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

[Masekase_Hurricane]

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

The bigger question is would they actually be able to cross server the wards? If they could actually get round abuses involving gil i.e trades, MB all closed off if it's not your server etc.

[Marcellus_Cassius]

You guys should focus your energy on cross server ward instances, 1 house per account is unlikely to happen because it would punish players for doing something that has been considered legal for years. I think cross server warding could really liven up the areas, especially if they get rid of garden customization and just make the houses instanced; this is a feature I think most would be willing to part with in exchange for more populated warding communities.

[Shougun]

You guys should focus your energy on cross server ward instances, 1 house per account is unlikely to happen because it would punish players for doing something that has been considered legal for years. I think cross server warding could really liven up the areas, especially if they get rid of garden customization and just make the houses instanced; this is a feature I think most would be willing to part with in exchange for more populated warding communities.

Yoshida on record has said he really dislikes taking things away from players even due to bugs (things that are the devs faults, he doesn't want to punish players for their mistake), so I'm sure (at least semi-sure lol) that he won't revoke previous owner's houses, and I agree that's a good policy even though I think they should have stopped it long ago.

However, I would suggest that even if you do cross server wards that you should still future implement 1 house per account (+1 FC house) just dont remove houses from people who had them before the rule was implemented; otherwise, you can kiss all your Goblin/"small server" houses goodbye as Balmung and Gilgamesh easily have enough gil to buy all the houses on all the servers in their data center lol (and we'd still have housing issues). Like I can pick out two people on my own server that could buy more than half of a servers entire total lots, just one person XD.

I would find it quite funny all the people who are indifferent to full sized server suffering "go some where else! Pay SE $20 to lose your FC and Friends, and some gil!" then have to suffer a housing issue because they made them shared with the servers who've been suffering the entire time. I really think people on small servers have no idea how big, wealthy, and really how many people want a house on full servers - I guess if the cross server thing didn't work at least more people would be on the same page that something needs to be done.

Still, it would add a lot of houses, so that's a plus - if its a feasible solution then I guess why not .

[molzilla]

I think making personal housing instanced would be a good idea. Or perhaps even just adding extra wards to busy servers? I'm on Odin where it's damn near impossible to buy a plot of land (last I checked EVERY single plot was filled), but there are other servers that have an over-abundance of free slots.

I know this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I really think they made a mistake of making personal housing a thing when there was already a housing crisis on servers beforehand. All I want is a house for my small little FC but I get swindled every time ;-;

[Dreggit]

Assuming they made this change. What would happen to houses owned by the same person before the change?

Answered my own question. /grovel

[LineageRazor]

I know this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I really think they made a mistake of making personal housing a thing when there was already a housing crisis on servers beforehand. All I want is a house for my small little FC but I get swindled every time ;-;

Personal housing has been kind of a disaster from the start. Housing as it currently exists should have been FC-only. As much as I love the idea of non-instanced personal housing, the way it was implemented was a hack-job, plain and simple, adapting FC housing to also accommodate player housing.

That said, it's pretty clear that folks are NOT satisfied with instanced personal housing. We HAVE it now, in the form of apartments. With the possible exception of REALLY crowded servers like Balmung or Gilgamesh, anyone that wants an apartment for personal housing can get one, the only thing apartments don't offer that regular housing does is a lawn. However, folks still aren't satisfied with this - people want housing that other people can SEE. Folks want the option to build a house that catches peoples' eye; makes them want to go in and look around. They want to show off the trophies they've acquired, show off their wealth and success in the game. Apartments aren't very good for that. Your apartment number doesn't look any flashier than anyone else's, and no one has any particular reason to come take a look at your awesome stuff than they do anyone else's.

