In Regard to Housing in Patch 4.1

[Hyperon]

A person owning multiple houses won't be stopped by one at a time nonsense because the FC option will always still be there. I'd much rather SE actually police their game. People who flip houses have no other recourse to get their money back besides just wait an unreasonable amount of time. On top of the fact that even though its against ToS, they don't ban people who flip houses. I tested this with 5 people on my old server that were actively reselling houses over and over again. I didn't even hate them, I just wanted to see if SE did anything. Every report I did showed their reddit post of them selling it, facebook post as well that also had their real life name on it or their in game character name on it, the house in question, some of them even using PF to sell their house, some even had on their housing sign that they were selling. Sent that all in, screenshots and all. Just to see what SE would do. No one got banned. Opening up more wards just makes it so less people complain when all this happens again.

Next step should be allowing us to opt into the housing relinquish system sooner and get back 80% of the gil back or if we opt in maybe do 90 or 100%. Doesn't really matter how much as long as it isn't lower than the current system of 80%. Its more about having that option to us. This removes more of the reasoning behind average players who maybe just don't want to own the house because they dont do much with it anymore or if they want to server transfer. Their only recourse is to take the gil loss, wait 45 days, or enter into the black market. For anyone who says "take the gil loss" that is much easier for you to say since its not your gil. I know I've given up 50mil gil to people but I don't expect that from others and neither should anyone else. If SE allows us to do more with the housing/plots than the nothing at all we have now, just getting more wards and telling them they did a great job is a lie. Adding more to a broken and unfair system doesn't solve anything. I say this as someone who owns a large house so I got what I wanted already. I'd much rather see systems in place that are fair for everyone involved and see SE police their rules because they are not enforced equally. There will always be a black market for things to some extent. All we can ask is for more options to prevent average players to not engage in it by removing excuses to do so in the first place.

[Rahspdoy]

Curious as to which game and what was issue.

Was actually 2 games.

Aion, and then Wildstar.

Both, had my account 'stolen' by someone. Despite having strong passwords on both.

With the Aion account, i was one of 500-600 people who ALL lost access to their accounts within the same 7 day period. Not sure if the same thing repeated with Wildstar, but i do remember NCSoft trying to 'put the blame' of the lost accounts on players going to RMT sites or such (which is something i never do :/ and i doubt that many accounts woulda 'randomly' gotten taken that way.).

Havnt trusted that company since. Though i still play GW2... that's only because that is Arena.Net's baby, not NCSoft... and its had a 2-factor guard on it since day 1

[laureall]

Thank you for noticing that this housing system is a problem and working on making some changes. I do hope that when 4.2 comes around I will be able to get the house I want

[Rahspdoy]

I also think that more large houses should be added. There's a lot of people out there that would love one, but since they are very limited in quantity, they aren't able to purchase one.

Just to give ya a tip Serenity.

To get around the stupid (270 character limit) on posting on the Forums... type out what you want to say.. put it in Notepad or something... Snip out the first 2 or 3 lines, then make your post.. then Immediatly go back and 'edit' it, and paste in the rest, then save it.

Lets you get everything in 1 post rather than having to make 4+

(again, just a tip, not complaining or such about your posts )

[Naria]

Just my 2 Gil

I’m the leader of a small FC. Like many others we had multiple members log on with the gil necessary to buy a large house for the opening of Shirogane. Unlike many others we were very lucky—although we didn’t get the large we were aiming for we were able to upgrade our small FC house to a medium size house.

My FC was founded with group of friends who wanted a house, and at the time a FC was the only way to get one. We first bought a FC house during the second round of wards that were opened in ARR when personal FC rooms were implimented, prior to the opening of the wards to personal housing or the addition of subdivisions or apartments. While we did the same last week as we had then (multiple officers logging in as the servers came up to purchase the house), I immediately noticed this “housing rush” was very different than the last I’d participated in. Previously, while we did have to race someone else for our 1st choice of plot (The leader of the other FC ended up becoming our neighbor and I’m still friends with her in game), there was never really any concern if we would be completely unable to buy a house, just if we would get a preferred house. At that time, it took several hours for all the smalls to sell out, and several days for the server to completely sell out.

On Tuesday, the last house in Sargatanas’s Shirogane Ward 2 subdivision where we moved to sold out sixteen minutes after the server had come up.

Having a house for the last few years has been a wonderful thing for our FC. Most of our members hang out there frequently and the one garden plot enabled us to grow items such as Thavnairian Onions or Krakka Roots for our members free of charge. Seasonal decorations are something we have had a lot of fun with; last winter I covered the FC yard with snow patches which looked awful, but resulted in a lot of impromptu snowball fights. Our little cottage in Lavender Beds became central to our FC’s life and continued to do so as we’ve slowly grown.

