The Balmung Apartment Issue

Hi! To get straight to the point, as of July 2021 apartment openings on Balmung are nonexistent. What does that mean? That means literally every apartment building in every ward, every main division, and every subdivision is full. It's crazy and something I would of laughed at happening a few years ago.

I am the owner and head admin of a large Discord server dedicated to tracking and relaying housing openings across all of NA. Because of this weird issue, I have had to resort to making a small subsection to our Balmung section so users can track apartment openings. It's heartwarming in a way to see people sweep and relay apartments for others, but also it's kind of depressing seeing people actually celebrate being able to buy an apartment the same way they would react to getting a house.

Needless to say, I'm concerned as to how this is going to pave out in the future. The lottery system only covers house lots, not apartments. Sure, we're getting Ishgard in 6.1, but given the rising demand of apartments ("what? apartments are limited now? i NEED one!!!"), I have a huge concern that we might end up right back at square one after a few months. On a grander scale, I'm concerned this issue might actually spread (placing bets that Mateus is next). Housing demand has been getting worse across the board. And if this spreads, I'm heavily concerned that Squenix will not be doing anything to prepare for this.

As for my ideas on how to fix this? I don't know, nor do I think Squenix planned for the demand to spike this high. I could easily say that maybe adding an auto demolition after 1-3yrs of inactivity would be a good idea, however I know the allure of apartments for some players are the fact that they are permanent. Another solution could be making apartments instanced (similar to ESO).

Squenix, if you're reading this. Hi. Please fix your system.

Fellow Balmung players, if you're reading this, consider releasing your inactive apartments into the wild. Of course, if you're using it for whatever reason? Hold onto it! But if it's sitting empty with little cobwebs collecting in the corner? Maybe think about opening it up to someone else. As it stands right now, manual release is all we got. It's all about small, baby steps in anticipation for a better solution.

I recently left an FC which had a house, and as a result was in the market for housing of my own. I was unable to find any houses, which is an issue that Squenix knows well about, but the fact that because of the server I chose to play on, I am unable to even get an apartment is upsetting. I would really like to have a place that I can call my own, where I can stable my chocobo and train him and make him a different color.

Back when apartments were implemented, I do remember reading that they could increase the number of them.

Well, SE, it's time to do that. With the influx of new players, you really need to do something about this sooner rather than later.

Also, there's a survey that's gone out. I don't know if it's to every player or just a sampling of them. If you get one, fill it out. There's a section for relaying messages to the devs. Tell them they need to do something to alleviate the housing issues.

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Originally Posted by Nepentha

Back when apartments were implemented, I do remember reading that they could increase the number of them.

Well, SE, it's time to do that. With the influx of new players, you really need to do something about this sooner rather than later.

Also, there's a survey that's gone out. I don't know if it's to every player or just a sampling of them. If you get one, fill it out. There's a section for relaying messages to the devs. Tell them they need to do something to alleviate the housing issues.

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As Nepentha says, we were told that the number of wings in apartment buildings could be increased if apartments were to all sell out on a world.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post3853951

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The current plan is to include 90 apartments available in each complex, but this number can be raised as needed for each ward, so don’t worry about room availability.

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Guess what SE? We're having problems with room availability.

This is the second time for Balmung. SE failed to do anything about it the first time it happened. It would be nice if they would follow through this time.

The player base is continuing to expand and it's going to be a shame if a huge part of it gets locked out of housing altogether.

My FC is small , but we have plenty of space if someone wants a room or to train/color their chocobo, try out gardening or send out airships/submarines. We are very casual and laidback and we cant offer much in terms of raiding or dungeon delving but if someone is hunting a quiet place where they can sit and craft, live and play around with Housing features get in touch with us at the "Little Hollow Inn" ,Lavender Beds Ward 18 , plot 22 on Balmung.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

This is the second time for Balmung. SE failed to do anything about it the first time it happened. It would be nice if they would follow through this time.

The player base is continuing to expand and it's going to be a shame if a huge part of it gets locked out of housing altogether.

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I wasn't actually aware that this was a second time for Balmung. I mean I'm vaguely not surprised given how many times the server has been sealed off over the years lol. Do you know when the first time was?

Most things isn't a first time for Balmung.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

This is the second time for Balmung. SE failed to do anything about it the first time it happened. It would be nice if they would follow through this time.

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Since SE updated house pricing (many, many years ago) all the servers now have the same configuration. From a technical viewpoint it's much easier to manage 68 identical servers/worlds that all use the same resources/setup the same way instead of having different configurations on different worlds. Having multiple configurations would mean much more testing is needed before they can roll out any update.

