Instanced Housing: Ideas and Details

[Solarra]

I think a lot of people arguing against instanced houses are afraid they are going to lose something. I cannot imagine Square removing the wards, they are not in the habit of removing content from the game and the outcry would be massive if they did remove them. So, nobody would lose their house, the wards would remain. You might lose your neighbours though, but the sad fact is, for most of us, losing neighbours wouldn't even be noticed. When the new wards came online I was lucky enough to get a medium. I saw 2 neighbours the first week, recently, the only people I've seen in my locality have been the patrolling npcs.

I would love instanced houses that offer a choice of which way the house faces, even if it was just one of the two directions presently available in the wards.
I would also like my alts to be able to share.
I'd be happy with an instanced house accessed from any of the present wards. I think it would be nice if there was a communal area in the ward where people with instanced houses could access a summoning bell, a stable and maybe a post moogle too. It might even bea nice social place to hang out and would go some way towards keeping life in the wards.
I'd also like the option of choosing the size of house I'd like, or a system where you start with a small and then upgrade to a medium and finally a large. That would be a good gil sink.

[Azuri]

I think a lot of people arguing against instanced houses are afraid they are going to lose something. I cannot imagine Square removing the wards, they are not in the habit of removing content from the game and the outcry would be massive if they did remove them. So, nobody would lose their house, the wards would remain.

Square is a small indie developer with a tiny team that barely manages. Every feature added is a feature taken. We've lost an adventure zone for Island Sanctuary of all things.

Squadrons still "remain" in the game. They just haven't seen an update in years after Trusts. Or Verminon. Or chocobo companion. Taking some of those "remaining" features out back will be a mercy.

Instanced housing will be the death of wards.

[Ramiren]

Square is a small indie developer with a tiny team that barely manages. Every feature added is a feature taken. We've lost an adventure zone for Island Sanctuary of all things.

Squadrons still "remain" in the game. They just haven't seen an update in years after Trusts. Or Verminon. Or chocobo companion. Taking some of those "remaining" features out back will be a mercy.

Instanced housing will be the death of wards.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic with the tiny team thing. FFXIV is pretty much the only thing keeping Square-Enix financially afloat right now given the high number of AAA flops they've seen. It's been their biggest earner for several years now. If Yoshi-P needs to pull in more developers to fix the god awful housing situation, the only response SE management should give is "how many do you need?". Especially given the fact that it's content we've bought, paid for, and continue to upkeep though subs, that most of us can't fully play.

In my opinion, instanced housing should be added for individual players as an addition to the island sanctuary, wards should remain for FC's. Ward housing should be reclaimed from individual players firstly through a buyback scheme which also grants a free house for your island sanctuary of the same size, then through attrition by preventing new purchases, shortening the demolition timer, and not pausing it for any reason.

FC's should require a number of members online at the same time ready to accept a prompt in order to complete the sale of a house, the number of members required should increase with the size of the house. 1 house per FC, 1 house per service account per server, accounts that already break these rules should be forced into the buyback scheme, then demolished after a decent period of time.

People are going to complain about this because they've invested a lot into multiple houses. But I pay a sub just like they do, I'm entitled to fully enjoy this content too, and at the end of the day management of the game and it's assets is SE's domain. If they need to break a few eggs, so everyone can play the content they pay for, so be it.

[Solarra]

There is a big difference between Square removing content and Square not developing content further. I am not a fan of Island Sanctuary but nothing was removed to make way for it.

If instanced houses really will be the death of wards, I think that would prove the wards aren't all that great and that the system doesn't provide what most players want.

If Square do decide to make instanced houses available (I'm not holding my breath), I think they should take into account what hasn't proved popular with the wards; Things like a lack of a view outside, weird orientation of the house, severe limits on the number of larger houses etc..

Instanced houses could be a great addition to what we already have and a major selling-point, so I would definitely not support making them limited or with fewer features just to keep the wards viable.
Housing is very popular in most MMOs, most don't have such severe restrictions on the number of houses a player can own and I don't know any others that force players to not only pay a sub but to log in and enter their houses every 45 days or so in order to keep them.
Housing should be an attractive feature that keeps people engaged and playing, instead it's more like a running sore that gets the odd band-aid slapped on every so often.