Housing Suggestions/Fixes Timers/Supply

[SquashingFrogs]

To Preface, this thread is not for toxicity over the systems currently in place, your reading this suggests it's very likely that you have already been burned by the timers and general lack of housing on high pop servers.

Regarding the timers I understand there implementation that they are to discourage flipping and ill practices. I don't understand the need for the timer to be invisible however, to me this seems an oversight and likely the source of most frustration as it fosters uncertainty, I would propose making the timer a solid 10hrs from demolition/resignation. whilst simple I feel this deters flipping as anyone viewing will be able to attend the 10th hour and attempt to purchase, it deters botting as there is now a predefined time where GM's know botting is a significant possibility and most importantly it saves people gate keeping placards for hours on end.

The bigger issue and the reason the aforementioned is required is supply.
Currently on high/medium pop servers housing is short of demand this has been the case since implementation. Whilst many have proposed instancing as a fix I dislike this suggestion not unlike Square Enix as it is counter to there vision, they want housing wards to be bustling locales of activity and interaction or social hubs. I would suggest a type of instancing but its better described as phasing, if FF-XIV's engine allowed it, phasing would eliminate the need for multiple wards entirely, all housing could be instanced with each plot individually phased in. for example you enter The Mists and your house is located on plot 12 whenever you enter the Ward your house will always Inhabit plot 12, and the rest of the Ward will populate with randomly allocated housing.

To add to the above a few other small suggestions:

• Friends-list/FC Housing Allocation - The Ward will populate with FC and Friends List members with exemptions made for Plot conflicts.
  Personal Allocation, you may interact with the placards to populate the ward manually.

I envision this working as follows, Each plot is individually phased, once you pass the wall/gate you are phased into that plot along with anyone else currently within the walls. Whilst outside the walls you are phased into the Ward itself and here everyone currently within that ward is present this would massively increase the presence in housing wards changing them from ghost wards to something more akin capitals and market boards. I would hope that instancing in this fashion would allow for more housing in general. one of the issues I see with this would be plot preference as if you allow anyone to buy any plot then the less conveniently located plots or "ugly" plots will never be inhabited.

All of the above of course is my personal recommendation and I'm sure is flawed in ways beyond my thinking. I'm open to discussion and suggestion on improvements or entirely better ways of managing housing going forward.

[Yshtola]

It doesn't discourage anything but first time buyers to continue playing this game. You can still sell FCs just like you could 5 years ago and now players trade personal house relocations. Nothing's changed other than frustrating the players who begged for unneeded changes to the housing free market.

[Daemic]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ature-Requests

[IkaraGreydancer]

It doesn't discourage anything but first time buyers to continue playing this game. You can still sell FCs just like you could 5 years ago and now players trade personal house relocations. Nothing's changed other than frustrating the players who begged for unneeded changes to the housing free market.

You own half a ward. And you parade that fact around on all of these threads....ill say it again. You are part of the problem (at least on Gilga). Stop pretending like you care.

And to the op, I have yet to see a neighborhood that is bustling with people. Theyre all ghostowns. Their idea failed and its sad really

[Yshtola]

You own half a ward. And you parade that fact around on all of these threads....ill say it again. You are part of the problem (at least on Gilga). Stop pretending like you care.

Thought you would have noticed by now, but you really sound upset. What have you done for this server anyway?

[Penthea]

all housing could be instanced with each plot individually phased in. for example you enter The Mists and your house is located on plot 12 whenever you enter the Ward your house will always Inhabit plot 12, and the rest of the Ward will populate with randomly allocated housing.

I envision this working as follows, Each plot is individually phased, once you pass the wall/gate you are phased into that plot along with anyone else currently within the walls. Whilst outside the walls you are phased into the Ward itself and here everyone currently within that ward is present this would massively increase the presence in housing wards changing them from ghost wards to something more akin capitals and market boards. I would hope that instancing in this fashion would allow for more housing in general. one of the issues I see with this would be plot preference as if you allow anyone to buy any plot then the less conveniently located plots or "ugly" plots will never be inhabited.

