the whole housing situation in this game upsets me

[Kosmos992k]

You're not alone in being annoyed OP...

Adding housing in Ishgard and letting couple share houses is not a solution to the problem. Making a house shareable by up to 5 people - why not form a FC?

The only solution acceptable would be one that makes it possible for literally every active player to purchase a house (assuming they managed to earn sufficient gil to finances it).

Incidentally, if housing were available to every player, I imagine the market for crafted furnishings and other items would become far, far, far healthier.

[Teryaani]

The only solution acceptable would be one that makes it possible for literally every active player to purchase a house (assuming they managed to earn sufficient gil to finances it).

QFT. They need to dust off the idea of instanced housing. Current interiors are already instanced. FC Rooms? Instances. I kinda wonder if the whole "how do we make it easily visit-able?" is the real issue and not the server load.

[Avidria]

QFT. They need to dust off the idea of instanced housing. Current interiors are already instanced. FC Rooms? Instances. I kinda wonder if the whole "how do we make it easily visit-able?" is the real issue and not the server load.

I liked how Aion did housing; every single player got access to a personal apartment/flat (one room) once they hit level 20 that was simply an interior with no outdoor furnishings. Then there were actual houses that could be bought/sold via auction like what we have (cottage/house/mansion/manor). You had to pay a weekly maintenance fee (which I thought was a bit high, but that's another issue) in order to keep the house, so if you went inactive it would be reclaimed and automatically put up for auction. If you came back, you'd still have your original apartment.

Obviously it's a different game with different resources and goals etc., but the idea of everyone getting housing is there.

[Welsper59]

I liked how Aion did housing; every single player got access to a personal apartment/flat (one room) once they hit level 20 that was simply an interior with no outdoor furnishings. Then there were actual houses that could be bought/sold via auction like what we have (cottage/house/mansion/manor). You had to pay a weekly maintenance fee (which I thought was a bit high, but that's another issue) in order to keep the house, so if you went inactive it would be reclaimed and automatically put up for auction. If you came back, you'd still have your original apartment.

Obviously it's a different game with different resources and goals etc., but the idea of everyone getting housing is there.

In a way, the apartment bit exists now, but is limited to whether or not you are in an FC and the FC owns a house. FFXI also had the mog house for you to furnish as you saw fit, which everyone had access to for free, though that was way more limited in furnishing items than this game is. There, it also served as an additional means of storage, which made furniture all the more sought after. 1 cabinet taking up 1 primary storage slot to keep it housed, but supplied an additional 6 slots to your secondary storage in the mog house.

[Vrath]

-snip-

Agreed. The only "reasons" I can see for not having enough housing for all active players are:

1) "Hardware/software limitations." I can't imagine why this would be the case, though. If they can add an expansion as large as Heavensward, surely they can add some more cloned instances of an existing area. That said, I don't work at SE, so this is purely a layman's guess.

2) "If there is too much supply, people won't have to worry about someone else buying the house first. They'll just wait until the prices fall before buying their houses, and then it won't be a good gil-sink." In some other setting, this might be a valid objection. But, come on, how many MMO players are patient enough to wait for a price drop if they can afford to buy a house now? And if they CAN'T afford to buy the house immediately... well, what's the point of the gil-sink?

I'd really like to buy a house on this game, but until some serious changes are made, the odds of that being an option aren't very high.

[Valaska]

No what they need to do is make houses demolish when an account hasn't been active after a month or two. Don't fool yourself, these inactive peoples houses take up resources from the rest of the game, not only are they robbing you of houses and features as active players, but they are robbing the ENTIRE server of performance. That and they need to double check IP's to allow housing on one IP only.

[Valaska]

You MUST be joking? What will happen when they add Ishgard housing you ask? People using the fastest internet connections will log on 15 minutes after with alt accounts and buy up as many housing plots as they can. They then will either sit on these plots for whatever reason, or sell them for EXTREMELY inflated prices, or use them to scam players out of their money which they can't complain about because hey they broke the rules themselves.

Ishgardian housing will solve NOTHING, what they should do you ask? They should add in a 1 or 2 month period of time if you haven't logged on, or if one of your FC members hasn't updated your housings charter (no cost or anything like that) you should lose the house. All furniture etc would be sent to the calamity salvager or to your mail. This way actual contributing players will no longer be robbed of features by people, some who literally have not played in YEARS.

[MihaelB]

What will happen when they add Ishgard housing you ask? People using the fastest internet connections will log on 15 minutes after with alt accounts and buy up as many housing plots as they can. They then will either sit on these plots for whatever reason, or sell them for EXTREMELY inflated prices, or use them to scam players out of their money which they can't complain about because hey they broke the rules themselves.

Ishgardian housing will solve NOTHING, what they should do you ask?

Agreed that adding new housing solves nothing.

Adding a removal system would only annoy/agitate players who spent months collecting gil to buy their house.

We need an instanced system in my opinion like countless other threads have mentioned, a possible tower/apartment area for everyone. The current housing could remain for 'rich/lucky' folk.

[Nicobo]

No what they need to do is make houses demolish when an account hasn't been active after a month or two...

You MUST be joking? What will happen when they add Ishgard housing you ask? People using the fastest internet connections will log on 15 minutes after with alt accounts and buy up as many housing plots as they can...

So I can imagine what will happen to the plots of land released. ^^;

[Colorful]

Agreed that adding new housing solves nothing.

Adding a removal system would only annoy/agitate players who spent months collecting gil to buy their house.

We need an instanced system in my opinion like countless other threads have mentioned, a possible tower/apartment area for everyone. The current housing could remain for 'rich/lucky' folk.

Call me an ass, but if they haven't subbed in 2-3 months, well tough. They deserve to lose the plot. They're taking up server resources that are costing SE money while the house owner isn't paying. It shouldn't be locked onto logging in, but just subscribing as they're still paying for it and there are always special circumstances where they may not be able to log in for extended periods of time. If they're planning on leaving for a long time, then selling the house for a profit is always an option.