Housing For Free Companies Needs Desperate Attention

My name is Grady Judd and I have been playing FFXIV for going on five years now, for the last two years my FC and I have been attempting to upgrade from our small plot to a medium or a large with no success. We had gotten our hopes up when we heard the announcement that several new wards were to be added to the game, but once again after entering into bids every single week since the new wards were added we still cannot win a lottery. My question and concern is why do FC specific wards which are meant to help with some of the housing population issues by housing multiple members of a Free Company instead of those individuals attempting to purchase private plots on their own, have the same distribution of small/medium/and large plots as private or mixed wards? On my home world Jenova server Aether and at the time of writing this, looking at just the FC exclusive wards 1-6 and 25, there are 270 open small plots and that number of open small plots has not changed much in the last several months since the new wards were added. I just cannot understand why FC exclusive wards have this much wasted housing space which is littered by small plots that Free Companies clearly are not interested in to the same degree as Medium and Large plots. Free Companies by design have both more members to house in a single plot and more Gil to invest into a more expensive plot which is why I would assume that these smalls are left largely ignored. I sincerely wish the FFXIV team would take a good long look at this issue and please address it.

The idea is to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible. The jump from no house to small house opens a ton of official functions (FC rooms, workshop) and a very important unofficial one (designated place for your FC to meet). There is no increase in functionality going from a small to a medium besides more crafting stations (which are barely used) and an extra gardening plot.

Even so, considering house prices have not kept up with inflation, this is really just a holdover from back when even a small house cost an arm and a leg. The reality of it is it would be better to have a split that skews more towards larges and mediums, as long as there are still enough smalls for newbie FCs to get their foot in the door. You'd be safe with a 5/10/15 L/M/S split, or even 10/10/10. They just stuck with the same design they had back in ARR.

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Originally Posted by GradyJudd

My name is Grady Judd and I have been playing FFXIV for going on five years now, for the last two years my FC and I have been attempting to upgrade from our small plot to a medium or a large with no success. We had gotten our hopes up when we heard the announcement that several new wards were to be added to the game, but once again after entering into bids every single week since the new wards were added we still cannot win a lottery. My question and concern is why do FC specific wards which are meant to help with some of the housing population issues by housing multiple members of a Free Company instead of those individuals attempting to purchase private plots on their own, have the same distribution of small/medium/and large plots as private or mixed wards? On my home world Jenova server Aether and at the time of writing this, looking at just the FC exclusive wards 1-6 and 25, there are 270 open small plots and that number of open small plots has not changed much in the last several months since the new wards were added. I just cannot understand why FC exclusive wards have this much wasted housing space which is littered by small plots that Free Companies clearly are not interested in to the same degree as Medium and Large plots. Free Companies by design have both more members to house in a single plot and more Gil to invest into a more expensive plot which is why I would assume that these smalls are left largely ignored. I sincerely wish the FFXIV team would take a good long look at this issue and please address it.

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The reality is that the cost of housing is not reflective of the current availability of gil. People pay upwards of half a mill just for a few hours of RP now versus 5 years ago. As such most people can easily skip purchasing a small - so they do so immediately. Essentially many skip to the "endgame" of housing the moment they enter the market as a result.

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Originally Posted by Ayan_Calvesse

The reality is that the cost of housing is not reflective of the current availability of gil. People pay upwards of half a mill just for a few hours of RP now versus 5 years ago. As such most people can easily skip purchasing a small - so they do so immediately. Essentially many skip to the "endgame" of housing the moment they enter the market as a result.

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Theirs a small in my ward thats been bid been unbid on for a like a month and a half now

On the new worlds, there is multiple wards full of empty plots. At least in EU.

You just need any house for FC, size is really not of matter and only advantage is up to 3 garden plots, so wont lose/need anything whenever it get to it

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

You just need any house for FC, size is really not of matter and only advantage is up to 3 garden plots, so wont lose/need anything whenever it get to it

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Maybe they enjoy decorating the house, small is very limited with inventory slots.

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Originally Posted by Sotaris

Maybe they enjoy decorating the house, small is very limited with inventory slots.

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Use the FC rooms and create alts.... each room could represent a part in the FC.... had a friend who did that... the entire houses was like a ship... with all kinds of rooms, just saying of course.

And also the decoration limit for FFXIV makes the game dekadent and silly to have to shut off areas in Houses Medium/large because the limit is to low.

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

Use the FC rooms and create alts.... each room could represent a part in the FC.... had a friend who did that... the entire houses was like a ship... with all kinds of rooms, just saying of course.

And also the decoration limit for FFXIV makes the game dekadent and silly to have to shut off areas in Houses Medium/large because the limit is to low.

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You make it sound like every FC is a solo FC. That's far from the truth.

The problem with FC rooms as additional space for the FC house is that what happens in the room is up to the individual characters. Tenants can't be added to help with decorating while the FC Master can set up rank permissions to give part or all of the FC members the ability to decorate in the house.

Other members would also have to remember which member's room serves what purpose instead of just moving through the house room to room without loading screens.

