In Regard to Housing in Patch 4.1

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Originally Posted by Vasala

One thing that needs to happen is new wards need to be triggered when all current wards fill. Now that you can relocate it means that if later on a ward becomes a ghost town people could move to a more populated ward that has an opening.

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Although this would be the most ideal, it takes up a lot of server space and going from how they have talked about server space in the past they are very tight on it. I don't think they have the resources and budget to keep such an expandable feature which i can understand. They do need to pump in more resource into it though and potentially create checks on the housing situation regularly, to see if they can add more every now and then.

It looks like the massive uproar has made them realize how passionate players are on the housing front and how much they underestimated its popularity of it and with the growing player-base this game has.

Whilest this is well, and good for every player. The main issue on Balmung, is that people especilly RareX FC. tends to purchase the houseing plots, before others reach them, then later re-sell them on Reddit, to avoid being banned ingame over the party finder. because of this, it causes quite a huge problem On BALMUNG. It is not just limitid to Balmung, but this pretty much happend on most AETHER Datacenter realms. Please understand that we're not ungreatful, but this causes quite a huge dilema for players whom have been saving for long times, to get a house. I do think that Every account should only be able to get 1 house. Not multiple over the same account on said Realm. Because that is what people do, especilly on Balmung. Is that they use alts, to purchase more plots, to keep and then resell. Thank you very much for verifying that we'll get more wards in 4.2 but this needs to be dealt with. Thank you for reading! have a beautiful day.

Thank you Yoshida-san for responding to us on this matter.

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Originally Posted by Yuniko

I do think that Every account should only be able to get 1 house. Not multiple over the same account on said Realm. Because that is what people do, especilly on Balmung. Is that they use alts, to purchase more plots, to keep and then resell.

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What's to stop someone making 500 different email addresses (plenty free options out there), 500 different Square Enix accounts, and pay the sub fee 500 times a month, just to buy 500 plots anyway? Sure, I'm showcasing an extreme edge case here, but it is a possibility that someone who wants to hoard the housing may have that much disposable income they want to spend on the game.

That would literarly be quite idiotic. honestly. Cause if in all honestly, they are so sad they'll make x ammount of emails then pay x ammount of money each month just to hoard houses. That's pretty sad, and pathetic, and i don't think nor see it will happend.

Thank you a lot

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Originally Posted by Yuniko

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There are people that "sad" as you call it with things like that. While I'm putting out an extreme example, there would be people contemplating doing it. If I wanted multiple houses and could afford it, you bet I would do something like that. It's extreme sure, but if I really want something that much, I do whatever it takes (in the pursuit of determination to achieve something I have a history of making myself physically ill from overexertion. Let that sink in for a moment. This should highlight the level of determination and persistence I am talking about). Even if it means extreme examples like the one I listed. I can't be the only person with that mentality. The reason you don't see it happening currently is because it isn't needed, but let's take a more reasonable amount. 8 different emails, 8 service accounts (to match standard sub characters per realm limits). You'd see that happening a lot more if your scenario was implemented as people would simply find ways around the limitations. Wouldn't be everyone, but you'd see a significant uptake in that happening. More money for SE sure, but they're still hoarding.

That was a very predictable response. The thing is, it will just fix the problem partly, the real thing to do is to add instanced housing, not adding more wards, we don't need more wards, because it means that they will also be gone in a few minutes, EVERYONE should be able to access this content, not like 10% of the people on the servers. This is not what players want, they want a real limitation, one house per account, and also prioritize houses for FC.

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Originally Posted by Paladinleeds

What's to stop someone making 500 different email addresses (plenty free options out there), 500 different Square Enix accounts, and pay the sub fee 500 times a month, just to buy 500 plots anyway?

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If someone has 500 subscriptions (!), that's the same as 500 players with 1 subscription each, what's the difference? They're paying their monthly fee, each service account should be allowed a house. There's also no way they'd be able to log out/in fast enough to buy multiple houses anyway.

You also wouldn't need 500 different email address. Each Square Enix account lets you have 8 service accounts on it. You can literally login in one set of details and just switch between them using the "data center" option on the main menu. This has been there since at least 2.0, possibly 1.0, but my memory is hazy that far back.

