New housing wards for populated servers?

[BreathlessTao]

They don't seem to have trouble allowing everyone to have their own private chamber. How are wards and houses any different? It's all just data no? A private chamber is effectively a small house/ultra small ward.

Private chambers are instanced. Meaning one only "exists" when someone actually enters it. Wards exist constantly, much like any of the map zones, like Mor Dhona. Having them "on" persistently requires much more power - and don't forget, chambers are only simple rooms from the inside; wards have inside-house data, outside-house data, and then the actual neighbourhoods themselves. Granted, even with all that, it should not be as huge an issue as it is.

On another note: even moving to a different server is not exactly a solution. I've been pondering moving to another server, because a friend of mine is there. However, I have been saving gil since basically day 1, and now I'm very close to finally being able to buy a medium plot, meaning ~15mil. However, transfer has a 1million gil max restriction. Meaning I either forfeit what I've been working for for one and a half year, or stay on Shiva - where Mist is basically all but sold out, I believe there might be like 2-3 large plots available still, and that's it. Such awesome choices, right?

[Bishop81]

Private chambers are instanced. Meaning one only "exists" when someone actually enters it. Wards exist constantly, much like any of the map zones, like Mor Dhona. Having them "on" persistently requires much more power - and don't forget, chambers are only simple rooms from the inside; wards have inside-house data, outside-house data, and then the actual neighbourhoods themselves. Granted, even with all that, it should not be as huge an issue as it is.

On another note: even moving to a different server is not exactly a solution. I've been pondering moving to another server, because a friend of mine is there. However, I have been saving gil since basically day 1, and now I'm very close to finally being able to buy a medium plot, meaning ~15mil. However, transfer has a 1million gil max restriction. Meaning I either forfeit what I've been working for for one and a half year, or stay on Shiva - where Mist is basically all but sold out, I believe there might be like 2-3 large plots available still, and that's it. Such awesome choices, right?

Ah ... thanks for explanation.

That said, why don't they instance the wards too? No reason to have them "on" all the time. That said, I don't really think the complexity really affects wards much - it's all just data; you can't see into houses anyway.

Either way, this is something that needs to be fixed. Maybe even overhaul the housing system as the current one doesn't seem all that scalable - it took them a 24 hour maintenance (plus heaven knows how much time preparing) to add subdivisions; they can't even add more wards.

[BreathlessTao]

Ah ... thanks for explanation.

That said, why don't they instance the wards too? No reason to have them "on" all the time. That said, I don't really think the complexity really affects wards much - it's all just data; you can't see into houses anyway.

Either way, this is something that needs to be fixed. Maybe even overhaul the housing system as the current one doesn't seem all that scalable - it took them a 24 hour maintenance (plus heaven knows how much time preparing) to add subdivisions; they can't even add more wards.

You're welcome~

Why don't they instance wards - or indeed, personal housing as a whole, is the 20mil gil question everyone's been asking. They have given an answer, saying it'd take away the neighbourhood atmosphere they wanted to create. But yeah, all things considered, it doesn't seem to be the best of options. Availability, prices, being mixed with FC housing, and the hardware side of it all - they do kind of highlight how and why it is not good. But yeah, they just went ahead and flipped a switch on the already-available-for-FC plots to be purchasable by single players, because it was probably easier.

And the "it's all just data" argument, OH DEAR MENPHINA. Yes, that is a major issue they are having. Also mind-boggling, on a certain level, because it shouldn't be such a brickwall. But yeah, basically... no body types to reduce data; no butt sliders to reduce data; no "infinite" color palettes to reduce data - and there's a lot more to add to that list. Infrastructure limitations and saving network bandwidth are two of the most frequent excuses why things don't get done in this game. (And I bet my tail it all comes down to the PS3, ultimately, somewhere. Beyond all the apparent symptoms of no money being spent.)

[MistyMew]

The ward system was a cool idea, but if the servers aren't capable of giving us the space we need, why did they bother to make it this way?
The limitation dampers it's usefulness for the majority of the players.

Tend to agree with this.

Housing areas will never be a hangout for majority of players either, seeing a playerless, empty neighbourhood is ....rather pointless, its wasting valuable space imo.

Would have much preferred a rift dimension area/player to design as we see fit....not just a tiny yard and house.
Availability to all would be a must however as limiting due to server issues is an issue that should have been forseen and dealt with before implementation.
I really do hope they add enough space for all to have their home at least ... but I will always always push for the superior option, to make ffxiv the best it can be by taking much from Rift.

[SarcasmMisser]

Why don't they instance wards - or indeed, personal housing as a whole, is the 20mil gil question everyone's been asking. They have given an answer, saying it'd take away the neighbourhood atmosphere they wanted to create.

They actually have and it's because gardens require real time updates, every server tick. If there was instanced homes gardens would not be able to function properly and they would not be able to have them.

[Bishop81]

They actually have and it's because gardens require real time updates, every server tick. If there was instanced homes gardens would not be able to function properly and they would not be able to have them.

Wait, so gardens are what is screwing things up?

How about wards that don't allow gardens? It's better than having no house at all ...

[SarcasmMisser]

Probably but it would be functionally no different from FC rooms just larger, its not like you'll be able to see your neighbours or anything it's an instance. I think they should still have an instanced non-fc property in tandem with the current system but a lot of people would probably complain about not getting all the bells and whistles that the joneses do.

[Set-Abominae]

You all seem to forget that they look at the game as a whole when making adjustments and additions and the more sheep that run to Balmung 'cause that's where the kool kids are and abandoning the lower pop servers, that have more free plots then they know what to do with, are only compounding the issue. I don't see SE adding any more housing for 3 or 4 servers when there's like 20 ghost town servers with entire wards completely empty.

It is a little frustrating to hear that the low populated servers have an equal number of wards to the populated ones - wouldn't it have been smarter to give those wards that aren't being used by a low pop server, to a high pop one?

Why wouldn't every server have equal housing wards, you think you deserve special treatment? "wouldn't it be smarter" to leave the server that doesn't have room for you, instead of trying to take something away from someone you feel doesn't deserve it

[Bishop81]

Probably but it would be functionally no different from FC rooms just larger, its not like you'll be able to see your neighbours or anything it's an instance. I think they should still have an instanced non-fc property in tandem with the current system but a lot of people would probably complain about not getting all the bells and whistles that the joneses do.

Why wouldn't you be able to see your neighbor?

See this is the thing I don't get. Private chambers allow you to see other people too, they just have to be in the same room as you. If someone wants to crash in your FC room for some reason, they can. There is no technical limitation disallowing that.

How is a ward any different from a private chamber - other than having more things in it? It's just a very big room. (Houses aren't really special in that regard BTW, they are just an "item" that you can click to zone to your house; just like the exit in your FC room zones you to your FC's house.)

This is why I'm puzzled why they have so much trouble adding more wards. (If it's because of the gardens that need constant updating or what not, fine, just disable the new gardens until you find some way to do it without overloading your servers.)

[tocsin]

snip.

its because unlike private chambers, which are saved and "shut down" when no one is inside - erased from active server memory - wards are always up and running, because there is never a time that no one is in the ward. more wards, mean more area have to be running at the same time, and their servers cannot currently support 40 or more new wards, and all of the items generated within, on their current system memory. fixing it would require an upgrade of that memory, which in terms of the sizes we are talking about, can cost a couple million extra dollars in total to implement over sixty someodd servers.