Thoughts on new housing area being FC only

I saw this in the live letter

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Q2: Is the timing for purchasing plots in Shirogane the same for free companies and individual players?

A2: We are currently in the middle of investigating how much of the player population owns housing, so this is still being decided.

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I really think it should be open to FCs and individual. I know there are a lot of people who make an FC with just them self to buy a house anyway. Shouldn't really have to wait if I decide I want to move to the new area as an individual. It would just seem easier if both open at the same time.

It doesn't really matter if they say no personal houses. People who want in bad enough will just level an fc to rank 6 and be on the ready anyways. Buying it on a shell fc and relinquishing it to yourself for a personal house later is still way cheaper than paying house flippers. At least, on the big servers it is.

Not sure why they wouldn't just open it up to everyone. The house flippers seem to all be stocking up their characters with lvl 6 fcs and leveling the characters up to get into the new area, so it's not going to stop them at all.

might be cause of those who are in or run a FC have no house to buy all cause you got those who are in one with a house and got to own a personal house as well.

Like one guy know runs a FC has a large house and has to own a personal large and he rarely there and thing pretty much barren but won't give it up to a FC who looking for a house all because he got to it first or when it was reclaimed.

Myself I seen many a FC looking for a house and can't get one cause none open all cause got those who need a personal one what their hardly at and or are in a FC with a house that they spend more time at. So they did this be fair chance for those FC who are looking and building gil up to get a shot then people swarming in and claiming them to try and sell them 2 or 3time the price if not more

Even discounting people making personal FCs, it seems a little silly to tell new FCs they can only have a house in 1 of the 4 housing areas. Maybe they can make an FC ward (or wards) in each housing area?

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Originally Posted by Acilith

It doesn't really matter if they say no personal houses. People who want in bad enough will just level an fc to rank 6 and be on the ready anyways. Buying it on a shell fc and relinquishing it to yourself for a personal house later is still way cheaper than paying house flippers. At least, on the big servers it is.

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A pretty easy way to hinder shell fcs is to have a minimum member requirement. Of course it won't stop everyone but it will stop some people.

If SE are going to do nothing to make it more difficult for shell fcs owing houses, then I'd prefer Shirogane to be open to individuals and fcs. I'd much rather an individual player own a house than someone who cheesed out the system with an empty fc.

Everyone here is right. Making it FCs only wont stop people in shell FCs from flipping houses or so forth.

I'm happy for FCs that have a better chance at a home, but not putting restrictions on the FCs aside from level helps nothing to a larger extent.... ( i've always been pretty clear in my feeling that personal housing should have /never/ happened. At least not the way it did. )

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Originally Posted by Penthea

A pretty easy way to hinder shell fcs is to have a minimum member requirement.

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Sorry, but I don't really see how that could work. Right now you need a minimum of 4 people to start a free company, although you can easily do that with just two accounts (one main person, one person on a separate account and 2 of their alts).

If the membership count ducks below 4 right now nothing happens, but then what could happen? People can leave FCs at anytime they want for any reason and a small FC would be very penalised if they get up to rank 6, get a house and... someone leaves so the FC goes up in smoke? No they're not going to do that... likewise I can't see they putting in a temporary timer where you have to get member count back up to X within so many days either. Can you imagine the FC shout spam we'd get?! (or people would just create alts/defeating point of it).

Talking of alts, as you're probably aware a standard account can have a total of 8 characters on the same server and with the temporary help of one other person and about 5 minutes of their time, you could add all alts to the same FC and have 8 people on the same account just like that.

Or it they made it so alts didn't count (making it more complicated for them so they probably won't) people would just "trade" alts with each other.

And if you raised the minimum above about 4 to get started you're just penalising actual small FCs, not the people you're trying to stop.

