only getting 95% of what we're paying for.

[Shougun]

I love housing but nothing relies on it to function properly.

Imo that's the sad part. If everyone could have housing features then we could see better housing features (both feature set and feature quality). Although I would add at this moment it already hurts a FC not to have a house so, maybe not missing a windshield level issue but certainly more than nothing.

Two word: World Visit.

Every NA preferred world is getting placed on Crystal with Mateus and Balmung. You don't have to leave your friends. You'll be free to continue playing with unhindered as long as they're going to be on a Crystal world.

If you're not on the server your FC is part of then you wont get the buffs/most features of the FC (can chat), there are other restrictions not mentioned yet, some restrictions mentioned like marketboard, and you can't have your house on a server that isn't your home - these do lend to it being a greater hassle/not as easy fun/ Since you potentially have to leave your FC, marketboard, home of preferred access, and lose some QoL in order to get a house - which unfortunately could help the experience turn into buyers remorse over time. Certainly worth looking into though and could be a perfect fit for some players, just saying it's not perfect solution and can come with a lot of new and perhaps experience changing/ruining issues - imo at least.

Ideally everyone gets a house regardless of server, like many western MMOs (I like Wild Star's house system personally) but specifically we can reference LOTR online which has an automatically growing ward system (exceptionally similar to FFXIV's but theirs grows automatically when one ward becomes full).

[Penthea]

Imo that's the sad part. If everyone could have housing features then we could see better housing features (both feature set and feature quality). Although I would add at this moment it already hurts a FC not to have a house so, maybe not missing a windshield level issue but certainly more than nothing.

I feel the same way for both points.

If everyone could have easy access to a house then SE would probably integrate housing more with the rest of the game. Doing that now would be a horrendous move because of the current situation with population vs houses. We're missing out on some potentially great things because of this.

Having a house for a fc is advantageous for the sake of convenience and some mechanical reasons such as the workshop, but the main gain from having the house is the social aspect. Having a little social hub just for your fc does wonders for forming bonds and friendships. While the social aspect is not something that can be quantified like an actual game mechanic, its potential value cannot be disputed.

[Dyvid]

Correct me if I'm wrong but is housing not part of the game? If so then why are we paying for something that 90% of us can't access? On the Mateus server all plots are owned. Several by the same person, yet housing is not sold separately, it's not additional content that you pay extra for.... Is it something that can be accessed without a subscription? Do people with housing pay more for their subscription?

It honestly is becoming a deal breaker. To make matters worse when they implement a new housing area who has faster access to that housing? People with houses already..... If you don't own one you have to wait for some invisible timer that people with houses already don't have to wait for?

I'm not sure if this is a cultural thing or if SE has just completely lost their minds, but I'm stopping payment on the pre-order until this is fixed. I honestly can't justify paying the exact same amount of money and getting less content. It isn't fair and what's worse is I would gladly pay 20 dollars for a housing plot.

Just to be clear, there are no houses or apartments on Mateus, Correct?

[UserHere]

Correct me if I'm wrong but is housing not part of the game? If so then why are we paying for something that 90% of us can't access? On the Mateus server all plots are owned. Several by the same person, yet housing is not sold separately, it's not additional content that you pay extra for.... Is it something that can be accessed without a subscription? Do people with housing pay more for their subscription?

It honestly is becoming a deal breaker. To make matters worse when they implement a new housing area who has faster access to that housing? People with houses already..... If you don't own one you have to wait for some invisible timer that people with houses already don't have to wait for?

I'm not sure if this is a cultural thing or if SE has just completely lost their minds, but I'm stopping payment on the pre-order until this is fixed. I honestly can't justify paying the exact same amount of money and getting less content. It isn't fair and what's worse is I would gladly pay 20 dollars for a housing plot.

It would be nice if everyone could get a house. That being said apartments are the so 100% of people can access housing.

[Shougun]

It would be nice if everyone could get a house. That being said apartments are the so 100% of people can access housing.

Apartments are limited so it's not true 100% may be able to (especially FC), depending on the server you're on at least. Also they're a lesser content compared to having an actual house, missing some features and quantity (especially a large). Maybe some day they'll be upgrade-able into a large quality house though, that'd be cool.

[Gula]

Apartments are limited so it's not true 100% may be able to (especially FC), depending on the server you're on at least. Also they're a lesser content compared to having an actual house, missing some features and quantity (especially a large). Maybe some day they'll be upgrade-able into a large quality house though, that'd be cool.

Given how many people can be on a World and how many would care to drop 500k on an apartment, I think it's actually impossible to fill up every single apartment unit between every housing ward+subdivision.

[Jojoya]

Apartments are limited so it's not true 100% may be able to (especially FC), depending on the server you're on at least. Also they're a lesser content compared to having an actual house, missing some features and quantity (especially a large). Maybe some day they'll be upgrade-able into a large quality house though, that'd be cool.

I doubt we'll ever be able to convert apartments into houses but I think it's quite possible we'll have a chance to upgrade them to larger apartments eventually. One of the things they had mentioned last year was that they were they were exploring adding in options for apartments sizes.

It's a shame they didn't have more info about housing changes for us during any of the FanFests outside of the hint at Ishgard housing. My hope is they have a major housing system change planned for 5.1 much the way 4.1 added Shirogane but they're going to wait until just after Shadowbringers is released to discuss it.

[Shougun]

Given how many people can be on a World and how many would care to drop 500k on an apartment, I think it's actually impossible to fill up every single apartment unit between every housing ward+subdivision.

Haven't checked in a while but last time I did, and perhaps that was before the ward extension, but balmung was full on all accounts with random openings sometimes. But my main point is even if they are open it's not true 100 percent house content since it doesn't have all the features.

I doubt we'll ever be able to convert apartments into houses but I think it's quite possible we'll have a chance to upgrade them to larger apartments eventually. One of the things they had mentioned last year was that they were they were exploring adding in options for apartments sizes.

It's a shame they didn't have more info about housing changes for us during any of the FanFests outside of the hint at Ishgard housing. My hope is they have a major housing system change planned for 5.1 much the way 4.1 added Shirogane but they're going to wait until just after Shadowbringers is released to discuss it.

I agree with you, unlikely they would do that and I agree it would be great to see the apartment system be upgraded.

[Windwalker]

Housing is not that big of a deal, this game is focused around actual gameplay not housing.

Want housing? Try Second Life, you can rent a huge piece of land, create your own mesh, textures, sounds or even buy player made content. Everything can be edited in every shape and form, rotated and placed anywere, no glitches needed. Same goes for avatars, you can create avatars from FFXIV if you so wish.

[Alyanna_Elingval]

The only way this argument would be valid is if every house and apartment on every server was taken.

Does the game offer players housing on their terms, ie...server they want, housing area they want, the size they want? Obviously not. However, if there is a person who is currently without housing, could they acquire housing today if they wanted it just by changing servers? Yes. So no one is being denied housing, they're just can't have it completely on their own terms. Two completely different things.

Honestly, if I were SE I wouldn't be in a rush to add more housing. All they'd be doing is adding more empty lots and apartments to low population servers, while giving players less of an incentive to leave the overpopulated ones to balance things out.

I would work on enhancing apartments before adding more wards.