Housing crisis is to close to real life.

So people are selling the housing plots on other forums for real money (a lot of money!)... This promotes botting to buy up land and also other player (not cheating) are buying plots to hold on to as the price of housing inflates.

This is the same as corporations buying up large areas for development and millionaires investing in real estate. I play video games to escape from real world problems not to revel in them in a virtual setting.

I know the ff14 franchise makes money off the bots too... making them less economically inclined to solve the problem directly (also they have so much on their plate as it is they would not be able to keep up) ... but it would be nice if from time to time a large amount of plots were added without announcement to intentionally crash the market. This would eventual dis-insensitive these behaviors that artificially are artificially inflating the market at alarming rates.

I know this post going to get some heat from well deserved from the players that honestly earned their plots, and I am sorry. It will also get some heat from the same people who are botting and game the system.

If anyone has a better way to cease these behaviors the floor is yours. Let the debate of AUG 28th begin.

I wish I could add a proper survey to these posts.

Like this post if the housing economics needs fixing.

They're making a change when Ishgard housing comes about. It'll be lotto based.

Like this post if nothing is wrong with the economics behind the housing market.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Violyre

They're making a change when Ishgard housing comes about. It'll be lotto based.

---

That is good, but how will they weight it against bots and land hoarders?

And thanks for responding to my post!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oxi

That is good, but how will they weight it against bots and land hoarders?

And thanks for responding to my post!

---

My guess is that plots will be available for purchase by anyone when they become available (They've already said gil up front), and after X amount of time, the system automatically will pick one of the people, then refund the other people.

I have to admit as a reasonably new player that this problem made the game a lot less enjoyable for me. I was really REALLY looking forward to buying a large house and building it up, but I'm told that its basically impossible because large plots are never available.

I'm told that they are adding extra housing in Ishgard and implementing a lottery, but realistically there's still almost no chance of getting a large house which is really depressing. Its such an easy fix to just add more housing wards but im told its been a problem since day one and its never addressed.

Ive really enjoyed everything in the game so far, and im working towards saving up 50 million for a plot, but not a single person i talk to thinks a large plot is a realistic goal.

I heard land was going to be one plot per account. Or something. I don’t know much about it.. but there will be still the old way to get land but also a loto. Personally I think new wards should just create when one fills automatically.. keep it one plot per account. Make plots account wide so that any character on the account is considered home owner. Free company transfers should maybe be delt with by making newly added player have to be part of the free company for like 3 month before they can be owner unless fc leader becomes inactive and you can stil obtain it that way.. idk.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GraeUK

I'm told that they are adding extra housing in Ishgard and implementing a lottery, but realistically there's still almost no chance of getting a large house which is really depressing. Its such an easy fix to just add more housing wards but im told its been a problem since day one and its never addressed.

---

What makes you think that it is "an easy fix to add more housing wards"? Or rather: What makes you think that it is easy to add mor housing wards?

Housing wards need server space. Server space is limited. Getting your hands on the necessary hardware (the actual, physical parts like chips) is not easy right now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vidu

What makes you think that it is "an easy fix to add more housing wards"? Or rather: What makes you think that it is easy to add mor housing wards?

Housing wards need server space. Server space is limited. Getting your hands on the necessary hardware (the actual, physical parts like chips) is not easy right now.

---

This^ I have said this in another thread talking about inventory space. There is a chip shortage right now. The prices of computers has doubled for consumers. They have already said they are having trouble getting servers. So just adding more is not quick fix. What I don't understand is if people are selling housing plots for real money they should be going after those people hard. It's fraud for one they are making money like a leech off of SE. They are ripping people off for another and anyone who is ignorant enough to buy houseing for r$ is running the game for others and should be banned 🚫. Send in a undercover gm and catch them be a proactive company. RMT is a plague in MMOs.

yeah i know about the covid chip shortage and im 100% ok with that, but when someone told me its been asked for since day one, its a bit harder to accept

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GraeUK

yeah i know about the covid chip shortage and im 100% ok with that, but when someone told me its been asked for since day one, its a bit harder to accept

---

So do you believe that a company any company should always give or changes things because a customer asks them too? Some MMOs don't have housing. It still doesn't change the fact that I am sure housing is far down the list. They have a expansion coming out to. It seems to me I agree that more housing would be great but I am sure they have a priority list and housing doesn't seem to be at the top.

