Letting sub lapse until housing fixed

[EaMett]

I don\\'t understand why people are defending a clear problem with this game. I love this game too. It\\'s ok to give constant reminding feedback to the devs that this is an ongoing problem that has yet to be addressed. This has always been an issue. It\\'s not a new issue.... "13-year issue".... It keeps getting put on the back burner. If you really love this game and want it to continue to improve, you have to provide the good and the bad feedback. The more excuses you make for the devs, and the more you call out the people that complain about a present issue does not help. Praise the good, but don\\'t make excuses for the bad because you think we\\'re being bullies to the devs. This is the best MMO out in my opinion, but stop treating it like its flawless.

It’s because a lot of people are upset that not everyone can get a house but that’s the actual design. It’s a feature not a flaw kinda thing. Meant to reward about 30% of players on a server.
The constant placard spamming is stupid and needs to change but otherwise the feature is accessible to those who spend the time to get in. Yes it takes ages and is a real time investment but so is the mentor mount and many other achievements in this game.

I feel for those who came back empty handed this time around but this patch was only meant to make up for the demo timers being down. We’re due another district around now so we obviously have way more people backed up. This should have been expected going in.
A lot of the people complaining in here are probably the same people who went into this aiming for a first plot outside of the goblet.
Regardless of whether everything was gone by the time they got in, it was already a poor mindset from the getgo. Ward and district additions in general are just a 30mn opportunity to increase your odds in a larger house hunting strategy. If you’re getting upset over it, you were expecting too much.

Also your numbers aren’t right. As of April this year there were between 7.5k and 12.5k active -characters- on servers (depending on server population). I’m going to also add 40% players that may be inactive due to the lull in content and came back for this patch. It’s improbable that the figure is that high but let’s go with it. So 10.5 to 17.5k.
Assuming every single character is NOT an alt and that every player wants a house (which isn’t the case but we’ll say it’s true to count for FCs), that means that on the most populated servers about 33% of players have access to plots and on the least populated about 50% of players have access. And ishgard will increase those to roughly 40% and 60%. Obviously we should have more players at that point and things will settle back to where we currently are, this fluctuation has been consistent and the same for years now, with the devs keeping housing at the 30% mark on the most populated servers.

A lot of players are extremely successful with repeatedly getting housing. If you’re struggling you might be doing something unoptimized or underestimating the effort required.

Housing definitely isn’t for everyone, it’s actually only for the top 30% of most committed players to the feature. That’s a bar that moves with the player base. Yes some people get lucky and some people get unlucky but on average that’s how it works.

[PrinceThrash]

It’s because a lot of people are upset that not everyone can get a house but that’s the actual design. It’s a feature not a flaw kinda thing. Meant to reward about 30% of players on a server.

I don't think that's the design at all. I could be wrong but that doesn't make much sense to me. They're adding more housing because they see that it is a problem. Square Enix is paid via subscription, not by the amount of time we spend in activities in game. They care about the guy that logs in a couple hours a week consistently just as much as the guy that plays the game a couple hours every day. And as far as the mentor mount and similar things, there is a clear path on what needs to be done to complete and be rewarded with that mount. The housing as of now is luck based and how much time you can spend online in game. I had a house in limsa last year that unfortunately got demo'd cuz I had to take a break from the game. The house wasn't special to me because I had one and so many others didn't. It was special cuz it was mine, it was fun to decorate, a plot personalized by me. So, I think it is a flaw and not by design, that's why Square is working to fix by adding more housing.

[EaMett]

I don't think that's the design at all. I could be wrong but that doesn't make much sense to me. They're adding more housing because they see that it is a problem. Square Enix is paid via subscription, not by the amount of time we spend in activities in game. They care about the guy that logs in a couple hours a week consistently just as much as the guy that plays the game a couple hours every day. And as far as the mentor mount and similar things, there is a clear path on what needs to be done to complete and be rewarded with that mount. The housing as of now is luck based and how much time you can spend online in game. I had a house in limsa last year that unfortunately got demo'd cuz I had to take a break from the game. The house wasn't special to me because I had one and so many others didn't. It was special cuz it was mine, it was fun to decorate, a plot personalized by me. So, I think it is a flaw and not by design, that's why Square is working to fix by adding more housing.

They add more housing because server populations go up. They have been doing it consistently for years now. Everytime housing plots dip bellow 30% server population they add enough to bring it back up to 30-ish again. And housing is Almost exactly like a mentor mount, there is more variance to it but it also doesn’t take anywhere near as long. If you house hunt an hour a day you’ll get many houses before a player who does 1h of mentor roulettes a day gets their mount.

