Fake FCs' Housing Abuse

[Penthea]

The 2 problems I see with using company credits generated through "normal gameplay" is that there really isn't such a thing (different players enjoy different aspects of the game) and not all forms of game play are equally rewarding for the time invested. Some forms of game play don't reward any at all (such as spending time decorating or touring houses, which is still playing the game).

I agree so I since thought about this. Maybe SE could do something as simple as calculate how many credits a player earns from capping tomes weekly and use that as a baseline to calculate fc credit tax. It's not an incredible amount of activity but I think it's enough to deem a player as active. Players who do other activities instead could easily reach the same amount. Those who play religiously could earn more than is needed, which would make up for anyone who isn't online often.

If the fc is very active from early ranks, by the time they reach rank 6 they will have more than enough to keep their house without stress. And if they continue to be somewhat active they could easily stay afloat.

It's not a perfect plan yet but it's a start, and like I said before it's significantly less punishing than paying a huge amount of gil because only specific activities generate large amounts of that. Almost all activity generates credits. I think only fcs who do little other than rp or afk would have to worry about not generating enough credits.

Membership seems the better way to go but it's still a matter of figuring out what method could be used that wouldn't be overly restrictive or controlling on how those members need to play the game while also not being subject to exploits.

I think the only way for it to not be too restrictive is to have the minimum at four, which is the required amount of people to make a fc. Anything more than would very easily punish small fcs for simply being small and not inactive. Four is also the minimum amount required to do almost all group content (PoTD and HoH being the exceptions). I want to clarify that I mean a minimum of four to keep a house, not to keep the fc.

However the above does bother me because what if the fc falls below four? You get punished because someone left, and you can't control if people want to leave. Some may even leave because they know it would put a fc's house in danger. Never underestimate how petty some people can be : /

I really don't like the idea of a minimum amount of players. A tiny fc can be super active with just three people. More players doesn't always mean a more meaningful or more active community. I think a credit tax of some manner would be enough to separate dead fcs from those who are active.

EDIT: I just realised if member count is the only thing required to keep a fc house (along with demo timers of course), players could just pay people to be in their fc or make several accounts. So that's not a perfect solution either. However paying people to do content to generate credits isn't something I imagine would be easy to do, especially if they joined on alts.

[Arielen]

I foresee a lot of extremely active hardcore RP FCs and housing enthusiasts getting caught up in a "generate x amount of company credits" and having their houses destroyed because of it. There's also no easy or convenient way of seeing how many credits have been generated: you'd have to manually calculate it every month. If the solution requires a chunk of the playerbase to behave differently because 1.8% of housing is owned by solo fcs, I don't think it's worthwhile.

[Penthea]

because 1.8% of housing is owned by solo fcs, I don't think it's worthwhile.

It's not just solo fcs that are dead. There's are fcs in my ward with a few lvl 50 characters as members and they have been lvl 50 for several years.

[Arielen]

It's not just solo fcs that are dead. There's are fcs in my ward with a few lvl 50 characters as members and they have been lvl 50 for several years.

Evidently, there are still people in the FC that are active. I don't see what the issue is. If it was a personal, it wouldn't be a problem but for some reason because there's an FC tag attached we expect a community to be present when we acknowledge that a single person owning a house is fine. Frankly, I'm more annoyed with houses that aren't even decorated, but there's no way for SE to do anything about that: even if they said a house has to have 20% of the max amount of furnishings possible for that house size, people would just pile shit on the ground floor and continue to not decorate. Let's just give subs and rooms for tenants to personals and stop pretending to care.

[Penthea]

Evidently, there are still people in the FC that are active. I don't see what the issue is.

If you call staying the same lvl for several years and only logging in to reset a demo timer being active, then sure that's active :P

Frankly, I'm more annoyed with houses that aren't even decorated

Most of the gardens have no decoration aside from gardening patches that never have any crops. Some don't even have aetherytes. I can't comment on the interiors because the houses are locked but I doubt they were given much attention.

[Arielen]

One person in the FC is active and that's enough. If they had a personal house, it would be no different.

[Penthea]

One person in the FC is active and that's enough. If they had a personal house, it would be no different.

Actually it is different because you can only have one personal per server per account but this isn't the case with fc houses. Some of these clusters of dead fcs are owned by one person. This is why some players think there needs to be a mechanic in the game that tracks fc activity beyond just resetting a demo timer. Resetting the timer is near zero effort whereas something like the fc credit tax isn't. It would be difficult for one person to juggle so many different fcs on their own if that credit tax was in the game.

[Awha]

:P That feeling when people want to take plots from people thinking that it will make things easier for them. End of the day who are we to say what is considered an active fc or plot usage. What is next should we monitor the usage of a plot minus the stepping foot inside.

I know on my main account I get hate cause I have a large that is not decorated and I just use to grow onions.

[SpiritualOcean]

If they’re paying their sub and active enough to keep a house, it’s unlikely SE would want to do anything to take them out of their house.

[Jojoya]

One person in the FC is active and that's enough. If they had a personal house, it would be no different.

If one active player is enough to be considered a FC, then every player should have full access to all FC perks. It also wouldn't required four players to register a FC. It would only require one.