The solution is honestly not as complicated as some think it is

[Kailea_Nagisa]

I keep seeing people argue about housing, and want it one way or another without thing about others and what they want...
We have to accept that we cant have everything we want, and some things have to be changed or sacrificed to get another.
Full on instanced housing is not going to happen, but this would be a decent compromise.

-Leave neighborhood housing the way it is right now.
-add medium and large apartments to the apartment housing*
-Limit house ownership to 1 house per FC/account per Data Center (one account can own a house as an FC leader, and a house as personal)**
-add a small 2x2 inside gardening housing item. (if that can even be done)
-add choices to the layout of the house, nothing crazy, just a "mirror" option (so small house with stairs on left side)
-Allow FCs to choose where to place the door for members rooms


*Note on apartments:
Small: same as it is now
Medium: same as a small house
Large: two floors equal to a large house (instead of a med house's three floors)


**Note on ownership changes:
When changes are made, send out emails to all effected accounts, that they must reply with what house they want to keep with location/server. All other houses will be demolished, released and owners will be refunded 80% of the value to the characters connected to them.

[Stormpeaks]

add medium and large apartments to the apartment housing

Absolutely, why not ? Consider it "instanced housing"

Limit house ownership to 1 house per FC/account per Data Center (one account can own a house as an FC leader, and a house as personal)**

No.

add a small 2x2 inside gardening housing item. (if that can even be done)

Good idea tbh, lets people use gardening to make onions or whatever for selling.

add choices to the layout of the house, nothing crazy, just a "mirror" option (so small house with stairs on left side)

Big agree

Allow FCs to choose where to place the door for members rooms

Why not ? Sounds good

**Note on ownership changes:
When changes are made, send out emails to all effected accounts, that they must reply with what house they want to keep with location/server. All other houses will be demolished, released and owners will be refunded 80% of the value to the characters connected to them.

Certainly not. If you think they will do that, you're dreaming. And tbh, they shouldnt.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I’d definitely like to see 3 sizes of apartments. And I like the indoor garden space idea and the indoor layout options too. But improving apartments is not going to solve the housing problem. An apartment is not a house, and while you may have some that would prefer a large-sized apartment to a house, you can already have an apartment and a house, plus an FC room. Many who want a house already have both of those, and just upsizing apartments isn’t going to diminish the demand for actual houses.

Instanced housing could happen, if there’s enough demand for it. And I think there is, in-game. We have to keep in mind, that the posters here are only a small part of the player base. Most of the arguments here against instanced housing, quite frankly, seem to come from people who are already lucky to have the house they want, who aren’t stuck in the 9-day lotto cycle every round with nothing to show for it. Simple fact: the wards alone are never going to be enough to house all the players on a server who want one. There will also never be enough mediums and larges for those that want those. An instanced system solves the problem of scarcity, and additionally has the possibility of choosing whatever plot you like.

And honestly, there’s no reason instanced couldn’t be added in addition to ward housing. Those that don’t want it won’t ever have to interact with it, so why so many feel the need to shoot it down every time it’s mentioned is beyond me. It solves the housing shortage while taking nothing away from existing ward owners. And it stops most of the other arguments on this forum if everyone can have access to the house they want.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

Certainly not. If you think they will do that, you're dreaming. And tbh, they shouldnt.

As much as it would suck, yes the limit needs to happen, its part of way we dont have enough houses to begin with. With how this game works, there is no need for one person to own multiple houses, even on different servers, hell there is not even a reason for multiple characters unless you are playing on another data center.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

And honestly, there’s no reason instanced couldn’t be added in addition to ward housing. Those that don’t want it won’t ever have to interact with it, so why so many feel the need to shoot it down every time it’s mentioned is beyond me. It solves the housing shortage while taking nothing away from existing ward owners. And it stops most of the other arguments on this forum if everyone can have access to the house they want.

That would be the apartments with the different sizes, there is no need for "an instanced house" when you have similar apartments, and yes it would lessen the demand for housing as many just want more internal room.

[Stormpeaks]

An instanced system solves the problem of scarcity, and additionally has the possibility of choosing whatever plot you like.

I think you forgot what game you are playing, you're playing FFXIV, I hope you understand that if instanced housing ever happens (which I doubt) it wont be a plot of your choice, have you seen island ? Everything is premade, and there's barely any choice, if instanced housing happens, it'll be a little bit like garrisons in WoW, with premade placement in the world, the house will be in a fixed spot, not "the plot you like", I can promise you that 100%

They can do both, let people have their houses in the neighborhoods, and let people have S/M/L apartments.

Absolutely, I think large apartments are a good idea actually.

As much as it would suck, yes the limit needs to happen, its part of way we dont have enough houses to begin with. With how this game works, there is no need for one person to own multiple houses, even on different servers, hell there is not even a reason for multiple characters unless you are playing on another data center.

Sure, but it cant apply to past purchases. If it applies to past purchases, they are opening up to a whole lot of drama. And no, getting some gil wont do anything, there are venue owners, or people with housing as a hobby, or people who do submarines, if you remove everything from these people but one, you are in for a ride because lets not forget those people also have multiple accounts, the loss wont be small.

