Housing, it's bad and you should feel bad.

(Part 1)

This is one of the worst housing systems I have ever seen. It promotes gil selling/buying due to re-sellers/house hoarders trying to make a quick penny cause they got lucky in getting a plot. The main issue is limiting plots to the twelve wards and allowing multiple characters to buy plots on a single account. I mean hell, I have heard of two instances so far that an ENTIRE WARD being bought out by a single guy! How is that allowed to be a thing?

(Part 2)

I'll even do the planning for you SE, since you guys seem to be in need some ideas.
Option 1: Change the current system to only allow one personal/FC house PER ACCOUNT/server.
Option 2: Adopt the Wildstar model, where every player has an instanced plot and people on your friends list/fc are your neighbors, then when players acquire the gil to move from a small to a medium they can just upgrade the house on their plot.
Option 3: When a ward is full do the unthinkable,and probably easiest thing, and omg you ready? ADD ANOTHER WARD. HOLY HELL I KNOW THIS GUY IS CRAZY OVER HERE RIGHT?!

tldr: current system sucks, improve it kthx.

I'm excited to receive the response of "It will stress the servers too much" just like to every other issue/feature in this game that still has not been implemented.

edit: Wait, my bad I forgot, SE will just ignore it all, and hope it'll go away.

Hear, hear. SE - fix this problem. Stop screwing us over in this area. Come on now.

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Originally Posted by Duffadon

(Part 1)

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fyi - If you edit your post, you can go past the character limit. :)

Agree with everything. This system does nothing except help RMT sellers.

It's not even that hard to fix. LotRO had a similar system a decade ago, except when a ward filled, the game would create another one. When demand slacked off, it stopped creating more. It's not that complicated.

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Originally Posted by Tridus

fyi - If you edit your post, you can go past the character limit. :)

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Thanks! I'll remember that for next time.

I have played various games were the housing system was much better than this one, however, when anything like this crops up there will be winners and losers and I certainly will back you up with the 1 plot per FC and Individual statement. I patched 09:00 this morning I was in a queue of 81 initially at 11:00 BST and was booted due to load, I then re logged twice and I spawned in the location I wanted and by the time I could control the character the plot was taken.

I then ported quickly to Ward 12 and ran to the plot only to be given some error message or other, so I ported back to our FC house and redistributed the saved funds so I had enough to cover the land cost in both Hand and Bank and then ported back to Shirogane Ward 12 only to be beat to that one.

Finally after filtering over the wards I saw the plot empty on Ward 10 and I must have pipped someone to the post by a fraction of a second, and then I had an agonising wait for the house to transfer over.

It isn't ideal but today there was ample time for people to log in, brave the server lag and try an attempt. I can not say for sure what the heavy populated servers were like because I can only speak of Zodiark.

Either way the stressful nature of this games housing could certainly be looked at:

SW:TOR - There are instanced apartment blocks which give you a large penthouse style building with two floors and loads of customizing space. This again is all instanced so that EVERY player can buy an house when they reach the criteria to own one. The Guild Bases are marked up more expensive because it supposed to be a community working together.

SWG: This game without a shadow of a doubt was the BEST game I have ever played for housing, find any bit of empty land in the open world and then place your house, simple in Guilds you had player cities but we can't have that on this style MMO

LOTRO: Instances housing wards

There is nothing stopping SE doing the following:

-> FC have an instanced Castle / Estate which is located in the main cities and is instanced only to those FC members. Inside you have the option to unlock shops, stables, Gardens and have NPCs work inside your Estate/Castle which tend to chocobos, crops etc, by you completing daily quests.

--> None FC Rearrange the layout to support more housing

----> Develop Apartment blocks to sell small 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and penthouse style housing which is instanced, these residents have access to a instanced garden and stable

Its too late for me Duffadon. I have binged in ice cream, eyes sore from sleep deprived wake for the login and wallet full of gil because me and my FC have been preparing to get a house in SB for a year. My wallet is also full of real money because I will no longer pay SE for a subscription. Not like this....not like this....

1 plot per account is a no brainer. Just implement it.

I agree this was the most disappointing thing I have ever experienced with this game. I saved up for months to be able to buy a med house and didn't even stand a chance at getting one because about time I logged in they were all taken. Just very upset

I feel bad for people that won't get a house. ALL players deserve one if they can afford and have met requirements. This is the worst half-baked housing in any mmo I have played. I fortunately have a medium in the beds that I acquired a few months ago. If I could not get a house, I would of bailed on this joke of a game at that time. Everyone needs a place to call home, craft and store their stuff, etc. I wish you luck getting one eventually.

I'm amused that SE held off putting this out so that ppl would enjoy the story and not immediately "land rush" - Hell, that logic was pointless b/c according to this morning, within 10 min everything was already gone, so ppl still would have been able to go to the story after that -.-

As far as 1 per acct, the question is, how would SE implement this? They had a good idea with the housing relocation feature, but it wasn't enough. I still think a resi area is needed in Ishgard, but how would SE prevent this from happening again? Kick everyone out of the current housing and make them repurchase under the 1plot/1acct thing? That would piss off those who aren't screwing others over by being assholes.

