Personal Housing Server Limitations and the Future of FFXIV Development

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[Illya]

Maybe they should take some of the revenue from their 2.3 million players and invest in some server infrastructure instead of funneling all their money to developing mobile games.

[Meier]

Maybe they should take some of the revenue from their 2.3 million players and invest in some server infrastructure instead of funneling all their money to developing mobile games.

Which is why unsubbing is important. Money speaks a LOT louder then all of us on this forum. The housing situation enough proves that. How about coil?

When they said the question they've been asked since launch is if they can remove the lock out system....but they feel other things are important. People have been asking FOR A YEAR NOW and its still not enough.

They won't do polls either...because that would actually show hard evidence, instead of a buncha forum posts....what players REALLY want. They said they did polls cuz they didn't have a forum. Excuse me...that is a lie too. This forum damn well existed at the time of player polls..LOL. A quick google search can show anyone that.

[Valar-Shadowmourne]

it's amazing how the OP's main point has been overlooked...

[*]Alternatively, the game can't feasibly/easily support larger, faster, and more complex servers.
...

Let that sink in for a second.
...

In my opinion, SE is basically telling us that they've reached their limit when it comes to multiplayer interactivity as it relates to their server capabilities.

The idea here isn't that they need to add more servers, it's that they can't simply add more servers because the way the game was coded/ the game's infrastructure does not support this.

The idea is that the game has reached (or is nearing) it's infrastructure limit, and in order to expand it further, a complete re-structuring/ re-coding of the entire/majority game would be required.

This is a much more crippling, worrisome issue that just lack of servers. It's a complete roadblock for future expansion.

Instead of yelling at SE to "Get Moar Servers!!!!", you should be yelling at them to be up front about the root of the problem and their plan to solve it. As the updates go on, I grow more and more convinced that the OP's hypothesis is fact, and grow more worried that there is a serious issue looming over the horizon for us Eorzeans.

I already lived through the incompetency that was 1.0, and I do not want to relive that.

[Clavaat]

Forget about dynamic open-world encounters.
Forget about seamless alliance interactions.
Forget about flying in airships and seeing anything that isn't pre-rendered/static.

Or they're saving their resources specifically for these things as opposed to houses. I don't know that, but neither do you. You can't say the lack of one thing means the exclusion of others by default. Hell, I would take one of those 3 things over a stupid house any day. There is way more that goes into making a decision about the best way to utilize your structure before implementation. Plus, server capacity wasn't the only reason.

And the first example exists already. Albeit, not the way you like it maybe, but it does exist.

[FritoBandito]

For what it's worth to you guys, I would put my money on the possibility that Yoshida and his team WANT to do more, and SE won't allow him to. Blame the company big-wigs, not the developers.