Personal Housing Server Limitations and the Future of FFXIV Development

[Lazearus]

I don't give a moogle's @$$ about personal housing. I have my room in my company and I am fine with that. But I am playing this game for two future things.... Dark Knights.... and Airships. I will flip a table if I don't get my Falcon. I'm defending you on this housing thing SE, please don't make me regret wearing my White-Knight armor today guys.

Maybe after seeing this valiant sacrifice, Yoshi will finally give you your /die or /playdead or whatever emote you wanted for your birthday.

[BlackHaloJT]

They keep saying how the game has 2.3 million accounts but how many of those are actively subscribed to this day? I get they want to play it as safe as they can and not invest too much on infrastructure and pretty much anything else so they spread everything as thin as they can to reduce costs and increase profits, it's understandable after 1.0 failed for being rushed into the market. You'd think though with this so called great success the game has had they'd have enough resources by now to do a bit more and go the extra mile, and indeed they might be currently allocating that money and resources towards the expansion. They always seem to bank big, almost as an excuse, on the next big thing on the roadmap. It's happened since 1.X, the ARR alpha and betas, PS4 version, the entire 2.x patch series, etc.

They are bragging 2.5 now lol. Was 2.3 and before that 2mil. But I agree with the OP on this. I seen it coming since launch and the way they are taking direction with the game. Maybe SE "safe" approach isn't all just lack of content and complexity.

[ErikMynhier]

Maybe after seeing this valiant sacrifice, Yoshi will finally give you your /die or /playdead or whatever emote you wanted for your birthday.

LOL
/10character

[Cynthis]

I think you are absolutely right and agree that if they want to play it cheap or not fix the underlying design problems but instead limit gameplay for us subscribers then they just don't have a clue how to run a subscription based model MMO.

[IndigoHawk]

FFXIV instancing code and resources cannot handle everyone being in their own instance. FFXIV needs some people in shared spaces, like waiting to zerg S marks.

I realize FFXIV doesn't want to ramp up a bunch of servers in case subscriptions fall, but instancing is a severe problem. Unless it's fixed, new features that rely on instancing (airships, housing, etc) will continue to be restricted to a tiny group of players and out of reach of the majority of players ... who are paying subscription just like everyone else.

[Morningstar1337]

They need to hire a consultant, because they are doing everything in the most resource-intensive way possible. You can't do that and then cry "but server capacity!"... especially when your decade-old mmo somehow managed to accommodate all the players on hamster equipment.

You forgot to mention the limitations of the PS3 and continual support of that platform.

Isn't XI still supported on the PS2? Housing and all?

Even back in FFXI days, I've always thought a lot of SE's problems stemmed from the fact they were a console game company trying to make PC games.

Now that you think of it 1.0 did use The Crystal Tools engines, which was likely intended for the Fabulla Nova Crystalis games and the results were horrendous to say the least

[Phenidate]

A large part of SE's problem is likely optimization. I've been quoted second hand that Yoshi admitted the housing wards are awful sinks on server resources. So why do they keep adding them?

How often does the average player wander around these immense zones with just 30 houses. For me and mine, our housing ward is a ghost town, with only a handful of crafters camping the bell and board for the peace and quiet it brings.

My suggestion? Cut down the housing wards. Keep what we have now, but no more. Kick out players who bought a single house for themselves, refund their money, and unbind any furniture they purchased so they can sell it back. Will this be easy to implement or make those players happy? No, but SE kind of backed themselves into a corner with this one.

I can't speak for how their coders wrote up housing, but I'll tackle how I'd do it here: http://pastebin.com/DsEsZGfs

It'll take some rework of the code, but honestly it sounds like something needs to be done here.

[Elliquin]

Even back in FFXI days, I've always thought a lot of SE's problems stemmed from the fact they were a console game company trying to make PC games.

[Phenidate]

I might also suggest compacting all the housing wards into a single ward. Change the zones to be more walled off and instance individual FC homes to be their own plot with a marketboard and bell. Keep the nice views of each house best you can. You have environmental design artists, have them sort it out - it's what they're paid for.

My suggestion to them? Move things around, give houses front lawns with conveniently placed hedges and walls so you can see there is a house there, but you need to go through the gate to see the actual house - i.e. move into the instance.

[Morningstar1337]

Even back in FFXI days, I've always thought a lot of SE's problems stemmed from the fact they were a console game company trying to make PC games.

Come to think of didn't 1.0 use the Crystal Tools engine that was intended for Nova Crystalis games?