The big discussion would be "what creates a reasonable need for one FC/player type to own a larger house compared to other FCs/players" and I don't think the player base would ever be able to come to an agreement on that. Personally I think a large social FC with a large number of active player online concurrently each day would benefit more from having a large house. And by that I mean a FC with 20+ members online concurrently actively doing things together instead of everyone doing their own thing. If it's a FC where everyone is doing their own thing, then a small FC house would work regardless of the total number of members.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Personally I think a large social FC with a large number of active player online concurrently each day would benefit more from having a large house. And by that I mean a FC with 20+ members online concurrently actively doing things together instead of everyone doing their own thing. If it's a FC where everyone is doing their own thing, then a small FC house would work regardless of the total number of members.

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I agree with this. Only large fc's that actually use the house for their events and daily gatherings would have a reason to have a mansion. Anyone else, fc or private, wants it for the bigger decorating space and item storage.

To put this into context, my server (Odin) has 329 free companies with at least 31 members. The server has 210 mansions in fc-only wards, and an additional 540 mansions in hybrid wards which add to a total of 750 mansions available to free companies. An fc with that many active members would be able to place multiple bids and eventually get a mansion if they wanted to. Going by the few fc profile pages I looked at on the Lodestone, most of those large fcs have already done so.

Once auto-demo is put back on and the new data center is opened it will be easier to get a medium or a mansion again and the ones who missed out will get their chance.

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

Use the FC rooms and create alts.... each room could represent a part in the FC.... had a friend who did that... the entire houses was like a ship... with all kinds of rooms, just saying of course.

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How realistic is that though? I can't name a single FC I've encountered in the past 10 years that has done this.
I think you're just making up an excuse cause you don't have any arguments.

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Originally Posted by Sotaris

How realistic is that though? I can't name a single FC I've encountered in the past 10 years that has done this.
I think you're just making up an excuse cause you don't have any arguments.

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I am just offering options, you are just looking for someone to yell at instead of embracing the ideas and input, I met a few, one of them was a close friends who ran a small RP FC, housing was tough to get so they went that way, she used a couple of her alts and some of the inmates in the FC also made some additions the way I mentioned.

I was actually quite impressed by it and the use of space and FC rooms combined.

It is very realistic, a FC basically just NEED ONE place to go to, anything above is not a need and does not change the way of an FC or functions either, I am just stating the obvious, I never jumped into an FC just because they had a large/medium or small house myself either, size of FC house does CERTAINLY not boast the success of one either, that is just he effect of the paradise bird playing in, if anything.

Any size is good for a FC. The perks and rooms, garden and workshop access are all there when you have that FC house. Upgrading is something the FC can try over time and hopefully get lucky with a bigger house but no house is the worst situation for any FC because they don't have access to any of those things.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Any size is good for a FC. The perks and rooms, garden and workshop access are all there when you have that FC house.

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Adding to that, within an FC its usualy only a very few members with such access. Its not like anyone can even enjoy the housing content, unless they do RP in that FC.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

You make it sound like every FC is a solo FC. That's far from the truth.

The problem with FC rooms as additional space for the FC house is that what happens in the room is up to the individual characters. Tenants can't be added to help with decorating while the FC Master can set up rank permissions to give part or all of the FC members the ability to decorate in the house.

Other members would also have to remember which member's room serves what purpose instead of just moving through the house room to room without loading screens.

The big discussion would be "what creates a reasonable need for one FC/player type to own a larger house compared to other FCs/players" and I don't think the player base would ever be able to come to an agreement on that. Personally I think a large social FC with a large number of active player online concurrently each day would benefit more from having a large house. And by that I mean a FC with 20+ members online concurrently actively doing things together instead of everyone doing their own thing. If it's a FC where everyone is doing their own thing, then a small FC house would work regardless of the total number of members.

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Honestly - I find in the majority of cases a large serves no purpose outside of "more slots" - most people shrink a large in favor of elaborate smaller builds. I think increasing the item limit on all houses would be a easier use of resources - a medium could easily house a FC with 20 or so active players if they could effectively use all 3 floors (coming from such a active FC myself; no one ever really visited the basement or upstairs and honestly most sat outside).

Honestly even smalls have quite a bit of space if it were not for the item limit. The basement in particular having far more space.

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Originally Posted by Ayan_Calvesse

Honestly - I find in the majority of cases a large serves no purpose outside of "more slots" - most people shrink a large in favor of elaborate smaller builds. I think increasing the item limit on all houses would be a easier use of resources - a medium could easily house a FC with 20 or so active players if they could effectively use all 3 floors (coming from such a active FC myself; no one ever really visited the basement or upstairs and honestly most sat outside).

Honestly even smalls have quite a bit of space if it were not for the item limit. The basement in particular having far more space.

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Definitely in the majority of cases it comes down to item limits for decorating.

I'd also agree that the basement of a small house is large enough to be a meeting place for the online members of the majority of FCs. A FC might have 400+ members but how often are there more than 30-40 online at the same time? It's not difficult to fit that many players into the basement with no one feeling crowded.