All of the above of course is my personal recommendation and I'm sure is flawed in ways beyond my thinking. I'm open to discussion and suggestion on improvements or entirely better ways of managing housing going forward.

While this would solve the shortage issue, I feel like this solution has some problems.

How does the phasing work with gardens? Right now you can hop into a garden from the roads, but it seems that with your suggestions that players might disappear when they do so because they may be entering a plot that isn't displayed for you. Or would the gardens also be instanced? This would turn the housing plots into glorified apartments. A lot of people like the openness of the wards. Instancing the gardens would take that away. There would be no more jumping onto your roof from a nearby wall or stairway. Believe it or not this is something people really enjoy. I have seen in the ability to jump onto your roof be a selling point on house flipping forums.

As you mentioned already this would result in some plots being completely overlooked due to players being able to choose the same plots as many times as needed. So while the housing districts would become busier, some plots are going to have little to no activity at all. There are many plots that spring to mind that I know no one would take if they had their choice of literally anything. So then this would result in patches of dead zones in wards.

Not everyone wants the housing districts to be as busy as a city hub. Even though it's a game, people can feel uneasy in crowded places. I know some who found it hard to socialise with their fc in major cities and felt far more comfortable doing it after their fc got a house. Sometimes people want a nice chill place where they can do stuff in peace, without having to be cooped up inside a place like the inn.

Personally I'm very introverted. I find it tiresome to hang around very highly populated areas for long periods. The emote spam, busy chat, cacophony of sound effects and random blu suicides end up annoying me after a while. I understand that some people love this atmosphere, but many of us do not and housing in its current state (and what I mean by this is, each plot being unique and not one of many instances like you suggest) gives us quiet yet open areas that are far more relaxed. I'd likely end up visiting my house much less if we got your suggestion and my plot became a very busy area as a result.

I would much prefer if we got something I like to call micro-wards. Basically a player or fc can buy an instance with a huge plot of land, and can build as many houses as it can fit. This means players could create neighbourhoods together, or use the instance only for themselves if they wish. It would be as crowded or quiet as they wish. I envision you would hop between these micro wards similarly to how you do with apartments now. And because these wards would obviously be smaller than the ones we have now, the interior of the houses would not need to be separate from the exterior. It would also open the possibility of having a large choice of terrain types for the micro wards, instead of just the basic flat pieces of land we get for our houses right now.

Sadly...this is but a dream. I doubt SE will do something like this. They seem determined to keep a broken system.

What have you done for this server anyway?

I like how you're trying to make the criticism about them now. I guess you didn't fancy getting your hoarding highlighted.

[LuciferNacht]

It doesn't discourage anything but first time buyers to continue playing this game. You can still sell FCs just like you could 5 years ago and now players trade personal house relocations. Nothing's changed other than frustrating the players who begged for unneeded changes to the housing free market.

You own half a ward. And you parade that fact around on all of these threads....ill say it again. You are part of the problem (at least on Gilga). Stop pretending like you care.

And to the op, I have yet to see a neighborhood that is bustling with people. Theyre all ghostowns. Their idea failed and its sad really

I don't understand why you ignored the point that they were making. The point stands that people on this very OF complained about the old way and got a system change and are now complaining about the monster they created. The current system ONLY hurts first time buyers as nothing has changed for the people selling plots. If you look at the housing market subreddit, it's more active than ever, with large FCs going for 150-250 mil.

It's absolutely ridiculous that just because this person owns multiple houses, their points are disregarded when they literally speak the exact state of the game everytime.

But I guess haters are gonna hate right?

[Gula]

But I guess haters are gonna hate right?

No. Being apart of the problem is what makes their opinions, generally, instantly disregarded.

It's literally like owning a massive plot of land in a small town, then fanning yourself from your lofty porch and commenting on how many homeless there are in said town. You didn't break the law, you bought aaaall those 20 acres of land in an area just barely touching 100 acres. But you are still not budging and outright antagonizing others about for commenting on it.

