1 Housing Plot Per Account (not character) Solves Housing Crisis

[Shougun]

Your concepts aren't the problem. It's the technical hurdles that you seem to be underestimating. As I said before, if it were a simple matter for SE to add more wards they already would have. The same can be said for instanced housing (with outdoor areas) that many have suggested. If they could have done it easily, they almost certainly would have done so. It's not so much about suggesting a "quick hot fix" but rather having an understanding that in game design, what seems like a simple suggestion is quite often not as simple as one might think. Implementing even little things can have vast repercussions and cost far more time and resources than players think... if they even consider these things at all which they often do not. I'm not saying not to make suggestions. Suggesting things to developers is great because it can often inspire them to say "hey we have tech that can do that already!" but its a mistake to ever assume things are "simple" to add/implement.

Did you miss the part where I already said I know they'd have to spend a lot of money and time? Because I said that multiple times. I also never said it was simple or easy. so...? I said I think the system is bad enough, and others good enough, that the cost is worth to invest - that is all, I've never said it'll be easy or free, or done tomorrow.

Unless you were just reiterating you think it will be an extensive, costly, and possibly long term change? But we'd be in agreement as I've already been saying that and understanding that, since the beginning then - never said anything otherwise. I have no doubt they'll have to design new systems (not cheap or easy), and it would take a while to get done. It's not coming anytime soon even if they decided to do it. I've never suggested such a thing. Of course I don't know their exact setup - so in that aspect technical limitations who knows, since we don't have an open source MMO we (BOTH) don't understand.

Also I'm not sure you're using the term "hot fix" correctly. Hot fixes are changes to the game code that don't require a patch to implement. They make simple changes to the game that typically revolve around number tuning. Apartments for example, are NOT a hot fix. That required actual code to implement, even if it rehashed much of the code from FC private rooms. A hot fix would be something along the lines of reducing the cost of Umbrite from 300 to 150 lore. And even then, depending on how a game is coded that might still require a patch.

Eh admittedly wasn't following definition was just replacing band aid with hotfix, can go back to that word. Band aid - just little things here and there trying to fix issues (but in SE's case, not).

Although I think you misunderstood the context I was using it either way, I was talking about the suggestion of OP 1 house per account, I was associating it with you, being a friendly subscriber for trying to keep easier solutions (my desire vs yours, house account limitations vs new house system - obviously new systems everywhere would be likely to be much harder).

I called that a hotfix (should have said band-aid, as it will help but wont solve our problems and Yoshida won't remove houses from current owners because he's promised to never do something like that), I think you're assuming I meant adding an entirely new house system is a hotfix or something - that'd not be what I said, as that'd be ridiculous. Many many times in that post you quoted I actually said it WONT be easy, so I think you've misunderstood me in general as well (I've not been saying it's easy).

You have to understand, there is no such thing as "fiddle with some code and bam". If it were as simple as you're making it out to be, they would have already done it. There are a host of variables you are either ignorant of or are sorely underestimating. I can't even begin to list everything that has to be taken in to account when making even small changes and additions to a game. Even adding a copy pasta ward to each residential area is no small thing. Sure the code and art assets already exists but you've added yet another area to the game affecting its size, server stability, etc. And then of course, without any limitations, how many of those houses you just added are going to be bought up by one person, leaving still more without a house.

Again you're seriously missing the part where I've already admitted its not as simple as "tomorrow we release instanced housing". But yes, BAM in terms of adding new area themes compared to what we have now (once the instance system is working of course). The difficulty to add a skybox/land theme to an instanced system vs adding a new area for a new skybox/land theme in a ward system is vastly different (once you have the systems in place of course). Rather than developing an entire zone like we have now (Mists for example) they could take pre-existing assets and give them to the player to use in their placement, like stripping the pirate sky base bare and then giving it to the player as purchasable land mass (vs having to create entire ward of floating land mass, with the all the side costs involved in developing a ward), avoiding the some of the costs involved as well (like lore, full theme development of graphics, coding new areas, some terrain). So in comparison yes bam, but of course it doesn't happen in an hour or is free. And shortly after the "bam" you focused on you skipped the part where I said okay its not instant (because nothing is instant in a massive freaking game, even actually simple things have to hit the pipeline), but its still faster than a ward system (and allows more creative results) - which was the "in comparison to wards, this is bam" (with the assumption the system is in place at that moment, obviously).

Again I've said MANY times its not a one day activity. You're fixating on something I've already agreed with, why? Adding points that I'm already aware of, that many things have to be redesigned and checked - seriously, I get that code isn't simple I do it change one thing get two new bugs - yay.., but it's not impossible to change code either (usually, sometimes a key point of the base system can't be changed without a total base redesign.. we've seen certain games get bugs like that where they're pretty much unfix-able without reinvesting millions of dollars into a new entire base system for the entire game), and since I have no idea what they have and heavily dislike what they're doing I'm going to keep suggesting they change what I dislike.

Small changes can have big ripples. Consider that ARR was a rebuild from the ground up of 1.0 and had to be done fairly quickly to salvage FFXIV. It may not have been coded in such a way to make expanding and adding things as easy as it might be for other games. Expansions are great opportunities to make big changes and additions but even those have time and budget constraints. Don't assume SE doesn't want to give players what they want but rather consider that it may not be feasible to do it, or at least not do it in the way you're imagining.

