Fix Housing Megathread

[Jojoya]

The existing apartments should count as that initial housing.

While I don't completely disagree that may be the better approach if SE is going to stick with the ward system and not offer enhanced instanced housing, there's a pretty big problem with things as they currently are.

The game doesn't focus housing around apartments with houses being an extra. It focuses housing around houses while apartments don't even get a nod unless the player actually goes out of their way to talk to the Resident Caretaker and read through all the Housing Inquiry topics (which almost no one does). Apartments are only discussed in the 9th topic out of 16 and it doesn't even mention that apartments are not subject to demolition.

When you enter a housing district, what's the first thing you see? Houses (you also can see some of the merchant stalls in Goblet and Shirogane). Can you easily pick out something recognizable as a possible apartment building from the entrances? Nope. You can see the top of the towers for each of the apartment buildings if you know where to look but you're not going to go "Hey, I bet that's an apartment building" based on what little you can see.

The game isn't trying to get you interested in buying an apartment. It wants you to buy a house.

Apartments are nothing but an afterthought, not something to be sought. That's fair enough since they literally were an afterthought and not part of the original housing plan. Apartments didn't exist until mid-Heavensward even though we had houses back in ARR.

They were placed in an out of the way location, not in a position of prominence where they would gain attention. There's room in Lavender Beds and Goblet to place the buildings at the entrance (Mist would have been a problem) and SE could have swapped the location of the merchant stalls and apartment building when designing Shirogane so the first thing you see is the apartment building instead of the merchant buildings. It's confusing why SE didn't do that if the point was to get players to pick apartments and reduce the demand for houses.

If SE wants apartments to be the default housing players seek out first before trying to get a house, they need to revamp how players are introduced to housing in general and then add in an introduction to apartments specifically. They need to make it exciting to have an apartment.

Completely change the "Where the Heart Is" quests. Currently it's all about house plots and how wonderful they are and how the player will want one too - zero mention of an apartment anywhere in the quest. Instead, have the player talk to the NPC outside the wards as they currently do but instead of having the player talk to the other gatekeeper or walk into the boundary to be at a ward entrance, have the quest NPC send the player to the path leading to the apartment building so that's the first thing they see once in the ward. That will encourage the player to investigate it.

Move the GC personnel that continue the quest next to the apartment building entrance to further entice the player to enter. Have the NPC talk about how the city states added apartment housing to attract more adventures to the Grand Companies. Suggest that the player go inside the apartment building and talk to the Apartment Caretaker to learn more. Then mention that Free Companies and veteran adventurers may even get a chance to purchase one of the limited house plots available (ie make it clear that not every player will get one). The player can then go talk to the Apartment Caretaker or look around the ward before returning to the original quest NPC.

I would also suggest lowering the GC rank required for an apartment or FC private chambers to Third Sergeant while keeping the house requirement at 2nd Lieutenant. With the player qualifying for an apartment sooner, they're more likely to get one. When the requirement is the same, players will naturally hold out for the better option.