A good idea to improve housing for all.

[Kazrah]

Heavily customizable apartments with balcony areas for gardening....

I feel like this should be Ishgardian housing.

[WhiteArchmage]

houses are already bigger on the inside. smalls have a hall to the basement on one side despite the outsides being perfectly symmetrical. now that you know this it will bother you forever . :P

Not to mention FC houses have a dimensional space for a workshop and FC rooms :P

[Melichoir]

If apartment and house have same dimensions, people will still push for houses.

Because a house is put in the open with an exterior that people can see.

You can't make a carbuncle apartment for example.


There is no reason apartments have to be trash to "push people to buy houses".
That only serves to make anyone without a house utterly dissappointed.

That is why if inside an apartment is the exact same as a small, it would be alot better.
FC still gonna want an outside for people to hang out.
But a solo person might be more satisfied with an apartment.

The advantage of having the house is the exterior, true, but the exterior isnt the end all be all. If I had to choose two properties that were the same size inside, but one had an exterior but was 10x the price, Id just get the cheaper property. Exteriors are nice, but the inside is where its at.

This is why I suggested giving more to apts overall by giving two tiers of apartments - one with an 'exterior balcony' and slightly upgraded item limit, but having the same dimensions as a regular apt. Goal is to create tiers. If you just want an apt to be the same size inside and out as a cottage, youll get more people buying apts, sure, but then the distinction for a cottage and house goes down a lot. You have to justify why I should pay 3.5 mill for a cottage versus 300k for an apt if the only difference is the outside. Cause trust me, 20 slots and an exterior isnt that huge a selling point for a 10x mark up. This would get worse if the apartment had more physical space than a cottage. Then cottage owners would get rightly pissed about it, cause space is a very important commodity for housing.

[Milea]

The advantage of having the house is the exterior, true, but the exterior isnt the end all be all. If I had to choose two properties that were the same size inside, but one had an exterior but was 10x the price, Id just get the cheaper property. Exteriors are nice, but the inside is where its at.

This is why I suggested giving more to apts overall by giving two tiers of apartments - one with an 'exterior balcony' and slightly upgraded item limit, but having the same dimensions as a regular apt. Goal is to create tiers. If you just want an apt to be the same size inside and out as a cottage, youll get more people buying apts, sure, but then the distinction for a cottage and house goes down a lot. You have to justify why I should pay 3.5 mill for a cottage versus 300k for an apt if the only difference is the outside. Cause trust me, 20 slots and an exterior isnt that huge a selling point for a 10x mark up. This would get worse if the apartment had more physical space than a cottage. Then cottage owners would get rightly pissed about it, cause space is a very important commodity for housing.

When you say you would choose the cheaper option despite the absence of exterior, do you me as a private buyer or a fc buyer?
See, that is the point.
Why do we want to encourage private buyers who don't care about exterior to buy the extremely limited in quantity houses?

For someone like that, an apartment should be more appealing so that those who actually want exteriors like fc can have a better chance at the limited commodity it is.

Now, they could also increase apartment price or have tiers, I see no issue with that.

But there is no reason a house inside MUST be better than an apartment inside.
Because exterior is a pretty big deal. And if it is not, than wouldn't a player who only cares about inside really benefit from this?

[Gemina]

The advantage of having the house is the exterior, true, but the exterior isnt the end all be all. If I had to choose two properties that were the same size inside, but one had an exterior but was 10x the price, Id just get the cheaper property. Exteriors are nice, but the inside is where its at.

This is why I suggested giving more to apts overall by giving two tiers of apartments - one with an 'exterior balcony' and slightly upgraded item limit, but having the same dimensions as a regular apt. Goal is to create tiers. If you just want an apt to be the same size inside and out as a cottage, youll get more people buying apts, sure, but then the distinction for a cottage and house goes down a lot. You have to justify why I should pay 3.5 mill for a cottage versus 300k for an apt if the only difference is the outside. Cause trust me, 20 slots and an exterior isnt that huge a selling point for a 10x mark up. This would get worse if the apartment had more physical space than a cottage. Then cottage owners would get rightly pissed about it, cause space is a very important commodity for housing.

The exterior is a pretty huge commodity. The inside if a home can't really bring the same benefit and assets than the outside. With a chocobo stable, you and those you grant access to can effectively level up your berds much faster than those who can only give them experience in the outer world. They also have a place to stable and dye them. Then there's gardening, which is the only means to acquire very rare mats used for furnishings and minions without dumping tons of gil into the MB and rounding out the effectiveness of the BTN class. The outside can also hold an aetheryte shard, which grants a registered player a very cheap means to get from one end of the world to another. This in addition with home point and other registered destinations seriously reduce porting costs to the player. It also gives them a very quick means to check their mail assuming they've placed a mailbox. Whew!

Due to all of this, the outside of cottage/medium/large residence is actually worth more than the inside. The inside of a home is beneficial only in the sense of the amount of décor and storage that is allowed. It will never make you money with the exception of crops that can be grown with pots, and even this is extremely limited as these items aren't the most marketable by any means. The inside is a total time and gil dump. The outside is totally utilitarian, and if you apply yourself accordingly it can eventually recover the cost of the home and all of its décor both inside and out.

The moment apartments have an exterior balcony that grants players the same privileges as a home exterior, the cost of those apartments can, will, and should skyrocket. Right now they are cheap because they give the player the ability to take advantage of furnishings, which will cost them additional time, money or both.

[Milea]

Sounds like they shoukd make a miniture greenhouse and indoor chocobo stable item.

[SamSmoot]

I'd just like an option to fill the plot completely with gardens. Perhaps with a small stairwell hut in one position that leads to a small house's underground basement space.
I find the standard houses' interiors completely claustrophobic, with my camera being blocked every way I look.

[Dyvid]

They really messed up with Apartments, remember when they said "Apartments would be bigger than Company Rooms, and a bit smaller than a Cottage" yeah.
First of all, big mistake putting apartment buildings in the housing Ward, they should have placed a building inside each City, and given a selection of sizes, with each having a Balcony and gardens to match that of the three house sizes.


Who wouldn't like to hang out on their Apartment Balcony inside the City and be able to garden and relax (outside furnishings) while overlooking say the lake and waterfall in Gridania for example (Next or near to the airship dock, behind the CRP guild etc).
I'd drop my Large house for such a setting, you could make S, M, L and XL size Apartments, with XL sizes being classed as a house and you can only own one or the other, meaning more Plots free for those who want a "Neighborhood" (Ghost town) experience.


Such potential.

Yea, Apartments do need a balcony for the simple fact that players have outside items they can't use. Would be easy to add too.