New info on housing plots, PVP, squadron changes

[Kaethra]

Server limitations. Which isn't a good reason because so many games have proved it's possible, but seems to be the reality of the situation.

That's already been debunked anyway. Instancing housing would actually take less strain on the servers than new wards would. Its a simple text file sent to the client to show where everything is. A simple text line (that is a quarter of the size of your regular FC recruiting message) sent from the client to the server database whenever a change is made.

Since no combat happens within housing. They could even make the instances peer to peer. Let the clients computer 'host' the instance. Then it would have no effect on the server except when you enter or leave. Which is no more strain than using aetheryte crystals to teleport. A simple hash check upon entering, modifying, or leaving ensures no funny business.

[BillyKaplan]

Instancing housing would actually take less strain on the servers than new wards would. Its a simple text file sent to the client to show where everything is. A simple text line (that is a quarter of the size of your regular FC recruiting message) sent from the client to the server database whenever a change is made.

I think you're heavily underestimating how much information is saved per house, even the small ones. Saving the maximum allowed number of items per house per service account wouldn't be as bad as adding another character creation slider, since it's only sent to a handful of people at a time, but that's still a load of data they need to support all of a sudden.

Let the clients computer 'host' the instance.

REAAAAAAAALLY doubt they'll ever do anything like that. Is anything in the game currently hosted client-side?

[Krotoan]

That's already been debunked anyway. ...

Where? By you posting an example from a different game?

[TaranTatsuuchi]

If I do that I end up in a single room which I cannot customize at all, and which does not have an outside garden.

No, that is not the code needed - as soon as you add the possibility to change things in a house the complexity of the code needed goes up considerably.

Apartments are basically that...
Instanced rooms people can customize.

Still wish we could cross pollinate with them...
And use the proper gardening animations.

Ever notice that Miqo' te more often than not, are more vocal against Viera implementation? It's almost like they think they'll lose something should they be added into the game. Same for the calls for more bestial races,
...

Personally, I don't really care if Viera gets implemented or not.

I would just rather they overhaul the character customization system before adding any new races.

Stuff like...
Giving all races access to the muscle tone slider...
Giving more options for body types...
Unlocking facial features from specific faces...
etc.

[Alacran]

Apartments are basically that...
Instanced rooms people can customize.

Still wish we could cross pollinate with them...
And use the proper gardening animations.




Personally, I don't really care if Viera gets implemented or not.

I would just rather they overhaul the character customization system before adding any new races.

Stuff like...
Giving all races access to the muscle tone slider...
Giving more options for body types...
Unlocking facial features from specific faces...
etc.

As i see it, each race/ gender combination has a point value tied to the amount of options it has available. Hyur and Roegadyn males have 20 categories, females of those two races have 21. the other races have 21 for the males and 22 for the females each.

As it stands these are the set values for player created characters. With out major changes to the system this cannot be changed (something i hope will happen in the future). Allowing Miqo'te to have muscle sliders would push the set value from m21/f22 to m22/f23, the code simply cannot recognize this. Same goes for the option have Au Ra having the option to have the option to mix horn options between faces/ genders, m21/f22 to m22/f23 (the addition of muscle sliders being m23/2f4).

What can be added in are new hair options, such as new faces/ face combinations (a new Hyur face for Midlanders/ Highghlanders but with a full beard, new Au Ra male faces with female Au Ra horns and vice versa, ect...), thus increasing the options that players have and not stressing the limits of the data used by each character.

However i could be completely wrong, i have no background in programming, character creation, or game development. If any can give more complete, concise, correct information, it would be greatly appreciated. I too want more options in character creation, glamours, housing and races.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

As i see it, each race/ gender combination has a point value tied to the amount of options it has available. Hyur and Roegadyn males have 20 categories, females of those two races have 21. the other races have 21 for the males and 22 for the females each.

As it stands these are the set values for player created characters. With out major changes to the system this cannot be changed (something i hope will happen in the future). Allowing Miqo'te to have muscle sliders would push the set value from m21/f22 to m22/f23, the code simply cannot recognize this. Same goes for the option have Au Ra having the option to have the option to mix horn options between faces/ genders, m21/f22 to m22/f23 (the addition of muscle sliders being m23/2f4).

What can be added in are new hair options, such as new faces/ face combinations (a new Hyur face for Midlanders/ Highghlanders but with a full beard, new Au Ra male faces with female Au Ra horns and vice versa, ect...), thus increasing the options that players have and not stressing the limits of the data used by each character.

However i could be completely wrong, i have no background in programming, character creation, or game development. If any can give more complete, concise, correct information, it would be greatly appreciated. I too want more options in character creation, glamours, housing and races.

I wouldn't be surprised if many of these 'memory restrictions' are due to the ps3 support we used to have.

That did only have a total of 512mb of ram.
And not all of that was available for the game.