Also, there is enough housing on the entirety of EU, and for NA, Dynamis is open with a billion plots having 0 bids, if people dont want to move, its on them, the housing system is fine. Instanced housing in the form of large apartments though is a good idea, hell I'd probably get one.

[KatiaRelanah]

I’d definitely like to see 3 sizes of apartments. And I like the indoor garden space idea and the indoor layout options too. But improving apartments is not going to solve the housing problem. An apartment is not a house, and while you may have some that would prefer a large-sized apartment to a house, you can already have an apartment and a house, plus an FC room. Many who want a house already have both of those, and just upsizing apartments isn’t going to diminish the demand for actual houses.

Instanced housing could happen, if there’s enough demand for it. And I think there is, in-game. We have to keep in mind, that the posters here are only a small part of the player base. Most of the arguments here against instanced housing, quite frankly, seem to come from people who are already lucky to have the house they want, who aren’t stuck in the 9-day lotto cycle every round with nothing to show for it. Simple fact: the wards alone are never going to be enough to house all the players on a server who want one. There will also never be enough mediums and larges for those that want those. An instanced system solves the problem of scarcity, and additionally has the possibility of choosing whatever plot you like.

And honestly, there’s no reason instanced couldn’t be added in addition to ward housing. Those that don’t want it won’t ever have to interact with it, so why so many feel the need to shoot it down every time it’s mentioned is beyond me. It solves the housing shortage while taking nothing away from existing ward owners. And it stops most of the other arguments on this forum if everyone can have access to the house they want.

Me again

Still no house, no horse in the race, and on Maduin so probably not gonna have issues when I try to buy one, anyway

I like the idea of wards. I liked it when I was last active a few years ago. The whole neighborhood thing where you get to know the people living around you, take in the sights of how everyone decorated their stuff, etc. But... As came up again and again in that other bigger thread(s), it's a failed experiment: there's no reason to hang out in the wards instead of a city aetheryte; because no one hangs out, there's no real reason to build up a community because nobody's around; no community building up means no one hangs out, etc. in a forever feedback loop.

(Being in Maduin/Dynamis, it's eerily similar to our DF/PF issues...)

Maybe it's more lively on the RP/more populated servers, idk, but I remember randomly visiting some ward spontaneously shortly after starting the game and... Nobody was there. And at the time, I forget which, but I WAS on a Crystal server, I remember that much. I guess I was hoping/expecting to see a lot of people hanging out or whatever, but again, there's no incentive to being in the wards (when you're not out questing that is) over the main cities.

(Cont because too much word vomit lol)

[KatiaRelanah]

So at this point, we have to acknowledge that for probably 90%? (number pulled straight out of my ass lol) of the house-d population, based largely on just seeing the general flow of the debate/discussion, have a home either as a furnishing dumping ground, or something cool to show to their friends. At which point... Why do you need a ward for that? If someone visits a ward EXCLUSIVELY to come check out/hang out at your place, what does it matter what the neighbors have as decoration?

And yes, there\\\\'s SOME people who like, their FC/friend group happened to buy homes all next to each other and they coordinated... Cool, as has been said, keep the wards. But anyone in the larger pool of, at most, "showing off THEIR HOUSE to their friends", it doesn\\\\'t make a difference whether it\\\\'s an isolated instance, or shoved between gaudily-decorated meme homes.

The only real possible issue I can think of, which doesn\\\\'t seem to be brought up, is what form this would take. Like, is a depopulated (except for the "target" home) ward zone instanced in for the duration? Do you have a home in a black void of nothingness? Do you enter the instance by crossing the gate threshold?

I guess if I had to wonder aloud about the instancing, it\\\\'s not a criticism/rebuttal per se, but I\\\\'m just genuinely wondering what it even looks like in execution.

[Khryseis_Astra]

That would be the apartments with the different sizes, there is no need for "an instanced house" when you have similar apartments, and yes it would lessen the demand for housing as many just want more internal room.

And again, an apartment is not a house. Everyone can have both now, one is not a substitute for the other.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I think you forgot what game you are playing, you're playing FFXIV, I hope you understand that if instanced housing ever happens (which I doubt) it wont be a plot of your choice, have you seen island ? Everything is premade, and there's barely any choice, if instanced housing happens, it'll be a little bit like garrisons in WoW, with premade placement in the world, the house will be in a fixed spot, not "the plot you like", I can promise you that 100

Which is why those of us who want instanced are making threads about what we want to see out of such a feature, in between posts trying to defend the concept altogether. Rather than just create a new system entirely from scratch, it makes sense to use the existing ward’s plots as the models for the instanced.

Literally all they would have to do is instance it and put the little shield walls up where the instanced plot ends and the background scenery ends. Everything else, inside and outside, could work the same; no need to create something entirely new. It’s also not going to take up much more room than the apartments do, since they’re all not loaded when in use, whereas wards are permanent-loaded. Hell if they only picked the top 3 plots of each size per neighborhood, I could be satisfied with that. I get that some plots would lend themselves to instancing more easily than others. Luckily the most popular plots tend to be the ones around the edges, so they’re easier to section off. It’s entirely doable and most other MMOs it’s a given. It’s not an unreasonable request, or expectation.