A Critique an suggesion

so i understand that original this system was focused around building up community and unison which is in spirit of an mmorpg but as more people jumped on there became a demand for personal houses so that individuals could decorate and have easier access to a garden, chocobo stable and market board.
but supply was scarce so they limited privates to only small size houses but eventually caved to the demands for higher tier housing an made it free for all but this lead to fighting as people wanted specific spots placed within the ward system an some wards would just get outright dominated by larger fc groups to say nothing of the bots who would swoop up plots an then turn them into rmt or gil hijacking scams

so their then at the time solution was to just keep adding more instances to the ward system hoping to settle the fighting and the rmt scams and i suppose it worked for the time but as this game got more exposure and more popularity we saw a major increase in players an the devs just couldn't keep up with the demand anymore so had to make restrictions and add timers but even then this game just keeps growing at a rapid rate and they tried with the apartment system but it just wasn't the same as owning a home
an now the apartment system has been abandoned not forgotten but not cared for by both developer nor player it seems.

an further fanning the flames after public exposure of the bad timers and bad implementation of moving a house plot for a more desired location the answer to the problem was to add an rng element to the mix which makes things fairer for the buyers allegedly but with that comes another issue tied to the same issue as before and that is scarcity to match an ever growing population an the rng factor means that some poor sop is just never going to get a plot of land to call their own slice of heaven no matter how many lottos they enter.

and it seems as though their solution continues to be to keep adding more servers to host players with more instance servers but with the same waiting game and same rng factor
with complaints being that people can't be with their friends if they leave to another server or data center but then the world visiting/data center hopping system was implemented which helps that issue some what but comes with its risks but also heavy restrictions which players just are not happy with

so in conclusion this system with wards, rng, limited function server visiting option is not sustainable and is wasted resources at a problem that seemingly can't be fixed with their solutions without angering a vast number of players and leaving still many without being able to claim a feature of this game which is subscription based so the anger and frustration in my opinion is justified but misplaced as still people fight eachother over who deserves what or should have this and that and thus not providing any solutions or meaningful discussion/debate for the developers to latch onto for ideas or inspiration.

so what i think would be a few good ideas is to firstly put an end to the ward system it is a failure and continues to disappoint the playerbase or let them down as they look upon their friends who have been in the game alot longer enjoy this content this feature an they can't without making a sacrifice for something less than adequate or ideal.

second, introduce a new form of housing that exclusively for solo useage and includes all of the following: garden plot, work bench/shed for crafters to be able make stuff that was limited to free companies alone don't take this to mean that it should undermine free companies airships and submersibles should remain free company exclusive, unique weather effects should also take place in this biome for solo players like lets say for the seasons of real world they incorporate times of rain, blaring heat, snow, wind etc. and plot size should not be determined by location but rather on resources available to the player i think what they did with the island sanctuary as an example would fit perfectly well with a new house system it would give players something to casually do in their downtime by collecting materials either by collecting it themselves or buying it off of a vendor/the market board this would be a self satisfying achievement and the end reward could be that the player can choose between what size of house an what design they want it to be and on this plot of land they should be able to place landmarks or furnishings just as the island sanctuary has allowed for.

and thirdly make housing tied to the account of the player no more multi owning an allow for any alternate character made on the account have the ability to make use of this housing system with the house or land the player owns so long as the character made is on the specified server. remove the demolition or extend its timer to a total span of 6 months thats more than enough time to determine someone is not interested in returning anytime soon if at all.

They apparently don't want to madden the 1% and pull the trigger on instanced housing

Instanced housing would do wonders for the health of the game, but I think far too many of the few people SE actually listens to (read: FC ward hogs and alt legions) would rage if their stranglehold on the housing market was threatened even a little bit.

I was hoping that the Island Sanctuaries would be something akin to instanced housing, but instead they released as a nothing burger that was so nothing that I wouldn't be surprised if it started to pull a vacuum.

Having a limited amount of anything perpetual in an MMO pretending to be casual is almost always a bad idea, and leads to the 99% being upset that they'll never get to experience it.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

Instanced housing would do wonders for the health of the game, but I think far too many of the few people SE actually listens to (read: FC ward hogs and alt legions) would rage if their stranglehold on the housing market was threatened even a little bit.

I was hoping that the Island Sanctuaries would be something akin to instanced housing, but instead they released as a nothing burger that was so nothing that I wouldn't be surprised if it started to pull a vacuum.

Having a limited amount of anything perpetual in an MMO pretending to be casual is almost always a bad idea, and leads to the 99% being upset that they'll never get to experience it.

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More likely the devs are multi owners themselves

I have never been able to get a house, have been in the lotto system since it was released, its actually so frustrating that we pay a subscription for this content and yet it is not available to most people

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Originally Posted by Og_

I have never been able to get a house, have been in the lotto system since it was released, its actually so frustrating that we pay a subscription for this content and yet it is not available to most people

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I see you're on gilgamesh. im gonna tell you right now-- that's nearly impossible for you. Odds are better being struck by a car, or a tornado in California. Aether DC has always been the roughest for housing purchasing.

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Originally Posted by Og_

I have never been able to get a house, have been in the lotto system since it was released, its actually so frustrating that we pay a subscription for this content and yet it is not available to most people

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Unfortunately, that's a consequence paid for choosing a congested world (and data center) for your home world. I doubt that SE will ever change how they handle the ward system to accommodate the congested worlds because they want players to stop choosing those worlds.