Back in 1.0 linkshells used to stake out “hangout” spots in Ul’dah. It was a way to interact with other ls members and build a sense of comradery. A FC house is superior to those old hangout spots, but it is currently beyond the reach of many FC’s. Without that sense of comradery built by common activities, which a home helps foster, people can be left feeling like drifters in FC’s. Other players just become names in your chat box and not someone you recognize and know.

While I do think that opening wards to personal housing added demand for an already tight or inadequate supply, I also completely understand the desire for a personal house. I’d love to have one myself (a carbuncle house, I’m not mean enough to inflict that on the rest of my FC just because I could). Being able to decorate a yard/exterior is a lot of fun, and the FC yard is where I spend most of my time hanging out. I started an herb garden this past spring, in part inspired by all of the gardening I’d done for the FC.

Having been able to participate in the housing system the last few years has added a lot of enjoyment to the game for myself and my FC membership. It is an opportunity I’d like every FC to be able to share with their members if they so desire.

This current housing situation in game is a difficult one and no matter what solutions are implemented there will still be some of the community who are unhappy. I don’t know what the best solution is but I still, like everyone else, have opinions. I agree with the proposal made in this thread and others over the last several years that housing should be account bound and that each account should be able to only own one personal and one FC house per server and that personal house should be “owned” by all characters on that server for that account.

Another frequent proposal has been the creation of an instanced houses that have an exterior and a garden (after all I want to be able to admire the outside of that carbuncle house). I think that this would be a workable solution for many players. It would be a good incentive if these instanced houses would have customizable options unavailable to ward houses, such as making your instance look like an underwater Sui-no-Sato house or an island in the Sea of Clouds in addition to the usual Gridanaia/Limsa/Ul’dah appearances. Perhaps these skins could be made by FC workshops, which would allow these two systems to work together.

Lastly, I think that a person or FC should be able to relinquish a plot for a refund instead of having to wait out the timer.

In any event, I hope the Yoshida and the development team take this time to make a broad, workable and future scalable solution to the housing crisis.

[PhaZe]

Can't wait for the additional 2 wards per area we'll get for the 240,000 players on Leviathan lul.

[Nulstat]

I don't agree with the 1 house per account/server thought. At first, I wanted to try and find solutions as to how that would work and be fair, but the more that I read through the thread and saw the reasons that people advocated it, the less I saw it as a solution. Allowing someone 1 personal and 1 FC per account/server sounds great, until people begin to complain that it means that one person in their company has the opportunity for another house, and they don't. Some people aren't fair. It's not a solution, it's a short-sighted band-aid suggested by people who are just as frustrated as everyone else. There are enough restrictions in this game already, I don't really want to see any other ones. You want to be upset at the people who buy just to scalp? Then start thinking of ways to handle that problem, without punishing the people who got their plot(s) legitimately. There are less than 3000 plots per server. That is an issue.

[Araxes]

You need !NEED! to restrict the number of ownable Houses to 1 Personal and One FC house per Account. Otherwise there will be the same Problem as it exists now. Trust me.

Also: You need to at least implement 4 times the current wards so at least most active players have the chance to get theyr presented Feature from the Expansion. (It still wont be enough for everyone i think)

[ArcheustheWise]

Great news, Yoshi-P! Just please don't implement instanced housing. It takes away from the social aspect

There is no social aspect. People decorate their houses and barely even talk. Sure you get some events here or there.. but its not worth having wards. Call it for what it is. You just want it for a status symbol. There IS NO social aspect. At least not in the quantity that demands free open wards. Instanced is going to save alot here.

[ArcheustheWise]

Large plot: only players who have reached lv70 in all jobs can buy
Medium plot: only players who have reached lv70 in all non-combat job and at least 8 combat jobs, can buy
Small plot: only players who have reached lv70 in all DoL jobs and at least 4 combat jobs, can buy

Doing so, it will make sure that only the truly dedicated players can have access to housing, reduce the dilemma of housing abuse by alts. Not only that, it'll enhance the gameplay experience in every way possible in terms of q time, & enhancing the ingame economy, etc. Please consider it.

This recommendation is for Shirogane only, since it's a premium aesthetic zone, for new player looking into housing, the Eorzea housing zone shouldn't have these criteria.

No one is going to agree with this. It's not fair as it alienates people that don't play to just level everything like you do. Horrible idea im sorry.