It's official now: Homestead area cap is intentional (despite what was said on the livestream), devs thought it was high enough that no one would notice, no plans on increasing the cap

[Vetkin.6041]

Hello everyone,

after watching the homestead pre-release livestream back then, I felt excited. Finally we were not limited to an area cap like it's the case for guild halls to this day. For those that don't know: In guild halls, you're only allowed to place a maximum of 20 objects within a 600 unit square bounding box of a single decoration. And that bounding box is huge, meaning building something detailed and intricate is straight up impossible.
The devs on the Janthir Wild's homestead preview livestream said the following:

Quote

"We've removed the restriction on how many decorations you can place in a space for homesteads. We're less concerned about performance because it's your homestead."

You can imagine how excited I was. 12 years of waiting was rewarded by one of the best decoration systems the MMORPG world has seen so far and not only that, I could finally build whatever I wanted. A highly detailed living room to relax in? No problem. A big workshop where my commander could tinker around? Sure thing.

But the same week Janthir Wild's got released, I was happily decorating the 3rd room of the homestead's house ... until a message popped up that told me: "Too many decorations in this area".
I was surprised, of course. Thought that it had to be a bug. I saw quite a few others on the forums, on reddit and on twitter hitting that area cap so that meant that I was not alone with this issue.

Fast forward exactly 2 months where I tried hard to get any answer to this. I asked folks on twitter, I posted a bug-thread in the subsection of the forum, I created a discussion thread, I joined other threads, I wrote @Rubi Bayer.8493 who told me she'd get back to me on this (which has not happened yet after a month), I opened 2 tickets. Nothing.
Not a single person could tell me whether this area cap was intentional or not - and that's all I wanted to know in the first place.
And then, finally, yesterday I got the answer I was looking for - and it was not a pleasant one.

After hitting the cap back then, I lost all motivation to further decoration my homestead. I had fun building and posting about it, few of my builds were even shared by the official Guild Wars 2 account on twitter. But knowing that there is still a very limiting cap in place just ruined the whole homestead experience for me.

Here's the thing with the cap: The house itself has 7 rooms (3 of them very big). When decorating the house, said 600 unit square bounding box occupies 90% of the house. It even reaches down into the cellar and up into the first floor - effectively meaning that you cannot even fully furnish all your rooms if you plan on doing that with a little bit of detail. I'm stuck on 3 decorated rooms and now I'm forced to leave the other 4 empty.

I don't know what's worse ... being misinformed and excited to just be letdown again after waiting 12 years for housing or the area cap itself.
Either way, I'm incredibly disappointed and frustrated.

Anyways, as I know lots of folks have been writing bug reports and tickets about it, this should finally clear things up - even thought it leaves a sour taste.

Best regards
 

[Ant.9720]

I am very curious what is the purpose of this cap.

[arazoth.7290]

The decoration cap I wish they increased the most more then 1000 currently..., minimum 2000 but rather higher.

 

And they can indeed increase the 200 objects in 600 unit cap too.

 

I really hope they make this happen, it will only benefit for people who like this system and keep them engaged with for the future on long term...

[Noidea Incognito.9607]

What was stated by both the Senior GM and Rubi either means:

1.We cant show you stuff in the making yet, Wait for the 1st big patch update. patience! we will keep our promise in the end about the cap.

2.We are looking into the possibilities to increase the cap within whatever restrains the engine cause.

3.We have gemstore plans with the Decoration Cap  in mind, but that's still in the works.

4.We need to adjust our plans now; as we thought this amount of cap was enough for majority players.

5.There is actually an engine limitation but we out spoke too soon about limitless cap. We are adjusting our communication accordingly to this new reality.

 

But if they do not increase the cap at all it will be problematic.   

Amount of Decoration variation >  Decoration Cap = Restriction of Creative Freedom.

This feature may seemed Niche at 1st but it gained popularity quite fast. Cap limits wont do this expansion feature much favors.

 

 

[HotDelirium.7984]

13 minutes ago, Noidea Incognito.9607 said:

What was stated by both the Senior GM and Rubi either means:

1.We cant show you stuff in the making yet, Wait for the 1st big patch update. patience! we will keep our promise in the end about the cap.

