Getting a New House Feels Impossible

They just need to make it instance housing like how it is for Elder Scrolls Online that would fix the problem and I also like how housing is shared with all your characters on the same account.

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Originally Posted by Sauteed

Go back to limiting housing to FC's or whatever other measures are needed. But this current madness and people (rightly) flipping out on the forum and not receiving any kind of official statement (and I'm speaking of Ishgard restoration stuff here), about their future intentions for housing is just disturbing to me. I'd like to know just what we are getting from all this ishgardian restoration stuff, is it more of the same? Is it anything at all other than some npc's giving us an atta'boy? Is it going to be an instanced version of a house that we can upgrade over time given to us through the course of the MSQ? Is it just gonna be a small house that everyone gets as a starter home that will NOT be upgrade-able? Just give us something to at least give people an idea of what to expect. If it just HAS to be a super top secret secret, I don't think it'll be a secret when your players start flipping back out about the same song and dance getting sung and danced.

Please forgive the multi-posts the automated forum controls kept me from posting a longer post, and also limited by time as well.

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Well, maybe if this forum grows big enough we'll get a response.

Then again, maybe not...

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Every MMO has a problem with RMT. None have combated it successfully.

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RMT will never be something you can beat without fully embracing it, especially now.

As long as you can buy weeks or months worth of in-game currency for a couple hours work, it's a trade you'll ALWAYS find both buyers and sellers willing to make.

Lets look at an example:

I can get 2mil ESO gold for $45 (PC - NA). 2mil gold translates, through in-game trading to roughly 13,333 crowns (it fluctuates from 120g:1 crown to 180g:1 crown, but 150:1 is common, if slightly on the high end, I personally wouldnt buy in bulk higher than 130/135:1 because you can find SOMEONE selling at those prices if you look hard enough) . Crowns have a purchase value of 1650 for $14.99 through the ESO+ subscription, or slightly worse rates for direct purchase (3000 for $29.99).

If I want to buy premium currency (for character slots past 9 on a server, or permanent unlocking of dlc, or a house, or glam mounts, ect) my return is 270% for buying currency from farmers (you can legitimately farm 60-100k an hour of tradeskill mats with the right end-game builds) versus buying it direct.


Then you get into why else you might want currency in various games (14 has one of the weakest currency economies because its complete aversion to horizontal gear progression and lack of quality gold sinks means money accumulates far faster than it can ever be spent), and you'll never get away from the math that it's easier to spend 1-2 hours of discretionary income than tens or hundreds of free time hours farming currency.

Hand in hand with that, if you are playing regularly and arent taking breaks or only take breaks when demolition timers are paused, a ff14 house is an investment. It will, unless you dont use ships or gardening, eventually make back every gil spent to purchase it.

I'm going to bottom-line things here. With the pandemic going on, housing is in all likelihood the absolute last item on Squeenix's list of priorities. If a major patch can be delayed by COVID, your options are twofold: settle for an apartment, or give up on getting a house altogether.

You could also try your hand at going to bot route, or buy an FC from someone who has a house.

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Originally Posted by Awha

You could also try your hand at going to bot route, or buy an FC from someone who has a house.

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Both of which are technically bannable offenses, under SE's ToS agreements. So if you go this route (which I'm adamantly saying not to, mind!) then you're painting a target on your back. It's only a matter of time before you get caught.

I say this in the comfortable belief that botting is bad (duh..) and SE has said several times that they do not want the price of plots being within the players control, as it would cause the rather obvious problem it has already caused. shell FCs being sold on a website that SE has no power over and thus, being unable to use the multitude of people using their ingame names to advertise who they are, what ward / plot / house they have and how much they want people to 'gift' them for ownership.

The evidence is there, clear as day. But SE can't use it, as it would break a few laws purely on a technicality and cause the company far more damage than I'm assuming they want to take. Though they could always.. Y'know. Get permission from the website owners to use the information stored on their websites but that is full of holes in its own right.

My 2 cents. Finding a house is impossible. One was recently relinquished on my server....then was spammed by 20 other people. System is terrible. FFXIV is a great game but the housing system is trash.

There needs to be a special market board in each housing area to immediately see whats open and buy it instead of manually clicking every ward to see whats open.


Edit - I also understand that auto demolish is off at the moment due to Corona. That was nice of them to do for people who cant play at the moment. However my gripe is the overall system needs an update on buying, searching etc.