Housing is available. Your problem is that you aren't choosing to go to where it is.

It's not hard to get a house if you transfer to Dynamis. There are so many available houses on the 4 new worlds right now including larges. You would still be able to use data center travel to play with your friends on Gilgamesh and Aether whether you go there or they came to you on Dynamis.

I know many players feel they shouldn't have to transfer but that doesn't change the current situation. If you want a house that badly, then either transfer to where they are or create a new character on those worlds. You can get a new character purchase eligible very quickly.

- Complete MSQ up through the quest Sylph Management. This allows you to unlock retainers, Grand Company and jobs.

- Gain rank in the Grand Company you chose. GC Hunting Log Rank 1 entries plus unlocking PvP will give you enough seals to get to Corporal. You can get to Sgt. 2nd Class through a combination of GC leves, FATEs, and repeating Leveling Roulette as AIN.

- Once you reach Sgt. 2nd Class, Expert Deliveies will get the rest of the seals you'll need to rank up. There are plenty of cheap "greens" on the marketboards across the NA data centers if you don't have a max crafter that can make them cheap and quickly (you'll get the same number of seals whether NQ or HQ). Then you just need to complete the GC Hunting Log Rank 2 along with your Grand Companies quests to complete Dzemael Darkhold and Aurum Vale.

Working on the GC rank should get your character to level 50 without a problem with Road to 80 in effect on a New World as long as you keep up with your job quests and class Hunting log. I just did the process with a new character I created on Cuchulainn last Friday afternoon and was ready to bid Saturday night. My alt turned 50 just before I got to Dzemael Darkhold.

Again, houses are there for the taking on Dynamis. You just have to be willing to do what's needed to get one.

If you're not willing, well... good luck in your future lottery attempts on a congested world.

Every time I see a thread like this I chuckle. Housing really does make you feel like you're a part of the 1%. Crazy honestly. I mean think about it. Doing savage... Ultimates... eventually you'll get it down and succeed...But housing..... Yeah right. You have a better chance at winning the cactpot.

I remember when people BEGGED SE for lottery housing. B E G G E D for it. Now they can't stand it. Good luck to all the homeless out there. May the odds be ever in your favor.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Housing is available. Your problem is that you aren't choosing to go to where it is.

It's not hard to get a house if you transfer to Dynamis. There are so many available houses on the 4 new worlds right now including larges. You would still be able to use data center travel to play with your friends on Gilgamesh and Aether whether you go there or they came to you on Dynamis.

I know many players feel they shouldn't have to transfer but that doesn't change the current situation. If you want a house that badly, then either transfer to where they are or create a new character on those worlds. You can get a new character purchase eligible very quickly.

Again, houses are there for the taking on Dynamis.

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Respectfully i am going to have to disagree with this take, i know its logical to go to these empty places like you say if they want a house so terribly but the world visiting system is way to restrictive for people to even fully enjoy it with their friends the developers meant well and it was a heavily request feature to open up servers so that people could facilitate more players into their groups, to ease up congestion on overpopulated worlds.
but imagine a few scenario's where some might want to show their friend glamour they've collected or want to show off the house they collected but oops sorry can't unless you inconvenience yourself or your pals cause then they have to either travel with you and wait in ques or you have to go alone and suffer the inconvenience of two ques when the path to least resistance would to be able to make it so a person has access to things like retainers for the glamour example
i mean hell at that point its better just to make an alt on your friends server cause they dont have any restrictions at all when it comes to being on the same world/data centers.
and now yes you could argue that we have screen shots we can share or screen sharing but sometimes its just nice to be able to have people visit your place an just idle with you on your lot or while waiting for duties to pop up not the same thing if your sacrificing that one comfort while your friend doesn't need to etc.
to finish out my point here i think they could ease restrictions some more or if thats just not feasible on a technical level then allow people to have like cross-travel inventory space so they can throw things into it for when traveling and give people priority status when returning back home to their own data center to speed things along a bit more i feel like that would go a long ways to making it less of an inconvenience and so on.

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Originally Posted by NegativeS

Instanced housing would do wonders for the health of the game, but I think far too many of the few people SE actually listens to (read: FC ward hogs and alt legions) would rage if their stranglehold on the housing market was threatened even a little bit.

I was hoping that the Island Sanctuaries would be something akin to instanced housing, but instead they released as a nothing burger that was so nothing that I wouldn't be surprised if it started to pull a vacuum.

Having a limited amount of anything perpetual in an MMO pretending to be casual is almost always a bad idea, and leads to the 99% being upset that they'll never get to experience it.

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That’s the point in the end: as much as they add new wards, districts and servers, there’s never going to be a 1:1 player to plot ratio without adding an instanced system. Sure, maybe not all players actually want one, but since we’re all paying a sub, the same options should be available to us.

Plus the current system doesn’t take into account people’s preferences, for neighborhood theme or, more importantly, size. Some people love certain districts, some people hate them. Some people want to live in settings that don’t have districts at all. And everyone has different size preferences. Even moving to a new server doesn’t give you any guarantees of securing a medium or large. Is it your best chance right now? Sure. Can someone else bid last minute and win the plot you thought you were the only bid on? Absolutely. And I can understand both sides, of people who are willing to take that chance and those who aren’t.

At this point I have a plot I’m happy with. But I would love to see the larger variety of options and upgrades an instanced housing system could provide, as well as ensuring that everyone could not only have a guaranteed house, but one that matches their preferences as well.