housing conundrum: there needs to be a better way.

[Rolder50]

People always suggest instanced housing but it's not going to fix the issue while there's still ward housing. Ward housing would be superior and you would have people fighting over ward houses since they have an actual permanent place in the server as opposed to being loaded in from a server.

It could maybe work if they added unique features to instanced housing and cut off access to it if you had ward housing already, or if they just converted all ward houses to instanced.

For some of this it feels like they're really held back by 10 years of bad designs and committing to things from the past. Things like relying on wards only and committing to never removing any houses from those with multiple since they're grandfathered in make the situation worse and harder to solve.

I could guarantee that if instanced housing had all the same benefits and features as regular housing (a yard, submarine, up to large size, etc), people would eat that stuff up. It's not like anyone who has a ward house even SEES their neighbors anyway. Like I have a small and I have never seen any of my neighbors once. It might as well be instanced, it works out the same anyway.

[Reinha]

yea definitely people aren't going to get rid of their already bought homes just for a instance one.

i will use me as the direct example i have both a FC house (small) and a personal house (large) i also have my guild room and apartment both which i barely use. if an instance house was also offered i would buy one just to have one but not relinquish the personal ward or fc ward homes. so i agree people arent going to get rid of their home for any reason.

Same! I have an fc house, personal house, apartment and island sanctuary. The last two I have not decorated at all because they are inferior to ward houses and I don't see the point. The island is hard for people to visit and can't be used to store furniture. The apartment lacks outdoor decoration, but the whole reason I want to decorate the outside is for others to see my design and who is ever going to see an apartment? My strawberry garden and snowy cafe mansion are visible the moment you step into the ward even when I'm not online. I'd keep them and just store more furniture in an instanced house like I do with my apartment.

[SophiaDL]

I could guarantee that if instanced housing had all the same benefits and features as regular housing (a yard, submarine, up to large size, etc), people would eat that stuff up. It's not like anyone who has a ward house even SEES their neighbors anyway. Like I have a small and I have never seen any of my neighbors once. It might as well be instanced, it works out the same anyway.

You can guarantee because you are actually delusional, people wont give up their houses or give up on ward housing because of instanced housing, who are they even going to decorate their instanced house for ? Who is going to see it aside from their close friends (who might actually be put off of even going to visit because of how annoying it will be to even visit there)

Housing in FFXIV is a show, sometimes people visit random wards and you meet these people and you have a nice chat, or you never talk to them at all, but the principle is that they exist, there are people around you even if you dont interact with them at all, instanced housing will be like apartments, ignored by most, in favor of ward housing, because of how superior it is, you can also invite your friends easily to your house without any hassle.

Instanced housing on the other hand, especially if on the island, wont be the same at all, you will have to go through hoops to even get there, and then all you'll see is a barren island with some decorations, thats pretty much it, it's boring honestly, I will take ward housing any day over that, at least I know the people near my houses exist, instead of just... nothingness.

[Vahlnir]

You can guarantee because you are actually delusional, people wont give up their houses or give up on ward housing because of instanced housing, who are they even going to decorate their instanced house for ? Who is going to see it aside from their close friends (who might actually be put off of even going to visit because of how annoying it will be to even visit there)

Housing in FFXIV is a show, sometimes people visit random wards and you meet these people and you have a nice chat, or you never talk to them at all, but the principle is that they exist, there are people around you even if you dont interact with them at all, instanced housing will be like apartments, ignored by most, in favor of ward housing, because of how superior it is, you can also invite your friends easily to your house without any hassle.

Instanced housing on the other hand, especially if on the island, wont be the same at all, you will have to go through hoops to even get there, and then all you'll see is a barren island with some decorations, thats pretty much it, it's boring honestly, I will take ward housing any day over that, at least I know the people near my houses exist, instead of just... nothingness.

I don't think anyone really cares if players give up their ward houses for instanced ones. It's just a matter of having instanced housing at all as an option, which has been asked for since forever. I don't see an issue with there being a scenario where everyone wins.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I don't think anyone really cares if players give up their ward houses for instanced ones. It's just a matter of having instanced housing at all as an option, which has been asked for since forever. I don't see an issue with there being a scenario where everyone wins.

Nods… the biggest issue is the lack of housing (and housing sizes) to fill demand. Instanced fills that lack. Sure some will always prefer the wards and that’s fine. But someone who’s gone through months or years of RNG lottos, if you offer them the choice of an instanced house they can purchase immediately or keep banging their head against the lotto wall for who knows how long? I know what I’d pick! I spent 9 months trying to get my plot!

For myself, I’d probably keep my ward house, but I’d get myself an instanced one too. I have an apartment and FC room already, and my island. All are decorated and used on a regular basis. I like to decorate and take screenshots. It’s just another canvas to decorate. And people who care about housing decor will go look at instanced houses too. I regularly look up people’s apartments, just like I regularly visit all the wards to see what’s out there. If you want to see cool stuff, you go where the cool stuff is. lol You still have to go through a directory to get to different wards. A housing directory for instanced, or the apartment directories aren’t really that much of a difference. It’d actually be easier to go straight to a particular house from the directory than it is to visit a specific property in the wards for someone not on your friends list.