I'm frustrated with how this system currently is, but at the same time I don't want the instanced system that many other MMOs are using. I like the way how you have a fixed neighborhood with a ton of other players you might only get to know because your houses happen to be in the same ward and you meet them in your daily routines to go to the market-board or retainer bell. I also like the way you can tell someone in which ward you live and they might know players or houses of that ward. You can just delve among fixed wards, which are still instances, but it feels more real to me.
What I don't like is the fact the market eventually gets full depending on which server you are playing on. You get punished for creating your character on an older server, because maybe your friends have been there and now it's impossible to get into housing when you get to that level. I'm frustrated with the purchase-timer which is supposed to eliminate monopolies, which is totally valid and necessary. It should make things fairer, but it actually makes things even more frustrating than they already are.

So I have the following suggestion:

Instead of always having 21 wards for each city, why not just make it dynamic? There is a lot of unused room in new servers where only few people can even buy a house yet. So these slots could go to the busier servers instead. Eventually a server gets so full that this whole limitation only hinders players who would normally want to do housing. That can't be in Square Enix' best interest. I'm not speaking of unlimited housing wards taking up more and more server resources; I would still keep systems like the auto-demolishing, so there are no unnecessary unused wards. But if there is much demand, there are also a lot of players on that server who pay and should get a fair chance to get houses.
In detail, I would make it so that if all wards of a city are at least 95% full, so you can't even get a small house in any of the wards even after auto-demolishing, let's say, at the server-maintenance then this system could just add a ward. A new server could start with a lower number of wards and plots could still be demolished for inactive players. But over time the list of wards would eventually stabilize a bit higher than it is now in cities like Shirogane and a bit lower in The Goblet as the server itself gets full eventually. So we would still have a fix/known number of wards for each city, just that this list is a little shorter or longer for each city of a server.

I know if there are a lot of rich players on older servers, those lists (especially in Shirogane) will not be "just a little longer". They will be way longer, leading to more server costs. But if there are so many long time players, that also means that there are so many paying accounts which are also likely spending a lot in the FFXIV store, so the extra server costs are mainly covered by those servers to begin with.

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Originally Posted by Jibs

My 2 cents. Finding a house is impossible. One was recently relinquished on my server....then was spammed by 20 other people. System is terrible. FFXIV is a great game but the housing system is trash.

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The number of people spamming right now is very high given auto demolition is turned off and people are home due to Covid and have a lot more time to house sit. The only houses going up for sale are those where people have voluntarily relinquished and demo'd their homes. One is better off to wait for demotion to start again... there will be a day when many houses go poof and the number of people at each house will be considerably less. The prime plots will have quite a few but the less desirable locations should be a relatively easier mark to get a house. The goal should be to get a house, any house, and relocate later to a better location when the occasion arises.

Perhaps we'll get some news about auto demolition on the 22nd with the live letter.

The other option is to wait patiently for Ishgard and the new wards there. I suspect we'll get additional wards in all areas when Ishgard goes live. One has to hope that the FC first preference will be very short or removed altogether when that happens. Even when Ishgard opens I would suggest one grabs a plot quickly then looks for a better location where you can immediately transfer the house you just bought.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

The other option is to wait patiently for Ishgard and the new wards there. I suspect we'll get additional wards in all areas when Ishgard goes live. One has to hope that the FC first mantra will be very short of removed altogether when that happens.

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FCs are not the major problem though regarding housing. Data shows that majority of houses are owned as personals at least on NA DCs.

The persistent ward system, combined with player population and the low gil cost to get a house are the major problems.

More wards is only kicking the can down the road, as long as SE sticks to the persistent ward system.

At this point, the most feasible thing for SE to do, would be to improve upon apartments, so that they can be upgraded all the way to large penthouses for gil and balconies for gardening.

Also delink the FC workshop from housing and make it accessible from the GC or something.

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Originally Posted by TwistedTea

FCs are not the major problem though regarding housing..

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Yes they are when SE allows them 3 months to buy a FC house. That happened with the last ward addition and many wards were all sold out on many servers even BEFORE PRIVATE sales were allowed. That is completely unacceptable and unfair to those looking for a private home. I think we all know that many of those FC who purchased homes were nothing more than private sales with a owner and a few alts. That's not what the intent was or should be when it comes to FC sales.

It doesn't take established FC's more than a week to buy a plot anything more than that is simply ridiculous and unfair to all those private sales many are clamoring for.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Yes they are when SE allows them 3 months to buy a FC house. That happened with the last ward addition and many wards were all sold out on many servers even BEFORE PRIVATE sales were allowed. That is completely unacceptable and unfair to those looking for a private home. I think we all know that many of those FC who purchased homes were nothing more than private sales with a owner and a few alts. That's not what the intent was or should be when it comes to FC sales.