I'll be the voice of disagreement, (please not too much hate) and say that I don't think to limit houses per account will necessarily fix the problem that people think it will - yes it will 'fix' one problem but it also hurts part of the community too. I do think limiting the number of FCs per account can help without punishing the players who choose to take the time to level multiple characters and enjoy the game through housing/rp/or whatever non-raiding form they choose. Reducing FC's per account addresses market manipulation for airship/workshop items and reduces the number of houses per character. Players would have to double their work to buy the same number of houses then since they could only get 1 FC house per account. Players take advantage of multiple FC's to have additional housing and to build walls/airship parts.

The fastest way to fix the problem is catching and banning everyone who resells. It's one thing to have a couple houses and use them as much as anyone else and to share with friends and a totally different thing to hoard 8 houses sitting empty waiting to be sold. Can they build an algorithm that tracks usage to look for patterns of players that do this? Could they build a list that then staff could sort through and ban players and IPs as needed? Is it possible to punish those who are ruining the game without punishing players who genuinely are playing the game and not cheating/reselling?

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Originally Posted by Katte

I'll be the voice of disagreement, (please not too much hate) and say that I don't think to limit houses per account will necessarily fix the problem that people think it will - yes it will 'fix' one problem but it also hurts part of the community too. I do think limiting the number of FCs per account can help without punishing the players who choose to take the time to level multiple characters and enjoy the game through housing/rp/or whatever non-raiding form they choose.

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I'm sorry but that's what house sharing is for. If you have an alt make a friend go on their house. That's what rp is isn't it :S

I'm happy that Yoshi is adding more by 4.2, but at same time annoyed that they can add more when lots of people kick off. It shouldn't be left to get to this stage.

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Originally Posted by Linadae

Stage one: Standard apartment room, allows one tenant to be added.

Stage two: Adds small, instanced outside yard, and basement. Allows for the placement of 20 pieces of outdoor furnishing, one garden, boosts interior decorations allowed to 200, grants second tenant allowance (Apartment will be the same size as a Small House)

Stage three: Increases size of the yard, adds second floor. Increases outside furnishings to 40, allows for a second garden, Increases interior decorations allowed to 300, grants third tenant allowance (Apartment will be the same size as a Medium House)

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Great idea! And also add recreational stuff in the apartment area where people who get apartment will be able to gather such as a market area or bbq pit or SWIMMING POOL since stormblood allows us to swim already! and gym so we can have those TRAINING DUMMIES!

Hi Yoshi-P !

Thank you very much for this quick answers and the communication you keep with all the community, this is really great to saw that your'e team and you still listen to players and try to fix issues with interest.

Just continue like that, we'll continue to support this game and the personn who works on it for our pleasure. (I enjoy this patch between).

Have a nice day.

Regards, o/

how about some speculation?

So, given that his response is "more wards" while taking in feedback as to how they will be sold, it sounds like they still do not understand the underlying problem:

1. Not enough housing.
2. players buying multiple houses per account
3. Mixed competition between single buyers and FC buyers.

Which bring me to my first guess: timed releases of wards.

By spreading out the release, it gives the illusion of players having multiple chances to obtain the same housing in the patch. It sounds better to say "you had 2 weeks to get 1 ward of housing released a day at a time!" than "you had 15 minutes to get 14 wards of housing!" even if the amount of housing available is far smaller, and the competition(and whatever meta tricks said competition would use) likely more rampant. said housing would still be gone in minutes, if not seconds, but there are "chances" to be the lucky person in the time between the seconds.

It still means that there is not enough housing, and that a lot of servers will only see a few people satisfied, while so many others, fc and person alike, are left out.

A solution Zenos would be proud of.

My second guess is they are testing the winds, keeping housing the same mess it is until conditions are favorable and people desperate enough, to put it on the mogstation.

I hope they do not go this route. It is completely underhanded and I would lose my faith in the company.

Last guess? Public venues.

The problem for FCs is that several amenities and activites require having a house. Public versions of the company workshop airship hangar, and possibly a greenhouse for gardening would provide some remedy for the homeless masses.

