pay to upgrade them to house sizes and allow gardens to be placed inside maybe as a different furniture

Make upgrading a bit cheaper for FC houses to incentivize joining FCs.

It would be lighter than creating whole wards.

With less demand for houses they could up the time it takes for auto Demo from 45 days to 5 months if not get rid of auto demo all together. (This is a self serving suggestion though)

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these are definitely all good ideas for the existing housing system i would like that for those who prefer the old system to be able to upgrade themselves too. just not sure on if SE would be willing to overhaul the system to such a degree or not but with them adding in interior upgrade scalling i dont see why they couldn't do the same for the outside too like remake all plots to fit all the same size etc so that it can accommodate all house sizes etc.
i can definitely at least see them being able to do the apartment upgrade an extending the demolition though to at least 60 days instead of the 40 days in a timely manner though for certain.

i would also like to add with apartments they could make it like a penthouse exterior with an outdoor balcony that allows for placements of plants, hanging gardens or boxed ones, tables, chairs, and lighting etc. and for them to allow the loft furnishing to accommodate more items such as beds and chairs

My ultimate instanced housing dream would actually be townhomes within the major cities set somewhere relatively near the shopping districts/adventurer's guilds. On the outside they look and feel like entrances to a section of that city's residential district and on the inside they function like upgradeable apartments.

You can start out with a simple townhome/apartment that isn't functionally any different from the apartments we have now and everyone can get one once they complete their envoy quest in MSQ at around lvl 15-20 if they have the gil. As you level and sink gil into the place you can upgrade it to have more amenities and space. Like maybe go from a studio apartment to a 1 bedroom or the equivalent of a small house in terms of space and invest in a balcony or patio area. The further you progress and the more you invest the more you can add until ultimately you end up with the equivalent of a large penthouse suite.

Perhaps that penthouse suite could have a comfortable outside area with a private pool or hotsprings, and space for outdoor furnishings along with certain fixtures unique to that city (A rock garden in Kugane, a pond and trees in Gridania, desert plants in Ul'dah, etc.) and a magnificent view of the city itself. I know they've said in the past that there are issues with such views in instances because of players being in them, but one could very easily create a stunning view populated by NPCs only that is the same for everyone, and you don't actually see the other players until you leave.

Something like that would be my ideal.

Mind you, I wouldn't say not to all of that being applied to our current apartments either...

Just let me build a house on my island.
Like it's already instances, every player has one of their own already.

Just.let.me.put.a.house.there.

Not to mention the island itself has so much more potential.
Yet SE has made it as monotone, bland and boring as can be cause they are creatively bankrupt and abandoned it after EW.

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Originally Posted by ViinaS

Just let me build a house on my island.
Like it's already instances, every player has one of their own already.

Just.let.me.put.a.house.there.

Not to mention the island itself has so much more potential.
Yet SE has made it as monotone, bland and boring as can be cause they are creatively bankrupt and abandoned it after EW.

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I would also love to see them do more with the Island and let us build a house there. If I can't get my city penthouse suites I'll gladly take my private tropical island home lol! It honestly fits better with my WoL's canon anyway since she has a great deal of fondness for Limsa and the Maelstrom for several reasons.

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Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

these are definitely all good ideas for the existing housing system i would like that for those who prefer the old system to be able to upgrade themselves too. just not sure on if SE would be willing to overhaul the system to such a degree or not but with them adding in interior upgrade scalling i dont see why they couldn't do the same for the outside too like remake all plots to fit all the same size etc so that it can accommodate all house sizes etc.
i can definitely at least see them being able to do the apartment upgrade an extending the demolition though to at least 60 days instead of the 40 days in a timely manner though for certain.

i would also like to add with apartments they could make it like a penthouse exterior with an outdoor balcony that allows for placements of plants, hanging gardens or boxed ones, tables, chairs, and lighting etc. and for them to allow the loft furnishing to accommodate more items such as beds and chairs

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So if free company rooms can be upgraded to plot sizes and gardens can be placed inside. It would make them no different than plots.

