Simple Housing Fix: Island Sanctuary

wouldn't it be easier to just make it so you can build a house on your island? Just saying the space is there so why not utilize it?

This is certainly an option, the big question for the community is if they would want houses such as this that are only able to be visited while the owner is online and at the house.

The current housing system allows for offline visits and for neighborhoods.

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

This is certainly an option, the big question for the community is if they would want houses such as this that are only able to be visited while the owner is online and at the house.

The current housing system allows for offline visits and for neighborhoods.

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they want a house period it doesn't matter what form it comes from they just want one and they want it to be any size they choose it to be the current system has been way too restrictive in that regard.
so in order to accomplish this they either need to completely overhaul the housing system to make it more fair and equal an make it retroactively replace plots when all spot are filled.
or they need to add a separate housing area with which is fully instanced to a single player who can then add tenants to share the space with
either one of those options would quell this issue once and for all.

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

This is certainly an option, the big question for the community is if they would want houses such as this that are only able to be visited while the owner is online and at the house.

The current housing system allows for offline visits and for neighborhoods.

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It would definitely be an option, but it comes with trade-offs.

Island Sanctuary housing would mean a fixed tropical setting, which isn’t for everyone. It would also likely lose things people value in the current system, such as offline visitation and neighborhood spaces.

If someone simply wants a house of any size regardless of location or social interaction, then yes, this could work for them. But I don’t think it would satisfy the majority on its own.

There are also unanswered questions that tend to get overlooked in these discussions: would the house be free or have a cost? Would there be a demolition timer? Would item limits and sizes be consistent with wards? How would fairness be handled compared to existing housing?

It’s a potential addition, but like every housing suggestion so far, it solves some problems while creating others.

On a personal level, if instanced housing were added, I’d at least want some choice in environment. I wouldn’t want my main locked into a tropical setting, but an alt having a beach house could make sense.

That’s another reason I don’t think Island Sanctuary housing alone would be a complete solution. Location, atmosphere, and theme matter to people just as much as having a house at all.

It would help some players, but not everyone which is the recurring issue with every housing proposal.

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

This is certainly an option, the big question for the community is if they would want houses such as this that are only able to be visited while the owner is online and at the house.

The current housing system allows for offline visits and for neighborhoods.

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I'll give up my plot for an instanced one tbh. I like people being able to walk in and see my creations. I'd give it up even if neighborhoods remained and instanced housing was the trade off here.

I would not give up my plot for an instanced one. Current system is unique from other gaming experiences. Once another housing district is added, we should theoretically have enough houses for everyone. The issue imo becomes auto-demo disablement w/ sub.

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Originally Posted by AyahM

I would not give up my plot for an instanced one. Current system is unique from other gaming experiences. Once another housing district is added, we should theoretically have enough houses for everyone. The issue imo becomes auto-demo disablement w/ sub.

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The issue with simply adding another housing district is that people don’t just “want a house” they want a specific plot.

On many worlds, Empyreum is largely deserted because it’s not as sought after. For example, on Spriggan there are currently 233 open Shirogane smalls and 336 open plots in Empyreum, yet only 3 of those are medium plots. In Tonberry, a congested JP server there are 541 open plots. 12 are mediums and 3 are large. What’s actually in demand are mediums and specific plots due to view and location.

This means we’ll inevitably end up in the same situation again: people complaining that they “can’t get a house” while choosing not to go for what is available. That doesn’t make them wrong, preference is valid, but it does show that the problem isn’t simply a lack of housing.

I fully acknowledge that this is a different situation on servers like Balmung where there are only 18 plots available. However, on many others, houses do exist, just not the ones people want.

To put this into perspective, on Zodiark, currently the only EU world closed to new characters, there are 655 plots available.

So yes, a new housing district would alleviate some pressure, but it doesn’t address the core problem and would inevitably recreate the same issues over time.

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Originally Posted by AyahM

Once another housing district is added, we should theoretically have enough houses for everyone.

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Theoretically, until every gold farmer and venue FC floods in to take every decent plot like they did with Empyreum, then we'll be back to square one.

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Originally Posted by Nyastra

The issue with simply adding another housing district is that people don’t just “want a house” they want a specific plot.

On many worlds, Empyreum is largely deserted because it’s not as sought after. For example, on Spriggan there are currently 233 open Shirogane smalls and 336 open plots in Empyreum, yet only 3 of those are medium plots. In Tonberry, a congested JP server there are 541 open plots. 12 are mediums and 3 are large. What’s actually in demand are mediums and specific plots due to view and location.

