Will Housing ever be addressed in any meaningful manner by the XIV team?

[Naunet]

instance biased housing is good and all but i just didn't do it because it's a piece of content you really can't show off.

WildStar housing is instanced and yet the community still manages to be extremely open and everyone who wants to show off their house gets plenty of opportunities - be it announcing their build in housing zone chat, posting a thread on the forums, inviting people directly, leaving it Public access so anyone can wander in, etc. The idea that instanced housing means losing the community aspect and the ability to share your homes with people is simply false.

[Ayerinn]

The idea that instanced housing means losing the community aspect and the ability to share your homes with people is simply false.

With all the instance issues they already have...I don't want instanced housing for that reason alone. I mean technically each ward/subdivision is already an instance and the inside of a house is a custom instance. I wish they would just raise the subscription price from $11.99/14.99 per month to ~ $14.99/17.99 per month and add dedicated housing servers for each world so that could could open up nearly infinite wards per server (so it would be the same as now, just you would be transferred to the housing server when you zoned into a housing area.)

[Naunet]

With all the instance issues they already have...I don't want instanced housing for that reason alone. I mean technically each ward/subdivision is already an instance and the inside of a house is a custom instance. I wish they would just raise the subscription price from $11.99/14.99 per month to ~ $14.99/17.99 per month and add dedicated housing servers for each world so that could could open up nearly infinite wards per server (so it would be the same as now, just you would be transferred to the housing server when you zoned into a housing area.)

We shouldn't have to pay more for what other MMOs of equal and even lesser budget offer at face.

[vakarianne]

I'd be curious to see a per-ward heat map showing actual player activity outside of their own plots of land, something that illustrated exactly how many people are spending time utilizing the neighborhood.

Player presence would, I think, be better off concentrated into apartment-like lobbies. Use the marketplace or a newly-created hangout-friendly area in each housing zone as your socialization center and get rid of wards altogether. Have a gate that accesses houses and lets you pick where you want to go (your plot, others' open plots). Players could move very organically from hanging out in the "lobby" area to the instanced houses -- it could be just a short walk away. With notes and at-home indicators, you could always know where the party was. I think it'd beef up general housing zone use and player interaction.

Yes, it'd suck for homes to lose their visibility but I think it'd be an acceptable trade off to reintroduce socialization and the neighborhood feel.

[Elamys]

With all the instance issues they already have...I don't want instanced housing for that reason alone. I mean technically each ward/subdivision is already an instance and the inside of a house is a custom instance. I wish they would just raise the subscription price from $11.99/14.99 per month to ~ $14.99/17.99 per month and add dedicated housing servers for each world so that could could open up nearly infinite wards per server (so it would be the same as now, just you would be transferred to the housing server when you zoned into a housing area.)

We already have an instance for each individual plot and apartment, it's just only the interior of it.

I'd be curious to see a per-ward heat map showing actual player activity outside of their own plots of land, something that illustrated exactly how many people are spending time utilizing the neighborhood.

I spend, and have always spent, the majority of my time when crafting and idling in the housing wards. They are dead of people. I don't see my neighbors, ever.

[Ayerinn]

We already have an instance for each individual plot and apartment, it's just only the interior of it.

You should re-read what I said...I think you missed the part where I said "technically each ward/subdivision is already an instance and the inside of a house is a custom instance." I'm talking about a server dedicated to housing...as in, an entire separate server for each world (but seemless transition to the player) that does nothing but serve up wards and interior instances. Now that I would be willing to pay a tad extra for...

[Dyvid]

Unfortunately 720 new total plots is nowhere near enough supply to satisfy the very real demand for housing on mid/high-pop servers. Drawing from unofficial census data because we'll never get official active subscriber numbers (https://ffxivcensus.com/) there are about 9,500 active players on my server. Once Housing (Shirogane Savage) is released in the 4.1 patch cycle there will be a total of 2,880 plots to be split between FC's and individuals. This means that 70% (2880/9500)of the active subscribers on my server cannot own a house not because of gil, but because of the artificial scarcity. On Balmung, 85% of active subscribers are not able to own housing, again not because of gil but because of artificial scarcity. If its an issue of resources, then scrap Diadem as it is effectively dead content that takes up server space and no one uses.

