Petition for More Wards - ITS ABOUT TIME

[KayRadley]

Being a new player I would love to see housing availability. I recently got to the point where I can actually buy a small plot but there is absolutely nothing available...and it's ludicrous that you have 10 people camping plots as soon as they open. I've played many games and this one has some of the best features of any game I've played, except housing. It's astounding that there's such a want/desire by the community and yet there is nothing done to placate the paying customers.

One word.

Apartment.

[Qinari]

One word.

Apartment.

I'm curious, I've seen people say this and I don't get why it is they think an apartment that is very small, won't allow for gardening, you still have to clean the stables (that might be a perk if the apartment manager did it for you), have to go outside for a summoning bell or use one of few item slots you have for it, and don't have the option to relocate as house owners do, how is that a replacement for a house? Players can still have an apartment and a house, so I'm not quite understanding how one negates the desire for the other.

[Jojoya]

I'm curious, I've seen people say this and I don't get why it is they think an apartment that is very small, won't allow for gardening, you still have to clean the stables (that might be a perk if the apartment manager did it for you), have to go outside for a summoning bell or use one of few item slots you have for it, and don't have the option to relocate as house owners do, how is that a replacement for a house? Players can still have an apartment and a house, so I'm not quite understanding how one negates the desire for the other.

They were responding to a player talking about housing availability, not house availability. Apartments are a form of housing and they are available in decent to large quantities on every world. They at least satisfy part of what people are looking for until such time as they are able to purchase a house.

You can garden in your apartment with flowerpots, which will grow types of seeds than the outside garden plots won't. What you can't do is crossbreed seeds (which very few players with a house continue to do after their first couple of attempts).

I don't understand why you're mentioned the stables and summoning bell as negatives for an apartment. Stables have to be cleaned period. With an apartment, at least everyone with in an apartment in that building can share the responsibiity, not to mention also train other residents' chocobos (can only do that with a personal house if you have a tenant). Summoning Bell is still going to take up an item slot in a house just as much as it takes up a slot in an apartment. The difference is with an apartment, you 're going to be right by the Summoning Bell and Marketboard when you exit. With a house, you may have much farther to travel.

As for relocation, why would you want to relocate something that is going to look almost exactly the same regardless of what district the apartment is in?

You also failed to mention that apartments are significantly cheaper than houses. An apartment is only 500k compared to 3 million or more for a small house since it's unlikely any house on a NA world is going to devalue more than once before it's sold. An apartment is never subject to demolition. The only way you lose it is if you remove every single furnishing that is placed or stored in the apartment, then manually relinquish it from the Estate menu.

Apartments are definitely a good option for someone who wants access to housing while they wait to obtain a house.

[Qinari]

OK I see...I wasn't making the distinction between housing and house availability, thus why I asked.

As far as cross breeding I'm one of those people that does it, so to me it matters. The stable, because you have to grow the broom brush, then make the brooms if you don't want to spend a silly amount on the MB (speaking from when I was on another server). As for sharing responsibility, I'm not sure how that would happen. Maybe I'm a pessimist in this regard, but at the apartment I have on an alt the stable is always in horrible condition unless I clean it.

I mention the summoning bell because it just seems like a silly amount of zoning in and out, but that's me. As far as taking spots, 200 in a small house is quite a bit more than the 100 you get in an apartment. Again, just me.

Relocation, because if by some strange stroke of fate you have a house and see something in a location you like better, you can just click on the placard and your house is in a place you like better. I've been camping a number of placards that have been relocated to, so I know it's not just me.

I'm not saying apartments aren't an option, or even a good one, for people who don't have a house at all, I was just wondering why "apartment" seemed to mean if you can get one, which we all know you can, seemed to be a valid answer to the issue. Again, that was my not looking at it in the house vs housing perspective.

[Jojoya]

I'm not saying apartments aren't an option, or even a good one, for people who don't have a house at all, I was just wondering why "apartment" seemed to mean if you can get one, which we all know you can, seemed to be a valid answer to the issue. Again, that was my not looking at it in the house vs housing perspective.

It's an example of why SE might be having problems understanding NA and EU player frustration. Too many players keep saying "not enough housing" when what they really mean is "not enough houses".

If all people do is repeat "there's not enough available housing", SE has no reason to pay attention. There are plenty of unclaimed apartments on every world.

SE is already in the process of doing something to add more houses. That's what the Ishgard Restoration is about. Worst case scenario is it will be another standard housing district for players that will add another 1260 houses and 3780 apartments per world (slightly more than we would get if they added 5 new wards to each of the existing housing districts). Will that be enough? Not on the NA worlds, and probably not on the 4 highest pop EU worlds or the highest pop JP world. But it will help.

Maybe SE will also do some of the other things they've talked about, like adding in options for apartment size and making alts automatic tenants of houses owned by same account on the same world. Maybe there are even more changes in the works they haven't mentioned to us.

I know it's frustrating but players need to learn patience. We know the problem isn't being completely ignored. We know something is coming. Let's wait to see how it turns out.