What are the long term goals in alleviating housing issues.

Good things:

Lotto
30 day requirement for new FC members before being allowed to bid.
30 day requirement for the transferring of FC leader.

Unsure things:

Only 6 wards of personal housing
FC leader transfer being bypassed by simply deleting the FC leader. Is this possible?

That said, obviously this isn't going to alleviate the desire people have for personal/FC housing. These are band-aid fixes that will help in the short term.

But what are the devs' long term goals? We've been given many reasons as to why adding more housing isn't feasible due to server space limitations.

I'd love to get some feedback from the devs about this more in depth. What is the future of housing?

How do the devs feel about the current state of the housing wards? Has their opinions on neighborhood style housing changed at all?

Can we get instanced rooms that are bigger than what is currently in the game? If not, why not?

Is there /any/ thoughts on expanding instanced housing? Or figuring out how to increase the supply to meet the demand?

I would like to get updates on development information they shared at one time but have never mentioned since.

For instance, back at the 2019 EU FanFest Q&A there was a question about the upper floor door in mansions. YoshiP used the question as an opportunity to talk about a new technology they were developing that could simulate a populated ward from within a housing instance. What happened with that technology? Are they still working on it? Did they abandon it? What would the point of it even be if their intent is to continue using wards over developing better instanced housing? That would be a rather large expenditure of development resources if it was only intended to benefit the tiny percentage that can own a mansion.

Sometime in Stormblood, he mentioned they were investigating the possibility of adding size options for apartments (not the same thing as allowing apartments to be upgraded). What happened?

Shortly before Shadowbringers launch, he mentioned they wanted to be able to add player alts as tenants to personal houses owned by that player. What happened?

There is probably other housing related information they released that I can't remember but others will.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nepentha

Good things:

Lotto
30 day requirement for new FC members before being allowed to bid.
30 day requirement for the transferring of FC leader.

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Unfortunately even these 30 day limits don't matter, as players have already figured out a way to bypass this restriction.

The only thing that will fix housing is to fix the supply issue.

Anything else is bandaid fixing which does nothing to solve the core problem. The housing supply issue predates the semiconductor shortage by years, which is why when we're on the topic of housing I'm less forgiving for this excuse. Heck, it predates the release of Heavensward. Essentially, the moment personal housing became a thing it's been a problem. FFXIV is Square Enix's most profitable title in its history, and they want me to believe that before the shortages they simply couldn't acquire more hardware? Look, we've all felt the shortage in many facets of life, but they were still able to get hardware to allow server space for Empyreum. They have the capability.

As much as we all love YoshiP and CBU3, Square Enix is still another Japanese corporation laced with layers of bureaucracy. Anything that requires financing is going to be an uphill fight.

But I don't care for excuses. FCs with a house have an edge over FCs without. Solo players with a house have access to features that solo players without a house will not have access to. How miniscule the differences between having and not having a house is irrelevant. House owners have access to more game features than those who miss out, and yet they will pay the exact same sub. Sub money that will go back into further devloping housing features and assets that people without a house will not have access to despite paying real money into the game with their sub.

inb4 someone doesn't read my post properly and cries "semiconducter shortage!!!1!!11!" Stop huffing copium. The issue predates it. They added Empyreum, which means they had access to more server hardware for more housing. And yet there will still be more demand for housing than supply. That is the issue.

inb4 someone doesn't read my post properly and cries "they added shirogane and empyreum!!1!1!1!!! they are doing things!!!!!" And yet people will still be at each other throats over the scramble for personal housing. Larger and more established servers will more than likely sell out of FC plots. Any leftovers will be freed up for personal, but regardless, everything will sell out in a few lottery cycles and then we're back to square one. It's a bandaid fix. The issue still exists. New areas are nice, but housing needs more wards, and more wards added on a consistent basis. How often do they add more wards and more areas? The question is rhetorical. What they have done in the past has not kept up with demand. The addition of Empyeum alone will not keep up with demand. That is the issue.

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Originally Posted by ThisRiceEater

continuing

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inb4 someone cries "instanced housing will solve everything!!1!1!!1!!11!" That would be nice. I personally would like that. But that won't solve the issue of people wanting houses in wards. What I have said earlier in the post can be extended here, how miniscule the differences between ward house havers and have-nots is irrelevant to me on principle. The fact that the difference exists is an issue because it is a feature the have-nots will not have access to despite paying the same sub and their sub money going toward these features. That is the issue. Again, how miniscule the difference is, is irrelevant.

That's the biggest issue is I feel like EVERY other feature in the game is accessible without me needing to extraneously go out of my way or my normal playing type. Then you have housing where previously it was a crapshoot against bots and whoever knows what clicking their life away to access this really neat feature in the game or come tomorrow a literal dice roll on whether or not you can access it. Apartments and fc rooms are not the same and do not try to conflate them to be.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gunbladesman

Apartments and fc rooms are not the same and do not try to conflate them to be.

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They speak the truth.

I would easily give up my home for instanced area, equal to the interior size of an equivalent ward home ,S, M or L. BUT ONLY if they remove the horrific demolition fiasco, its ridiculous and a punishment to people still subscribed ffs lol ...(dictatorship)

There is no fix I can honestly see for those that prefer the ward homes, which is extremely sad for the player base!!! Its unacceptable.
SE is too cheap to add enough or design an acceptable and well thought out growth on demand style of housing.

Even though I will continue to ask, I truly believe they will not add an improved instanced or expand the current apartments to accommodate , they will not fix wards either. They had PLENTY of time to fix this or even try to.

IMO, if they hold true to there patterns in online games, they will band-aid until population finally dwindles and leaves, allowing the problem to "fix itself." Decades late. I would lay $ on that (unfortunately)

I don't know I find it hard to understand why they haven't done more with apartments. They could make them a good alternative to a house for many aren't interested in gardening or workshops.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I don't know I find it hard to understand why they haven't done more with apartments. They could make them a good alternative to a house for many aren't interested in gardening or workshops.

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Honestly, sticking a balcony on the apartment where you could have gardens would solve a lot of peoples' complaints about it. Workshops are already instanced so there's no reason not to have them in apartments too.

I have a request thread for apartments regarding their sizes and amenities. If this is an option you would consider, feel free to drop by and offer your input/support.