Unfortunately in this case it also means even though Balmung has run out of apartments, SE will be reluctant to increase the total apartments as the other 67 worlds simply don't have this problem. Increasing all their apartments is going to be a huge waste of resources. I don't know how full the apartments are on other worlds, but since I've never seen a non-Balmung complaint about apartments, it stands to reason they still have sufficient amounts left.

I do wonder how many of the Balmung apartments are by characters who don't play any more, but enabling apartment demolition would probably cause a lot of complaints as everyone is expecting the apartment to stay forever and 67 other worlds would be penalised just for Balmung so that's probably not something they want to do either.

Sorry this message isn't particularly helpful, but I just wanted to try and explain why they haven't increased the apartments (and until another world runs out, they probably won't).

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Originally Posted by worldofneil

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I understand that they have chosen to mirror worlds instead of allowing dynamic expansion based on population.

Yet they could increase the number of apartment wings on all worlds with minimal server impact. Unpurchased apartments are just a number on the servers. They're not taking up server space the way unpurchased house plots do. Even purchased apartments are a small set of data. The server load occurs when the apartment is actually entered by a player.

SE needs to get proactive here. Keep in mind that Balmung is now a Preferred world, not a Congested world like all the Aether worlds. Balmung's level 61-80 active character population was at 29,000 on Lucky Bancho's last census at the start of July. That didn't include all the level 50-60 character also eligible to own apartments.

If 29,000 is only Preferred world now, what is the population on the Congested Aether worlds - 40,000? 50,000?

17,280 apartments per world to serve all eligible characters, with some of those apartments occupied by characters that haven't been played for a few years. Not every player is going to want an apartment for every character but with the roleplay aspects considered endgame by much of the player base, the majority are going to want an apartment,

Ishgard when it opens (6 months from now?) won't improve things that much. The number of apartments per world will only be 21,600 if the number of wings and/or wards is not increased. That's still well below what Balmung would need with its Preferred, not Congested, status. If it's not meeting the needs of a Preferred world, it's certainly not going to meet the needs of the now Congested worlds as more of their populations level up.

Demolition is not the answer. especially when SE assured the player base when apartments were added that they would not be subject to demolition. Nor is there need when apartments are instanced. The load on the servers is generated when a player enters, not when it is purchased.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Demolition is not the answer. especially when SE assured the player base when apartments were added that they would not be subject to demolition. Nor is there need when apartments are instanced. The load on the servers is generated when a player enters, not when it is purchased.

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I absolutely agree that they must increase the amount of apartments.
There is also the issue there are players who don't even have a level 60+ job who certainly will not be playing again who have had their apartments untouched for literal years. I feel like those players losing their apartment, especially if given forewarning, would be warranted.
I know the 45 day one is awful, but a 1-5 year timer (only starting if the apartments are all occupied) I think makes sense and isn't very harsh. If they don't resub for literal years, chances are they won't be very sad if they get a warning that says they have to play for 1 minute to enter their apartment to stop the demo. Especially if there's free game time during that period and they don't make use of it.

Ultimately it comes down to a failure to expand the available apartments in time as you said though.

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Originally Posted by Rin_Sato

There is also the issue there are players who don't even have a level 60+ job who certainly will not be playing again who have had their apartments untouched for literal years. I feel like those players losing their apartment, especially if given forewarning, would be warranted.

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I can't agree with this since SE stressed when apartments were added to the game that they would never be subject to demolition. That players could take long breaks from the game and return to find their apartments with everything stored inside of them intact. Players made their purchases in good faith and placed their items in them in the belief they would never lose them.

I especially can't agree with it when I can return to a game like RIFT 4 years after I stopped playing and find all my housing there still intact (which I did just before EW release). If a game like RiFT that is now owned by a company fairly notorious for its practices of stripping games to get every last cent of profit retains instanced housing for it's long time inactive players, then it would look really bad if a much larger and more successful game like FFXIV won't. Not can't - clearly it is possible when other games have no problem doing it - but won't.

I don't see SE going down the demolition path.

SE needs to fix their supply problem not just with apartments but with houses. It's partly the fear of missing out that drives up demand. "I may not want this now but if I don't get it it won't be available when I want it later." It's greed for profit that drives up demand. "I'll be able to resell for more than I paid to someone desperate when they're not otherwise able to get one."

If players were able to get what they wanted on demand, demand itself would die down because there would be no FOMO, no opportunity for profit.