This means we’ll inevitably end up in the same situation again: people complaining that they “can’t get a house” while choosing not to go for what is available. That doesn’t make them wrong, preference is valid, but it does show that the problem isn’t simply a lack of housing.

I fully acknowledge that this is a different situation on servers like Balmung where there are only 18 plots available. However, on many others, houses do exist, just not the ones people want.

To put this into perspective, on Zodiark, currently the only EU world closed to new characters, there are 655 plots available.

So yes, a new housing district would alleviate some pressure, but it doesn’t address the core problem and would inevitably recreate the same issues over time.

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Somehow this is impossible for people to actually understand; housing mains will be quick to come in here and say how you don't actually want a house because you won't settle for plot 27 in the Goblet, when in reality it's just not fun to decorate something in some forgotten corner of a low poly map from over a decade ago where it's guaranteed nobody will actually visit (because plot 30 nine times out of ten is a shell FC).

Games should be fun.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

Theoretically, until every gold farmer and venue FC floods in to take every decent plot like they did with Empyreum, then we'll be back to square one.

Somehow this is impossible for people to actually understand; housing mains will be quick to come in here and say how you don't actually want a house because you won't settle for plot 27 in the Goblet, when in reality it's just not fun to decorate something in some forgotten corner of a low poly map from over a decade ago where it's guaranteed nobody will actually visit (because plot 30 nine times out of ten is a shell FC).

Games should be fun.

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I agree that games should be fun, and that decorating a plot with no visibility isn’t enjoyable for many people. That’s exactly why this issue is more complicated than “people just want a house.” Location, foot traffic, and desirability clearly matter, which is also why simply adding more plots or districts won’t prevent the same situation from repeating over time.

The reality is that many players don’t just want housing, they want specific housing. That’s completely valid. However, no solution proposed so far meaningfully addresses that distinction. Adding districts or plots may temporarily relieve pressure (as mentioned above), but it does not prevent the same issue from re-emerging around the most desirable locations.

Discussing system limitations or trade-offs isn’t a bad thing, it’s acknowledging that different solutions affect different players in different ways. Everyone really needs to stop with the us vs them mindset because in reality it's us vs Housing/Square

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

This is certainly an option, the big question for the community is if they would want houses such as this that are only able to be visited while the owner is online and at the house.

The current housing system allows for offline visits and for neighborhoods.

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I don't care if no one visits my house, I decorate for myself, not for others. I've had my XIV house for years, never had a visitor, but I still love my house. I would sell my soul to have my own instanced house because I hate living next to neighbors who have ugly or empty plots. That and neighborhoods being ghost towns are my main issues with housing in FFXIV and WoW.

ESO's instanced housing is the best. We can collect dozens of different houses in many zones, there are no neighbors to ruin our view with their ugly plots/houses, and anyone can visit through guild/friend list and Home Tours, even if we're offline!

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Originally Posted by Nyastra

The reality is that many players don’t just want housing, they want specific housing. That’s completely valid. However, no solution proposed so far meaningfully addresses that distinction. Adding districts or plots may temporarily relieve pressure (as mentioned above), but it does not prevent the same issue from re-emerging around the most desirable locations.

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If it needs to be auto-generating wards, then let it be auto-generating wards. Hell, make new types of districts that are still neighborhoods, but smaller like cul-de-sacs, the same for every plot, that automatically creates a new one when filled up. Separate types for every size house if they really need to.

I might flesh this idea out a bit for a post of its own.

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Originally Posted by Nyastra

Discussing system limitations or trade-offs isn’t a bad thing, it’s acknowledging that different solutions affect different players in different ways. Everyone really needs to stop with the us vs them mindset because in reality it's us vs Housing/Square

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It's a bit hard to forget the 'us vs them' mindset when every time someone posts about how housing in this game blows chunks, someone inevitably comes in to say that youre delusional, you just need to already have a gil industrial complex set up to scoop up larges whenever they're made available, and that the system is fine because I have all the housing I'll ever need.

I know it's us vs Square in reality, but I will never pass an opportunity to call out housing mains because every one of them that exists is a chance that a dev will actually look at feedback on the forums and see positive affirmations to the current system.

It's not such a simple fix, they would need to expand server space for the housing districts anyway because Island Sanctuary runs on those too. I remember when IS released and you couldn't enter your own house because the instance was overloaded.

Ya know, instead of making a boat load of new servers for folks to play on (that are currently low population as heck), they should have made a few into housing specific servers. Treat it kind of like a world visit function when you visit them, but it's just wards and wards of houses for personal use. Then keep the FC houses on the actual server.
To be fair, I've no idea if this could even work as a solution, but if housing is just a bunch of "instanced zones" it seems like it could. (Though I also dont know if doing it like this would force the same world visit restrictions (retainers/mail/etc) or if they just made those up to promote you staying on your home server.)

