4.2 Housing Update

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Originally Posted by Luxpheras

Greetings,



Yoshida mentioned during the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XLI that the rules being added in Patch 4.2 will be applicable to new purchases only. Players who already possess more than one FC estate and 1 personal estate per world will not lose their existing housing.

We appreciate all the feedback shared so far and will continue to pass your thoughts along to the dev. team!

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This is a terrible idea. That said, they're very specifically saying "...added in Patch 4.2" so maybe once the initial changes take hold, more surgical options will be available.

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Originally Posted by illgot

.... I think you overestimate how many players own more than 2 houses. ....

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Exactly this. Too many people look at the exception and make it the norm. There aren't enough players with more than one house to make a dent in the demand for housing. By forcing the return of houses SE does nothing more than make more of their player base upset and causes additional problems related to cash shop item handling. It is better to grandfather current multi-house owners and let them come to the market through attrition. If they wan to incent people to freely give up extra houses adding the automatic ability for alts to share housing would go a long way. Even this won't fix the problem. There are only two options for SE to resolve the housing issue. Add enough wards so every FC and player can have a house or create a fully instanced housing system where housing is effectively unlimited. They could even keep both, keeping the current wards for those who are willing to live with its restrictions and a parallel instanced system where they lift the item number restrictions, allow for upgrades on the same plot, etc.

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Originally Posted by TheCurls

That said, they're very specifically saying "...added in Patch 4.2"

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I think you might be reading too much into that.

How else would you write that the new rules coming into effect with 4.2 will only affect new purchases?

If anything it's very clear that existing owners won't lose their housing, not that they might at some point down the line.

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Originally Posted by Luxpheras

Greetings,



Yoshida mentioned during the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XLI that the rules being added in Patch 4.2 will be applicable to new purchases only. Players who already possess more than one FC estate and 1 personal estate per world will not lose their existing housing.

We appreciate all the feedback shared so far and will continue to pass your thoughts along to the dev. team!

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Thanks for the clarification! Quite the relief :)

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Originally Posted by missarielle

Question

Will the single-house for FC per person impact those who are not the FC leader?
Example.
I have multiple characters on a server.
Character A is in FC 1, they have a small plot in the Mists currently.
Character B is in FC 2, they don't have a house and are planning to buy one.

I am not the leader in either Free Company.
Will my membership within the company prevent FC 2 from buying a house?

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Your membership in FC 1 will prevent you from buying a house for FC 2, however anyone else with land permissions in FC 2 (provided they don't also have an alt character in a different FC) can still purchase a house for FC 2.

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Originally Posted by Claviusnex

Exactly this. Too many people look at the exception and make it the norm. There aren't enough players with more than one house to make a dent in the demand for housing. By forcing the return of houses SE does nothing more than make more of their player base upset and causes additional problems related to cash shop item handling. It is better to grandfather current multi-house owners and let them come to the market through attrition. If they wan to incent people to freely give up extra houses adding the automatic ability for alts to share housing would go a long way. Even this won't fix the problem. There are only two options for SE to resolve the housing issue. Add enough wards so every FC and player can have a house or create a fully instanced housing system where housing is effectively unlimited. They could even keep both, keeping the current wards for those who are willing to live with its restrictions and a parallel instanced system where they lift the item number restrictions, allow for upgrades on the same plot, etc.

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The people who will be upset will almost exclusively be the people who have the extra houses, along with a handful of unaffected people with misplaced empathy. I don't have a lot of sympathy for them, as they knowingly abused the system to horde an extremely limited resource. And, as was stated, there aren't many of these people. Even if 100% of the folks affected quit the game in disgust after having their homes taken away, it would hardly put a dent in the subscription base. It should go without saying that not even close to 100% of folks affected will do this; maybe a small handful, with the remainder grumbling on the forums a while before everyone eventually forgets about it all.

By the same token, there aren't many of these people. Taking their homes away will not suddenly flood the servers with available housing. To me, though, gaining new housing is not the reason to do it, but rather to FINALLY address an injustice that has been tolerated for far too long. I mean, seriously; the moment SE announced that FC housing was going to be our personal housing as well, folks knew it was going to be a limited resource. Hoarders did not go in blind.

It doesn't matter of only 100 people out of all the combined servers have multiple homes. The point is they are the only 100 people who will ever have that many come 4.2. Why should they have the privilege when at the least that is 100 plots that can go to homeless FCs or players?

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Originally Posted by Luxpheras

Greetings,



Yoshida mentioned during the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XLI that the rules being added in Patch 4.2 will be applicable to new purchases only. Players who already possess more than one FC estate and 1 personal estate per world will not lose their existing housing.

We appreciate all the feedback shared so far and will continue to pass your thoughts along to the dev. team!

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Well if that's the case then it's too little too late, Especially when some idiots own whole wards or a house on each alt.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

The people who will be upset will almost exclusively be the people who have the extra houses, along with a handful of unaffected people with misplaced empathy. I don't have a lot of sympathy for them, as they knowingly abused the system to horde an extremely limited resource.

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There has been no abuse of the system. They bought houses in exactly the manner SE wanted them to buy houses. When SE designed the system and allowed personal houses they decided that it was on a character basis so intended for a player to have the ability to own more than one house. Since it is as designed it isn't abuse. You and others keep blaming the players when housing is entirely SE's fault. Instead of crying selfishly, "If I can't have it then nobody should" maybe y'all should worry that SE is still not doing enough to ensure adequate housing for the player base with 4.2.

The only people that abused housing are the ones that buy and flip for huge profits. The few that bought many to decorate like whole wards have other issues *rolls eyes*. The multiple plot owners should be given "X" amount of time to sell/demolish/give away, whatever, any more than 1 plot per main and allow alts to inhabit the main's property with all privileges. SE did allow multiples per account after all so to me, one house per alt was not abuse. Now that housing has become such an issue SE needs to step up and deal with it. I have 1 med house, 1 apt and am co-manager of 2x FCs (1 of which is my husbands, the other my friend's). I could of bought a house on my alt but I chose not to. There is something to be said for not being a glutton and sharing with others in my mind anyway. Allowing FCs to have first shot at the additional housing wards irks me because the system abuse is already in motion since the announcement came forth. It would be an advantage to the 2x FC's I am in but a pita to single purchasers that have been waiting equally as long for a shot at not being totally homeless.