Land Needs Are Unmet on Balmung

[ElciaDeiLinus]

If we are going to constantly bring up real life examples, perhaps it should be noted that in real life cities, when demand for housing goes up, new housing is created- especially if people are willing to spend millions on it. Versus low pop servers/low pop towns, which wouldn't.

Even the most difficult cities in the world to get a home in you can still get a house in, and at a considerably more reasonable price than anything you'll see in game, even if not at a reasonable price- you can still get a home in London, Tokyo, New York.

Not that real life housing should be comparable or the logic behind it- but if we are going to go that route, at least keep some perspective.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

I also have to wonder how 'you have to choose between playing with friends or having a home' even begins to make sense to anyone as an argument.

Fact is, this is a game- and putting something that should be accessible and a popular feature behind the gate of being extremely finite and either snatched by legacy players or ultra wealthy- makes no sense.

It is also the only thing that is handled this way. Would be like saying 'if you haven't raided from day one, tough luck, you can never use the feature'. Of course, that sounds absolutely absurd- because it is.

[tocsin]

It is also the only thing that is handled this way. Would be like saying 'if you haven't raided from day one, tough luck, you can never use the feature'. Of course, that sounds absolutely absurd- because it is.

Actually, although there is a difference between needs in balmung and janova, there is an important parallel here. A LOT of players here cant raid, not because of lack of interest, but because lack of ability to find a valid group with their desired hours, who are willing to complete old content (BcoB, ScoB). I had an fc mate, who had to spend almost 3 months searching for a static to help them get to end-game content. They ended up paying for a carry through t5 and t9, just so they could join the FcoB group.

[Gillionaire]

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I just like the idea of first come first serve.
I own a house on Goblet plot #1.
When I was looking to buy houses, and saw that plot, I loved its location and I noticed it was the only #1 plot left in the main division. I literally stayed online for about 4 hours straight after that scrapping together every little gil I had and selling everything I could.. then I realized I wasn't promoted with my GC enough, so I stayed on well past my usual bed time and went through 3 dungeons to get promoted.. It was a lot of work. Oh and funny thing, as I was running to buy my house, I saw 2 guys come up to me and after I purchased the plot and said to me they were saving up for the same plot.. Call me sick, but that felt good.. Not because I drove them out of getting their house, but simply knowing that the house I worked so hard for was coveted by multiple people and not only me.

Then when I was buying our FC mansion, we scrapped together all the gil we had together, we came up about 8 milion short. Then I heard an old FC mate of mine mention that his FC is also on the verge of buying a mansion and it happened to be that we were both after the same plot.. (I asked him what plot they've been looking at.. Lavender Beds Ward 7 Plot 28..) The last mansion plot in the main divisions on the server.. Both our FCs were rank 5 at that point and we needed to come up with 8 million gil. My friend and I stayed up til 8 in the morning leveling up the FC and I ended up selling about 3/4 of all my stuff at 30-40% discount to come up with the 8 million.. I actually borrowed the last 1 million. But the point is.. This was really fun and memorable, we still talk about the rush to get the house from time to time as one of the more memorable experiences..


I'm not saying that I spite people because I had to work for it, but if the houses aren't limited, there wouldn't be that kind of a mad rush/effort to get it and I think houses being what they are, should be a very memorable purchase.. Not just something you happen to progress into.


P.S. I guess it's the validation in knowing that you have what other people want, but not everyone can have.. kinda like the end-game loots, or insanely expensive piece of glamour gear etc.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

There are many solutions to low raider turn out that MMOs have come up with- cross server queues, small server mergers, cutting back on prereq requirements, putting raid ready gear within reach of new players rather than forcing you to gear through prior raids, etc... I don't know FFXIV raids, but if there is something that locks out new players from even getting a chance to raid, then I wouldn't consider that reason to prevent people on high pop servers from ever getting housing- but reasoning to rethink how raid progression is done.

[Brynne]

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Okay, thank you for explaining. I guess I can see why you would feel that way.

Still completely disagree with you (I want everyone to be able to have fun with housing the way that I am, so there's no way we can reconcile our two different viewpoints), but at least I understand where you're coming from.

[Aeyis]

If we are going to constantly bring up real life examples, perhaps it should be noted that in real life cities, when demand for housing goes up, new housing is created- especially if people are willing to spend millions on it. Versus low pop servers/low pop towns, which wouldn't.

Even the most difficult cities in the world to get a home in you can still get a house in, and at a considerably more reasonable price than anything you'll see in game, even if not at a reasonable price- you can still get a home in London, Tokyo, New York.

Not that real life housing should be comparable or the logic behind it- but if we are going to go that route, at least keep some perspective.

Is that so? The world consists of more then the ''1th world'', you know.

at a considerably more reasonable price than anything you'll see in game, even if not at a reasonable price- you can still get a home in London, Tokyo, New York.

A week of 3 of hard work can get me a mansion in ffxiv. Now a mansion actually has a pretty comparable price to a normal small sized house, if I were to use a gil = yen -> euro conversion (lol) I can make gil out of literally anything in the game, whereas euros can be obtained nearly only via a job. A job with a very likely fixed amount of euro income.It takes years to be able to afford a house..and that's just via morgage.
Now, getting a house in say London, Tokyo, or New York (one that isnt completely run down) will be even more expensive.


Not sure how this is more reasonable then the houses that are in FFXIV...?

Not that real life housing should be comparable or the logic behind it- but if we are going to go that route, at least keep some perspective.

Your words, not mine. But I find them most fitting.

