What is really happening to house system?

[Themarvin]

Going to put the cards down.. 30-50% of the houses is not used anyway or quite alot whenever it get to it... if anything should rather aim for massive maps for La Noscae, Thanalan, The Shroud instead that includes all zones and areas on one map and make it so it take 30 minutes or more to cross the continent at max speed.

Then out in the wild let people put up houses and, and make it so if enough you can build a city with a mayor election and everything, and when enough habitants, make it possible to build an aetheryte, that people can attune to... on top of that a tax system, because it would cost some to have the city going as an upkeep.

[Corvus_V]

I don't think it entirely needs to be rebuilt from scratch, nor that it would be wise. As flawed as the system is, many players have already invested much in it. Convincing them that a new system will give them something better when they'd be losing something they've owned for several years would be a hard sell. It's the type of change that tends to lose a company a substantial amount of business even from those not directly affected.

Switch their focus from wards to instanced housing and put their resources into improving that makes more sense. Wards can be left in place for the prestige chasers who like to compete against others. I suspect that intercross gardening would remain a ward exclusive as well based on what they've said about the weather reliance and lack of weather in instances. That would keep some demand in place for ward housing even if instanced housing design copied the ward design.

When I say instanced housing, I'm not referring to an apartment as the solution. There should still be an exterior. I typically try to refer to the idea as an instanced homestead, not an instanced house. Why shouldn't people be able to garden? The best and most fair to handle this situation is to give people literally no benefit whatsoever to owning a home in a ward. There should not be one.

[Jojoya]

When I say instanced housing, I'm not referring to an apartment as the solution. There should still be an exterior. I typically try to refer to the idea as an instanced homestead, not an instanced house. Why shouldn't people be able to garden? The best and most fair to handle this situation is to give people literally no benefit whatsoever to owning a home in a ward. There should not be one.

Oh, I didn't think you were referring to apartments at all. I know how amazing instanced housing can be from experience in other games, including a full exterior experience. It's always been disappointing that we don't have similar here.

People can still garden in house interior and apartments even now using flowerpots. What they cannot do is intercross, a specialized form of gardening. That's a technological hurdle that in the past YoshiP has said they cannot avoid. Have things changed since his statement so now they potentially can? Only they know.

I can't agree there should be no benefits to ward versus instanced housing. Each should have something that makes it stand out from the other. Part of the problem is that one what player considers a benefit may not be a benefit to another. Some players find having a house in a ward beneficial because they feel like they're in a neighborhood and don't want to be isolated in instanced housing. I find it a deterrent because I don't see them as neighborhoods, I see them as ghost towns because I almost never see another player in the ward with my personal house.

I will say there should be no economic benefit to housing and I mean literally no benefit, not just benefit by comparison. Remove gardens from houses. Other ways to obtain the items unique to gardening could be added to the game (put the Thavnairian Onions on a vendor in Thavnair, as an example). Remove workshops from houses and attach them to GC headquarters similar to how our squadron barracks are attached.

If there's going to be economic benefit to having housing, then either every player should be provided with a house that has equal economic features or there should be a recurring cost for retaining the housing to offset the economic benefit only available to the lucky few.

[DeNada]

Oh, I didn't think you were referring to apartments at all. I know how amazing instanced housing can be from experience in other games, including a full exterior experience. It's always been disappointing that we don't have similar here.

People can still garden in house interior and apartments even now using flowerpots. What they cannot do is intercross, a specialized form of gardening. That's a technological hurdle that in the past YoshiP has said they cannot avoid. Have things changed since his statement so now they potentially can? Only they know.

I can't agree there should be no benefits to ward versus instanced housing. Each should have something that makes it stand out from the other. Part of the problem is that one what player considers a benefit may not be a benefit to another. Some players find having a house in a ward beneficial because they feel like they're in a neighborhood and don't want to be isolated in instanced housing. I find it a deterrent because I don't see them as neighborhoods, I see them as ghost towns because I almost never see another player in the ward with my personal house.

I will say there should be no economic benefit to housing and I mean literally no benefit, not just benefit by comparison. Remove gardens from houses. Other ways to obtain the items unique to gardening could be added to the game (put the Thavnairian Onions on a vendor in Thavnair, as an example). Remove workshops from houses and attach them to GC headquarters similar to how our squadron barracks are attached.

If there's going to be economic benefit to having housing, then either every player should be provided with a house that has equal economic features or there should be a recurring cost for retaining the housing to offset the economic benefit only available to the lucky few.

Come to think of it, does housing in other benefits provide economic benefits? I think one of the reasons why people hoard houses is because they are able to generate income from having multiple houses. If having multiple houses provide zero or even net negative benefits (eg. there's a monthly gil upkeep), less people will hoard houses which could help alleviate the shortage in supply.

[Corvus_V]

Oh, I didn't think you were referring to apartments at all. I know how amazing instanced housing can be from experience in other games, including a full exterior experience. It's always been disappointing that we don't have similar here.

