Stuff like THIS is the reason Housing is a Joke -- SE please do something about this!

[worldofneil]

I would add that this seems to be a larger problem in NA/EU

Yes, probably because there's 32 servers located in Japan (184,320 houses), but North America only has 24 servers (138,240 houses) and the entire of Europe is just 12 servers (69,120 houses).

Obviously there's people playing on the Japanese servers who don't live in Japan, but the sheer number of servers in that datacenter (each with 5,760 houses) it does make sense why they don't have these problems to the level the rest of the world does.

[MsMisato]

Relocation doesn't deplete the number of available plots though.

If anything a timer of 24 hours needs to a n individual that does relocate to prevent trolling because unfortunately there are people out there like that.

[SannaR]

I would love for them to expand on apartments.

Make it so you can upgrade to a suite with a few rooms in it or a penthouse with 2 floors and 3-4 rooms. They basically already have the instancing built for the floor plans, could possibly copy that over to use when you enter your apartment.

They said recently that they'd work on apartments after fixing the housing problem. I think we all know how that's working out. *sigh* I definitely would love it if apartments had more room. Mine is semi cramped only due to the theme I went for and having a small loft.

[Stormfur]

Apartments are also in dire need of small/medium/large and a courtyard/greenhouse.

[wereotter]

Yes, probably because there's 32 servers located in Japan (184,320 houses), but North America only has 24 servers (138,240 houses) and the entire of Europe is just 12 servers (69,120 houses).

Obviously there's people playing on the Japanese servers who don't live in Japan, but the sheer number of servers in that datacenter (each with 5,760 houses) it does make sense why they don't have these problems to the level the rest of the world does.

Exactly.

And some servers in JP have low enough player populations that between houses and apartments, there are enough units for every person on the server to have at least one or the other. There's not a single NA data center with a low enough population for that to be the case.

[Coletergeist]

Apartments are also in dire need of small/medium/large and a courtyard/greenhouse.

Ooo, what about an atrium somewhere?

[KayRadley]

We have a housing forum.

[Awha]

If anything a timer of 24 hours needs to a n individual that does relocate to prevent trolling because unfortunately there are people out there like that.

I have done that to a buddy to mess with them once. Was honestly surprised how relocating has no timer.

[Packetdancer]

We have instanced housing. All interiors are instanced whether house, apartment or FC chambers.

It's the exteriors that aren't instanced and that is causing the problem. SE just needs to extend the instancing to include the exteriors, using the placard as the portal to multiple player plots at that location just as the apartment building door is the portal to multiple apartments.

I feel like that causes more problems than it solves on a technical level, honestly. What happens if you walk past my house? Do you see me in the yard, doing my gardening? Do you see someone who has the same plot and is holding a big RP event in their yard? Do I see you walk past, and if I wave or /say Hello, what do you see? Is it truly a separate instance so I never see anyone walk past to wave to? Or does it only change the exterior decoration, so while the one person is holding an RP event, I see a bunch of random people standing in the middle of my garden (and they see some random stranger seemingly watering the bench in the yard before waving to a passer-by)?

It's a giant technical headache, even without the silly-string-and-paperclips system that keeps this game running.

And if you make it so that someone's yard (and house exterior) are actually a separate instance and you only see an empty generic yard and a generic house walking past, rather than the yard being part of the ward instance, you make the wards useless; the whole reason Square-Enix wants them is supposedly to foster a neighborhood feel so that you can see your neighbor, or enjoy their garden as you walk past, or whatever. (Whether or not that's effective is immaterial to the intention.)

And at that point, there's no reason to keep the wards; you might as well just move to entirely instanced housing, as it would be less technical effort and headache.

But at the very least, there needs to be a way for people to participate in gardening (including crossbreeding seeds) and for FCs to use a company workshop without tying it to a resource-limited housing system. Because the deeper problem isn't that the housing system is arguably broken, it's that the housing system is arguably broken and also gates participation in other systems of the game.

[JohncarterIx]

i thing that pisses me of you bid on a med house and after 4 month they have zip inside just a shell