Housing decoration system needs adjustments

[juicybug]

Here are some issues within the house decoration/placement mechanic itself, this is not concerning the problems trying purchase houses/housing plots.

Even if you are happy or indifferent with the decorating system as it is now, perhaps suggest something you'd like to see added! Some may like the challenging placement system, please do not take offense from this post as I only am speaking from my personal experience & gathered insight from other interior decorators within FFXIV!

Some adjustments that would improve the decorating system:
Surface placement changed to ALL surfaces.
Example: If you place wall partitions down, they do not count as a direct surface. Some windows will not attach to wall partitions. While walls are not a horizontal surface, they are a vertical surface and should be in the surface category. Other items that ought to be included are lofts, stages, beds, chairs, doors, and windows.

Item placement selection: Sometimes placed items have priority over other items (even on different floors) causing you to have to click through every placed item until you grab the intended item, even if you are zoomed in on the object.

Floating/Sinking items: To those who are unfamiliar, It's using items to float or lower another item(s) to get a desired look. In some cases you need to go out of bounds of your house just to do achieve this trick. Some explanation below.

1)Place a stage panel down, then place the desired object near the "surface" side of the panel.
Then grab out a wooden loft with only the "placement" on, take off snap grid for more freedom of movement.

2) Connect loft to stage panel, but make sure the item to be raised is underneath the loft. place loft as close to the floor as possible. Make sure wooden loft is returned to inventory not storage. Repeat the placement process over and over again.

3) Don't forget that you have to rotate the item slightly to keep it in the floating spot or it resets back to the ground.

This process is complicated & very clunky.
A suggestion: Make a on/off placement to Raise/Lower selected items. Similar to snap grid, rotate, & store - add a raise/lower command.

Some unrelated suggestions:
Allow for apartments to be shared with 1 other chosen player.
Increase item limit in small/medium houses and apartments by 100.
Allow for the removal of interior windows and chandelier. Interior windows get in the way of placing items, most interior windows are unflattering.
Allow for changing of base layout upon house purchase (why is the basement always on the right side in small houses?) why not the left or the front of the house, and why must there always be a basement and not an upper floor/single level home. This goes for all housing sizes even if I didn't say it specifically. Thank you for taking the time to read this & consider other suggestions that I did not cover.

[HeyMcFly]

I'll just copy paste my reply- I see you moved your forum to the correct section ;3

I am 100% on board with new placement features that allow us to sink/ raise items without us having to glitch.
Wildstar had the best housing system ever. I want something that mirrors that, even if it's only 20% mirrored- which would be the implementation of sinking/ raising, rotating objects

I also think lighting should not effect the entire house. Editing lighting should be per room.

New house designs for small houses; Attic/ upper floor in replace of a basement.

Interior item limit & storage should be increased by 100 for each house size, including apartments.

Another feature we need to see (which you suggested but I'm elaborating for specifics) is Exterior house design should not alter the interior- or allow users to modify the interior entirely, like the pillars, windows & paneling- removal of these should be a feature.

Another feature request is when we click on an item through the housing list, allowed to move the item. Currently, when you click on an item through the interior list, you can only store it.

I'm certain most of this wouldn't be an issue if the SE designers had to recreate intricate designs made by XIV players, just to understand how frustrating their entire decorating/ placement system is.

[Aurie]

These changes would be so good for the housing system.

[Nabril]

Yeah this could be easily improved. We already have 3rd party apps that make this so much better so it's obvious that it can indeed be done.

[HeyMcFly]

For better clarification on raising items etc

X, Y, Z axis that allow us to raise items into and beyond the ceiling and lower them into and beyond the floor. And also rotate and flip.
Imagine:
No tables look good but you like the way the top of a pillar looks? Lower the pillar into the floor to make it a coffee table.
Have an apartment but no basement to glitch items? No problem! The X, Y, Z axis is every XIV house designers dream.
Can't get close to a pillar because of the weird design placement? Not anymore! Now you can slide items into walls to get a desired effect thanks to the X, Y, Z axis!

It's hard decorating apartments/ FC rooms with no way to lower items, a Z, Y, X light/ lower/ rotate axis system would be the best thing for FFXIV housing.

The devs actually have to attempt to decorate houses in a manner that players do in order to understand how frustrating, limiting and outdated the decorating system is.

[Kyssa]

Ultima Online, a game launched in 1997, introduced a house decorating tool years ago so that players didn't have to glitch items in order to get the placement they desired.

It was a Godsend. If something like this could be implemented, it'd be wonderful.

https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wi...ng-the-basics/

[HeyMcFly]

Ultima Online, a game launched in 1997, introduced a house decorating tool years ago so that players didn't have to glitch items in order to get the placement they desired.

It was a Godsend. If something like this could be implemented, it'd be wonderful.

https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wi...ng-the-basics/

YES THAT
I want to do alot of glitching in my apartment but I can't > I just want to pull walls down so I don't have to see the ugly paneling on the bottom
PLEASE SE, MAKE DECORATING BETTER

[Kyssa]

YES THAT
I want to do alot of glitching in my apartment but I can't > I just want to pull walls down so I don't have to see the ugly paneling on the bottom
PLEASE SE, MAKE DECORATING BETTER

It made a WORLD of difference.

In order to make runebook cases, we used to have "throw" benches down and hope and pray they'd land the way we wanted them to face. I felt like throwing my keyboard after a few hours of trying to stack 20 of them in the proper direction.

The loft glitch is reminiscent of that frustration. If UO could do this pre-2005, I'd hope SE could do it now.

[Jojoya]

An update to furnishing placement is sorely needed among many other things.

It's going to be interesting to see how YoshiP handles his broadcast stroll during the Tokyo Game Show, which they said during the Live Letter will showcase player housing.

"Look at all the amazing things players have done with our housing that is inaccessible to most players because our ward system can't accommodate all the players we have and will never be able to do so. They boldly and openly break ToS to use prohibited third party tools to get these amazing looks because we won't add the needed function to the game."

I'd love to believe this has been planned to pressure approval for more funding for housing improvement not to mention the game in general. If SE really wants to capitalize on the game's growing popularity, they need to invest in modernizing some of the features that are behind what other MMOs had a decade ago.

[Lihtleita]

"Look at all the amazing things players have done with our housing that is inaccessible to most players because our ward system can't accommodate all the players we have and will never be able to do so. They boldly and openly break ToS to use prohibited third party tools to get these amazing looks because we won't add the needed function to the game."

most housing enthusiasts look down on third party tools, at least in the eu/us servers. if you see a nice house on twitter 9 times out of 10 it isnt built by someone using third party tools, its built by someone who enjoys suffering.