So why does one have the demolition timer in the other one doesn't?

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Originally Posted by Solowing

So if free company rooms can be upgraded to plot sizes and gardens can be placed inside. It would make them no different than plots.

So why does one have the demolition timer in the other one doesn't?

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Because one takes up permanent space and the other only loads when in use. We’ve been over this. lol

To sum up:
Ward housing:
Pros: “neighborhood feel” (if only in appearance most of the time), “prestigious locations” (basically based on scenery/view), anyone can visit and can hold more people for things like venues and such
Cons: limited supply, lottery, demo timer

Instanced housing:
Pros: Less server drain (only loads when in use), unlimited supply, off by itself with no neighbors to block their view or mess with their aesthetic, no demo timer, plus potential for features that are easier to implement in an instanced setting (ie: the Island’s furnishing glamour, ground settings, etc.; choose your own scenery)
Cons: limited visibility (could be friend/FC locked like the island, but even if they do it more directory based like apartments, strangers will need to make an effort to come to your house… but that could be a pro for many lol), probably less people allowed in instance (but not sure about that), no “prestige” because everyone can have one (though that gets an eyeroll from me lol)

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Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra

Because one takes up permanent space and the other only loads when in use. We’ve been over this. lol

To sum up:
Ward housing:
Pros: “neighborhood feel” (if only in appearance most of the time), “prestigious locations” (basically based on scenery/view), anyone can visit and can hold more people for things like venues and such
Cons: limited supply, lottery, demo timer

Instanced housing:
Pros: Less server drain (only loads when in use), unlimited supply, off by itself with no neighbors to block their view or mess with their aesthetic, no demo timer, plus potential for features that are easier to implement in an instanced setting (ie: the Island’s furnishing glamour, ground settings, etc.; choose your own scenery)
Cons: limited visibility (could be friend/FC locked like the island, but even if they do it more directory based like apartments, strangers will need to make an effort to come to your house… but that could be a pro for many lol), probably less people allowed in instance (but not sure about that), no “prestige” because everyone can have one (though that gets an eyeroll from me lol)

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The players don't care about that. All they see is two of the same features being treated differently. Then player a is going to resent player b for having access in the same thing but he has to return periodically to not lose it? Where is player B can leave indefinitely. And that's not an issue they have to worry about.

If it's directory based, then you're still basically making a ward system.. but instead of being shared within a ward, it shared by one single instance point in the world. Now, if it's gonna be a directory, how many *biomes* can reside in that location until the directory is full? Or will it be friend list limited? Or would you need to be actively online for it to be generated?

If players want to come to my house that in itself is active effort. You Don't end up somebody's plot unless they want to be there. As you can see, players really areny out in the wards.Because there's no reason for them to be out there. They aren't being made to stay in the hub city. It's where they prefer to be.

And yes humans do place valuable value on rare things. If every other server had the same issue that Balmung has with housing supply even with apts.

Even apartment has value to balmung players bc they are hard to come by, where they are much easier to come by everywhere else to the point where it's common even unwanted. No one cares if you catch the lobster, unless it's blue. Because it's not something you normally see and that makes it inherently more valuable to us

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Originally Posted by Solowing

So if free company rooms can be upgraded to plot sizes and gardens can be placed inside. It would make them no different than plots.

So why does one have the demolition timer in the other one doesn't?