It doesn't take established FC's more than a week to buy a plot anything more than that is simply ridiculous and unfair to all those private sales many are clamoring for.

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This doesn't seem to be accurate.

On Crystal, on the low pop servers like Malboro and Zalera, there were plenty of small plots on max deval mostly in the Goblet, right up to the day of the autodemo freeze announcement.

Unless you mean,that the mediums and larges were sold out. But let's not forget these were open for relocation by individual owners as well. I myself got Goblet 49,poolside medium, on Malboro ,2-3 weeks after the new wards dropped and it wasn't the only poolside medium available.

Again FCs are not the major problem when ~70% of the houses are owned as personals.

I've been trying to buy a lot, aka pointlessly clicking over and over, off and on for the last few weeks. I believe the current housing system is absolutely terrible.

Earlier I spent 3 hours clicking to buy a small lot... to have someone who already owns a house come and relocate to the lot. For some ridiculous reason the hidden "That lot isn't ready for sale yet" timer doesn't impact people who already have houses. Great waste of my time.

I like this game a lot, but the current housing system is pathetically designed. There is no reason for the supply of housing to be so low compared to the player base. SE should put some value on its players time and get rid of the hours of pointlessly clicking. Improve the apartment housing options and do something about this ridiculous system.

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Originally Posted by TwistedTea

This doesn't seem to be accurate.

On Crystal, on the low pop servers like Malboro and Zalera, there were plenty of small plots on max deval mostly in the Goblet, right up to the day of the autodemo freeze announcement.

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Oh it's pretty accurate on most servers. Lets be sure to find the low pop servers and the exceptions and not the ones where people are screaming for housing. Did you check Balmung? I have a friend on Balmung who would have loved a shot at a house but they were all sold before they opened them up for sales to privates. You're being pretty naive if you think FC's (true FC's) are buying those houses. They're not.

And yes it's a problem when wards are sold out before going up for private sale and let me just say high pop servers should have a shot at housing as well.

And I'm not talking mediums and large I'm talking the entire 3 new wards in all districts. We can even see the abuse in threads like these on the forum with the same person buying up an entire ward with the same FC tags. And that problem isn't limited to Gilgamesh you can even see that type of FC abuse happening on low pop servers like Spriggan. There is absolutely no excuse for giving FC's 3 months priority access.

Everyone should get a shot at housing and not a select few on select servers.

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Originally Posted by Kenky

Both of which are technically bannable offenses, under SE's ToS agreements. So if you go this route (which I'm adamantly saying not to, mind!) then you're painting a target on your back. It's only a matter of time before you get caught.

I say this in the comfortable belief that botting is bad (duh..) and SE has said several times that they do not want the price of plots being within the players control, as it would cause the rather obvious problem it has already caused. shell FCs being sold on a website that SE has no power over and thus, being unable to use the multitude of people using their ingame names to advertise who they are, what ward / plot / house they have and how much they want people to 'gift' them for ownership.

The evidence is there, clear as day. But SE can't use it, as it would break a few laws purely on a technicality and cause the company far more damage than I'm assuming they want to take. Though they could always.. Y'know. Get permission from the website owners to use the information stored on their websites but that is full of holes in its own right.

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A ToS rule that is not enforced expect on very rare occasions personally is low on my worry list. Sure the chance remains but if I did not have a plot i would rather go the bot or by FC route instead of manunally clicking the ssme sign for hours.

The reality is it is highly unlikely that one will face an ingame ban for buying Gil or a house unless they tell the wrong people ingame. My sample size is small, but our FC had a player that streamed their crafting and mb bot and our entire FC reported them since it caused some server drama nothing happened. Man still plays and streams their boting adventure.

SE actions show otherwise sure the chance remains but at this point expecting punicishment from SE is akin to expecting the tooth fairy to show up. I get it people like to follow the rules, but if those rules work against you by not punishing those thst hsve broken the rules. I do not fault or blame others if they go down that route.

In short i do not think it is painting s target back.

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Originally Posted by Draven2

I've been trying to buy a lot, aka pointlessly clicking over and over, off and on for the last few weeks. I believe the current housing system is absolutely terrible.