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

Sorry, but I don't really see how that could work. Right now you need a minimum of 4 people to start a free company, although you can easily do that with just two accounts (one main person, one person on a separate account and 2 of their alts). If the membership count ducks below 4 right now nothing happens, but then what could happen? People can leave FCs at anytime they want for any reason and a small FC would be very penalised if they get up to rank 6, get a house and... someone leaves so the FC goes up in smoke? No they're not going to do that... likewise I can't see they putting in a temporary timer where you have to get member count back up to X within so many days either. Can you imagine the FC shout spam we'd get?! (or people would just create alts/defeating point of it).

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Woah, hold your horses. I only meant for purchasing a house. Not for keeping it. It would be stupid to have a system that auto demolishes the house if you fall below a certain member threshold.

It would still stop some players because shell fcs are shells long before the purchase. It's not like they make the fc upon seeing a free plot. They would need to hang on to members to purchase it. It of course won't stop everyone but it would make it more troublesome.

Personally I really like the neighborhoods being a mix between personal and FC houses. However, what I believe would have been useful even for the old zones, would be a restriction to what houses can be bought. Like, FCs cannot buy a small house (it's very tiny for multiple people) and private people cannot purchase large houses (who needs all that space on their own anyways ;P).
In general, if we want to keep the neighborhoods, we'd need way more wards, I do hope the new housing zone will help a bit with the high demand of housing, theres still so many homeless people out there.

I think we are misinterpreting this answer a bit. I am certain Shirogane will be for personal and FC housing, however, they may only open it up to FC purchasing first and THEN do personal housing. Just like when housing was originally released.

Now of course that probably means on servers like Balmung that it will inadvertently end up FC only but I doubt they're not going to allow personal housing there.

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Originally Posted by Elamys

I think we are misinterpreting this answer a bit. I am certain Shirogane will be for personal and FC housing, however, they may only open it up to FC purchasing first and THEN do personal housing. Just like when housing was originally released.

Now of course that probably means on servers like Balmung that it will inadvertently end up FC only but I doubt they're not going to allow personal housing there.

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I don't think they mean only fcs can get a plot in the new housing area at first, I think they are referring to the moving feature. The feature will be available to everyone at a point, but they haven't decided to give the moving feature to everyone when plots go for sale, or just FCs to start with (possibly to avoid excess server stress?).

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Originally Posted by LadyKairi

I don't think they mean only fcs can get a plot in the new housing area at first, I think they are referring to the moving feature. The feature will be available to everyone at a point, but they haven't decided to give the moving feature to everyone when plots go for sale, or just FCs to start with (possibly to avoid excess server stress?).

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This sounds much more likely. It doesn't make a lot of sense to make Shirogane fc only and then open it to individuals, because by the time solo players can buy there on most servers there will be no plots left. And it would only encourage players to make shell fcs.

Thinking it over, what is the investigation going to tell them? On even moderately busy servers the housing is all gone and the fact that houses aren't readily available just shows them who managed to either login in time, catch a home that was auto-demolished or pay some low life plot flipper off. It doesn't show them how many FCs are after a house or how many people are still vying for a personal one.

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

Thinking it over, what is the investigation going to tell them? On even moderately busy servers the housing is all gone and the fact that houses aren't readily available just shows them who managed to either login in time, catch a home that was auto-demolished or pay some low life plot flipper off. It doesn't show them how many FCs are after a house or how many people are still vying for a personal one.

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Maybe they're going to check housing activity? They already can track it through players entering a house.

Maybe now they'll see that we reaaallly need way more wards on big servers.

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Originally Posted by Acilith

Maybe now they'll see that we reaaallly need way more wards on big servers.

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I'll be surprised if they give different amounts of wards to different servers. Maintenance is easier and faster to do if all the servers are the same. It would be great if it happened, but I don't see it happening soon.

Anyway huge servers have several other population related issues that have nothing to do with housing. I think SE will instead be concentrating on giving players attractive reasons to transfer or create their characters elsewhere. I hear they're going to reduce or even eliminate the gil cap while transferring to a low populated server. If this is true, players could indeed realistically leave for a better housing market without removing their monetary ability to purchase land.