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

[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.

[gbe931]

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.

I disregard apartments because NO ONE CARES about them. Per your own statement apts don't have yards and you can't crossbreed and many high end items are locked behind gardening (Blood Pepper, Thav. Onion, Jute, Curiel Root, Krakka Root, Minions, Glazenut, etc.) with no other way of obtaining them. FC's cannot use the Company Workshop to craft high-end FC buffs with aetherial wheels, make airship components for exploration ventures and even exploration ventures have items locked behind it that can't be obtained via other methods (Fine Alumen, Potter's Stone, Dravanian Down, etc.). If you're not in the housing game, you're missing out on being able to be self sufficient or able to make gil for yourself and be at the whims of an over-inflated MB.

[Argonloris]

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?

I think what they were suggesting was adding server space to the data center and not reallocating the current server space. It's not outside the realm of possibility considering they player base expanded somewhat over the course of recent months.

[Argonloris]

I would generally be more in favor of players having instanced housing and keeping FCs in the wards. Going that route may actually be a boon to the wards as much as it would be to the players. With that system in place the wards would not often be occupied by a 1 person FC and the multi person FCs would be more likely to have people at the guild halls which would lead to a higher chance of meeting spaces. It might mean that some things would be set to only place in the guild halls as to encourage members to visit from time to time but I think it would be worth it.

[Dustytome]

I would generally be more in favor of players having instanced housing and keeping FCs in the wards. Going that route may actually be a boon to the wards as much as it would be to the players. With that system in place the wards would not often be occupied by a 1 person FC and the multi person FCs would be more likely to have people at the guild halls which would lead to a higher chance of meeting spaces. It might mean that some things would be set to only place in the guild halls as to encourage members to visit from time to time but I think it would be worth it.

Even making the ward system FCs only becomes an issue when there are certain limitations set on plot size and limited larger plot availability.