[Seddrinth]

A lot of players are extremely successful with repeatedly getting housing. If you’re struggling you might be doing something unoptimized or underestimating the effort required.

Housing definitely isn’t for everyone, it’s actually only for the top 30% of most committed players to the feature. That’s a bar that moves with the player base. Yes some people get lucky and some people get unlucky but on average that’s how it works.

It's weird because I read so many people here complaing about not being able to obtain a house, but most of my in game friends/static mates/fc mates all have houses and none of us go hardcore and click on a placard for 8 hours. I've never even stayed longer than 30 minutes at a placard and I have 3 houses. I honestly think the people who are frustrated are just not doing it correctly. I personally would never sacrifice work, health, food just for a video game house and I don't think anyone has to in order to obtain the house. You just have to be perceptive and strike when the oppotunity is there.

[Penthea]

I honestly think the people who are frustrated are just not doing it correctly.

I really would love to know how someone could spam click a placard incorrectly. Surely you can't be suggesting people who managed to get far enough in the game to unlock the prerequisites to purchase a house don't know how to interact with a placard.

Or how someone can log in incorrectly that it makes them dc or be put into a queue. Players don't have any power over how SE's servers function.

Good for you and your buddies if getting a house wasn't difficult for you but this sadly is not the case for everyone which is very evident by the state of the forums literally every single time new wards are released.

[Seddrinth]

I really would love to know how someone could spam click a placard incorrectly. Surely you can't be suggesting people who managed to get far enough in the game to unlock the prerequisites to purchase a house don't know how to interact with a placard.

Or how someone can log in incorrectly that it makes them dc or be put into a queue. Players don't have any power over how SE's servers function.

Good for you and your buddies if getting a house wasn't difficult for you but this sadly is not the case for everyone which is very evident by the state of the forums literally every single time new wards are released.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or just being thick. I honestly can't tell. But I read about people clicking a house for 8 hours, 10 hours, 13 hours, and it just boggles my mind. Like why would anyone do something like that? You have just as good a chance to go do something else, then come back. I acquired one of my houses doing just that. I found the plot I liked, I waited 20 minutes at most, did my daily dungeon, trials, raid, came back, logged off, logged on later, and got the house. I've never spent any extended time just standing in front of a plot and click. If you want to do that, fine. But in my opinion, that is the wrong way to go about it because not only does it not give you any advantage, you are just wasting time and effort. But hey, you do you, I'm not going to force anyone else to play the game how I play it.

Here's why I would never spend hours trying to click a house:




And yesterday, when I logged in I had a 700 player queue, and it took prob 5-10 minutes before I even got in. While I was in queue my static mates have already obtained large houses. I got in very late and still got a small house for my alt. Honestly, even if I didn't get a hous, I wouldn't get too upset because there will be plenty of other opportunities. As of last night there were so many lots available still. And not to mention everyone will get more chance with Ishgard housing and when SE decides to add even more wards to existing housing locations.

But my point is, I see so many people complain on the forums but in game literally everyone I know has a house or two. So I'm not sure how to reconcile one with the other.

[Penthea]

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or just being thick. I honestly can't tell.

Wow thanks.

But I read about people clicking a house for 8 hours, 10 hours, 13 hours, and it just boggles my mind. Like why would anyone do something like that? You have just as good a chance to go do something else, then come back. I acquired one of my houses doing just that. I found the plot I liked, I waited 20 minutes at most, did my daily dungeon, trials, raid, came back, logged off, logged on later, and got the house. I've never spent any extended time just standing in front of a plot and click. If you want to do that, fine. But in my opinion, that is the wrong way to go about it because not only does it not give you any advantage, you are just wasting time and effort. But hey, you do you, I'm not going to force anyone else to play the game how I play it.

How is camping a house the incorrect way to get a house? You seem to be suggesting that the correct way to do it is to not do that at all and hope luck will shine upon you. How does doing this make it more likely for someone to get a house? It doesn't. Both equally rely on luck.

You think I might be thick but you don't actually explain how camping a house is an incorrect way to get a house. Perhaps you're mistaking a method you don't find pleasant for a method that doesn't work? Camping does work. A huge amount of players got their house by doing it.

However I would never advise someone to camp for hours on end. I do agree that it is very unhealthy to do. But some people want to increase their odds any way they can and sadly that is one of the ways.

But my point is, I see so many people complain on the forums but in game literally everyone I know has a house or two. So I'm not sure how to connect one with the other.