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

If it needs to be auto-generating wards, then let it be auto-generating wards. Hell, make new types of districts that are still neighborhoods, but smaller like cul-de-sacs, the same for every plot, that automatically creates a new one when filled up. Separate types for every size house if they really need to.

I might flesh this idea out a bit for a post of its own.

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I somehow like the idea of smaller districts, but as with everything probably it's on set of dramas.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

It's a bit hard to forget the 'us vs them' mindset when every time someone posts about how housing in this game blows chunks, someone inevitably comes in to say that youre delusional, you just need to already have a gil industrial complex set up to scoop up larges whenever they're made available, and that the system is fine because I have all the housing I'll ever need.

I know it's us vs Square in reality, but I will never pass an opportunity to call out housing mains because every one of them that exists is a chance that a dev will actually look at feedback on the forums and see positive affirmations to the current system.

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Yeah, that's part of the problem though and why I've been in the other threads speaking about the system rather than personal attacks.

Only thing I like about wards is the fact that I can walk into randoms homes and that others can freely visit. That's kinda it. Can't do that with instanced (most likely). This does not mean that the ward system is good, the idea might have been but the execution of it ended up the opposite of what it should and could have been.

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Originally Posted by Nyastra

However, no solution proposed so far meaningfully addresses that distinction. Adding districts or plots may temporarily relieve pressure (as mentioned above), but it does not prevent the same issue from re-emerging around the most desirable locations.

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This is extremely accurate! If we look at how supply / demand works in the 'wild', we can see that the only way to satiate the demand is to make all plots desirable, or more desirable plots. The issue I have is that scarcity is currently a factor in creating desirable plots. If all plots become M35, will everyone be happy? No, because scarcity is no longer driving some demand.

If instanced housing is introduced in addition to the current system, it could satisfy some demand, but not all. Particularly not demand driven by scarcity because it is not the same as non instanced housing. The game is currently reflecting economic supply and demand quite well. This doesn't mean its a good or great system. Without fundamentally changing it all, adding more districts makes sense to me. But who wants to live in an empty ward? Well, the people who are OK with instanced housing should be OK with an empty ward.

What is the problem we are trying to solve?

Affordable housing
More desirable plots
More housing on congested servers
More housing options for aesthetic or playing purposes
Time constraints on playing in conjunction with housing (auto-demo)

Once we arrive at the problem, we can propose a system which solves it, but not all problems can be solved and not all people can be happy.

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Originally Posted by AyahM

Affordable housing
More desirable plots
More housing on congested servers
More housing options for aesthetic or playing purposes
Time constraints on playing in conjunction with housing (auto-demo)

Once we arrive at the problem, we can propose a system which solves it, but not all problems can be solved and not all people can be happy.

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if it makes the housing elitists and bot farmers mad, an gives everyone a house of any size they want to choose then i'm all for it sign me up!

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Originally Posted by ShadowyZero

if it makes the housing elitists and bot farmers mad, an gives everyone a house of any size they want to choose then i'm all for it sign me up!

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That isn't solving anything. No we do not need more plots, or housing or desirable plots. This all will just make bots buy them amass again and sell them for profits. This has to stop, no amount of expanding will make this fixed. It just delays the inevitable. How about we fix this by instanced housing or move subs to somewhere else?

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Originally Posted by MayuAmakura

That isn't solving anything. No we do not need more plots, or housing or desirable plots. This all will just make bots buy them amass again and sell them for profits. This has to stop, no amount of expanding will make this fixed. It just delays the inevitable. How about we fix this by instanced housing or move subs to somewhere else?

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Move the subs to the Grand Company associated with the Free Company.
There, it's removed and the whole reason for buying homes for the subs is gone.

Will this stop the sub farmers? Probably not, but at the least they wouldn't be needing plots.

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Originally Posted by MayuAmakura

That isn't solving anything. No we do not need more plots, or housing or desirable plots. This all will just make bots buy them amass again and sell them for profits. This has to stop, no amount of expanding will make this fixed. It just delays the inevitable. How about we fix this by instanced housing or move subs to somewhere else?

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What specifically are we battling? Are you wanting for more FC plot availability/housing or are you interested in stopping sub farmers? What exactly has to stop? How often are bots selling plots for profits?

I see lots of Dyna FC worlds being farmed, what makes people think these are not normal folks? Every person I know on Dyna except for a few have subs on every Dyna world. Is this bad? Those people also spend hundreds or thousands on Mog store and contribute to the game as a player. What is occurring to think that there is a fundamental break down in the game.

