Major changes needed for housing

[linayar]

I agree in theory (edit) that this needs to be a thing, however SE would also need to add more servers on the NA data centers at least (and have needed to for quite a while IMO). For example, NA has 24 worlds and JP has 31. According to Lucky Bancho, NA also has on average double the amount of characters on each server (I'm not counting Balmung as that world is WAY higher than that) as JP has on their servers.



Right now every world has 5,760 housing plots (4 housing districts, 24 wards, 60 houses per ward). Add 24 for Ishgard and that brings it up to 7,200 total houses per server. JP servers have more players on their worlds than that right now and NA has roughly double of JP on each server (some a bit less - some way more like Balmung). Until SE adds more servers and completely lock existing servers to new characters to be created or transferred (that in and of itself is bad business when people join to play with their established friends) OR make housing completely unlimited either through wards and/or instance housing (with real houses and not apartments) the housing problem will always exist.

Of course SE needs to add more servers. With the cross world and cross data center features, they are making it easier for people to play with friends without having to be on the same server.

Locking a server is not a bad practice if you think you can sustain/grow a population. It's the responsible thing to do so you don't have long wait times to enter every time there is a rush of people playing. It also helps within the world as you can determine how many zone instances you need to account for people flooding a particular zone for whatever reason.

Not locking a server (and not adding servers), assuming a sustainable growth in population is just bad. And if there is a massive decrease in population, then server merges would be the answer to that.

[Divinemights]

This discussion is a waste of time. Housing is a limited resource originally designed for FC only to function like a Guild Hall. It was not intended for player ownership and it is impossible to have enough servers to meet to increasing player population. The only possible resolution is to increase the size and features of the apartment. Any ideas about modify current housing model ie either short sighed or asking for impossible

[linayar]

This discussion is a waste of time. Housing is a limited resource originally designed for FC only to function like a Guild Hall. It was not intended for player ownership and it is impossible to have enough servers to meet to increasing player population. The only possible resolution is to increase the size and features of the apartment. Any ideas about modify current housing model ie either short sighed or asking for impossible

What is apartment if not personal housing? Asking to modify apartment is basically asking for personal housing.

Housing might have been originally intended only for FC, but they've opened it to individual characters. So making all houses personal and limiting player characters per world is not short sighted and is not impossible.

Increasing player population just means adding more servers, which come with their own housing wards.

As for being a waste of time, most discussions are like that. We may discuss just to discuss, so feel free to join or not. The devs will do what they can and want even with player feedback.

[Divinemights]

What is apartment if not personal housing? Asking to modify apartment is basically asking for personal housing.

Apartment is instanced and it does not requires to load with world space.
Two are polar opposite design; they are not the same.
In order to meet the population increases, SE (Japanese)'s technology at the best can only sustain FC Housing and Apartment (FF11 Moogle House)
Please do some basic research first as there are so many this type discussion in the Housing Forum.

[linayar]

Apartment is instanced and it does not requires to load with world space.
Two are polar opposite design; they are not the same.
In order to meet the population increases, SE (Japanese)'s technology at the best can only sustain FC Housing and Apartment (FF11 Moogle House)
Please do some basic research first

You know what else is instanced? Solo quests. Ever heard of Raubahn Savage?

Oh, and housing is also instanced. They just have limited entrances via the ward system, which are their own instances as well.

With limited population per server, they can sustain a limited number of housing per world.

[Bsrking5]

This discussion is a waste of time. Housing is a limited resource originally designed for FC only to function like a Guild Hall. It was not intended for player ownership and it is impossible to have enough servers to meet to increasing player population. The only possible resolution is to increase the size and features of the apartment. Any ideas about modify current housing model ie either short sighed or asking for impossible

And asking for any improvement to apartments is equivalent to yelling into the void.

[Tommara]

The reason housing is limited is literally down to cash. It is a zero-gain for Sqenix to add more housing wards with much of the housing expansions being funded by the Mogstation. I can’t speak for the ishgard housing as I haven’t really been following the live letters as closely as I used to so can’t comment there. Good on them for adding, but they know it’s a money black hole.

Originally housing was meant to be FC only with some requirements in place and an alternative system for personal..even talk of cheaper pricing for personal housing when it came to be... but it never did come to be and the devs decided to open up houses to the masses without adequate supply.

Instanced housing is probably the most elegant band-aid solunion they have at this point.

Yes, instanced housing is what I'm suggesting. Instanced neighborhoods even for those who prefer the social interactions in neighborhoods, such as in Everquest and Lord of the Rings Online.

While EQ2 had no instanced neighborhood housing districts last time I played it, oddly enough, because EQ2 is the gold standard for MMO housing in my book, where everyone is given a two room apartment for free, and island castles (max level guildhalls) are trivial to purchase with in-game money for high level toons. And has no requirement that you subscribe to keep them - just pay the next month's rent, which is trivial, when you decide to access your housing.

And while I cast a dim eye on Real Money Transactions in games, I don't have a problem with RMT "prestige housing" in EQ2 because they make it so it easy to purchase really nice housing with in-game money (as well as give it away as subscription rewards).

And so I think it would suck if FF14 implemented RMT housing, unless they improved housing availability generally with in game money.

The ability to have non-instanced housing isn't even on my radar as a reasonable thing to do. The fact that SE chose to do it that way is perplexing, and I suspect is rooted in cultural differences about protecting limited resources for future generations. Which they are absolutely right about, but not something that is considered much in the US (which we have good reason for, but way off topic).

I don't play games because I like the real world much.

[Divinemights]

And asking for any improvement to apartments is equivalent to yelling into the void.

and you are thinking asking SE to put more servers that practically will never be able to meet player demand is not yelling into void?

[linayar]

...more servers that practically will never be able to meet player demand...

It can if they limit the population per server AND only have personal housing.

They probably won't do it since they're too nice sometimes and may not want to upset existing owners (especially FC owners), but it's certainly a possibility.

[ItMe]

It can if they limit the population per server AND only have personal housing.

They probably won't do it since they're too nice sometimes and may not want to upset existing owners (especially FC owners), but it's certainly a possibility.

What should the limit be?
We already can't make characters on congested worlds, so I assume the idea is to lower the limit?