It's not an easy problem with an easy solution. More non-instanced housing requires more servers, which requires more money, which means either higher fees or less spent on other things in the game. Instanced housing is unpopular because it limits folks' ability to show off - and with the exception of gardening, showing off is all housing is actually good for; it's just another form of glamour. There's no question, though, that the current solution is bad; FCs SHOULD have access to housing. It's what housing was originally implemented for. There's a lot of FC-specific things that you need a house to do, and it's a shame that otherwise perfectly great FCs are prevented from accessing these things.

[Shougun]

Personal housing has been kind of a disaster from the start. Housing as it currently exists should have been FC-only. As much as I love the idea of non-instanced personal housing, the way it was implemented was a hack-job, plain and simple, adapting FC housing to also accommodate player housing.

That said, it's pretty clear that folks are NOT satisfied with instanced personal housing. We HAVE it now, in the form of apartments. With the possible exception of REALLY crowded servers like Balmung or Gilgamesh, anyone that wants an apartment for personal housing can get one, the only thing apartments don't offer that regular housing does is a lawn. However, folks still aren't satisfied with this - people want housing that other people can SEE. Folks want the option to build a house that catches peoples' eye; makes them want to go in and look around. They want to show off the trophies they've acquired, show off their wealth and success in the game. Apartments aren't very good for that. Your apartment number doesn't look any flashier than anyone else's, and no one has any particular reason to come take a look at your awesome stuff than they do anyone else's.

It's not an easy problem with an easy solution. More non-instanced housing requires more servers, which requires more money, which means either higher fees or less spent on other things in the game. Instanced housing is unpopular because it limits folks' ability to show off - and with the exception of gardening, showing off is all housing is actually good for; it's just another form of glamour. There's no question, though, that the current solution is bad; FCs SHOULD have access to housing. It's what housing was originally implemented for. There's a lot of FC-specific things that you need a house to do, and it's a shame that otherwise perfectly great FCs are prevented from accessing these things.

Well besides the limit, that's disappointing, apartments are disappointing because its not a house for both player and especially FC (imo) - not because I want to show off to random people but because it's tiny and limited (size, capacity, and features). Anyone who references Wildstar is also likely saying that, they want to have a house, the whole house, perhaps enhanced customization, and having it be in a public space is probably a lesser concern - although an invitation / ownership system would be important I imagine to these people (since that's also a key feature of Wildstar).

That's how that game does have a community even though they're all instanced, the creative power and systems (mini-games, friendly gardening, a big pool of reasons to visit each other), and the fact you can easily visit one another's house is why I'd argue that it easily has a better housing community than FFXIV even though its not public like a ward. (That's the dream at least, imo, of course getting anywhere there from here.. lol so much money. I wish SE a farm of money trees :3).

So at least to me, this doesn't really capture all of my issue (with the house system). So I'd like to see /instanced/ housing, not instanced apartments which are not houses, or more open plots that have limitations (outdoor size/capacity) due to their public nature, but instanced housing. Of course if one had to choose open or none - it'd go open for sure lol, but in the land of gimme gimme pipe dreams I want instanced housing not more open housing.

And yeah.. there is probably no easy solution as if there was there would be no reason it wasn't done yet. I'm curious what a cross server ward system would do, if it could meet the demand (not saying it's easy, but perhaps easier than making a whole new system lol - still prefer a new system but w.e, this idea intrigues me in terms of maybe it'll be enough houses).

[Maero]

Having instanced housing does not defeat the social aspect. Eso just recently added instanced housing and i do believe you can have friends over, etc...
Had SE implemented it from the beginning, we would not have the mess we have now.
As it stands we have housing shortages with some having trying to get a house for sometime and yet people have multiple homes... yeah rather broken system

[Naunet]

That said, it's pretty clear that folks are NOT satisfied with instanced personal housing. We HAVE it now, in the form of apartments.

They're not satisfied because apartments are a shoddy as heck excuse for personal housing. It's small and even more limited in customization than the regular houses.

[Iromi]

Is SE every going to add more wards and fix this housing stuff...or will I end up with my RL house and quit before they fix this? lol