Housing plots need rent. Sound horrible? Consider these facts:

[GenJoe]

You mean the majority of the playerbase.

I dunno. To me your idea seems counterintuitive. You wouldn't be opening the housing to more of the playerbase, but even less than before.

Because the number of plots in this game can only cater to a minority, might as well make that minority the ones who REALLY want the housing instead of someone who just bought it because it was new and shiny, and hasn't done anything with it for the past 6 months. (These people are still subbed, housing is just not a very big interest to them, but there's no reason to relinquish, so they keep it around without using it, I WAS one of those people, until I gave it away to a friend of mine as a wedding gift)

the rich could be the only ones in the housing areas

Houses in the game are ALREADY owned by the rich. Currently, it's a mixture of rich players, some who really care for housing, decorating, etc. and others who couldn't care less but have no reason to relinquish. If upkeep was implemented, it would at least be the rich who really want to own houses.

Every time I pass by houses in my FC ward, and see an empty yard, even an empty plot (owned, but not built) it makes me wonder if these people really deserve to keep their house simply because they could afford it. They don't live in it!

What? The last time they gave us new Wards they did so by doubling the number by adding subdivisions...

Yes, adding additional wards would have to be an ongoing thing to fix the underlying cause of the issue, but in the meantime, upkeep would let more people play with houses. At the rate we're going, I don't think we'll ever see enough wards added to cater to anything BUT the minority of the playerbase. Even on Jenova, there are about 7 or 8 Mediums left and that's it. Most people are going without houses, but as time passes it's only natural that more of them would want it, 2 months down the road I expect to see some complains about lack of housing on Jenova.. Somebody posted that the last plot on Lamia sold out a few days ago, a day after that there was a post of an FC that wants to buy a plot on Lamia, give those people a few more weeks and the idea of "I want to buy a plot" quickly changes to "There's no plot anywhere!?"




If SE was willing to scrap the housing entirely and overhaul the system where every house is inherently instanced and they released residential districts in the game with rent that worked in a trailer park like manner, that is what I would imagine to be the best way to implement housing. I'm not an advocate of the current housing system as is, I just don't see any realistic solution other than a redo, which I don't think SE is willing to consider.

[Nalien]

Yes, adding additional wards would have to be an ongoing thing to fix the underlying cause of the issue, but in the meantime, upkeep would let more people play with houses.

And, like I said, there are far better ways to go about dealing with this. Kicking people who aren't using their house, out of their house, is the solution. Not turning the entire thing into a massive chore.

If SE was willing to scrap the housing entirely and overhaul the system where every house is inherently instanced and they released residential districts in the game with rent that worked in a trailer park like manner, that is what I would imagine to be the best way to implement housing. I'm not an advocate of the current housing system as is, I just don't see any realistic solution other than a redo, which I don't think SE is willing to consider.

Why would they have to scrap the current system completely? Leave it as is, having a neighborhood is actually quite a nice thing, certainly enjoyed the Christmas event as a result (even if it had a few flaws regarding Subdivisions). I rather enjoy having my Free Company Mansion next door to my private house. Creating an instanced version for everyone would be great, but they don't have to completely gut the existing system to do so, we can easily have both.

[Elim]

I'm all for a system that kicks people out of their house for inactivity. You don't need rent for that. Maybe take away housing from people who've been unsubbed or inactive for three months. The devs were planning on implementing system(as you probably know), but the main problem with their system (IMO) was they were only going to give us 35 days. That is WAY too short, and I understand why so many people complained. Needs to be longer so people can travel or go on vacation without loosing their house. lol

[Nalien]

That is WAY too short, and I understand why so many people complained. Needs to be longer so people can travel or go on vacation without loosing their house. lol

I think 70 days would have been good, if not 100. If they also made it so you retain all your furniture (they have a system for that if you lose a Private Room due to Free Company issues, don't they?) while actually being able to sell it off if you don't need it anymore, and perhaps get some Gil in compensation then it would be perfect. One of the other reasons people hold onto their land while doing nothing with it is because it did cost them an arm and a leg. Since we can't really sell the plots on (without the buyer effectively having to pay extra) that just means people hold onto them. If you could abandon the house and get an arm back without that having to come from the new buyer, that would be a much more attractive offer for both parties.

