How would have implemented housing in XIV?

[Keridwyn]

Fully instanced plots that are customizable to resemble the zone of your choice. Wanna live in a bubble under the Ruby Sea, sure! Floating sky island in the Sea of Clouds, you got it, chalet in Ishgard, no problem.

Outside of that dynamic wards with a uniform plot size and only plot grades to vary the prices. When one ward fills the next is generated.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Instanced neighbourhoods.

- Each person has access to an instanced house
- Estate access would allow up to 3-5 houses to load together

For those who have played The Sims 4, this is essentially where I borrowed the idea from. It keeps the community aspect, but shifts it onto player choice. Instead of having random strangers who you may never speak with, or even see, you can create a small neighbourhood with a select few friends.

If this were too big a resource strain, instanced housing would be my alternative. For cost saving measures, make Medium sized houses the only option for Personals, thus there wouldn't be a need to accommodate for thousands of Larges. Conversely, increase the size of smalls and allow for separate rooms ala FC. I really have no idea why that isn't a thing even now.

[Mahrze]

...

I was thinking the same thing in regards to how housing should work at this point. Thought my thought was instanced neighborhoods with a reservation queue. Each lot could be upgraded with facilities to expand on the things people want:

* Additional floors/rooms.
* Plot size.
* Workshop: Not just the FC one, but a workshop to help you with crafter stuff like the 2.0 tables but a facility.
* Greenhouse: Which can be expanded and help with gardening instead of the paltry options we have now.
* Stable: Actual stables where you can see your favorite mounts run around. This would not limit you to summon them in the field.

[Besame]

Very hard to fix what came into being as broken in the first place. I would of started with instanced housing to begin with. One look around the MMOs a few years ago and anyone with a clue would of seen how popular housing was and what other MMOs were doing to provide it. Working out of the box doesn't seem to be SE's strong suit. Now they are just working with a box of bandaids and bandaids don't hold water...

[Anya_Nya]

Have a combination of both instanced and none instanced housing. You would still have existing housing plots just like how they are now, but in each zone, there would be one added plot that would be instanced to you. Similar to how garrisons work in WoW, when you go near that plot, it would automatically display how you decorated it. It would be a large plot of land which you could slowly unlock, starting with a small house on the large plot, which you could unlock as a medium house and eventually a large house.. through a combination of money and quest line. This way if you didn't care if people saw your house, you could just stick with this instanced house.. If you like to show off your decorated home, you would go for one of the public houses. I know they have this with apartments, but one tiny room just isn't enough.. maybe even expand apartments to have several roomed versions that you could purchase. Luxury apartments that have several rooms and even different "views".

[Rufalus]

Likewise I think I would have gone with instanced from the start just because it's a lot easier. However the wards are kinda cool and it looks like this system may work fine eventually on all but the most congested worlds now that they are putting restrictions in place and the number of wards available is getting high. I don't know if it was worth the increased server load/cost on their side. If the expense of maintaining this system is not too high I'd call it a win. They are going to work on adding features to the apartments and making other housing features available to people who have no plots.

[Septonyte]

I like the housing ward layouts as they are now... but there are some changes I would have loved to see implemented instead of just the "Toss more wards at it" method SE have taken. So here is what I would have done.

1) Keep each ward to 1 ward (no subdivisions for this system.) *This may not be possible if the housing server is too full of houses.

2) A player may go up to the placard of ANY house and "purchase" it. They may then enter the instance for their front yard via the placard - it will move them into the front yard of their instance.

3) Once in the instance, which begins as an empty plot just like in the current system, they may then do the housing thing. The "surrounding area" is exactly like the area outside the instance (you just don't see any other players run by while in your instance.)

*** That's the actual player side of the housing but there are three more things I want this system to do. ***

4) The wards are not actually empty, nor are they made up of "Generic Houses". Instead, at regular intervals, the houses are randomly selected from the houses on each plot. This would give people a chance to show their plots to the ward AND give incentive to decorate their front yards and houses.

5) If a player's house is chosen then it will be the house people see and can interact with as they walk around the ward so this keeps the ward "open" so we can still cut across yards. Also, the displayed yard is separate from the instanced yard; once set, the ward's displayed yards and houses will not changed until the next re-roll.

6) The placard menu allows you to select to either go straight to your house, go to a friend's house on the same spot (a small list appears for this one), or view a list of all houses on the same spot (for the RPer events). The full list should also be filterable by FC/personal and sorted alphabetically.

I also have an idea for instanced housing but would need to flesh it out a bit more.

[SofiIre]

I would say, the only issue, is that you would still have almost everyone going for larges and mediums leaving the smalls to always look like empty plots. However, I like where your head is at.

[Vhailor]

I would say, the only issue, is that you would still have almost everyone going for larges and mediums leaving the smalls to always look like empty plots. However, I like where your head is at.

In fairness, this is more due to the design of small houses themselves. They simply aren't big enough. I originally purchased a small house when I returned to XIV about a year and change ago; it almost immediately felt cramped to the point of being unpleasant, and within a couple of months I freely demolished it (completely sacrificing the money and time invested) to upgrade to a medium. It's not that I wanted the status of a medium, nor did I care about the extra Gardening plots; I simply wanted enough space to add the functional items I'd use (merchants, etc.), and a few odds and ends, without the house feeling immediately cluttered.

SE should either add a third level to small houses, or increase the size of the two stories it has. Incidentally, even adjusting it so that the houses are two above-ground stories (vs. ground level and basement) would be an improvement; for people who are wanting to create a bedroom of sorts, the existing design is atrocious. This was a factor for me, and I'm not even much of a decorator.

[Septonyte]

... the only issue, is that you would still have almost everyone going for larges and mediums leaving the smalls to always look like empty plots.

I mostly agree with this and I also didn't think of that. Maybe a price hike on mediums and larges would be a good way to slow that down. If there is no price hike then maybe a "stock house" selection for empty plots which includes yard setups.

I would also like to say that my dream plot is actually a specific small plot in Shirogane and I know a few players who want specific small plots for various reasons.

... this is more due to the design of small houses themselves. They simply aren't big enough. ... it almost immediately felt cramped to the point of being unpleasant...

I agree the size of a small house is way too small, especially the upper floor. Both floors should be at least as large as an apartment.

... SE should either add a third level to small houses, or increase the size of the two stories it has. Incidentally, even adjusting it so that the houses are two above-ground stories (vs. ground level and basement) would be an improvement; for people who are wanting to create a bedroom of sorts, the existing design is atrocious.

This too since I was part of an FC with a small house in the goblet. It was plot 46 and there is a tunnel under the house from the inner circle of The Goblet to the outer circle of The Goblet. The mind-screw for me was that the tunnel cuts straight through where the basement would be. We joked it was where we "hid the bodies". SE wouldn't even need to change the ward's small houses to be bigger, they could just say it is the same magic that allows 500 apartments to be attached to an FC.