It seems SE sees apartments as Housing

[Eraden]

Then you're another player that has never given apartments are fair chance. I've seen apartments decorated in wonderful ways compared to houses that have a few items slapped down then been ignored.

They are not bad. They just aren't as good. It's like saying vanilla ice cream is bad because it's not a hot fudge sundae. No. The vanilla ice cream isn't bad. It's still good. It's just not as good as the hot fudge sundae. If you can't get the hot fudge sundae, the vanilla ice cream can still be satisfying.

First, please keep your prejudgments to yourself. You don't know me or what my experiences have been in this game so toss off if you want to get prejudicial like that. I have an apartment. I have seen over a dozen other apartments of friends and FC mates, that have had walls added to create additional rooms. While most of them look somewhat tasteful, they all are incredibly claustrophobic and in some cases, I get the feeling of being a rat in a maze.

[Shuuli]

I still don't get if apartments are instanced, then why cannot we have different sized apartments just like we have different sized houses?

I get it, we still lose the "outdoor" funrishing option with an apartment. But if I could buy an apartment on a Large scale (for more gil of course) then I would be a much happier person.

[Risvertasashi]

I still don't get if apartments are instanced, then why cannot we have different sized apartments just like we have different sized houses?

I get it, we still lose the "outdoor" funrishing option with an apartment. But if I could buy an apartment on a Large scale (for more gil of course) then I would be a much happier person.

If you want to go down this road...

Why are apartments limited at all? They weren't in SE's previous MMO - every single player got one right from the start. And they could be expanded. It's hardly unique either - other, sometimes older MMOs have what's essentially an "access point" and there can be unlimited houses for players and guilds both, and variable size too. And FF14 isn't unique with its ward system either, but a certain other game automatically adds new wards when existing ones get close to capacity.

Also there's no auto demolition or anything like that.

Why are apartments so limited? Presumably the same reasons FF14's housing in general is. The dev team either doesn't have the skill to design a better system, or thinks the limitations add to it in some way (eg having the prestige of owning a large or a home at all). Stuck in an apartment? Better start entering lotteries to climb up that ladder.

[Avoidy]

The French version doesn’t say mansion, it says “house”. “Maison” is “house”, not “mansion” though the term is generic enough to include a mansion or a small house but not an apartment. Whoever translated the advertisement from French made a mistake.

They still just show a house on the picture and to me the expression is directly derived from “a slice of land” which refers to a of a piece of land in Eorzea. It’s not an expression one would use to refer to an apartment.

Yeah I 100% agree. Not sure if I wasn't clear 'cause I wrote that when I got up, but I look at that pic and feel like it goes against OP's thesis that Square see apartments and houses as the same thing. They clearly see them as separate entities, which is why they tell players that they can own both, not just one or the other.

[Jojoya]

First, please keep your prejudgments to yourself. You don't know me or what my experiences have been in this game so toss off if you want to get prejudicial like that. I have an apartment. I have seen over a dozen other apartments of friends and FC mates, that have had walls added to create additional rooms. While most of them look somewhat tasteful, they all are incredibly claustrophobic and in some cases, I get the feeling of being a rat in a maze.

I reacted to your statement "No, apartments really ARE bad compared to houses." The only prejudgment that is going on is yours because you refuse to see what apartments have to offer.

You're right I don't know all your experiences but you have shared some in the past posts you've made.

I hope you realize that if an apartment makes you feel claustrophobic, you're going to have the exact same problem with a small house. After all, it's just 2 apartments connected by a stairwell and the ground floor is even smaller than an apartment is.

Getting a medium or large house might not be impossible but it's highly improbable due to the very high demand for those sizes.

What then?

[UkcsAlias]

While most of them look somewhat tasteful, they all are incredibly claustrophobic and in some cases, I get the feeling of being a rat in a maze.

Like in most cases when players can make content, they are generaly bad at organizing it well. They just want to dump in everything, and make a mess that way. Accept the limitations, and you can make it feel rather open. I have 2 large aquariums acting as a wall in my appartment to split the 2 areas, removing like 25% of the posible space i could use. And it doesnt feel cramped up at all because of effective space usage. The space that acts as doorway on that ended up being a good 3rd location in the room.

A house is nice, but if the person remains equaly bad at organizing it doesnt change a thing. But for those who organize well, it definitely will be a nice addition. But claustrophobic responses are still down to the players themselve.

For me the biggest miss is the additional farming options. Outside of onions there isnt realy anything worthy to grow.

[Jojoya]

For me the biggest miss is the additional farming options. Outside of onions there isnt realy anything worthy to grow.

As much as I would love to leave this misperception floating around to increase my own profits and those of other regular gardeners, it's not true. There are a lot of things worth growing in a garden, or even in flowerpots if you have access to the seeds.