It still isn't housing, which FCs talk about when recruiting and is still all in a personal location...

Thank you for the response.

I am glad to see this however I hope they only make it 1 personal house (I went harder with my opinion once personal housing was released), and 1 FC house per service account, per server and or per Data Center at this point. Apartments should have the ability to be upgraded just incase some would prefer an apartment over a house. If a personal house, it should be shared between your alts and maybe 1 or 2 tenants of your choosing with them having the ability to reset the demolition timer.

I mainly say the last one because my hubby and I share a house, and the house is in my name, but there are times where I do fall quite ill. So he tends to upkeep it when I'm sick.

But since the release of housing, even when it was still FC only, we were still on Gilgamesh at the time and there were still instances of people owning multiple houses with "multiple" FC's. Though back then it was a lot more pricey to obtain. This sadly is still a problem to this day, just like people with more alts than a single character owning multiple personal and or FC housing. So if they do change the way the system works, they owner (s) of multiple houses on one account should at least have so many days to choose which personal and or which FC house they want to keep. Though I'm a bit biased on reimbursement for the multiples they owned, but that's probably just me. Then again, I don't typically award (reward) for folk being greedy.

If they really wanted something else to decorate they could have just gone the route to buy an apartment on their alts. Sure not as much space, but if you've played as long as I have and remembered as much as I do... you'll remember when an FC room was the closest thing you ever had to an apartment space wise, lol.

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Originally Posted by Luxyn

EDIT: OH! I also remember seeing this idea and it was a really good one: 9. After a plot goes up for sale there is a window of time where players can choose to buy a chance at obtaining the plot (this is the cost of the plot, and they can only do this for one plot at a time), possibly a limit on how many players can do this (At least 10, I would suggest) = At the end of the timer, a player is chosen at random and they get the plot, with all other players getting their gil back. This could just be added in the script of the devaluation timer - At the time of the plot dropping in price, a player is chosen from the ones who put the money down at the previous price. If there is only one player who put the money down, they get the plot. If no player has, the plot devalues. This would be making it totally down to luck - which would make it a lot more fair to everyone and heavily prevent people owning multiple houses, especially since the players who genuinely want and don\\'t own a plot outnumber those who do by a large amount.

10. Also the idea of making plots go on sale a few hours after the servers launch so everyone has time to log in is also a very good suggestion, as that would make it more a matter of speed and luck also and help bypass launcher errors/slow download times/server and connection issues/queues. How would this work? Everyone is kicked out of the housing wards so everyone gets the same start from the entrance when the wards unlock at the designated time.

If you\\'ve actually read this, thank you for it and again I hope some of these suggestions are helpful.

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The problem there is if you put money into one plots lotto and another plot becomes available. You can\\'t also put money into that. Which then means if you don\\'t win the first one you\\'ve ultimately lost on both or all of them if there\\'s several available. It really doesn\\'t help any one.

As for 10. Kicking everyone out of the wards so they all be true same start is also never going to work. It\\'s not going to be fair because everyone has different load times. I run the game on my laptop with super fast ssd so I nearly always load into zones that much faster than many of my friends.

Even doing canals. One of my party can teleport I\\'ll accept that port load in get on my mount and already be flying towards the flagged coordinates before anyone else has even zoned in. That would give me a massive advantage in housing. In truth it\\'s probably why I snagged my large house so easily. Even when I was 900 in the queue.

Then you have ps4 players who also typically have slightly longer load times. So kicking everyone out would actually make things worse for a lot of players and put them at even more of a disadvantage.

Thank you Yoshi-P. Please make it so FCs can get a house before individuals for a short time. That would be a big help.

Awwwwwww.

You have my support Yoship despite everything, always. <3

We are just really passionate about this game because we love it so much, so yeah.

Thank You, these are great news! I hope with 4.2 most players will finally have a home.
Though in addition to adding more wards, here are some possible problems and solutions:

Problem: House reselling.
Solution: Make houses unavaliable for purchase after being relinquished or moved from for random amount of time between 24-48 hours.