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Artificial Scarcity SoloWing, the developers made a messy system with good intentions ofc because the past playerbase asked them to add personal housing not tied to FC's but they never anticipated this game would rise above a certain threshold they prepared for this game to be neatly in its own little corner but then it blew up with alot of content creators bringing over their game audiences from WoW, GW2, etc.
not to mention by nature Final Fantasy was already a household name they branded their franchise on old nintendo devices an then later with sony on playstation an even further when xbox started to gain traction.
they were not prepared for a sudden boom of players and it shows the timer lock out was introduced to cull the scarcity but it only ended up causing frustrations because then players feel like they are forced to hold onto it when in reality that shouldn't even have to happen if they just made personal housing instance based while apartments were a good idea in theory it still lacked features from regular player housing that people wanted and thats what the island sanctuary was supposed to address if you go back to past interviews or comments on the topic you'd see people wanted a communal garden in which to grow plants in housing districts they wanted a stable for chocobo's, a place to show off their minions and a public workshop but somehow this didn't register in translation or the community team botched it up an now we are where we are.

I think a cool thing wich could have helped SE a lot with housing, is something that OSRS use. where you the player, build your own house through Crafting, or gathering. I think that would be a fun way. And if not a direct through crafting or gathering, could be from PVE, or PvP, or even something like a quest chain.

But i'm just speaking my mind. I mean no malice, or toxicity to anyone here.

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Originally Posted by Solowing

The players don’t care about that. All they see is two of the same features being treated differently.

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Then it truly separates out those who want a plot to actually use it and those who just want one because of FOMO or just because it’s in a highly desired location. Everyone has the choice to choose either system, both sides would have to pay the same gil/permit fees. But if you’re planning on actually using that ward plot, you’ll never hit the demo timer anyway. Permanently loaded properties will always have to be subject to auto-demo unless you want plots sitting unused for years on end because someone quit with demolishing it before they left.

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If it\\'s directory based…snip

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It’s not reinventing the wheel here, it can use existing systems if they don’t want to create an entirely new one altogether. Either use the same UI as the Island or as the apartments, with the same limitations. As we know, there is a limit to how many apartments will be created, I don’t think the Island has that issue. Personally I’d be fine with it having the same access/visitation limits as the Island, but others have suggested using an apartment-like directory, and I don’t have a strong preference either way.

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If players want to come to my house that in itself is active effort…snip

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Difference being, with ward housing you can wander the neighborhood of a ward and randomly peek in the houses; friends you would just teleport to directly. If instanced works like Islands or apartments, you would have to interact with those UI setups to access.

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And yes humans do place valuable value on rare things. If every other server had the same issue that Balmung has with housing supply even with apts.

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Different humans place value on different things, and nowhere is that more evident than the current housing system and people’s suggestions to improve it! lol As I’ve said many a time, I just want as many spaces to decorate as possible, and for everyone else with that desire to have the same. Some people want to “flex” on other people by having “the best” plot, no matter how subjective that value judgement may be: these would be in the camp of people you mention who value something for its rarity or specialness. And some in that camp, hopefully a minority, love the scarcity because it means they get something others can’t have. *eyeroll* And then yet another camp would be the FOMOs… may or may not want to actually engage in housing in the future, but see the writing on the wall and seize the opportunity if they’re lucky enough, because they don’t want to be left out later on… There are probably as many different reasons players “value” housing as there are players in general!

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Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra

To sum up:
Ward housing:
Pros: “neighborhood feel” (if only in appearance most of the time), “prestigious locations” (basically based on scenery/view), anyone can visit and can hold more people for things like venues and such
Cons: limited supply, lottery, demo timer
Instanced housing:
Pros: Less server drain (only loads when in use), unlimited supply, off by itself with no neighbors to block their view or mess with their aesthetic, no demo timer, plus potential for features that are easier to implement in an instanced setting (ie: the Island’s furnishing glamour, ground settings, etc.; choose your own scenery)
Cons: limited visibility (could be friend/FC locked like the island, but even if they do it more directory based like apartments, strangers will need to make an effort to come to your house… but that could be a pro for many lol), probably less people allowed in instance (but not sure about that), no “prestige” because everyone can have one (though that gets an eyeroll from me lol)

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Originally Posted by Solowing

The players don't care about that. All they see is two of the same features being treated differently. Then player a is going to resent player b for having access in the same thing but he has to return periodically to not lose it? Where is player B can leave indefinitely. And that's not an issue they have to worry about.