Yes it may be difficult, or incredibly difficult, but It's not our job to say what they can and can't do - that's silly. You don't preemptively say no for something you don't know what they can and can't do, I mean unless you know its literally impossible (or if you like the old system lol, that too) - but I'm not suggesting anything that's impossible as I can just start listing of examples to prove it's possible (of course the code is different, but we don't have access to SE's so there is no point in suggesting we can or can't do things, only SE can and players can tell them to invest in the problem anyways - expenses growing extremely quickly when the system can't allow it (new system being built or pain of extensively modifying an existing one), but as I'm suggesting a new system entirely we're already looking at a big expense). And again, MANY TIMES, have said its not easy or free, which is why I've actually went out of my way to suggest ways for them to make money from it because I know the incredibly slim chance they consider the system would rely on if they can get something from it - I get this isn't going to come free, and I don't even like the cash shop but I see the system change worth it (besides they're already selling items so being able to buy a rift doesn't really make a big change to me now, but may mean a lot to them).

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I don't understand why people want instanced houses, doesn't that defeat the social aspect?

Housing is already an instance it's just the garden that's not. That's why we can't have real windows looking out into the area. They could still keep the areas as we have them now except change the houses into shops/taverns etc and make it into a market area. Player/FC housing could branch off into an instance via an npc in the zone.

We already have housing exteriors available as a starting point. This way we could have shops that are available in the starting towns, add in extra retainers that can sell stuff outside of the market board , add icons representing the type of house on the map so players know what each house sells, add in a similar arena from wolfs den or open world pvp in the housing areas. The whole zone like many areas in the game is underused by making it more accessible to everyone it could be fun.

[Alleo]

The bad thing is..if they keep the system like its now they can never ever combine servers without destroying someones house. I think I remember that this kinda happened with some korean or chinese servers. They got combined and lots of people just lost their houses thanks to that. So not only does this system leave lots of people without homes but it could lead to problems later on for either SE or the players. (Or both) With a complete instanced system it would be no problem at all.

[BigRed5392]

or you guys can pick lesser populated servers, that have a ton of open housing. Goblin has a ton of plots open.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

...Chart...

Now I'm feeling all nostalgic...

[Parisstilton]

or you guys can pick lesser populated servers, that have a ton of open housing. Goblin has a ton of plots open.

OK so everyone go to goblin! Now how many houses will you have if that happens ??

[LaylaTsarra]

OK so everyone go to goblin! Now how many houses will you have if that happens ??

Until alts get some real love in this game they have every right to get a house as anyone else. Sorry but my alts can't even use my mains mender, FC Chest and so on. And you got to love the Balmung and overcrowded server crowd's though who think that removing housing from alts will somehow fix the problems on their overcrowded server. If you really want some relief ask SE to stop transfers and new account creation there permanently.

I just leveled an alt on Gilgamesh and you'd better believe if I can find a house there and afford one I'll get one.

[Canadane]

or you guys can pick lesser populated servers, that have a ton of open housing. Goblin has a ton of plots open.

Now that we have cross-server PF and maybe one day cross-server chat outside parties, picking a lesser populated server for housing is pretty viable!

[LaylaTsarra]

Now that we have cross-server PF and maybe one day cross-server chat outside parties, picking a lesser populated server for housing is pretty viable!

Cross server linkshells and I've read FC chat (not sure how they'll implement that) is coming.

[Shougun]

Cross server linkshells and I've read FC chat (not sure how they'll implement that) is coming.

I can't recall where so hopefully its not a made up memory, /cry, lol but didn't Yoshida talk about moving towards a mega server system in the future (not coming anytime soon). All of these cross server features feels like a slow move towards that. Opening up all the houses on an entire data server may help out a lot, so long as they prevent people from owning multiple houses - I haven't checked Goblin, so those saying Goblin has room, how much room?

So long as each data center has a few really underpopulated servers with a lot of houses available it "may" act as a much longer term solution - still would like to see personal zoned housing (for the theme / creative power it can offer), but at least mashing all the housing districts into one area might work for a while, depending on how small these small servers are.

Again small Aether servers approx % still available? Balmung is going to easily gobble half of many servers worth of space when it spreads, and we have Gilgamesh here too so lol.. hopefully a lot of space on the small words.

Could have sworn there was talking of heading that way, but so far this has all I found - which is obviously the exact opposite lol:

MMOs have increasingly been adopting mega-servers allowing players to all play in one place. Do you have any plans to adopt something like that for FFXIV?

Yoshida: That's probably not possible. From a database side, that's highly dependent on the initial design, so if we wanted to do something like that it would probably be faster to create a new MMO.

How about matchmaking across data centers?

Yoshida: It's more than just data centers, we're talking about going beyond the physical and logical servers so it would be quite a high hurdle to overcome. Of course, we'll continue to try for this in the future, but it won't be in a short space of time. With respect to the servers, we're working right now on the fundamental specifications to implement party recruitment across worlds which will allow members to recruit across worlds, gather, and chat across worlds. We're aiming for implementation with the release of patch 3.5.

With this, in a sense, players across a data center will feel like part of a connected world. I think play will change quite a bit when players can recruit parties to complete content across the data center, so it's something we really hope to be able to allow.

However, back to your comment, designing and implementing a mega server while continuing the current service, then migrating to the new service, would be extremely difficult and there's the risk of data being destroyed. Of course it's not completely impossible, but it would be insanely difficult.

Source: https://www.bluegartr.com/threads/12...ch-Translation

Also Yoshida mentions grass, mah boi. <3 you, Lol.

Maybe a made up memory, I generally can remember where I've heard information so.. meh. Well taking all of the unused houses and allowing other servers to use them has been a suggested solution before, traversing a server of course is not that simple so they'd need to make the system for it (and maybe just isn't worth it), but yeah. lol If anyone finds something else on mega servers feel free to drop it. I'll keep looking for a bit.