PSA: Ward 25 is FC only - and game sure doesn't warn you very clearly that it is

So yeah, I know sympathy on this forum is going to be absolutely zero, but if I can save anyone from doing the mistake I just did then it is worth it.

I just went through every single ward to check which plots had the lowest amount of bidders. It took hours. Found one that had 0 bidders on a medium and went for it. Game asks "Are you sure, you cannot undo this" and I am indeed sure... though I wondered why I didn't get a window asking if I was bidding for the FC or Privately.

Long story short, for me who didn't read the special subsection link of the patch notes... I've just placed a bid on an FC plot that I thought was a private one as this is what the patch notes said:

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"Wards 25 through 30 have been added to all residential districts.
Six wards with corresponding subdivisions have been added to all districts, for a total of twelve new wards available per district. Plots in all new wards are available for purchase via the lottery system. Apartments have also been added to all wards.

Learn more about additional housing.

* The lottery entry period for these new plots will begin on Sunday, January 15, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. (PST).

Unrestricted plots have been added to housing classifications.
When entering the lottery for an unrestricted plot, you may choose either free company or private plot classification."

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And sure, this is on me for erronously believing that Unrestricted was the class for all the housing. If you click on the "learn more" link you learn that ward 25 is only for FCs. The patchnotes mentioned absolutely nothing about this.


What stings isn't really losing all the gil because the FC would never let me accept the plot and move houses as they prefer the Empyreum to Shirogane - but that I've lost my one shot at getting a plot on a populated server where every single plot now has bids except a few smalls in the Goblet, and next round will be for those C-rate plots against 10s of others.

And that makes me a pretty sad pancake. Don't be like me. Don't try to buy a house in Ward 25.

Also fc leaders should make sure to set the fc rank settings correctly so that only select people are able to bid/relocate the fc house.

Btw, it says the type of plot both in the placard window and the window where you click "yes I read and understood this". Sorry that it happened to you though. If it's any consolation, last housing release on Odin the plots had double or triple the amount of bids compared to now. Many plots will also be freed up when people relocate. There were even 0 bid mansions in the Goblet this morning. It's not as bad as it was before, I guess people moved onto other games.

The placard says

"Available to Free Companies. Available to Private buyers." or
"Available to Free Companies. Unavailable to Private buyers."

When you spend hours looking at every placard then those two really melt together. If it had ONLY said Free Company then it would have been mich harder to make this mistake. Just my 2 gil.

You mean that didn't stop you? Or when you're perusing the listings from either the entry of the housing district or from within a city that shows the symbol at the top of the list whether a ward is fc, mixed, or personal only? It's not SE's fault that you're eyes got tired and your attention span was running on empty.

The patch notes sent you to a link so you could read further on the division of the wards.

The patch notes for 6.1 housing changes were much clearer than 6.3; you shouldn't have to click another link and scroll all the way through to find a single line of info for Ward 25.

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Originally Posted by ittybittytwiffle

The patch notes for 6.1 housing changes were much clearer than 6.3; you shouldn't have to click another link and scroll all the way through to find a single line of info for Ward 25.

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And you don't have to. Everything is explained in game.

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Originally Posted by ittybittytwiffle

The patch notes for 6.1 housing changes were much clearer than 6.3; you shouldn't have to click another link and scroll all the way through to find a single line of info for Ward 25.

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Exercising personal due diligence is such hard work, eh?

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Originally Posted by Reinha

And you don't have to. Everything is explained in game.

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Where exactly? The housing caretaker doesn't teach about the icons indicating FC, mixed and personal wards, nor does it in the patch notes from what I can see.

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Originally Posted by PaalHenrik

Exercising personal due diligence is such hard work, eh?

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No need to be rude, I'm making an observation, not attacking you personally.

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Originally Posted by ittybittytwiffle

No need to be rude, I'm making an observation, not attacking you personally.

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Stating the obvious in a non-specified way isn't rudeness.

