Genshin Impact has better housing. Suggestion for 5.0 ...

[AdlerTakamura]

Video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQbzx8AD4gI

I have plenty of experience in FFXIV housing.
In my FFXIV lifetime, I've "used" 4 different houses:

- A mid plot in Mist, which belonged to my old FC
- A mansion, which I owned in Lavender Beds, and I had stolen from me
- A small plot, which I currently own in Mist
- A mansion in The Goblet, which belongs to my new FC

I don't know about you, but I've never benefited from the "social" aspect of housing (i.e. having neighborhoods). I visited a neighbor's house -ONCE- and hanged around for like 10 min, because said neighbor was on my FC alliance.

My other social interactions are limited to doing a poke emote to the Lala who is near the markerboard, who has a 1% change of not being afk and emoting back. Other than that, all around me are neglected houses with furniture from 2 years ago, or empty neighborhoods because multiple houses belong to a single FC/player.

The last time I enjoyed FFXIV Housing wasn't because I was casually strolling through my neighborhood. Neighborhoods are useless. It was because I got an INVITATION (remember this) to a certain out-of-the way plot of land, maybe in a subdivision of a different server, to a cool concert, or play, or halloween party.



Enter Genshin Impact housing less than 1 month ago.

GI Housing is in an early state, with few furniture options. But usage already is so much better. First, I don't have to battle bots for 12 hours to buy a measly small plot.

EVERYONE gets THREE HUGE PLOTS of land with MULTIPLE areas, where you can build up to THREE MANSIONS, and you can even build a SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD AROUND YOUR MANSION.

Currently you get a huge beach area and build your mansion there. You get a huge mountain area and build another mansion there. And you get a huge celestial area and build another mansion there. In total, 3 little sandboxes where you can place multiple houses, pets, trees, furniture, etc...

Everyone gets this FOR FREE... and oh, yes, Genshin Impact is a MOBILE GAME.

Want to visit other player's housing area, or want them to visit yours? All you need is to right click on a name, and click invite. Two clicks. Yes, the system works using an INVITATION.

Let's say you're playing FFXIV, and someone is hosting a concert on X plot of land. You have to go to the right city, aetheryte, click housing, access the division, teleport, walk to the house... YAWN. Just let us right click and get the hell inside the party. I don't give a damn where the house is located or what is AROUND the house I'm visiting.

Final Fantasy XIV needs instanced housing, and needs to forget the messy, resource-greedy, bot-infested, house-abandoned, suscription-dependant, black-marketed concept of neighborhoods.

In 5.0 we'll be getting our little own instanced "farm island" with minions, gardening, and stuff. It's the perfect moment to enable instanced housing. Let everyone have their own huge house to play with. Get rid of bots, gil-sellers, housing blackmarket, and all that crap all at once.

[Arielen]

They already said that island sanctuary isn't a replacement for housing. It's its own non-competitive pet and gardening thing. It's possible that it isn't even customizable or supporting of decorating.

Also, Genshin Impact is a new game that doesn't have to deal with 10 year old relic code and existing features which conflict with any possible update. The only way they could offer instanced housing for everyone in the playerbase by using the current system would be to expand on the apartment system, and they'd have to figure out a way of doing that without nuking everybody's current apartment.

[Bladehawk]

They mentioned that bigger apartments would come at the expense of the number of wards we have. It doesn't sound like the current system only needs to be expanded, it would need to be totally replaced.

[Arielen]

They mentioned that bigger apartments would come at the expense of the number of wards we have. It doesn't sound like the current system only needs to be expanded, it would need to be totally replaced.

Jesus, that's even worse.

Mind you, depending on the size of the apartments, I wouldn't mind having small/medium/large apartments over having more than 24 wards. Apartments don't expire; you can safely unsub and keep them, unlike standard housing.

[MilkieTea]

GI made 1bil USD in 6months from the mobile revenue ALONE.

roughly 3x the amount xiv made in a YEAR, and over HALF of xiv's gross revenue for the entire LIFESPAN of the game. When XIV can make that much money, then we can compare the two's housing situation, because it's clear one can afford it and one can't.

[ItMe]

GI made 1bil USD in 6months from the mobile revenue ALONE.

roughly 3x the amount xiv made in a YEAR, and over HALF of xiv's gross revenue for the entire LIFESPAN of the game. When XIV can make that much money, then we can compare the two's housing situation, because it's clear one can afford it and one can't.

Hooooly cow.
Where did you find those numbers?

[MilkieTea]

Hooooly cow.
Where did you find those numbers?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultas...h=2e2235452b80

https://mmos.com/news/square-enix-re...es-and-profits
https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Best...are-Enix_games

Mobile gaming is, unfortunately, becoming king. These companies can produce subpar gacha mmos and make millions to billions from inapp purchases, ad revenue, etc etc. (Not to say genshin impact itself is subpar but it's not even the biggest earner in the genre). They make their money by exploiting the addictive nature of children and teens who have access to their families credit cards. That Genshin Impact and other mobile games can afford to pay for the development costs of instanced housing or housing for everyone or prettier graphics and aesthetics means nothing other than they have more money.

Edit: Further discussion should be going: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ing-Megathread here

Any suggestions should be consolidated into that megathread.

[Jojoya]

Genshin Impact also isn't a MMO.

Certainly there's room for improvement in the housing system here but at least use housing from other MMOs as a comparison point to show what's possible.

[Sotaris]

Also can't really compare a 10+ year old engine with spaghetti code to a mobile game available on pc and consoles.
I agree housing needs improvement/overhaul but realisticlly I don't see it happening.

[Divinemights]

I already mentioned several time on this Housing forum that overall Japanese server technology is way behind the standard.
SE is pretty much the best you can find among Japanese gaming companies (just look at the how bad Capcom's multiplayer mode in their games)
Chinese and Korean are far more advance than Japanese
Guess what?
Genshin Impact is made by Chinese.
I really don't know the purpose of this topic since Japanese never have the same technology and skill (requires time and experience)