Why so much new house content as casual rewards?

[Ophie-Mio]

Yes, it is. They purposely created an extremely limited number of plots, thereby purposely ensuring that players on mid-to-large servers would be excluded from housing gameplay.

When they made this system, I'm sure they had no idea what to actually expect from it. Their first ventures into housing were FC related and there were a good number of houses available except for the largest of servers, I'm guessing. Otherwise, on Cactuar (heavily populated and considered a rich world) when only FCs could buy houses, there were always plots available for us of every house size in every location.

Also, when they decided to go forward with personal housing, I doubt they truly understood that people would be excluded to this effect. Kinda like how hunts are, I just doubt they understood how many people would flock to them.

This is a pretty severe understatement. Amongst pretty much every other large MMO (since I don't keep up with the dime-a-dozen korean free to plays), I've never seen so many complaints and issues with the way housing is handled. The fact that entire gameplay mechanics are locked behind house ownership only compounds the problem.

Yeah, I agreed that there was stuff wrong with it. I didn't wanna use any stronger words than that though because I don't like to be overly dramatic. It's busted. They know about it. *shrugs*

I'm also curious which gameplay mechanics that are vital to playing this game are locked behind house ownership. I for one can't think of anything that's super impactful to any gameplay. And we are talking personal housing, not FC, ya?

[Elim]

Their lag issues apparently came with the expansion, which released way, way after the housing did. I'm not really sure how you're making the connection there.

Ability lag started to rear it's ugly head when housing was released. It just got way, way, WAY worse once the expansion hit.

EDIT:
I also remember ability lag being bad when they released section X, but it was fixed or accidentally fixed until now. SWTOR gets game breaking bugs that come and go. The engine they built it on is the root of the problem imo.

This is coming from someone who joined SWTOR day 1, became one of the richest people on my server, and use to be a hardcore raider till I got bored of the game. I stopped raiding there when there was a mass exodus way back.

Despite quitting raiding there and hating the ability lag issue, I have a stronghold(aka house) on Dromund Kaas with every room unlocked and decorated. So I have tried their housing out. It's not a terrible system, just a broken game.

[Shougun]

I'm also curious which gameplay mechanics that are vital to playing this game are locked behind house ownership. I for one can't think of anything that's super impactful to any gameplay. And we are talking personal housing, not FC, ya?

I think it is hard to talk about one and not the other, I personally know of a couple houseless FC because they're stuck at needing 40mil which they're too new and casual to see that happening any time soon (told them the large might be bought if they don't work double time or find someone who will sell a small for twice its worth). I think they made chocobo's trainable at the NPC stable now, so thats good but the FC/personal house still generates gil and items by means of the garden, aether wheels being a new missable, and I'm leery what airship construction will mean to these FC.

I'm hopeful for the apartment system though, these big systems I know take a long time.. and people, like myself, are naturally impatient - but the current system is definitely not "done". I've got no sense of their costs either to say if they need to cash shop it .. ugh, its rough as a customer to say I really want you to do this "right" but not want to pay when more money is needed.. but if you offer to pay and they know you will they will of course say they can't.. lol. I feel like the easier "now" solution is to let current players on full servers transfer off in approved groups, and then add a big big check box to new players that says you agree to the understanding that housing is limited and may not be available (current players to the server were not part of the server with this understanding, myself started on Fabul in 1.0 and was merged to Balmung which then happened to be one of the biggest lol).

I haven't played Rift much but my friend said that you get a small dimension for free (instanced housing area for yourself) and can purchase within or from without the game much larger areas and style types.. Of course that game is f2p. Anyway, I really hope they can get everyone into the foot of the system and then allow it to evolve and develop.

[Ophie-Mio]

I think it is hard to talk about one and not the other, I personally know of a couple houseless FC because they're stuck at needing 40mil which they're too new and casual to see that happening any time soon (told them the large might be bought if they don't work double time or find someone who will sell a small for twice its worth). I think they made chocobo's trainable at the NPC stable now, so thats good but the FC/personal house still generates gil and items by means of the garden, aether wheels being a new missable, and I'm leery what airship construction will mean to these FC.