[GenJoe]

And, like I said, there are far better ways to go about dealing with this. Kicking people who aren't using their house, out of their house, is the solution

That's what an upkeep would do. Kicking for unsub would also work but there are far too many active players who just don't use their house.

Why would they have to scrap the current system completely? Leave it as is, having a neighborhood is actually quite a nice thing

Yeah I like the neighborhoods too, hate seeing all the dead houses in the ward, but for the most part I enjoy seeing different people wandering around, if SE could somehow triple the number of wards (~5000 plots), I think it would alleviate a lot of the problems.. But eventually, on any server with more than 10000 players, they would STILL run out of plots

we can easily have both.

That's where I disagree, I do like your optimism however.



Can you imagine a World without property taxes? Speaking about US specifically, anybody who had the misfortune of having ancestors that weren't around in the 19th century would basically be unable to own ANYTHING because all the land and houses would've been previously owned and those wouldn't exchange hands if there was no upkeep to owning it. That's the kind of environment SE is fostering with the housing system.. Good thing is, this is a game so the upkeep doesn't have to be in just the form of money, money IS the simplest form of charging, but it can be done other ways, activity for example as many suggested, and SE could always come up with a whole new system to check who wants to keep their house. Point is.. the current housing system we have has NONE of that, that's why old houses don't exchange hands and just sit there rotting away. If we can just build more houses, great, but that's a limited solution in an ever growing World.

[Madjames]

I'm all for a system that kicks people out of their house for inactivity. You don't need rent for that. Maybe take away housing from people who've been unsubbed or inactive for three months. The devs were planning on implementing system(as you probably know), but the main problem with their system (IMO) was they were only going to give us 35 days. That is WAY too short, and I understand why so many people complained. Needs to be longer so people can travel or go on vacation without loosing their house. lol

Then just continue to sub on your vacation or travel, problem solved.

[Elim]

had to shorten is cus limit.

70 or 100 or whatever sounds fair to me. 35 just wasn't enough.

They could also just make houses dirt cheap, then if you do loose yours it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Although I personally don't mind the prices.

Then just continue to sub on your vacation or travel, problem solved.

That would work, if you only got booted for unsubbing not inactivity.

[Madjames]

70 or 100 or whatever sounds fair to me. 35 just wasn't enough.

They could also just make houses dirt cheap, then if you do loose yours it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Although I personally don't mind the prices.



That would work, if you only got booted for unsubbing not inactivity.

Which is what I recommend. Unsub and you lose your house.

[Taiine]

Simple Answer: No.
Just no...

I myself with work and you know, LIFE have a few hours a day if that to play, and when I do have that time I rather spend it taking my time and enjoying the game (casual player) than worrying if I have enough gill to be paying rent on a in game house, let alone real life.

Don't pull the 'if you cant pay don't bother'. A game isn't a job, we shouldn't be punished just because some of us have limited game time.

Plus: Life happens.
What if your computer bombed and needed to be fully replaced? It could happen! What if it takes a few months of saving to buy a new one? Yep, happened to me. Would suck to lose something so costly due to life huh?

Make it so if your sub runs out you have X amount of time to resub (say 6 months to account for life stuff) then your house opens up and all your items are placed in a temp npc with all or some of the gill for said plot so when you log back in you have a chance to recover it and buy a new one.

[Titor]

Plus: Life happens.
What if your computer bombed and needed to be fully replaced? It could happen! What if it takes a few months of saving to buy a new one? Yep, happened to me. Would suck to lose something so costly due to life huh?

This this this! I worked sooooo hard to get my house, staring at the marketboard for literally months and doing nothing else but crafting and selling stuff, if my computer died or I had to go on leave for anything IRL for a bit, I would be so devastated if I came back and all of my hard work was gone. No other aspect of the game punishes you for being inactive, please do not make the one thing I really enjoy in the game punish you for being inactive ._.

Just push for new wards people! Server upgrades as a priority! Do not take housing away from those who currently have it, urge SE to open up more!