System > Active Help > Housing. There's a housing enthusiast you can activate to ask. A person can click the link that SE provided explaining the situation. There are so many options but most people are too impatient or too lazy to actually scroll through. This is why in real life so many people get screwed by contracts; they refuse to read the small print or do more research before jumping into a decision.

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Originally Posted by PaalHenrik

Stating the obvious in a non-specified way isn't rudeness.

System > Active Help > Housing. There's a housing enthusiast you can activate to ask. A person can click the link that SE provided explaining the situation. There are so many options but most people are too impatient or too lazy to actually scroll through. This is why in real life so many people get screwed by contracts; they refuse to read the small print or do more research before jumping into a decision.

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It didn't contribute anything helpful to the topic. It was rude imo.

Yes, there was a link for patch 6.3; 6.1's housing changes did too, but the ward changes were on the same page as the rest of the updates unlike 6.3's housing changes.

A lot of people don't even know about the housing assistant, myself included, so thanks I guess?

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Originally Posted by ittybittytwiffle

Where exactly? The housing caretaker doesn't teach about the icons indicating FC, mixed and personal wards, nor does it in the patch notes from what I can see.

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While the ward icons are not taught in game, you don't have to read the patch notes to buy the correct type of plot. The title of this thread is incorrect as the game does warn you. The plot type is shown twice and you have to click to sign that you understand.

https://i.postimg.cc/c4TDrNRv/ffxiv-...125531-896.png

Square should add a little reading comprehension test before you are allowed to enter a housing district. Just a short text and a few questions about what was written in it. Maybe we can solve all the demand issues with this idea...

As I wrote in my initial post:

"So yeah, I know sympathy on this forum is going to be absolutely zero, but if I can save anyone from doing the mistake I just did then it is worth it."

I'll stand by that.

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Originally Posted by PrincessAsu

As I wrote in my initial post:

"So yeah, I know sympathy on this forum is going to be absolutely zero, but if I can save anyone from doing the mistake I just did then it is worth it."

I'll stand by that.

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Some think it makes them cool to be mean online. Those are the same people that aren't crud in life. Ignore the rude ones. I truly didn't understand why some were listed as both as well at first.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

While the ward icons are not taught in game, you don't have to read the patch notes to buy the correct type of plot.

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I agree that the you don't need to read the patch notes, but changing the way they presented the information is kind of poopy nonetheless.

Having icons without identifying them in game isn't very helpful either, especially when you don't need to read the patch notes for everything else. xD

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Originally Posted by ittybittytwiffle

Having icons without identifying them in game isn't very helpful either, especially when you don't need to read the patch notes for everything else. xD

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The icons should state what they mean when you hover your mouse over them. Or they could just have the icons in addition to plain text (Private Buyers / Free Companies) in each ward tab.

When you first go into a new housing ward after doing the level 5 quest, the NPC inside the ward tells you to talk to the housing enthusiast. Got anymore stuff to say that I can poke holes in?

I made this mistake and just lost my house in Ishgard and I am absolutely seething holy H*ck

No it doesn't and it SHOULD. I suspect that is the case for the all private only wards as well. The mixed wards will ask. This needs to be fixed. There should be a confirmation message you are about to bid on a FC only plot or Private only plot but it doesn't.

I have a friend who though he was bidding on a private mansion and it's FC only. He hopes he loses now and won't be home until after work. That plot is still unclaimed.

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Reinha

https://i.postimg.cc/c4TDrNRv/ffxiv-...125531-896.png

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Humm that does certainly warn people but I would suggest they make the pop up message a lot smaller. Ultimately it's on the person to read the message before proceeding. That certainly does say FC only.

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Originally Posted by PaalHenrik

When you first go into a new housing ward after doing the level 5 quest, the NPC inside the ward tells you to talk to the housing enthusiast. Got anymore stuff to say that I can poke holes in?