I knew this would be a landrush, but I was 100% certain I'd be able to get a L or M upgrade for my FC within at most 2 hours... TEN MINUTES for everything to be taken? I can understand that for just a few wards (not even incl subdivisions), but all 12 with subs?! JFC -.-

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Originally Posted by TR_RA

As far as 1 per acct, the question is, how would SE implement this? T

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The idea I gave to some fc mates was put out a warning a month in advance that all but one plot will be relinquished. This will force the hoarders to either sell (most likely unsuccessfully) or relinquish. Is it the best/nicest way? no. but it solves the problem, unless the hoarder wants to pay for an extra account, and if that's the case more power to you.

Someone stated in another thread that its crap that we are paying monthly for essentially a locked out service due to horrible planning and I 100% agree.

Man, I hope you guys never played Ultima Online. Housing there makes this look like a walk in the real estate park.

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Originally Posted by Teroniss

Man, I hope you guys never played Ultima Online. Housing there makes this look like a walk in the real estate park.

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Neat. I wish that had any bearing on the issues of housing in FFXIV. Or that it affected me in any way. X is better, Y is worse, Z is amazing, and I don't care.

I pay for this game. My subscription provides me the ability to have access to content. Dozens of players on my server have access to content that thousands do not, by design. Not due to skill, effort, /playtime, status, finances, intelligence, or cleverness. By design, this heavily advertised feature of the product I pay for will never be available to me. The infrastructure our subscriptions fund is supposed to guarantee the opposite, and if it doesn't then.. Well.. Guess I'll spend my money on something else.

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Originally Posted by Teroniss

Man, I hope you guys never played Ultima Online. Housing there makes this look like a walk in the real estate park.

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Man, I hope you never played WoW. Housing there is non existent. Makes this post even more irrelevant.

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Originally Posted by Duffadon

Man, I hope you never played WoW. Housing there is non existent. Makes this post even more irrelevant.

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Played WoW 8+ yrs before housing so...BUT, Wildstar sets the bar for awesome housing. SE needs a lesson from them.

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Originally Posted by Besame

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Played WoW 8+ yrs before housing so...BUT, Wildstar sets the bar for awesome housing. SE needs a lesson from them.

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WoW still doesn't have housing, it was more of a jab at how he's bringing irrelevant information to the thread. But I've played many MMOs in my time, and Wildstar has probably had the best system imo.. too bad the rest of the game was meh.

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Originally Posted by Duffadon

Man, I hope you never played WoW. Housing there is non existent. Makes this post even more irrelevant.

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I played WoW. Garrisons were a joke. Ive also played several other mmos over the years that have housing. Most were pay to play monthly subs. 80% of those had limited housing like this. And in every game that had that limited housing, there has always been a sentiment that, if I pay for a game, I should be entitled to ALL the content the game offers.

The biggest issue with this is that it leads to the casualizing of the game such as the case with WoW and its Raid Finder feature and Dispatch missions, or Quest given legendary weapons you dont really need to work for.

And before long, that content stagnates because players finish the new content within a week without effort. Of course this is all digressing from the point, which is that a monthly sub doesnt automatically any player to anything. That said, it would not hurt to add more Wards.

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Originally Posted by Teroniss

I played WoW. Garrisons were a joke. Ive also played several other mmos over the years that have housing. Most were pay to play monthly subs. 80% of those had limited housing like this. And in every game that had that limited housing, there has always been a sentiment that, if I pay for a game, I should be entitled to ALL the content the game offers.

The biggest issue with this is that it leads to the casualizing of the game such as the case with WoW and its Raid Finder feature and Dispatch missions, or Quest given legendary weapons you dont really need to work for.

And before long, that content stagnates because players finish the new content within a week without effort. Of course this is all digressing from the point, which is that a monthly sub doesnt automatically any player to anything. That said, it would not hurt to add more Wards.

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Except granting housing options for FC's and communities helps to build stronger ties and keeps people in the game to socialize when other content doesn't meet expectations.
Offering options to advance and customize housing allows for a great gil-sink to remove currency from the game and it fosters trade, which helps keep crafting viable and strengthens the in-game economy. You can also monetize certain cosmetic features for housing by offering mogshop add-ons or decorations. It just makes sense.

This isn't like a gear check for instanced fight content. This is straight up core, fundamental stuff.

Even FFXI has player housing for every single player. For those of you who don't know, you can even customize it to include a second level. It can stay an enclosed room or you can pursue the path of opening it up to be an unenclosed space. Everyone can garden in their housing and nothing is restricted based on whether you were able to buy a plot or not.

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Originally Posted by Killjoy

Except granting housing options for FC's and communities helps to build stronger ties and keeps people in the game to socialize when other content doesn't meet expectations..

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Well that brings a different idea entirely. I agree there souls be seperate housing area for FC Houses specifically. Not to the degree as suggested in another thread that players should only be,able to get apartments for private housing, but lime an entirely seperate Zone dedicated to FC Houses

@Teroniss

I don't consider garrisons/class hall housing. They were just crappier versions of hubs so they could try to include a "facebook" game for addiction purposes.

