FFXIV Request: Mog houses/Private residences

[Psion]

Greetings on the new forum!

This is a thread requesting the development of mog houses, in the spirit of FFXI. One thing I and many others loved, was to customize our mog house (well, mog room... more on that in a moment.) any way I saw fit, and I wound up spending millions of gil on rarities such as a marble bed that took me two and a half weeks farming a gigas with a .01% marble slab drop rate to obtain, and a gorgeous winged plaque that cost me a pretty penny in materials. Even though I rarely got to show it off except once in a while after dynamis meets in Bastok, I enjoyed having a resplendent palace of a room to relax and talk to linkshell members in.

Someone else has already written a thread on this on Zam's feedback forum, as seen here: http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?forum=173&mid=1295905573166283820&page=1

But I felt I should rewrite the basic idea of the thread on this forum for clarity's sake. Basically, mog room is so 2003. Our technology is bigger, stronger, better, and why stop at a single box of a room... when we can have a glorious mansion and garden? Granted, such a thing will cost more than a pretty penny and a lot of effort to have, but that's OK, because for those who decide to fully upgrade their houses, the journey is half the fun!

Here is the basic concept: We start out with a simple plot of land, and can hire a caretaker, similar to our old mog buddy, to help manage our home. My personal idea is that the type of retainer would be based on the area of residence: moogle for Gridania, qiqirn for Limsa Lominsa, and mammet for Ul'dah. Naturally, it would be best if we can change our area of residence, similar to FFXI.

But what are we to do with a plot of land? Why, build upon it of course! Through use of lots of materials, one can build a staggering variety of options for rooms and homes, but at a cost. For example, every house requires a foundation to build on, and the first foundation option would be cheap, but unable to support the weight of some grander houses, and look a bit grungy to boot. To build such a foundation, you would have to give your caretaker the appropriate materials required to build a foundation, perhaps in this case made of simple slate or whatever material is appropriate, and a good amount of it, as foundations are fairly large! You would also need to pay an amount of gil to pay for the services of the craftsmen hired to build said foundation. Once built, the foundation can be placed where you want it, and similar to mog furnishings and the like in FFXI, you can rearrange it afterward if you don't like how it was placed.

Once the foundation is build, you need walls, a roof, and perhaps windows and a door, and the beginning options are quite naturally rickety and cheap. Perhaps maple lumber or other cheap wood used to build the house would be used, along with the gil for services, and the ability to place them. It would be even better if you can adjust the size of the walls and direction, letting you create indoor rooms as you see fit, but I'll leave how possible or impossible things can be to the development team. Perhaps wall "sections" could be used though, as ways to create rooms through indoor separators.

Of course, after the house comes furnishings! Unlike the house, decorative furnishings can be crafted and bought from other players, like with FFXI, which means you can start off with a ramshackle home but still place a bed fit for a king inside if you see it fit right away.

But along with the decorative furnishings comes utilities, things such as a forge for blacksmith work, that can provide guild support for free, though the first forge option would be a bit... questionable and only provide common support. like the basic structure of the home though, the more you upgrade it, the more varied and useful later options become. Your first option might only be a ramshackle forge for instance, but after obtaining that, you might have a couple different options of forge for the next upgrade that provide a better support with different appearances, and after upgrading that even more options and looks. In the end you might wind up with a forge that grants master support or better yet, a step higher, though at a fair cost!

Having a yard is no fun if you can't do anything with it, however. Through a similar system you can bring materials and gil to your trusty housekeeper to create plants used to make a garden that becomes the talk of the town, and even harvest from it! Of course, the first grade will be level 1, and have terrible items to harvest from, but with work you can unlock higher grades and improve the loot tables, allowing you to harvest in the peace of your own garden, safe from ravenous fiends. Similar options would be available for the other diciples of the hand: trees to log from, an entrance to an underground cave that you can mine from and even decorate with items such as glowing crystals, fantastical stalagtites and stalagmites, underground rivers and ponds to fish from, and more, and for above ground, decorative ponds and rivers you can stock with fish, perhaps even fish you can see swimming around simply for decoration, and beautiful bridges to cross them!

You could even give invitations to people you want to enter your mog house, allowing them to use your facilities as well, issuing them tickets for say, an hours of clearance in your estate, or more. By creating such invitations, you open up a new market, that of people who want to customize their houses specifically to attract renters for use of facilities, who can rent out their homes to people wanting to use the ultimate in crafting support or great facilities in exchange for gil. And speaking of which, by making a requirement in gil to build various parts of the house, utilities, and landscaping, you create an impressive gilsink that can counteract the massive inflation that runs in this game from leves, npcing of items, and behests. And, similar to dynamis and behest, you can raise or lower the costs as needed to adjust the amount of gil leaving the economy!

Of course, perhaps it could tie to companies, or linkshells as well, if you wish to do it that way. You could have a main hall where the guild master and whichever linkshell members he deems a caretaker can upgrade and change the decorations, with plots of land surrounding it, each owned by individual linkshell members to take care as their own, giving a sense of community and a great hub for linkshell members to gather at.

Mainly though, don't feel constrained by the box of a mog house that we had in FFXI. Let's think outside the box, to the whole house and outside world, and let us customize, customize, customize! Whatever options you have obtained, let us use them whenever we want. If we decide that we want a sprawling mansion but those gleaming marble walls are tiring us out, let us be able to change those walls back to the old maple planks we started out with if we wish, provided we paid for that upgrade. And if we decide that we like the marble walls better after all, let us be able to change back. Give us the tools to let our imaginations run wild, and you will have created content for the game that could even attract people who specifically enjoy playing a game simply to play house. Just look at minecraft and how popular it is!

