One Housing Solution: Radical and Yet So Simple

[Fennra]

The housing system has always been flawed. Certainly a unique approach, designed to promote a sense of community, but flawed. In the beginning the vast amount of gil required to purchase plots was the biggest barrier, but with time and inflation cost was no longer an issue, and with the ever increasing exclusive benefits of owning a house demand skyrocketed. Most servers were never able to keep up with demand. Not just the demand for a house itself, but also the demand for plots.

There are only three large plots available per division, and on top of that housing benefits scaled with plot size. For all those house owners who loved to craft and wanted all the crafting stations, well if you weren't lucky enough to get a large, you're out of luck. For all those who wanted to have a Junkmonger, Material Supplier, Mender, Maidservant, AND Melder, if you weren't lucky enough to get a large, you're out of luck. For all those who love gardening, intercrossing, planning out beds where three would be so worth the price, if you weren't lucky enough to get a large, you're out of luck. Because in the system if you're lucky enough to get a house at ALL, it will almost certainly be a small you're able to get a hold of.

It's not just size, people who took tours of Shirogane walked around looked at the sights and set their hearts on THAT plot that was perfect for them. Even though they knew they would probably have to settle on whatever they could get to first, IF they could even get to ANYTHING first.

This community zone based housing is nice in concept, but it just doesn't work. 80-90% of house buyers now are individuals. Free Companies rail against the greed of individuals when they could be buying a house for many to share. Individuals long to have a house they can personalize and utilize any way they wish, without being restricted by Free Company permissions. In this implementation of housing 95% of people are unhappy. Housing as it exists now is flawed.

My radical and yet simple suggestion is this: Extend the instance of a house to the fence line. In effect, make each plot an apartment building, where each plot can be purchased 512 or however many necessary times. This would be the equivalent of adding 256 wards, with a fraction of the overhead. You could even eliminate all wards and subdivisions down to one zone, which would greatly increase community interaction at summoning bells/market boards.

Not only would the community benefit, but those who were willing to save up for a large plot would actually have one available to purchase. Those who had their heart set on THAT plot, would actually be able to get it. Congested servers could have their plot limit increased to a number that would work for them.

I know some people would have a knee jerk reaction that this just wouldn't work. But i really think most of the infrastructure is already there, and it wouldn't be THAT hard to implement. And I think it would be much less resource intensive than adding entire wards/subdivisions. It would solve so many problems.

I know there would be downsides, in that many people take pride in their outdoor decorating, and it would only be visible when visitors/tenants actually enter their instanced lot. From the street the houses would have generic appearances. You couldn't jump off the back fence for a shortcut. But it would come with so many up sides. Just think, people with large houses could walk out to their balcony because the house wouldn't need to be instanced inside their plot instance. The larger benefit would be just people being able to BUY a large house.

Current placards could serve like ward/personal room/appartment entrances. The three most common activities at housing is mogmail, retainers, and marketboard, so if we were to actually implement this, for quality of life I would suggest every plot have mogmail outside plot entrances, or at the summoning bell/markeboard zones.

So, would you be willing to sacrifice the public display of your house, the ease of exiting out the back fence, in exchange for you, your company, your friends actually HAVING a house? Please post your thoughts, and if you feel like I do that it would solve so many things, let the developers know.