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I have a friend who lost a house because she stopped playing the game for about half a year. She's back and trying to get one and is pretty depressed at the moment she can't. Trying to compete with 20 other people isn't worth it in my opinion given your odds of winning it are so low. I would suggest you wait for demo to be reinstated. There will be a day when lots of houses go poof which happened a few weeks after the timer was reactivated last time. At least you will stand a better chance with 3 or 4 at a house and not 20.

Waiting for Ishgard housing is probably your best bet for a house but sadly that's probably isn't going to happen for another 6 months or there about. It certainly won't happen until Restoration is completed. Some say it won't happen until 6.0 but personally I don't think that will be the case.

Poor console players can't even use bots...

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

...And I'm not talking mediums and large I'm talking the entire 3 new wards in all districts. We can even see the abuse in threads like these on the forum with the same person buying up an entire ward with the same FC tags. And that problem isn't limited to Gilgamesh you can even see that type of FC abuse happening on low pop servers like Spriggan. There is absolutely no excuse for giving FC's 3 months priority access...

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As a Balmung native, Balmung is one of the exceptions . Also it's funny you mention Spriggan- there are so many small plots right now on max deval even after the restriction on personals has been lifted for months.

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Everyone should get a shot at housing and not a select few on select servers.

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This might be something we agree on. But with the current persistent ward system, that chance for people on servers like Balmung is low.

SE also uses housing as an incentive for people to get off congested servers. With crossworld visit and stuff like CWLS, all the more reason to move to servers with plenty of housing, if housing is a priority.

I'll be leaving Balmung this year, as it's extremely difficult to get mediums/larges even with regular hourly sweeps,let alone dream mediums/larges, due to all the competition

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Originally Posted by TwistedTea

As a Balmung native, Balmung is one of the exceptions . Also it's funny you mention Spriggan- there are so many small plots right now on max deval even after the restriction on personals has been lifted for months.

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I know all about Spriggan. I bought 5 houses there for me and friends (all smalls at low price), 4 of which are all in the same ward in Shirogane. It's pretty much all sold out now (at least Shriogane and Lavender are since i checked last) and yes it's certainly one of the exceptions to the rule.

Look we can agree to disagree. You seem to think FC's are some gift to the housing community and the game but their sales are not being used as intended. The priority is being abused and private owners are paying the price and there is absolutely no reason why they should be given more than a week or two priority. I sincerely hope that private owners aren't about to pay the price again when potential new wards and a new housing area is added to the mix.

Good luck with your medium or large.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I know all about Spriggan. I bought 5 houses there for me and friends (all smalls at low price), 4 of which are all in the same ward in Shirogane. It's pretty much all sold out now (at least Shriogane and Lavender are since i checked last) and yes it's certainly one of the exceptions to the rule.

...You seem to think FC's are some gift to the housing community and the game but their sales are not being used as intended. The priority is being abused and private owners are paying the price and there is absolutely no reason why they should be given more than a week or two priority. I sincerely hope that private owners aren't about to pay the price again when potential new wards and a new housing area is added to the mix...

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Friends just bought houses 2 days ago on Spriggan.

My main point of contention, is that personal houses occupy ~70% of the houses available on NA DCs.

Even if FCs are being abused for housing they are not the major problem. Imagine on high pop servers, what would happen to legit FCs, who are among that ~30%, without the purchase priority.

Also, I've been advocating to improve apartments and delink the FC workshop from housing if SE is not going to change how the persistent ward system works.

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Originally Posted by TwistedTea

My main point of contention, is that personal houses occupy ~70% of the houses available on NA DCs.

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Continue to defend FC purchases but you're wrong and the abuse is rampart and this is on Spriggan in the Goblet. Open up new wards and a new housing area and be sure to give people like this 3 months to do their thing with priority purchasing while wannabe private home owners have to sit and wait.

https://i.imgur.com/2jopshK.png

So I'm on Hyperion, and we get several plots opening up during the week here and there from people transferring away I assume. But, today was special in that, my friend happened to get a house this morning! Yay!

Someone tried really getting under my skin because i was there supporting my friend, and that escalated into some silliness but was dealt with. I came across their lover tho, at another plot that was open. I went to that plot to congratulate the FC that won it and stumbled across the other person's lover (their search comments say it all XD) using an automating program clicking away happily at the placard well after it has been purchased. I gave the person who won that house for their FC some gifts to help them get deco'd and made sure to report all the other offenders there.. but I guess what I'm saying is..
It isn't impossible to get a house. And yes people are gonna do everything they can to make it seem like it's ok to use automating programs to get them but they are wrong. People will lie about the TOS in order to get you to say something crazy so they CAN report you for violating the TOS, (which happened to back fire for someone today), and yes these people are usually all the same kind of people. Extremely disrespectful, can't see for the world what's wrong with their behavior, and lie constantly.

