Open plea to the Devs

[Athame]

Dear Readers,
I came to FF quite recently compared to most of the vets in-game. Finally, I managed to save up the money required for a small plot and begun the Pvp nightmare that is savage Housing. At first, I thought that the horror stories posted online were just a few disgruntled players, sadly I have to say they are true. In the course of the last 26 hours, I attempted my luck by camping in front of 4 open small plots in succession to no avail. In the course of this time, I sprained one of my wrists, neglected sleep, and ended up logging out in a bad mood. I wasn't alone in the suffering, over the course of the hunt, several people migrated from plot to plot with me and must have endured similar frustrations. While most people were attempting to get the plots fairly, several times I'm quite sure people were using auto keys or other software, the suspicion being raised when their chars kept clicking the signs minutes after the plot was already sold. I can't blame them, show me one person who pays a monthly subscription to a game just to spend hours clicking on a placard, and ill take this point back.
Now to the main reason for this post.
Over my course of playing ff, I fell in love with the game, the story, and mostly with the community were in hundreds of hours of playtime I only encountered 2 Toxic players, smth unthinkable in my old game.
After spending 26 hours doing nothing but endlessly clicking through the same screen in the vague hope that maybe the next click will give me fortunas blessing I have to put the game down for a while and play smth else.
Don't get me wrong I still enjoy most aspects of the game, but the feeling of defeat after losing the chance at a plot after hours of attempting, in 2 instances to someone who showed up in the last minutes is something I haven't experienced in any game before.
To people who say, who cares about housing, or just wait for the Ishard expansion. Housing is an integral part of social MMOs, from swtor to ESO and even the shortage in FF its popularity can be demonstrated. Players want the chance to express themselves in something like a house. As to waiting for the expansion, seeing how fast new plots in new wards are gone shows how this doesn't work.
I don't know how or if there is a solution, whether having a lottery, that can be exploited in its own way is the solution. But please do something about the housing shortage. With the influx of new players, in some cases servers being so full that people can't make characters how can the current system continue to work. Simply adding wards wont fix the underlining limitations.
I love your game, but housing broke me.
I hope everyone is keeping safe in these times and taking care of themselves, don't do what I did, wait/hope that the devs find a solution

[Sotaris]

Paragraphs. Please use paragraphs.

[True-to-Caesar]

TL DR : add instanced housing like ESO, so late sprouts and unlucky peasants like us can get a home to decorate.

[EaMett]

OP there are a number of things you can do to make your life easier it doesn't need to be a constant grind, just a long term one.
- Don't camp for hours on end, camping 1h every day for 10 days and camping 10h one time doesn't change things much. In fact, the more people you compete against the better the first option.
- Only go for smalls in the golblet, you highly reduce the risk of relocations
- Don't camp houses that have been up less than 12h. Feel free to make that 14,16 etc.. Put the threshold where you want. Yes plots could open before that but you'll increase your odds of getting a house when you camp by only camping these plots.
- Make note of demolition timers when devs disable/re-enable them. Don't forget to check 45 days later. Those are windows you want to aim for.
- Ward/Zone additions. Increase you odds by practicing running to your plot (on multiple classes with movement enhancement features). If you manage to log early run to your desired plot. If that's taken make sure you have a backup ready! If you get connection issues, or log in a little late (10-15mn in) make sure you have a "worse-case scenario" plot that you think nobody would want right away (some small in goblets). Alternatively, although I don't recommend this since it's a pain for other players, if you have the gill you could straight up buy your "worst-case scenario" plot and then relocate if you find something better.

The above can reduce the opportunities you get since you're limiting yourself to specific plots. But they will also greatly reduce the total amount of time you spend in districts clicking placards.

[Athame]

Thank you for your advice EaMett, ill try and approach housing that way. It will definitely reduce sunk cost fallacy by quite a bit.

[BigTough]

Don't camp houses that have been up for less than 12 hours? At how many hours does the devaluation timer usually have from the beginning or is that random too? Or are you talking about the hour at which the house became available? Cause sometimes I log in and the devaluation timer is at 12 hours, 10 hours, 7 hours, etc. Then how are we supposed to know how long the house has been up for sale?

I'm with OP on this one, I lost a medium and a large to the demo timer as well. I also think a 45 day timer is ridiculous, you still pretty well have to sub EVERY month to keep your house, which is fine with me despite losing two houses already, but the demo timer could be 25 days or even 15 days, it makes little difference if you're paying for your sub every month you're likely going to be playing if you are. So, housing savage should be PURE SAVAGE at this point and make you lose your house after 20-25 days of not logging in consecutively. Where's the logic in 45 days? If it's 45 then make it 65. 45 days is seriously insanely aggravating, like actual raging anger just thinking about how ridiculous it is - because TIME! TIME! TIME!

[Dustytome]

Don't camp houses that have been up for less than 12 hours? At how many hours does the devaluation timer usually have from the beginning or is that random too? Or are you talking about the hour at which the house became available? Cause sometimes I log in and the devaluation timer is at 12 hours, 10 hours, 7 hours, etc. Then how are we supposed to know how long the house has been up for sale?

The first devaluation timer when a plot is demolished goes until 10 am pacific? I keep forgetting the exact time but they'll all line up to that time and then beyond that it's a 6 hour cycle for devaluation.

[Jojoya]

Don't forget that apartments exist. There's an apartment building in every ward/subdivision.

While they're not the same as having a house, they are housing and offer you a place of your own to decorate until you're finally able to get a house. Many players have done some very creative things with their apartments.

They're also not subject to demolition, unlike houses. You can take a break from the game for a few months and your apartment will still be there as you left it when you return.

I'm with OP on this one, I lost a medium and a large to the demo timer as well. I also think a 45 day timer is ridiculous, you still pretty well have to sub EVERY month to keep your house,

The demo timer is there to make certain those who are actively playing the game get a chance at a house. That's going to be a problem with every system offering a limited resource that is supposed to serve a far greater number of people.

You don't have to sub every month only every other month. Sub for 30 days. Unsub for 44 days. Sub for 30 days, Unsub for 44 days. You won't lose your house that way as long as you remember to go inside and interact with something to reset the demo timer the day you resub then again the last day your subscription is active.

If you don't want to be playing monthly, then you're better off getting an apartment so you don't need to worry about demolition. There are plenty of other games with housing that don't have the restrictions we have here.

[Athame]

While I understand your point about an apartment you admit it's not the same as a plot, no garden etc.
In my opinion, if you are a paying member you should be entitled to own 1 house, and if you create an fc,1 fc house. Should you want more you could pay for them monthly similar to the system in place for retainers.

[Bladehawk]

Should paying members be entitled to every rare drop/mount/minion also? How many times do I need to gather a group together, defeat some difficult monster and then not even see the loot I was hoping for; nevermind actually win it. Should I not be simply ENTITLED to all of it by defeating the monster ?