Instance Housing as Alternative Option to Wards

[Lurial]

Wards consume far too many server resources in exchange for too few houses to be a sustainable long-term option. Adding more wards is a bandaid on a broken leg.

If it is feasible with FFXIV's current infrastructure/server resources, I strongly urge Square Enix to provide players with an instanced housing option, not as a replacement, but as a second alternative to Housing Wards.

Players who badly want neighbors can try their luck with wards. Players who don't can have an instanced home. Two ways this can be implemented are:

Option 1) A gate in each city that when interacted with, leads the player their own personal instanced S/M/L housing plot with a lawn.

Option 2) Allow apartments to be upgraded to the size of a S/M/L house. This sacrifices lawns, but makes apartments a viable alternative to houses.

With both options, players could keep upgrading the size of the instanced plot or apartment with more gil.

[Lurial]

EDIT: Removed my suggestion about an account-wide cooldown for plot purchases. Someone else brought up people having characters on different servers, which was something I hadn't considered.

[Draconous]

Instanced housing was one of the two options offered to us when they first introduced the idea of PoH to the XIV fan base. We chose wards. We chose community neighborhoods. We chose this fate. They told us the limitations of both systems, and we chose the one we have.
Now after all the programming has been put into place, you want to take it back. Ask them to rewrite everything so that we all can get a slice of land, isolated from each other in lonely little single house plots.
I’m going to say no to this. We made our bed, and I for one am happier with the system we have over the system that games like Wildstar and Rift have in place. Everyone gets a free house, and most of them sit empty all the time. At least this way we remain interactive with each other and the plots and wards get used.

[Alesia]

Everyone gets a free house, and most of them sit empty all the time.

You are aware that a majority of wards sit as just that, right? Barren, empty, unused. There is no "Community" that comes from housing wards unless you have an FC beside another, it's the only time you actually see people at housing at all. They should have never added the option to make plots purchasable as personal and new wards should be FC Only. Personal homes should be kept instanced, like apartments, while also offering a yard and the ability to have guests, events, whatever hosted out of it.

On our server Shirogane has maybe... 20 plots that are FC. The other 700 plots are all personal locking FC's out of houses, workshops, company crafting, diadem ventures, and more. No FC should be punished because becky wants her 3rd Lavender Beds mansion that will sit barren for over a year before being sold for over 200mil gil.

[Taihellfire]

Heres the deal. Even in current system on Balmung alone I can think of around a dozen houses that sit empty. For us thats a lot. So that argument sorta falls flat, it happens on all servers instanced or not. Wards for FC’s and instanced for personal isnt a bad option. I would not however limit the purchasing to the account but the server. Why? I know several people who split their time between two servers.
As for those who obtained their personal housing? They keep it, however getting to would change. You keep your tp and simply go to a different gate. Because you could honestly turn the apartment system into personal housing. Give plays the option of an apartment, small, medium or large (add more space instead of being capped at 90)

[Taihellfire]

Boom, you know have opened up room for FC’s to grow and expand because all those personal houses are now cleared out WHILE still keeping your personal housing.
Cause TBH I see the most use of yards done by FC’s for events. I mainly see events hosted at FC’s. So from someone who has owned 2 personal houses at different times on Balmung I can stand by saying I’d rather see a system like this put in.
Also would drop the scalpers and flippers down a bit because now it’ll take time to make and lvl an FC to buy land instead of just picking up a personal to flip.

[IrisBlanchimont]

Neighborhoods are great from a roleplayer’s perspective because it fosters a sense of community. They also encourage people to go to one another’s houses and explore and gain inspiration. Wards make housing a community resource instead of just a personal vanity project. Could the system be better designed, yes. Are there improvements needed, yes. I would love to see FC-exclusive wards, especially looking at how on Balmung’s Shirogane a vast majority of the plots went to individuals and a lot of FCs remain homeless. But the idea of trying to call a do-over and refocus on instanced housing instead of wards is a huge, huge disappointment to me.

I do think that an account-wide cooldown might not be a terrible idea, and I would love to see FC-exclusive wards implemented. I worry, though, that in an effort to solve the problem quickly the community would be willing to trade what is, I think, one of the central benefits to the housing system we've labored under.

[Claviusnex]

At least this way we remain interactive with each other and the plots and wards get used.

What interactions with each other? I have seen one person in my ward and others I have walked through in the year and a half since I bought my house. That includes visits to FC houses. Anecdotally my experience is the rule not the exception. I had a more active instanced housing situation in Wildstar with its housing chat channel and frequent open houses. While less than Wildstar even Rift had more activity than I've seen here.

By the way the OP is saying fully instanced as an alternative so those that would rather suffer waiting for a ward based house can.

[Strywin]

I'd love if they went with option 1 because I like the idea of having a plot of land where I can decide on whether I want a small, medium or large should the individual or FC has the funds. I'd like to see the wards stay, they're not going anywhere but having instanced housing added for those that don't care about being in a neighborhood is not a bad thing. The two can co-exist for sure, plus instanced housing is not as isolated as people claim it to be or at least doesn't have to be. Having it instanced could also mean we could invite our friends over that are stuck on other servers on which ever data center you're apart of possibly.

[Lurial]

Since there seems to be some confusion, I went and changed the bolding in my original post.

I am absolutely not saying to gut wards and replace them all with instances. SE invested too much into them already. They just added swimming areas. They are not going to get rid of wards after all of that work and it is silly to ask them to - especially for players who actually don't mind participating in the Great Housing Hunger Games just to have some neighbors to interact with.

I was saying that for anyone who doesn’t mind giving up having neighbor to interact with - if it is feasible with current infrastructure and resources - to provide an alternative, separate, instanced housing option.

You all get to keep wards and interact with your neighbors. Anyone who is antisocial or just wants to have a house already and is willing to miss out on having neighbors can get an instanced plot.