[Suggestion] Solving the "Housing Problem"

[Dustytome]

Even if garrisons had actual customisation half as good as FFXIV they still would have gotten a lot of hate because the main gripe seemed to be the isolation it caused. .

I think part of the issue there was obligatory isolation. You had to be isolated for a lot of the features. The idea behind it could have been fun but the way they did it would likely have been better served as a guild keep with individual player options. For legion they added class halls and I'm not sure how that worked out, but it seemed odd that they focused on making sure mostly strangers saw each other instead of bringing guilds together again.

[Penthea]

I think part of the issue there was obligatory isolation. You had to be isolated for a lot of the features. The idea behind it could have been fun but the way they did it would likely have been better served as a guild keep with individual player options. For legion they added class halls and I'm not sure how that worked out, but it seemed odd that they focused on making sure mostly strangers saw each other instead of bringing guilds together again.

Yea I did mention the garrisons had too much functionality but if they were for guilds instead at least players would have been isolated from other groups while being together with their own. But no instead Blizzard somehow thought it was a good idea to give a small town to one player.

It's kind of funny because players have been asking for guild halls from the beginning and instead they isolate players or group up strangers based on their class. Apparently it's too complicated to understand what a guild hall is (?). Whatever there is to be said of SE, I haven't yet seen them make a habit of introducing massive features that don't align with what players want or need.

[Moonlite]

[QUOTE=Penthea;4113082 Whatever there is to be said of SE, I haven't yet seen them make a habit of introducing massive features that don't align with what players want or need.[/QUOTE]

Just off the top of my head Tokens, scrips, weekly lockouts, diadem, vermillion, GC restrictions, refusal to design around storage capacity, specialist recipes, hunts.

I quit WoW a long time ago. But I am told garrisons allowed better leveling and gathering. So no point to leave. No one is asking them to put mining nodes in houses. Next Balmung is a huge server the world isn't that full. You can count the number of players in some zone on your hands. People already afk congregate in a few spots. "Oh No, less people afk in idylshire and uldah." The open world thing is dead once you reach max level. We might as well make people walk to each instance before they can enter.

Let us also not forget the cross world party finder. Grouping with players you will never see. So SE can keep dead servers open. That's immersive as well.

Unless SE has some magical fix that makes the current system FAIR for all players. Not seeing another player when I am at a house is not much of a loss.

[Naunet]

I'm interested in your response to the first half of my post, if you'd care to share it. I'm not sure how much you know about WildStar's housing, as I don't find the comparisons to Garrisons to be at all... well, comparable.

[Penthea]

I'm interested in your response to the first half of my post, if you'd care to share it. I'm not sure how much you know about WildStar's housing, as I don't find the comparisons to Garrisons to be at all... well, comparable.

I can't comment on Wildstar housing as I have never experienced it.

[Naunet]

I was explaining why WildStar's housing is not comparable to Garrison's. You're worried about losing connection to the world and community with instanced housing, and I was pointing out that this doesn't happen with a fully fleshed-out housing system.

[Penthea]

I was explaining why WildStar's housing is not comparable to Garrison's. You're worried about losing connection to the world and community with instanced housing, and I was pointing out that this doesn't happen with a fully fleshed-out housing system.

It's not just about whether it's fully fleshed out or not, it's also about what direction it goes. Garrisons were very fleshed out and had a lot going on with them, but this didn't guarantee enjoyment. I have first hand experienced instanced housing/garrisons/caravans/whatever go very very wrong. Naturally I'm concerned about the idea of going through such huge disappointment again.

I seriously doubt SE will do what Blizzard did, but this doesn't mean they won't do something else wrong instead. I hope they will be very careful if they do bring in something drastically different. Great ideas don't always become great content.

[Solarra]

I think we should forget WoW's garrisons, they were never designed as player housing but more as a throwback to WoW's RTS roots. WoW's devs repeatedly said they did not see any place for player housing in the game.

The second point I'd like to make is this, I don't think anyone is suggesting we scrap the wards. I sincerely doubt Square would even consider it after they have spent so much time and effort creating them. However, there are huge issues with the present system: only a tiny proportion of players can buy a house and even with the demolition timer, many of the wards are dead. What we are suggesting is expanding the apartment system so they offer more space and have as much utility as a house, or simply that they add instanced player-housing as an option.
Is there a chance they might get it wrong? Of course, but the developers have definitely proven themselves willing to listen and make changes. We already have a flawed system, with the majority of players unable to buy a house. Not doing anything about this because the devs might not come up with the perfect solution straight away, isn't going to improve things.

[Penthea]

I think we should forget WoW's garrisons, they were never designed as player housing but more as a throwback to WoW's RTS roots.

They were not intended as player housing but did fill some of the roles player housing does. My concern about instancing all player housing is the isolation it causes. There are obviously ways to mitigate this, but Blizzard were hardly new to the mmo scene and still managed to forget the game thrives on players being together. I see people in this thread and others saying things like "SE should scrap everything and make an instance per house" whereas I think the game would benefit much more if SE found a way to make housing available to more players while still keeping places like wards in the game.

What we are suggesting is expanding the apartment system so they offer more space and have as much utility as a house

I have said similar a few times now. The first step SE really need to make is to address how basic apartments are. I think nearly every player expected a balcony where you could do a little gardening and decorating, given that apartments irl often have them. But they're not apartments really. They're just fc rooms outside of fc houses. Everything is the same and you basically cough up an extra 200k for not needing to be in a fc. Really not worth the money.

I think we haven't seen apartments improve since because they were added within the limitations of the wards. I don't know the tech behind it but I think we can safely assume SE would have added more and/or bigger apartments if it was possible from the beginning. I sincerely hope that they will do more than just add Shirogane and the fc house transfer in Stormblood. I think we can hope they are changing and updating the tech behind the wards given that the fc house transfer system would most likely require this. So maybe soon we will see really big changes. /crosses fingers

[Naunet]

Why are we still talking about Garrisons when Garrisons are not housing? >_>;