Is housing limited because PS4?

[Tridus]

At this point it's pretty hard to argue that any restrictions in the game are due to PS4 specs, when until relatively recently it ran on the archaic PS3. There are almost certainly still PS3 related limitations kicking around, but the PS4 is more powerful than the PC I play on (faster CPU, faster GPU, same RAM without Windows overhead). So you'd be closer to the mark if you blamed my PC than the PS4.

Housing is a backend issue, not a client one. Because each ward is running all the time (even if nobody is in it) there is server resource cost to having more of them. Making the existing ones larger would require map redesign and carry significant cost that way. Fully instanced housing would be a new system, because there isn't one that has an outside (apartments are effectively instanced housing interiors).

[Keridwyn]

Housing is a backend issue, not a client one. Because each ward is running all the time (even if nobody is in it) there is server resource cost to having more of them. Making the existing ones larger would require map redesign and carry significant cost that way. Fully instanced housing would be a new system, because there isn't one that has an outside (apartments are effectively instanced housing interiors).

Considering how little wards get used I wonder if it would be possible to instance the wards? When nobody is in them they're not active but when people are so are they. I'm not certain what kind of programming would be involved but if they can have multiple zone instances active couldn't they do that with subdivisions and wards beyond ward 1?

[Tridus]

Considering how little wards get used I wonder if it would be possible to instance the wards? When nobody is in them they're not active but when people are so are they. I'm not certain what kind of programming would be involved but if they can have multiple zone instances active couldn't they do that with subdivisions and wards beyond ward 1?

Maybe? At that level of detail it starts getting into knowledge of the backend infrastructure and system design that I don't have. The issue with instancing wards that I can see is that they're so large and they'd have to spin up anytime anyone teleports to their house, or logs in at their house, as you appear outside (in the ward). If you have to spin up an entire ward often enough, then shut it down and persist it, then spin it up again, it could wind up being worse than leaving it in memory all the time. Instance startup/shutdown isn't free in terms of server utilization either.

I tend to think the answer partially involves making the ward maps larger and having more houses in them, as you'd increase the number of houses per ward significantly which wouldn't require more ward instances to be running, and usually any given ward's exterior isn't heavily populated (so there is lots of room for more people to be in there without causing resource issues). That requires world design and artist time on top of the technical end so it's certainly expensive, but it's likely easiest on the servers* themselves as opposed to simply adding 40 wards.

(*Speculation, as although I am a professional software developer, I don't know what SE's backend looks like.)