Ishgard Restoration will finish in 5.4

[Jojoya]

I doubt it'll ever be anything but that.

People assumed the Firmament would be new player housing towards the end of the expansion but after the more recent restoration steps, it seems less likely. They build houses in the firmament, but they are NPC houses, and they also placed a Custom Delivery NPC in the area too. Its shaping up to be little more than a fleshed out doman restoration, rather than a server wide effort to get a new set of player housing wards. I doubt we'll be getting Ishguard housing at this rate, especially as SE STILL havent confirmed or denied the rumors by this point so late in to the restoration. Also, considering they're adding yet more wards on tuesday to existing areas, you'd think they'd of confirmed if ishguard housing is coming or not by this point...After all, if they confirmed it suddenly there is going to be half as many people rushing for a house on tuesday as they wait for ishguard housing, which will give those desperate for ANY house a chance to get one on tuesday.

There will still be player housing. SE isn't going to tease it like they did then go "ha ha we were kidding".

In the Nest, the only houses that are clearly reserved for NPCs are the house for the orphans and the one for Maurice and his family. Not being on Tonberry, I don't know what house(s) in Featherfall are marked as reserved for NPCs. All the rest should be available for players to choose from.

The two possibilities I see happening are:

The current Firmament ends up as ward 0 with normal wards getting added.

The current Firmament provides a new type of instanced housing so only one ward is needed and players are free to pick which plot they want to use that isn't already designated as a NPC house. This might mean losing the ability to place outdoor furnishings if the entire plot isn't instanced and it only provides a portal to the instanced interior as current plots do.

With the Firmament being completed in 5.4, it seems far more likely that we will get the new housing in 5.5. There was some speculation that it wouldn't be available until next expansion. If that was going to be true, it would make no sense to end the Firmament in 5.4 and leave 5.5 without new Firmament content.