Hoarding Houses - Sometimes a Depressing Sight (a rant)

[MaybeOliverB]

I am more informed about this now. Thank you.

However you're still very wrong that grandfathered players are not causing issues, and this claim that the houses they own are dropping every week is something you pulled out of the air. I asked how you knew this and you provided no source whatsoever despite being someone who clearly is on a mission to prove me wrong. I am still waiting.

More informed? You have still have no firsthand knowledge about the topic.

I'm absolutely not wrong in saying that grandfathered players are not even an issue. Before dwelling into this, let's get this out of the way. Since 4.2, owning more than 1 personal house per server/account has no purpose other than bragging rights.


You can be a lvl 1 player with 2 quests completed under your belt and buy an FC house. Unlike personal house owners, FC home owners do not have to meet any minimum level requirement and the second lieutenant GC requirement in order to own or even purchase a plot. With how easy you can level up an FC, there was no reason to level up a character to 50 just to purchase additional plots.

FC houses have always had an edge over personal houses. Both offer the same amount of garden beds, if you don't take flower pots that can be placed inside personal rooms into consideration, but the list stops here. FC houses can be outfitted with a workshop, which is a plus value regardless of if you are reselling the house or if you are a crafter. FC houses can also charge FC buffs, but the main advantage comes from the fact that you can transfer ownership of the house to any player without having them relocate or purchase the plot again.

So here's a breakdown of the changes with patch 4.2 regarding personal and fc houses.

Pre 4.2

Personal house:
Up to 8 per server.
Cannot be transfered, buyer has to purchase the plot and pay x amount of gil to the previous owner.
Gardening ($).

FC house:
Up to 8 per server.
Easily transferable and can be relinquished if the buyer desires to use the plot for their personal house.
Workshop ($).
Airships/Submarines ($).
House can be used to charge FC buffs ($).
Gardening ($).


Post 4.2

Personal house:
Limited to 1 per account. Grandfathered players cannot purchase more personal houses after getting rid of their extra one(s).
Cannot be transfered, buyer has to purchase the plot and pay x amount of gil to the previous owner.
Cannot be purchased on the spot. Players that would like to acquire their first house better click on that placard a lot.
Gardening ($).

FC house:
Up to 8 per server.
Easily transferable and can be relinquished if the buyer desires to use the plot for their personal house through relocation.
Workshop ($).
Airships/Submarines ($).
House can be used to charge FC buffs ($).
Gardening ($).

So now that we know that FC houses have a higher value on the house trading market, suffer no restriction other than how many characters you have on a specific server and that the requirements to obtain one are much more lower than the personal houses, why would anyone keep extra personal houses other than for bragging rights? As mentioned above, grandfathered characters cannot purchase more personal houses than what they already have, they can only lose them. Whether it's because they sold it to another player/FC or through auto-demolition, the amount of grandfathered personal plots logically goes down every week due to players leaving the game and the lack of incentive to keep extra personal houses. A grandfathered character that has traded his/her house away can always replace his character's personal by an FC house afterwards, but they don't fall in the grandfathered category anymore.

I know my server's housing situation very well. Doubt me? Check my signature. As you may or may not know, Gilgamesh used to be the go-to server for the raiding scene. Guess who tends to level more than 1 character to 50? Raiders. Despite having tons of players on this server with more than 1 character at 50 for raid purposes, few actually own more than 1 house. I know way more players with multi-home FCs.

You can't say that grandfathered players are the issue when you can make 50 fresh characters on a server and end up with 50 FC houses in an evening. That's just plain ignorance.