Hear me out: Paid housing

[Luin]

Just get instanced housing instead.

edit -

"it's yours until you cancel your entire account"

The point of the housing system and everything around it, like voyages and gardens, is to maintain subscriptions. They dont want one-time purchases, they want your sub. They want you coming back for engagement numbers and profit. The idea of one-time purchase plots would end up with SE paying to keep dead servers online.

[Themarvin]

Actively playing the game does not mean actively making enough gil to afford a monthly fee that is a actual fact and reality. Ppl who equate owning a house with drowning in gil are really out of touch with the player base at large.

Then maybe that should be a consideration when getting a house, that there is things you need to do extra to keep it, I am not in the believe of things like that should be given with now downside to it, it is too much of a reward, once gotten a plot.

[Themarvin]

Conveniently ignoring I mentioned that improving apartments would help the housing situation by lessening the gap in what both forms of housing offer.

People want houses not apartments though, though there is barely any difference from, however before adding and giving and more to that, something should be done about the one person FCs, and also grandfathered housing before keeping on adding new stuff, use the resources up that there already is.

Personally I would not mind to pay lots of coin to 3 or 4 room apartments as an addition to having a house though, or have the opportunity to upgrade my current apartment that I got on the side, or FC room for that matter... would be like having an extra get away.

[Penthea]

People want houses not apartments though

Yea because apartments are not exactly great. Hence saying they need upgrades.

[Jojoya]

Just get instanced housing instead.

edit -

"it's yours until you cancel your entire account"

The point of the housing system and everything around it, like voyages and gardens, is to maintain subscriptions. They dont want one-time purchases, they want your sub. They want you coming back for engagement numbers and profit. The idea of one-time purchase plots would end up with SE paying to keep dead servers online.

I'm a bit confused by what you're intending to say here.

The ward system is already one-time purchase but servers are hardly dead. I doubt very much that there are that many players who maintain a sub solely to avoid losing their house (though certainly there are some). It makes zero sense to be paying real money to keep something in a game you're not playing when there's an option available that doesn't require a sustained subscription.

Are you perhaps talking about the result if demolition was removed from the game so a house would never be taken from a player short of the account getting permanently banned? Because that's part of why SE should switch to a better instanced housing system. Load on entry/close on exit (instanced housing) is more cost effective than always loaded (outdoor portion of ward housing).

With respect to sub retention, that's reliant on overall content longevity and all housing contributes to that. Sometimes I get in the mood to decorate. The time I'm spending on decorating is time I'm not doing other content so once I finish with the decorating, I pick up where I left off with the other stuff.

People want houses not apartments though, though there is barely any difference from, however before adding and giving and more to that, something should be done about the one person FCs, and also grandfathered housing before keeping on adding new stuff, use the resources up that there already is.

Personally I would not mind to pay lots of coin to 3 or 4 room apartments as an addition to having a house though, or have the opportunity to upgrade my current apartment that I got on the side, or FC room for that matter... would be like having an extra get away.

If apartments had same interior size options as houses, many players would happily move from a house to an apartment since they wouldn't have to worry about demolition.

There would still be some demand for houses but that demand would probably drop below available supply.

[Divinemights]

Just get instanced housing instead.

edit -

"it's yours until you cancel your entire account"

The point of the housing system and everything around it, like voyages and gardens, is to maintain subscriptions. They dont want one-time purchases, they want your sub. They want you coming back for engagement numbers and profit. The idea of one-time purchase plots would end up with SE paying to keep dead servers online.

Not only everything you said is wrong, and also showing how ignorance it is
SE never expect players to be subscribed to keep the house until player base demands so.
Do some search before spit out non sense please

[Luin]

Not only everything you said is wrong, and also showing how ignorance it is
SE never expect players to be subscribed to keep the house until player base demands so.
Do some search before spit out non sense please

Housing now=bad. Fear of losing house. Makes people want to keep subscription. Hard for players to buy house.

OP's suggestion=bad. Additional purchases on top of a sub is hard to justify, and we'll still need more wards added.

Instanced housing=good. Everybody gets house. Should not be much more expensive than adding more and more wards that will fill immediately.

My post wasn't in defense of the current housing system, but advocacy for instanced housing.

The ward system is already one-time purchase but servers are hardly dead. I doubt very much that there are that many players who maintain a sub solely to avoid losing their house (though certainly there are some). It makes zero sense to be paying real money to keep something in a game you're not playing when there's an option available that doesn't require a sustained subscription.

Are you perhaps talking about the result if demolition was removed from the game so a house would never be taken from a player short of the account getting permanently banned? Because that's part of why SE should switch to a better instanced housing system. Load on entry/close on exit (instanced housing) is more cost effective than always loaded (outdoor portion of ward housing).


If apartments had same interior size options as houses

Wards are a shortterm solution. Whenever new wards are added they are filled immediately. Players keep their subs going just to keep their house because of the scarcity of housing on most worlds. There's no guarantee to get another. That's exactly why I was suggesting instanced housing, instead of the ward system we have now.

Apartments having different size options would be a nice start but doesn't solve the problem of FCs having workshops and the lack of gardening. Gameplay features shouldn't be restricted around what should really only be for decoration. Every player should have access to the same number of garden plots, intercrossing, and workshops. There are tangible benefits, even in combat, to having a house - such as Back on Your Feet III - that solo players cant have. The problem, in my opinion, is that housing is both limited AND beneficial. It makes sense for players to own as many plots as possible, due to the systems SE put in place.

[Jojoya]

Wards are a shortterm solution.

I would say they aren't a solution at all. Instead they simply perpetuate the problem considering the loopholes players have for getting multiple houses if they desire, which then locks out players without a house from getting one.

More apartment options drawing individual owners out of the wards and into the apartments does help FCs by making more ward plots available for purchase. Lack of gardening is a non-issue for most players. Ever really looked around the wards to see how many garden patches are placed and in active use for intercross? I'd put at 20%, with most of those at FC houses.

Even if we assume that 20% is all personal houses then add the 30% of houses that belong to FCs, that leaves us with 50% of houses being owned by players who potentially would be willing to move to apartments if apartments had size options to choose from thanks to the lack of demolition. I wouldn't expect all of those players to move to apartments but it would still free up a tremendous number of house plots for FCs who have been struggling to get one so they can have access to a workshop.

Even better would be if SE moved workshops from houses to GC headquarters and for Island Sanctuary to grow the same items we currently can with housing. That would reduce the demand for houses even more.

[Curisu]

How about paying in-game taxes for the houses.
Like 5% of the buying price per week.
So everyone who has a house but is not using it will think twice to keep it.
It will make it more difficult for botter to maintain a larger amount of plots.
And it will take a lot of money out of the system.

[Vahlnir]

How about paying in-game taxes for the houses.
Like 5% of the buying price per week.
So everyone who has a house but is not using it will think twice to keep it.
It will make it more difficult for botter to maintain a larger amount of plots.
And it will take a lot of money out of the system.

Lord, not you too.