Why is there still no good solution to the housing shortage?

[Izar_Chillen]

Until they fund and set up dedicated server clusters across the world regions they host the game in, to facilitate the live housing neighborhoods that can cover all those trying to buy and to allow for future buyers to get a plot , Housing will always be in the terrible situation its has been in since its introduction.


Its the case of lots of players want a home , there is a server system far too small to facilitate all the players , and the game allows , in this space limited system , a same player to own multiple properties in the same neighbourhood instead of placing limits on how many plots can be bought by the same character on a data centre.

[Arrius]

And they aren't backing from wards since they wanna insist on the "community" aspect - even if you barelly meet someone on the wards, and when you do, there is no interaction at all.

It's about making the place look active and somehow busy so the players don't feel alone.

Same reason folks make towns or villages in survival games, even when they are alone - It gives a sense of activity and presence.

[Jojoya]

Some servers are more populated than others, my server Zodiark, nearly always has plots available on my ward in the Goblet.
The newer servers don't have any shortages at all.

When's the last time you actually engaged with the housing system outside of teleporting to your own house and going inside?

The newer servers very much have a shortage now. What had been a decent supply of available plots on Spriggan and Twintania dried up earlier this year. Now the only time you'll see an open plot is when the purchase timer is still active so it can't be purchased. Even the JP worlds that used to have a couple of hundred houses available for the taking have been sold out so they're down to what's being held back by the purchase timer.

Twintania has 3 available smalls as of about 15 minutes ago, all still under the purchase timer.

Zodiark had 1, again under the purchase timer.

That's plenty of available houses to you?

It's about making the place look active and somehow busy so the players don't feel alone.

Same reason folks make towns or villages in survival games, even when they are alone - It gives a sense of activity and presence.

The problem is that it's not working. When I'm in my ward, I feel like I'm in a ghost town. For all that I'm there every day and make trips over to the vendor for Curious Crop exchange, I've seen other players in the ward maybe 3 times this year.

The ward with my FC's house and the apartments for my alts is slightly better. I'll actually catch the occasional player teleporting into the apartment building while I'm standing that the Summoning Bell. They of course immediately disappear inside so the area goes back to being empty. Sometimes I'll catch another player at Dappled Stalls (the FC house is next to it) but most of the time all I see are FC members hanging out at the FC house even if I'm riding between the FC house and the Apartment building instead of using the aethernet to travel.

Wards are not going to feel busy unless there's reason for large numbers of players to be in the same ward together. There's no content in the wards (outside of houses and player organized RP venues) to draw players into the wards and so they remain empty most of the time.

It's pretty eerie and uncomfortable to feel like you're living in a town that the other residents recently abandoned so you're the only one left.

[Payadopa]

The only real fix would be going full instanced housing.

And they aren't backing from wards since they wanna insist on the "community" aspect - even if you barelly meet someone on the wards, and when you do, there is no interaction at all.

I'd love to keep that, if possible.
What I'd love to see would be an incentive to be outside your house as to make the wards more lively. Like a 2% exp buff when you spend some time there or whatever. Wards (not the houses) are criminally underused.

[LianaThorne]

I feel like if we were going to get instanced housing, we would have by now with how much noise people have been making. I just genuinely think that we won't ever get it (especially since Ishgard has already been confirmed to be our usual set up except this time with a lottery).

The people who want instanced should probably realize that a little bit. If we COULD have instanced, we would have probably gotten a sign of being able to do it with Ishgard (unless they just haven't said anything yet). The devs seem pretty set on having public neighborhoods (or literally can't change it now because of spaghetti code) and I don't see them taking the time to fix it.

[Awha]

Just raise the prices for plots if they want to keep them limited. 50 mil for small 75mil for medium 100 mil for large. Not difficult amounts to amass with some effort and or time. Could even be higher my price points are just a suggestion.

