Housing--The One Stain on FFXIV

From a new player's perspective, the housing crisis in FFXIV is the one stain on the game, and it's a pretty large stain.

There seems to be quite a bit of content that will remain inaccessible to some players, simply because there is no housing to be had, especially for new folks who don't have millions of Gil already.

When will more housing be added? When more is added, how will SE guarantee that everyone gets a piece of the pie?

How will SE make this right, so that equal opportunity exists for all paying customers?

P.S. Please, I'm not looking for the "Just join a FC with a mansion." answer here. That shouldn't be a requirement to access all the content that you pay for.

And this will become increasingly important as more features are added to housing (like airship building workshops).

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

And this will become increasingly important as more features are added to housing (like airship building workshops).

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Oh yes, I've seen what's coming in HW, and it's plain that there will probably be more content gated behind housing in the future.

I understand that you have to work for things you want in the game, but you can't work for something that just isn't available because there's not enough land to go around. A feature like this should be baseline, and available to anyone who wants to put in the work to get it. As it stands now, no matter how much work you do, you can't be guaranteed to have access.

How does SE justify charging the same amount of money to all customers when some are denied access to certain features?

Instanced housing.

/morethan10char

I'm pretty sure they stated somewhere that the new airship features will be accessible to players without an FC or house through a system. Was "Mercenary System" or something.

They are suppose to be added more plots in Heavensward either launch or 3.1 or something...cannot remember but it is coming and it will still not be enough.

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Originally Posted by Velisra

When will more housing be added?

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Previously they've said they feel they have met the demand for housing. A little more recently, they've hinted that there might be a small amount added at some time along the expansion.

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Originally Posted by Velisra

When more is added, how will SE guarantee that everyone gets a piece of the pie?

How will SE make this right, so that equal opportunity exists for all paying customers?

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Their intent so far has been to keep it among the elite. If you want a house, have quite a bit of cash on hand for the expac launch and be sure to grab it quickly whenever it arrives. It's worth noting that some servers sold out within minutes of going live.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Their intent so far has been to keep it among the elite.

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:(
I do now have a house myself. (Coeurl isn't in as bad of shape as some servers. It ran out of small plots initially and again after the first housing upgrade, but I don't think it ever ran out of medium or large ones, and by the second upgrade even small plots lasted a long time and I was able to get one.) But I still find the whole design so inadequate it's practically an insult to their customers. Major game features like housing shouldn't be something that's kept among the elite. It should be something available to everyone, instanced so that availability isn't even a question to consider, and provided at a reasonable cost while players are still in the middle of the game. (I'm thinking unlocking maybe around level 20 or 25, and needing to have joined a GC rather than needing to reach GC rank of 2nd Lt.)

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

If you want a house, have quite a bit of cash on hand for the expac launch and be sure to grab it quickly whenever it arrives. It's worth noting that some servers sold out within minutes of going live.

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Due to variations in download speed, some of the busier servers were sold out by the time a lot of players could even finish the patch download to be able to get online.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Stuff!

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I agree wholeheartedly. I was among those protesting how SE did it. But... two huge community outcries, and usually a thread every week or couple of weeks complaining about its current state... And the only responses we have gotten: "Well actually, if you consider inflation what I said is true." "We feel we've met demand." "We're going to focus on new features of housing instead of housing availability." "We'll probably add a little more housing at some point in Heavensward".

In short, their path is pretty set.

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Originally Posted by elemental10

Instanced housing.

/morethan10char

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This would be a great solution, but I guess there's some reason SE doesn't want to do that, whatever that reason may be. Perhaps it just doesn't work with the current tech?

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Originally Posted by Ehr

I'm pretty sure they stated somewhere that the new airship features will be accessible to players without an FC or house through a system. Was "Mercenary System" or something.

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That would be great if true, though there are other things gated behind housing ownership that everyone should be able to access.

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Originally Posted by Mikedizzy

They are suppose to be added more plots in Heavensward either launch or 3.1 or something...cannot remember but it is coming and it will still not be enough.

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That's how it looks to me as well after looking around in game and reading a bit online about the housing issue. :(

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Previously they've said they feel they have met the demand for housing. A little more recently, they've hinted that there might be a small amount added at some time along the expansion.



Their intent so far has been to keep it among the elite. If you want a house, have quite a bit of cash on hand for the expac launch and be sure to grab it quickly whenever it arrives. It's worth noting that some servers sold out within minutes of going live.