2.We are looking into the possibilities to increase the cap within whatever restrains the engine cause.

3.We have gemstore plans with the Decoration Cap  in mind, but that's still in the works.

4.We need to adjust our plans now; as we thought this amount of cap was enough for majority players.

5.There is actually an engine limitation but we out spoke too soon about limitless cap. We are adjusting our communication accordingly to this new reality.

 

But if they do not increase the cap at all it will be problematic.   

Amount of Decoration variation >  Decoration Cap = Restriction of Creative Freedom.

This feature may seemed Niche at 1st but it gained popularity quite fast. Cap limits wont do this expansion feature much favors.

 

 

I wonder if they will have to compromise and if that would be okay with you? No more area cap but the total 1,000 cap has to stay in place?

[Kulvar.1239]

41 minutes ago, Ant.9720 said:

I am very curious what is the purpose of this cap.

Probably something with how many decorations are rendered based on a radius around the camera.

[Vetkin.6041]

6 minutes ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

I wonder if they will have to compromise and if that would be okay with you? No more area cap but the total 1,000 cap has to stay in place?

I would much prefer that but knowing A-Net, I really doubt the area cap will go. Would be a wish come true though.

[Noidea Incognito.9607]

@HotDelirium.7984Ah my apologies; let me phrase it a little better.

BOTH the Decoration and Area Cap should be increased equally. (idk  10 k cap = base.   Extra 5 k expansions from gem store for the frenzied Builder.)

Preferable no cap limits...but if hands are tied...🤷‍♂️

Having higher Decoration cap but a Low Area cap wouldn't make much sense. Vice versa.

 

The problem could be;  this feature (perhaps unintentional) gave a certain impression of what could be done with it.

The Area around the Base Housing is Vast; like... its extremely suggestive into letting the player think you can fill it up with yer own creations.

If the plan was to ONLY let players decorate the Base Housing interior; then the explorable instance zone should have been waaaaay smaller.

So its either a problematic technical limitation or they totally underestimated a player capabilities of creating complex,intricate combinations using existing decorations  (which more often result in increased decoration usage per unique self-made decoration)?

 

But again; the info on this is still clouded a lot. we know still to little.... more answer might emerge with the 1st big update.....maybe.

In its current condition "my team" can't roll out "the master plan"; we need the full package at our disposal 1st.....

Until that time is there; gather resources, stock on decorations, etc, etc.

Its a Ash Legion thing. Fluctuations/anomalies  in missions is a no go and should be at best be minimized/avoided . o7

 

 

Again i understand the OP frustration on this; at the very least they came through halfway still; they can still move forward from that point.

"Patience you must muster; young Padawan"

Edited 8 minutes ago by Noidea Incognito.9607

[babak.3654]

I hadn't done much with my homestead yet, but that's a little disappointing considering it isn't that wild to think that many people would want to decorate all the rooms in their house. Removing the cap and increasing the cap aren't the same thing, and it's hard to understand how the limitation could be invisible to players; it clearly isn't.

[Omega.6801]

3 hours ago, Noidea Incognito.9607 said:

3.We have gemstore plans with the Decoration Cap  in mind, but that's still in the works.

Homesteader's [whatever markettable name] Pack: 1000 Gems, increases both overall and regional decoration cap by 200, adds space to your Homestead, you receive some crafting materials. Can be purchased multiple times.

[Avenrise.3592]

It's disappointing but it's absolutely fine, I've just been awaiting AN answer before I go knocking down my main structure! If it is indeed a limitation with the engine then I'm not going to hold ANET to what they said during a livestream where the hosts were under pressure.

I do think this is a major limitation of the Housing system in GW2 though if they cannot design a way around it. Don't get me wrong it's an amazing new feature of the game but this to me seems like a huge black mark against it, curtailing creativity somewhat. As more decor items are added I think they may have more of a problem with this and certainly with the 1000 decor cap currently in place I'm not sure the feature is going to have as much long term legs as they think it will. Hell, housing was my entire end game in Wildstar and even I'm starting to think that in a years time I might have to be done with the mode.