But there are the rare cases where you've got a large and active FC who will frequently hold events in their house, such as a glamour show or stage play. To me at least, it certainly makes more sense for the FCs doing those things to have a large house. They're making use of the space as opposed to making use of the item limit.

And as controversial as the subject is, the more popular RP venues that draw a couple of hundred players (or more) when they're open certainly need the space. Having that many people crushed together in a small doesn't make for a good experience.

This is another good example of the problems with a ward system where there are set house sizes on each plot. Players get into arguments about who is more deserving or should have priority access. If all the plots were the same size, there would be fewer arguments (players would still fight over location). If things were instanced, there would be no need to fight at all.

That is more of a "Want" than "Need".

You don't need a bigger plot, you want a bigger plot, but not everyone wants a bigger plot. The fact that its so easy now for an FC to get a plot, has opened this door to people wanting to upgrade, but not needing, as you only get 1 or 2 extra gardens, completely useless in my opinion not that the Market is flooded with seeds and whatnot.

Decorating isn't really worth it, if that is your main goal, as the item limit is too low, you need 1500 item spaces minimum in a large house, we get 400, that is pathetic, that is just 133 furnishing per floor.

It wont matter if they added new Wards, with just 3 Larges and 7 Mediums, we need like 12,000.000 wards...

What we need now, is new Wards added, with new layouts, maybe even new sizes like Extra-Large added in, but at minimum, they should have less or no Small plots, only Medium and Large.
But then again, the demand for Extra-Large plots would be high, thus creating more of this same issue, even so, new wards with no Small plots should be a thing.

Really wish all the small plots in the FC only wards could be unrestricted with the next patch. It’s about 6 or 7 lottos now with 0 bids. Obviously the FCs don’t want them. Or allow instant FCFS (similar to how instant relo used to work) on anything that hasn’t been bid on for 5 cycles. lol End result being, the wards actually fill and then we can be like ok SE now what? Your 6 new wards are full up already and there’s still a ton of players homeless, and FCs frustrated with only smalls available in their wards. More wards aren’t helping. We need an instanced option too.

Excess capacity for FCs is a good thing. New people still come to the game, new groups of people keep splintering off from existing ones.

Neither more personal housing nor ideology is more important than that - especially not when the goal of the latter is to make a point that they've been clearly aware of for years.

I'd say that 'at some point, people have to realize that this is clearly a set of technical problems and not a willpower problem', but I already know better than to think people will see the obvious when more attractive conspiracy theories exist and provide far more opportunities to act aggrieved.

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Originally Posted by Sindele

Excess capacity for FCs is a good thing. New people still come to the game, new groups of people keep splintering off from existing ones.

Neither more personal housing nor ideology is more important than that - especially not when the goal of the latter is to make a point that they've been clearly aware of for years.

I'd say that 'at some point, people have to realize that this is clearly a set of technical problems and not a willpower problem', but I already know better than to think people will see the obvious when more attractive conspiracy theories exist and provide far more opportunities to act aggrieved.

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It's not technical problems. We have a system that is functioning, if not to the standard players think it should. SE has been able to add new wards and new districts. We've watched them change/upgrade portions of the system at times. As player client requirements are updated, they're able to accomplish that much more.

Logistical problems, likely created at least in part through original design decisions? That is more realistic as an explanation. Change cannot happen with a snap of the fingers. Hardware must be acquired, technicians must be taken from other assignments (or even contracted), space at the physical data centers arranged, etc. Will cost and time to implement ultimately be worth that effort over dedicating the funds and time to other projects intended to improve/enhance the game experience?

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Originally Posted by Sindele

Excess capacity for FCs is a good thing. New people still come to the game, new groups of people keep splintering off from existing ones.

Neither more personal housing nor ideology is more important than that - especially not when the goal of the latter is to make a point that they've been clearly aware of for years.

I'd say that 'at some point, people have to realize that this is clearly a set of technical problems and not a willpower problem', but I already know better than to think people will see the obvious when more attractive conspiracy theories exist and provide far more opportunities to act aggrieved.

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I get that… but at the same time it doesn’t seem right to save empty smalls for future FCs that *might* someday use them in the future, when the supply for personals is so low and demand is there right now. And the OP started this thread being frustrated by only having smalls available for their FC. Really the only thing it ends up doing is encourage people to make solo FCs just to get what is essentially a personal house. And even *those* FCs don’t seem to want these plots! lol

Just in one residential district on my server (Bryn), there are 5 new smalls for the next round, unless something else opens up in a day or two. Add the unwanted FC-only smalls, and that number shoots to 41. Granted I’m looking at LB, but the same is true of Empy: 7 for next round, 77 if FC-only were included. And so on… if only new buyers win, with no relocations or new auto-demos, the personal market could easily be wiped out next lotto. And we’re not the worst server on Crystal either.

Just adding new wards hasn’t even fixed the lack of supply, let alone the lack of housing the different groups actually want. An added instanced option could.