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Adding my idea on top of this:


The instanced plot and the ward plot would be one and the same. Meaning, you can choose to go into the wards for the neighborhood feel, but if you must take a break you can willingly take it out and back into its pocket instance for storage, with the caveat only you and your tenants may visit it. Keeping up a sub would entail you're paying to stay on the ward location you choose, and going inactive wouldn't mean losing your plot, only your spot in the neighborhood. Could potentially be a happy middle for both ideas? There's prestige and comfortability in not having to go through 5 menus every time you want to visit a friend or host other players at your house, and there's privacy and safety in keeping your plot stored only for yourself and your tenants to visit. You can unsub at any time, and when you return you can go back into trying to get a spot in the neighbourhood if you feel like it.

This would mostly be for private housing. I am a bit on the fence about FCs, particularly about workshops. I think workshops could either be a feature for ward-only houses (as in, the workshop is a building unrelated to the house, that you can only access if your FC is settled in that neighborhood) or keep it stuck to the FC home and let anyone have one, even if it's in the pocket instance mode. I need some thoughts on this, as I am not sure what the consequences of each situation could entail.

Even if they only added this system for private housing, I think it'd be an improvement that would benefit people without housing greatly while not taking anything away from those already settled into the wards. I think some people would even move out of the wards, preferring their privacy and to be able to unsub at any time, while those who want to stay on the more social side of things would rather keep their sub running and go for the neighborhoods. Potentially, neighbourhoods could even sort themselves into RP estate wards, club/lounges, shops and restaurants, etc.

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Originally Posted by Shistar

Even if they only added this system for private housing, I think it'd be an improvement that would benefit people without housing greatly while not taking anything away from those already settled into the wards. I think some people would even move out of the wards, preferring their privacy and to be able to unsub at any time, while those who want to stay on the more social side of things would rather keep their sub running and go for the neighborhoods. Potentially, neighbourhoods could even sort themselves into RP estate wards, club/lounges, shops and restaurants, etc.

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ideally yes, people would like a permanent space that allows them to have a break from final fantasy xiv an that they can come back to when they are ready too or if the game offers them things they want to do or obtain.

but as some have said they may not go that route cause the artificial scarcity (which is a myth btw i doubt they invested in the cloud servers for nothing clearly they want to expand server capacity and data)and the threat of demolition forces them to hold on to their subscription or renew it every month which btw is predatory and surprised no one has tried to legally challenge this anywhere by now lol well china kinda has but ehh.

but yeah i think they need to look over the housing situation like REALLY look over it instead of just glancing at it and coming up with a solid plan to address player concerns and issues with this particular piece of content.

At this point knowing the housing mirage is coming I don't see much need for instanced housing unless they REALLY go all out with it. Similar to the wow housing. There are so many empty plots atm I don't see it being needed and then also with how other games have their houses instanced, many wont even engage with it. It's too separate from the rest of the game world. GW2 housing gives everyone a house, which is great! But you can't visit random peoples homes and for many in gw2 they say, why bother decorating a house nobody will see, and so they do not interact with it. The same would happen in xiv.

Maybe letting an FC or very rich individual purchase an entire ward and let us customise the layout etc. Maybe they could make wards something like buying extra retainers, so for a small fee (on top of the gil cost) you own an entire ward for yourself and friends to use and create your own playground in. You could still have those wards appear on listed wards of the housing npcs for people to pop in and visit. The fee helps with any costs of potentially allowing a huge expansion of wards and the high gil costs would help stop too many appearing. In any case, I don't see it happening.

I'm more interested in seeing item limit increased by a large amount esp for mansions. And letting us actually fully change the interior layout. Being able to change the walls was nice but it totally missed the mark for not letting you remove pillars on the other house styles. It didn't solve the problem of needing dozens of partitions to have a wall you like. Let us resize items like you can in gw2, allow for placement of items to be rotated again like in gw2.