They should have demolition for apartments but make it more lenient like 3-6 months. Wont be an issue for a casual player, and it'll only affect people who quit or otherwise aren't invested.

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Originally Posted by Raim

They should have demolition for apartments but make it more lenient like 3-6 months. Wont be an issue for a casual player, and it'll only affect people who quit or otherwise aren't invested.

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If they do that, then they ruin the only selling point of the apartments. That being they don't demolish.

Having a system that would "automatically" add more Apartment Districts would be great. But I can easily see people taking advantage of it, alongside hard drive space rather quickly filling up. Maybe make it require human-input if it grows too much?

While I think housing wards in general should just spin up another instance when housing sells out, I'm sure SE will claim it is PS4 limitations or something like that.

But for apartments? That seems ridiculous. It is literally an instanced room. Tack on another page every time one fills up. Limit it (if not already) to one per service account or something. This can't be that hard.

I'm going to bump this thread up since this is actually a huge part of my feedback regarding the upcoming system changes. Something needs to be done to help the apartment issue, and purchase system revamps don't really do a whole lot.

As of Feb 2022, Balmung is still locked out of apartments. Mateus currently has ~100 apartments in Goblet, and ONLY Goblet. Everywhere else is completely filled. Empy will bring relief, but I'm concerned that we'll just be right back to square one in a couple months.

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Originally Posted by lorthera

I'm going to bump this thread up since this is actually a huge part of my feedback regarding the upcoming system changes. Something needs to be done to help the apartment issue, and purchase system revamps don't really do a whole lot.

As of Feb 2022, Balmung is still locked out of apartments. Mateus currently has ~100 apartments in Goblet, and ONLY Goblet. Everywhere else is completely filled. Empy will bring relief, but I'm concerned that we'll just be right back to square one in a couple months.

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Don't forget we're also getting a new NA data center with 4 new worlds plus an additional 4 new worlds in 2023. I doubt the new apartments in Empyreum will be sold out before that happens, and there will be players transferring to the new worlds to escape congestion/get a better chance at a house.

With more apartments on the way, SE is probably going to wait to see how things settle after everything is added before they make any new long term plans.

In the meantime, most of the other Crystal worlds have plenty of apartments available. Players desperate for an apartment can choose one of them for a home world while using world visit to be part of the Balmung and Mateus player-generated content communities. I know a lot of players who spend relatively little time on their home worlds because they're doing things with friends on other worlds. World visit is only inconvenient if you're frequently checking your retainers. Otherwise, it's really no different from doing things on your home world.

I'd put $50 on Balmung's Empyrean apartments being sold out within a month, $100 on less than three months. The lack of supply has been around for so long that people will be waiting to pounce on this with multiple characters, and the fear of being locked out will drive a wave of FOMO purchases.

World Visit just isn't always a good enough replacement.

The Balmung/Mateus apartment issues are starting to lead to re-selling of apartments, just as there are with houses. If everyone here is so obsessed with stopping sells, there needs to be more apartments available. Yes Ishgard is going to bring some relief, but for now if you want an apartment on these servers, put up a party finder for WTB apartment for 5 million. I got a Balmung apartment in the goblet this way. No more sweeping for it, it was done. If there was enough supply, I would've bought one from the game, without issue. On Mateus, if you want a specific area for your apartment, it's becoming the same thing. And it's the same thing with people going to markets for housing, if there was enough supply people wouldn't turn to the markets. It's not hard to make gil with crossworld selling, no RMT involved. But it is difficult to obtain a house. I watched a friend try for an fc house for over a month, then I went to market for them, and they were no longer suffering at losing camps. You want to stop the markets, but the markets put an end to the suffering at the placard. Also, since the removal of Instant Relocation, the markets have already Drastically slowed down. I'm not here to argue, I'm just pointing out, if the supply was there, people wouldn't be looking for the market in the first place, but there's starting to be a market for apartments too.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

In the meantime, most of the other Crystal worlds have plenty of apartments available. Players desperate for an apartment can choose one of them for a home world while using world visit to be part of the Balmung and Mateus player-generated content communities. I know a lot of players who spend relatively little time on their home worlds because they're doing things with friends on other worlds. World visit is only inconvenient if you're frequently checking your retainers. Otherwise, it's really no different from doing things on your home world.

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You're forgetting the reason why apartments are filled on Balmung/Mateus. These servers are both roleplay servers. Players on these servers enjoy housing because it gives them the ability to host venues and create personalized spaces for their characters. Because housing is so difficult to obtain, most people instead opt to having apartments (or FC rooms, if available!). They're easy to buy, not as expensive as a full on house, have no activity requirements, and easy to maintain.

