600+ Empty Plots. Open Them to Personal Buyers

As a preface, I own a house, I own the plot I wanted and I got it through the first lottery.
I am speaking up as it just seems the right thing to do, especially as I know many people have not been able to get their (small) houses yet.

Just did a look at every single ward on Adamantoise for Housing.
In Empyreum alone there were 600 open FC slots, there were 0 for Personal housing.

This is frankly, ridiculous. Especially as this isn't the end of the first lotto period anymore.

I compiled a document of my findings which can be found here.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...28/unknown.png

Every single one of the Personal houses is going to be taken at the end of the next lotto period, the same really can't be said for all those FC houses.

People are going to make their own "personal" FCs with their alts in to take these FC houses, which I'm sure is not what the dev team wanted.



At the very least, open up the Smalls. Most FCs just seem to want Mediums and Larges.

The answer is no, you would need a few more lottery rotations, so FC's get settled in first, the plots for normal buyers will open up soon enough again, but right now FC's get first dips, I suggest patience.

Even in the first round there were large with only one bid. On the 2nd round, very few mediums in FC wards received bids. FCs had their chance. All that is happening with the delays is that people with no strong attachment to their FC are using this time to create their own shell FC hoping to get a house for their characters, with all the extra perks attached to an FC house. It just encourages RMT, with FC houses already on the market: all they need to do is wait and pass the FC lead to the buyer or pass along the whole account created for that purpose for immediate transfer.

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Originally Posted by Toutatis

Even in the first round there were large with only one bid. On the 2nd round, very few mediums in FC wards received bids. FCs had their chance. All that is happening with the delays is that people with no strong attachment to their FC are using this time to create their own shell FC hoping to get a house for them and their alts, with all the extra perks attached to an FC house. It just encourages RMT, with FC houses already on the market: all they need to do is wait and pass the FC lead to the buyer or pass along the whole account created for that purpose for immediate transfer.

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would still need to wait 4-5 weeks if created a new FC for self to be able to buy a plot at all, at that time the wards will probably be unlocked anyway.

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

would still need to wait 4-5 weeks if created a new FC for self to be able to buy a plot at all, at that time the wards will probably be unlocked anyway.

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It’s been way more than 30 days already and several people have prepared. Atm on pur server there is only 1 medium available for private housing and between 4-6 small plots in each of the old cities. There are several medium, including in Empyreum (those never received bids), and lots of small plots available in the fc wards.

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Originally Posted by Toutatis

It’s been way more than 30 days already and several people have prepared. Atm on pur server there is only 1 medium available for private housing and between 4-6 small plots in each of the old cities. There are several medium, including in Empyreum (those never received bids), and lots of small plots available in the fc wards.

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That is a certain bugs fault that made it so postponed untill fixed, it still does not fix the problem with FC's not having settled in yet.

A freight train does not start at max speed... it slowly gain more and more speed untill it reach its peak value.

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Originally Posted by StarKorg

As a preface, I own a house, I own the plot I wanted and I got it through the first lottery.
I am speaking up as it just seems the right thing to do, especially as I know many people have not been able to get their (small) houses yet.

Just did a look at every single ward on Adamantoise for Housing.
In Empyreum alone there were 600 open FC slots, there were 0 for Personal housing.

This is frankly, ridiculous. Especially as this isn't the end of the first lotto period anymore.

I compiled a document of my findings which can be found here.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...28/unknown.png

Every single one of the Personal houses is going to be taken at the end of the next lotto period, the same really can't be said for all those FC houses.

People are going to make their own "personal" FCs with their alts in to take these FC houses, which I'm sure is not what the dev team wanted.



At the very least, open up the Smalls. Most FCs just seem to want Mediums and Larges.

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I hope you do realize the only reason those small plots are still open is because most of FCs are still trying their luck with large and medium.
Now with all large and medium now occuped, those small will be gone soon

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

I hope you do realize the only reason those small plots are still open is because most of FCs are still trying their luck with large and medium.
Now with all large and medium now occuped, those small will be gone soon

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I think you're severely overestimating the number of FCs still trying to purchase a first house and underestimating the number that already have a house but are trying to relocate to a bigger plot.

Bid counts on the remaining mediums on Coeurl were very low for the most part in the last lottery (in the 1-3 range). The few larges were still getting some decent numbers but again, far more likely those were representing relocators than unique new FCs trying to hit the jackpot.

I doubt that more than 10% of the remaining FC supply is going to get sold until the shell FCs move in to get them. No telling how many shell FCs are waiting out their 30 days since it was pretty apparent that was going to be the only viable way for most players to get a house for personal use (and that RMT would continue to have room to thrive under the new housing purchase rules).