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As a new player, I strongly suspect it's quite literally impossible to amass the amount of Gil that would be required in the short amount of time between now and the xpac launch. So far, Gil feels like it falls from the sky, but even then it's not in THAT kind of quantity.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

:(
I do now have a house myself. (Coeurl isn't in as bad of shape as some servers. It ran out of small plots initially and again after the first housing upgrade, but I don't think it ever ran out of medium or large ones, and by the second upgrade even small plots lasted a long time and I was able to get one.) But I still find the whole design so inadequate it's practically an insult to their customers. Major game features like housing shouldn't be something that's kept among the elite. It should be something available to everyone, instanced so that availability isn't even a question to consider, and provided at a reasonable cost while players are still in the middle of the game. (I'm thinking unlocking maybe around level 20 or 25, and needing to have joined a GC rather than needing to reach GC rank of 2nd Lt.)



Due to variations in download speed, some of the busier servers were sold out by the time a lot of players could even finish the patch download to be able to get online.

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I completely agree with you about the housing being a major game feature. "Inadequate" and "insult to their customers" doesn't even come close. It's not good when even the fun things that aren't combat related--like gardening--are gated behind a feature that's inaccessible to most players. I'm all for working for something you want, but even if I did have millions of Gil already, I couldn't buy if there's no housing available.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

I agree wholeheartedly. I was among those protesting how SE did it. But... two huge community outcries, and usually a thread every week or couple of weeks complaining about its current state... And the only responses we have gotten: "Well actually, if you consider inflation what I said is true." "We feel we've met demand." "We're going to focus on new features of housing instead of housing availability." "We'll probably add a little more housing at some point in Heavensward".

In short, their path is pretty set.

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So far, it seems to me that the game is really well done and it doesn't seem like the devs are totally clueless like some other games I've played. However, if they think they've met demand... I can't imagine they're really in touch with the player base on that one.

Perhaps adding tiny plots that offer gardening only might be an option. Honestly, RIFT has a really fun "housing" system, and if I want to build and decorate, I can go over there for free so I'm not even hung up on the whole idea of having a house in Eorzea. What I would like is access to a garden. Heck, Germans have their Schrebergärten; make something like that for folks who would like to garden, but aren't really interested in a whole house.

I'm not going anywhere--heck, I just got here, and I'm having a lovely time with the game--but this housing issue is a big one for me and I hope a fix of some sort comes soon.

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So far, it seems to me that the game is really well done and it doesn't seem like the devs are totally clueless like some other games I've played. However, if they think they've met demand... I can't imagine they're really in touch with the player base on that one.

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This really depends on which server you're on. Adamantoise, for instance, still has housing open; but we're one of the least active NA servers. Japanese servers especially have huge amounts of room open. ...But go to servers like Balmung, Gilgamesh, or really most of the EU data cluster, and... yeah.

They've stressed several times that due to the nature of housing (perpetual, alterable-in-real-time non instanced zones), it takes up a lot of stress on the servers and isn't easy to just 'allocate more space', as the case may be. But yeah.

Not excusing the fact that it really sucks for some people, 'cause it does... just yeah.

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Originally Posted by Garlyle

This really depends on which server you're on. Adamantoise, for instance, still has housing open; but we're one of the least active NA servers. Japanese servers especially have huge amounts of room open. ...But go to servers like Balmung, Gilgamesh, or really most of the EU data cluster, and... yeah.

They've stressed several times that due to the nature of housing (perpetual, alterable-in-real-time non instanced zones), it takes up a lot of stress on the servers and isn't easy to just 'allocate more space', as the case may be. But yeah.

Not excusing the fact that it really sucks for some people, 'cause it does... just yeah.

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I totally understand that some servers have different amounts of housing still available. I apparently chose poorly when I rolled on Diabolos! However, for the rest of the game, it's probably not a bad thing to be on a busier server at this time, since it might be harder to find groups to do the 2.0-2.55 story content with once HW drops on a less active server. I'm already a bit concerned about that honestly, but that's another issue altogether!

Anyway, I don't know what the answer is for SE on this issue obviously, so all I can do is post my feelings and thoughts here, and hope that the devs read the forums and see the feedback.

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Originally Posted by Velisra

As a new player, I strongly suspect it's quite literally impossible to amass the amount of Gil that would be required in the short amount of time between now and the xpac launch. So far, Gil feels like it falls from the sky, but even then it's not in THAT kind of quantity.

