How to fix the housing crisis!

[Celef]

But they did. They did it because people were begging for it, just as they are begging them to 'fix' it. And to 'fix' the problem as the OP suggests would mean stripping others of things they've already invested in. You think that housing is some fiasco now? Just wait til SE tries taking back what they've already given.

Thus creating new issues by letting not just FC but also players on the side of the housing road.
They just have fixed the Fc issue first then, move to personal housing, I mean, it's logic when you add a feature to make sure everyone can access it (airship for example) before "developping" it

[Parisstilton]

Sorry but I don't agree that wards should just be for fc. If you are in a large fc you still do not necessarily have access to those things.

[Celef]

Sorry but I don't agree that wards should just be for fc. If you are in a large fc you still do not necessarily have access to those things.

Not saying they should be FC only, saying they should have fixed the issues preventing every FC to have access to housing (so bassically re-work housing cause it sucks) and then, add personal housing
Basically, they should admit they screwed housing and lookf for solution instead of just :

[DuxCallidus]

I'm confused here... why can't they just open up more wards? The wards themselves are instanced, it really shouldn't be that hard to do... Have they commented on why they don't do this in the past? (I'm newly back to the game after being gone for years)

[Dustytome]

I'm confused here... why can't they just open up more wards? The wards themselves are instanced, it really shouldn't be that hard to do... Have they commented on why they don't do this in the past? (I'm newly back to the game after being gone for years)

*edit: scratch all that, what worldofneil said below better explains it*

[Stormrider]

I'm confused here... why can't they just open up more wards? The wards themselves are instanced, it really shouldn't be that hard to do... Have they commented on why they don't do this in the past? (I'm newly back to the game after being gone for years)

The wards are built into the very core of the world. It is like adding more shroud or lomsa. That is why a world with 1k active subs has as many houses as a 14k sub world.

[worldofneil]

The wards themselves are instanced

Inside of the houses/apartments are instanced, but the wards themselves aren't. They're the same as any other zone like New Gridania etc, always running. The fact there's 24 copies all with the same layout doesn't make any difference, they're still separate zones. 3 housing areas, with 24 wards each (12 + 12 subdivisions) = 72 zones which is more than every other zone in the game combined.

That probably doesn't sound so bad by itself, but multiply it by 64 servers and that's 4,608 zones always active, always running, just for housing.

[Stormrider]

That probably doesn't sound so bad by itself, but multiply it by 64 servers and that's 4,608 zones always active, always running, just for housing.

Wow you do the math it sure sounds bad. It will only get worse. So basically one game feature will continue to eat resources or deny players access.

[Naunet]

WS had amazing housing, but only a month or three after launch it didn't live up to my expectations on feeling populated.

I'm sorry you had a bad time, but you should stop clinging to your bad impression and recognize what a person who actually is playing the game is telling you. :P It sounds like you probably played on one of the low pop servers, before the mega server update. I've been playing nonstop since launch - started on Evindra and ultimately ended up mashed in with everyone else - and my experience with WildStar housing has always been one of extreme creativity, a love for sharing, and a deeply connected community rich in events.

FFXIV has sacrificed all of those things for the veneer of a community by being able to see other people's houses. And yet there is hardly a "housing community" here to speak of, considering how deeply restricted access to housing is and how limited the customization is.

[Atreyu]

<snip>

I don't mean to discredit the game as it is now, nor your own experience, I'm only providing what I experienced before and reasons as to why I myself quit the game. Yes, I played on the RP server (was it Evindra? It definitely started with an E) though I don't remember how low or high the population was at the time of my uninstall. It was definitely before the server merge and before the First/Last names were implemented.

That said, the way you word it makes me want to give it another shot, if only to see how it has changed. I did wind up finally quitting WoW about a month ago (if not for good then at least for a long... long time) and while FFXIV will be #1 in my heart for years to come, I suppose I could pop in there and explore the place once more. ...That and I miss my old Cassian. It's always hard breaking back into a community, though. I wouldn't know the first place to start looking.

And I wouldn't say that FFXIV has sacrificed any of what you mentioned. Yes, it's more limited, but WS is also limited in comparison to, say, Second Life (gag, I know). I have seen amazing tricks pulled off within the houses of FFXIV and some plots look very nice.

Balmung is also never lacking in events in these houses. And I mean never. The Balmung RP calendar on tumblr will show that there are at least 3 or 4 every single night. My own FC is an entertainment company that has a special themed night one Saturday month that gets so large that we often have to have multiple 'spill-over' rooms with their own set of bartenders and security and entertainment to help with the massive chat spam of roleplay.