Why are there even small plots?

[Caitlinzulu]

Small houses are a lot cheaper, back when housing was added to the game having enough money for a medium or mansion was very rare. Also at that time pricing was different between servers with some legacy servers having prices up to 10 times what we have now

[Joint]

Small houses are a lot cheaper, back when housing was added to the game having enough money for a medium or mansion was very rare. Also at that time pricing was different between servers with some legacy servers having prices up to 10 times what we have now

Ok , but that doesn't change anything I said. Gil was easy to come by from launch (gathering alone), not to mention how long after launch housing came out. People had tons of gil by the time housing came out. I know the prices were higher across the servers but, the buy price for a large was never over 150mil on any server legacy or not. Getting that amount of gil wasn't hard for fc's to raise, even making that much solo (albeit super rare) was being done.

[Canadane]

the buy price for a large was never over 150mil on any server legacy or not.

What?

Balmung, Excalibur, Hyperion, Ragnarok, and Sargatanas started at 312.5 million gil.
Aegis, Durandal, Gungnir, Msamune, and Ridill was 625 million.

[Joint]

What?

Balmung, Excalibur, Hyperion, Ragnarok, and Sargatanas started at 312.5 million gil.
Aegis, Durandal, Gungnir, Msamune, and Ridill was 625 million.

you're late to that party

[dspguy]

Small houses are a lot cheaper, back when housing was added to the game having enough money for a medium or mansion was very rare. Also at that time pricing was different between servers with some legacy servers having prices up to 10 times what we have now

Very true. But SE has changed a lot of things about the game since its inception. Hell, they crashed a meteor into it at some point. Just because something was a certain way in 2013 doesn't mean it has to be that way in 2022.

[Aoi_Futaba]

I just got my small, I am happy with a small, but there are certain things that could make them far better, Garden item slots, 20 is just not enough I scraped by to make a garden that fit my taste (no aetheryte or stable though not enough slots, but I have my neighbour on friend's list so I use theirs ) The interior, I do like what someone else mentioned about adding an upstairs instead of basement or how about a paid upgrade (gil) for a room upstairs, would still be smaller than a med, but an extra room is an extra room. This is the reason when I first started playing last year and saw the housing crisis I knew what would suit me was an FC house, that way I could add rooms to the house by levelling alts and each would give me an extra room which in total would mean a small house with an entry/shop area, a basement (tbh decided was going to be a bathhouse but I live right next to the spa in Ishgard so that idea is redundant) and then 8 rooms through the door in the shop so 10 room small house. For me it was honestly a stroke of luck that the lottery split the housing the way it did as small FC plots for the most-part had only one bidder. This is what 20 garden items looks like, it isn't much.

[UkcsAlias]

Garden item slots, 20 is just not enough

Keep in mind that all plots can have 20, which on any area quickly adds up to several hundreds. 30x20 is still 600 which is well above a large house in object count. Adding just 5 to a plot already adds 150 potential objects. And these must load in everytime someone wants to go to their house or apartment (because you never directly teleport inside).

Instead of adding 5 objects, i rather see any potential computer power there to be used for additional wards instead.

[Aoi_Futaba]

And these must load in everytime someone wants to go to their house or apartment (because you never directly teleport inside).

I never teleport inside because I can't teleport to my house as to do that requires one of those 20 items to be an Aetheryte, meanwhile the large houses have more to the point of excess. look at this and please tell me that the issue is adding a couple of items to small plot's gardens. Entire climbing frames in the sky yet smalls have to choose between having the ability to teleport, having a stable, having a post box etc or having something that just about resembles a garden

[UkcsAlias]

I never teleport inside because I can't teleport to my house as to do that requires one of those 20 items to be an Aetheryte

Which on that can just be stored seperately (as it already does now) in memory. For your teleport option there is no reason to render the entire region. Technicaly the aetheryte isnt even needed to be built (similar to appartments). And for the stable they could also give house owners the ability to use the appartment one. This then would at least save up 2 slots.

And it doesnt matter about large plots and small plots, because its in the end simply just a total number. 5 extra objects on 20 small plots is still significantly more than 20 extra objects on 3 large plots. This is why large plots can get higher limits a bit easier, the impact is lower. Its most likely decided based on the available space anyway. The effect is however amplified by some sort of mandatory objects. If that are 5 objects (aetheryte, dummy, stable, gardening, mailbox), then the effective limits for S/M/L are 15/24/33. Which makes the situation appear a bit worse. And this can appear more excessive by having a few low level details, since those details often also work similar at a mansion. Thats why it looks like they can build this excessive.

So in short, reduce the mandatory objects by handling these automaticly and that is a much more effective way to get more objects in a garden without increasing actual limits. Especialy since those objects are very likely to appear acros many estates, its generaly well managable rendering wise (even with several versions, the game can decide to load in those versions regardless). This could potentialy give those wasted slots back. (and on that, if you do not place such object, it wont grant that extra slot). Especiualy the stable, dummy, aetheryte and mailbox seem to me like very suitable candidates. Which on that would free up 4 slots.

Another thing is, dynamic object scaling (an object can be repeated several times in a row, and still count as 1) could be used to make objects more flexible as it makes furnishings better capable of covering the area you want them to cover. Like for example scaling something fence wide would help a lot at saving objects. And i would not be surprised if objects actualy can do this. The stable after all already renders the chocobo inside it. For objects that are well suitable for LoD adjustments this can do a lot (too far away and plants wont render for example). This is the sort of optimizing that would generaly be a lot better as it also solves a secondary issue. This could make an object that otherwise would take 3 slots to only take 1.

[Aoi_Futaba]

Another thing is, dynamic object scaling (an object can be repeated several times in a row, and still count as 1) could be used to make objects more flexible as it makes furnishings better capable of covering the area you want them to cover. Like for example scaling something fence wide would help a lot at saving objects. And i would not be surprised if objects actualy can do this. The stable after all already renders the chocobo inside it. For objects that are well suitable for LoD adjustments this can do a lot (too far away and plants wont render for example). This is the sort of optimizing that would generaly be a lot better as it also solves a secondary issue. This could make an object that otherwise would take 3 slots to only take 1.

I still find it crazy that say for instance you buy the lavender coloured grass, it gives you a small square, you can't even replace the grass, the hedges too, you want a nice tall hedge around your garden for privacy? Nope can't do that by the time you're halfway around the wall out of slots ( I tried this and was sorely disappointed after crafting them). I get the 'resources' standpoint I do, but this is not 2006, if the engine and the PC you are playing on couldn't handle it then it for sure wouldn't handle the visual effects from raids and everyone's abilities flashing fast enough to trigger epilepsy and creating enough light to make the sun look dark. The fence idea would be a great thing to have, so it binds the individual items as a single unit, the grass could be a simple addition to the actual exterior modification window so rather than just having a square of gravel or a square of the lavender grass, have it also as an option on the modification so you can place it there and your garden's grass is now that texture instead. That being said when it comes to interiors there is 0 reason why a small has so few item slots. It's one reason I went the FC route rather than the private one, my alts can have rooms, I can use one room as a bedroom, one as a kitchen/dining room etc