Instanced "independant" housing

[Solarra]

Legion88 I like your ideas. Something has to be done, that's obvious.

I think making the present wards FC only at this stage, would cause major upset. If I'd bought a personal house, I'd be deeply unhappy. While I agree putting personal housing into the wards was a mistake, I think it might be better to phase it out gradually as plots are relinquished.
Personally, I'd like to see the option of instanced housing, accessible from the wards, too. It would give people choice and provide a useful gil-sink.
I'd be happy to see any of the improvements you suggested for FC housing.
Lore-wise, being able to buy an apartment at the inn of your GC city makes sense and I think a lot of players would be happy with a small space they could customise.

The Gardner's Guild could be an interesting addition to the game. I'd make allotments and chocobo stables outside all the major cities available to every player who has an apartment rather than giving them pots on a balcony. Something like that would be used and might actually bring people together and give that feeling of community the present wards seem to lack.
Hopefully, Square would learn from their mistakes with housing and put mechanisms in place to deal with plots claimed but left unused.

[FJerome]

I think making the present wards FC only at this stage, would cause major upset. If I'd bought a personal house, I'd be deeply unhappy.

I own a personal house and I still support having the wards clawed back for FC housing. As long as they move me to somewhere instanced with an equal amount of space and facilities I don't think I'd have much cause to complain?

Another idea on apartments, why not just let everyone who clears the 3.0 storyline use the Intercessory at Dragonhead? If you speak to the NPCs they're pretty insistent that's your space now.

[Callback]

Not sure about personal houses, it nullifies the MMO in the MMORPG when it's just you in an instance, but that sound like a nice idea for FC housing. An instance were other members can build their personal houses next to the FC's. I don't like the setting very much though, not a big fan of the idea of living in the sky.

Well of course you can search people and enter theirs, it just doesn't need to take up a physical space in the game world. It's like private rooms in a FC house, but as a whole house for each person. Search someone on your friend or FC list, select "enter home", and be teleported into a shared instance of it which can unload while nobody is using it.

[Austherus]

Ok, let us go around the housing ward of my FC house right now...

Current Gallery of all MB/Bells in my ward

Yep, you saw right, in the entire instance it was just me, and two people on the opposite map from my general house (that I think were AFK).


I ran into no one else on my 'tour' through the ward. Not standing outside their house, anything. So the whole instance of LB1 subdivision on Balmung (One of the high population housing-intensive rp servers!) -- there is a grand total of three people in it. Me, and two people afk.

Really feeling that MMO feeling.

At least if it was instanced and I knew it was just supposed to be me + my friends it would not feel so dead/like a ghost town.

You can't dismiss a whole system as being "not conducive to a community" with a single trip around your ward.

The housing system we have now is the result of many miscalculations and misunderstandings on SE's part, but the core ideas it was built upon are not bad at all. One of the major issues, the abandoned houses and plots, are just being addressed right now (I would guess that around 25% to 50% of the plots were abandoned prior to the relinquishment announcement).

It's not about wards being "bustling with life and kinship", but about being part of the world. That is what makes an MMO.

[Zojha]

It's not about wards being "bustling with life and kinship", but about being part of the world. That is what makes an MMO.

Meanwhile, every dungeon, raid, trial and certain duties...

The thing is: Housing as it currently is likely won't go away. I doubt SE is ever going to remove the system entirely in favor of instanced housing, rather than just adding instanced housing on top, because that would piss off users for no benefit at all.

If you're dead set on a house within the current system, the only thing that would very likely change for you is a reduction in housing plot competition. Many people who are currently seeking a house to no avail would leave the competition because they'd be fine with just an instanced house. Leaves more room for people who actually care about the supposed community aspect.

As I said earlier, I can understand that there might be a fear that current housing would die out because nobody is really interested or everyone considers the cost too high (thanks to jerks buying up plots just to sell them), but...that's about it.

[AnnietheCat]

I'd be all for having instanced Private housing if it meant more room for FCs to move into neighborhoods. But some perk to hanging around neighborhoods would help a lot with giving us that community feel that SE intended for us to have. GW2 has my favorite guild housing system, but I know SE won't pull inspiration from any other MMO to make things better. But the fact is that these things need a lot of improvement. Idc how they improve, so long as they do.