[Shougun]

Timer does seem to help with non-FC selling though, so it did do something. It's just also frustrating of course but that is born out of the limited supply more than anything. Any solution to the problem is going to be a "problem" since the real issue is supply.

They could improve the timer though by making it a lottery that even people who relocate have to take part in (put your gil down, lottery lasts a few hours and a winner is picked the rest get their gil back). Perhaps you can make a list of houses you want (location/plot#) and put your gil down (once, not for each) and it will put you in the lottery for all the locations (of course you can only keep one if you won many). If you won it would give you a big prompt in-game and mog mail for a few days to confirm and send the gil away or it'll go back into the lottery system if you don't respond (so you actually know you won one and not have it auto demolish lol).

Also there are so few houses just for giggles they could put a GM on housing duty that checks reddit for what houses are on sale and puts a notice in the system when they sell to see if anyone bought a house that way (traded the gil amount and made any mention in game enough to prove) and then remove it from them, just for the giggles :P.

[Yshtola]

I like how you're trying to make the criticism about them now. I guess you didn't fancy getting your hoarding highlighted.

Do I have to pull the ignorant claims you have made about housing before? Do I have to remind others that you couldn't handle facts and had to resort to blocking me?

I don't understand why you ignored the point that they were making. The point stands that people on this very OF complained about the old way and got a system change and are now complaining about the monster they created. The current system ONLY hurts first time buyers as nothing has changed for the people selling plots. If you look at the housing market subreddit, it's more active than ever, with large FCs going for 150-250 mil.

It's absolutely ridiculous that just because this person owns multiple houses, their points are disregarded when they literally speak the exact state of the game everytime.

But I guess haters are gonna hate right?

Thank god some people get it...

No. Being apart of the problem is what makes their opinions, generally, instantly disregarded.

It's literally like owning a massive plot of land in a small town, then fanning yourself from your lofty porch and commenting on how many homeless there are in said town. You didn't break the law, you bought aaaall those 20 acres of land in an area just barely touching 100 acres. But you are still not budging and outright antagonizing others about for commenting on it.

HAHAHAHA

If you think I'm part of the problem, then what are players using automation to get a plot? The saviors of this game?

On a serious note, I'm obviously the person that is preventing everyone on my server, and every other server, from acquiring a house. But hey, let's not talk about how 45 days is ridiculously long to free up a plot or how the previous system worked flawlessly in comparison to what we have now. Players feel entitled because SE has lowered housing prices so low that completing ARR essentially gives you enough money to buy a small house. Bring back the original prices and you can bet that overnight, your housing shortage is gone.

Edit: Your comparison is so flawed. I own 26 houses on Gilgamesh. That's 0.6% of the server.

Timer does seem to help with non-FC selling though, so it did do something. It's just also frustrating of course but that is born out of the limited supply more than anything. Any solution to the problem is going to be a "problem" since the real issue is supply.

They could improve the timer though by making it a lottery that even people who relocate have to take part in (put your gil down, lottery lasts a few hours and a winner is picked the rest get their gil back).

Also there are so few houses just for giggles they could put a GM on housing duty that checks reddit for what houses are on sale and puts a notice in the system when they sell to see if anyone bought a house it (traded the gil amount and made any mention in game enough to prove) and then remove it from them, just for the giggles :P.

No players still end up paying others to get a better plot instead of their first plot. Literally nothing has changed...

The problem doesn't lie with the supply considering we went from less than 1000 houses to nearly 4500. The problem(s) lies in the fact that Square Enix has reduced and consolidated prices while letting players have their own personal houses. Gilgamesh had over a thousand empty plots by the time the moratorium of early 4.1 was over so I can't think of how empty small pop servers looked like even after those two weeks had passed.

By the way, sorry to burst your bubble, but GMs do not care about 1 on 1 transactions unless someone gets scammed. If that does happen, you better hope to have that mutual agreement somewhere in the chat or they won't help you at all.