Just wanted to say it isn't impossible to get a house being a legitimate player. Did get some good laughs while out supporting my friends tho. And fun screen shots :D

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Originally Posted by Sauteed

So I'm on Hyperion, and we get several plots opening up during the week here and there from people transferring away I assume. But, today was special in that, my friend happened to get a house this morning! Yay!

Someone tried really getting under my skin because i was there supporting my friend, and that escalated into some silliness but was dealt with. I came across their lover tho, at another plot that was open. I went to that plot to congratulate the FC that won it and stumbled across the other person's lover (their search comments say it all XD) using an automating program clicking away happily at the placard well after it has been purchased. I gave the person who won that house for their FC some gifts to help them get deco'd and made sure to report all the other offenders there.. but I guess what I'm saying is..
It isn't impossible to get a house. And yes people are gonna do everything they can to make it seem like it's ok to use automating programs to get them but they are wrong. People will lie about the TOS in order to get you to say something crazy so they CAN report you for violating the TOS, (which happened to back fire for someone today), and yes these people are usually all the same kind of people. Extremely disrespectful, can't see for the world what's wrong with their behavior, and lie constantly.

Just wanted to say it isn't impossible to get a house being a legitimate player. Did get some good laughs while out supporting my friends tho. And fun screen shots :D

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People have jobs, school, and other responsibilities. I've wasted about 6 hours clicking on housing placards so far, and I'm not going to waste any more of my time doing it. The current lot buying system is repetitive, inane, and requires zero skill or thought from the player... its literally 0,0,0,4,0 over and over and over in a battle against an invisible timer. Its a system literally designed to be automated. Asking people to pointlessly click against a hidden timer is disrespectful of players time, don't forget someone can come in at any moment and relocate making all your past hours of clicking pointless. Everyone should be MACROing this pile of shit lot buying system until its changed.

Honestly, as someone who thinks SE has done a very good job with FF14 overall the housing system is a huge let-down. I like the idea of finding or crafting furniture and decorating a place over time. I'd like to try the gardening system as well. I know neither of these systems is particularly important to the game itself, but every time my retainers bring me back furniture or I find seeds it just annoys me that this part of the game is locked away from me behind a TERRIBLY designed system. A system that's been terribly designed for years... There is no excuse for the way housing works in the game at the moment.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Continue to defend FC purchases but you're wrong and the abuse is rampart and this is on Spriggan in the Goblet. Open up new wards and a new housing area and be sure to give people like this 3 months to do their thing with priority purchasing while wannabe private home owners have to sit and wait.

https://i.imgur.com/2jopshK.png

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Please provide data that FC houses occupy the majority of housing.

There are 120,960 plots across the 3 North American Data Centers and as of earlier this week, 33,962 Free Companies owned a house.

As of Jun 2020, 28.07% are owned as FC houses.

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Originally Posted by TwistedTea

Please provide data that FC houses occupy the majority of housing..

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Why? I never said they did. Show me where i said that.

I have said that FC purchasing priority is being abused and needs to stop and that people interested in purchasing private homes need to be given a fair shake. Providing FC's with extended purchase privileges (I do believe the last ward addition allowed them 3 months) so people willing to abuse the system can do what the image I provided clearly shows and that's not counting all the shell FC's with one owner and a bunch of alts interested in only one house.

And I might add that was done in Ward 20 where only FC purchases were allowed or transfers. At best FC purchase priority should be no more than a week or two.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Why? I never said they did. Show me where i said that.

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Amnesia?

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

while wannabe private home owners have to sit and wait.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I have said that FC purchasing priority is being abused and needs to stop and that people interested in purchasing private homes need to be given a fair shake. Providing FC's with extended purchase privileges (I do believe the last ward addition allowed them 3 months) so people willing to abuse the system can do what the image I provided clearly shows (and I might add that was done in Ward 20 where only FC purchases were allowed or transfers) needs to stop.

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How is it abuse if it's endorsed? Players looking for a fair chance at personal housing already have it when new wards are introduced. You're just oblivious because you don't (can't?) read the fine prints. I suggest you do some research before coming up with another uninformed "reply". I'll give you an hint, ward 20, along with 19 and 21 was open to personal housing relocation. Guess who had a shot at the now vacant plots in the lower wards ;)

I mean FC priority makes sense, since in theory an FC gets fsr more value for having a house so would make sense for them to be given priority.

