Housing Solution Proposals

[Jojoya]

Why do people always suggest instanced housing? There is a reason a lot of us are obsessed with housing in this game. It is very rare for a game to have non-instanced housing and it is the reason I started playing the game in the first place. I don't even participate in combat in the game; I just like the housing. So no, we can't just have instanced housing because it would ruin the whole point of housing for some people. More wards, and unfortunately more SE money spent on servers, is the only way.

Then why are you playing this game? It's already ruined for you since all apartments and house interiors are instanced.

In other words, nothing says all housing must only be wards or only instanced. They can co-exist.

[Avoidy]

ok ok hear me out
a) double the furniture cap on all forms of housing, including apartments
b) create a second instanced room in apartments called a patio; allow outdoor gardening/outdoor furniture to happen in this area. Bonus: Give players control of the skybox in this room.
c) (DREAM FEATURE INCOMING) create a glamour plate system for housing furniture loadouts, allowing people to decorate their housing area and then save what they have, wipe the slate, and decorate from scratch without losing anything

^This alone would get so many apartment-owners who want a house to just shut up and enjoy their apartment. Myself included. If I could decorate the same apartment, multiple times without losing any of my old work because I could save it as loadouts client-side or something, I would be in heaven. I would never even want a house. Let other people keep their neighborhood. I just want to decorate.

Beyond that, just open more wards but do it on a server by server basis. In other words, some newer DC that isn't having issues might not need any wards, so don't dedicate space to them for that purpose. But Balmung? Mateus? Yeah, they need wards. Give them more.

There you go, you're welcome.

[Divinemights]

Apartments are technically instanced, but they are not unlimited housing. On Balmung the supply of apartments often runs out. There are currently a few left in Empyreum, but all other apartment buildings are generally at capacity, and Empyreum will probably run out within a month or two as well. FC rooms are effectively unlimited housing, but they are only accessible to players who are in an FC that owns a house. If you are not in a FC, or want to help start and grow a new FC, you cannot get one. When I said instanced housing I was thinking of a form of housing that allows every single player who wants one to buy one.

And yes, I suppose the airships are a bit too small. I was thinking about the size of real airships when I wrote it, but FFXIV has much smaller ones. Lighthouses and sailing ships would definitely still be large enough (I think both could be the size of a medium house), and those would both fit well thematically with island sanctuaries. I am not worried about gardens since the island sanctuaries are already intended to be a way for all players to garden and raise chocobos without needing an FC or needing to compete with other players.

Again, Balmung problem is unique of its own because people refuse to get off that server.
Apartment on other servers are pretty empty so is FC housing.
They certainly can add more apartment space as they said they have that ability but there is really no point to do it just for one server.

[Brygd]

Again, Balmung problem is unique of its own because people refuse to get off that server.
Apartment on other servers are pretty empty so is FC housing.
They certainly can add more apartment space as they said they have that ability but there is really no point to do it just for one server.

There's also the fact that there are other house owners or prospective house owners who don't just want an apartment. One of the biggest draws for me is my yard.

I realize there are other players who are satisfied with their apartment, which is just fine. Yet, the players and devs should aspire towards more. One of the features that I love about this game is how accessible and welcoming it is to the playerbase. Unfortunately, housing in its current form does not live up to that standard.

[Naoki34]

Housing Solution Proposals

Here's a great new idea that will change the world...

[UkcsAlias]

#3 - Stop this mindset. Throwing more wards is not a long-term solution. Instancing an existing structure is one. I refer to this as the 'same turd, same smell scenario'.

This most likely also matters on how wards are handled. I think this currently is relatively inefficient. Caching can do a lot at optimizing here, but because everything is dynamic and also relies on collisions, its not as easy as it seems to apply this. But with caching a single ward can very likely be just as easy to manage as a single house (caching servers are often optimized for transfering data, and while delayed, they can handle mutations quite well). But as things like collisions matter, this atm doesnt seem to be an option, and as a result each ward needs to be calculated seperately. If those collisions would not be considered, then you can effectively handle the same number of players that are in for example limsa, but in all wards at the same time. And this scales up VERY well then.

