Instanced Housing: Ideas and Details

[UkcsAlias]

Like it or not, the current “solutions” of extra wards added, extra worlds added, have not solved the problem. Even “unpopular” smalls are still going around 5+ bids on my server, but mostly in the 10+ range.

The problem is at many levels, not just plot availability. Plot size does also matter. A lot of people with a small plot want larger. But as the odds are terrible there, they had to go for a small plot to at least have something. Its something, but still inferior.

With more plots/wards/true instanced etc, you can resolve several of these issues. A medium house sized appartment would make a lot of people happy. As address wise it wont change much (now its the format w00p00, then its w00a00, or w00sa00)... Most houses are rarely going to be visited to begin with so location barely matters.

Extra wards only solves 1 thing: more areas with largers areas to decorate. Any house in these beats an appartment.

Unpopular locations arent relevant when someone doesnt have a house at all, they will accept any house above having none. But it has a 2nd issue, as small plots are relatively worthless compared to larger houses, plenty of those people just try taking the largest available at every cycle (with horrible odds). Ending up with equaly horrible odds once those larger plots are gone as now everyone is going for small ones. If all plots from the start would have accepted a large house, then location would matter. Now location is usualy only relevant for relocating as either its an improvement, or nothing changes. Where if nothing changed, you still got your house.

[Solowing]

Again, if you have a house in the current ward system and you’re happy with it, great!

This topic is for those who don’t or aren’t, and would like to see a feature added alongside the current system. It’s not going to take away anything from anyone if we can actually get an instanced option.

The moment a instanced version of housing shows up to rival private homes, the question of why do i have to keep my subscription so my creation wont get demolished, while you can leave any time, without worrying about it? Will come up.

Im not keeping my subscription active 100% if i can move my house into something effectively the same size but isnt tied to me subscribing and i can leave when i please.

[Solowing]

I'm in full agreement to what Khryseis_Astra and Pablomaldito suggested. Instanced housing would be great for players who don't want the hassle of fighting for houses. I mean, most of us dealt with the housing wars and now a housing lottery, both of which still bring about a large sense of disappointment to players who cannot enjoy a house when they have the gil to finally purchase one. I'd definitely keep the wards around for those who want the social neighborhood aspect of it, but for those who simply want a space to have a home to style it the way they want without the fuss of a fight should be given that option. I'm sure a majority of the community simply wants to see everyone enjoy housing. I'm tired of seeing the negative comments towards people who vent their frustration and have people tell those players "Just don't bother cause it will never happen" or "Go play Sims if you wanna do that shit." Like, that's not helpful nor does it make that player feel better with people saying such things. There are areas in the main and sub divisions where they can post an NPC guard to take you to your instanced house just like the the gatekeepers that allow us to travel to different wards.

Give those players 3 options to make it public, friends only, or private. That way players who are roleplayers and want to use their house as a shop or something can allow outsiders in as well. I'm sure there are ways to do it, so I hope the devs will hear us out on the idea and put it into effect so the playerbase can enjoy all the content the game has to offer.

Remember, the community asked for this lottery...

This is the burden we now have to bear, since people didnt want to compete in a first come first serve market. This is the result of that, a system more fair to the players. But now you have to compete with more people, since the dedicated arnt the only ones bidding anymore. Anyone with a few minutes to spare can place a bid and hope to win.

I mean they have been clearly not moving in the direction of instanced housing, infact they have doubled down on it with adding new wards and housing areas.

I mean if they do decide on instance housing, and it has a demo timer, dont be surprised. Because you arnt going to just cut into their sustained revenue from housers just so you can have your own house untethered from a subscription. Which benefits me because i can drop my sub when i want for how long as i want. And itll still be there when i come back.

[JohncarterIx]

it took me 18 trys for houseing and i finaly got 1 i spent a lott of gil to nothing but the best inside and out side it lights up like disney world

[Solowing]

Now tell me do you plan to take a break anytime soon now that you have one and you know you only can leave for about a month?

[Sourcy]

Just make the instanced houses autodemo then too after a month. Seems a simple fix.

The problem is availability and FOMO. This way we get rid of both but square still keeps people who want to keep those juicy ward houses/not have to redo instanced house in check paying monthly

[Sindele]

Oh, lord almighty, I can only imagine the 1700-page threadnought of screaming that would result in.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Or we don’t apply auto-demo to instanced at all… in fact, if they do it in the way I’m hoping for, if your ward house gets demoed, it could be converted to an instanced version of the exact same house/plot instead of being lost altogether and having to redecorate from scratch. Honestly I doubt they will ever get rid of demo permanently from the wards, even if instanced housing fixes the supply issue, just because that’s a fixed resource. If someone quits the game for 5 years, that spot in the ward shouldn’t remain empty and occupied if there are active players still seeking ward houses. Instanced homes on the other hand wouldn’t need to be demoed because they aren’t using any resources unless they’re in use, or taking up a space in the permanently loaded wards.

[Stormpeaks]

Or we don’t apply auto-demo to instanced at all… in fact, if they do it in the way I’m hoping for, if your ward house gets demoed, it could be converted to an instanced version of the exact same house/plot instead of being lost altogether and having to redecorate from scratch. Honestly I doubt they will ever get rid of demo permanently from the wards, even if instanced housing fixes the supply issue, just because that’s a fixed resource. If someone quits the game for 5 years, that spot in the ward shouldn’t remain empty and occupied if there are active players still seeking ward houses. Instanced homes on the other hand wouldn’t need to be demoed because they aren’t using any resources unless they’re in use, or taking up a space in the permanently loaded wards.

If you think they wont apply auto demo to instanced housing, you're dreaming.

IF instanced housing ever had to happen, they would need to keep all those players subscriptions up, just like they are doing right now with ward housing, if players decide to go down the instanced housing way instead of ward way, that's a potential sub loss if there is no auto demo, square is all about the money, you really think they'll just let people create and then let it rot there for years after years ?

[Khryseis_Astra]

I already addressed the revenue argument on tab 6. lol and like I said then, you and the other poster have a point. But so did I. Can we measure subs kept due to ward housing against subs lost to people disgruntled with not getting a house at all? Make the system better, you get more subs and more money.

At any rate, this thread is about what those of us who do want instanced want to see… I’m sure some of it comes across as pretty idealistic, but that’s kinda the point. If they do ever end up doing it, I don’t want it to be some watered-down pseudo-housing area like Island Sanctuary turned out to be. Not knocking IS, for what it is, it’s a cool piece of content. But I would want to see some very specific things out of instanced housing and that’s why this topic exists.