Nice to see Yoshi P mention a desire to give support to "glitching".

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Originally Posted by Aelin_Ashryver

At this point knowing the housing mirage is coming I don't see much need for instanced housing unless they REALLY go all out with it. Similar to the wow housing. There are so many empty plots atm I don't see it being needed and then also with how other games have their houses instanced, many wont even engage with it. It's too separate from the rest of the game world. GW2 housing gives everyone a house, which is great! But you can't visit random peoples homes and for many in gw2 they say, why bother decorating a house nobody will see, and so they do not interact with it. The same would happen in xiv.
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Aelin, please. i can respect that you have a different opinion but we want to talk about ideas for instance housing in this thread not against it, i can't tell you what to say or think but please i am asking respectfully here don't make this into another battle royal thread lol
you can keep your ward system if it suits you better no one is advocating for you to loose what you already have but there are those of us who want our own spaces separately an that are more accommodating an customizable to suit our needs and wants

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Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

Aelin, please. i can respect that you have a different opinion but we want to talk about ideas for instance housing in this thread not against it, i can't tell you what to say or think but please i am asking respectfully here don't make this into another battle royal thread lol
you can keep your ward system if it suits you better no one is advocating for you to loose what you already have but there are those of us who want our own spaces separately an that are more accommodating an customizable to suit our needs and wants

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So you just decided to go willfully blind and ignore the bit about letting people buy wards then? Is a ward not an instance? In fact I even said being able to customise said ward would be great. I just don't think such a thing is ever going to happen. And I'd rather see the resources put elsewhere because I don't want some poor half baked attempt again like we got with the island sanctuary.

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Originally Posted by Aelin_Ashryver

So you just decided to go willfully blind and ignore the bit about letting people buy wards then? Is a ward not an instance? In fact I even said being able to customise said ward would be great. I just don't think such a thing is ever going to happen. And I'd rather see the resources put elsewhere because I don't want some poor half baked attempt again like we got with the island sanctuary.

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thats fine you can think that way if you want too, i believe island sanctuary was an attempt at something but it wasn't what people were asking from them and ultimately thats on the fault of the translators for not specifying clearer on what was being asked an the developers just had assumed things based on what they were told etc
so what you're then asking then is you want to create your own neighborhood correct? and one where you and friends can reside in and share yes?

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Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra

Then it truly separates out those who want a plot to actually use it and those who just want one because of FOMO or just because it’s in a highly desired location. Everyone has the choice to choose either system, both sides would have to pay the same gil/permit fees. But if you’re planning on actually using that ward plot, you’ll never hit the demo timer anyway. Permanently loaded properties will always have to be subject to auto-demo unless you want plots sitting unused for years on end because someone quit with demolishing it before they left.


It’s not reinventing the wheel here, it can use existing systems if they don’t want to create an entirely new one altogether. Either use the same UI as the Island or as the apartments, with the same limitations. As we know, there is a limit to how many apartments will be created, I don’t think the Island has that issue. Personally I’d be fine with it having the same access/visitation limits as the Island, but others have suggested using an apartment-like directory, and I don’t have a strong preference either way.


Difference being, with ward housing you can wander the neighborhood of a ward and randomly peek in the houses; friends you would just teleport to directly. If instanced works like Islands or apartments, you would have to interact with those UI setups to access.


Different humans place value on different things, and nowhere is that more evident than the current housing system and people’s suggestions to improve it! lol As I’ve said many a time, I just want as many spaces to decorate as possible, and for everyone else with that desire to have the same. Some people want to “flex” on other people by having “the best” plot, no matter how subjective that value judgement may be: these would be in the camp of people you mention who value something for its rarity or specialness. And some in that camp, hopefully a minority, love the scarcity because it means they get something others can’t have. *eyeroll* And then yet another camp would be the FOMOs… may or may not want to actually engage in housing in the future, but see the writing on the wall and seize the opportunity if they’re lucky enough, because they don’t want to be left out later on… There are probably as many different reasons players “value” housing as there are players in general!

