Did Island Sanctuary satisfy any reasons you want a house?

[LianaThorne]

No. It failed to decouple the game features that are gated by ward house ownership. Even worse they added self-contained systems that look like the gated features. Square's track record with maintaining old systems is awful so I expect that to pretty much be an abandoned system by 7.0 or 7.1. Would happy to be wrong of course.

Like somebody else pointed out they picked an awful spot for the "Cozy Hut". The one saving grace of Island Sanctuary is that's the exact theme I want as an instanced house (I hate snow). But if the Hut is where any potential user customizable house will be planted I will be extremely disappointed. Both my house and the FC house I manage have fantastic views in the Mist.

To be fair, they said IS was going to not be actual housing and for expectations to be dramatically lowered on that front. Gardening would be separate, customization would be separate, etc. There wasn't going to be any decoupling period because it's not supposed to be a replacement for ward housing, like I said...a compromise.

[GeminiReed]

To be fair, they said IS was going to not be actual housing and for expectations to be dramatically lowered on that front. Gardening would be separate, customization would be separate, etc. There wasn't going to be any decoupling period because it's not supposed to be a replacement for ward housing, like I said...a compromise.

Obviously but that's not what the topic of this thread is. "Did Island Sanctuary satisfy any reasons you want a house?" There are several reasons why people want a house. A customizable space is one of them but the gated features is also a big driver for the interest and IS did nothing for either of those. In a certain light the IS "gardening" and workshop can be seen as a mockery of what players have been asking for for several years.

Ok, it did satisfy one thing: It's my preferred biome. But what about the people that want a different setting? Too bad for them I guess.

The root of my frustration is that decoupling outdoor gardening and workshops from housing would have been a very cheap way to ease demand. The ward system cannot keep up for the simple reason that it assumes that all worlds and DC's are populated evenly which makes it a very expensive way to increase supply. Increase it enough to meet the demands of the heavily populated worlds and you'll have empty houses on the smaller worlds. World and DC travel have limits that make commuting impractical.

I believe that Square (finally?) understands that problem so I do not think IS is a compromise solution for instanced housing.

[Deveryn]

Island Sanctuary was one of the features I was mostly looking forward to and it's a huge disappointment in my opinion.
Too grindy, less customization than expected. I wish I could arrange my crops and houses like furniture in my house.

Anything that large is going to be fairly static. That's just how it goes. You would have all kinds of performance issues if you had a wide open space that you could just customize freely. Even housing districts and the cities are laid out in such a way that there's always something obstructing your full view.

[LianaThorne]

Obviously but that's not what the topic of this thread is. "Did Island Sanctuary satisfy any reasons you want a house?" There are several reasons why people want a house. A customizable space is one of them but the gated features is also a big driver for the interest and IS did nothing for either of those. In a certain light the IS "gardening" and workshop can be seen as a mockery of what players have been asking for for several years.

Ok, it did satisfy one thing: It's my preferred biome. But what about the people that want a different setting? Too bad for them I guess.

The root of my frustration is that decoupling outdoor gardening and workshops from housing would have been a very cheap way to ease demand. The ward system cannot keep up for the simple reason that it assumes that all worlds and DC's are populated evenly which makes it a very expensive way to increase supply. Increase it enough to meet the demands of the heavily populated worlds and you'll have empty houses on the smaller worlds. World and DC travel have limits that make commuting impractical.

I believe that Square (finally?) understands that problem so I do not think IS is a compromise solution for instanced housing.

It feels kind of backwards to even ask if it satisfied housing then, if it was never meant to be a full replacement for housing/have anything to do with housing in the first place......?

I view it as their reply to the demand for instanced housing or what they view as a compromise but they flat out said: "This will not be instanced housing, have any relation to gardening with housing or be on the same level as housing as we know it, lower your expectations."

So, if we know that, why are we asking in the first place if housing demand/wants/needs is satisfied via IS?

[DiaDeem]

I never wanted IS as a house replacement, and I have no idea why some people started painting it as such.

[Jojoya]

It feels kind of backwards to even ask if it satisfied housing then, if it was never meant to be a full replacement for housing/have anything to do with housing in the first place......?

I view it as their reply to the demand for instanced housing or what they view as a compromise but they flat out said: "This will not be instanced housing, have any relation to gardening with housing or be on the same level as housing as we know it, lower your expectations."

So, if we know that, why are we asking in the first place if housing demand/wants/needs is satisfied via IS?

The idea behind the thread wasn't to ask if it was a way to satisfies desire for a house, only if it satisfies some of the reasons why players say they want a house (as opposed to an apartment).

Some players ask for access to gardening but aren't always specifically stating it's because they want to grow Thavnarian Onions. Growing crops on the island is similar to how we grow in a garden patch (except we don't get to automate the garden patch tending via mammets).

Some ask for an outdoor space because they want an outdoor view, not necessarily because they want to use outdoor furnishing. This provides that.

Some just want more room to run around in privately without others intruding on their personal space.

With luck, the thread is generating ideas both for what players would like to see added to the Sanctuary and also add more detail to why players actually want a house.

[Minato777]

The whole reason I want a house is because the game keeps giving me 2 retainers full of decorations worth yet makes housing one of the most bullshit processes to get and to keep in the game.

[RyuDragnier]

I've noticed most of the people I've talked to who own houses seem to like IS more than their actual houses, and end up there far more often. It's ironic, those who do not own but want houses do not seem to like IS, while people who already have houses seem to absolutely love IS.

[Sclair0]

Yes! Mostly.

I owned a house for ages specifically so I could garden, AFK outdoors, and jump around on rooftops in a place I owned while waiting for duties.

Ideally I'd be able to decorate with outdoor furniture too, and have retainers hanging around but yes this mostly checks my personal boxes.

[Rolder50]

I've noticed most of the people I've talked to who own houses seem to like IS more than their actual houses, and end up there far more often. It's ironic, those who do not own but want houses do not seem to like IS, while people who already have houses seem to absolutely love IS.

Probably because IS has that "New Car Smell" with cosmetics and stuff to unlock. Check back when those people have leveled up the island and got the cosmetics they want out of it.