What is really happening to house system?

[Jojoya]

When I say instanced housing, I'm not referring to an apartment as the solution. There should still be an exterior. I typically try to refer to the idea as an instanced homestead, not an instanced house. Why shouldn't people be able to garden? The best and most fair to handle this situation is to give people literally no benefit whatsoever to owning a home in a ward. There should not be one.

Oh, I didn't think you were referring to apartments at all. I know how amazing instanced housing can be from experience in other games, including a full exterior experience. It's always been disappointing that we don't have similar here.

People can still garden in house interior and apartments even now using flowerpots. What they cannot do is intercross, a specialized form of gardening. That's a technological hurdle that in the past YoshiP has said they cannot avoid. Have things changed since his statement so now they potentially can? Only they know.

I can't agree there should be no benefits to ward versus instanced housing. Each should have something that makes it stand out from the other. Part of the problem is that one what player considers a benefit may not be a benefit to another. Some players find having a house in a ward beneficial because they feel like they're in a neighborhood and don't want to be isolated in instanced housing. I find it a deterrent because I don't see them as neighborhoods, I see them as ghost towns because I almost never see another player in the ward with my personal house.

I will say there should be no economic benefit to housing and I mean literally no benefit, not just benefit by comparison. Remove gardens from houses. Other ways to obtain the items unique to gardening could be added to the game (put the Thavnairian Onions on a vendor in Thavnair, as an example). Remove workshops from houses and attach them to GC headquarters similar to how our squadron barracks are attached.

If there's going to be economic benefit to having housing, then either every player should be provided with a house that has equal economic features or there should be a recurring cost for retaining the housing to offset the economic benefit only available to the lucky few.

[DeNada]

Oh, I didn't think you were referring to apartments at all. I know how amazing instanced housing can be from experience in other games, including a full exterior experience. It's always been disappointing that we don't have similar here.

People can still garden in house interior and apartments even now using flowerpots. What they cannot do is intercross, a specialized form of gardening. That's a technological hurdle that in the past YoshiP has said they cannot avoid. Have things changed since his statement so now they potentially can? Only they know.

I can't agree there should be no benefits to ward versus instanced housing. Each should have something that makes it stand out from the other. Part of the problem is that one what player considers a benefit may not be a benefit to another. Some players find having a house in a ward beneficial because they feel like they're in a neighborhood and don't want to be isolated in instanced housing. I find it a deterrent because I don't see them as neighborhoods, I see them as ghost towns because I almost never see another player in the ward with my personal house.

I will say there should be no economic benefit to housing and I mean literally no benefit, not just benefit by comparison. Remove gardens from houses. Other ways to obtain the items unique to gardening could be added to the game (put the Thavnairian Onions on a vendor in Thavnair, as an example). Remove workshops from houses and attach them to GC headquarters similar to how our squadron barracks are attached.

If there's going to be economic benefit to having housing, then either every player should be provided with a house that has equal economic features or there should be a recurring cost for retaining the housing to offset the economic benefit only available to the lucky few.

Come to think of it, does housing in other benefits provide economic benefits? I think one of the reasons why people hoard houses is because they are able to generate income from having multiple houses. If having multiple houses provide zero or even net negative benefits (eg. there's a monthly gil upkeep), less people will hoard houses which could help alleviate the shortage in supply.

[Corvus_V]

Oh, I didn't think you were referring to apartments at all. I know how amazing instanced housing can be from experience in other games, including a full exterior experience. It's always been disappointing that we don't have similar here.

People can still garden in house interior and apartments even now using flowerpots. What they cannot do is intercross, a specialized form of gardening. That's a technological hurdle that in the past YoshiP has said they cannot avoid. Have things changed since his statement so now they potentially can? Only they know.

I can't agree there should be no benefits to ward versus instanced housing. Each should have something that makes it stand out from the other. Part of the problem is that one what player considers a benefit may not be a benefit to another. Some players find having a house in a ward beneficial because they feel like they're in a neighborhood and don't want to be isolated in instanced housing. I find it a deterrent because I don't see them as neighborhoods, I see them as ghost towns because I almost never see another player in the ward with my personal house.

I will say there should be no economic benefit to housing and I mean literally no benefit, not just benefit by comparison. Remove gardens from houses. Other ways to obtain the items unique to gardening could be added to the game (put the Thavnairian Onions on a vendor in Thavnair, as an example). Remove workshops from houses and attach them to GC headquarters similar to how our squadron barracks are attached.

If there's going to be economic benefit to having housing, then either every player should be provided with a house that has equal economic features or there should be a recurring cost for retaining the housing to offset the economic benefit only available to the lucky few.

That's more or less what I'm getting at of course, like if there are "benefits," they are subjective. Economic benefits should be absent. As in, selling houses should be done, forever; and company workshops/intercross gardening should be unassociated with owning a house in a ward. I am positive there is a way to unattach those things, or at the very least, create an additional way to produce the exact same things in an entirely separate system or minigame. The only "economic benefit" that should be associated with owning a house in a ward (one that, if instanced housing is done right, wouldn't be exclusive to ward housing) are people who run RP venues and charge for things there. Food, drinks, services, whatever; but that comes with an entirely separate and frankly way more creative effort.

Like really, why does intercross gardening need to be more than a minesweeper-esque basic level grid you plant things in? If you were in it for the money rather than the aesthetic, there is no reason to tie it to houses, no? It'd be like saying "Mini-cactpot is now tied to housing" and you have to put a big stupid scratch off in the middle of your yard that displays every choice you made rather than the little window that opens up when you play. Why does it even need to be complicated to produce results? Why does there need to be an incentive for it outside of fun?