I think that if i pay monthly for a game I should have access to everything offered, now do I think it should be handed to me? absolutely not. For example, my raid group is still progressing in O4s, do I expect gear of o4s level? hell no. but that is content for progressing and for show of skill. Same goes for pvp. I don't pvp but I have access to it IF I wanted to try to progress in ranked. Now do i expect to have access to a heavily advertised feature that for a lot of people (myself included) was the highlight of this patch? you're damn right I do.

Now I'm going to throw some rough ballpark math your way. So according to https://ffxivcensus.com/ for Excalibur (not even the most popular server) alone it says there is 14,600 players. There is about 3000 houses available. That is roughly 20% of the population. Do you think that is anywhere near enough? Hell no.... it should at least be around 60-70% (imo if you want one it should be available). So it is set up to fail from the get go. And this doesn't even account for house hoarders and FC's. so you could probably lower that percentage to 5-10%.

If anyone says that is acceptable then they have a few screws missing.

But thank you for contributing, should have started with something similar to that.

I agree that they should lock housing to one per account. The issue where single accounts can chomp through a chunk of the entire server's allocation is absolutely bizarre, and I say this as someone lucky enough to have got the house they wanted for their FC. There is clearly a problem when on servers of approximately equivalent size (not locked, not preferred), some servers sold out of everything in every ward within minutes while others (yes, they exist) still had large Mist/Goblet/LB houses and medium/small Shirogane houses many hours later, and still have empty apartment blocks. If the number of players isn't wildly out in these cases, player behaviour is a major factor. It's not fair that a few can spoil things for a majority.

For the problem with flipping, which barely exists at all on many servers, there are a lot of possible solutions even without having to police it, such as implementing the lock above and also making it so that when a house is relinquished it's not purchasable again for several days, making it very risky to be a buyer. If there were no buyers, there would be no sellers, but I've seen the posts and it's obviously at crisis point now. A priority period for FCs and a block on one-man FCs owning an additional house would also make sense; I'm in a small FC so I'd hate to see only large ones allowed to buy land, but there should be a baseline activity requirement to justify the need other than 'I want lots of houses'.

I hope they'll implement some improvements before the next batch of wards arrives one day.

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Originally Posted by Teroniss

The biggest issue with this is that it leads to the casualizing of the game such as the case with WoW and its Raid Finder feature and Dispatch missions, or Quest given legendary weapons you dont really need to work for.

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I don't see how it would casualize the game honestly ?!!
There's no "difficulty" in housing - it's pretty much as difficult as glamour, except for the gardening/airship part.

It actually looks like some home owners telling people to get over it are like those little spoiled kids lulzing from having expensive toys others kids can't afford.... and afraid at the idea that they wont be special anymore if other kids would get the same toys as them.

I'd like to know how accurate that FFXIV census page is; it's interesting that the 'tiny' EU/NA worlds are still large compared to the JP ones, if it's correct. Which might be a very important factor in all of this. It was war on JP servers too, but if you have the same number of homes and twice the number of players, it's going to be an all-out bloodbath in the rest of the world.

Yeah some food for thought. A portion of every player's subscription fee is going towards development of housing and housing items which they cannot access BY DEVELOPER CHOICE AND DESIGN. That should make everyone paying a sub fee angry. We're paying for something they intentionally limited and walled off. As a game dev you just don't do that, it's incredibly disrespectful to do that to all of your paying customers. Everyone should have the POTENTIAL to get something. The only gating that should exist for 'exclusivity' in MMOs is time and effort spent to get it. Imagine if WoW had a mount that only dropped for the first 2k people to kill the boss? Same thing. People would riot. And that's just a mount, the housing system in FFXIV is much more developed.

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Originally Posted by Moogly

I don't see how it would casualize the game honestly ?!!
There's no "difficulty" in housing - it's pretty much as difficult as glamour, except for the gardening/airship part.

It actually looks like some home owners telling people to get over it are like those little spoiled kids lulzing from having expensive toys others kids can't afford.... and afraid at the idea that they wont be special anymore if other kids would get the same toys as them.

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Slippery slope logic. You cater to one demand under the pretense that players are entitled to something, and it starts a rolling ball where more demands are made.

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Originally Posted by ManaBanana

Imagine if WoW had a mount that only dropped for the first 2k people to kill the boss? Same thing. People would riot. And that's just a mount, the housing system in FFXIV is much more developed.

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WoW DOES have a mount like that. It was a mount from Silithis that only had 1 per server

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Originally Posted by Teroniss

Slippery slope logic. You cater to one demand under the pretense that players are entitled to something,

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Wanting access to housing(something you pay for) is being "entitled to something"? Following your logic, it would be perfectly acceptable if only a small percentage of a server population could be logged in at any specific time? demanding to log into a game that you pay for is being entitled to something, right? If you are actually going to start making the Logical debate, then make sure your logic is sound before you start.