Nope you didn't add enough plots SE...

[Terin]

I'm incredibly fortunate to have a house I really enjoy (one of the beachfront Smalls in The Mist). But my dad logged in this morning, and every house was already sold, and it was clear that there is a very real issue.

I'm not upset (why would I be, though?), but I do think some serious changes are in order.

Here are my personal changes, which would not only make things much simpler, but actually IMPROVE functionality in some cases.

- Auto-demolish needs to be reactivated. I think everyone would agree. Just "reset" everyone's timer. Maybe randomly add like "+5 days" for some players if possible, just to stagger the releases a bit.

- Institute a 1-house-per-server restriction. Right now, it is possible for a single player to own TWO HOUSES ON A SINGLE CHARACTER, and that's completely unreasonable. Furthermore, were a player so driven, they could even own additional houses on alts. That is completely unacceptable.

- No more "Free-Company Houses". All Houses should belong to a Player. In making this change, allow a Free Company to "tag" a member's house as "the Free Company house", allowing everyone to port to it. That way, Free Companies aren't sitting on additional houses. Otherwise, that still allows a single player to own two houses.

- Let's face it; there IS and WILL ALWAYS BE a "Housing market". So why not give players a "House Deed" as a tradable item, allowing a more legitimized form of selling or even trading houses? If anything, I would love this, as I would LOVE to be able to trade my house for one that is next to my dad's, even if it's in a less-desirable location.

- In adding all of these restrictions, making House ownership Account-wide. I would love to be able to have alts visit my house, and move furniture around. Enough so, I could totally see turning my original character (this Miqo'te Monk) into my "Housing character", while my new Main continues earning cool new items himself.

Taken together, I honestly think these changes would lead to a FAR better housing market for players.

Also I'll add one more personal suggestion, which is totally unnecessary but kind of bothers me all the same:

- Would it be possible to take all of the "Subdivisions" and turn them into their own separate Wards? It just feels funny that Subdivisions always feel sort of "hidden", whereas treating them as their own Wards would feel a lot more organic and be easier to navigate (for example, having to re-memerize what direction you're facing when using the aetherytes).

[MPK]

No thanks. I only raid log and haven't touched that content in ages but it's nice to own one you know?

[MsMisato]

- Let's face it; there IS and WILL ALWAYS BE a "Housing market". So why not give players a "House Deed" as a tradable item, allowing a more legitimized form of selling or even trading houses? If anything, I would love this, as I would LOVE to be able to trade my house for one that is next to my dad's, even if it's in a less-desirable location.

New job/tradeskill - Eorzean Real Estate Broker.

While this sounds like a good idea this will make the RMT scene even worse than it is.

[Moonlite]

New job/tradeskill - Eorzean Real Estate Broker.

While this sounds like a good idea this will make the RMT scene even worse than it is.

Worse? Like seriously how worse can it get? I was doing a low level MSQ quest last week. I could not even see Komuxio, was blanked out by all the bots. Lucky they go underground really fast. Also almost no one in the zone so didn't cause a zone lockout. SE is very lax on bots and RMT and allow tonnes of gil into circulation.



I don't think at this point RMT could be used as a legitimate excuse. Housing has way to many other problems though besides RMT.

[Terin]

New job/tradeskill - Eorzean Real Estate Broker.

While this sounds like a good idea this will make the RMT scene even worse than it is.

Problem is, people are clearly circumventing any intention by simply "selling Free Companies with house". For many players, that is their only recourse for actually TRYING to get a house. There's no doubt, the Devs had good intentions, but players who want a house (which is clearly a lot of them, for good reason: FFXIV has a pretty awesome housing system!), they're obviously going to find any sort of workaround they can exploit.

If they wanted to nip it in the bud, then they could at least make my proposed changes to "Free Company housing". That would render it literally impossible to "trade" or "sell" houses. I personally prefer the ability to sell/trade houses, since I recognize I got EXTREMELY lucky to have gotten a house, and were I still without one, I would probably be incredibly frustrated I would have to rely ENTIRELY on luck to acquire one. At least by allowing players to Sell or Trade the deed to a plot, it gives players SOME kind of outlet. Heck, maybe it could include an additional gold-sink (ie. "Transferring ownership of a house incurs an additional 1mil fee from each party" or something like that).

Also, something else I wouldn't mind seeing added:

- Removing the "RANDOM timer" for Players without houses already. It's cool to give Home-owners a little extra priority to Relocate to a new plot, but I feel like it should be a static timer. Whether it's something short like a 2-hour window, or even something crazy like a 24-hour window, I don't think players should be stuck waiting around and clicking on a sign, HOPING to purchase a house for HOURS ON-END. Make it a static timer, and SHOW that timer, so players can actually enjoy their time without stressing out. "Okay, that house isn't going to even be AVAILABLE to purchase for another three hours, I'll just set an alarm and check back like 5 min before the timer expires, and then home for the best".

Frankly, the current system is just incredibly stress-inducing, and I don't see any reason why a static, visible timer would be a bad idea. Although if there is a reason, let me know! I might just not be thinking clearly, haha.

[TaleraRistain]

Removing the random timer is a really bad idea. Then you would just give the resellers back their means of sniping up houses because they could assure someone when it would be available to purchase from them.

They should instead keep the timer and make moving applicable to it like outright buying. It's not right that someone moving a house can bypass all the people who are sitting and waiting for it. I've seen suggestions on here about interacting with the sign putting you into a lottery for the house after a specified time. That way people could go play the game and don't have to sit and try to beat someone to clicking on the sign. If moves were also part of that lottery, then the only option left for resellers would be selling the FC with the house and while that still happens, it's not nearly as common as selling your plot so someone can move to it. If they kill the resell market as much as possible and make them a lot less profitable, then more will become available.

[LalaRu]

... it is possible for a single player to own TWO HOUSES ON A SINGLE CHARACTER...

Are you sure? I got this message.

[TaleraRistain]

Are you sure? I got this message.

You used to be able to have a private and an FC but didn't they change that? Now the FC house is assumed to belong to "everyone" since anyone could potentially become the leader. Or they may finally have rescinded that. I know folks were very upset with it.

[Terin]

Are you sure? I got this message.

Well what I'm referencing is owning a "personal house" and also a "free company house", because the latter are pretty frequently sold and thus are easier to acquire. I had read some players owned as many as four houses (using the aforemetioned loophope), on two different characters, but I'll admit I haven't personally witnessed it.

I definitely know that owning a personal and a FC house is possible. And to me, that just isn't fair for players who don't even HAVE a house.

[TaleraRistain]

Well what I'm referencing is owning a "personal house" and also a "free company house", because the latter are pretty frequently sold and thus are easier to acquire. I had read some players owned as many as four houses (using the aforemetioned loophope), on two different characters, but I'll admit I haven't personally witnessed it.

I definitely know that owning a personal and a FC house is possible. And to me, that just isn't fair for players who don't even HAVE a house.

Is it fair that just because someone wants to be in an FC that they can't have their own personal space? Especially if they don't have permissions for the FC house like gardening and decorating.