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Originally Posted by AyahM

What specifically are we battling? Are you wanting for more FC plot availability/housing or are you interested in stopping sub farmers? What exactly has to stop? How often are bots selling plots for profits?

I see lots of Dyna FC worlds being farmed, what makes people think these are not normal folks? Every person I know on Dyna except for a few have subs on every Dyna world. Is this bad? Those people also spend hundreds or thousands on Mog store and contribute to the game as a player. What is occurring to think that there is a fundamental break down in the game.

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"I know tons of people farming millions/billions of gil that are also suspiciously wealthy enough to spend thousands of dollars of real money on the Mog store all of the time!"

You're so SOOO close to getting what the problem here is, you just need to put 2 and 2 together.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

It's a bit hard to forget the 'us vs them' mindset when every time someone posts about how housing in this game blows chunks, someone inevitably comes in to say that youre delusional, you just need to already have a gil industrial complex set up to scoop up larges whenever they're made available, and that the system is fine because I have all the housing I'll ever need.

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I was not planning on commenting since this topic is, once again, the same topic we've gone over a thousand times, but I feel the need to pop in here to say I bought my 20M medium exclusively from roulette money.
I did the most casual-ass, simple content out there (got my jobs leveled up too) and got my money easily* although not quickly. If you can prevent bad spending habits, it's not hard to accumulate gil even as a casual player—gil isn't used for anything substancial unless you buy all content rewards straight from the marketboard.
If you do any sort of content besides roulettes, you'll make even more money and faster.


I just sat on those 20M until the plot I liked became available and after a good amount of tries I got it. Housing in itself is flawed in many ways, but gil isn't a problem if you play the game in any capacity + you don't have terrible spending habits. If you want something, you work for it like any piece of content. This doesn't make Housing unflawed or perfect, but truly, picking gil to be upset about has to be one of the most nothingburger arguments possible...


(*) You can speed it up by desynthing gear obtained from the dungeons themselves and selling those mats as well. Fairly braindead considering I leveled my crafters exclusively through daily beast tribes. When I capped on seals, I'd buy whatever sold the best in my world. Makes a considerable amount of gil for the low effort needed if you can be bothered with that.

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Originally Posted by Shistar

I was not planning on commenting since this topic is, once again, the same topic we've gone over a thousand times, but I feel the need to pop in here to say I bought my 20M medium exclusively from roulette money.
I did the most casual-ass, simple content out there (got my jobs leveled up too) and got my money easily* although not quickly. If you can prevent bad spending habits, it's not hard to accumulate gil even as a casual player—gil isn't used for anything substancial unless you buy all content rewards straight from the marketboard.
If you do any sort of content besides roulettes, you'll make even more money and faster.


I just sat on those 20M until the plot I liked became available and after a good amount of tries I got it. Housing in itself is flawed in many ways, but gil isn't a problem if you play the game in any capacity + you don't have terrible spending habits. If you want something, you work for it like any piece of content. This doesn't make Housing unflawed or perfect, but truly, picking gil to be upset about has to be one of the most nothingburger arguments possible...


(*) You can speed it up by desynthing gear obtained from the dungeons themselves and selling those mats as well. Fairly braindead considering I leveled my crafters exclusively through daily beast tribes. When I capped on seals, I'd buy whatever sold the best in my world. Makes a considerable amount of gil for the low effort needed if you can be bothered with that.

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There are so many ways to make gil, not always QUICK ways, but there are ways to get gil consistently and most of it is doable at any level (aside from things such as PT etc obviously). Just gotta be consistent, and shop around if you *really* need to buy something (sometimes I fail this because l a z y)

Dig a map and sell it
Use seals and sell it
Desyth and sell
Do challenge log
(Marketboard Reselling lol)

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Originally Posted by Nyastra

There are so many ways to make gil, not always QUICK ways, but there are ways to get gil consistently and most of it is doable at any level (aside from things such as PT etc obviously).

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Indeed! Gil is really easy to come by, even without all the sub management nonsense. Ironically, if you want subs to be actually useful you need a few FCs worth of them, otherwise they're more trouble than they're worth imo (when only doing gil farming and nothing else)

There's also lots of relatively quick ways to make money, but they will always involve the marketboard to some extent. Even then, I made my 1M on my first day with a full sub by selling a stack of Snow White/Soot Black I got from doing Ixal beast tribes, and it was really easy to get because as a trial player your cap is so low that you need to be constantly spending gil to prevent overcapping. At least that's how it was when I was a trial player, over 4 years ago now lol

Nowadays I make my money doing unreals every week, buying whatever mount sells the best in my world and just waiting. It only makes around 10M per sale nowadays, but bAcK iN mY dAy it could get up to 20M even though the trials were easier!
I don't craft nor gather, I personally don't find it fun, so I can confirm everything Nyastra mentioned is fairly decent as I've done it in the past to some extent. Gil is very easy to earn, it's more the keeping part people may have issues with.