On Balmung:
Goblet has 8 individual sale plots open.
Mist has 3.
Shirogane has 2.
Lavender Beds has 1.
And the new Ishgard wards, have 1.
Even Goblet, a historically unpopular zone with the most open plots available, has ~25 people bidding at each plot on average on the first day. EDIT: as of 6/6, the goblet's private homes now have 50+ bids each. The other wards are worse. Obviously it's only going to intensify as the raffle continues.

And you know what? Now that all these 3-man "free companies" are eligible to bid in FC-only zones, it's probably too late to even fix this issue by opening more FC wards. Because this bidding cycle will "magically" have a lot of additional competition in the form of FCs that didn't exist until a month ago. This is why I and a bunch of other people were saying they should've opened the wards up to private buyers ASAP before shell FCs could eat up the small plots that real FCs had decided they were too good for. At this point, the only immediate solution is to simply open more wards and only allow private buying. And as an extra gut punch, if you own an FC made in the last month with less than 5 people in it and you recently purchased a home for that FC, you're also locked out of individually-buying from this ward, because screw you. I can dream.

This system is ass. More wards, or instanced please. Lotto would've gotten to this point eventually, but due to total ineptitude at SE, it's reached endgame mode in like 3 cycles. Literally everything that could've been done wrong, was.

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

Lotto would've gotten to this point eventually, but due to total ineptitude at SE, it's reached endgame mode in like 3 cycles. Literally everything that could've been done wrong, was.

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On Balmung the lotto was always going to get to this point in 3 or so cycles. The difference is that the 0 issue gave the people who werent prepared in advance time to get their shell FCs started and through the waiting period. So they got to bid in round 2, rather then round 5+.

3 cycles down and there are still only 8 plots out of 60 occupied in my FC's ward in Shirogane. There were 0 bids on the large that's available, none of any of the mediums... It is time they opened the FC wards to everyone - even if they keep Empyreum as is and just unlock the older areas. Being on a new server and having the vast majority of FC wards completely empty with the personal wards pretty much full, it feels entirely wasteful at this point.

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Originally Posted by Silhouettic

3 cycles down and there are still only 8 plots out of 60 occupied in my FC's ward in Shirogane. There were 0 bids on the large that's available, none of any of the mediums... It is time they opened the FC wards to everyone - even if they keep Empyreum as is and just unlock the older areas. Being on a new server and having the vast majority of FC wards completely empty with the personal wards pretty much full, it feels entirely wasteful at this point.

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It is because Medium/large is camped first.. when gone people will spread out.

Wouldn't surprise me they don't very soon since the japanese player base is complaining about the amount of personal housing plots to. Yoshi listens to them

Maybe in August they will adjust the wards so that personals can buy houses in them. Though I expect SE to just change 3 FC wards to personals and still have the rest of the FC wards empty until 6.3 when they might adjust it again.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

Maybe in August they will adjust the wards so that personals can buy houses in them. Though I expect SE to just change 3 FC wards to personals and still have the rest of the FC wards empty until 6.3 when they might adjust it again.

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Each major point release would make sense for scheduling with the least work. 6 wards flipped for personal in each of 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 - new city announced with 7.0 but with first release in 7.1, then 7.2, 7.3, 7.4

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

I hope you do realize the only reason those small plots are still open is because most of FCs are still trying their luck with large and medium.
Now with all large and medium now occuped, those small will be gone soon

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I actually disagree. I think there will be boatloads of smalls available in the fc wards (even now 95%+ of the smalls haven't been bid on at all.

smalls are too small IMO and a waste of space. Nobody wants them as a first choice minus a few so why have them? (for all the "you don't speak for me" crowd.. get over it )

A very little known fact. There are more individual players than FCs. Who knew? The fact that there are far more plots open to only FCs than individual players is an absolute oversight OR a spit in the face of the playerbase by the devs.

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

It is because Medium/large is camped first.. when gone people will spread out.

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Yeah so as I was saying, there were 0 bids on the medium and large plots available... 11 medium with 0 bids. 1 large with 0 bids. The FCs are done.

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Originally Posted by Silhouettic

Yeah so as I was saying, there were 0 bids on the medium and large plots available... 11 medium with 0 bids. 1 large with 0 bids. The FCs are done.

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I'm guessing you're talking about on Ravana? Being on one of the Materia worlds, you're in a different situation compared to the other worlds because your populations and the number of FCs are still fairly low.

It's a different situation for the rest of us. We're still seeing a lot of entries on the larges and mediums that have appeared in our FC wards.

I'm not saying I like or agree with the way SE has been handling the ward distribution. I think they went overboard favoring FCs. They at least should made an exception for the Materia worlds considering they are new worlds and have a relatively small number of FCs at this point. But they seem to have this strange idea that mirroring housing on every world is the right way to do things even though world populations will never be balanced across all worlds.

If you're looking for one of those larges or mediums for personal use, all I can suggest is create a shell FC and enter for one once you complete the 30 day waiting period because it looks like SE is going to sit back and wait until 6.2 is released in August before they change any wards and even then it may not be the change that players want.

