Expanding Housing limit

[Jojoya]

There is always a trade-off between space and item-to-space ratio (item ratio from here on). The smaller the space, the better item ratio. However, the smaller the space the more we are restricted on what we can do creatively. Most of my design plans are foiled because of spatial restrictions even in large houses.

I think the big problem for us as players is the drop in the item to space ratio is fairly dramatic instead of gradual, especially for large houses. The problem for SE is likely item loading since that's their concern with the outdoor ward areas and interiors aren't likely to be exempt from it.

I went around to various houses I have access to and used White Marble Flooring to get an idea of the relative decorating space in each. I'm excluding the stairwell areas in the tile count since the areas are shared between floors with sharp constraints on how we can use them.

Apartment/FC room: 6 by 8 tiles for a total of 48.

Small: top floor is 6 by 6 tiles plus an additional 4 tiles by the stairs, bottom floor is 6 by 10 plus another 4 by the stairs. Total: 104 tiles.

Medium: each floor is 7.5 by 12 tiles, less 12 tiles for the stairwell on the bottom floor, 24 for the ground floor and 12 on the top floor. Total: 222 tiles.

Large: I don't have interior fixture permission in my FC's large house so I got the following by using White Partition length (which is equal to 2 tiles). Large floors are 12 by 20 less 10 tiles for the bottom floor stairs, 35 for the ground floor stairs and 80 tiles on the top floor (the huge open space in the middle). Total: 595 tiles.

So that gives us the following items per tile numbers:

FC room/apartment - 2.1
Small - 1.9
Medium - 1.4
Large - 0.7

As someone who owns a medium, I feel like the 300 item limit is reasonable even if the ratio significantly less than what a small has. A lot of my item limit goes toward building a staircase to an upstairs loft and using partitions to hide some of the wall pilasters. A slight increase to 350 items would probably be perfect in my eyes though I know there are others that would still argue for more.

But larges really need a significant increase. The decrease in items to space is too extreme compared to what a medium experiences. They should have a limit of at least 600 items.

If anything, just making things like the Aetheryte, mail box, chocobo stable, and similar items a part of the house would help. A small house loses so many slots to items that EVERY house has/needs to have to be worth using/functional. I still do not understand why half of those items aren't in the exterior design menu like the optional chimneys and awnings.

If they made those things standard fixtures, we'd lose the ability to place them where we want just as we have no control over the placement of the awnings and chimneys. I'd love to use an awning but don't because it's not where I want it to be.

And no, not EVERY house needs/has those items. I don't use the stable or the mailbox. I kept my chocobo stabled at my apartment building until I got it to rank 20 and when I need a mailbox I go to where one is located. I'd agree that teleport to house should be standard so we don't need the Miniature Aetheryte (though I do use that for lighting effects in my yard and would miss it).

[InkstainedGwyn]

If they made those things standard fixtures, we'd lose the ability to place them where we want just as we have no control over the placement of the awnings and chimneys. I'd love to use an awning but don't because it's not where I want it to be.

I feel like they could add them as optional spots, like the way the chimney, awning, fence, and placard are optional. Keep the yard items for anyone who wants to place them somewhere other than default, let folks who are content with standard placement leave them in.

1) Aetheryte - should just be a standard "port to home", no item required. It's a meaningless step in how expensive the houses are anyway, it's not some significant milestone players have to save up for. We could then have aetheryte decorations for anyone who wants to use them. I also think they should expand the aetherytes to include versions that match the different ones we've seen on our travels (Idyllshire, Ok' Zundu, Kugane, Tamamizu, etc.)

2) Postbox - Either/or; should be a standard, built-in "postbox" on the signpost outside your house (or on the gate/next to the fence), a simple box with a letter and a moogle icon on it. If you want one of the others, you can place it yourself. And for the love of garuda can we have some mailboxes that aren't "whimsical" - I don't always have a "whimsical" garden/yard.

3) Chocobo stables - Either/or situation. Accept the built-in version (possibly even with a left/right checkbox to switch which side of the yard it's on) if you want it built-in; if you're willing to spend yard space, place your own wherever you want it. Also, again, different stable styles. Each housing area has its own stable style @ the apartments and it'd be nice if we could buy whichever one we wanted.

[MizArai]

I think the big problem for us as players is the drop in the item to space ratio is fairly dramatic instead of gradual, especially for large houses. The problem for SE is likely item loading since that's their concern with the outdoor ward areas and interiors aren't likely to be exempt from it.

I only quoted a small amount of that post, but if you haven't read it you should! I can't imagine how long it took to go to each house and count the tiles on all the floors and figure out the space for each house. I'm sure it was quite a bit of work!

To Jojoya - Thank you so much for this! I really don't think SE has considered how much extra space we get moving from an FC room/ apartment to a cottage to a house to a mansion. Your numbers really show how much of a difference there is, and why it can be so hard to decorate the larger spaces.

Also - /bump ;-)