How to Fix Housing while keeping Neighborhoods

[Daniolaut]

- Restrict housing districts to Free Companies.
- Create player housing private instances.
.

This not only fixes the entire mess created by allowing players to share housing with Free Companies, but also keeps Yoshida to his word that player housing would be cheaper than Free Company housing,

and more importantly....

This fixes the dead empty housing districts. With districts being restricted to Free Companies, there would be much more player traffic in these zones, making them feel more lively.

Edit:
Oh this would also fix the need for Alt FC's and house flipping.
Especially if you allow alts to share the same Private instance house.

Buuuuuuuuuuuut that would be the sensible thing to do, and this is FFXIV .... which is anything but! lol

-The more gil the player has, the larger their house.
-The more achievement points the player has, the more they can expand the housing item limit, and gardening options in the Mog Garden.

This would incentivize players who were "grandfathered" into owning multiple plots, if you restrict the players who currently own a house, from purchasing a private instanced house.




In which case, I do believe I literally solved every single problem with housing using only features that already exist in FFXIV except I added the mog garden, which if FFXI can do it, FFXIV can.
Unless of course FFXIV's servers are smaller and older than FFXI's???

[Daniolaut]

In which case, I do believe I literally solved every single problem with housing

Actually there is one thing that might not be fixed by your suggestion....


If this system is in fact exactly what was intended.

Considering this statement, and the current state of things, it very well seems intentional?

"Originally posted by FFXIV Producer"
A: In older MMOs, such as Ultima Online, there was a house maintenance fee you had to pay weekly, but in FFXIV: ARR we decided against this system. Similarly, these older MMOs also had a system where your house would break down if you didn’t log in after a while in order to have you continue your subscription, but this is a thing of the past and we won't have any system like that.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-%2810-30-2013

[Sairys]

In which case, I do believe I literally solved every single problem with housing using only features that already exist in FFXIV except I added the mog garden, which if FFXI can do it, FFXIV can.
Unless of course FFXIV's servers are smaller and older than FFXI's???

It sacrifices the neighbourhood element for individual players though which is a big enough selling point it seems to come up when people suggest instances as a solution. But I also think that there's actually a way you could improve that concept with instances.

Basically, you have your house plot and a locale. You'd be able to unlock locales for free, through quests, achievements, mog shop, etc and they'd all have entrances somewhere out in the world where interested players could browse through and visit them if open (think the apartment lobbies/fc room door).

You could also let players (mayors?) and FCs create a "neighbourhood" which would be kinda like the current wards but varying in size and set up as an actual instance. The FC leader or mayor would pick a locale that allows neighbourhoods and it becomes accessible the same way as the instances. Other players/FCs could then request to join the neighbourhood which would drop their existing house plot into their chosen plot in the neighbourhood, you could also set up community features for it like boards and the like.

Ideally, it would mean that for FCs who want to have their house in an awesome spot surrounded the houses of their members they could do that, FCs who instead want to group up with other FC houses can do that too. People who just want a house and aren't fussed on the ward idea wouldn't join one, while other people who enjoy the idea more could find a neighbourhood that suits them.
You could have neighbourhoods dedicated to a certain aesthetic ("No paissa houses!", "This is a catboy haven"), maybe they decide themes for different areas (like... the island in lavender beds for plots 6-11 could be the entertainment area with cafe/club/shop themed houses), or just eclectic ones where anyone can make anything.

I think it might even make things better for people who like wards, because you're joining a community of people who likely want the same sort of thing for the look of the ward rather than, really, ending up wherever you are and if it's next to an ugly house you hate... pray for another plot to open up and try there?