4.2 Housing Update

[StouterTaru]

My apologies if these seem like utterly ridiculous questions, but given how FCs work I do wonder if it is possible to work around the cap if one just patiently inherits a bunch of FCs with housing on the same server. Either this is possible, or SE has set up some way to restrict this, either if it's by limiting membership at all, or limiting inheritance/passing leadership. This is assuming FC leadership even matters. I hope we get more information before the patch.

It sounds like it would take a lot less than that to get 8 FC houses on the same account, and all that matters is the character clicking on the placard and selecting buy.

[fantasticm]

It sounds like it would take a lot less than that to get 8 FC houses on the same account, and all that matters is the character clicking on the placard and selecting buy.

I don't mean to be That Guy but is there confirmation for this? I've seen a lot of rumors flying around as facts regarding these housing changes so I'm a bit wary. I do think it makes sense that the restriction would only apply to the account purchasing the plot (and possibly leadership), and not who is in the FC. Can you imagine if an FC couldn't buy their first house due to some members already being at their 2-house cap on that server? I feel like I'm catastrophizing here, but given SE's track record with housing... who knows!?!?

[Sairys]

I don't mean to be That Guy but is there confirmation for this? I've seen a lot of rumors flying around as facts regarding these housing changes so I'm a bit wary. I do think it makes sense that the restriction would only apply to the account purchasing the plot (and possibly leadership), and not who is in the FC. Can you imagine if an FC couldn't buy their first house due to some members already being at their 2-house cap on that server? I feel like I'm catastrophizing here, but given SE's track record with housing... who knows!?!?

The translation I was watching noted that they specifically mentioned it does apply to all members of the fc.

If it didn't it'd make it easy enough to cycle through and get a bunch of houses on one account (you'd just get friends to set up the fc and then transfer leadership once the house is bought) which would only reduce the multiple house ownership potential down to 9 from 16 and would make it more difficult, but not impossible, for people trying to do it solo.

It's realistically what's happening already just with one extra step and needing to keep the other members in til you get the house.

[Brynne]

If it didn't it'd make it easy enough to cycle through and get a bunch of houses on one account (you'd just get friends to set up the fc and then transfer leadership once the house is bought)

It's still easy, because you can temporarily leave any other FCs and rejoin once the house is bought. My understanding is that the restrictions only apply to purchases, not joining FCs.

I'm hoping the restriction would be that the person who makes the actual purchase cannot be a member of another FC with a house on any other character, and not that if any member of the FC is a member of another FC with a house on any other character, the purchase cannot be made. Can you imagine the witch hunt within FCs for that? Would it tell you which member it was when you tried to purchase? What if it was someone who quit the game? Would you have to keep kicking random people until it lets you purchase? This would be a horrible design that's still easy to get around for anyone who wants to exploit it but potentially maddening for honest FCs who just happen to have one rogue member.

[Sairys]

It's still easy, because you can temporarily leave any other FCs and rejoin once the house is bought. My understanding is that the restrictions only apply to purchases, not joining FCs.

I'm hoping the restriction would be that the person who makes the actual purchase cannot be a member of another FC with a house on any other character, and not that if any member of the FC is a member of another FC with a house on any other character, the purchase cannot be made. Can you imagine the witch hunt within FCs for that? Would it tell you which member it was when you tried to purchase? What if it was someone who quit the game? Would you have to keep kicking random people until it lets you purchase? This would be a horrible design that's still easy to get around for anyone who wants to exploit it but potentially maddening for honest FCs who just happen to have one rogue member.

*shrug* the translation I was reading said they mentioned that it does apply to everyone in the fc. Which does reflect an expectation that a unique account will only have access to one personal and one fc house per world.

It sucks, but realistically these measures are only going in because the current system doesn't work and people have run with that as far as they possibly could.

The fact that it could be easy to get around seems like it's more a case that we'll end up with another housing rework if people do take advantage of that. Or that maybe the housing website will clarify how it's not as easy as expected to get around.

[illgot]

*shrug*

What gets me is they are creating all these new rules and opening new wards... and it still doesn't solve the actual problem.

The only real solution is to make housing instanced. Allow apartments to be converted into houses with yards. Let people pick the size house they want and allow them to upgrade anytime they can afford it.

Allow FCs to use instanced housing so all FCs can have access to a common meeting ground and crafting chambers.

No matter how many rules you make, if there are less houses than players, the system is broken especially since a good chunk of content is locked behind owning a house.

[Brynne]

It sucks, but realistically these measures are only going in because the current system doesn't work and people have run with that as far as they possibly could.

Yeah, I'll wait for the housing website to clarify, but I'll repeat my hope that this isn't actually the case. SE seems to have a habit of doing things that inconvenience the general player base who are following the rules and do not actually have material impact on the problem they're trying to combat (see also: being unable to trade with alts, which is supposed to hinder gil-sellers and actually does nothing to them as they use multiple accounts and form FCs to get around it - but it's a pain for regular players who want to play multiple characters and share glamour gear, etc).