Nope you didn't add enough plots SE...

[Shougun]

I would love to see some more features that grow, some might be akin-ish to Garrison, but I think in a general sense of just simply adding instanced housing (either apartments getting upgraded or whatever other option) that Jojoya has the exact right of it.

I wouldn't worry about that personally.

Although on that note, assuming SE doesn't use it for the housing system, I think Airships could be pretty cool feature to the game that has some of the concepts WoW's Garrisons had. Some mission table stuff, perhaps adding a new use to your Squadrons (where trusts are now taking their place), and because it works within the zone ideally it would be an even smoother experience and less of a issue than garrisons. Say for example you could hear the shout chat if your airship was about Limsa, and while there would be some war table, chocobo, or whatever cool new progression features, they'd not add market boards so you'd definitely still have to go into town. As well seeing your airship from town would be cool, so many might park their ship outside and then leave just to see their ship like that.

I like the idea of an outpost / garrison but you just have to make sure it doesn't demand players attention 24 / 7 or can easily substitute the rest of the world. That and I also think the garrison concept is memory lite enough that it could work well in our current landscape where houses take so much memory that they're hard for SE to add (from 20 nodes of options you could have vastly different looking ships - and due to their interior exterior design could hopefully be easy to quickly load within zone and display, unlike needing the 200+ houses require), and they'd also be auto-decorated in a sense (you get options but like Inn rooms SE puts down the objects of the theme you choose) which is a bonus for many players who don't want to be decorators. Of course WoW had limited visual options, which I'm not suggesting to replicate, here you'd get to design your airship with rooms and exterior choices such that each person's airship could look very different (while still offering some awesome features like a garrison might have and behave as a nice progression system to be your buddy).

[Almagnus1]

WoW garrisons were not housing (you couldn't even have your own bed) and they were intended to be used and then left behind. There was extremely little customisation to the point that your garrison looked nearly identical to everyone's garrison in your faction, and after the WoD expansion it became irrelevant.

Housing content in FFXIV is significantly more advanced than the WoW garrisons. But what WoW did correctly with them was having them phased so that every player could have their own on every character.

Well, it shows what NOT to do.

I like the idea of an outpost / garrison but you just have to make sure it doesn't demand players attention 24 / 7 or can easily substitute the rest of the world. That and I also think the garrison concept is memory lite enough that it could work well in our current landscape where houses take so much memory that they're hard for SE to add (from 20 nodes of options you could have vastly different looking ships - and due to their interior exterior design could hopefully be easy to quickly load within zone and display, unlike needing the 200+ houses require), and they'd also be auto-decorated in a sense (you get options but like Inn rooms SE puts down the objects of the theme you choose) which is a bonus for many players who don't want to be decorators. Of course WoW had limited visual options, which I'm not suggesting to replicate, here you'd get to design your airship with rooms and exterior choices such that each person's airship could look very different (while still offering some awesome features like a garrison might have and behave as a nice progression system to be your buddy).

IMO the best way forward with the garrison is make it a building project that's a collaboration between Garlond Ironworks and your GC, then make it basically your new Squadron Room instead of the one you have now with however SE decides to improve the squadron. That way you get your mobile base, it can be decorated like a house, but it's got a bit of function beyond a house so it's not a 1:1 replacement of a house (so you can still have an actual house if you wish), and if you give it the ability to cross garden, you reduce the demand on housing.

The trick, though, is to make it interesting enough that people WANT to use it, but not so compelling that we have the Garrison solo RPG problem.