People can still garden in house interior and apartments even now using flowerpots. What they cannot do is intercross, a specialized form of gardening. That's a technological hurdle that in the past YoshiP has said they cannot avoid. Have things changed since his statement so now they potentially can? Only they know.

I can't agree there should be no benefits to ward versus instanced housing. Each should have something that makes it stand out from the other. Part of the problem is that one what player considers a benefit may not be a benefit to another. Some players find having a house in a ward beneficial because they feel like they're in a neighborhood and don't want to be isolated in instanced housing. I find it a deterrent because I don't see them as neighborhoods, I see them as ghost towns because I almost never see another player in the ward with my personal house.

I will say there should be no economic benefit to housing and I mean literally no benefit, not just benefit by comparison. Remove gardens from houses. Other ways to obtain the items unique to gardening could be added to the game (put the Thavnairian Onions on a vendor in Thavnair, as an example). Remove workshops from houses and attach them to GC headquarters similar to how our squadron barracks are attached.

If there's going to be economic benefit to having housing, then either every player should be provided with a house that has equal economic features or there should be a recurring cost for retaining the housing to offset the economic benefit only available to the lucky few.

That's more or less what I'm getting at of course, like if there are "benefits," they are subjective. Economic benefits should be absent. As in, selling houses should be done, forever; and company workshops/intercross gardening should be unassociated with owning a house in a ward. I am positive there is a way to unattach those things, or at the very least, create an additional way to produce the exact same things in an entirely separate system or minigame. The only "economic benefit" that should be associated with owning a house in a ward (one that, if instanced housing is done right, wouldn't be exclusive to ward housing) are people who run RP venues and charge for things there. Food, drinks, services, whatever; but that comes with an entirely separate and frankly way more creative effort.

Like really, why does intercross gardening need to be more than a minesweeper-esque basic level grid you plant things in? If you were in it for the money rather than the aesthetic, there is no reason to tie it to houses, no? It'd be like saying "Mini-cactpot is now tied to housing" and you have to put a big stupid scratch off in the middle of your yard that displays every choice you made rather than the little window that opens up when you play. Why does it even need to be complicated to produce results? Why does there need to be an incentive for it outside of fun?

[DeNada]

Agreed. So many people want a house because they say they want a garden to cross breed since it's not possible to do it in apartments.

If you remove that, the number of ppl wanting houses would dramatically decrease since the economic benefits of owning a house is gone and the supply issue would them solve itself.

The same thing would apply to FC workshops as well. Then FC houses would just be a social thing where actual FC members and not shell FCs would want to have a house just for a place to congregate away from the city hubs.

[Brygd]

Agreed. So many people want a house because they say they want a garden to cross breed since it's not possible to do it in apartments.

If you remove that, the number of ppl wanting houses would dramatically decrease since the economic benefits of owning a house is gone and the supply issue would them solve itself.

The same thing would apply to FC workshops as well. Then FC houses would just be a social thing where actual FC members and not shell FCs would want to have a house just for a place to congregate away from the city hubs.

I'm a fan of housing because I like decorating and giving my character a home. When I log off for the night, I have my character go to sleep in their bed. I might be a tad strange...

[Jojoya]

Agreed. So many people want a house because they say they want a garden to cross breed since it's not possible to do it in apartments.

If you remove that, the number of ppl wanting houses would dramatically decrease since the economic benefits of owning a house is gone and the supply issue would them solve itself.

The same thing would apply to FC workshops as well. Then FC houses would just be a social thing where actual FC members and not shell FCs would want to have a house just for a place to congregate away from the city hubs.

I still find the crossbreeding argument funny when there are so many houses where the garden patch is not getting used at all or it's only being used to grow Krakka Roots (why? the chocobo foods are less expensive at the Vath vendor and don't just give training XP but also the stat buff) or shards. The scarcity should be a sign to people about how annoying intercross gardening is.

I've offered to make friends complaining about a lack of access tenants of my house to use my garden patches. I was taken up on my offer twice. Both times they got about 2-3 weeks into it, said "this is dumb" (or rather they said less polite words to that effect) and gave up. I've watched other friends who did manage to get a house try it - and would have failed if I hadn't been online to catch their dying plants before it was too late.

People think they want access but the reality is only a tiny percentage will end up using it because it's too much hassle. Access to gardening becomes an excuse on why they should have a house instead of being content they will actually do.

I still challenge people who claim they want a house so they can crossbreed to first get a Thavnairian Onion seed and grow it successfully, You can do it in a flowerpot in a FC room or apartment, you only need Potting Soil available at the Housing Merchants since the special topsoils have no effect. Once it's grown, they should ask themselves if they enjoyed the process and if they feel it was worth the effort. Then they need to ask themselves if they're good with RNG disappointment for all those times they will end up with 1 Thavnairian Onion Seed and 4 Shroud Tea Seeds instead of 8 Thavnairian Onion Seeds.