Current Housing issues - The Lack of Actual Housing

[Ayan_Calvesse]

There was in the second LL before patch 7.1 was released where they said the furnishing limit expansion would be arriving in 7.2 or 7.3 and the interior size upgrade (upgrade cottage interior to a mansion size for example) would be arriving later (no date given) so I speculate that feature would at earliest be ready for 7.4 but it wouldn't surprise me if it was 8.0 that it releases.

Yeah their lack of willingness to nail down an answer leads me to believe it will be a 7.4 carrot to help stem the bleeding before 8.0 - I also forsee anouncement of Sharlayan housing or *redacted* apartments.

[Nabril]

Not a word, probably next one… only thing they’ve said elsewhere is that the item limit increase isn’t ready for 7.2, so probably coming in 7.3.

No. I highly doubt it'll ever happen. There will always be a reason it can't be done. Someone's computer might crash out if there are too many items. PS4s couldn't handle that many items. The list will keep growing even though we're all post graphics update. I would love to see the limits quadrupled or made infinite.

[flopity_flips]

I'm a touch late to this thread, but I do wanna chime in to say this: in a game praised for its player flexibility, I find it odd that in order to get a house, it's suggested that you have to choose between moving to a dead DC which can potentially impede your ability to easily play with your friends or playing the monotonous, almost draconian, lottery system & pray you can get your fourth or fifth choice of a housing plot. The lack of flexibility in this one system is ridiculous. It's not a massive deal to me if someone owns a small handful of houses on a given account, but it's an issue when people buy up entire wards just to farm gil via the subs. That removes the fun that comes with ward housing given that the people that buy up entire wards don't care to decorate, which makes it sting that much more for people who want housing. This is a prevalent problem on Seraph, but from my passive observation, it's still a problem that exists on busy data centers like Crystal.

As someone who wants a house but is (delusionally) waiting for them to add housing for a certain zone, I do not want instanced housing; I don't believe that is the solution to the lack of supply given the demand, but the current system is unacceptable as is. Like I said, part of the allure of housing is being able to decorate my exterior and see what my neighbors are up to. They need to add more wards/buying restrictions, plain and simple. I know it's not as simple as pressing an "add more wards" button, but the fact of the matter is that so many of the problems with the systems in this game come from the fact that Square stubbornly refuses to actually properly reinvest into their golden goose. Fixing code that is anywhere from 10-20 years old (the game started development in 2004-5! It wouldn't surprise me if there's some 20 year old ghosts in the network/server related code!) & has little to no documentation takes time & manpower; those things cost money. They're not derailing the current patch schedule that's been in place for years just to fix something that works well enough nor will Square allocate resources (read: engineers, more server space) to fix these server-side inefficiencies whilst maintaining the current patch schedule.

It's all around a trash situation that's of Square's own making; however, it's unacceptable that a game that is praised for its player flexibility & freedom is unable to provide this level of flexibility for player housing in 2025. If the goal is to sustain a steady level of player growth year over year, then they need to anticipate & accommodate that growth in the housing system, especially on populated DCs. But, as is the current housing system and its shortfalls are a reflection of Square's shortfalls as a business. I would suggest speaking with your wallet but... well, homeowners won't wanna lose their houses (I don't blame them) and non-homeowners (like me) will keep our subs if it means we can vent to the forums about it.

[Khryseis_Astra]

As someone who wants a house but is (delusionally) waiting for them to add housing for a certain zone, I do not want instanced housing; I don\\'t believe that is the solution to the lack of supply given the demand, but the current system is unacceptable as is.

While you prefer the neighborhood appeal of ward housing, you’re seeing why “just add more wards” isn’t working. Their solution was to put those extra wards on new servers, without funneling of new players there, thus doing nothing about the congestion on existing servers. Those who wanted a plot badly enough to leave their communities did it early. Then the sub farms moved in. Other than adding a new housing district that gets its own 30 wards per server, this cycle will keep repeating. Buying restrictions won’t do anything to stop it, because the method they’re using is a failsafe required by the game to deal with FCs whose leaders quit the game so their FC mates don’t lose everything they’ve put into the FC.

Beyond that, wards needing to be permanently loaded is a server drain, read: expensive. Instanced loads only when in use, so uses less resources overall. All housing interiors are already instanced, and that’s why they can do things like the new interior remodel, the upcoming item limit increase (doubt we’ll see as much in the yards, if any) and the proposed interior size change. It’s also why an instanced area like the Island can have almost 100 outdoor items, while a mansion doesn’t even get half of that. Or an outdoor housing item glamour system where you don’t have to buy multiple of the same item. Where you can change the ground like a carpet.

So while you personally may not want an instanced system, you would still benefit from it being added as an option, by the innovation it allows the developers, by the server resources it isn’t taking up, and the most important thing for someone like you who prefers the wards: less competition for ward housing!

I know a lot of ward lovers think no one could ever possibly prefer instanced, but I think you’d be surprised at how many people would switch. Since it isn’t taking up permanent space, there would be no need for auto-demo, so that alone would get a bunch of the “I just want to decorate” and FOMO crowd out of the wards. It also opens the door to people being able to have multiple instances, without taking away a limited resource from anyone else.

For myself, all it would have to do is function just like the plot I have now, and let me choose my own background scenery from a handful of options. Probably just a generic backdrop from each of the existing districts at the beginning. Maybe in my dreams they would occasionally add different locations from around Eorzea, like they add housing skins and phasmascapes.

[Xapapetsu]

Housing mains are already on their way here to tell you that the scarcity is actually a good thing because it makes housing more valuable, or something.

I am wholly in support of adding more (or instanced) housing. I was on Seraph when it was still new and still had to fight others to get a house. A small. In the Goblet.

Having to abandon FCs just to have a chance to participate in this system is unacceptable.

I own a house and I could care less about the houses value. I will say this though, I have a house and wish I never bought one. They don't provide any value after the house is decorated, the only reason I don't get rid of it is because I've spent 50 million to purchase and decorate it.

[Eraden]

Ohh, all this talkings is remind Mao that Mao will has to recover all the rare stuffs in Mao house soon before Mao subscription ends. Mao house in Goblets so Mao not too sure if anyones will be interested in its when it becomes available agains (peoples WAY too picky).

[Yuniko]

Ohh, all this talkings is remind Mao that Mao will has to recover all the rare stuffs in Mao house soon before Mao subscription ends. Mao house in Goblets so Mao not too sure if anyones will be interested in its when it becomes available agains (peoples WAY too picky).

Aww... Ahri miss Mao. wish Ahri fox had mett Mao..

[USAFJerrySo]

There should be less wards. I don't think a random players is going to show up & visit my place randomly at Ward 69 in Uldah. My notebook is still empty even after a couple of years.

[Rinoa_353]

There should be less wards. I don't think a random players is going to show up & visit my place randomly at Ward 69 in Uldah. My notebook is still empty even after a couple of years.

I put my address on my Adventurer plate and I get random visitor messages here and there, try that if you haven't :3

[Solowing]

I put my address on my Adventurer plate and I get random visitor messages here and there, try that if you haven't :3

I decided to go check out ward 6 on Golem just so check his plot out. Most of the ward was brought out by shell fcs and abandoned. There is supply there but there is no demand. Thr only ones filling that demand there are the very people, that the players are angry at for buying up these houses and sitting on them.