3.3 & 3.4 Housing Updates

[Syranelle Ironleaf]

I don't see why they didn't just make housing instanced, like they did in LOTRO.  When you filled up a Ward in LOTRO, another one spawned a few hours later.  It would make sure that low pop servers didn't have a bunch of empty wards and high pop servers have all the wards they need.  Everyone wins and resources aren't taxed upkeeping a bunch of empty instances on low pop servers that no one uses.

[Kilieit]

It's probably because the way the code is structured server-side doesn't allow a system like that to easily be implemented.

 

Which, I mean... that's not a good thing. A robust system (especially in an MMO) should ideally be easy to expand on (or shrink down) for any given number of players.

 

But it does mean that they probably can't change the way it's done without major restructuring that would take a lot of dev time and prevent them from implementing other new features instead.

[Star Lin]

Also, I think it was mention that they don't do that because of the wards having to be on all the time because of Chocobos coloring and Gardening.  But it's been a while so I'm not sure it I heard right or not.

[Dis]

Another good system that they might consider implementing is separating Stabling and Housing, to allow for an instanced housing system. We've seen that gardens can be done in an interior setting, so it might be possible to tie the system together in another way (keeping in mind that I know nothing about the back-end side of the coding they have to do).

 

Rift and EQ2 had instanced housing, and both generated wards as needed, and each 'housing' was considered separate. At the same time, you had a limit to the number of houses you could own without unlocking more (4 in Rift, and I don't recall the limit in EQ), both both allowed for a much more robust housing system. At the same time, in those systems you could literally build a house from scratch, so obviously they might not be able to apply things the way they have to in XIV.

 

I'd love to see a more robust housing system in general, but I don't know of anyone who would be eager for them to pull resources away from other developments in order to work on a revamp. All they can do at this point I think is continue to work on the system they have and try to find a way to refine it to do what they want it to do.

[Guy Tower]

There is one thing I don't understand about the upcoming apartments - can I or can I not invite other players to my apartment? I do not mean making them co-owners of the place, just allowing them to hang out in my apartment whether or not (or, at least, only when) I am inside.

[Kilieit]

Yes, you should be able to. It looks like they work the same way as private chambers - guest access can be granted but you cannot co-own it with anyone.

 

I think there could be plenty improvements given to the guest access settings, but there are dozens of more important improvements to housing in general that I'd rather be made first. x_x

[Skae]

I don't see why they didn't just make housing instanced, like they did in LOTRO.  When you filled up a Ward in LOTRO, another one spawned a few hours later.  It would make sure that low pop servers didn't have a bunch of empty wards and high pop servers have all the wards they need.  Everyone wins and resources aren't taxed upkeeping a bunch of empty instances on low pop servers that no one uses.

 

Even in LOTRO there is only a finite number of neighbourhoods (wards) possible. Large but finite.

A few years ago the larger servers did run out of the bigger house types for sale. Solution was to make people lose the houses after a time if they did not pay the weekly upkeep. (They also made it so you could pay for up to 6 months in advance.)

That freed up lots of houses that were owned by people who no longer played the game.

 

 

If they are clever with the coding an empty instance would take up a miniscule amount of resources.

[Kage]

With the implementation of apartments, the personal demands for housing will be 100% met. Each ward has 1 apartment with 90 rooms, and we are ready to increase the number of rooms whenever we want. We designed it so 1 ward can have over 500 rooms per apartment, so it will definitely be able to cover every player. Players who already own a house can buy an apartment. We also have a chocobo stable per apartment so players who didn't have a house to feed and change the color will be able to now.

[Ruran]

With the implementation of apartments, the personal demands for housing will be 100% met. Each ward has 1 apartment with 90 rooms, and we are ready to increase the number of rooms whenever we want. We designed it so 1 ward can have over 500 rooms per apartment, so it will definitely be able to cover every player. Players who already own a house can buy an apartment. We also have a chocobo stable per apartment so players who didn't have a house to feed and change the color will be able to now.

 

Yep, that's repeated here, too:

https://m.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/53rr40/quick_summary_of_the_dengeki_and_4gamers_last/?utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true

 

"Apartments:

90 people can live in an apartment per ward. They can actually have 500 people live in one apartment, but in that case there will be wards with nobody living in them, so they started with 90 so people spread out among all the wards. If that's not enough, they'll add rooms instantly."

 

Hopefully there's some merit to this, and that they will actually add more apartments 'instantly' if there's an issue with space.

[Shoshopu]

My theory is that it'll work out like FC housing, where when the last page fills up, a new one is made. I mean, apartments seem like they're basically communal FC private chambers anyway.

 

edit: Okay... maybe not. Maybe all the rooms and all the wards have to be full before it adds more?

[CrimsonMars]

So it seems like owning an apartment is a lot less hectic than we anticipated with a good number of them on Goblet aren't even full yet as of this post so if you're still interested in owning a room, you still have plenty of time. I've yet to check the other residential areas thoroughly yet though but it seems like we were worried for nothing. 

[Shoshopu]

The subdivision where d20's house is and the ward where my and Fyrilsunn's shared house is have full apartments, but I've not checked all the Mist wards yet.

[Delilah Scythewood]

edit: Okay... maybe not. Maybe all the rooms and all the wards have to be full before it adds more?

 

They've already spoken about being able to easily add more apartments when needs arise. Contrary to what some believe, it doesn't sound like it will automatically refresh once everything else is full with new spaces. Though it's much easier to implement more apartments then more housing because it requires less resources to do and is just a singular instance rather then ward->sub->housing->private chamber.

 

Added: plus, even FCs have limits for members. You can't have more private chambers in an FC house then there are members. Though it's in the hundreds, its still a limit so pages will only be created until the limit is reached.

[Ruran]

So it seems like owning an apartment is a lot less hectic than we anticipated with a good number of them on Goblet aren't even full yet as of this post so if you're still interested in owning a room, you still have plenty of time. I've yet to check the other residential areas thoroughly yet though but it seems like we were worried for nothing. 

 

Here's to hoping that there will be space in the Mist in a few hours, after I get home from work. <_< I picked up a spot for Ruran, but I would really like to get a space for my alt as well.

 

Overall, I'm very satisfied with how apartments have been handled. It's great to see so many people be able to get one! Even better that they weren't all snapped up within the hour, allowing people to have a (mostly) fair chance at obtaining one. Hoping that they maintain this momentum and open up new spaces when the rest fill up!

[Niteshade_Rune]

at about 11am I saw several openings in the Mist and managed to land one myself

[Cynel1]

Well i was able to snag an goblet apartment without any trouble yesterday.

[Valence]

Here we go, seeing PF advertising selling apartments on Balmung.