The Housing problem and my proposed solution

[Kosmos992k]

Hmmm....

I agree that locking down the existing housing wards for FC only and letting the existing personal ownership of homes there decay over time is a good idea - as long as a viable alternative exists. I think the main thing I would change with your proposal is the use of the Inn room as the basis.

Rather than using the Inn room as a personal housing, I think it would be more fitting to expand on the Personal Chamber concept that we have from the Free Company house. I'm thinking in terms of a Condominium style complex in each Housing area that may be entered from the main square in the housing zone.

The entrance area should support some community features such as the market boards, message moogles and summoning bells, The main 'square' in each housing area would be ideal for this since it already has such things as well as an NPC who would be able to act as a concierge who you speak to to gain access to your home. It would certainly increase the foot traffic in these areas, creating a greater sense of community perhaps.

The starting 'home' would be about the same as the Personal Chamber but with the addition of a small 'outside' area that may be used for things such as a small garden, chocobo stable, and outdoor furnishings. The key point of the 'outside' area is that this personal housing should offer the same advantages to players that the existing personal housing offers, as a minimum standard. Start it out at 600,000 gil, that is a bit more than the 300k for a personal chamber, but the addition of an external space justifies the additional expense. The entry point price of 600K gil is also a whole lot more affordable than the existing homes meaning that most any player who saves the gil they gain through leveling quests could afford their own home (which was an originally stated goal for housing IIRC).

Adding options to your personal home as you describe is a very nice idea, larger floor plan, larger garden outside, second floor, etc...All good options. This way housing would be individually instanced, but separate from the Inn rooms which I feel should remain separate. To prevent overly much stress on the servers, I do think it may be necessary to reign in the idea of including basements/second floors and such, that may stress the instance servers. But a larger floor plan with attached 'outdoor' space' should not be beyond possibility.

Because the home is instanced, it will only 'exist' when the owner is there, if the owner is not there, then the instance closes - this will reduce server stress caused by operating so many housing instances on crowded servers. The main 'detraction' from this concept is that people would only be able to visit a player's home if they are there and if they have allowed guest access. If the owner leaves, any visitors would be relocated to the entrance in the main square. The exception to this would be any player who the owner has tagged as a co-owner. I think this is an important feature to allow couples and friends to share homes.

This builds on the private chambers, it re-uses that existing system, and has minimizes impact on the servers.

An additional option you could throw in here would be an enhanced instanced personal home that allows additional floors, complete redesign of the exterior, as well as an external landscape. Of course you could build a small, medium or large home in this special lot of land, and you would always have an outside space larger than that available to the owners of existing large lots. Essentially a home in a small 'zone' of it's own. This would be a paid housing service, players would pay a monthly fee similar to the retainer fee, but in return they gain a much larger lot of land, higher item counts both indoors and outdoors to allow greater customization and decoration. The item limit for such an enhanced house should be at least double what the limit is on large homes. The enhanced house should be available for visitors whether or not the owner is there, based on the guest settings of course.

Even though the enhanced lot would be a paid service and larger than existing housing lots, it would offer no advantage in terms of the number of garden plots, the additional item counts and size would not allow players an advantage over players who do not pay for the additional service. So although cosmetically a player could have a hugely opulent manor house, they would not be able to have more garden plots or anything of that nature that would provide a paid advantage over other players.

So you would have 3 forms of housing in the game plus the room at the Inn. The three forms being;

1. Instanced Personal housing paid for with in-game currency.
2. Neighborhood based FC/Personal housing paid for with in-game currency (limited to FCs going forwards).
3. Enhanced instanced Personal housing paid for by additional service fees.

[Edit] - By keeping the Inn room separate from this, all players have automatic access to a place of their 'own' in any of the main cities which maintains the universal, free access for players with a subscription to things such as the crystal bell, summoning bell and armoire. I'd like to see more done with the toy box to make Inn rooms stand out, but that is another discussion....

This would serve all types of player. Existing individual owners would not be penalized, all players would be able to have their own 'home' and players who want to, could spend a bit more actual money, to have a fancy place to show off to others. Free Company houses would still retain their use through the FC specific items and systems accessible through the FC house.