Though legit this crusade people have against single FC, plots that go unused, or mulptie plot owners is getting silly.

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Originally Posted by Draven2

People have jobs, school, and other responsibilities. I've wasted about 6 hours clicking on housing placards so far, and I'm not going to waste any more of my time doing it.

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We all do. Well most of us. I'm into construction and industrial electrical work. I stay busy. I've won several houses in my XIV time so far, and not once have I automated a bit of it. I stand firm on the belief people that do are a large problem regardless of their excuses. It is a clear violation of the terms of service we all agreed to upon signing up for the game in the first place, regardless of how skim through we scroll through it and confusing and somewhat nuanced insanity that is in there, but it's there. I play XIV passionately, I enjoy it, is a thing I set aside time for and I play by the rules. This offends some people that want their stuff their way, and they throw their fits, but the go right on my blist where I feel the belong and I move on. I don't try to just rat people out but when someone decides to accuse me of violating the TOS, lie, and then proceed to do the very things they accuse me of all while automating their gameplay, the do get a good reporting, and I blist them and enjoy the rest of my day in the game. But coming on here advocating that "everyone should be automating this" is actually the exact opposite of real talk and I mean that in no disrespectful way at all.

I do hate people have to sit there and struggle through the purchasing process, I've done it. Once for an FC, my personal house twice because I lost it when I quit, but someone else took stewardship of the FC. I am well aware of that grind. For the record, it sucked and I hated it about 10 seconds into it. But I enjoy the housing aspect of the game enough to tolerate it, and understand why it is implemented in the way it is. I can see if Square Enix decided to allot funds to address it in a different way that they should CLEARLY address this different than they have but time will tell.

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Originally Posted by Sauteed

We all do. Well most of us. I'm into construction and industrial electrical work. I stay busy. I've won several houses in my XIV time so far, and not once have I automated a bit of it. I stand firm on the belief people that do are a large problem regardless of their excuses. It is a clear violation of the terms of service we all agreed to upon signing up for the game in the first place, regardless of how skim through we scroll through it and confusing and somewhat nuanced insanity that is in there, but it's there. I play XIV passionately, I enjoy it, is a thing I set aside time for and I play by the rules. This offends some people that want their stuff their way, and they throw their fits, but the go right on my blist where I feel the belong and I move on. I don't try to just rat people out but when someone decides to accuse me of violating the TOS, lie, and then proceed to do the very things they accuse me of all while automating their gameplay, the do get a good reporting, and I blist them and enjoy the rest of my day in the game. But coming on here advocating that "everyone should be automating this" is actually the exact opposite of real talk and I mean that in no disrespectful way at all.

I do hate people have to sit there and struggle through the purchasing process, I've done it. Once for an FC, my personal house twice because I lost it when I quit, but someone else took stewardship of the FC. I am well aware of that grind. For the record, it sucked and I hated it about 10 seconds into it. But I enjoy the housing aspect of the game enough to tolerate it, and understand why it is implemented in the way it is. I can see if Square Enix decided to allot funds to address it in a different way that they should CLEARLY address this different than they have but time will tell.

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I spend a lot of my free time playing FF14 as well. I just recently started trying to buy a housing lot, and I have to say I was very disappointed when I learned how unpolished the entire system is. There is no excuse for the lot buying system to have stayed the way it is for over a year. I don't condone cheating in any game either, but asking a player of your game to stand in one spot doing nothing but clicking 0,0,0,4,0 over and over for up to 24 hours is completely ridiculous. The current lot buying system is the epitome of bad design; SE is basically encouraging people to macro the placard spamming.

We can debate the advantages and disadvantages of increasing the number/quantity of housing lots available but this placard spamming lot buying system is something that should never have been implemented as it is. There are fair ways of selling vacant lots that don't involve wasting hours of multiple players time that could be implemented without significant development time.

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Originally Posted by Draven2

People have jobs, school, and other responsibilities. I've wasted about 6 hours clicking on housing placards so far, and I'm not going to waste any more of my time doing it. The current lot buying system is repetitive, inane, and requires zero skill or thought from the player... its literally 0,0,0,4,0 over and over and over in a battle against an invisible timer. Its a system literally designed to be automated. Asking people to pointlessly click against a hidden timer is disrespectful of players time, don't forget someone can come in at any moment and relocate making all your past hours of clicking pointless. Everyone should be MACROing this pile of shit lot buying system until its changed.

