Potential Housing Solution

[Doragan]

Yeah, instanced housing.

It's probably not going to happen due to a few reasons really.

1. The cheer amount of data that would require for every character/account, atleast with the current infrastructure. You would need to set its data to "default" for all "27 million service accounts" (according to the trailers) too. "Why not just initialise/default the data when someone asks for it for the first time?" Well, that would lead to load times, queue times, and a huge strain when everyone comes to get theirs ready once the feature is out. After all, aside from like load times (which are local, due to your console/PC) and matchmaking times, that would asking the customer to wait until their side of the data is ready. That could be a PR/IT nightmare if not handled properly. You would also need to hire and train new people to this purpose. On top of the maintenance that was taken to implement the feature. Making a system that would be guarenteed to work with all of them. And ofc, that would mean making sure that their servers can handle the weight of all that data. I'm sure it must not be really heavy for a single person since it's mostly coordinate numbers and stuff, but it's still something to consider. Plus, currently you don't really have a limit to the amount of people that can enter a house or be outside. You would need to have a limit to the amount of friends you have over with an instance.
   
2. Unfortunately, you can't just put housing in an instance and call it a day. You would need to save the data everytime you come and leave. Since it would be an active place, that would also mean needing to initalise the data server side, then copy you in. You don't need to do that with current housing because the data is passive there. You can log off and it will be there at all times. Not instanced housing. It could take some time to load, and also, due to how things are currently done, it would need a timer. Are you ready to get kicked off your home every 120 minutes? I can imagine it being bothersome for a lot of people.
   
3. How would that work as gil sink? Because yeah, buying a terrain is pretty much the main gil sink system integrated to the game currently. I mean by that that the gil you use will just go to the void, everytime some buys a plot. If everyone gets access to an instanced housing area with a single plot, should it be higher priced or lower priced than the current one? How would you price it fairly? Remember, there's a demolition timer if you didn't visit your house for a while. How would that work with instanced housing?

Ok, that was the 10 minutes risk assessment.
Let's be honest, that would've been done if SE saw a direct way to monetise it. For the low low price of like 5£ per month all of these issues would've been dealt with in less than a day. However, that would lock a signficant amount of content behind another paywall. I'm not sure a lot of people would be willing to spend extra money for their own houses in game, when current players don't need to pay for it if they own a house already. I think that would create a fairness issue, too. Though, remember they did lock one retainer slot to the Companion App behind a separate sub. Though, I'm sure that the number of the Companion App subs are really, REALLY low for them to have shot down that idea, though, but it's just speculation.

tldr; Money. They need to get more people to assess, implement and help with troubleshooting if issues arises with it, so that would mean a little less money for them. So probably not for now.

I would like bigger appartments personally. Wouldn't solve the issue, but atleast you would have some better options than a glorified FC room.
Maybe if they give a full, static server for housing specifically, that could solve a lot of the issues.

All of this being said, if you want it, please, keep the conversation going. Send messages about what you wish to have in the game, so it can be loud and clear to the dev team, and SE.