A long-awaited overhaul of the housing system in Final Fantasy XIV is on the way according to director and producer Yoshi-P.
In a press conference on Saturday night as part of the ongoing Berlin Fan Festival, Yoshi-P revealed that two housing updates were in the works, as well as his admiration for the recent changes to World of Warcraft.
“For all of those who have been with us on this journey for a long time with 14, right back from the time of A Realm Reborn, I think you would know that we have an immense respect for the World of Warcraft team,” he began.
“So, when we saw that the World of Warcraft team announced the expansion and they announced the new housing system, and they said specifically that they looked to 14 and incorporated things where they wanted to surpass us, I think that in itself is very much a sense of great honour for us to hear.
“And of course, I had a hands-on with the WoW housing system myself and I really do appreciate it’s amazing.”
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Following on from this, he went on to explain that his experience with WoW led to a re-evaluation of housing in FF14.
“We always like taking on new challenges. So, this time around, when I tried WoW’s housing, I thought it really is amazing, and it’s been a good source of research.
“So, I can’t say exactly when it will happen, but what I can say is that for the Patch 8.X series, we are planning two very big overhauls for housing.
“The first one of those updates is around the UI. I do appreciate that right now the UI in 14 is quite technical, and it’s not very accessible. So, what we want to do is have a major overhaul of that UI so that it is more accessible for casual players, and so that they can easily create elaborate housing layouts.”
Unfortunately, while Yoshi-P was more open about the UI changes, he was unable to provide specific details about the second update, though he hinted that it’s one that players will be more excited for.
“It’s currently in the planning process right now on our end,” he explained, “and possibly there is a higher change that it will get released earlier than the UI update. So, once we have greater visibility into exactly when we can provide this update, we will announce further details.
“I can’t actually say any specific details right now, but I think once we are able to share those details, it’s probably the number one thing on the list [that] a lot of people are requesting.”
If you polled the FF14 player base, you would likely get a wide variety of answers with regard to what’s wrong with housing, but the issue that would likely top many players’ lists is the availability of housing.
With such high demand and small supply for housing in the game, the current lottery system of allocating houses has come under widespread criticism from players.
While a new UI update will no doubt be welcome for those players who have already bagged themselves a house, for those of us struggling to get a foot on the housing ladder, we have our fingers crossed that this is the mystery second housing update Yoshi-P is alluding to.
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