[Izar_Chillen]

Just raise the prices for plots if they want to keep them limited. 50 mil for small 75mil for medium 100 mil for large. Not difficult amounts to amass with some effort and or time. Could even be higher my price points are just a suggestion.

And increase the real money profits of Gil sellers .

As youre someone with a history of profiting from rmt from an MMO in the past , by your own admission , Im not at all surprised this is your suggestion.



RMT /Gil sellers are so prevalent in FF14 because there is a large and growing market because they have customers . This game doesnt require vast amounts of Gil to get by , unless you are into buying houses, and filling them with decorations or buying raid clears .

Making housing even more expensive to the general player base would encourage more people to use Gil sellers increasing the amount of botting to unprecedented levels because they have way more , unfortunately, weak willed/impatient people buying.

50+ mill to players that now how to farm gil , be it clever crafting or selling would probably seem fine , but to the rest of us that dont treat the game like a second job/life those sorts of costs are ridiculous. This would encourage way more to use illegitimate grey market services and thusly flood the servers with even more botting. These business operations behind mmo currency selling are making millions of dollars with the vast amount of servers , and individual MMO titles thast they have automated tools to rake in untols amounts of virtual currency or webiste maketplaces for players to also get involved and earn a good amount of their own real currency , and has attracted some seriously nasty people/criminal enterprises to get involved .

Their was a big news piece the BBC did years ago , with en expose on Chinese prisoners being used to farm WoW currency . Its a lucrative market , for very little upfront capital.

[Awha]

And increase the real money profits of Gil sellers .

As youre someone with a history of profiting from rmt from an MMO in the past , by your own admission , Im not at all surprised this is your suggestion.



RMT /Gil sellers are so prevalent in FF14 because there is a large and growing market because they have customers . This game doesnt require vast amounts of Gil to get by , unless you are into buying houses, and filling them with decorations or buying raid clears .

Making housing even more expensive to the general player base would encourage more people to use Gil sellers increasing the amount of botting to unprecedented levels because they have way more , unfortunately, weak willed/impatient people buying.

50+ mill to players that now how to farm gil , be it clever crafting or selling would probably seem fine , but to the rest of us that dont treat the game like a second job/life those sorts of costs are ridiculous. This would encourage way more to use illegitimate grey market services and thusly flood the servers with even more botting. These business operations behind mmo currency selling are making millions of dollars with the vast amount of servers , and individual MMO titles thast they have automated tools to rake in untols amounts of virtual currency or webiste maketplaces for players to also get involved and earn a good amount of their own real currency , and has attracted some seriously nasty people/criminal enterprises to get involved .

Their was a big news piece the BBC did years ago , with en expose on Chinese prisoners being used to farm WoW currency . Its a lucrative market , for very little upfront capital.

Outside of general fear what exactly is the point of the post. For the most part RMT and the practices are generally misunderstood the major reason why RMT spikes is demand yes and our greatest fear has and always will be companies going after the buyers. Since that will drastically lower the demand and profit margins cause generally the large sites do not farm their own currency they buy it from farmers and that is where most farmers make their money selling to the sites. If games went after the buyers that would decrease the amount of farmers cause it just will not be as profitable for the farmer. Generally speaking yes some sites do have their own farmers and stuff but their profits are lower cause they end to run into supply issues that is why currency prices are largely fairly standardized +/- a little.

We have bad apples yes but with fraud protections and many have friendly fraud protection buying has very little risk especially when games rarely go after the buyer. Generally when you hear people get hacked it is because they used a leveling or piloting service.

That said if SE wants housing to stay limited either by choice or imitations they need to do something to curb demand to match the supply.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

What about Island Sanctuaries? Could they be the housing so many want but can't get?

[ItMe]

What about Island Sanctuaries? Could they be the housing so many want but can't get?

Probably not.
I imagine that if Island Sanctuaries were any form of housing they would have let us know.
Instead they teased it like they do with general side content.

Maybe they will be housing. That would be a pleasant surprise. But I wouldn't bet on it.