Whenever I want something I go straight to a database like Garland Tools or Gamerescape to find out where it is from. Most of the time, it's way cheaper to buy the materials and craft it myself, and if it's not craftable it may come from content I can then go and try out. But yeah, when you really need to buy something just head to Universalis and find the cheapest deal so you're not getting ripped off!

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Originally Posted by Shistar

Indeed! Gil is really easy to come by, even without all the sub management nonsense. Ironically, if you want subs to be actually useful you need a few FCs worth of them, otherwise they're more trouble than they're worth imo (when only doing gil farming and nothing else)

There's also lots of relatively quick ways to make money, but they will always involve the marketboard to some extent. Even then, I made my 1M on my first day with a full sub by selling a stack of Snow White/Soot Black I got from doing Ixal beast tribes, and it was really easy to get because as a trial player your cap is so low that you need to be constantly spending gil to prevent overcapping. At least that's how it was when I was a trial player, over 4 years ago now lol

Nowadays I make my money doing unreals every week, buying whatever mount sells the best in my world and just waiting. It only makes around 10M per sale nowadays, but bAcK iN mY dAy it could get up to 20M even though the trials were easier!
I don't craft nor gather, I personally don't find it fun, so I can confirm everything Nyastra mentioned is fairly decent as I've done it in the past to some extent. Gil is very easy to earn, it's more the keeping part people may have issues with.

Whenever I want something I go straight to a database like Garland Tools or Gamerescape to find out where it is from. Most of the time, it's way cheaper to buy the materials and craft it myself, and if it's not craftable it may come from content I can then go and try out. But yeah, when you really need to buy something just head to Universalis and find the cheapest deal so you're not getting ripped off!

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I am SO guilty of the "keeping gil" issue, because I get lazy XD. But I've tried really hard to dial back on that and just look where to find things and craft myself (I do have everything levelled after all so I really have no excuse besides being lazy)

I've considered the Unreal Trials... But I'm afraid? Even though I know it's not nearly as bad. Braincell stupid.

That would be a great place for a private estate. The island is already my favorite place in the game. It's so peaceful. While having it instanced would suck to share your creation with others, it might not be too bad. Nobody ever seems to visit other people's houses and apartments anyway.

Also I hope they could have grass around the house independent of the hideaway grounds we choose. I like using the tiled bricks for the grounds but would hate a house surrounded by it.

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Originally Posted by EmilySummerstar

That would be a great place for a private estate. The island is already my favorite place in the game. It's so peaceful. While having it instanced would suck to share your creation with others, it might not be too bad. Nobody ever seems to visit other people's houses and apartments anyway.

Also I hope they could have grass around the house independent of the hideaway grounds we choose. I like using the tiled bricks for the grounds but would hate a house surrounded by it.

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People occasionally warf in and out. But it has to be a inner curiosity as there is zero benefit or reason to visit the ward outside personal urge to do so.

Nobody visits Island Sanctuary for the same reason, except. The owner has to be Friended and Online. Making it a even bigger hurdle to not bother with.

I will occasionally check out plots and apts alike, to leave a message. As a way to let them know someone can always come up and look around. Maybe not often, but a curious passer-by might want to see what housing is cooking.

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Originally Posted by Nyastra

I am SO guilty of the "keeping gil" issue, because I get lazy XD. But I've tried really hard to dial back on that and just look where to find things and craft myself (I do have everything levelled after all so I really have no excuse besides being lazy)

I've considered the Unreal Trials... But I'm afraid? Even though I know it's not nearly as bad. Braincell stupid.

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Haha, I had a good 8 months of Free Trial playing to train me into a "do not look at MB unless absolutely necessary" creature. Gamerescape my best friend, my bro through my sprout glamming adventures.


If you've cleared any EX in the past, you can absolutely do an Unreal. There's easy guides like Kobe's Classroom to get you through it! I do them with my friends every week and have been for the past 2-3 trials. If you'd like, you can join us!
We go every Saturday at 7PM GMT. Show up at Phantom's Idyllshire a few minutes before 7 after watching Kobe's guide, and if you find a group of people emoting in front of Khloe's stand, some wearing Gold Saucer bunny ears, it's probably my group lol