Instanced Wards

[Almagnus1]

So while SE seems pretty adamant on the wards, what I would like to see is an instanced ward, but tied to the FC. In other words, the FC would pay like half a billion gil (or something pretty steep that is going to take some work) and be able to unlock a ward and place the FC house on any of the properties in that ward. After that initial house has been purchased, members of the FC can buy a personal house at any of the remaining properties at a reduced rate, and then build it out.

This way we get a neighborhood that is the FCs to populate as they see fit, we get to build a neighborhood of friends, and everyone wins.

These instanced wards should be in addition to the usual wards, and the existing housing should remain unaffected.

[Jojoya]

So while SE seems pretty adamant on the wards, what I would like to see is an instanced ward, but tied to the FC. In other words, the FC would pay like half a billion gil (or something pretty steep that is going to take some work) and be able to unlock a ward and place the FC house on any of the properties in that ward. After that initial house has been purchased, members of the FC can buy a personal house at any of the remaining properties at a reduced rate, and then build it out.

This way we get a neighborhood that is the FCs to populate as they see fit, we get to build a neighborhood of friends, and everyone wins.

These instanced wards should be in addition to the usual wards, and the existing housing should remain unaffected.

What happens when the FC leader and/or officers decide they don't like Lavender Beds anymore and want a Shirogane ward instead?

What happens when the FC has more than 29 members so not everyone gets to purchase a plot (my FC has 67 unique members as of last count plus several dozen alts as an example)?

What happens when someone leaves or gets kicked from the FC?

What happens when an officer has their account compromised and the thief kicks everyone from the FC?

What happens if there's drama and the FC leader disbands the FC?

It's hard to get players to participate when everything they have built up can be taken away by another player's whim. It's very unlikely to reduce demand in the non-instanced wards since players are still going to want a house that they won't lose except through their own action/inaction.

[Almagnus1]

What happens when the FC leader and/or officers decide they don't like Lavender Beds anymore and want a Shirogane ward instead?

Implement a vote for a neighborhood move so that a majority of the FC has to approve it.

What happens when the FC has more than 29 members so not everyone gets to purchase a plot (my FC has 67 unique members as of last count plus several dozen alts as an example)?

There's still FC rooms and apartments, it'd be no different than what happens in an existing ward.

What happens when someone leaves or gets kicked from the FC?

House would get destroyed. Perhaps the houses there shouldn't count as the personal house, but be treated as a larger FC room?

What happens when an officer has their account compromised and the thief kicks everyone from the FC?

What happens if there's drama and the FC leader disbands the FC?

The officer will have learned why 2FA is a good thing, and hopefully SE can roll back the compromise. Besides, if you're in an FC where the leadership is bad, eventually they're going to screw you over and you're going to want to leave. FCs normally don't survive that very long.

[Themarvin]

Wards is already in instances, there is x Amount of Wards = x amount of instances, why try and fix something that we already got, furthermore FC houses has x amount of apartment instances built in as well.

It will never work, and it will result in drama, and the amount of resources needed for it, would make it a pure headache for the Developers.

Options for anything like this, would be a FC instance that is pre-built including all houses and only small things you can add to your house, as it will all be pre-built features by SE, with only diversity as of where you live in the game... wood... beach... rocky hills... and beach with asian setting.

[lolzyking]

What would probably be better is instanced solo housing, that isn't loaded to the server unless the owner loads it. The server could just save a simple inventory log of the house, while all the placement data is saved to the owners hardware.

It would probably be something like a house on an island, either in the sea or floating in the sky, or a small oasis in the desert.

[Jojoya]

Implement a vote for a neighborhood move so that a majority of the FC has to approve it.

SE isn't going to dictate how FCs do their decision making. That will never happen except on a voluntary basis of the FC and the FC leader/officers would still be free to do whatever they want regardless of the opinion of their FC because they're the ones with the housing permissions.

But that wasn't my question in the first place. I was asking what happens once the decision was made, not how should it be made.

So what happens once the decision is made? You can't relocate a set of houses from one district to another. The layout isn't the same.

There's still FC rooms and apartments, it'd be no different than what happens in an existing ward.

So you want to implement a system that promotes drama within an FC by creating "haves" and "have-nots" based on who the officers allow to purchase a housing plot.

That never ends well.

House would get destroyed. Perhaps the houses there shouldn't count as the personal house, but be treated as a larger FC room?

Then what's the point of buying there when someone else has control over what happens even though it's my gil spent?

The officer will have learned why 2FA is a good thing, and hopefully SE can roll back the compromise. Besides, if you're in an FC where the leadership is bad, eventually they're going to screw you over and you're going to want to leave. FCs normally don't survive that very long.