They've added more wards so many times but it's never enough, just adding more has always been nothing but a band-aid solution. The new ones are always gone like within a day and then it's back to the same situation where they started. What they need to do is either make housing instanced or add options to apartments for medium and large size, and have no restrictions on those besides a higher price tag.

Adding more wards will never solve the problem.

Because of the fake "neighborood" pretext, they don't fix the problem, they add wards rather than doing what it needs to destroy the black market.

People are supposed to have two houses maximum in each world (one solo, one FC). But people cheat and use tricks.

The problem is actually easy to fix... if SE want. We have all the tools for instancied housing : make appartements with more options and workshop without FC condition (and shared housing with alt if needed).

The shortage of server ressources? What a joke. Currently players can have :
- Two houses + one room + one appartement for the main
plus
- one room and one appartement for each alt
(and I almost forgot about the storeroom)

People who abuse the system abuse server ressources and are a plague for other players.

Note : If anyone know, I wonder if there are ways to have more than one FC house with FC heritage system (it needs two accounts but if we can have more than one FC house with heritage system, there is one more very big flaw in the housing system).

Note 2 : When you pay a sub, you are supposed to act a fair way considering servers ressources. Even if SE left flaws, you are responsible too if you abuse the system. The black market IS a missuse of flaws.

Hello everyone,

I can confirm Eldevern purposes : Here is the trick used by "black market" :
1/ They ceate a fake FC with requirements members, after they used 1 or 2 only
2/ They get the rank to have the "buy" option for the plot
3/ They get the plot
4/ For a tiny house, they sell it from 5M to 45M (80M sometimes) by change the fake FC old "owner" to the new and get gils by transfer

I discover 2 discord servers about that who were moderate by notable players...

Simple actual fix would be to make the ward system FC only and make instanced housing a thing for each character. Forcing FC's and players to compete for space is just ridiculous.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DeaconMoore

Simple actual fix would be to make the ward system FC only and make instanced housing a thing for each character. Forcing FC's and players to compete for space is just ridiculous.

---

In Goblet in Spriggan, if SE fix that about the abuse system, of black market, 35% of the Goblet area in Spriggan could be free for players. Let imagine for others sectors and servers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vidu

What makes you think that it is "an easy fix to add more housing wards"? Or rather: What makes you think that it is easy to add mor housing wards?

Housing wards need server space. Server space is limited. Getting your hands on the necessary hardware (the actual, physical parts like chips) is not easy right now.

---

Right now? It is not like they haven't known it is a problem since ARR. The design is bad and throwing more servers at it isn't the solution. At this point housing has more zones then the whole rest of the game. They claim stability issues. Instead of blaming the chip shortage, just be honest they did a bad job and have refused/can't fix it for years.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pierllos

In Goblet in Spriggan, if SE fix that about the abuse system, of black market, 35% of the Goblet area in Spriggan could be free for players. Let imagine for others sectors and servers.

---

A drop in the bucket is all that would accomplish. There are far more players, let alone characters, than there are plots in the game. You shouldn't be denied a game feature because space is designed to be limited. It's a detriment to the game to only grant partial housing access to everyone and full housing access to a few.

As I've said more times than I can count:

If we were going to have instanced housing/housing available for all/non-neighborhoods......we would have them by now. Square clearly has NO interest in straying from the neighborhood design and want it to continue, hence why we're even getting an option for a raffle instead of instanced housing. Fight for a plot like everyone else or put your name in the raffle when 6.1 comes. I get that it's not fair but just like real life, it can't always be fair.

There are other games out there that provide instanced housing if it's something that you need.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LianaThorne

As I've said more times than I can count:

If we were going to have instanced housing/housing available for all/non-neighborhoods......we would have them by now. Square clearly has NO interest in straying from the neighborhood design and want it to continue, hence why we're even getting an option for a raffle instead of instanced housing. Fight for a plot like everyone else or put your name in the raffle when 6.1 comes. I get that it's not fair but just like real life, it can't always be fair.

