Quote Originally Posted by Melichoir View Post
And chances are good that theyll say "Hey, on So-and-So date, individual purchases for housing will go out!" So its not going to be a random unannounced time most likely.
They did the opposite of this Christmas 2015. They gave a date and a time for FC/relocations already.

There's nothing to indicate, beyond your willingness to trust SE, that they will do an announcement and not just have people do another around of potentially sitting around for 9 hours or more again.

"But the Resellers!!!" What about them? You cant own more than one private and one FC per world now, so if you already own a house, by how the rules look, your SoL. You cant buy a new one. Even if you can, ok so you own a second one. Derp, sucks but Resellers arent going to buy up that many houses as FC houses. And you want to know how you screw resellers who want to make fake FCs on the housing market? By stalling when individuals can buy houses, making it so theres PLENTY of other land to buy so that resellers are fighting in a market with to much supply. Yeah, tis not going to be widespread abuse on the whole reseller point. Good luck trying to sell a Primo FC house when there are 143 other plots around, and you can only buy 1 FC house and 1 Personal house at a time per server.
This is a bit murky because you're stuck somewhere between "owning" and "purchasing," without fully nailing either of them.

The fact of the matter is that, if I (as an individual) were to re-up some old accounts, and spend a couple days making investments (time, mostly), I could very much use five service accounts to buy 7 (8 if I were to pawn off my current FC house) FC houses on Feb 6th. There's a very clear workaround in there. Depending on server stability, I'd wager I could nab 4 or 5 medium/large houses if I were so inclined*. This is anecdotal, but I'm familiar with two different groups of people on Faerie that resell houses. I don't know them personally, and do not know what they plan to do (or if they care at all), but the potential for abuse is high.

* I'm not! Put the pitchforks down!

So, is this the worst thing ever? No. Are they likely to continue adding housing to the game? Yes. Should it be easier now to get a house this time around with new rules in place? Yes. Are you gonna have to really try for it still? Sure. Are you going to get exactly the house you want in Shirogane? Maybe.
1) Depends on how invested you are in this housing thing. Not all houses are created equally - if they were, we would be in instanced housing - and that inequality will be a bigger or lesser deal depending on who you are. Housing is aesthetic (glamour), and glamour is endgame.
2) Yes. But not for a really long time. This is probably going to be it for 4.X, meaning you have over a year to wait for more (or two months for a select few demolitions).
3) Debatable. I'd argue "No" since, to get a house now, you have to do it personally. You can't get any friends to help (by also trying to buy, and relinquishing later to give it to you). And realistically you only have one chance at one placard since everyone will be standing at various placards based on their amount of investment in #1.
5) Because of relocations, and depending on your server (RIP Balmung), the answer to this is you're probably not getting a Shirogane plot period. Most individuals that relocate, which again they will do before individual purchases are enabled, will be relocating into Shirogane. Most houses available when individual purchasing is enabled will be in the Goblet, following past trends (Shiro >>> Mist >/= LB >> Goblet).

It may not be the most ideal of solutions currently, but you better be happy its something.
I'll respectfully decline. "It's better than nothing" is such a low bar, and I'm not even sure they've managed to clear that after drumming up excitement for housing, and then failing to deliver, in two consecutive patches.



Also, as this thread is now located in the Housing forum where I'll be preaching to the choir and markedly fewer people will see it, my interest in posting more has bottomed out.