[Rolder50]

You can guarantee because you are actually delusional, people wont give up their houses or give up on ward housing because of instanced housing, who are they even going to decorate their instanced house for ? Who is going to see it aside from their close friends (who might actually be put off of even going to visit because of how annoying it will be to even visit there)

My friend the only people looking at your ward house NOW are close friends.

[Eraden]

My friend the only people looking at your ward house NOW are close friends.

Is not true for Mao. Mao neighbors visit Mao every now and then. Still, would be nice if say, apartsment system were to be revamped so peoples could upsgrade apartsments to bigger ones. Maybe with balconies so peoples could grow plants.

[Jojoya]

It's a thought that would take a huge amount of dev resources, but also doesn't address the failings of something like apartments. Having low player counts allowed inside instanced housing, worse menus to access it, it being cumbersome to visit and access, and in general it being much less useful for anything other than strictly personal use would make it always inferior to ward housing. If it was added and it was just straight up an instanced medium that you had to go through a half dozen menus to access like apartments, it would be in the same spot. We would still be arguing about access to ward housing because instanced would be inferior in most ways.
As long as ward houses still exist, nobody will want to use instanced housing, unless they add some specific feature to them that ward houses don't get.

You're making a lot of assumptions about how a better instanced housing system would work and what it would look like.

Then I think of RIFT Dimensions and what they were like so I know instanced housing can be far better than what you described.

Now I don't honestly expect any new instanced housing in the game to be on the same level as RIFT's but I know it can be much better that what apartments are.

As for what is superior, that depends on what the player wants from housing. Most players are going to consider a system that guarantees them a house of their choosing better than one where they're lucky if they manage to get anything at all.

As Stormpeaks said in their earlier post, time will tell what we end up getting. No doubt there will be some players that will only be satisfied by a ward house but I doubt that number would be as large as you think.

They are actually delusional, they think future house owners or already settled in house owners will give up their house/give up on the idea of a ward house because of instanced housing, well I cant wait to see that when it does happen, because I am fully certain that it wont

If a new instanced housing system opens the doors to more location options and more customization of the house layout, I absolutely would give up my ward house for an instanced house. Again, I remember RIFT's housing very fondly. It was one of the few memorable things about the game.

Yours is the delusion if you think that what you want is what everyone else wants.

Same! I have an fc house, personal house, apartment and island sanctuary. The last two I have not decorated at all because they are inferior to ward houses and I don't see the point. The island is hard for people to visit and can't be used to store furniture. The apartment lacks outdoor decoration, but the whole reason I want to decorate the outside is for others to see my design and who is ever going to see an apartment? My strawberry garden and snowy cafe mansion are visible the moment you step into the ward even when I'm not online. I'd keep them and just store more furniture in an instanced house like I do with my apartment.

What was that again? I'm online. I don't see your house. I would have to know where your house is and travel to it before I could see it.

In other words, no different from instanced housing.

Again, RIFT Dimensions had it solved. There was a menu with a search function for houses on the same world. Pick the Dimension you wanted to visit and press the Enter button. You were taken directly to it. The owner did not have to be online for it to be available to visit just as apartment owners don't have to be online for you to visit their apartment.

Ultimately, things are in SE's hands. What are they willing to produce for players? We know what they are capable of doing via both the ward housing and apartments. We know what is technically possible based on what other games are doing or have done.

My friend the only people looking at your ward house NOW are close friends.

Honestly, that depends on how heavily someone chooses to advertise their house. Discords and the like can reach hundreds or thousands of players who list their houses for viewing.

Most players aren't going to get a lot of visitors because they aren't doing anything to get them. They just want a house to enjoy and don't care to use it to seek attention from others.

[VelKallor]

Is not true for Mao. Mao neighbors visit Mao every now and then. Still, would be nice if say, apartsment system were to be revamped so peoples could upsgrade apartsments to bigger ones. Maybe with balconies so peoples could grow plants.

Vel has had many many visitors from his ward and the area in general. He came back to find two lalas playing in his treehouse who are now friends and neighbours. Vel has seen many visits from peoples just coming to look, which makes Vel a very happy person.

Vel likes Maos idea of balconies too.

[Avoidy]

Be glad you don't have one tbh. Housing is an anchor. Keeps a guaranteed number of players subbed and logging in even when there's nothing being added to the game for several months at a time.
To change this system for the better, we'd need an instanced option followed by the complete removal of the demolition system. Demolition is currently a necessary evil because of a manufactured scarcity. Remove that, and you can remove demolition. I was hopeful that island sanctuary, with its instanced front yard setup, would provide the solution necessary for instanced housing as well. But now that Dawntrail's showing a 7-8 month wait between 6.5 and its own release, I feel like they'll keep demolition around a little longer just to keep revenue coming in from people who don't want to play anymore but don't want to quit and lose their home.