Why are there even small plots?

[Dzian]

Ok , but that doesn't change anything I said. Gil was easy to come by from launch (gathering alone), not to mention how long after launch housing came out. People had tons of time and gil by the time housing came out. I know the prices were higher across the servers but, the buy price for a large was never over 150mil on any server legacy or not. Getting that amount of gil wasn't hard for fc's to raise.

Yes it was. Because FCs didn't last long enough to raise that kind of cash. That's why the wards were so empty..

The total lack of group centric FC content along with super rigid party sizes for all content absolutely destroyed so many free companies.. and very few of those that survived could afford to buy a house..

Housing was meant to be a community thing to ge talkers working together and building bonds. Like you know an mmo.. but everything in this game discourages community, teamwork and social interaction that and pushes solo play.. right down to the msq blatantly telling you. "You cannot progress because you are in a party". or the inability to even send a simple /tell when you or someone is in a duty. Things like that along with a complete lack of free company content destroyed free companies. All they are now is a glorified chat channel...

On topic of small houses. They'd honestly be fine if they just got rid of restrictions. Why can't a small house have 2 or 3 garden plots if they want. Or other dumb restrictions like npcs or crafting benches.

Also if they scrapped the basements and gave them an upstairs in stead that'd probaly make them better. But that'd be hell of a redesign.

[worldofneil]

the buy price for a large was never over 150mil on any server legacy or not

Sorry, but that's incorrect. As you can see from the 2.1 patch notes when housing first released, five legacy servers had large prices between 250 and 312.5 million and a different five servers had their larges priced between 500 and 625 million.

I probably should add that when 2.0 launched SE also reduced the money of all 1.0 players so whatever they had in 1.0 they only had 10% when 2.0 was released (i.e. 150 million became only 15 million). As was mentioned above by someone else, most FCs simply could not afford mediums or larges back then.

As time went on the house prices decreased and because uniform across all servers, but the ward "design" has stayed the same, 20 smalls, 7 medium and 3 large per ward.

Changing the wards to have larger houses now would be absolute carnage. People would be unhappy they they paid more for a large house/had to fight for it and others just get it as a free upgrade? And then the wards would have to be drastically redesigned to ever fit in larger houses which risks upsetting even more players who are happy with how things are now and wouldn't necessarily like changes to how their plot looks (and it would completely wreck interiors which would all need to be redone).

And the reality it that if all houses were bigger then a lot of players would really struggle to afford bigger houses (with the current pricing). Right now it's only around 4 million Gil for a small plot of land and a permit for the actual house which is money that most players should be able to get without too much effort, without having to level crafters/gatherers etc. But 16-20 for a medium? Obviously still doable, but if all houses were medium or higher it's now a lot harder for the majority of players to get a house. If they were all only large houses and 40 to 50 million in cost... Still doable of course, but I personally believe most players simply would never be able to afford a house.

Realistically the solution we need, as many have said before, is more wards, but unfortunately that's not something that happens quickly.

YWhy can't a small house have 2 or 3 garden plots if they want.

I absolutely agree with this. I think originally it was supposed to be a perk of having a larger house, but since they can't meet the demand for bigger houses... ideally this restriction should be relaxed.

[Greyhawk]

Realistically the solution we need, as many have said before, is more wards, but unfortunately that's not something that happens quickly.

Realistically, no that is NOT the answer. The design is poor, functionality is poor and is more taxing on the backend which SE claims to be the root cause of all their issues related to ever doing anything productive with this game.

The answer is instancing and can accommodate the existing structure of how housing is set up now with some tweaks. I wrote a very lengthy post about is the other day, but basically:

• Reduce to one ward division. Use the NPC to teleport to where you want to go (friend's house, FC, etc.). This is your 'common area' and you can walk up to a house and port into whoever created an instanced house there, visit an open one or port into your FC house.
• Instance the plots at the entrance to the yard, not the front door. This allows you to instance housing including the yard to keep gardening, exterior decor, etc. intact for every person.
• Instancing at the plots also allows you to pick whichever house size you want from apartments to a mansion. It creates only what is needed, not the static bloated mess it is now. Less taxing on the backend, on development and provides for the player base. Allows a better opportunity to get more backend hardware if needed if extended time is needed to acquire the hardware.
• It actually functions like true instancing. Not this instance upon instance, upon instance, upon instance crap we have now.

No need for an aetheryte crystal, you teleport to your instance, not a ward. Frees up a decor slot on the already taxing limitation.

No, throwing the same problem at the problem is not going to solve the problem. It's just a 'same turd, same smell' scenario.

[GarretStrongstaf]

Realistically, no that is NOT the answer. The design is poor, functionality is poor and is more taxing on the backend which SE claims to be the root cause of all their issues related to ever doing anything productive with this game.

The answer is instancing and can accommodate the existing structure of how housing is set up now with some tweaks. I wrote a very lengthy post about is the other day, but basically:

• Reduce to one ward division. Use the NPC to teleport to where you want to go (friend's house, FC, etc.). This is your 'common area' and you can walk up to a house and port into whoever created an instanced house there, visit an open one or port into your FC house.
• Instance the plots at the entrance to the yard, not the front door. This allows you to instance housing including the yard to keep gardening, exterior decor, etc. intact for every person.
• Instancing at the plots also allows you to pick whichever house size you want from apartments to a mansion. It creates only what is needed, not the static bloated mess it is now. Less taxing on the backend, on development and provides for the player base. Allows a better opportunity to get more backend hardware if needed if extended time is needed to acquire the hardware.
• It actually functions like true instancing. Not this instance upon instance, upon instance, upon instance crap we have now.

No need for an aetheryte crystal, you teleport to your instance, not a ward. Frees up a decor slot on the already taxing limitation.

No, throwing the same problem at the problem is not going to solve the problem. It's just a 'same turd, same smell' scenario.

I don't want the 2 mansions I worked towards over the course of 8 YEARS of gaming to become instanced. I very much enjoy what I worked hard to earn with the neighborhood layout. This part with the yards and streets make each house feel like its own special liminal space in the video game landscape and I don't want that part to change no matter how many times you use the word "turd" to describe your displeasure about it.

I am all for more people getting housing, if not all people. To that end I support adding instanced options but not at the cost of what I and so many of us worked so hard for and continue to enjoy.