Stop asking for more wards

[hiedra]

I know some people are against instanced housing because they love the neighborhood feel of our current housing system. But who says we can't have both?

Personally I think instanced housing would be great. This past year we've been seeing that SE had been leaning towards a more cross-server experience. First we had the cross server party finder, now we have a cross-server friend list. I think it's only a matter of time until we'll have cross-server Linkshells and maybe even cross-server MB. I think instanced housing would make something else possible: cross-server Free Companies.

[SendohJin]

The proper solution would be to fix whatever problems prevent adding lots more wards, and then add more wards.

i don't think it's a big secret. the problem is cost, so either they got a bigger budget for Shirogane or they figured out how to reduce the cost and used part of those savings towards the Shirogane wards.

there's no magical way to fix it that makes them free.

[Waliel]

I know some people are against instanced housing because they love the neighborhood feel of our current housing system. But who says we can't have both?

Personally I think instanced housing would be great. This past year we've been seeing that SE had been leaning towards a more cross-server experience. First we had the cross server party finder, now we have a cross-server friend list. I think it's only a matter of time until we'll have cross-server Linkshells and maybe even cross-server MB. I think instanced housing would make something else possible: cross-server Free Companies.

I wonder how well instanced wards would work. You could buy any plot in any area freely, and the game would do some semi-random magic to populate the instance with other player houses. Your neighbours would randomly change, but I guess that would be fine. I have no idea how feasible it would be to create something like this.

[SigmaOZ]

What does the FFXIV community think of instanced housing?

Wards are already instanced content and I believe increasing the number of them is a viable solution to the housing problem!...

I propose SE increases the number of wards as they fill up so there's never lack of housing, this way everyone can have their dream plot!...

I too wanted a large plot in Shirogane but by the time I finally logged in everything was sold!...

I don't like subdivisions either so all of the current ones could become main wards, subdivisions are inferior to main wards and they don't give me any sense of being inside a neighborhood, they are a simple copy/paste of a main ward but rotated 90 degrees, not to mention it's harder to navigate through the aetherites and they are not really active during events because the main wards get all the attention!...

[HyoMinPark]

Pardon me but if that is the problem for you, would you change your wiew on apartaments if they were to fix those points?
Not wanting to say you are wrong just want to know

It would depend on how the issues were fixed. Make apartments basically the equivalent of the different housing sizes (small, medium, or large [“studio”, “condo”, and “penthouse” I guess???]—prices of the “apartments” differ based on size one wants) or give it some sort of balcony to allow for gardening and cross-breeding of plants? Maybe. However, they still would not be a substitute for housing with regards to Free Companies. They would have zero access to a company workshop, for instance.

Really, I like the idea of current wards being converted to FC housing, and another ward added with instanced plots available for personal use—similar to apartments but more like a house with an instanced yard, larger interior for more customization, etc.. I feel like it’s a decent compromise between those who want full-blown instanced housing and those who want to keep the wards because of the “neighborhood-y feel” to them. Because my idea of the instanced personal housing ward would have it have the same outward appearance as any other ward: market boards, summoning bells, plots with simple/moderate houses in them, moderate/tastefully decorated yards, maybe even little “meeting areas” or “community areas” with Striking Dummies or something to promote socializing. Just the plots themselves would lead to virtually unlimited instanced plots. You could even allow for tenants (something else that apartments do not allow, and which I forgot to mention).

The developers already have the systems in place for housing and for instanced rooms (FC rooms/apartments...even the Inn Room). They would just need to combine the two systems for a instanced housing ward for personal use. It can be done; I don’t see any reason why they would be unable to do it. They just need to...how do I say... “come around” to the idea of it, and work towards implementing it. Even if it’s slowly, it’s still something.

[hiedra]

I wonder how well instanced wards would work. You could buy any plot in any area freely, and the game would do some semi-random magic to populate the instance with other player houses. Your neighbours would randomly change, but I guess that would be fine. I have no idea how feasible it would be to create something like this.

I don't know anything about game developing so idk if something like that is possible, but I think that it would be really fun to have something like that! (edit: my friend informed me that Wildstar has instanced houses with neighbors)
Would also be nice if you could set up your own neighborhoods made out of friend houses and whatnot.

[EthanParcival]

I just want a fair shot at a house, I don't care if its instanced or in ward, or if they have to sacrifice a blizzard developer for it... This login race where you need to "get in" during the first 20 minutes of a patch release to even get the chance to get a house its silly. SE set the rules, craft, or gather, and make gil... use the gil to get a house...

Whats the point of having a player dumping 4 years and over 600 dlls in a game to work on their crafters, getting over 100 million in their imaginary in-game currency when said players can't have the house because there are not enought plots in SE's makebelieve land?

Its just irritating that SE is creating this artificial scarcity of the housing plots...

[DamianFatale]

More wards could help, but we’d need at least double, or triple the amount.

[Dark-Saviour]

I can't speak for everyone, but I dislike apartments not because of the lack of a social aspect, but because:

--They're small
--You can't garden in them (I.e., cross-breeding plants)
--Small item limit (though at least they upped it to 100 with SB...)

These plus the inability to do any exterior decoration are the big issues for me.

Keep the wards if you must, but I'd honestly rather see apartments replaced with (or supplemented by) instanced 'Ranches'/'Homesteads'. A large swath of land in a variety of locales (Forest meadow, tropical island, mountain estate, subterranean grotto, etc.)
where you can freely place a house (or even potentially multiple structures) and add large external facilities (pool, archery range, tennis court, etc.)

Ideally with the interior(s) and exterior sharing the same instance so there is no secondary loading involved... That's actually one of the reasons I lost interest in wards; if the interior of each house was part of the same instance as the ward itself, I'd be more inclined to defend them, ghost town or not, but since they're not, this makes the wards truly empty and pointless. :-/

[AstralKaos]

I know some people are against instanced housing because they love the neighborhood feel of our current housing system. But who says we can't have both?

That's the idea. But those that are violently opposed to instance are sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming loudly, because they think people are asking for wards to be completely removed and replaced - which is absolutely not what anybody is asking for.

Repeat: Nobody is asking for wards to be removed, along with that sense of having a neighbourhood... even if that only happens in two or three wards per datacenter (yes, datacenter) and is probably confined to one corner of that ward -- if that. We're not trying to take existing wards away.