There are many solutions to low raider turn out that MMOs have come up with- cross server queues, small server mergers, cutting back on prereq requirements, putting raid ready gear within reach of new players rather than forcing you to gear through prior raids, etc... I don't know FFXIV raids, but if there is something that locks out new players from even getting a chance to raid, then I wouldn't consider that reason to prevent people on high pop servers from ever getting housing- but reasoning to rethink how raid progression is done.

You misunderstand the parallel, I think. The reason for having a hard(er) time to find raiding groups is because our servers are much smaller and have a lot less people. Something I imagine is not an issue on a larger server like Balmung.
Remember that being on a larger server does have its merits, and not just disadvantages.

I'm not saying that I spite people because I had to work for it, but if the houses aren't limited, there wouldn't be that kind of a mad rush/effort to get it and I think houses being what they are, should be a very memorable purchase.. Not just something you happen to progress into.


P.S. I guess it's the validation in knowing that you have what other people want, but not everyone can have.. kinda like the end-game loots, or insanely expensive piece of glamour gear etc.

Finally bought my house plot yesterday. Was so excited about it that I rushed to get it and didn't first save up the extra 3m to buy the permit.
Somehow I feel richer after I bought the house even tho I only had like 130k gil left..and a plot without a house on it. :P

[Kinseykinz]

First off:

Yes, it is not right how the whole 'housing thing' was handled. Simply put, if enough time/energy is put into it by the players, they should be able to purchase a house. Especially a FC house considering that already, but especially from 3.0 onward, there is content in game that will only be doable via owning a house. (currently raising chocobo level caps/dying them and gardening...but in the future, anything airship related as well).

So yes, SE needs to do something to address the 'homeless' population. But simply adding more housing wards alone isn't going to solve anything....in part because the amount of homes needed is 1. very varied across different worlds (not sure WHY we all need wards added even if our world isn't in need but it is obviously how they've coded it for now), and 2. The amount of housing they'd need to add to both address the FC needs and personal needs on many worlds is well..alot.

Things I think they could do to help:
1. Offer a way to transfer (as an individual/group or FC) from 'high pop' servers to low pop servers....for free.
2. Come up with a fair way to 'repossess' abandoned FC and personal housing. I know there are people that for real life reasons, cannot log in for a month or so here an there...so it shouldn't be directly 'log in' based, but either allow us a sub option that maintains our house even if we otherwise aren't playing (like you pay $1/month you are inactive to maintain your plot vs. having to pay the sub fee). And/or only make this rule go in effect if every single house is purchased on your server. It would also be nice (albeit likely impossible code-wise), that if your home WAS 'FFXIV foreclosed on' that you got back a portion of the gil spent. (this would help people feel less butt-hurt about it if they came back to the game and found their house gone). There already is a feature in place that returns your items to you if you are force-evicted (ala the FC rooms retainer guy)
3. Only allow one house purchase per FFXIV account/world (2 if you happen to also run a FC 1=FC house 1=personal). Right now, there are folk who via their alts, own multiple homes. It would be nice if SE no longer allowed players to purchase multiple homes but instead, allowed you to access your home with ALL characters you have on that server. So you could do things with your alts in your 1 house.
4. Allow us to share homes with 'in game spouses' and/or friends. If people could share homes, and share full access, there would be less desire for individuals to own their own homes.


PS: even on my world, most homes are sold out. So while the problem is most assuredly magnified on the 'high pop' servers, it is happening on lower-pop worlds as well

PPS: I transfered to Exodus after living on Excalibur for over a year. So while I don't currently live on a high pop world anymore, I have felt your pain.

[Tsuga]

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I completely agree with 3 and 4.

Since it seems like SE is committed to shoehorning personal housing in with FC housing, I really wish we could share houses. My SO and friend would love to pool money together for a house, but it would be pointless since only one person would have the power to do anything with it.

Make it so 3-4 people can share a personal house or something, but at least give us SOMETHING. My SO and I will soon be eternally bonded, yet we can't even play house together, effectively.

I also hate that the people who have tens of millions in disposable gil, and pretty much control the crafting markets can now control the housing market, if they choose to. It's an unfair system that locks everyone but the most wealthy out of the content.

I'd also like to add that events keep rewarding housing items, yet the majority of the players can't even use the system. What's the deal, SE?

[Gillionaire]

Okay, thank you for explaining. I guess I can see why you would feel that way.

Still completely disagree with you (I want everyone to be able to have fun with housing the way that I am, so there's no way we can reconcile our two different viewpoints), but at least I understand where you're coming from.

Oh, I understand the gap.. I primarily play MMOs in which housing is not even a big thing or non-existent. I played Age of Conan when the forts were being introduced, but it was largely just for pvp. I did play Wildstar, but never decorated my house.. My house in this game is also not decorated at all and my garrison in WoW is well.. it's just for sending out my slaves on missions
To me it's all about the functionality, I don't particularly enjoy the decorating game and with or without a house, I don't think I'd feel like I was missing out on much.

Housing is basically a trophy for me in this game, hence my general attitude about the concept.

4. Allow us to share homes with 'in game spouses' and/or friends. If people could share homes, and share full access, there would be less desire for individuals to own their own homes.

And I completely support this.. What's funny is that it's in the "proposed" plans.. SE seems to roll out concepts before they're finalized, they're either incompetent or severely understaffed.. so many times I see suggestions being made and most of the good ideas are already to be implemented in the future but WHEN???
House sharing among friends would alleviate a lot of the stress on the housing market.. instead of buying cottages for each person, I would've just bought a medium sized or a mansion to share among all my FC mates / friends, it would free up a lot of housing plots.