Ishgardian Housing Wards suggestion

Preface: I am aware that there is no set-in-stone guarantee that Ishgardian Housing will exist. Until there is, let's go with the assumption that it will be coming, once the Restoration is complete.

With Housing the way it is and the belief that we will get another.. 20 or 30 wards with the Firmament, once it's finished, I had been reminded that it wouldn't actually *help* the Housing Market and its problems, It would only delay it. But is there a way we can stop that?

Knowing that Square Enix has said (I believe, at least. I could be wrong!) they want to keep the Neighborhood esque feeling of the Wards, we can assume "Full-instanced" housing will not come to pass. But note "Full-instanced" does not mean Instanced in general. They could improve the Apartments at a later date, once they have the foundation to do so. But this discussion isn't about "ward Vs Instancing". It's about fixing the Wards. Something we will not be losing no matter what we suggest.

I say this with the firm belief that my suggestions (or lack thereof) is not going to be a water-tight solution, but at least something to give actual players an improved chance. At least for a few days at most.

My solution is that they do what they had done with the other wards. Make it so you have to complete a quest to purchase land there, but to also add extra restrictions to that. Think about it.

To own a house in any ARR zone (Goblet, Mist, lavender Beds) you need to:
- Be level 50
- Be a certain rank in a Grand Company
(May be more, but those stick out to me the most)

And for Shirogane, you need to be at least level 70 and own Stormblood.

What if, for the Firmament. They continued that trend? Make it so players would need to:
- Have a Level 80 Character (War / Magic specifically)
- Completed the Shadowbringers Story
- Assisted in the Firmament at least once (Or have obtained X amount of Skybuilder scripts in some fashion)
- Purchase a "Writ of Permission" from the Vendor for X scripts before you can go to a Placard.

Now, on paper this doesn't sound all too bad. Most of the playerbase worldwide already achieve the 3 main requirements, yet the script-required item to purchase rights to live in Ishgard could be the main stopper, purely because it would be an optional item that you had to purchase for scripts. Similar to buying Housing Items for your GC Seals.

This makes sure that anyone living in the area has sunk in a considerable amount of time into the game and probably do not want to have their wrists slapped for being naughty, on top of slowing the Bots down (theoretically) by having such weighty restrictions for a "brand new character" or "Brand New Account" to achieve in a quick, reliable fashion.

Now, I know that not everyone wants to do Gathering & Crafting, which is entirely fine, they would still have the other four wards (and every plot in those wards) to choose from. But if they wanted to live in Ishgard, then they would need to put in a bit of effort. That's one of the major drawbacks that I have yet to find a way around without opening the floodgates and rendering the solution pointless.

I open the floor to all of you, hoping that we all stay nice and civil instead of argue and bicker over semantics. We all wish for Housing to be better than how it is, so use that as a middle-ground for this discussion, if possible.

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Originally Posted by Kenky

I open the floor to all of you, hoping that we all stay nice and civil instead of argue and bicker over semantics. We all wish for Housing to be better than how it is, so use that as a middle-ground for this discussion, if possible.

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I find it ironic that you're asking this after refusing to see any benefit in my suggestions for a raffle system to replace the timer. You also haven't addressed that in any way, so as you say it'd only delay the inevitable. Perhaps not even that, since in all likelihood SE would announce the requirements well in advance to give everyone ample time to gather whatever amount of scrips is required.

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Originally Posted by tdb

I find it ironic that you're asking this after refusing to see any benefit in my suggestions for a raffle system to replace the timer. You also haven't addressed that in any way, so as you say it'd only delay the inevitable. Perhaps not even that, since in all likelihood SE would announce the requirements well in advance to give everyone ample time to gather whatever amount of scrips is required.

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Simply saying a "Raffle" system is not very helpful. I believe I even pointed out prior what I saw wrong with it. Purely because when one says a raffle, it is never fully explained beyond that, but even then the main reason why I (and plenty of others at this point) refuse a raffle-esque system because FFXIV already has a lot of RNG added into the game and, as a result, people would prefer actually having a hand to play in obtaining such a thing, rather than it be handed to them by a number generator. While there are benefits to this system (mostly medical, as I have stated prior), it comes with its own drawbacks. I believe in the post you're referring to, I even say I am not denying or refusing your choice, but to rather get to sit down and discuss it in finer details, rather than leaving it at "Well a raffle is better".

Obtaining the item through your own means will (on average) always be better than being given something on a programs idle whims. As an example, maybe looking at items you earn through doing Eden and succeeding against the boss VS just being given one of the eight random options.

And yes, I know it is quite ironic for me, of all people to ask for people to be civil. Especially given my 'track record' of being abrasive and antagonistic. But people change (or at least try to, anyways) and if the main result is housing getting better for those that do not own one at present, it will be worth it.

it will just result in more empty wards to be fair to it all, and people only buying a house for a status symbol... then never go back to it again, it is how it is, I think more requirements and needs and ways of upkeep would be needed to be able to keep a house/fc house, that way we wont run out of houses easy, more requirements for FC houses, so its gonna take a bit teamplay and also to rule out 1 person fcs x 8 on one account and to be able to push grandfathered players who has whole wards or 2-3 houses on same character or account.

That way, it is fair ground to all.

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Originally Posted by Kenky

Purely because when one says a raffle, it is never fully explained beyond that

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I guess you haven't read all of my posts where I explain it in detail then. To be fair, they're kinda scattered around in several threads. For your benefit I'll recap it here (and add some new details and explanations I thought of just now).

