Can we have instanced housing please?

[LisSquid]

I have to assume at least a majority of the grandfathered plots fell over. What is eating a lot of space at the moment are puppet FC homes, now time will tell if the changes to housing will do anything about this.

[Brynne]

Instanced housing would be nice. They already have a start with apartments; they just need to make it so you can upgrade the size of the apartment to the interiors for medium and large houses, and add some kind of outdoor area.

Also, if they made it so that free companies could access workshops outside of housing (like at your grand company or something) that would probably free up some plots.

[Tatiana]

I feel like Island Sanctuary's are basically instanced housing, and a far far more extensive system than the current one. You're supposed to be able to place buildings, and customize your island.

[Illmaeran]

I feel like Island Sanctuary's are basically instanced housing, and a far far more extensive system than the current one. You're supposed to be able to place buildings, and customize your island.

I've got a feeling this isn't going to be the case, at least at first, as much as I want it to be. If they don't take full advantage of this opportunity to make instanced housing, then shame on them. Until they come out and specify what they'll be and what they won't, Expect the Worst But Hope for the Best is my mantra. Let the current wards be the homes for the urban elite with the Island Sanctuaries be for we suburban and rural plebs.

[Tatiana]

I've got a feeling this isn't going to be the case, at least at first, as much as I want it to be. If they don't take full advantage of this opportunity to make instanced housing, then shame on them. Until they come out and specify what they'll be and what they won't, Expect the Worst But Hope for the Best is my mantra. Let the current wards be the homes for the urban elite with the Island Sanctuaries be for we suburban and rural plebs.

I'm basing what I said off what they said recently in an interview about Island Sanctuaries though, and everything about it sounds like a new instanced housing system, though due to it being instanced they can do a lot more with it than they can with the current housing system but also divorces it further from the rest of the game than current housing does. I don't think they can solve the housing issues with the current system and I think the current system will still be relevant due to a lot of people not wanting to maintain an IS, though it may free up houses in the current system a bit as people who want a more involved system would probably migrate to IS.

[Illmaeran]

snip

The last time I heard anything about the sanctuaries was the pre-EW release live letter. If there's been more information given please share, I want to read it.

Thank you!

[LisSquid]

I feel like Island Sanctuary's are basically instanced housing, and a far far more extensive system than the current one. You're supposed to be able to place buildings, and customize your island.

I have a sneaking suspicion Island Sanctuaries are going to be a lot more like Garrisons from WoD. I would be delighted if they were not, but I do not believe they are going to be all that.

Weirdly I hate instanced housing to be brutally honest. I liked the old way they did it in games like "Star Wars Galaxies" where houses were persistent parts of the world and everyone travelling around could see your house, and what's more that's also where you put the trade vendors, so anyone wanting to buy from other players with get to walk into player run shops and see all their cool decor.

Naw, I played Ultima Online with this system and it was brutal. It completely killed the open world, and destroyed a lot of spawns. They had to make all new maps anti-house because there was nothing left of the old world except for a sea of garrishly built cubes.

[Reality23]

Weirdly I hate instanced housing to be brutally honest. I liked the old way they did it in games like "Star Wars Galaxies" where houses were persistent parts of the world and everyone travelling around could see your house, and what's more that's also where you put the trade vendors, so anyone wanting to buy from other players with get to walk into player run shops and see all their cool decor. That said I do understand why that system (which was also present in Ultima Online) no longer exists today, both from the perspective of not being able to create enough land for everyone, and from the perspective of things like lag.

The thing is with the instanced housing most games use there is typically little point to it, it can be fun to decorate, but at the end of the day nobody really takes time away from the game to randomly check out people's houses. It typically winds up becoming a neglected feature, you might have fun making a nice space, but in the end typically you are the only one to see it unless your a guild leader who holds meetings there, or someone who does a lot of ERP. In the case of ERP I've found people who are into that in RPG environments have been gravitating more towards things like "Conan Exiles" where they can run mods and stuff specifically designed for it. As someone who spent a lot of time searching for good private servers with decent populations I can say with authority that it's actually difficult to find one that doesn't cater to ERP... it's all a matter of degree. I don't mind ERP even though it's not a big thing for me, so I was able to find some good servers of course.... the point here mostly being that it seems that places like that are where one of the big subsets of players who would actually use instanced housing as a major part of the game are actually going.

At any rate, I guess my point is that if you want the community experience your about 18 years too late, it doesn't surprise me that FF XIV's housing is lacking in that department. My advice would be to play an MMO for the MMO content, and if your looking for a more "neighborhood" type experience look towards survival games with private servers where the housing you build is out there in a shared world. I can actually refer you to a couple of decent servers that aren't too ERP themed (though it does exist of course).

[Skivvy]

As someone not familiar with WoW, what do the Garrisons offer? :X

[LisSquid]

As someone not familiar with WoW, what do the Garrisons offer? :X

They were the one stop shop for all resources the expansion had to offer. You upgraded buildings to your needs: Tannery for leather working, a garden for alchemy and herbalism, and basically made having to level certain professions completely redundant due to the buildings making everything for you.

You also had a mission board, could collect companions, your "minions" would roam around your garrison and you had access to special pet battling events there. It was thought to be instanced housing when announced, but now it is remembered as being an incredibly effective source of gold but not much else.