Feedback on what housing has become

[Azgarde]

Hello all,
First of all, I've been a player since ARR launched in 2014. I've been having a blast.

I did take a break 7 months ago and came back and here are my thoughts on housing.

First, it's like if nothing has changed at all. Logging and trying to buy a plot to build a house is nearly impossible. I looked up on pretty much every single server, and all plots are taken. It's been almost 5 years since this game came out, and we are still in the same situation as we were back in the days. One would've thought improvements would've been made.

1: Random timer on free plots. I do understand the goal is to prevent people to sell them for massive amount of gils, however the people really affected by it are the new players or returning players who have to camp Placards for hours or days.

2: The removal of auto-demolition for Months. I do understand for a couple of weeks, but MONTHS? Especially that now JP servers got it back?

Obviously, since I took a long break, I lost my house and my plot. This is obvious and totally normal and acceptable. However, what I find unacceptable is the fact that now, auto-demolition has been turned off since OCTOBER 2018 (which is nearing 5 months, almost half a year) and there has been a massive influx of new players, specially coming from World of Warcraft.

What it means is this: Lots of new players looking for houses and plots, and nothing is available. So basically, sad to say, it's nearing a False Advertisement, whereas one of the keypoints of FFXIV is it's housing system, yet we can't experience it anymore(not because we aren't skilled enough or lacking money or anything we can change) due to the way it's being taken care of.

5 years, nothing has really changed, result is the same.

Now, this isn't a "I will cancel my account" kind of topic. This is just to add my voice to all of you who expresses concerns about the way Square Enix is dealing with FFXIV Housing system issues.

[Canadane]

You state nothing has changed, but then list two things that have changed!
But I agree with you, the auto-demolition timer is way overdue. However the placard change is mostly for the good. It affects everyone equally,p which is what we want. To give everyone a fair chance.

[MaybeOliverB]

You state nothing has changed, but then list two things that have changed!
But I agree with you, the auto-demolition timer is way overdue. However the placard change is mostly for the good. It affects everyone equally,p which is what we want. To give everyone a fair chance.

I wouldn't really call it a fair chance considering you have a sizable percentage of players using mouse/keyboard macros, automation software or "premium" software with memory injection . Having a free market was a lot better for literally everyone.

[Azgarde]

Actually, a free market was better for the sole reason you could farm gil and eventually buy the house, even if you had to spend 8-9Mil for a small plot. Now it's just based on luck, that's all. Sit in front of a Placard for hours and pray you click faster than the other 10 people spamming the placard at the same time as you do.

[Penthea]

Actually, a free market was better for the sole reason you could farm gil and eventually buy the house, even if you had to spend 8-9Mil for a small plot.

The free market wasn't as shiny and nice as many make it out to be. You weren't protected if you got scammed when you tried to buy or sell a plot. Reporting the scam meant you would also be reporting yourself for engaging in house flipping, which is against the ToS.

Also the ridiculous prices tempted some players to use RMT, which is also against the ToS and again you wouldn't be protected if you got scammed for the same reasons.

The "free market" system and the current system are both bloody awful. Just for different reasons.

[DrWho2010]

basically you need to have enough money to buy two houses these days. get a crappy small in the goblet and then transfer to your plot of choice.

[Penthea]

basically you need to have enough money to buy two houses these days. get a crappy small in the goblet and then transfer to your plot of choice.

You did a lot of the time before as well seeing as 99% of the time house flippers sold plots for several times their price. If you bought a plot for only twice the price that was considered very cheap on some servers.

[Losara]

After witnessing a player relocate to a small house another player said they had been standing at for a few hours in the hope of having a house I believe that relocation's should also be affected by the housing timer for fairness sake.

Sure when you relocate you are giving up one spot for another but the housing timer resets and they need to go through a waiting period again. Not sure of the actual specifics of the timer but that scenario mentioned earlier seemed unfair especially when said re-locator then seemed to be taunting the other person which really annoyed me for some reason.

Better still would be complete removal of the housing timer but for that to occur it would likely require instanced housing to be implemented as that would heavily reduce the incentive for RMT as there would be more supply resulting is less profits.

Admittedly waiting at a housing plot for hours on end hoping for the timer to be up seems counter productive but can understand that with the way relocation works you need literally any house then you join the re-locators in relocating into any future open spot.

Apartments aren't good enough to satisfy players want for housing either so hopefully they are improved to have some form of outdoor area (balcony perhaps) and possibly a 2nd floor in the future.

I would recommend new house hunters to use FC housing temporarily for now and save up for when the auto-demolitions are turned back on. At that point there will be an immense amount of housing which will likely never be filled to capacity on small to mid tier servers at least until the next time auto-demolition is turned off.

Hang in there

[Annakajima]

After witnessing a player relocate to a small house another player said they had been standing at for a few hours in the hope of having a house I believe that relocation's should also be affected by the housing timer for fairness sake.

I agree, I know having a personal and FC house puts me in a privileged position, but I was also one of those players when the free market operated that could never afford to buy a home off a flipper. I love housing and it's easy to forget how it feels when I was on the outside looking in (on peoples homes) and removing the relocating buff so to say would (in my opinion) make things fairer.

Being on Moogle we occasionally would have plots available in goblet, even going down to sub 2 million gil, but the last couple of weeks we've had no free plots so I'd guess demand is at its peaks, I guess when the transfers go up that will change and I hope that will help alleviate demand until further solutions are provided

[Daniolaut]

First let me start with welcome back.

Second just a quick correction, FFXIV 2.0 released in August, of 2013.

Third, if you want to have fun with XIV, finding things to complain about isn’t going to help.

Forth, on April 23rd there will a data center shuffle and many players are likely buying up housing in attempts to get free Gil with their free transfers, so expect to see many houses plots going empty. Try to buy a small plot and then “relocate” to a medium or large if that’s your goal.

Housing is a goal like anything else. Not everything needs to be for everyone. That’s what the inn room and apartments are for. You don’t *need* a house.
Also, not everything needs to be easy. Leaving the game and coming back expecting to buy a house immediately is a bit of an ask.

The only different between an apartment and a house, is gardening, and the "trophy" aspect. I cant imagine all the people complaining about housing whom dont have apartments are such avid gardening players. If its because of the trophy, refer back to "housing is a goal" statement. There are inn rooms and apartments for a reason. Not everyone needs a house.