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Correct. For your particular situation... My recommendation: start amassing now, and hope there are new housing zones added not at launch but at a later date.

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Originally Posted by Velisra

So far, it seems to me that the game is really well done and it doesn't seem like the devs are totally clueless like some other games I've played. However, if they think they've met demand... I can't imagine they're really in touch with the player base on that one.

Perhaps adding tiny plots that offer gardening only might be an option. Honestly, RIFT has a really fun "housing" system, and if I want to build and decorate, I can go over there for free so I'm not even hung up on the whole idea of having a house in Eorzea. What I would like is access to a garden. Heck, Germans have their Schrebergärten; make something like that for folks who would like to garden, but aren't really interested in a whole house.

I'm not going anywhere--heck, I just got here, and I'm having a lovely time with the game--but this housing issue is a big one for me and I hope a fix of some sort comes soon.

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I'm as baffled by it as you are. Both housing launches were highly controversial and made it into the mainstream gaming press. But uhm... here we are?

They also refuse to give more wards to the highly populated servers, and not so to the tiny servers that still have tons open. i.e., A server with more than 50% availability will still get the same number of new wards as those with none.

Lastly, there is no decay system. Someone purchases a house and quits the game? It's still theirs forever. If you walk around the housing wards you can see this... Houses someone started to decorate but abandoned, and so on.

So... here we are.

Incidentally, originally they promised us a personal housing system that was separate and considerably more affordable than the FC housing system. 9 months after that promise, they gave us the ability to purchase FC houses individually, at the same (very high) prices.

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Originally Posted by Garlyle

They've stressed several times that due to the nature of housing (perpetual, alterable-in-real-time non instanced zones), it takes up a lot of stress on the servers and isn't easy to just 'allocate more space', as the case may be.

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"The way this was designed makes it hard to expand to a more useful form" isn't a very good excuse when they're the ones who designed it that way. It shouldn't have been hard to foresee that an instanced housing system would be more expandable than a system of permanent housing wards. Just as it shouldn't be hard to foresee now that even those low-pop servers with plenty of houses still available won't remain viable forever with the way a limited resource is permanently allocated.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Incidentally, originally they promised us a personal housing system that was separate and considerably more affordable than the FC housing system. 9 months after that promise, they gave us the ability to purchase FC houses individually, at the same (very high) prices.

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That's one of the really frustrating parts of this. It's clear they'd originally intended to do something better, but then gave up on it and just gave us this instead. They apparently felt it as a deadline to get some sort of personal housing out, but the result is that, by giving us a badly designed version, they just made it all but impossible to eventually have a proper personal housing system, since there's this sorry excuse for one already in game. It would have been better to put off the personal housing release until they'd gotten their original plan for it working. Sure, there would have been a lot of complaints over the additional delays, but delay frustrations are temporary frustrations, whereas the frustrations over a bad implementation stick around.


I'm still hoping they'll do something like opening up Private Chambers to people who don't have an FC with a house. (They could refer to it as renting an apartment in town or something, but it would essentially be the same feature they've already implemented as Private Chambers in FC houses.) And then add an indoor planter box the size of the small (4 plot) gardens that could be put in there to allow gardening. Then have chocobokeeps allow adventurers to stable and train their chocobos there if they don't have their own house and stable.

(Of course, providing access to all the housing features to those without a house sort of limits the usefulness for those who do have a house, but that's the price of having designed the system so badly in the first place. It's a better price to pay than the current price of excluding it from so many people.)

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

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Further puzzling is that they have a very solid instancing system in this game. Even FFXI, which used PS2 dev tools for development and has little instancing at all, has instanced housing and even gave every player their own private moogle-managed island. So they've got the tech.

Among all their game design decisions... most of them I can at least understand, even if I don't agree with it, but this one... I just don't understand their reasoning at all. The result of a fall back for too much ambition does seem like a plausible hypothesis...

I suspect they'll start dealing with this within the next 6 months. They've said that inactive players will eventually loose their housing, but with the expack about to launch, many of these players are about to return. So it'll come down to who comes back and who doesn't. It would be nice if they put an actual number on this though. like if you're account is inactive for 6 months you loose your house and all your furniture goes to the calamity salvager. BUT unfortunately its low priority until the smoke from the expack settles.