The Case for Instanced Housing

[Melichoir]

snips

The issue boils down to the same thign though - You either destroy ward housing and switch to an instanced housing system, or you run a parallel housing system which then deals with the issue of "Which is better." If you make instanced housing better, you then punish ward housing (and people who have had ward housing for a while). If you run it where Ward housing is vastly superior - then why not just upgrade apartments? It would be the same thing. Which is more or less my aim.

The suggestions I made with Apartments is to create a new housing structure that is inferior to ward housing but has its own benefits. Namely price point and availability - the two major underlying factors of the housing discussion broadly. My issue with OPs suggestions is they add bells and whistles that are frivolous. Theyre neat as a concept but actual usefulness is another question. For example, when really is the last time you used an airship after unlocking the major cities' aetherytes? Or that housing your squadron at your personal residence doesnt make lore sense (Theyre soldiers of the GC and youre their commanding Officer, not that they are your personal mercenary group).

You can solve most of the issues by upgrading an adding onto a system already in place, a system that needs the work, rather than tear down the entire system and move to an individual housing basis at the expense of players who like ward Housing for what it provides.

As a side note, yes I actually thought a lot of what Wildstar did housing wise did was ingenious. It had a lot more options and interest when it came to placing items and customization. However, while instanced housing did provide people with a place to call their own, it was also lonely. I could visit any house I wanted so long as it was open, but it isnt the same as running around the neighborhood, seeing an interesting exterior, and wanting to see the interior. When doing Wildstar, after a while I didnt bother checking out other homes cause most of the time they were undeveloped.

A key point to understand (and probably somewhat understressed) is that a lot of people react and act in regards to their surroundings. If the houses around them look good, people will be more inclined to try and do decent decorating themselves. If they cant see those houses or neighborhood, the likely hood of people putting effort or design into their houses drops. We can assume that htis is part of the reason why people want housing - because they can see houses and housing and think its cool. I think this facet isnt addressed in instanced housing. While I know there are plenty who would take an apartment and turn it into soemthing cool, my wildstar experiences tends to lead me to feel that the general mentality is "Buy a house, poke around a bit, then do nothing with it cause no one will see it most of the time." Part of the reason why people focus on glamour and mounts in this game is cause other people can readily see it.

.... My starter list would be:

*Make apartments available to every character that wants one. Yes, some servers may still have some availlable, but many others do not.
*Add an independent garden system that everyone can access or allow garden options to match that of a house
*Add an independent workshop system that everyone can access, or allow this to be accessed via apartments
*Allow tenants to be added

Just some thoughts:

I wouldnt give people housing out the bat. Housing is supposed to be a partial moneysink to keep the econ in control.

Id give apartments individual gardens that are accessible within the apartment. Kind of like how individual rooms within an FC operate. Point is to use systems in place to improve on an issue to cut down on some of the workload and streamline the process.

As for workshops, Id actually think those should be sent to GCs. GCs are already up S-creek on things to do, it would probably be better to add functionality to them rather than apartments.

I dont see why you couldnt add tenents to an apt, though admittedly I dont know why you would want to either.