On top of this, roleplayers love alts. Many people have multiple characters they enjoy writing out. So the ability to have an apartment on each and every character? Each character having their own customized space that will never demolish? It's a great feature.

It's not as simple as "just move off server" when it comes to roleplayers. Roleplayers want to be where roleplay is. They don't want to have to world hop to go to RP events (venues on Balmung and Mateus typically get higher attendance because of this). They want to stay centralized in their RP communities/fcs/link shells. While it's certainly possible for someone to do this, it's incredibly likely that they would be disconnecting themselves from the very reason they made a character on Balmung/Mateus

Plus all things aside, a player shouldn't need to fork over real life money for a server transfer to access apartments. Of course, it's something they can consider! But it really comes down to a failure of our current system in that people are having to pull maneuvers to even access this type of content.

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Originally Posted by lorthera

It's not as simple as "just move off server" when it comes to roleplayers. Roleplayers want to be where roleplay is. They don't want to have to world hop to go to RP events (venues on Balmung and Mateus typically get higher attendance because of this). They want to stay centralized in their RP communities/fcs/link shells. While it's certainly possible for someone to do this, it's incredibly likely that they would be disconnecting themselves from the very reason they made a character on Balmung/Mateus

Plus all things aside, a player shouldn't need to fork over real life money for a server transfer to access apartments. Of course, it's something they can consider! But it really comes down to a failure of our current system in that people are having to pull maneuvers to even access this type of content.

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I am kinda tired of the 'just leave' mentality. Why? SE said from the start they could add more apartments if they filled up. Plenty of people did leave, and ended up returning because they loved the server they left and missed the community there. Crossing over to other worlds isn't the same. I cross over for events sometimes, too, but tbh I'm happy when I return back to Brynhildr. There's something psychological about being 'home'.

Bumping this again as ~3 months after launch, apartments are now full again on Balmung. This is including the apartments added with Empyreum.

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Originally Posted by lorthera

Bumping this again as ~3 months after launch, apartments are now full again on Balmung. This is including the apartments added with Empyreum.

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Unless the JP worlds suddenly run out of apartments, I doubt SE would do anything.

For now, players will have to make the decision to jump to one of the new NA worlds when they open next month (assuming they're on schedule with that still) or hope that those who do transfer had houses and apartments before they left.

The only way I was able to get an apartment was when someone in my FC switched servers. If I had known it would be this bad I wouldn't have rolled on this server to begin with.

ANOTHER band aid type fix would be to allow you to have account wide access to your house...Being a Rp community I'm sure if people's alt's could use there houses and items in it as well as deco.. a few would probly give up apartments to friends..

I know for a fact you can friend yourself.. I know people not I who have there alts friended due to a glitch they fixed..

Meaning I know its possible and works they have them as tenants .

So why not just let me us do it SE??????????
If houses cant be account wide then do another band aid fix (a Band aid fix inside a Band aid fix) and allow us to friend our alts...

It would be nice if SE could work on the scalability of their housing systems, rather than hard coding uniform limits in a situation where one size definitely does not fit all. (and in the case of actual houses, one size fits none)

It is really weird how bad they are at this. And not just bad but straight malicious. They said they could add apartments if they got full. And they won't do it.

Are they inept? Stupid? Not doing it out of spite?

What is going on in that company?

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Unless the JP worlds suddenly run out of apartments, I doubt SE would do anything.

For now, players will have to make the decision to jump to one of the new NA worlds when they open next month (assuming they're on schedule with that still) or hope that those who do transfer had houses and apartments before they left.

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This has become my reasoning the housing system isnt fixed.. Looking over census stuff.. show like last year every JP server has less then 8k people on it (there is now 7,200 houses per server) The amoutn of housing now seems to cover the amount of people on the JP servers not counting FC's

And idea..

If you really want Se to pay attention I'd suggest reaching out via twitter or twitch to the big streamers.. get them to cover the shortage in videos i mean SE Give them interviews and im sure keep tabs on certain ones... Also gaming magazines

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Originally Posted by Siniztor

This has become my reasoning the housing system isnt fixed.. Looking over census stuff.. show like last year every JP server has less then 8k people on it (there is now 7,200 houses per server) The amoutn of housing now seems to cover the amount of people on the JP servers not counting FC's

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I'm on one of, if not the, least populated server in the JP region and *all* player-purchase plots are bought. There are still FC plots available but all the personal-purchase wards I've seen are full and people are getting left out, just like they are in the other regions.