Problem: Each FC should have a house.
Solution: Add instanced FC housing to each district, similar to apartments. Players click the gate, and are transfered to instanced housing plot, surrounded by fence. There is customizable yard with increased number of placable items (more than on usual plots since this is instanced). More garden patches can be placed (5? 10?). All usual customization options should be avaliable to the FC's house.

Current FC houses, and ability for FC's to purchase regular plots, should remain. These can sitll be considered "luxury".

This also helps solve the issue with huge fc's occupying market / retainer bells in housing wards, disturbing invidual players.

Problem: Multiple houses per account.
Solution: Limit number of houses availiable for purchase per account to 2 or 3, increase price for each house bought. (first small house is usual 3,5; 2nd small house 7, 3rd house 14). This way rich players and players with multiple characters still can own more houses but are restricted from having too many.

Additionally, if player owns a single house, it should be avaliable to all characters on an account. Should said player purchase additional house on different character, neither of the houses becomes avaliable to other characters on the account.

Possibly limit house purchases to 1 Large, 1 Medium, 1 Small house per account, with each additonal house costing twice the usual price.

Problem: Limiting 1 Personal, 1 FC house per account will increase number of "fake" FC's created.
Solution: Do not implement said limit; Allow FC's to purchase land only after accumulating certain amount of credits.

Additionally,
Problem: There are more players with enougth gil to purchase plots than there are said plots.
Solution: More wards. It is too late to retrace the steps and increase housing prices after they already been nerfed on some servers. Nothing else can be done in current situation, where players willinly pay 60 mil Gil for minions and consider this "pocket change" but somehow unable to purchase even small house due to avaliability.

I love you. Thank you so much for responding. (: I'm sorry, you must be tired and stressed. /pets

As for solutions...

Airships! Instanced airships! Everyone could get one, or every FC could get one, and they would work like apartments, but be bigger and have access to a workshop (maybe a common one for everyone with some limitations?), and have a small garden on a deck so crossbreeding plants would be possible.

I'm sure everyone would love to have an airship!

// or a personal island somewhere! I think Wildstar did something like that, and I've heard it has 'the best housing in any mmos currently on the market'.

I think opening new wards will not be the solution.

The game has thousands, billions of players all over the world and they open only 200 or 300 houses? The problem wont end this way!

We, players who are online all the time , we see things in game, we know some ppl have many houses, even now they are selling the new ones 2x or 3x more expensive as they paid.
To start resolving the problem, each account should be limited to a single personal house and a single FC one.

As i said... Unless they put a house for every willing player to buy one, the problem will be on forever...

Some ppl, even show off, saying they have more than 1 house...
https://i.imgur.com/II81pTd.jpg

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Just having a delay between relinquishing a plot and having it go back up for sale could prevent selling plots and so discourage hoarding them.

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^this

Who will plop down millions of gil to a re-seller if the re-seller can't guarantee they will get the plot? Make the time until it becomes available random and then you pull the bottom out of this market.

Thank you for the feedback.

Speaking of changes, so technically feasible and workable, can other means be used to access housing?
For example, via the Gold Saucer and / or the PGS. For details, see here.

:) I am happy to see that players complaints aren't being ignored and measures to prevent these problems are being done for future patches. Also, thank you for looking to please more players so they can get a house as well, it truly is sad to see upset friends who didn't have the luxury or luck to get a low login queue and didn't get the chance to buy any house, since they all vanished in less than 15minutes.

Also I do hope that by providing more wards and better house purchase systems, it will eventually kill the house illegal market, where people buy houses with the sole purpose of reselling them and make a profit, instead of using them for themselves.

Good luck all for 4.2 and I truly hope you get to buy a house and have a lot of fun decorating :)

Thank you for being responsive in a positive way and showing you and your team are open to remedying the situation instead of compounding it. <3

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Originally Posted by FagnerDC

Some ppl, even show off, saying they have more than 1 house...
https://i.imgur.com/II81pTd.jpg

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How did they get a Shirogane exterior in the Mists? Is it a new recipe like the Chocobo house? Or maybe... it's photoshopped! Kidding

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Problem: Multiple houses per account.
Solution: Limit number of houses availiable for purchase per account to 2 or 3, increase price for each house bought. (first small house is usual 3,5; 2nd small house 7, 3rd house 14). This way rich players and players with multiple characters still can own more houses but are restricted from having too many.