There are other games out there that provide instanced housing if it's something that you need.

---

That is a completely reasonable take. And I despise the system. But they should not be allowed to advertise a feature they can not provide. Also while i like seasonal furniture, they have clearly stated man power issues. Maybe it is time to visit how much effort is put into housing as a whole.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moonlite

Right now? It is not like they haven't known it is a problem since ARR. The design is bad and throwing more servers at it isn't the solution. At this point housing has more zones then the whole rest of the game. They claim stability issues. Instead of blaming the chip shortage, just be honest they did a bad job and have refused/can't fix it for years.

---

off topic, but...
As someone who worked in the chip industry (in the US) and recently left. COVID was but a small little blip in a huge array of issues. Production is going back up from the COVID -19 dip, but there was always a bit of a shortage. I think there's going to be a shortage for a good few years to come - or forever - unless the workplaces and businesses improve. As an example, during COVID what helped exaggerate this was a Silicon shortage in the US because no one wanted to purify and package it for industry use, simply because it wasn't profitable, and had forced production facilities to order it from across the world.



Anyway, back to housing.

I always liked to argue purely instance based housing (much like BDO for example) where multiple people could own the same physical plot in game, but I know this would take a lot of the magic and immersion from the wards away since every house would be default unless you clicked on the board and chose whose house to visit.

I just don't find the current system indicative of a good experience. The more you dive into the housing world and community of this game, the darker it gets. Real money, bots, autoclickers, auctions on discords and selling for literal billions or trillions of gil. It's low-key kind of disgusting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yshtola_Rhul

off topic, but...
As someone who worked in the chip industry (in the US) and recently left. COVID was but a small little blip in a huge array of issues. Production is going back up from the COVID -19 dip, but there was always a bit of a shortage. I think there's going to be a shortage for a good few years to come - or forever - unless the workplaces and businesses improve. As an example, during COVID what helped exaggerate this was a Silicon shortage in the US because no one wanted to purify and package it for industry use, simply because it wasn't profitable, and had forced production facilities to order it from across the world.



Anyway, back to housing.

I always liked to argue purely instance based housing (much like BDO for example) where multiple people could own the same physical plot in game, but I know this would take a lot of the magic and immersion from the wards away since every house would be default unless you clicked on the board and chose whose house to visit.

I just don't find the current system indicative of a good experience. The more you dive into the housing world and community of this game, the darker it gets. Real money, bots, autoclickers, auctions on discords and selling for literal billions or trillions of gil. It's low-key kind of disgusting.

---

What about having both instance and server based housing?

I know many would want to buy up public plots for vanity. A lot of actual game mechanics including storage and gardens are tied to housing and most people will never be able to take part as it is.

So few are the player with housing I can't even find an ff14 wiki with details on what you can do with a house.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oxi

What about having both instance and server based housing?

I know many would want to buy up public plots for vanity. A lot of actual game mechanics including storage and gardens are tied to housing and most people will never be able to take part as it is.

So few are the player with housing I can't even find an ff14 wiki with details on what you can do with a house.

---

My take has always been to have an instanced based housing system in addition to the existing ward system. The ward based system would be frozen and players that really wanted a ward based house could do as they do today to obtain one. The instanced based system would essentially be a plot or range of plots with an exterior and interior space you enter similar to the way you enter apartments. To be honest apartments should have been an instanced house from the beginning since they are by SE's own admission virtually unlimited due to being instanced.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GraeUK

I have to admit as a reasonably new player that this problem made the game a lot less enjoyable for me. I was really REALLY looking forward to buying a large house and building it up, but I'm told that its basically impossible because large plots are never available.

I'm told that they are adding extra housing in Ishgard and implementing a lottery, but realistically there's still almost no chance of getting a large house which is really depressing. Its such an easy fix to just add more housing wards but im told its been a problem since day one and its never addressed.

Ive really enjoyed everything in the game so far, and im working towards saving up 50 million for a plot, but not a single person i talk to thinks a large plot is a realistic goal.