In case you're unaware your group of friends isn't the truest example of how everyone else experiences the game. Housing availability and competition can be drastically different from server to server, people can get unlucky with the server disconnecting them and then there's taking into account things such as people being unable to log in the second the servers are up due to real life commitments. Those people in particular have a very low chance of getting a house on highly populated servers.

You're essentially saying "hey <thing> worked for me so I cannot fathom why it doesn't for anyone else" when there are a multitude of posts that very clearly explain why some players are less fortunate than you. You considered that I might be thick but you look like you have decided you won't even try to understand the plight of others simply because you have better luck. Maybe use your head a little instead of thinking that anyone who disagrees with you or has a different experience to be of lesser intelligence, be engaging in sarcasm or doing something incorrectly.

[Shibi]

And yesterday, when I logged in I had a 700 player queue, and it took prob 5-10 minutes before I even got in. While I was in queue my static mates have already obtained large houses. I got in very late and still got a small house for my alt.

It was interesting in the housing discord. You clearly had a tiny queue on your server... people on Balmung had a queue in the many thousands, with all houses taken in 5 minutes. So, never mistake your own server and situation for what other people go through. Different servers, lobby errors, computer crashes, relos and more really made the housing savage a quite different experience over every server and for every person.

In my case I was fortunate, after 3 months of daily placarding I got a terrible plot nobody wanted 2 days before the savage. So despite being 1800 in the Faerie queue and not getting in for 20 minutes, I was able to relocate into a plot someone else vacated (all new ones were gone well before the 20 minutes). But if I had not lucked out 2 days before the Housing Savage... I wouldn't have a house, or I would have been clicking still.

But my point is, I see so many people complain on the forums but in game literally everyone I know has a house or two. So I'm not sure how to reconcile one with the other.

Your server size vs theirs.
Your luck vs theirs. RNGJesus hates some people.
If you got yours when demos were on vs. demos being off now.
You playing in a time there were less subs vs covid and an increase of subs.

There are lots of reasons why your personal experience doesn't match the frustration of others. And honestly, it is frustrating for people trying to get one. A little sympathy goes a long way. For myself, I have and will continue to sweep my server into discord to help people have abetter idea when it listed, and I will cheer on people I see at the placards, and try to keep their spirits up.

That's a far more positive attitude in my eyes, over effectively telling people they are insane. Guide people to the discord that Catstab posted about on this forum a few posts down.... Tell people new to the process how long it's been up for and that at hour 2 it's ok to sleep for 6 to 9 hours, and come back in the morning. Stuff like that.

(Discord link is in: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...cation-in-5.35 )

And as for that relocate you point out, it happens, but the relocater can really help the people he sniped by saying... I came from plot xx, ward zz and that will likely become available to buy 12 to 14 hours from now. Go to sleep, go to that plot in 10 to 12 hours, and then click for maximum 3 hours. You will be fresh, you will be rested, and I will be there to cheer you on so you get it.

[EaMett]

I really would love to know how someone could spam click a placard incorrectly.

It’s not how you click, it’s what, when and where you click. There are plenty of ways to reduce the effort required. Knowing when a plot was relinquished and only bothering with camping on those that are still up after a certain amount of time is one of them (for example). You can couple that to only camping for short periods of time (30mn-1h) like one of the previous posters said. But instead people just Seem to wing it, camps for crazy hours and then get really bitter about it.

[MsMisato]

It's weird because I read so many people here complaing about not being able to obtain a house, but most of my in game friends/static mates/fc mates all have houses and none of us go hardcore and click on a placard for 8 hours. I've never even stayed longer than 30 minutes at a placard and I have 3 houses. I honestly think the people who are frustrated are just not doing it correctly. I personally would never sacrifice work, health, food just for a video game house and I don't think anyone has to in order to obtain the house. You just have to be perceptive and strike when the oppotunity is there.

I agree with you. I went hardcore for my first plot on gilgamesh. It took freaking forever. after that I was like screw that and randomly check plots on other servers and it wasn't a available I just simply went about my day and never looked back. I then changed my sleeping habits and simply got up early to start checking before going to work and I was able to get a plot on Siren and Faerie.

*disclaimer* I transfered from gilgamesh during the world transfer when siren was preferred so I was without a home for a couple of weeks which worked out because a majority of my friends were on Siren at the time. We later transferred to faerie and I was homeless for a about a month but I got a plot just by simpy running and checking out plots before goign to work. No more than 15 minutes checking multiple plots. YOu hae to check the wards daily because you never know when a plot becomes open and they open up for a variety of reasons. I will demo timer being is mucks things up a tad granted its not like hundreds of plots available but it did provide a somewhat steady source of plots across different wards every few weeks as people quit their sub for different reasons.