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That wouldn't make any difference when there is people offering 999mill or 1.1 bill for a mansion. Like I said before 1 personal 1 FC per account. If they can't do that then every house after that should get a daily large rent fee.

Please make it one personal house and on FC house per account that is shared among your alts.

Hey folks, just because Yoshi issued a statement doesn't mean everything is all of a sudden okay. Save your thank-you's until after we see satisfactory results.

Great news, Yoshi-P! Just please don't implement instanced housing. It takes away from the social aspect :(

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Originally Posted by MOZZYSTAR

How did they get a Shirogane exterior in the Mists? Is it a new recipe like the Chocobo house? Or maybe... it's photoshopped! Kidding

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Yes. You can get it at Market Board or make it through workshop.

Thank you for hearing us out, Yoshi. I sincerely hope 4.2 brings about enough plots for more people to obtain houses.

Added a better response to the tl;dr thread that I created about this situation yesterday:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...15#post4435915

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Originally Posted by skullfishy

Great news, Yoshi-P! Just please don't implement instanced housing. It takes away from the social aspect :(

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Other MMORPG instance housings have friends to visit fyi. Besides, no one really visits entire ward.

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Originally Posted by Oukanna

Although this would be the most ideal, it takes up a lot of server space and going from how they have talked about server space in the past they are very tight on it. I don't think they have the resources and budget to keep such an expandable feature which i can understand.

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You don't get to celebrate millions of subs worldwide and then say you don't have the budget. While the aforementioned idea is a little unrealistic, the prior concerns of money/resources are no longer excuses.

So basically wait 4 months for a band-aide to a problem that has been complained about for 3 years?

Sorry, but words at this point are meaningless, and people shouldn't be so fast to just say things are ok now. Housing has been an issue since implementation with no real fixes to it, just small band-aides to try and make the issues less bad.

Unless they do instanced housing or do something along the lines of doubling/tripling the amount of wards to accommodate everyone, then I will just assume these are more hollow words on the topic.

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Originally Posted by Dzian

The problem there is if you put money into one plots lotto and another plot becomes available. You can\\'t also put money into that. Which then means if you don\\'t win the first one you\\'ve ultimately lost on both or all of them if there\\'s several available. It really doesn\\'t help any one.

As for 10. Kicking everyone out of the wards so they all be true same start is also never going to work. It\\'s not going to be fair because everyone has different load times. I run the game on my laptop with super fast ssd so I nearly always load into zones that much faster than many of my friends.

Even doing canals. One of my party can teleport I\\'ll accept that port load in get on my mount and already be flying towards the flagged coordinates before anyone else has even zoned in. That would give me a massive advantage in housing. In truth it\\'s probably why I snagged my large house so easily. Even when I was 900 in the queue.

Then you have ps4 players who also typically have slightly longer load times. So kicking everyone out would actually make things worse for a lot of players and put them at even more of a disadvantage.

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In regards to point number 9, yes - but EVERYONE has that same problem. It's fair and it prevents the players with more gil to try get multiple houses as that favours the rich. Like I said, it'd be all about luck. Sure that might not be preferable to your guaranteed chance but that's one way of making getting housing lucky. The point being no one has an advantage on anyone else, no matter what. You get lucky or you don't.

And for point number 10, yeah it will work, because it helps things be more fair still. It's an improvement, isn't it? Just because something is an improvement and not an all encompassing fix doesn't mean it doesn't work - it'd work as intended. It'd help make things a BIT more fair - I know it can't do it completely. It helps at least remove the problem of the launcher errors, queues, slow download times, connection errors, etc - there will always be people with faster load times, you can't handle that in any way at all, so that's moot. And just because you have a faster connection than me doesn't mean you won't mess up your route or lose your house to someone with an even faster connection than you while I go for a less contended plot with my worse connection. (The skill/competition/luck of the race!) It's more down to luck there too - all it's about is leveling the playing field some, not completely.