Doesn't change that the entire FC got screwed over and has to rebuild from scratch.

SE doesn't get involved in FC theft/fraud now. They're not going to get involved in FC housing disputes either.

*****

There is no benefit to this system except to the FC leader/officers who control things. This sort of thing might work with very small FCs composed of close, long-time real life friends in a stable relationship. It would never work for standard FCs.

I'd rather see SE put the time in improving the instanced housing system that already exists to serve all players, not just a handful of FC officers.

Wards is already in instances, there is x Amount of Wards = x amount of instances,

The wards are a different type of instancing, more akin to a duplicate zone than an actual instance.

But you're right. It won't work.

[Almagnus1]

SE isn't going to dictate how FCs do their decision making. That will never happen except on a voluntary basis of the FC and the FC leader/officers would still be free to do whatever they want regardless of the opinion of their FC because they're the ones with the housing permissions.

But that wasn't my question in the first place. I was asking what happens once the decision was made, not how should it be made.

So what happens once the decision is made? You can't relocate a set of houses from one district to another. The layout isn't the same.

IIRC the same property number maps to the same size class of house, so you'd just reassign everyone the current numbers, and that works out to the same between the wards... or a similar type of mapping is devised so no one loses a property, and then charge a a couple hundred million gil as a ward "moving" fee with a cooldown timer of like 2 months to relo the FC to discourage frequent moves.

So you want to implement a system that promotes drama within an FC by creating "haves" and "have-nots" based on who the officers allow to purchase a housing plot.

That never ends well.

While it may not in some cases, it's still the most likely instanced housing setup we will see, as it does incorporate Yoshi-P's vision of a ward into the instanced housing.

If you've got a better idea that still uses wards, I'm all ears.

Then what's the point of buying there when someone else has control over what happens even though it's my gil spent?

Ok, so what about FC rooms?

Doesn't change that the entire FC got screwed over and has to rebuild from scratch.

SE doesn't get involved in FC theft/fraud now. They're not going to get involved in FC housing disputes either.

Ok, so how likely are those disputes within the FC now? How many FCs do we have where the leader kicks everyone else out just to keep the house?

[Awha]

That is how I got my first house got leader of an FC then booted everyone.

[Nepentha]

Implement a vote for a neighborhood move so that a majority of the FC has to approve it.

What do you do if there are people in the FC who aren't active for whatever reason so you can't get a majority? Plus, as Jojoya said, you can't just flip wards if you decide you'd rather go to another zone for whatever reason. If they did this, they'd have to make all the instanced wards alike, no differences between housing areas. Ul'dah would have to have the exact same layout as Mists, Lavender Beds, Shirogane and Ishgard. How well do you think that's going to be received by players? (Please, think of people who are not just you for once.)

There's still FC rooms and apartments, it'd be no different than what happens in an existing ward.

Well sucks for anyone who wants to join an FC with more than 29 unique accounts owning all the houses already. You get apartments or FC rooms if you're late to the party.

House would get destroyed. Perhaps the houses there shouldn't count as the personal house, but be treated as a larger FC room?

How would that even work? House gets destroyed, at the whim of a FC Master or Officer?

The officer will have learned why 2FA is a good thing, and hopefully SE can roll back the compromise. Besides, if you're in an FC where the leadership is bad, eventually they're going to screw you over and you're going to want to leave. FCs normally don't survive that very long.

That's a leap of logic there. Every situation will be different. And man what a lot of work for the GMs at that point. Even if you get the ward back you'd have to repurchase the house and decorate it all over again. The only way to restore things the way they were would be to literally roll back the FC to that point.

Other thoughts: What happens when you decide you want to leave the FC for whatever reason? You lose your housing, you lose everything you've built so far. No one wants this. People want to be able to keep their home after they've spent time, gil, and energy on making it exactly as they want it to be.

What happens if an FC Master goes MIA, leadership passes down to a random person who happens to log in that day, and they decide to boot everyone in the FC to keep the ward for themselves? GMs are not going to touch that one. You lose your home to the whims of a random FC member. Or boot people they just don't like? What if an FC goes inactive except like one or two people?

Before you answer, actually stop to look at this through the lens of your average player in an FC who has this type of housing. Don't just toss out random ideas without considering how it actually will work for once.

[Almagnus1]

How would that even work? House gets destroyed, at the whim of a FC Master or Officer?

What happens to an existing FC room? Houses in the FC ward would be basically bigger versions of those. It's also probably why they shouldn't count against the personal house limit....