If housing isn’t instanced…

[shadowclasper]

My understanding is all instances share the same data space, so all dungeons, all wards, all trials, all solo mission points, all of them, as part of the actual base level architecture of the game, share exactly the same space datawise.

That means that adding wards isn't simply a matter of more servers, it will always be competing with the server processing time of everyone actually playing various instances points.

[Zsolen]

I'd be in favor of FC only neighborhoods and instanced personal housing. FCs generally have much more people running around in the neighborhood than personal housing, so neighborhood immersion will much more likely happen that way.

-I would be in favor of grandfathering in current personal houses, unless SE finds a way to let you keep your inside furniture arranged the way it already was in the neighborhood zone.

-It was mentioned to be that some people like to RP businesses with personal housing, so there should be an option that allows the 'public' to enter a personal housing zone as well as a way to restrict and invite people to your personal housing zone. Maybe a friends only option as well.

-If you want to upgrade the size or move your instanced house to another city-state, then it should be the usual gil sink. Maybe a one time free transfer if someone would then prefer to move to another city-state, but I'm indifferent on that.

-Airships/ Subs stay restricted to FCs. I see no reason to change that.

[Arohk]

If anything I think FFXIV is a great example of a completely lack luster neighborhood system.

Because the majority of people who own a house don't even use it or are too lazy to decorate it properly. But hey at least you own one, and block the plot for someone who would do more with it.
A lot of the people here who are complaining will get a house and then do nothing with it anyway, because of the lack of time , creativity or interest.
When i look around in the neighborhoods i rarely see any players there and well decorated houses are also a rarity.

Anyway, good luck on getting your home eventually, but about if you actually need one, i think for many it is just a greed menality "i must have one because!"

[Oizen]

Because the majority of people who own a house don't even use it or are too lazy to decorate it properly. But hey at least you own one, and block the plot for someone who would do more with it.
A lot of the people here who are complaining will get a house and then do nothing with it anyway, because of the lack of time , creativity or interest.
When i look around in the neighborhoods i rarely see any players there and well decorated houses are also a rarity.

Anyway, good luck on getting your home eventually, but about if you actually need one, i think for many it is just a greed menality "i must have one because!"

I mean its a game you pay for and then pay again to play monthly, of course people are going to want the content in the game?
I don't understand this mentality of yours, or any one else who defends this system.
People have the right to be upset about it, they have the right to voice their complaints about it, and they're not being greedy or entitled to do so.

The entire system basically is a breeding ground for bad emotions.
While people in the system see neighborhoods as cool additions to game for building community, those outside of it see it as players flaunting their trophies in their face in a system they'll likely never get to partake in for completely arbitrary reasons.

Doesn't help that similar features in much cheaper games exist, and have existed for years.

[Jojoya]

My understanding is all instances share the same data space, so all dungeons, all wards, all trials, all solo mission points, all of them, as part of the actual base level architecture of the game, share exactly the same space datawise.

That means that adding wards isn't simply a matter of more servers, it will always be competing with the server processing time of everyone actually playing various instances points.

While they "share" space (not quite an accurate description), there are still multiple servers involved because a single server can only accommodate so much activity at a time. That's why sometimes emergency maintenance will only have select zones taken offline instead of taking entire worlds down (such as the maintenance this morning that was specific to housing).

So the competition for processing doesn't really exist in the sense you use. If I'm in housing, I'm using server resources reserved for housing. If I zone into a dungeon, I stop using the resources for housing and get moved to the resources reserved for dungeons.

I'd be in favor of FC only neighborhoods and instanced personal housing. FCs generally have much more people running around in the neighborhood than personal housing, so neighborhood immersion will much more likely happen that way.

More likely to happen in theory but rarely in practice. That's the problem. SE can't just consider how players might use content. They need to take a look at how they're actually using it. Why did Diadem get repurposed? Because no matter what SE's vision was for how players might use it, it didn't happen in practice. It was very unpopular as content. Because SE didn't want the asset investment to go to waste, they repurposed it for the Firmament.

I'm in my FC's ward right now. Keep in mind this is the start of NA prime time hours for playing so things should be getting busy. There were a total of 11 houses claimed within the main ward where my house is after the lottery (3 bugged, rest had no entries) and I'm not seeing another soul as I go from claimed house to claimed house. I check the company profiles at each placard.

1/7 online (my FC)
3/10 online
0/4 online
6/50 online
5/24 online
0/17 online
1/7 online
0/18 online
1/37 online
2/13 online
0/10 online

Where are all those other players online? Could be they're all in those houses but I have no way of knowing without going inside to check each one (and not all have guest access enabled). More likely they're running roulettes, leveling, etc. - things that all take place outside of housing.

It's fun to think well maybe it will be better once all 30 plots are filled with active FCs. That's not going to happen. There aren't enough legitimate FCs on Coeurl still in need of a house. If the remaining plots sell out to FCs, the majority will be to the shell FCs formed because solo players wanted access to a workshop or because they decided that it was the only way to get a house since there are only 6 personal wards. Those shell FCs aren't going to make the ward feel more lively than individual owners would.

Even if active FCs took the remaining plots, it still wouldn't be any better. For the wards to feel alive as neighborhoods, there needs to be many reasons for players to be moving about in the wards on a regular basis. Those reasons just don't exist for the most part. We don't even have the normal traffic a real life neighborhood would have because we can teleport directly to our houses, use the aethernet to get to other locations within the ward, and teleport directly to our next zone when leaving.