---

It hasn't been a problem since Day 1 because most of us couldn't afford the prices of houses then. Even a lot of FCs couldn't afford them; as I recall a small plot was nearly as much as a large plot is now. So for several months, especially since it was FC housing only then, there were lots of plots available. And of course the player base was much much smaller then.

It's also not true that it's never addressed. It has been addressed on multiple occasions. There are far more plots now than on Day 1; they doubled the amount of wards in the three starter cities, they added Shirogane housing with the same additional capacity, they added more zones to all four areas, and now they are adding Ishgard.

I'm not arguing that the housing system doesn't need work - it really does - but it's unfair to state that it's always been a problem and that the problem is never addressed. Unfortunately SE wanted a housing system that wasn't instanced, and they also wanted housing to be a goal that you had to work towards. Both of those have meant that supply is much lower than demand.

It certainly isn't impossible to get a house though; you just have to be patient. And spamming placards is absolutely not the way to go about it. There are lots of tips out there in Internet world on the best way to beat Housing Extreme

SE keep their illusions about immersion or neighborood feeling when most players I've talked with admit it rather give a lonely ghost town feeling. Plus : there are so many wards now it can only go worst.

You want gil sink? Everyone know how to do it : evolutive housing (back in 2014 people already knew).

Instancied evolutive housing can work. Wildstar back in 2014 showed what can be done. Swords of Legends confirms it. I've never seen a better system than those two. With "friend shared areas" it is far more lively than the FFXIV wards where even big FC surrounding are mostly populated only by a few afkers ...when populated.

And the "memory shortage" is just total hypocrisy :
One side :
two houses by world + room + appartment for the main
one room + one appartment for each alt

Other side :
one room + one appartment for the main
one room + one appartment for each alt

SE design is all at fault. There's no way evolutive shared-with-alt housing for everyone be heavier.

Just so people know, based on how the servers are set up, any Instanced Housing system would require you to queue into your instanced house, just like any other Duty. (think of it like a solo duty, like... Raubahn Extreme)
You would therefore be unable to queue for anything else, or access things like retainers, marketboard, glamour plates, etc. while inside your house.
This is likely a large reason why we don't have instanced housing, because the devs know it won't be a popular system, and a significant downgrade to the current housing system.
An instanced housing system that is functionally the same as current housing, would require an overhaul of the games most basic infrastructure, which if it were possible for them to do, they would have done it a long time ago.

Simply adding more servers isn't a great solution either (even if there wasn't a chip shortage), because there simply isn't a housing shortage on every world.
Some worlds are at 99% capacity, but others are only at about 70% capacity. Adding more servers would mean those at 99% might be able to increase their capacity by 10%, but then they will still hit that new limit and still leave players wanting more, whereas the less populated servers would have their capacity increased unnecessarily, and end up with even more empty wards, as they now only hit 60% capacity.
This problem is in large part a player-created one, due to discrepant population densities.
Best solution as a player, if you really want a house, move to a world that has plots to spare.
Also, don't be picky. If you really want a house, but you just don't want that awkward plot in the Goblet that no one is buying... you don't really want a house.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seraphor

...

---

It kinda sounds like you are forgetting appartments, rooms, inn, the split between wards outside and house interiors, the window in Kugane and Crystarium Inns... then... you come with a wrong pretext.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eldevern

It kinda sounds like you are forgetting appartments, rooms, inn, the split between wards outside and house interiors, the window in Kugane and Crystarium Inns... then... you come with a wrong pretext.

---

I'm not forgetting anything. Those are all permanently loaded and available zones, that fill a fixed and accounted for space on the World servers. Even apartments and FC quarters are limited. (they also don't take up as much space as large houses or external wards) And the inn room is the same model for all players, just like places like the Solar in the Rising Stones/Waking sands, it's essentially a shared zone even if you don't see anyone else there, so it requires far less live data transfer.
To make housing 'instanced' like that for everyone, they need to allow for unlimited instances, which is only possible via the Instance servers, which is what requires a duty queue.

Basically, the cost for having housing "instances" as they currently exist without a duty queue (they're not 'instances' in the games technical vocabulary, they're just zones) is that they are limited in supply.