Instancing is just efficient handling of a resource. And wards on that should just be handled similar to an instance like a house. A lot of collisions are relatively easy to check: basic collisions that are from the ward itself are always applied and dont need any extra check, houses themselve are already taken care if even if not built. Its only the objects that players can place that matter, and delaying here does seem to be an issue as collisions might end up strange.

I even think that while most regions do require quite strict collision detection, houses on that shouldnt care too much, client side checking would in most cases be fine. If someone ends up under the map, their client could still correct this. Since teleporting within such region is not that much of an issue exploit wise. There is nothing to gain other than a little bit of time (and obvious abuse can still be detected anyway since coordintes can still be checked on a speed aspect, even if that is just a rough check).

Now the object count is an insteresting discussion, since people also complain about not being able to place enough of thoes. A large house can store 400 inside, yet a ward (actualy its subdivision) can store like 800 of them. Wards are on that relatively expensive, but at the same time, the objects within do not change often and are very restricted in placement, both which are generaly well suitable for compression and caching. If wards are properly instanced, maybe even those object counts can increase.

More wards is because of that still a possibility. Its most likely however not a simple thing to do because it most likely requires a complete rework of code to make these wards work as instances. And thats why i think islands have a higher priority, they are a very good test for instancing with a lot more objects. And unlike wards, you can restrict the load here a lot better.

[Kailani]

Again, Balmung problem is unique of its own because people refuse to get off that server.
Apartment on other servers are pretty empty so is FC housing.
They certainly can add more apartment space as they said they have that ability but there is really no point to do it just for one server.

If they add another type of housing that is noncompetitive, more apartments might not be as necessary even on Balmung. But right now that server (and I think also Mateus) need some kind of additional housing. On some servers, even regular personal houses do not have a shortage, but that is not a good reason to ignore the servers that do have a housing shortage. All players, on all servers, should be able to get some kind of housing without having to compete against other players.

[Kailani]

There's also the fact that there are other house owners or prospective house owners who don't just want an apartment. One of the biggest draws for me is my yard.

I realize there are other players who are satisfied with their apartment, which is just fine. Yet, the players and devs should aspire towards more. One of the features that I love about this game is how accessible and welcoming it is to the playerbase. Unfortunately, housing in its current form does not live up to that standard.

Yes, I agree. Apartments are better than nothing, but they are very inaccessible on some servers currently, and they do not have as many customization options, space, or features as houses. If wards need to be capped at their current number for technical reasons, I understand, but then we need some form of accessible instanced housing.

[Ransu]

We always suggest it, because obviously the current structure of the NOC cannot support housing in its current state. 37 million active accounts, of those let's just take 1 million that are actively playing. Now count houses. Look at the boards at all the pissed off people. There is obviously a disconnect here.

It wouldn't ruin anything, and more wards is not the only way. They can support instanced housing to accommodate both the neighborhood whiners and the instanced housing introverts. I've explained how so many times, I'm tired of doing it again, but they can pull it off with the structure in place.

People keep screaming "MOAR WARDZ!!11" and SE keeps telling us "MOAR HRDWRZ!!!11" that they can't get a hold of. Use what you got, use it wisely. With how much they have thrown at housing already in total, I'm more than sure they can satisfy the player base.

This game has 37 million total created accounts. It does not have 37 million active accounts. At best the active sub count is probably a little over 2 million.

Either way, instanced housing isn't going to happen. Yoshi-P has stated that very clearly in the past that its not going to happen.

[Kailani]

This game has 37 million total created accounts. It does not have 37 million active accounts. At best the active sub count is probably a little over 2 million.

Either way, instanced housing isn't going to happen. Yoshi-P has stated that very clearly in the past that its not going to happen.

Well, we either need more wards, at least two new housing zones, or instanced housing. Based on the number of bids I saw on personal placards this cycle, I would estimate that at least 1000 players have entered this lottery already on Balmung, and there are probably more who either did not play this week or have not placed a bid yet who also want a house. It is not quite as severe on other worlds, but all (except maybe oceania ones) have a shortage. I am not a programmer but I would guess that instanced housing would be the least demanding solution in terms of server use. Either way, I am hoping we can get Square Enix to notice this issue and do something about it. Any kind of added housing would be helpful at this point.