Housing: there has to be a better way

[Welsper59]

Adding instanced housing would only take away from the neighborhood feeling we get the way it is now. In the end it boils down to people wanting more plots, which is easily solved by adding more wards. Whether SE can do that or not is up to them.

I'd argue that SE is starting to slowly be accepting of moving away from the neighborhood feel limitation. I think it's great to have that sense of a community, but at this point, most probably could not give a damn in the slightest if it means having a house or not.

I honestly think apartments was a waste of resources. It's nice in theory, but it sort of misses the point when it comes to what people actually want. A desirable scenario would be to have what we do now, with the neighborhoods and apartments, but also have an option for instanced housing for those who cannot get the current.

SE probably won't have the server resources to handle unique/customizable backgrounds currently, but a set one for each location should be plausible. I mean, the hidden or barren areas in housing zones could be an example of backgrounds for those instanced houses. Like the hidden beach or small onsen for Shirogane. It solidifies a tier system that anyone can aim for AND removes a ton of gil from the economy. Instanced housing allows for the possibility of an individual or FC to change their plot to whatever size freely.

[frostmagemari]

I'd argue that SE is starting to slowly be accepting of moving away from the neighborhood feel limitation. I think it's great to have that sense of a community, but at this point, most probably could not give a damn in the slightest if it means having a house or not.

Honestly, there is a way to do both. Have more houses and more sense of community; and it would have been so easy to do (if they started with it); they could probably revamp everything to do this, but it would obviously take a bit of work to change what's currently there.

What they needed to do is essentially make every house into an "apartment."

Have a single ward, and have placeholder houses on each plot with an assortment of themed yard items for whatever ward it was in. (table, chairs, etc)
Then have a placard in front of every home (just off the property) with the options "buy home" or "enter home"
You would allow multiple people to buy homes at a single plot and use the placard to browse through people who are living in that space as you would apartments. (Possibly adding a search option for first name or FC name)
Once you use the placard to enter a home, you're then taken to an instance for each individual owner and the house can work as it does now. (Yard and all, since we know SQE has no problem with instances inside instances with private quarters and airship rooms)
Then, add more social gathering spots in the wards themselves.

Honestly.. if they did something like this, you would have more people mingling outside of the homes and more traffic giving it a busy feeling instead of having everything spread across twelve wards; and they wouldn't need to worry about adding more wards and just opening up more housing instances.
Is it nice for everyone to see your house and the work you put into it? Maybe, but to everyone around you, seeing your house (no matter how beautiful or horrendous) loses it's appeal after the second time a person sees it.

I really like the neighborhood feel. But I don't understand why -- with this new server move and upgrade -- they couldn't add more wards to the existing areas in addition to the ones opening with Shiro?

Sometimes i think by move, they meant picking up the hardware and just setting it down somewhere else after a bumpy truck ride... and by upgrade, they meant buying new cables 'cause old ones were fraying too much...