First I'm not sure why you completely disregard Apartments because they are small but almost identical to ward Houses except they don't have yards and you can't crossbred plants, interior they are the same content. Second is how many plots and apartments are available on you're server? On mine we have few plots from demolish and a lot of apartments, so we have enough to provide the people that want housing. When you add Wards and Apartments together, it's about 10,500 units available after Shirogane is launched. There is only going to a select few servers that won't be able to provide housing to every player in that world.

I spend, and have always spent, the majority of my time when crafting and idling in the housing wards. They are dead of people. I don't see my neighbors, ever.

Just like real life... Seriously though, I would love to see SE add more things to the wards to provide player interaction but SE is stuck trying hard squeeze every last drop to find ways to add more wards without effecting other game content.

You should re-read what I said...I think you missed the part where I said "technically each ward/subdivision is already an instance and the inside of a house is a custom instance." I'm talking about a server dedicated to housing...as in, an entire separate server for each world (but seemless transition to the player) that does nothing but serve up wards and interior instances. Now that I would be willing to pay a tad extra for...

It's possible but comes are a cost. Let's assume SE did this and divided the Data Center up into three parts; World Server, DF Server, and Housing Server. You would have to pull resources from World and DF to feed into Housing. Do you think the community would accept longer queues on the DF until space is freed up to run the instance, or on the World player would be unable to enter a zone because that area has reached it's max amount of players? Bottom line is does the benefit out way the cost?

[Sairys]

Stuff about apartments

To me, apartments really feel less than houses. You miss out on the outdoors customisation, get limited space, and it's one room. I've toyed around with some stuff in mine but I feel the limitation.

The other side of your numbers would be, with Adamantoise for example, at a quick search has 1551 free companies without an estate and we can likely expect many of them will be competing against the players for the Shirogane plots. Which is actually slightly lower than the vague average of 1689 (based on the fc search tool)

It could feel better, perhaps, if you could upgrade your apartment. Have another level that gives you a little upstairs section and maybe one more that adds a balcony that lets you have outdoor furniture on it, which would make it potentially as similar to a cottage as you can get. This could even become preferable to houses for some people if you consider the potential views from the balconies.

...

[Sairys]

stuff about splitting servers

The last part of the quote is the thing that helps make it work though.

Rather than doing the split, maybe have a new housing area that is accessible like normal, but you can only buy property there if you have a certain additional service on your account (like extra how retainers work). That housing could be on it's own server for the data center and be adjusted to demand.

Add in some attractive features to it, maybe all the plots are large (it's the rich part of town?), more wards are added as others are filled up so there's pretty much always free plots. And if it's priced just right then people snap it up, providing the extra money to cover the servers needed. If it's paying for a premium housing option, it could be considered different than a maintenance fee?

[Aldotsk]

First I'm not sure why you completely disregard Apartments because they are small but almost identical to ward Houses except they don't have yards and you can't crossbred plants, interior they are the same content. Second is how many plots and apartments are available on you're server? On mine we have few plots from demolish and a lot of apartments, so we have enough to provide the people that want housing. When you add Wards and Apartments together, it's about 10,500 units available after Shirogane is launched. There is only going to a select few servers that won't be able to provide housing to every player in that world.

Please check the realism and facts comparing to estimation and assumption. Because even if Shirogane is released, there won't be enough housing for every server. Also for those who compare apartments and size of the plots clearly show that they aren't interested in housing in general and have not actually done housing before.

Size of the apartment is SAME as FC house's room. Without gardening plus outdoor furnishing.