Honestly, as someone who thinks SE has done a very good job with FF14 overall the housing system is a huge let-down. I like the idea of finding or crafting furniture and decorating a place over time. I'd like to try the gardening system as well. I know neither of these systems is particularly important to the game itself, but every time my retainers bring me back furniture or I find seeds it just annoys me that this part of the game is locked away from me behind a TERRIBLY designed system. A system that's been terribly designed for years... There is no excuse for the way housing works in the game at the moment.

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Well said, minus the swearing. It's hard to hate those that macro or even bot. It gives a clearly unfair advantage, but using tools to save yourself from mental fatigue cannot truly be faulted. After all, what's the difference between using a macro and having your nimble-fingered younger brother speed clicking for you for a while in exchange for some McDonald's next time you go out except that one is free and the other costs you $7 for a happy meal. When someone tells you to stare at a wall for 12 hours after which your odds of being paid are actually really small, is it wrong to do something to make it less unpleasant? Against ToS sure, but against common sense? That's arguable. Personally, I can't endorse it, but it's easy to see the appeal.

I don't even know why SE came up with the whole random timer idea xD. Wasn't it to prevent people from abusing the housing market? I mean, houses are still being sold every day with the random timer anyway (both via FC trading and house Relo), so I'm not too sure what this whole "new" system has accomplished other than giving carpal tunnel to a few tormented souls lmao.

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Originally Posted by Gallus

I don't even know why SE came up with the whole random timer idea xD. Wasn't it to prevent people from abusing the housing market?

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To try and make it hard for bots to obtain them, though it has sadly not done much to stop it.

If people knew when the timer was going to be up, then people would get there like a minute before it's up and spam the placard, rather than it be a random ballpark number. While I personally believe the intent was to try and stop bots from camping the plots all the time, it's gone the reverse way and is now kind of forcing (Not really, personal choice and all that!) players to camp the placard all the time.

And if someone relocates to the plot, just to be a prick? (They do exist, unsurprisingly.) Well, then you're SoL.

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Originally Posted by Kenky

To try and make it hard for bots to obtain them, though it has sadly not done much to stop it.

If people knew when the timer was going to be up, then people would get there like a minute before it's up and spam the placard, rather than it be a random ballpark number. While I personally believe the intent was to try and stop bots from camping the plots all the time, it's gone the reverse way and is now kind of forcing (Not really, personal choice and all that!) players to camp the placard all the time.

And if someone relocates to the plot, just to be a prick? (They do exist, unsurprisingly.) Well, then you're SoL.

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From what I've read the random timer was added to make it difficult for players to sell housing plots to each other. They were basically trying to eliminate the black market selling of housing lots.

Technically the timer does accomplish this but its one of the absolute worst ways possible to do it.

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Originally Posted by Gallus

I don't even know why SE came up with the whole random timer idea xD. Wasn't it to prevent people from abusing the housing market? I mean, houses are still being sold every day with the random timer anyway (both via FC trading and house Relo), so I'm not too sure what this whole "new" system has accomplished other than giving carpal tunnel to a few tormented souls lmao.

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The random timer was originally proposed by players as a solution to house flipping and SE decided it was worth implementing.

Even if it doesn't feel like it, you do have a better chance of being able to purchase a house directly from the game now than you did prior to the timer. Back in 4.0 or 4.1 (at least on the NA worlds though I doubt EU was any better), you either bought from a flipper or you camped the city state Aetherytes yourself hoping to see a plot become available then rushed to try to buy it before a flipper did.

The latter was no better than the placard spam that players now complain about. You had to sit there flipping through each ward and subdivision over and over hoping to see something suddenly appear. Then you had to rush to the plot to hope you got it before another buyer did.

At least now, there's a few hour window where players can see a plot has become available. They can make the decision on whether they want to spend their time trying to buy it, even if that means competing against the placard bots/scripts.

Direct flipping is now reduced even if it's not eliminated. Flippers still have to compete against the timer when buying a new plot and they're not always going to win. Whatever plots they do get need to be interesting enough that another player is willing to pay the inflated price for them (not to mention give up being in their current FC).

Relocation flipping is rare since the relocating player would have to pay twice - once to the flipper then a second time to the game. That means the flipped plot will need to be especially desirable to be worth the additional cost. It's far more likely to happen if someone is seeking a medium or large (and the flipper has a medium or large) but it's going to be rare overall.

A lot of the current flipping isn't even being done by those who make flipping a normal part of their game play. It's getting done by players who are about to transfer to a different world (or take an extended break from the game that would trigger auto-demo) and want to get back some of the gil they spent to purchase it. Otherwise they'd be keeping the house.

