Introducing the moving feature on the same day Shirogane opened was a mistake.

[Sashazor]

I think that introducing the moving feature the day Shirogane was released made everything far more competitive to those individuals/FCs who didn't own houses. Without moving, your only competition would be those without houses (which is already a lot people).

But with the moving feature you were competing against those without a house AND who only wanted to move to relocate. It really made things a lot more difficult.

I just think it would've perhaps been smarter to introduce the moving feature at a later date, but you're free to disagree.

[Reaperking386]

Perhaps, but when these players move they lose their 80% refund and a plot opens up. The moving feature still opened up housing in the area, but not the ones every one wanted.

[BillyKaplan]

I'm going to go ahead and disagree. Because then you're being unfair towards many in the population who, true, already have houses, but are locked out of buying a house in Shirogane, which is an issue in and of itself.
A smarter idea, I think, would've been to introduce more than 12 wards, thus expanding the houses available in other residential areas as well. Not only would we have gotten more houses, but then people would've had an actual choice, it wouldn't have been Shirogane or bust.

[Malzian]

I think that introducing the moving feature the day Shirogane was released made everything far more competitive to those individuals/FCs who didn't own houses. Without moving, your only competition would be those without houses (which is already a lot people).

But with the moving feature you were competing against those without a house AND who only wanted to move to relocate. It really made things a lot more difficult.

I just think it would've perhaps been smarter to introduce the moving feature at a later date, but you're free to disagree.

None of the way housing is implemented is fair, it's all entirely unfair to everyone involved. What you are proposing here is even more unfair in that people who already had a house had to simply suck up not being able to get a house in Shirogane, because if an FC or person is legitimately interested enough in the Shirogane housing to completely give up their old plots and the fact that those plots are now on the market means nothing for that fact that you specifically want a Shirogane house as well.

No, let's not pile unfair on top of unfair. Even if people couldn't move their houses, the plots would have sold out just as fast. The moving feature had little to do with that because ultimately the total number of available houses went up across the board. The real problem is the limited number of houses with the way the wards are designed. If the wards expanded dynamically based upon how they fill up there would be no issue at all.

[BroodingFicus]

Maybe so but the moving feature isn't what gobbled up most of the lots. I've seen a bunch of posts already that say things like 'I moved the FC house and then bought my own personal house too' from the people that did manage to get in. Private housing is, to me, where most of the issue arises. People moving, at the very least, would leave the same amount of homes available, just not necessarily in Shirogane. But private housing made it easy for a person to take up a whole space to themselves, even massive lots, as well as opening the path for Scalpers to have an even easier time of it. Personally, to me, rather than apartments they should have made little instanced island houses in the look of the wards and that was what you could purchase as private homes.

[Sashazor]

I'm going to go ahead and disagree. Because then you're being unfair towards many in the population who, true, already have houses, but are locked out of buying a house in Shirogane, which is an issue in and of itself.
A smarter idea, I think, would've been to introduce more than 12 wards, thus expanding the houses available in other residential areas as well. Not only would we have gotten more houses, but then people would've had an actual choice, it wouldn't have been Shirogane or bust.

You have a fair point,
I still think those without a home (especially FCs) should've taken priority. Ideally, housing for players would be instanced and more wards would be introduced for FCs, it's just a very complicated, ineffective system that often leaves a lot of unhappy players. Considering this game has 10 milion players, it seems silly that that we don't even have 100k lots across all servers.

[Sashazor]

No, let's not pile unfair on top of unfair. Even if people couldn't move their houses, the plots would have sold out just as fast. The moving feature had little to do with that because ultimately the total number of available houses went up across the board. The real problem is the limited number of houses with the way the wards are designed. If the wards expanded dynamically based upon how they fill up there would be no issue at all.

If the wards expanded dyanmically we wouldn't have an issue, no, but it seems like SE's limited server space would be rather impractical for that. According to them, anyway.

[Moonlite]

Perhaps, but when these players move they lose their 80% refund and a plot opens up. The moving feature still opened up housing in the area, but not the ones every one wanted.

Opened up housing for general server population or select friends to horde more housing? What is the split? Anything short of a 100% general population chance is a travesty under current conditions.

[NoctusT]

As I don't really craft and make a lot of money, I personally wouldn't have moved if not for the new feature. But in all fairness, most of the people I know who wanted to move or who have moved were going to do so regardless of the feature's introduction.

[BillyKaplan]

I don't think anyone disagrees that the current housing system as it is currently implemented is horrible and very unfair. But as said before, piling more unfairness on it in some attempt to negate one problematic aspect won't solve anything and will only make people more salty.