Housing Suggestion

[RavenSaint]

I would like to see a housing ward where the entrance is at the gate of the plot. Give me a moment to explain this.

This is for one ward in each main housing area. So Gridania, Limsa, Ul'dah, etc. Every area that has housing. This would allow players to have their own little piece of FFXIV to decorate and enjoy their creativity. The gate entrance ward will be for instanced housing. Like the Apartments and Inn rooms are instanced. The ward is pre-decorated for each plot, but the instanced house plot gives the player and their tenants the full plot to decorate, design, and all the same things you can do with a regular plot out in the current wards. The only difference is that it wouldn't be visible on the ward's pathways. You'd be able to open it to public, just like the Apartments, but it would be instanced just like the Apartments.

Basically, because the coding is already in the game. Instanced Apartments, Inn Rooms, and technically the "locked" houses. Each "Special" Ward would be a mirror of the other wards with two exceptions. The first would be that the Developers would be the ones to decorate each housing plot in the style of that particular region, which would give them the opportunity to further express their creative talents. And the second would be that the "entrance" target would be on the "Gate" of the home instead of the front door. So from the outside, everyone would see what the Developers did for decorations. However, once the player "enters" the plot, it is like the housing plots we see now, empty and ready to be decorated to the players hearts content. The players would be able to invite other players or grant "tenant" status to the same number of players/individuals as with the other homes. The only difference is that no one on the outside would be able to see what the player had built, just what the Devs had designed.

This way everyone can have a house if they want, and if they want to have the "Prestige" of showing "Everyone" how they decorated their home, they can either have it open to the public, or just like everyone else, stand at a placard and click in the hopes of being able to purchase a "visible" plot. Thereby eliminating the "Relocation" steals that many of us have experienced. With something like this in place, it would help to eliminate the animosity that tends to build up amongst players who are trying to get a place to call their own, that is more than an apartment that doesn't even have the amenities that a Inn room has. It also satisfies the ones who want to have their homes visible to the world, because they can still do that, the same way it is being done now.

Open wards should have a limitation to players who abandon their plots (x amount of time not using the plot), even though they are actively playing the game. There are some active player decorators out there that bend over backwards to make their plots look good all year round for public view.

[RavenSaint]

One thing I wouldn't change is the 45 day demolition timer for inactive player accounts. This will help free up memory on the game's servers. I'd just include the inactive plots as well. Though the latter is my opinion, as I listen to the other players as we sit at a plaque seeing if one of those waiting, got lucky and got the plot before someone relocates to what we have been waiting for hours to possibly get. There are a lot of ideas tossed around during those waits.

I leave this open for discussion. I hope that it can be fleshed out better or get seen by a developer who has been looking for a housing solution. I've played other games with housing where you get a plot of land to decorate with house included. ESO, Everquest 2, SWTOR, etc. All of which have instanced housing.

[Jacqora]

My housing suggestions would be this:

1. Let players buy wards from the mogstation, allowing only one ward to be bought per account
   
   
2. Put the player-bought wards on the public list of wards of whichever residential district they chose for it during the purchasing process (Lavender Beds, The Goblet, etc...)
   
   
3. Allow players that buy a ward to name it, as well as the streets within it (obviously adding a filter so the names aren't bad)
   
   
4. Allow the player that bought the ward to choose one plot in the bought ward to permanently own, with no worries of it getting removed or put up for sale for inactive play periods, etc
   
   
5. The bought wards will be added permanently to that public list and never taken down, so players that choose to buy their plots and live there don't have to worry about the ward being deleted
   
   
6. Other current housing methods can remain, other inactive player houses can still be removed, but there should be enough wards with this new method that there will be enough spaces for player housing without a huge overhaul
   
   
7. Housing space solved. Memory space for the wards is bought and paid for by the players

That way there is enough wards in residential districts for players to build their houses in, and the game has more income to support the extra memory or whatever it needs for the change.