Two reasons why an eviction system is INEVITABLE.

[Yeldir]

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EDIT TWO MONTHS LATER:
"MMORPG.de: A lot of players complain about the housing situation. They want to buy a house, but it is impossible to find free plots on some worlds. Are there any plans to improve the situation?

NY: Yes, we are working on it, and there are three phases. The first step is working on abandoned houses, so there’s no owner, or player there actually. The second step is to make it available to players that they can move house. There is no system in game yet that can help you to change the house, so we want to help and support this in the game. With these two steps we will be able to have some empty plots. Then we want to see if we have to open up an Ishgard plot or add more plot to the existing areas. That is the third step. We want to be careful here and judge the situation first. We are working on step 1 and 2 already. There will be some updates, probably in patches 3.1 to 3.15, around this time."

Kiss your wasted land goodbye, inactives. While the details are unknown at this point, if we're really lucky, other players will be able to forcibly "reclaim" plots held by players/free companies hogging and not using multiple lots. You land moguls out there should sell sooner rather than later, just in case.
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#1. It's one board room meeting away, wherein a CFO or whatever they have over there in charge of "doing practical things with money" asks them why they're paying for rack after rack of expensive hardware to host resource-intensive, fully fledged world zones for non-paying, non-customers. When that question gets asked, in that manner, by anyone with any kind of influence on what sort of funding FFXIV's team receives, Yoshi-P and friends are going to roll their eyes nervously, stare at their feet, mumble something about player retention (these are people they already lost!), and every inactive account will be out on the street by next patch.

The almighty dollar is the bottom line, and it's crystal clear which side of that line this issue falls on. It doesn't matter what non-paying, non-customers want. What they've got right now is essentially an insane gratuity - they are getting something valuable for free.

#2. When the majority realize how much content is locked behind owning a Free Company House in 3.0 (this combined with the lack of new housing until at least 3.1), you're going to see a violent and overwhelming shift against home preservation for inactives.

The debate you're used to on these forums won't last, because these debates are driven by a tiny subgroup of FF14 players: people who have taken the time to research the many oblique statements SE has made regarding Housing in 3.0. I.E., big time nerds, myself included.

When the teeming hundred-thousands figure out that they don't have access to the same crafting materials (FC airship gathering missions), crafting recipes (workshop) and story content (invite Cid to yo' house to get your skyboat on), and then realize that they won't for the entirety of 3.0, possibly even until 3.1, it's going to be a tsunami of tears. The former crying of plz preserve my inactive account's houses will be a drop in that bucket.

...

If you're smart, you'll reactivate those accounts and sell to understandably desperate FC's when 3.0 hits, at grotesque rates.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Wow, long rant.

Feel better now that you've fired off your BS cannons?

I hope so. Now as for a reasonable response.

There will eventually come a point when its acted on but as of right now it's irrelevant. With the exception of overcrowded Legacy and high population Non Legacy servers like Gilgamesh, there is not a housing shortage.

Problem with crowded servers is that the servers them selves are unstable due to high volume. Solve that server stability problem and everything else will fall in place.

[Alberel]

There will eventually come a point when its acted on but as of right now it's irrelevant. With the exception of overcrowded Legacy and high population Non Legacy servers like Gilgamesh, there is not a housing shortage.

Problem with crowded servers is that the servers them selves are unstable due to high volume. Solve that server stability problem and everything else will fall in place.

Errr dunno what you're trying to say there but it makes zero sense. If the only servers with housing shortages are the high pop servers then that means the numbers of players dealing with housing shortages are much higher by virtue of there being more players on those servers. I could conversely make the meaningless statement that the only servers without housing shortages are the low pop servers. See how easy it is to say something that sounds like it has value but is actually entirely meaningless?

The OP is right that as more and more regular players start to get desperate over the housing issue we'll be seeing more and more players calling for the fastest solution possible, and the fastest solution is to remove houses from inactive players and those that have more than one per account. Since the players that would be losing their houses are in a tiny minority their voice won't count for much when the general playerbase calls for a solution.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Errr dunno what you're trying to say there but it makes zero sense. If the only servers with housing shortages are the high pop servers then that means the numbers of players dealing with housing shortages are much higher by virtue of there being more players on those servers. I could conversely make the meaningless statement that the only servers without housing shortages are the low pop servers. See how easy it is to say something that sounds like it has value but is actually entirely meaningless?

The OP is right that as more and more regular players start to get desperate over the housing issue we'll be seeing more and more players calling for the fastest solution possible, and the fastest solution is to remove houses from inactive players and those that have more than one per account. Since the players that would be losing their houses are in a tiny minority their voice won't count for much when the general playerbase calls for a solution.

You're simply running different numbers. You're basing this on population numbers where as the Devs (And thus my self since I'm playing devil's advocate for their defence ) are running the numbers based on how many Empty plots there are per server. Of all of the servers only the legacy servers and around half a dozen non-legacy servers are completely out of housing plots. Conversely the majority of the servers either have a balance of free to purchased plots or a surplus of empty ones with no one to buy them.

So again, this comes back to server stress not players in and of themselves. When the majority of the playerbase is made up of the minority of the servers then the simplest solution is we need about 5-10% of plot less players to jump to a different server. The Prefered solution seems to be making new plots and kicking people who worked just as hard as you out because you're selfish and impatient. As for what the best solution is, if they knew that they'd have done it already thus why they are still working on it.

Fun fact, nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, that a FC house is needed for or is required for any level of game completion and is 100% optional, vanity content.

