Housing Ownership Restrictions

[Penthea]

1. So few accounts exist with multiple personal houses that this is not a significant contributor to the problem. The number is constantly going down, and never going up.

We have no way to know exactly at what rate these grandfathered plots fall because we don't have access to SE's internal statistics. Also there is no guarantee that the number will ever reach zero. Not every grandfathered player is going to eventually be careless with demolition timers, have unfortunate life circumstances, or quit the game.

Perhaps of those you know of and yourself included, you only have a small handful of grandfathered houses each, and this makes you feel you're being harshly targeted despite having a small impact. But there are some players who have gone very far beyond that, and others who have done it to that degree on several accounts. It's these players in particular that have made some people exceptionally angry.

Certainly in my case when I think of the major players in the issue of grandfathering I'm not thinking of someone who only has three or four houses. I'm thinking of people who have eight or more. Sure every grandfathered player is causing an issue to some degree, but there are those whose impact on other players is ludicrously high. A famous pair of players who own an entire ward are a prime example of this.

However to look at the full picture we must recognise it is not only grandfathered plots that are an issue, but also the removal of the restriction on the amount of fc houses that can be purchased. Since this restriction has been lifted players have been creating shell fcs for personal use, or for the expansion of their fc.

If this trend of turning fc purchase restriction on and off continues every time we get new wards, then this particular issue will one day end up far outpacing the issues grandfathered plots cause. I'm really curious to see what happens with this in the future. If players know by now that many fcs and players are able to increase how many houses they can own because the active restrictions are inconsistent, then SE obviously knows it too.

And honestly the above issue I mentioned is actually causing problems for people like you, because they draw more attention to players or fcs who own many plots regardless of when or how they got them.

Adding just a single ward would be more benefit to the homeless, less work for SE, and hurt zero players.

As long as the purchase restrictions on fc houses continues to get turned on and off, it's not as beneficial as it could be. But that specific issue is not related to grandfathering. It's SE making some very questionable decisions that go against some of the things they set out to fix. It's very strange. It was a completely unnecessary step backwards.

Some of the best suggestions beyond new wards / instanced Ishgard include:

-Larger apartments. Possibly with balconies, terraces, or sunrooms for gardening

Introducing this would be an excellent way to make the competition for housing fall without even needing to add any wards. If apartments were bigger and had access to all the same mechanics and features as houses, regardless of whether you are a private owner or a fc, then the amount of players unhappy with housing would very significantly fall. Some would end up no longer caring about hoarders at all.

-FC workshops being tied to your GC headquarters, the same as squads currently are. This eliminates the need for 'shell' FCs except for hardcore roleplayers.

I am not really sure what you are suggesting here. Care to elaborate? Are you suggesting workshops be tied to GCs to prevent abuse? Or to have more/different features? Or something else?

Both problems get solved by instanced house plots. When every player can be guaranteed a house plot regardless of how many are owned by other players, then owning multiple houses doesn't matter.

We know instanced housing works successfully in meeting player demand because of all the other MMOs that use it. You don't see players complaining "I can't get a house" in those games. Their complaints are related to what they're able to do with housing (usually items limits just like we see complaints about item limits here). If instanced housing was just as if not more stressful on server resources as the wards are like some players here want to claim, instanced housing wouldn't be as extensive as it is in those other games.

Ah the dream, this is the exact solution that I want above all others but for such a long time now SE have made it clear they have no intention of doing this. I don't know whether it's because the game's spaghetti code won't allow it without significant expensive changes, or they utterly fail to see the real solution to housing as a whole. Whatever the case may be, it's so disappointing to know that the likelihood of ever seeing this in the game is close to zero. The best we can realistically hope for is tweaks

[Catstab]

[Cat: grandfathered houses are a tiny percentage of the owned houses on a server]
Perhaps of those you know of and yourself included, you only have a small handful of grandfathered houses each, and this makes you feel you're being harshly targeted despite having a small impact.

[Cat: FC workshops should be tied to the GC headquarters like your squad is]
I am not really sure what you are suggesting here. Care to elaborate? Are you suggesting workshops be tied to GCs to prevent abuse? Or to have more/different features? Or something else?

Fun fact, I do not own any grandfathered houses. I do have friends that do. If they lost their multiple houses, they would probably quit the game. They lose enjoyment, I lose friends, SE loses money, a tiny group of people gain houses. It's a lose/lose/lose/win. The detriments outweigh the benefits. The same benefit can be had by just launching more wards, and it avoids all the problems deleting the grandfathered houses would create.

As for the workshop being moved to the GC headquarters, I can break that down for you. Currently, there is a game feature called "Squads" where any player of captain rank may enter an instance through a door to the left of the GC counter. Inside, you manage a group of adventurers that run instances with you, or do errands for you. The "Tie FC workshops to GC headquarters" suggestion would remove the workshop from the FC house and instead place it at your allied GC headquarters building. The workshop would still function exactly as it does, but it would no longer be entered from the FC house. This way, no shell FC that only wanted to pilot submarines would need to own a house.

[Penthea]

Fun fact, I do not own any grandfathered houses. I do have friends that do. If they lost their multiple houses, they would probably quit the game. They lose enjoyment, I lose friends, SE loses money, a tiny group of people gain houses. It's a lose/lose/lose/win. The detriments outweigh the benefits. The same benefit can be had by just launching more wards, and it avoids all the problems deleting the grandfathered houses would create.

As much as I dislike any hoarding in general, I can completely understand that assets being removed could drive a person to quit the game. I love my house and I would be devastated if I lost it.

This is why I would prefer instanced housing as a solution. No one loses anything. Every single one of us would gain. But I don't think SE is going to do this. They have not expressed any interest in it at all. So then instead I ask for tweaks, because at least that is something possible : / Well at least the apartment upgrades would improve things without anyone losing anything.

Though you can't say for sure that the detriments outweigh the benefits. For you personally this is completely true, but I know quite a lot of people who keep their sub rolling only because they have a house. When they had no house they unsubbed very periodically between content patches. SE have certainly made more money from individuals like this when they got houses. That being said I do understand what you mean.

As for the workshop being moved to the GC headquarters, I can break that down for you. Currently, there is a game feature called "Squads" where any player of captain rank may enter an instance through a door to the left of the GC counter. Inside, you manage a group of adventurers that run instances with you, or do errands for you. The "Tie FC workshops to GC headquarters" suggestion would remove the workshop from the FC house and instead place it at your allied GC headquarters building. The workshop would still function exactly as it does, but it would no longer be entered from the FC house. This way, no shell FC that only wanted to pilot submarines would need to own a house.

Ah so you are saying that by taking the house out of the equation for workshops and submarines, you then reduce the incentive for and advantage of shell fcs. That is certainly a very interesting idea, and not one I have come across before myself. This of course would not completely stop people making shell fcs to get houses because there are other motivations to get them, but it definitely would reduce the amount of people doing it.

I'm quite surprised that you don't seem to have made a thread with this suggestion. Or if you have I have not seen it. I honestly think it's good enough to warrant a discussion of its own because it tackles two major issues: incentive for hoarding fc houses, and fcs being locked out of fc content due to not having a house. And it is something that helps to improve things without taking anything from anyone. Really if you make a thread about this, I would be there to support this suggestion. It really is excellent.