Considering how many players there are vs how much space there actually is to put housing, since it is in wards and not instanced, it would be impossible to create enough housing to meet player demand. They should just implement instanced housing to go along with the ward housing so everyone has a chance to own a house and not just the lucky few. That would be the only way to make it fair. If ESO can do instanced housing, I'm sure Square can figure it out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KitKatnip

Considering how many players there are vs how much space there actually is to put housing, since it is in wards and not instanced, it would be impossible to create enough housing to meet player demand. They should just implement instanced housing to go along with the ward housing so everyone has a chance to own a house and not just the lucky few. That would be the only way to make it fair.

---

And again, if we were getting instanced housing we would have it already. This is not a new topic of conversation. Instead of giving us instanced, they chose another idea brought up here for a raffle based system. They literally DO NOT want to or CANNOT give us instanced housing. The end. We would have gotten it instead of the raffle if they could have. Square wants neighborhoods and the feeling of having housing be an exclusive thing or something to work towards. It isn't changing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seraphor

...

---

If I can follow you about the wards are probably (most likely) persistant, it is false for interiors : they all have loading delay.

Wards are a far too heavy concept considering how ghost town it is. Instancied housing is lighter.

There's something crazy to see the current system with
- in-ward gardens
- houses interiors
- rooms
- appartments
- storehouse (justified to compensate the fact we can lose house but available with appartments too)

and people say extended appartements with a garden (Kugane/Crystarium concept mixed with appartments technical bases) are impossible. The excuse is just simply technically false. Almost 3/4 of flats are still open. They have the "logical"(technical) availability. People don't use them because... it is even less than a little house.

The current concept in FFXIV is the most heaviest and the less efficient system available since it's full of -concurrent- redundancies.

The only thing everyone agree is SE wants neighborood and some kind of reward feeling. But the result is full of flaws.

A ghost-town-as-a-call-for-RMT is not exactly what I call a good concept. For me, their system is just throwing the server ressources to garbage.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eldevern

If I can follow you about the wards are probably (most likely) persistant, it is false for interiors : they all have loading delay.

Wards are a far too heavy concept considering how ghost town it is. Instancied housing is lighter.

There's something crazy to see the current system with
- in-ward gardens
- houses interiors
- rooms
- appartments
- storehouse (justified to compensate the fact we can lose house but available with appartments too)

and people say extended appartements with a garden (Kugane/Crystarium concept mixed with appartments technical bases) are impossible. The excuse is just simply technically false. Almost 3/4 of flats are still open. They have the "logical"(technical) availability. People don't use them because... it is even less than a little house.

The current concept in FFXIV is the most heaviest and the less efficient system available since it's full of -concurrent- redundancies.

The only thing everyone agree is SE wants neighborood and some kind of reward feeling. But the result is full of flaws.

A ghost-town-as-a-call-for-RMT is not exactly what I call a good concept. For me, their system is just throwing the server ressources to garbage.

---

Housing interiors are always preloaded, ready to be rendered. And yes, you can directly follow players in and out of houses. They are always there, taking up fixed space on the world servers. This is why there is no duty queue between, them.

I don't know who's saying apartments with gardens or expansion options would be impossible, because they wouldn't. They would require more server space, which they can always add, but it wouldn't be unlimited capacity, that true instanced housing would require.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seraphor

Housing interiors are always preloaded, ready to be rendered. And yes, you can directly follow players in and out of houses.

---

Of course the call is already done when you follow someone...

If you are the first : you have variable delay.

Friendly technical reminder, the rendering (3D) is exclusively client side (FFIXV is not available as pre-rendered as a service). Server side is more or less a memory allocation, conditions treatment and I/O processing. And... in fact, everything is instance, only the duration of the existence change (persistant vs on-demand).

Interiors are "on-demand", wards are persistent. This is the reason why if you left the game inside an appartment/room/house you come back outside.

I do know programming OOP, SQL, UML, UE4 and so. Then, please, stop to imagine I'm a noob, I've practiced. I do know what I'm talking about.

Exclusive - yes, it does exclude a large portion of the player base.

I enjoy the free Inn rooms but it feels bad that I'll never have the opportunity to have a house in this game.