Solo Instanced Housing is easier to make than Island Sanctuary

[saxman09]

Island Sanctuary is so much more complicated and nuanced than solo instanced housing and still lacks the things people want from housing. At this point it feels like the devs are laughing at us showing us they can do it but they refuse to. The entire island is practically bigger than any housing ward, it has it\\'s own separate crafting/gathering, it has a completely different currency system, you can move entire buildings with ease, capture and raise animals (feed them, harvest from them, name them) and you can let minions free roam. It\\'s an insult at this point knowing we want more housing yet they, instead chose not to give us housing but instead wasted way more server space just to reward us with items through what is essentially another boring time sink. If 7.0 doesn\\'t have a new housing system people are going to be even more furious.

[Sotaris]

If 7.0 doesn\\'t have a new housing system people are going to be even more furious.

Not really, people will keep on the copium and hope for new wards.

[Breakbeat]

Says the game developer professional, I am sure.

I find this to be one of the less-favorable things people do. That is, complain about something and then declare with gusto that the fix they have in their head is "super simple," and "why don't they just do it like this, it's much easier."

Do folks even understand anymore what it's like to learn something and then do it professionally, accumulating thousands of hours doing this thing? Do people actually believe that with six seconds of thought and a forum post, they've "out-smarted" the game developers?

I see this everywhere, not just game forums. How did humanity become so oblivious and ignorant?

/shrug

[Avoidy]

The best part is it seemingly shared the same resources as housing, since too many people in island sanctuary led to congestion in just two places: island sanctuary, and houses. No other resource in the game that I heard about at least, had a similar congestion issue.
After all this, I'm not saying they could easily do instanced housing, but I am interested in knowing why they still supposedly can't when their major talking point for years has been that it's a resource problem. Is the housing setup so antiquated that moving furniture takes up more resources than unlimited islands with their own economies? Genuinely curious, not being rhetorical. We'll probably never find out either.

I see this everywhere, not just game forums. How did humanity become so oblivious and ignorant?

/shrug

I agree. It's also really annoying when people want answers about an advertised feature that might as well not exist, and they get tech explanations from people who don't work at square, don't have any background in the game engine they're talking about, and are basically just guessing like the rest of us, and most of the time they're wrong because why would they be right? They lack the same critical information the rest of us are lacking. I see that a lot here, and it doesn't really add anything. Everyone's just guessing and square never replies. This whole place feels like a massive waste of time and energy.

[TwistedTea]

people complaining about not being able to get into island Sanctuary now times that by 1000x with instance housing.

Since quite a number of people have brought up this point- instanced housing = congestion, let us remember the following:

1. Ward housing consumes more server resources than fully instanced housing as the exterior of houses/wards are always loaded 24/7.

2. Even in late 2019, several NA servers were facing ward housing shortages.

3. SE only started caring about ward housing shortages when it started to affect JP servers in 2020/2021

So, I would rather that SE invest in more servers for fully instanced housing/Island Sanctuaries than sinking even more costs into ward housing.

[Dionysius]

You're right and that's why they've done instanced-housing long time ago.
Even two of them actually.

Apartment and FC Room.

[Hurlstone]

I agree that Housing is a major issue that needs to be fixed, but to be fair the issue only really blew up after 6.1, and Island Sanctuary was likely already deep into development there. Besides I do think you are perhaps underestimating the ease at which such things are created.

[Mikki]

I agree that Housing is a major issue that needs to be fixed, but to be fair the issue only really blew up after 6.1, and Island Sanctuary was likely already deep into development there. Besides I do think you are perhaps underestimating the ease at which such things are created.

I moved entire servers when they announced Shirogane with the hopes of getting a house. People were complaining even back then of how bad it was. I guess after Shadowbringers with the huge influx of people it probably only got worse over time but people have been complaining about this issue for a long time.

That said, I'm hopeful that Island Sanctuary might be a testing ground for more expansive instanced personal housing. Similar to how we only got female Viera but seeing their popularity, they added male Viera. (Though to be honest I really believe Yoshi-P intended to add males from the get-go despite what was said since concept art of male Viera had been shown as early as Heavensward).

[Pablomaldito]

I agree that Housing is a major issue that needs to be fixed, but to be fair the issue only really blew up after 6.1, and Island Sanctuary was likely already deep into development there. Besides I do think you are perhaps underestimating the ease at which such things are created.

Housing availability has been an issue for years - long before Island Sanctuary was on the radar. What 6.1 did was shove it into the players' faces that even an entire housing district was just a fraction of what was needed to deal with the supply issue. On most servers, the personal wards instantly filled up after the first round with 10% or less of bidders getting a house. The great thing about the lottery is that it doesn't just show you who got a house. It also shows you who didn't get a house - and boy were there a lot of people not getting a house. It made the housing shortage seem a bit less abstract.

But there is nothing new about the housing shortage. Just look at this quote from a 2017 thread about Ishgard housing. Shouko hits the nail on the head with this prediction.

The problem is SE caved into the players giving them personal housing, when in reality it was only meant for FC's originally. Because of this it created a massive shortage and people now are whining about the mistake they made. Adding a whole new housing area won't help much, it'll fill up in a manner of minutes, just like Shirogane did. Also I believe the 30 day no login for losing your house is suspended currently.

Shouko's post was half a decade ago! Yet it almost looks like it could be a post from a thread today.

Personal housing should have been instanced from the beginning. It's mind boggling that there is still some resistance to the idea after ward housing has continuously fallen far short of demand year after year.

[Duskane]

people complaining about not being able to get into island Sanctuary now times that by 1000x with instance housing.