The reason why I ask which one is because they are two different things. Most of this thread seems to be complaining about the lack of houses but it seems to be from solo players, which means personal housing. Therefore, because it's personal housing, all those things besides gardening and chocobos are inaccessible. Chocobos, I agree, are definitely cool to train at the stable but you can level them out in the world. Getting them beyond rank 10 though is the only time I've noticed that they require a house. Same with coloring though that is not a gameplay mechanic that can be argued as vital.

Gardens, yeah, they totally generate gil. As an FC owner and with a house, I use mine for krakka roots but I live in a full ward. I do laps while I wait for duties and lemme tell you, I have only seen one other house (Plot 1, the mansion) actually with stuff growing full time. Other than that, I rarely see more than a hand full of people actually using their gardens. Hard to generate gil if no one actually plants stuff.

Personally, I'm hopeful for an apartment system for the people who can't have houses. Then the developers can focus on improving the housing rather than compounding the problem with adding in more districts and wards that do nothing to help the majority.

[Intaki]

I never said "vital" gameplay, just gameplay. Coloring and training chocobos, growing stuff in gardens, these are game mechanics SE spent money developing and only a minority of their paying customers are getting access to. The real slap to the face is that they appear to want to make more gameplay elements for housing without expanding availability.

EDIT:
I also remember ability lag being bad when they released section X, but it was fixed or accidentally fixed until now. SWTOR gets game breaking bugs that come and go. The engine they built it on is the root of the problem imo.

The poor engine is definitely the root of the majority of that game's problems.

[Shougun]

The reason why I ask which one is because they are two different things. Most of this thread seems to be complaining about the lack of houses but it seems to be from solo players, which means personal housing. Therefore, because it's personal housing, all those things besides gardening and chocobos are inaccessible. Chocobos, I agree, are definitely cool to train at the stable but you can level them out in the world. Getting them beyond rank 10 though is the only time I've noticed that they require a house. Same with coloring though that is not a gameplay mechanic that can be argued as vital.

Oh I see you meant to address the lack of accessibility to content, I was just saying that they tend to be one in topic because while a solo player may not be losing out as much, they share the same source of supply, but by the fact that a solo player may not have a house it also means there would be FC without a house. But I get why you wanted the distinction :P, I just felt it was difficult to separate them when you've got one content source, many purposes, and many people upset for many different reasons XD.

[Transmigration]

Most casual players cannot afford housing. If they can afford housing, there is only so much space, and not nearly enough for even a moderate number of players to have a house.

Yet casual events like seasonal holidays keep giving out housing content?? Especially this holiday, where pretty much all we get is furniture and barding.

what are we supposed to do with all of this furniture? eat it?

Can't you put it in your room or whatever you have in your FC's house? That's only 300k iirc.

[Jynx]

Will never understand what possessed them to make personal housing use the same system designed for fc housing.

Should have just been a expansion of the current in rooms allowing you to buy more elaborate spaces in a instance.

only possible explanation is that they were in a time crunch and said screw it. Instead of actually spending time/money we will just allow individual players buy fc plots. What could possibly go wrong?

The whole affair reeks of sloppy design choices and the arrogance to never admit it.

[Aivi_lo]

I don't have a house yet, I would eventually like one, doubt I'll ever afford one though. In the mean time I would like some rewards I can enjoy straight away like clothing etc.

[Noshpan]

On Leviathan and Behemoth, good luck finding even a small plot available in the Lavender Beds. You can be lucky enough to find a small or medium plot available in the Mist and Goblet. Still, I'm tired of getting housing parts from my retainers. I don't have the 4 million gil to buy a small house, so I just sell it to the vendors (furniture & house parts seem to be very hit & miss when it comes to selling on the MB).

EverQuest II approaches personal housing differently. There are different "housing districts" of varying rental prices. Everyone goes to the same door but the interior is instanced. And even the cheap places are pretty roomy. And should you not log on for awhile & check in on your home, you won't lose your room or the stuff in there. Just pay what is essentially a rental fee and you can enter. Everything will be as it was when you last visited.