SE, stop releasing content that excludes most of your players

[Destomius]

At least they're finally going to remove houses that aren't even being used. That should open up housing plots for newer FCs that currently have no chance.

[yamochan]

At least they're finally going to remove houses that aren't even being used. That should open up housing plots for newer FCs that currently have no chance.

where did u read that???

[Destomius]

I believe in the live letter they said something about implementing a system to remove houses from inactive/banned owners.

[BreathlessTao]

I kind of agree with OP though. For starters, I really don't trust the "people without FC will be able to access the content as well" thing - past examples have taught that such hints always hide stupidly awful (read: way too long, way too grindy, way too expensive) gates, that are such pains in the neck to overcome that they totally kill the fun aspects.

Even regardless of this though, the fact that they're so diligently work on tweaking features and fixing details of, as well as adding more and more to (specifically) housing, when the fact is that literally less than 1% of the playerbase has access to the core feature itself - that's just baffling. 1440 plots on each server, all of which holds (apparently) several hundred thousand players. Think about it a little. Think how many of that absolutely abysmal amount of houses are owned by the same people, how many of those are completely unused, how many are held "hostage" just so some rich bastards can take advantage of the utter lack of availability. Think of how dead most of these "neighbourhoods" is. I see several new FCs created every single day, and that's only on my server - they'll never even have the chance of owning a house, not with the current system. A good number of FCs are awfully large, with hundreds of people - I don't know how the whole airship system works, but I can't imagine everyone equally (or appropriately to their input if you like) profiting from it, or even having any actual say in what is done and how.

Yeah, the tweaks they talked about today, relinquish system and whatever - they are needed. Of course they are needed when the availability is practically non-existent. But they are needed in a way that they should have been there right from the start; and the fact is, they aren't gonna solve the issues the system currently has. It's expensive, it needs a lot of hardware, a lot of maintenance, generally speaking the costs (monetary and otherwise) are way too high for how much it provides. They can keep adding more plots/wards, but it's never gonna be anywhere near enough, even in overall proportions. Yet they keep insisting on keeping it. They keep adding more and more features to it. They keep allocating time and resources to it.

It's just sad. It's sad and it shouldn't be done; it doesn't even make sense imo. And the fact that pretty much everyone else can do it better, without having such issues with it, well... that only makes it even sadder.

I believe in the live letter they said something about implementing a system to remove houses from inactive/banned owners.

Company and Housing-related

House Sharing Feature
We'll be adding a system that will allow you to give furnishing and gardening rights to five people of your choosing.

Interior lighting feature
We'll be adding a furnishing that will allow you to adjust the brightness levels inside of your house.

Renaming Free Companies
We'll be making it possible to change the name of your free company. However, once doing this, you won’t be able to do it again for a set period of time.

Removal of Inactive Houses
We'll be adding a system that removes houses that are not in use. We’ll be announcing the criteria for removal in the future.

Dev tracker, guys...

[RubyShoes]

Removal of Inactive Houses
We'll be adding a system that removes houses that are not in use. We’ll be announcing the criteria for removal in the future.

Been saying that since forever... don't hold your breath.

At OP I don't know how difficult it is to grasp what you're saying but I got it and yes you're right

[Obysuca]

You want to do Airship exploration? Well hot damn, maybe you should put forth the effort to get a house and then build an Airship with your friends!

^ All of this.

Another thing I'd like to add is for the people who complain everything is gated by having a FC house. Have you ever thought of maybe, idk, joining a FC / merging with one who has a house? Pretty sure SE didn't intend for every 2-4 person FC having houses and were more aiming for fewer big FC on the server, rather than 300+ tiny FCs made up of less than 4 people.

[Dyvid]

Um...

You can also access Airship Exploration Voyages from Ishgard Airhship yard if your FC doesn't have a house/You don't have an FC.

Way to jump the gun there.

Edit: Source for you

I"m guessing OP can't bother to read because the content is open for everyone but geared more toward FC which is great because FC should have content they can do together.

[Malevicton]

Removal of Inactive Houses
We'll be adding a system that removes houses that are not in use. We’ll be announcing the criteria for removal in the future.

Been saying that since forever... don't hold your breath.

At OP I don't know how difficult it is to grasp what you're saying but I got it and yes you're right

No they haven't? It was suggested at the start but the implementation was awful so they cancelled it from the blowback, and never mentioned it again til now.

[CGMidlander]

Oooohhh

Allicia, we have work to do...!

[ladyJ]

airships were meant to be Fc oriented (community oriented content)... you are playing an MMO .... its about community so join a FC help build a community ... there are too many 2-3-4-5 member fc out there wasting housing areas... half of them have no members even logged on for many months... the houses and lands were supposed to be reliquished so it provided active players to utilize the land and housing areas... but solo players crying about community based events in a mmo is just funny