Request: Expand apartments to be upgradeable in size and amenities

[MoonmoonMoonmoon]

Out of the 21,600 possible apartments how many owners would be willing and able to go through the significantly more involved process? IMO 10% would be a generous estimate.

This wouldn't even be an issue if we didn't consider adding workshop access to private housing, apartments or otherwise.

[MoonmoonMoonmoon]

This thread is about bringing apartments up to par with private dwellings. Private dwellings do not currently have workshop access so talking about it here is OFF TOPIC.

Thanks.

[ssunny2008]

Instead of making appartments bigger, just add instances to the houses.

Leave the house-skin and garden to the owner, let the owner take care for lodgers as it works with roommates, just with instances. So either lodgers can buy in with a fix price or add something like "50k/150k/300k rent" per months. And at the moment someone knocks at the door, you can choose in which instance you want to port. (Same as appartments works, but the rooms are obviously as big as the house is S/M/L.)

It´s something they can clearly add without any issues and it would solve a lot of housing issues, but keeping the village-feeling alive. All what poeple would lose is the garden, unless you´ve a friendship with the owner. In that case they could add real gardening plots in the house too.

Once the owner drops the abo or the house, the 1st lodger can buy it for a small price or someone new will take cover for it. Limit it to 10 instances per house and the most issues should be solved next to "I want M/L houses". (In case of rents, the owner should pay taxes. This would take gold out of the game aswell.)

In the end, get ride of the appartments.

Not perfect, but it would atleast bring more life into each ward and some kind of social feature. And it´s probably the easiest and fastest way to get ride of the dumb situation without killing what we already have.

[Jojoya]

This thread is about bringing apartments up to par with private dwellings. Private dwellings do not currently have workshop access so talking about it here is OFF TOPIC.

Thanks.

At no point did you state "private dwellings" in your original post until you went tantrum mode and edited it.

You don't get to dictate what suggestions and comments others make. Their ideas and comments are just as valid and just as worthy of discussion.

Keep in mind that the reason so many players choose to go the FC house route is for that workshop access. They don't feel SE should limit access to FCs, where usually only the officers get to use the workshop. They want access as well.

If having access to a workshop is a part of what is driving demand for houses in general, then it needs to be part of the discussion about how to make apartments more appealing to reduce demand for houses.

That out of the way, apartments are already close to par with houses except for one things - space.

Chocobo stable? Check - you automatically get access to a chocobo stable when buying an apartment. No need to buy one.

Mailbox? Check - every apartment building has a mailbox in the lobby. No need to buy one.

Summoning Bell/Marketboard access? Check - they are literally right next to every apartment building. Heck, my old FC used to run to the apartment building MB and Summoning Bell from our original FC house because it was closest.

Gardening? Check - flowerpots can grow not only every seed that can be grown in a garden patch, they can also grow the decorative flower seeds that can't be grown in a garden patch.

Intercross gardening? No, but then the majority of house owners don't even garden let alone do intercross gardening. People give it a try, realize it's an annoying amount of daily maintenance and stop bothering.

Outdoor furnishings? No. Players are going to be split on whether that's even important considering how little time they spend in the yard of their house compared to the interior. Many players over the years have already said they don't care about the outdoor furnishing placement.

That leaves space. Players naturally want more room because that opens the door to more creative options. If we're being fair, even a small house doesn't really cut it. It is just 2 apartments stacked one on top of the other. About the only thing a small house adds to the equation is the ability to float furnishings up from the basement to impact design on the ground floor.

SE themselves said they were considering adding in apartment size options. They told us this all the way back in Stormblood when they were discussing what players want for improvements for housing. What happened with their discussion? We don't know. They've been silent on the subject since.

SE is not unaware of player feeling but only they can do something to address player concerns.

[GeminiReed]

Intercross gardening? No, but then the majority of house owners don't even garden let alone do intercross gardening. People give it a try, realize it's an annoying amount of daily maintenance and stop bothering.

Outdoor furnishings? No. Players are going to be split on whether that's even important considering how little time they spend in the yard of their house compared to the interior. Many players over the years have already said they don't care about the outdoor furnishing placement.

Going to disagree on these two points. I will grant though that the second wouldn't be so irritating if Square would stop rubbing our noses in housing scarcity every time a seasonal event reward is outdoor furnishing. I'll also agree they're super tacky. They're a waste of developer resources that could have been used on something less controversial.

Unfortunately there are some crafting mats gated behind cross-breeding. I don't use the gardens I have access to all that often but they do get used on occasion. The alternative is to significantly overpay on the marketboard for them because they are just that level of annoying to grow.

[GeminiReed]

This wouldn't even be an issue if we didn't consider adding workshop access to private housing, apartments or otherwise.

Why should apartments be limited to personal housing? I would be perfectly happy with instanced FC housing and if that involved apartments then workshops are an issue to be addressed.

[MoonmoonMoonmoon]

At no point did you state "private dwellings" in your original post until you went tantrum mode and edited it.

You don't get to dictate what suggestions and comments others make. Their ideas and comments are just as valid and just as worthy of discussion.

And at no point has anyone suggested that FC's get to own apartments until now, so suggesting things that FCs can do that private dwellers cannot is out of scope of the thread. However if you had simply suggested that FC's be able to own apartments, then you would be on topic, but it wasn't even your suggestion. Do you think that FC's should be allowed to own and base out of apartments? I do not.

[MoonmoonMoonmoon]

Why should apartments be limited to personal housing? I would be perfectly happy with instanced FC housing and if that involved apartments then workshops are an issue to be addressed.

I don't think it would work with how FC's have private chambers for members.

[GeminiReed]

I don't think it would work with how FC's have private chambers for members.

I'm on record as saying that FC chambers are a BadIdea(tm). If FC chambers have to be sacrificed to make instancing work for a guild hall I'll be the first to throw my torch on its pyre. If apartments become a functional replacement for personal housing then FC chambers have even less of a reason to exist.

Seriously get yourself an independent apartment before drama erupts. Seen it happen too many times. One GL in a different game threw a temper tantrum and dissolved the guild when one of her officers stepped down. An FC I was part of here lost their house when the GL's account got hacked. What should have been my forever guild turned extremely cultish after a new officer board was elected so I noped on out. About three months later a huge drama bomb pretty much destroyed that game's chapter.

Don't tie your personal housing to a guild, ever. Unless it's a guild of just you and your alts.

I think this is the problem with a lot of systems they designed. A lot of optimistic assumptions and little to no thought going towards "what could possibly go wrong?"