And finally, it is something you could use to implement future content. Chocobo raising like with FFXI? We could build our own chocobo stables and raise our chocobos right in our home, take them on walks through our own garden, and have them curl up on the couch while we talk with our linkshell buddies at the table. I'm not suggesting everything could be connected to our houses, but with enough customization you could tie in quite a few things to it and build a sense of community and belonging to adventurers in Eorzea!

[Lebannen]

I agree with parts of what you said. I think it would be much cooler if you had to hire other players to use their crafting skills in order to help you build your house. I also think that instead of building your own house you should be able to build a linkshell headquarters. I think that would be really cool.

[Nephera]

So long as you only get locked out of your house instead of losing it when you forget to pay rent. I'd hate to go on vacation and come back and find out i got evicted. giving players something to decorate is a great way to keep them playing.

[Abriael]

You'll always find me very supportive of any ideas related to player housing. I always think it's a great way to create something "personal" in the game, and it has the potential to be an enjoyable money sink.

And this game really needs money sinks.

[Vesper]

I want more than a house. I want to be able to choose a RESIDENCE style. From Gridania, Uldah, Limsa or even some other ones not city specific.
Have it port you to an instance VIA any city. This instance would not just be the inside of a building, but the outside as well where you can decorate the outside of the house as well. Though the instance would essentially be your house

[Psion]

I agree with parts of what you said. I think it would be much cooler if you had to hire other players to use their crafting skills in order to help you build your house. I also think that instead of building your own house you should be able to build a linkshell headquarters. I think that would be really cool.

Well, the idea is that furnishings would be something you "hire" other players to use their crafting skills on, although with Yoshi-Ps mention of group synthesis such as building a cake, it could be quite possible to apply that to this as well, having a group of crafters work together to make a section of wall for instance, combining the skills of a woodworker with say an armorer for the nails needed.

There needs to be not just craftsmen involved, however. Items used in the making of houses should involve not just craftable items, but raw materials such as rocks, gems, herbs, and more, and also items you get from monster drops such as hides and sinews. This way the entire economy benefits from increased demand, not just the craftsmen, but the gatherers and the warriors as well.

I want more than a house. I want to be able to choose a RESIDENCE style. From Gridania, Uldah, Limsa or even some other ones not city specific.
Have it port you to an instance VIA any city. This instance would not just be the inside of a building, but the outside as well where you can decorate the outside of the house as well. Though the instance would essentially be your house

That's the basic idea. You can pick a city to reside in, and the plot of lands should reflect the area as well. For ul'dah, a stirring desert landscape; for Gridania, a tranquil forested meadow; for Limsa Lominsa, a grand ocean view.

The ability to teleport to your house from any city is a great idea, however. And I specifically want an outside to decorate as well. What good is a house if you can't admire the outside of it as well, and the surrounding landscape and aquascaping? Outdoor furniture such as a gonzola with a table and chairs would make a wonderful place to relax with friends!

[Nephera]

I remember back to eq2 I probably spent more time playing with decorating my house in mind than getting cool armor.

[Arya]

I want more than a house. I want to be able to choose a RESIDENCE style. From Gridania, Uldah, Limsa or even some other ones not city specific.
Have it port you to an instance VIA any city. This instance would not just be the inside of a building, but the outside as well where you can decorate the outside of the house as well. Though the instance would essentially be your house

Hmm, do you mean having one massive accommodation city accessible from all major cities current and future, with different construction styles available (perhaps based on where you've adventured to before, or on what leves/quests you've completed)?

While I like the idea, wouldn't that get super-laggy and be a problem in its own right? Wouldn't it be easier to have a residential quarter in each city (ie: split things up a bit). You could be given a skill to tele to your house directly wherever you are, and you could be given the chance to appear from one of multiple points in your "home city" (like you could after you did those little mog house exit quests in FFXI). Sure, you wouldn't be able to do that in your non-home cities, but I could live with that.

Definitely would like to see Linkshell/Company housing that can be customised in a number of way. Hopefully with storage options as well!

And yes, if you forget to pay your upkeep (though a nice option might be to auto-pay from your money till you run out), the house gets locked until you pay up, instead of everything being deleted.

[Vesper]

Hmm, do you mean having one massive accommodation city accessible from all major cities current and future, with different construction styles available (perhaps based on where you've adventured to before, or on what leves/quests you've completed)?

• Basically when you start you get to choose from the style of your starting city
• As you rank you can do quests to unlock the other styles from other starting cities
• As yourank you can unlock styles that are not restricted to cities, aka treehouse, mistbeard cave, Cassiopeia cave etc.
• It would not be one giant housing city. It would be personalized instances for every player. That includes the inside, outside and a small plot of land to customize
• You could set permissions like EQ2 to allow friends, guild members or all people to come in and look around.

[Psion]

• Basically when you start you get to choose from the style of your starting city
• As you rank you can do quests to unlock the other styles from other starting cities
• As yourank you can unlock styles that are not restricted to cities, aka treehouse, mistbeard cave, Cassiopeia cave etc.
• It would not be one giant housing city. It would be personalized instances for every player. That includes the inside, outside and a small plot of land to customize
• You could set permissions like EQ2 to allow friends, guild members or all people to come in and look around.

This is basically what I had in mind, but forgot to put down. house options that you unlock both by prerequisite lower types, like maple walls opening up oak and cedar wall options, and quests (with story!) to unlock others. To get the option to add grade 2 mining nodes for instance, you might need to be a level 15 miner and do a quest relating to it, unlocking the option to build it provided you got the right materials and gil.