FC M and L availability certainly depends from your world population.
On Phoenix right now, there are only 3 M FC houses left and 1 L I think.

In Empyreum, in the FC wards, we only have cottages available for the next round. Maybe it’s time to open them to individuals? I’m verry happy I finally could move for a M with my FC but I'd love having some neighbours!

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

But they seem to have this strange idea that mirroring housing on every world is the right way to do things even though world populations will never be balanced across all worlds.

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That was odd. Maybe they expected a higher population or maybe the plan was to keep the current bias in place long enough for newer FC's to qualify. OTOH they do seem to have a blind spot when it comes to human nature.

I'm trying to think of what other things that would be tunable per server. The only things I'm coming up with are New/Preferred/Standard/Congested stats and maybe the population thresholds that trigger soft congestion. They may not be able to change ward flavors without a recompile vs. changing a property in a config file or changing a record in the database and restarting. Even if they did it right their change management policies may prevent them from deviating from the common config unless absolutely necessary.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

They may not be able to change ward flavors without a recompile vs. changing a property in a config file or changing a record in the database and restarting.

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Systems-wise it would make most sense it's a database file and restart. That's a little more weight behind 6.2 being the first rebalance too, as it will be a longer maintenance window than the minor patches.

One can guess they will need longer maintenance as they need to check and double check the database with each change, and get it signed off.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Systems-wise it would make most sense it's a database file and restart.

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When it comes to game software in general I have very little faith that sane implementation decisions were involved much less adopting best practices that have been in use for decades. Sometimes that bias runs a bit rampant. FF:XIV and GW2 have been some of the more solid games I've played.

The more I think about it the less hardcoded values make sense. If that were true then they'd need separate executables for each server. Even I don't attribute that level of silliness to some of the less well run games.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

When it comes to game software in general I have very little faith that sane implementation decisions were involved much less adopting best practices that have been in use for decades.

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Hehe, I can relate to this.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

The more I think about it the less hardcoded values make sense. If that were true then they'd need separate executables for each server. Even I don't attribute that level of silliness to some of the less well run games.

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There was somewhat of a hint in the zero bug, where it was stated "a server" to use the localisation team's words, but well, let's say a daemon to be more accurate to the japanese - "had trouble communicating/updating the placard database with the results". We know they replayed those results into the database and the winners were accessible.

The placard are effectively what allow or forbid entry, they hold the current FC/Personal allowed/FCFS flag too.

It would likely make good design sense to have the placard read a value from the placard database to display and allow either FC, Personal, or FCFS clicking.

Edit: And as you correctly implied - good design and reality often are not the same.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

I'm guessing you're talking about on Ravana? Being on one of the Materia worlds, you're in a different situation compared to the other worlds because your populations and the number of FCs are still fairly low.

It's a different situation for the rest of us. We're still seeing a lot of entries on the larges and mediums that have appeared in our FC wards.

I'm not saying I like or agree with the way SE has been handling the ward distribution. I think they went overboard favoring FCs. They at least should made an exception for the Materia worlds considering they are new worlds and have a relatively small number of FCs at this point. But they seem to have this strange idea that mirroring housing on every world is the right way to do things even though world populations will never be balanced across all worlds.

If you're looking for one of those larges or mediums for personal use, all I can suggest is create a shell FC and enter for one once you complete the 30 day waiting period because it looks like SE is going to sit back and wait until 6.2 is released in August before they change any wards and even then it may not be the change that players want.

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At a very minimum, they need to open the older housing areas (ie everything that's not Empyrium) up to individuals on the Oceanic servers to bring them in-line with every other server. It really is silly to cap it on new servers in this way. I understood the first cycle, the second cycle, maybe the third, but now we're stuck with a bunch of dead FC wards. I didn't bother entering the last lottery which I think had about 5 small plots for individuals across the entire server. Copy/paste of the restrictions on established servers just does not work -.-

I agree. Even in my FC, it is a consensus that most FC's want medium or Large housing. All the empty small houses should be gradually thrown into the lottery. Start with Wards 15,16,17. Add them in and slowly add the others if demand requires it. That leaves opportunity for FC to still have open housing to pick from. Or at the very least add 25-27 wards.

There should at least be equal Private to FC homes as there will ALWAYS be more private citizens than FC's. This is a simple math issue. If a player can only belong to 1 FC and a FC is comprise of at least 4 players then there should only be 1/4 FC homes as opposed to private owners. (Word problem, I know, I dislike them also)

Please look at the bidding demands that are happening right now. Private homes are in demand. If I got a home here I would happily give up Animal crossing to spend more time on FFXIV :D

Here's hoping that a smart change can happen. I don't believe much that posting on forums make any difference but who knows <<Shrug>>