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.

[Themarvin]

Please add more housing space....

Large +200
Medium +100
Small +50
Apartment/FC room +25

Ty you very much SE if want to do this for us.

Other suggestion outdoor alll houses, add free spot for mailbox, aetherport + chobobo stable only for those 2 items to be extras or the likes, or just add mailboxes to any housing.

[not_ya_wify]

So that gives us the following items per tile numbers:

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

Thanks for putting some numbers to this issue. It’s really helpful to think about it this way. So, the apartments can place 3x as many items in the same amount of space as a large. That’s a huge difference!

So, that means the devs should be aiming for ca. 2 items per tile or if we are going by partition squares (a lot of the floor patterns and rugs have that exact size) we need 8 items per square.

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.

FYI — aetherites don’t take up item slots. You also can’t remove them after they have been placed. I think chocobo stables might be the same. I think they should do that for all of the interactive items that offer game functions like stables, mail box, message books, etc.

Also, agree that I would like to have a non-moogle message box. They really don’t fit with the Hingan decor...

[not_ya_wify]

I am very curious as to how your house looks. My fc house has still something like 80 slots left and the house looks quite full, aside from the upstairs but it won't need 80 slots to finish it. 15 at most.

Perhaps it's down to us using much larger furnishings so we get more for one slot.

If you can “fill” an entire floor with 15 items, I would assume that you’re not a decorator. This is an issue for people who put a lot of time and effort into decorating.

For example my bathroom sink here takes 26 items alone (not counting the partitions):

[Miles_Maelstrom]

They are always going to feel like not enough, because if you want to get creative you end up using a lot. You know how much I would want to change the floor of every room using different flooring things. Like the Combed rug to rug some rooms, but the combed rug is small, so you can't feasibly do it. It would take a good 6-8 to cover a nice sized living room.

[Themarvin]

They are always going to feel like not enough, because if you want to get creative you end up using a lot. You know how much I would want to change the floor of every room using different flooring things. Like the Combed rug to rug some rooms, but the combed rug is small, so you can't feasibly do it. It would take a good 6-8 to cover a nice sized living room.

Actually getting the ratios in order for housing limits would be enough if keep on adding beyond what suggested myself, then one would have a serious problem.

[Rymm]

If you can “fill” an entire floor with 15 items, I would assume that you’re not a decorator.

That's putting it a bit harshly, you might want to rethink your wording on this. As it is, it comes off extremely condescending. She said that she 80 slots left over after decorating most of her house but could finish filling up her top floor just using 15 of those. And there is absolutely nothing wrong in going with a sleek, less cluttered look in your interior designs anyway.

FYI — aetherites don’t take up item slots.

They absolutely do take a slot. So do the stables.

[Themarvin]

[QUOTE=not_ya_wify;4779341]If you can “fill” an entire floor with 15 items, I would assume that you’re not a decorator. This is an issue for people who put a lot of time and effort into decorating.

For example my bathroom sink here takes 26 items alone (not counting the partitions):

Uhm.. if you need to many spaces though you are not a decorator either, sorry I just noticed... also with large houses... it is the matter of the whole wide area containing a few classy things that make it difficult to do a large house most of all as well... decorating is not about putting 40 items into one single corner, it more or less show lack of effort spreading it out or unable to do stuff with current decorations without having to go advanced, so please don't call people out saying what they are andf what they are not... that bathroom more or less look like something from a 20 year old game as well

As for creativity it is a matter of using what got already and make it work, that is decorating... for 15 items in a room... very simple and elegant way of doing that... room with crafting the decoratings alone standout well enough to fill a room, or a kitchen... one of the rooms I made in my large house only contain 17 items in a wide spread and looks good.

[Jojoya]

Uhm.. if you need to many spaces though you are not a decorator either, sorry I just noticed... also with large houses... it is the matter of the whole wide area containing a few classy things that make it difficult to do a large house most of all as well... decorating is not about putting 40 items into one single corner, it more or less show lack of effort spreading it out or unable to do stuff with current decorations without having to go advanced, so please don't call people out saying what they are andf what they are not... that bathroom more or less look like something from a 20 year old game as well

As for creativity it is a matter of using what got already and make it work, that is decorating... for 15 items in a room... very simple and elegant way of doing that... room with crafting the decoratings alone standout well enough to fill a room, or a kitchen... one of the rooms I made in my large house only contain 17 items in a wide spread and looks good.

You both need to chill out a bit. Everyone has their own personal preferences when it comes to decorating. There are no standards that have to be met to be considered a decorator. There doesn't have to be a minimum number of items use nor a tight limit. Things don't have to placed only in small groupings anymore than every square inch has to be packed. It's what you personally want in your space that matters.

not_ya_wify's bathroom counter came out extremely nice considering the items we have to work with in the game. If you can do better for a bathroom counter, share screenshots with us. It would also be nice to see the screenshots of the entire room in your large that you decorated using only 17 items.