Last time I sold a Thavnairan Onion (was about 2 weeks ago), our marketboard price was at 160k with the seeds going for about 145k at the same time. For someone with access to only a single Deluxe Garden Patch to produce the seeds, they're going to produce roughly 3 seeds a week on average (some weeks will be more, some less thanks to the RNG). They could chose to sell the seeds on the MB and make about 435k gil a week, or grow the seeds to make 480k gil every 10 days (assuming they're using the flowerpots so they can continue producing seeds in the garden patch). That profit also gets reduced by the amount spent on the seeds needed to produce the onion seeds.

Or... they could grow Althyk Lavender in the garden patch using Shroud 2 or 3 topsoil and make about 1 million gil a week by using the lavender to buy something like Titanium Nuggets at the Curious Crop Exchange to sell on the marketboard (there are a lot of different things to buy - check mb for best prices first if you're buying to sell instead of for personal use). Many of those materials are selling extremely well right now (as long as you price below the Idyllshire Scrapmonger) to all the FCs that got their new houses and are building parts for their airship and submersible fleets, and by the FCs that make parts to sell for profit to those who won't build the parts themselves. Even without that current demand, it's usually easy to make a half million gil a week off Voidrake and Althyk Lavender if you pay attention to the marketboard.

A further advantage is if you miss logging in one day, you're only behind one day's profit with the Voidrake and Althyk Lavender. If you miss logging in one day while you're growing Thavnairian Onions, you've killed them and lose your 10 day profit.

Other items that have enough value to be worth growing in a garden or even flowerpots (depending on seed access):

Shards for crafting
Blood Pepper
Broombush
Cloudsbreath
Glazenut
Jute
Royal Fern
Sometimes the fruits used for dyeing Chocobos though that market is very volatile.

Feels like I forgot one or two others but I think that's enough off the top of my head to make the point that Thavnairian Onions aren't the only thing worth growing.

Of course, most of those items do require daily maintenance. If you can't be certain you can log in daily, you're better off sticking to shards, Voidrake and Althyk Lavender.

[Shuuli]

As much as I would love to leave this misperception floating around to increase my own profits and those of other regular gardeners, it's not true. There are a lot of things worth growing in a garden, or even in flowerpots if you have access to the seeds.

Shh... dont reveal the secret. Mammamia o.o7

[Eraden]

I reacted to your statement "No, apartments really ARE bad compared to houses." The only prejudgment that is going on is yours because you refuse to see what apartments have to offer.

You're right I don't know all your experiences but you have shared some in the past posts you've made.

I hope you realize that if an apartment makes you feel claustrophobic, you're going to have the exact same problem with a small house. After all, it's just 2 apartments connected by a stairwell and the ground floor is even smaller than an apartment is.

Getting a medium or large house might not be impossible but it's highly improbable due to the very high demand for those sizes.

What then?

Yes, apartments ARE objectively worse than houses, if but for the amount of space offered alone. I have already seen what apartments have to offer. I've told you of my experiences and yet you are doubling down on your BS. Just because YOU might think apartments are adequate doesn't mean they are adequate for others. Besides, why should anyone in this game have to settle for adequate? I have been to a fair number off small houses recently and discovered that their basements are large enough to be split into two rooms without making it feel claustrophobic. I have even placed bids for smalls over the last two Lottery rounds. Once again, you are making assumptions without actually knowing me or what my experiences in the game have been. Toss off.

[Jojoya]

Shh... dont reveal the secret. Mammamia o.o7

It's a safe secret to share because most players find gardening too irritating to keep doing, which is something all those players screaming "I need a house so I can garden" have yet to learn.

There's a reason why when you go around a ward looking at the outdoor decorations there's only a small percentage of houses with a garden patch in active use.

Yes, apartments ARE objectively worse than houses, if but for the amount of space offered alone. I have already seen what apartments have to offer. I've told you of my experiences and yet you are doubling down on your BS. I have been to a fair number off small houses recently and discovered that their basements are large enough to be split into two rooms without making it feel claustrophobic. I have even placed bids for smalls. Once again, you are making assumptions without actually knowing me or what my experiences in the game have been. Toss off.

There's a difference between being worse and being bad. Didn't your grade school grammar teacher explain that?

I've never claimed that apartments are as good as houses but they are still good in their way.

You, on the other hand, go "APARTMENTS ARE BAD WAH WAH WAH I'M NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS HOW DARE THEY DISAGREE WITH ME".

And bullshit on feeling not feeling claustrophobic in a small house while feeling claustrophobic in an apartment. The basement isn't that much larger to make enough of a difference. That's you making up excuses, mostly likely because your intent on having a reason to hate apartments.

I get it. You want a house. Guess what? I want every player who wants a house to get one as well. That's why I've been a regular in this subforum for the past 4 years. I want SE to fix the system so every player get a chance to enjoy a house of their own. I've been here pointing out the flaws with the ward system, pointing out how other games address housing so the lack they drama and player antagonism we see here, etc. all in hope that perhaps some day SE will realize this has got to change.

But SE doesn't see things the same way. They're willing to provide enough apartments (unless you're on Balmung) but not enough houses.

When you can't get the hot fudge sundae, at least enjoy the vanilla ice cream until the hot fudge sundaes are available again.