"Oh what about the Air Ships Kaiser, there are company Airships in 3.0, how do we make them with no FC Plot?!?! <Whine,bitch, moan, cry, gripe>"

Irrelevant, it'll be 3.1 at the earliest that airship construction is implemented and even later before airship content is developed. So there will still be no gameplay based content in the immediate future that needs an FC house.


tl:rd
The devs are looking at purchased plot numbers not player population, they are working on a solution, FC plots aren't required for any content that will lock people out of gameplay and probably never will be. now stop acting like spoiled and entitled brats, shut your whining up, and wait for the devs to fix it. They could after all just decide "Ya know, this was a bad idea after all, lets cancel all further housing development and use the resources on something else" then who would win? And that is in their power so be glad they aren't as petty as some of you act.

[Intaki]

Feel better now that you've fired off your BS cannons?

To be BS it would have to be wrong. Try looking at your own posts for a better example.

[Zorlinta]

Nah the fastest solution is grant free move pass from legacy servers to non-legacy ones.
All servers have the same setup, and there are Many free vacant houses in non-crowded servers.

[m3eansean]

This is not a legacy server problem. Many, Many non-legacy worlds have 0 housing and haven't had housing since about 2.3-2.4 days.

There are a considerable number of abandoned houses on almost all servers and it is a well known phenomenon to everyone I speak to.

[BreathlessTao]

blah free vs purchased blah 100% optional blah cancel everything blah

For starters, please link source where the devs stated they consider empty plots instead of population numbers, because I can't recall. And without that, your speculation is just as good as anyone else's.

Fun fact: housing wards are persistent zones that need to be kept up and running constantly. Whatever numbers they have to them - population, number of houses, the number of items in those houses - rest assured, they were all taken into consideration when the devs figured out the current setup, things like this aren't done with RNG and prayers to whatever god that it'll be ok. So, whether the plots are empty or not makes little to no difference in regards to server stress. The zone is there, it needs to be online, and whether it's completely empty or full to the brim, it contributes just as much to server stress as it is allowed to. And with that in mind, since it's eating up resources either way, using those resources on players who actually actively play is just more logical than having it go to waste on inactives.

As for what exactly is coming in which version, again, please link... But regardless of all that - hell, really, the whole game itself is 100% optional to play. Nobody's forcing you to play it. Kind of a pointless argument; "playing" for you might mean something completely different than it does to someone else. If you only care about raiding, and someone else only cares about building something with a group of people - you both are paying the same money for your game. You're not any more entitled to your own bit of content than the other person is to theirs; same way they're not entitled to any less bitching about it than you are.

Personally, to be honest, I would not mind the least bit if they stopped the development of any and all housing related content until they can solve the availability of housing in general. 1440 plots per server, for all FCs and individuals, with no restriction on how many one can buy - that is abysmal, regardless of how much and what kind of content is tied to it (for sanity's sake, they've been giving away furnitures as event rewards, when the majority of the players is lucky to have access to a private chamber). Just because a given content is completely irrelevant to you, it doesn't mean nobody's allowed to complain about it. Especially when it is as badly implemented as housing is here. It's rather that attitude that is petty, as opposed to talking about flaws and trying to find solutions. An eviction system might not be ideal at all, but given how limited the whole system is, it is the best that can be done the quickest.

[Yeldir]

Wow, long rant.

Feel better now that you've fired off your BS cannons?

BS cannons, eh'? Kablammo! You're half right, Ace. I do enjoy firing the kettle. I try to be correct while I do so, though. Sometimes I even succeed.


Regarding plot availability, Ace, what are you using to track land ownership status on a server-by-server basis? I'd like to know what you're basing your claims on before I try to dispute them.

As for content locking, I'm afraid it's a little more than cosmetic, if everyone's favorite compilation document is to be believed:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...VZ3lI1VGvrnl0/

Free Company

Workshop - Picture 1 - Picture 2 - Picture 3
It will not cost more than 1 million gil
Crafting Stand
For Free Company Crafting
Control Stand
For Planning Airship Voyages
Blueprint Stand
For creating new Crafting recipes

Airship Crafting
Will be expanded every major patch.
Able to send Airships on Voyages to search for rare items
Items to improve Company Crafts
“Jackpot” Items
Shards and Crystals
Crafting Materials
Including rare materials exclusive to Voyages
Items required to Craft new recipes at the Blueprint stand
Able to create up to 4 Airships on release, more will be available later.
Airships require 4 parts.
Bow, Hull, Stern, Sail
Various types of each part
Able to board and ride Free Company Airships after 3.1
People without a Free Company will be able to board Airships as a guest or mercenary.
Aetherial Wheel will receive new actions
Special Effects that can only be obtained through Aetherial Wheel
House Crafting
Craft new housing fixtures.

I can't tell you how big of an advantage those "rare" and "jackpot" airship-gathered items are, or to what extent free company crafting will have advantages over regular crafting, if indeed it presents any at all besides airship recipes. I personally doubt that workshops exist simply to facilitate the production of airships, which gather more parts for airships, but that's pure speculation and consequently isn't worthy of being considered enough to be challenged.

My original point, that the kind of content getting locked behind FC home ownership in 3.0 will be enough to bring the housing issue to crisis, remains supported by this document, I think. The document itself is a compilation of forum post, live letter and interview tidbits, sadly without citations.

[Madjames]

They need to put a time limit on someone's account not being subscribed and limit the housing to one house, per server, per account. This is ONE fc house OR ONE personal house per character, per account. Homes should be for paying subscribers only and should be limited to give everyone a chance to get into these features.