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Someone going into the housing wards at level 5 really isn't going to be that interested in what the Housing Enthusiast has to say because the Housing Enthusiast exists to let player reclaim their chocobos they had stabled in a FC house if they are kicked from the FC. Players don't get their chocobos until level 20 and can't stable them until after completing a level 30 quest.

Nor does the level 5 quest (which is actually level 10 for Lavender Beds for some weird reason) refer the player to the Housing Enthusiast. It refers the player to the Resident Caretaker. It's also rather silly to expect someone to remember all the details about house purchasing 40+ levels later when it finally becomes relevant.

Would you like me to poke more holes in your own statements?

SE really needs to revamp how the housing system is introduced to the player and when information about purchasing is given. It should be given to the player when they reach level 50, not 5.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Humm that does certainly warn people but I would suggest they make the pop up message a lot smaller. Ultimately it's on the person to read the message before proceeding. That certainly does say FC only.

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I don't think it should be smaller. I would make the font color different for the first two points a different color because those are the source of most complaints/errors, or I would chance the color of the font for the information after those two points back to white as they really aren't that critical.

While I fully agree that they should revamp the UI a bit to make it more clear what you're bidding on or the ward you're in and its designation since the ward icons before you go in are woefully inadequate and vague, the game gives you several warnings during the purchasing process about what type of plot you're about to bid on, first on the placard itself then again when you're submitting the bid in big yellow text.

It doesn't matter if its all blending together, for something as important as housing that has zero take backs, always read before you confirm, no ifs ands or buts. Same goes for things like buying tome gear/raid gear/ultimate weapons, always double check. A 5s check saves you immense amount of frustration after the fact. It should be a mandatory habit everyone should develop. Especially in this day and age where online scams are becoming ever more prominent with cleverly disguised wording and/or preying on people's inattention.

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Originally Posted by PrincessAsu

The patchnotes mentioned absolutely nothing about this.

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Per the 6.3 complete patch notes:

Learn more about additional housing in the housing section of the 6.3 notes, which has a direct hyperlink to the housing classifications page which shows all the ward classifications that would happen in 6.3. While not immediately visible (which it should be, I won't deny that), Square always gives info links to appropriate topics if its not included in the notes themselves. Keep this in mind for next time they add in wards and read more carefully.

Having an FC only ward smack in the middle of private wards is kind of silly to be honest.

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Originally Posted by Pino_the_Mike

Having an FC only ward smack in the middle of private wards is kind of silly to be honest.

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True. They would have been better off making ward 30 FC only and ward 25 personal only with the other 4 unrestricted.

This was how the personal house I bid on, and won showed. It was in one of the new, unrestricted use wards. The yellow stood out from the white text and it was pretty noticeable.

For our FC house, it did not separate the text colors, but it was a FC only ward.

(yes, I blurred out my private house location, but not the FC because we keep it open for folks)

Personal House

FC House

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Originally Posted by Pino_the_Mike

Having an FC only ward smack in the middle of private wards is kind of silly to be honest.

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FC's do not need any more housing wards.

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Originally Posted by Laiyenu

FC's do not need any more housing wards.

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Big agree. And having them also share space with individual owners in some of the new plots was a gross mistake. The purely FC wards on my server still have loads of room, but wards 26-30 are toast. This is the second time they've made accommodations just for FCs that have ended in FCs not meeting the demand at all, only this time we get horror stories about people who placed 1 bid on a solo house only to get demolished by 5 votes from an fc. I'm not sure how many times this disproportionate bs has to happen for Square to realize that FC demand isn't as high as they think it is, but I'm sure when we get more wards in 2026 they'll dedicate half of them to the solo-FC community while continuing to labor under the belief that FCs are 20 close friends who share a bond and want to do submarine ventures as a group somehow.

Also on the main topic, triple check that stuff next time. For whatever stupid-ass reason, you can't undo a bid once it's placed but at least they warn you like twice before you put it in.