Getting a New House Feels Impossible

[Jojoya]

FC houses are not the major problem on NA when:

There are 120,960 plots across the 3 North American Data Centers and as of earlier this week, 33,962 Free Companies owned a house.

As of Jun 2020, 28.07% are owned as FC houses.

People need to stop using 'dummy' FCs as a convenient scapegoat. Majority of houses in NA are owned as personals.

And yet dummy FCs contribute to the problem because many of them are run by players so they can have access to multiple houses as opposed to get their only house.

Even if only a third of the FC owned houses are owned by those abusing the system to get multiple houses and SE were to decide to reclaim and put those houses back into the system, that would free about about 500 houses per world. That's not an insignificant number.

If you want to vent about a specific server, post in the servers category or mention it in the title. Else players will give their opinion and good for your servers that theres no Dummy FC's ... a quick google serarch shows "couple owns entire ward on Mateus" ... its the first thing that shows up.

Convenient Scapegoat, lets roll with it ... ill bow out, you beat me.

That couple also bought all those houses when multiple house ownership was allowed and Mateus was a low pop world with plenty of available houses just sitting there for the taking. It wasn't until much later that the population on Mateus increased because it got dubbed the RP world to make characters on when you couldn't make a character on Balmung.

Those aren't the players most of us want to see punished. What they did was within the rules at the time they made their purchase.

It's the players who have abused the system since the 4.2 rules went into effect that need to have their FC houses taken away.

[TwistedTea]

And yet dummy FCs contribute to the problem because many of them are run by players so they can have access to multiple houses as opposed to get their only house.

Even if only a third of the FC owned houses are owned by those abusing the system to get multiple houses and SE were to decide to reclaim and put those houses back into the system, that would free about about 500 houses per world. That's not an insignificant number.

It's the players who have abused the system since the 4.2 rules went into effect that need to have their FC houses taken away.

What about the 70% of houses owned as personals, what does that tell you?

Even if all the 'dummy' FC houses were reclaimed- that 28.07% includes legit FC houses.

There are not enough houses for every individual player.

Owning multiple FCs is not against the rules. In this thread, a multi FC owner reported themselves to the GM for owning multiple houses.

So yeah, dummy FC houses are a convenient scapegoat rather than tackling the issue that the persistent ward system does not have enough houses for every individual player.

Secondly, it's is shortsighted, when it comes to coping with increased player population.

[Jojoya]

Owning multiple FCs is not against the rules.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../housing_land/

Players may only own one private and one free company estate per World on any given service account.

* Players possessing housing above this limit prior to patch 4.2 will not be affected by this change.

So yes, it is against the rules if they were acquired after the 4.2 changes.

The problem with relying on GM responses is that GMs don't create the rules. The rules are created by the developers. The GMs are there to assist players having issues with the game, and given limited authority to enforce some of the rules. Other rules are outside of their authority and related issues have to be escalated to those who handle them. The one GM response I've ever seen posted anywhere regarding multiple house ownership rules said it was outside of their authority to enforce.

Any GM response that goes "well if the game lets you do it, it's okay" is patently false. There have been plenty of things the game has let players do just to have SE state doing so was an exploit and actions will be taken against accounts found to be knowingly taking advantage of the exploit (see Ungarmax as a prime example).

Players still need to use common sense - does the game intend for me to be doing this? In the case of multiple FC ownership, the answer is clearly no. The posted rules say we're limited to one FC house per account per world.

What we're running into is a lack of current enforcement of the posted rules, not a rule that doesn't exist. Let's revisit Ungarmax - that exploit had been getting used for players for a year before SE stepped in, fixed it and started banning accounts.

As for the number of houses needed to meet demand, you're correct. Another 500 houses would not be enough on most NA worlds. But it would still be a start until such time as more houses are added.

[PrincessAlice]

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../housing_land/

Go ahead and read above that text for me, please. It says "TEMPORARY Changes to Purchasing Land". The 1 FC restriction was removed ages ago. If you wanted to buy a 2nd FC on your account you're free to. Test it out if you don't believe me. I was the one who reported myself to the GMs and didn't get busted because they didn't find any rules broken. If you see an issue with it you're completely free to report me as well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Jojoya]

Go ahead and read above that text for me, please. It says "TEMPORARY Changes to Purchasing Land". The 1 FC restriction was removed ages ago. If you wanted to buy a 2nd FC on your account you're free to. Test it out if you don't believe me. I was the one who reported myself to the GMs and didn't get busted because they didn't find any rules broken. If you see an issue with it you're completely free to report me as well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"Temporary" does not mean not in effect.

Please link the notice posted on Lodestone to inform players the restriction was removed.

And yeah, I've opened my own ticket now with the GMs to get a response on why the Lodestone shows a rule implemented in 4.2 and still in effect as of February of this year if GMs are telling players the rule doesn't exist. Have no idea if I'll get response with the way COVID has messed up GM support but we'll find out.

[Yshtola]

And yeah, I've opened my own ticket now with the GMs to get a response on why the Lodestone shows a rule implemented in 4.2 and still in effect as of February of this year if GMs are telling players the rule doesn't exist. Have no idea if I'll get response with the way COVID has messed up GM support but we'll find out.

*cricket sounds*

Please tell me you actually wasted your time? If you did, you should share your chat logs for the sake of entertainment of course. I mean... justice... yeah that's the word

[k99]

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../housing_land/

Players may only own one private and one free company estate per World on any given service account.

* Players possessing housing above this limit prior to patch 4.2 will not be affected by this change.

So yes, it is against the rules if they were acquired after the 4.2 changes.

Once again and probably many more times to come, please take caution in how you choose to interpret 'rules' and 'ethics'.

Owning one private and one free company estate per world on any given service account is listed as a technical limitation for each account applied after patch 4.2. No listed consequence for exceeding this amount or any known language/statement from SE indicates that this practice is against the rules and will be met with any form of enforcement or action.

Several users have posted their conversations with GMs regarding multiple house ownership, going as far as to 'turn themselves in' with GMs very clearly and directly stating that such ownership is not a bannable or enforceable offense unless it can be proven to serve as a deliberate disruption to other players. Owning multiple homes is nothing more than a 'violation' of varying player ethics, however selfish it may appear or be to different people.

But please do not needlessly misinform people that it is against the rules to own more houses beyond the technical limitation, be it on the same account with multiple FCs, through multiple separate accounts, or numerous characters. Until SE has made an official statement or entry into the ToS that explicitly details multi-house ownership as being a violation of the rules and ToS, it would be gross misinformation on your part to continue echoing this false fact.