I can only hope that with the discontinuation of the ps3 that more of these memory problems get sorted out.

[Alleo]

I am honestly a bit shocked that some people want instanced housing to be in the cash shop (they are the minority but still..). Lets not ask them to get even more money out of us for a mistake they did..it should have been quite clear that this current system would never have enough housing for all players and even for all the FCs. Yet instead of changing it over the years (or maybe introducing the wards as FC only and having instanced zones for personal houses) or maybe even putting down some restrictions (one personal and FC house per server/account) they did nothing but just putting out more wards and the bad band aid of the timer. At the same time they always used housing as part of the expansion marketing, put out more and more housing items in seasonal events and even exclusive cash shop stuff and more.

If they want to have it as a limited system then they should stop marketing it as something for everyone..

Also if they ever would be able to sell houses in the cash shop, this would just mean that they have the skill to change the system but chose to only do it for extra money, which would make them quite greedy in my eyes and would be the final straw to 100% making me stop playing the game because that would just perfectly show how they see us. So no I really hope that cash shop will never be a viable solution for this mess of a housing system. (Also it would be quite bad for all those players that dont own a house right now because others were able to get it in game with gil while they might have to pay real money to get it...that is far far away from a fair system.)

[Zumi]

Personally I am not really a Viera fan. I would stay Au Ra for sure since I like my lizard girl. Do you think we would have a lot of bunny girls running around if they were added? I think it would be better if they added an original race instead of a FF12 one, but I still would keep my Au Ra no matter what they added.

[Alacran]

I am honestly a bit shocked that some people want instanced housing to be in the cash shop (they are the minority but still..). Lets not ask them to get even more money out of us for a mistake they did..it should have been quite clear that this current system would never have enough housing for all players and even for all the FCs. Yet instead of changing it over the years (or maybe introducing the wards as FC only and having instanced zones for personal houses) or maybe even putting down some restrictions (one personal and FC house per server/account) they did nothing but just putting out more wards and the bad band aid of the timer. At the same time they always used housing as part of the expansion marketing, put out more and more housing items in seasonal events and even exclusive cash shop stuff and more.

If they want to have it as a limited system then they should stop marketing it as something for everyone..

Also if they ever would be able to sell houses in the cash shop, this would just mean that they have the skill to change the system but chose to only do it for extra money, which would make them quite greedy in my eyes and would be the final straw to 100% making me stop playing the game because that would just perfectly show how they see us. So no I really hope that cash shop will never be a viable solution for this mess of a housing system. (Also it would be quite bad for all those players that dont own a house right now because others were able to get it in game with gil while they might have to pay real money to get it...that is far far away from a fair system.)

Honestly i see it as away to cut off the excuse of the expense of servers being to outrageous to implement. Yes it should be an ingame service, bundled with the subscription fee. The leaders of the city states keep giving me their praise but never think to gift us a damn house for our troubles. I am a First Lieutenant of the Maelstrom, Warrior of Light, Slayer of Primals, and among other things a Knight of Ishgard. Knights get lands, and a keep. Wheres my keep? I have the title so...

The idea to put them the cash shop (in my case), just lets us have the option to have a home in game i could never afford with gill. I don't like crafting, i don't gather, so i can't get a home because i don't play the markets, and would rather solo, or low man content? Ok, guess i'll just stay in this boat watching others flip housing plots, while others buy gill to afford the prices demanded due to a lack of servers, all the while being told it's impossible to generate housing servers on demand.

It's not a good solution by any standard, it's just one less thing they can use as an excuse.

[Kaethra]

Where? By you posting an example from a different game?

And example of how a few games do it. Hell even voxel based games do it like that.

You all would be surprised how much is actually done client side. The only thing the server needs to 'talk' to clients about in real time is when someone moves within visual range of another character or a change has happened. In fact I just ran resource monitor to see how much data is being used.

Inside Limsa Lominsa it was about 16kb/s to load into the game at the first time. Stabilized around 1.2kb/s. Loading into Shirogane required 2kb/s and then stabilized around 750b/s. Going back to Limsa was about 1.2kb/s and stabilized there (I had already loaded the assets).

Limsa Lominsa is equal to about 2-3 housing wards while being static in nature, its load is only the players in it (the rest is handled client side). I think they can afford more. That's if they don't wish to go the instancing route. If they do.. well I looked at that too. 52b/s. An 800 baud modem from a commandore 64 could handle over a dozen connections. I'm sure the FFXIV servers would be able to handle that. Instancing of course is the lightest way of doing housing. In wards you need to show the movement info of everyone in visual range and check to see if they are in range every tickrate.

In instances its only for those who are present. Wards exponentially create load on the server. Instances more evenly spread it.

I feel like Galileo trying to explain how a telescope works and everyone is claiming its heresy instead of just taking a look.