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If the players truly wanted housing, they'd be engaging with it in all forms. Not selective participation. If I see someone complaining about a plot and their apartment is bare.I don't think your complaint is even valid at that point. Work your way up to that dream plot rather than expecting it to be handed to you.

The way the system is presented to me.That apartments are basically a given. Anything pass that it's up to you and RnG.

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Originally Posted by Shistar

Adding my idea on top of this:


The instanced plot and the ward plot would be one and the same. Meaning, you can choose to go into the wards for the neighborhood feel, but if you must take a break you can willingly take it out and back into its pocket instance for storage, with the caveat only you and your tenants may visit it. Keeping up a sub would entail you're paying to stay on the ward location you choose, and going inactive wouldn't mean losing your plot, only your spot in the neighborhood. Could potentially be a happy middle for both ideas? There's prestige and comfortability in not having to go through 5 menus every time you want to visit a friend or host other players at your house, and there's privacy and safety in keeping your plot stored only for yourself and your tenants to visit. You can unsub at any time, and when you return you can go back into trying to get a spot in the neighbourhood if you feel like it.

This would mostly be for private housing. I am a bit on the fence about FCs, particularly about workshops. I think workshops could either be a feature for ward-only houses (as in, the workshop is a building unrelated to the house, that you can only access if your FC is settled in that neighborhood) or keep it stuck to the FC home and let anyone have one, even if it's in the pocket instance mode. I need some thoughts on this, as I am not sure what the consequences of each situation could entail.

Even if they only added this system for private housing, I think it'd be an improvement that would benefit people without housing greatly while not taking anything away from those already settled into the wards. I think some people would even move out of the wards, preferring their privacy and to be able to unsub at any time, while those who want to stay on the more social side of things would rather keep their sub running and go for the neighborhoods. Potentially, neighbourhoods could even sort themselves into RP estate wards, club/lounges, shops and restaurants, etc.

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Which rolls back into the compromise of having a assured plot but limited visibility.

Putting a Small on Island Sanctuary.

I would say a small because it'll still have everything a small has. But not the visibility.

So the pro is you you have a small that is unaffected by the demo timer. However its not freely accessible by the general playerbase. So itll be mainly for you.

However those warning visibility or a venue will need a plot/apt.

The reason why I say small is to keep the incentive for the ward plot there.

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Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

thats fine you can think that way if you want too, i believe island sanctuary was an attempt at something but it wasn't what people were asking from them and ultimately thats on the fault of the translators for not specifying clearer on what was being asked an the developers just had assumed things based on what they were told etc
so what you're then asking then is you want to create your own neighborhood correct? and one where you and friends can reside in and share yes?

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They specifically said island sanctuary wasn't going to be player housing. Because players took it upon themselves to insert "instanced housing" when they never said anything about interior housing on island sanctuary.

Island Sanctuary: A feature from the Endwalker expansion that gave players a private island to develop. Players could farm, gather resources, craft, and capture creatures to create their own custom paradise.

Where did you see them mention instanced housing?

Over the years, they basically quietly said "we hear you but that's not the direction we're going"

Since this is the third rail topic , it's best for them not to say anything and just continue on the path they've chosen. Their actions have been telling you what you refuse to see

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Originally Posted by Solowing

They specifically said island sanctuary wasn't going to be player housing. Because players took it upon themselves to insert "instanced housing" when they never said anything about interior housing on island sanctuary

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yes thats correct they told everyone to temper their expectations never told them it would be a permanent home although in its present state it could be use as such if people customize it an add furnishings

if they ever came back to this content which i doubt it they never revisit content outside of quality of life or story sprucing lol but if they did for whatever reason they could add a player made house to it if they chose to but doesn't mean they will do that.