As a developer, I would be ashamed to work for Square Enix knowing that my systems were toxic and causing people such incredible misery every day.

The invisible timer is hands down the worst game design I have ever seen in my life.

SE is full of some extremely messed up individuals if they think this is okay.

Seriously, you have no excuse at this point. It's just downright evil to sit idly by while your playerbase wastes their health in a toxic system you yourself created. As creators of the game you have a responsibility to stop this.

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Originally Posted by Sshado

As a developer, I would be ashamed to work for Square Enix knowing that my systems were toxic and causing people such incredible misery every day.

The invisible timer is hands down the worst game design I have ever seen in my life.

SE is full of some extremely messed up individuals if they think this is okay.

Seriously, you have no excuse at this point. It's just downright evil to sit idly by while your playerbase wastes their health in a toxic system you yourself created. As creators of the game you have a responsibility to stop this.

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You know what removing the purchase timer and reactivating demolition won't do?

They won't get you a house.

The problem is the supply compared to the demand. The player base has grown much faster in the past 2 years than SE could have anticipated. The distribution of that growth is uneven across worlds and data centers.

We know we've got an entire new housing district coming once Ishgard Restoration is completed. Even if it's no more than a standard set of wards like the existing housing districts, it's going to add an additional 1260 houses and 3780 apartments per world.

They are doing something about the housing situation, even if it's not fast enough to satisfy you. But that's MMORPG development in a nutshell, things can never be done fast enough for the players who feel entitled to instant gratification.

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Originally Posted by Sshado

As a developer

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I call cow dung.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

The problem is the supply compared to the demand. The player base has grown much faster in the past 2 years than SE could have anticipated. The distribution of that growth is uneven across worlds and data centers.

We know we've got an entire new housing district coming once Ishgard Restoration is completed. Even if it's no more than a standard set of wards like the existing housing districts, it's going to add an additional 1260 houses and 3780 apartments per world.

They are doing something about the housing situation, even if it's not fast enough to satisfy you. But that's MMORPG development in a nutshell, things can never be done fast enough for the players who feel entitled to instant gratification.

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Being aware of the history of housing in FFXIV, I think the most of the fault still lies with SE for lacking foresight.

1. They could have chosen to go with fully instanced housing like many other major MMORPGS. Even on Balmung, I rarely see neighbors and usually, it's because an RP event is going on.

2. Adding new wards merely kicks the can down the road. Eventually, those wards will fill up as well.

3. Lowering the cost of housing while doubling down on the persistent ward system in the face of increasing player population. It's simple supply and demand. Yet SE fails to address this because the casual playerbase whines that making gil is hard, despite the game itself handing out gil like candy for just playing.

4. It could be that ward housing is not intended for every player and how SE incentivizes housing for transferring to low pop servers. In that case, SE needs to come out and say it.

5. Given the number of years that have passed since housing was implemented, I don't think it's entitlement or instant gratification, for one of the most infuriating systems in any major MMORPG that wastes hours of a player's life.

Before we had the timer players sold plots of insane amounts, 50mil for a small wasnt unseen. When Shirogane was added players paid sums that were unholy, one L plot sold for 999mil.
Keep in mind theres players out there with capped money on multiple retainers.

So while we curse the timer, if not for this timer players would be complaining about the blackmarket.
SE took a horrible problem and turned it into a bad one, its better but its not "good"

If relocating would not bypass the timer and we had a rule against all those "dummy" Fc's who block up entire wards. We could make the first steps into the right direction.

I honestly believe by now SE has to take a hard stance and row back on its own rules, if your account has more then 1 house (private) it should be removed and they need to find a way to remove Dummy FC's.
We did not have this rule back in the day because housing was very expensive, but by now its so cheap that the demand and the supply are SO out of sync.

I can imagine how annoying it has to be for a new FC to not buy a house, while seeing an entire ward dedicated to 1 FC ... and well its 29 Dummy FC's. A Dummy FC's needs no house, its simply abusing a loop hole SE is not able to fix. There is a difference between a low members fc and a Dummy FC, noone wants to take the house of a active 4 man FC.

But if 1 Account has 7 alts, which all have a house because they shifted the members ... and you have 4 of those players, you can lock down an entire ward ... which a single low lv char and thats were SE has to crack down. Most of this happend during a time SE thought they were clever, they locked down all the purchases of private players and went "FC's first!" which ... makes sense i guess. But that gave players enough time to create these Dummy FC's to lock down the plots again ... such a shame.