Please fix - really poor game design

[Nutz]

I can sympathize with you on the very poorly thought out housing system, though I do understand what SE intended. I'd like to think that they just overlooked some of the consequences of the systems they set up, however, there are so many 'bad' ideas mixed together that it's hard to believe that they didn't see at least some of the repercussions long before implementation.

The private quarters being deleted while you were away, I think, is something that they overlooked. It's a feature that was added after the static housing system and as such tied directly to it. If they'd thought it out more fully they'd have made it more like a license that you purchase (once) and also required that you belong to a FC with a house in order to access your private quarters (though they should still exist even if you're between FCs). It's just a small instanced zone that should be tied to your character and not the FC, let alone the specific house the FC owns.

I have no idea how much work it might be to untangle the system to allow for this, but it certainly would be possible to do. I don't recall exactly, but I think that they did mention adding a different type of housing that might essentially be private quarters+ (I think there was some gardening available) that is not tied to a FC, but to an individual and would be mostly instanced. I think they said they'd be like apartment buildings -- one large building with some basic common amenities but mostly tons of instanced private rooms. It's been a while since I read anything on it so perhaps I'm full of it or seriously misremembering things, but hopefully they're working on at least adding reasonable housing options even if they don't plan on outright removing the expensive (to the characters and servers) and poorly implemented housing that they have now.

As a current home owner, I really wish they would just say, 'Sorry for the ongoing trouble. We know we messed up really badly with the housing system and we're unfortunately going to scrap everything and redesign it from the ground up. It will all be instanced so that everyone can have a house if they want one and we'll do our best to refund all gil that people have spent on the current system and to give people a chance to reclaim their furnishings.'

[worldofneil]

As a current home owner, I really wish they would just say, 'Sorry for the ongoing trouble. We know we messed up really badly with the housing system and we're unfortunately going to scrap everything and redesign it from the ground up. It will all be instanced so that everyone can have a house if they want one and we'll do our best to refund all gil that people have spent on the current system and to give people a chance to reclaim their furnishings.'

And also as a current home owner I hope they DON'T do that. Sure they can refund gil, but they can't refund time. Limited as the current system is, for those of us with housing removing it now is just a giant kick in the teeth. We've spent time making/acquiring/decorating the houses, including the special exteriors from the FC crafting. Even if we got most of the items back, without their respective house their reason for being there might be pointless.

Also instances might give everyone a house, but they then lose the neighbourhood feel there is now and I can't think I'm alone in thinking how nice it is to meet up with regular friends outside at the marketboards in front of our group of houses? Also if houses are instanced... isn't that then a series of rooms rather than a house? If you can't see the actual exterior of the house, is it still even a house? (and if you can see the exterior what on earth is that in, it's own little instance with nothing else around it? Kind of lonely....?)

I know people want more houses and I feel bad for those that want/haven't yet been able to get, but taking away the existing houses isn't the answer (other than demolition for inactivity etc which I have no problem with).

More wards are being added in 3.3 and hopefully they do actually mean a LOT more.