Hello everyone! Z’ythe Nuhn of Maetus here
Like most players, I was a bit disappointed with the way the housing situation was handled on FFXIV and like so many other I’ve resigned myself to making a post here on the Reddit about it. I will, however, be posting on the Official Forums as well.
At the end of this post, you will be also seeing a Survey to convey your thoughts on my suggestions and observations. With that out of the way let's discuss how I do think after discussing this with about anyone willing to give me their opinion, we might alleviate the housing crisis.
Potential fixes
Option 1: More wards, and I mean a lot more. The idea of this would be to simply add more wards to the existing properties. However, based on what I’ve been seeing no less than 24 more wards would be able to suffice, that’s a considerable increase. But oh no, what about players who have the money for a large, or a medium plot?
This means that we still would have the problem of scarcity and that alone would cause this plan to likely fail. Players are still going to be angry about this.
Option 2: Redesign the housing size system. Don’t get me wrong, still include small, medium, and large plots. The idea behind this is that the layout would have to be redone, not a small task, but a needed one. All Houses that are currently medium and large would be grandfathered in. All plots, however, would be on larger plots of land, thus making it possible to upgrade their size after a sizeable contribution of gil. This would stop the fighting over plot sizes and instead allow players to determine how big of a house they needed. If you add this with far more wards being added you can alleviate a lot of the issues surrounding it.
Option 3: The Citadel System. I rather like the apartment system in the game, but it begs the question. Why is it limited to just players? What’s stopping us from expanding this system to include common areas, shops, hangout spots for Roleplayers, ect. In addition I would like to see medium and large apartments added and the FC offices added as well. Making a second building, much larger than the first that houses much larger interior plots for Free companies also allowing them to have access to the Balcony system (somewhat instanced outer areas that function as the outdoor area.), and workshops.
Option 4: Instanced housing. The community seems somewhat split on this one, and for good reason, I currently own a new small house and our FC owns the one right in front of it right by the beach in Shirogane; however, even though I’ve made quite a few friends as a result, I’m somewhat torn when I see players sad that they cannot own a house now due to the limited number of plots (The house we own personally is owned by my fiance, I ended up giving my plot to an FC in the Goblet.) Instanced housing could potentially fix this if done right. It’d also allow players to have a home ANYWHERE the devs could desire, it wouldn’t be hard to design a new landscape (not explorable per say) to allow a player a home in Ishguard, Doma, or Ala Mhigo.
Things that I think need to happen.
New plots or areas need to be restricted to players who do not own land on their account currently. This ensures only unhoused players are allowed to purchase land. Allow current players who own more than one to be grandfathered in, however; if they lose their plot on their current character they cannot purchase another one as long as one of their characters owns one.
Gardens need to be moved to 3 plots per property this reduces the advantage that large owners have over small owners in terms of gil making (Gardening is very profitable.)
The new plots need to be locked to FC’s for X amount of time. Many players will not like this idea for the fact of gaining a plot of land for their own personal use, but when I see the average size of an FC compared to a single player I know the needs of the many outweigh the needs of one. This idea could work quite well if paired with option 2. Free companies using this advantage should have a minimum number of players in them, and time that they have existed to gain this advantage (thus preventing abuse of this system)
Post your ideas in the comments below. Please keep all discussion mature.
Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F58T7RR