Why not just add instanced housing?

[kamikrazy]

Its simple: Leave the plots how they are, and from the same area you access normal housing, add an option to enter an instanced housing area specifically for yourself. In place of the Ward selection, have it list everyone on your friends list, party, or simply a search bar for someone's name, so that you can enter it while they aren't there.

Just reuse the same assets from the original housing areas so no new assets have to be crafted for it. Just make it at a distance far off that overlooks the normal housing wards or something.

There, everyone has a house, no new assets need to be created, and this whole availability thing becomes something of the past.

[Syrehn]

Its simple: Leave the plots how they are, and from the same area you access normal housing, add an option to enter an instanced housing area specifically for yourself. In place of the Ward selection, have it list everyone on your friends list, party, or simply a search bar for someone's name, so that you can enter it while they aren't there.

Just reuse the same assets from the original housing areas so no new assets have to be crafted for it. Just make it at a distance far off that overlooks the normal housing wards or something.

There, everyone has a house, no new assets need to be created, and this whole availability thing becomes something of the past.

Instanced housing isn't the be-all end-all solution that many think it is. Current instances are not saved (e.g. nothing in the Inn Room is saved). In an instanced housing model SE still need to make sure all that data gets saved (object placement, character location etc.). This means that regardless of wards or instances SE is still going to have to purchase/setup hardware and storage.

Here's a quote about it:

Finally, I’ve seen a few posts on the forums saying housing would be better if it was instanced like inn rooms are, so I want to point out that instances aren't saved. Nothing in an inn room needs to be saved; player housing, on the other hand, necessitates personal save data for things like furniture placement and character location. So, it would really amount to adding more land anyway.

I talked a bit about this here.

[Shirobi]

Snip

That's not quite accurate. The amount of data storage necessary for saving instanced housing would be drastically less than for creating an entire zone which simply works as a hub to access housing that is already instanced anyway.

Its the archaic and, frankly, rather odd approach SE has taken to housing that has turned it into such a debacle when perfectly working models exist both in other MMOs (Rift, WoW), as well as their own game (FFXI).

[Risvertasashi]

Its the archaic and, frankly, rather odd approach SE has taken to housing that has turned it into such a debacle when perfectly working models exist both in other MMOs (Rift, WoW), as well as their own game (FFXI).

Well, some other MMOs have had neighborhood/community hub setups for housing like Wards in FFXIV, but they 1. launch with housing reclamation and 2. automatically add new wards when they get 80% full or so.

FFXIV's is definitely the worst implementation I've seen.

[StouterTaru]

Instanced housing isn't the be-all end-all solution that many think it is. Current instances are not saved (e.g. nothing in the Inn Room is saved). In an instanced housing model SE still need to make sure all that data gets saved (object placement, character location etc.). This means that regardless of wards or instances SE is still going to have to purchase/setup hardware and storage.

If the instance is only available to the owner, that stuff can be stored client side. Several things are already stored there (inventory sort, hotbars, macros) and all that would have to stay server side is a list of what furniture has been placed (but not where it was placed).

[Risvertasashi]

If the instance is only available to the owner, that stuff can be stored client side. Several things are already stored there (inventory sort, hotbars, macros) and all that would have to stay server side is a list of what furniture has been placed (but not where it was placed).

Honestly even stored server side it's not that much data, or shouldn't have to be. A single image-laden email would be far bigger than a list of items & positions and even a longer text email could easily be bigger. But, SE seems to have some very questionable architecture... :/

[Shirobi]

But, SE seems to have some very questionable architecture... :/

AMEN

I cannot begin to the fathom the sort of inefficient in coding or the sheer antquity of their hardware that something as tiny as player housing, especially instanced player housing, has such a huge premium in server space and resources attached to it.

Something is terribly, terribly wrong with SE's architecture in this game, be it the coding, the actual hardware, or both.

[Kyri]

I have to agree. I know it's been stated before but there are things that drive me crazy when I hear "we cant its too much memory" such as housing and whatnot. In FFXI -everyone- every main character, every alt has a two floor mog house, for free. this mog house also gives you more inventory. You can decorate your two floor house as you see fit with event items and craft-able just the same but -everyone- has one and it was free. You can mail rare/unique gear to your alts for them to use things you can no longer when your finished(not to mention sell the non rare/unique to people when your done to make back some money). We can mail our alts things in a game hit by PS2 and XBox360 restrictions vs our ps3. Im not saying FFXIV should be FFXI-2 but those things worked just fine and continue to do so, why is it so bad for these things? I would much rather give up my personal house for a instanced one without a yard if everyone could have the option to have one too. This game is heavily borrowed things from other games including FFXI, I wish they had kept those original ideas too as they worked for everyone, rather then who was fast enough to log on with deep pockets.

**Oh not to mention I log on FFXI every once and a while and it's nice to go back after a year and still have my cute cozy little house with all its seasonal events and unique furnishings not destroyed or just gone because I wasn't playing.

**On a third note im getting hit with "Unable to move, the server is congested" when entering my fc/personal a lot lately. There was never a time I couldn't enter my mog house in FFXI. Not only that but imagine that server load when all the inactive houses are gone to active players and were all trying to enter out houses. It's not gonna be pretty.

[Shirobi]

Snip.

Exactly. SE is acting like this sort of thing is brand new to the industry and they are pioneering it like its 2002 or something when they had a superior, perfectly functional system in a game they made IN 2002.

Their rationale doesnt make any sense. This is like someone who built a Ferrari from scratch suddenly not being able to build a go-kart.

[Raxxon]

I have to agree. I know it's been stated before but there are things that drive me crazy when I hear "we cant its too much memory" such as housing and whatnot. In FFXI -everyone- every main character, every alt has a two floor mog house, for free. this mog house also gives you more inventory. You can decorate your two floor house as you see fit with event items and craft-able just the same but -everyone- has one and it was free. You can mail rare/unique gear to your alts for them touse things you can no longer when your finished(not to mention sell the non rare/unique to people when your done to make back some money). We can mail our alts things in a game hit by PS2 and XBox360 restrictions vs our ps3. Im not saying FFXIV should be FFXI-2 but those things worked just fine and continue to do so, why is it so bad for these things? I would much rather give up my personal house for a instanced one without a yard if everyone could have the option to have one too. This game is heavily borrowed things from other games including FFXI, I wish they had kept those original ideas too as they worked for everyone, rather then who was fast enough to log on with deep pockets.

**Oh not to mention I log on FFXI every once and a while and it's nice to go back after a year and still have my cute cozy little house with all its seasonal events and unique furnishings not destroyed or just gone because I wasn't playing.

**On a third note im getting hit with "Unable to move, the server is congested" when entering my fc/personal a lot lately. There was never a time I couldn't enter my mog house in FFXI. Not only that but imagine that server load when all the inactive houses are gone to active players and were all trying to enter out houses. It's not gonna be pretty.

The second floor of the mog house, being able to visit someone's MH and adding new features to the game (like the mog garden) has only happened now that the population has dwindled and it's not stressing the servers too much to implement. The amount of players is different as well. You can't compare the two.