When a plot frees up, if there's already an upcoming raffle and it's more than 17 hours away, then a newly freed plot will use that same time. Otherwise the raffle time will be set at 22 hours from now. The delays are chosen to be odd amounts in order to get raffles to happen at varying times of the day, and with these values there should be around 4 raffles per day as long as plots are freeing up at a steady pace. Players will be able to confirm the raffle time for a particular plot from the placard. I have noticed that players like it when their actions have some impact on their chances of winning, such as when new wards are added and logging in quickly gives a better chance of finding a plot that's still free. This visible timer is intended to give a similar opportunity for planning, while not taking up inordinate amounts of time. It also allows strategizing by looking for raffles occurring at less active hours of the server, if one's real life schedule allows being in-game at unusual hours.

At the appointed time, the option to enter the raffle opens up. This could be an option on the placard menu, or for some extra flavor an NPC with a table and suitable paraphernalia could appear near the plot entrance. Players will have 10 minutes to enter the raffle, and wandering too far from the plot will automatically withdraw the participation. In such an event it will be possible to enter again as long as the timer is not up, in order to minimize the impact of accidents. Remember that there can be multiple raffles going on at the exact same time, so players will have to choose which one to go for. This is also intended to give players agency; one could just go to their favorite plot and hope they win that, but the 10 minute participation timer allows one to scout out multiple plots in advance and check how many players are at each one, eventually choosing the one with the least competition.

There are some aspects here which I can't fully evaluate due to insufficient data. I'm hoping that aligning the times of multiple raffles will cause players to spread out, reducing direct competition. But I don't know how often plots free up on the more crowded servers. On my server, before the demolition timer freeze, there was easily tens of small plots available. Currently Lavender at least is completely full, but it hasn't been 45 days since unfreezing demolitions yet so the situation is not representative of normalcy.

Jojoya also raised a point about the ward zones themselves becoming congested if a lot of people rush to a single plot at the same time. It would certainly be bad if there's only one plot being raffled and 1000 players all go for it. But I don't know the real numbers so can't estimate how likely that is to happen.

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Originally Posted by Kenky

Obtaining the item through your own means will (on average) always be better than being given something on a programs idle whims. As an example, maybe looking at items you earn through doing Eden and succeeding against the boss VS just being given one of the eight random options.

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In principle yes. That's why I craft my own gear instead of buying it from the MB. Normal mode content in this game is so easy though that after the first week beating the bosses just feels like a formality.

To give your idea a fair treatment, I think lore-wise it makes sense. If it were to be implemented, I would approve just because of the flavor it adds to the housing. I just don't think requiring the scrip item is that much of a hurdle, and you yourself said you think the other requirements are trivial. Based on the participation in the restoration fates and the rankings, there's easily enough people capable of obtaining scrips to gobble up most of the plots. And since SE seems intent on giving everyone an equal chance to obtain houses, I expect that they would announce the scrip requirement early enough that anyone who wants a house will have time to collect the scrips. Going from zero to max scrips takes less than two hours for a max level crafter.

We know Ishgard housing will exist. YoshiP has already stated that it will be coming after the Restoration is completed on all worlds. What we don't know is the time frame intended by "after", or what form the housing will take. The Firmament, while laid out like a normal ward, definitely has a different feeling to it so it may not be the same as the current wards.

Purchasing a private house in Shirogane doesn't require level 70. It only requires at least one class to level 50, 2nd Lieutenant in a GC and completion of the quest "Not Without Incident" (level 61 MSQ). If you're purchasing for a FC, you only need to have a class to level 50 and land purchasing permission for the FC.

Considering they made the Restoration content available to all players who reached level 60 and completed the 3.3 MSQ, I would expect that to be the additional requirement to be able to purchase in the Firmament. It would make no sense to tie it to level 80 and completion of the Shadowbringers MSQ.

I doubt SE is interested in setting up significantly different rule sets for ownership by housing district. Adding in a "you must have contributed to the Restoration as crafter/gatherer" becomes problematic if they remove the Restoration content from the game at the end of the expansion. It would also push more players into creating (or buying) shell FCs for the purpose of being able to buy a house where they want because such a requirement can't be applied to a FC. Using shell FCs is something that needs to get discouraged instead of encouraged by adding more restrictions to a system that doesn't need them.

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Originally Posted by Kenky

- Have a Level 80 Character (War / Magic specifically)
- Completed the Shadowbringers Story

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Please no. I always wanted to move to Ishgard, even if it just an Apartment room.

Leave it as any other housing, and that you need to have completed HW base story.... no point in trying to break a system that already work flawlessly.

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

Leave it as any other housing, and that you need to have completed HW base story.... no point in trying to break a system that already work flawlessly.

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I think it should instead be "complete Heavensward 3.3 storyline and unlocked the Firmament".

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Originally Posted by Styrmwyda

I think it should instead be "complete Heavensward 3.3 storyline and unlocked the Firmament".

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As long as it is HW only, as that is the requirement to reach Ishgaard.... then just do like the rest, unlock quest etc.

Since the current form of housing cannot be easily redesigned, due to the nature of its coding, as well as additional cost of adding servers just for housing.

I hope that Ishgardian housing will not be a usual ward and plot style of housing system, but a completely new housing system design that is easily modified and upgraded due to a completely Instanced form, yet functional and aesthetically-pleasing.

From a developer perspective, making housing even more exclusive is not going to improve the user experience for most players but only a privileged few who have spent considerable time doing what you suggested. That doesn't make any sense.