Single person FC house trick, official response required

[Kyssa]

This is precisely how they plan to do it. Which is why I'm hoping devs patched that particular hole already. We'll find out tomorrow I guess.

Yup. If SE didn't think ahead on this issue, I'll be really disappointed.

[Raistlin]

Why should it fall under ToS? The requirement are 4 Members to buy. As per how it is setup by square there is nothing against the ToS as of right now. You can call the system BS and blaim Square but as it is right now its working as intended from the Devs perspective.

I will say that bypassing a system in purpose explicitly created to avoid people misusing the housing system causing other FC to be unable to use housing can fall into Obstruction to play - other obstruction to play. Located after buying plot of land to resell.

If will be enforce or not.. is another topic.

[Oizen]

Square Enix loves RMT traders so they're giving them an nearly 100% of the new housing section.

[Jojoya]

Hi, I am happy with prioritising FC over single Individuals for housing, but there is a way to bypass all the restrictions by creating your FC wait 30 days, then invite 3 more just to bypass the 4 person requirement, buy the house and then kick these 3.

I personally think that this approach could fall under ToS but will be nice to have an official response so people don't even try to bypass your restrictions.

That works as long as you're fine relying on your single entry to win the plot. The other 3 you invite won't be able to enter to help you.

Well, I assume the new 30 days requirement hurt bots as the buyer must be 30 days in the FC. This is more for the individuals that are impersonating a real FC to buy a house.

It doesn't do anything to RMT. The 30 days is just annoyance, not obstacle.

Well, that fall into account sharing and RMT. Much easier to catch people that buy these accounts, add their char to the bot FC, etc. Doable but much more risky for the buyer

There is no risk when there is no enforcement.

They just dont give any care right now, the inaction from SQEX has made them so blatant. This is on Aegis server


Watch those RMT Dummy FCs going to change leader and name hand next month once they cashed in.

They've been cashing in all along. Run garden and workshop, earn gil, sell gil.

It comes down to whether the operator wants a short term cash grab or long term income. That those houses have been like that for at least 2 years (I remember seeing them when I did a 2019 census) tells me the owner is probably after long term income or they would have been already sold.

I posted this in another thread, but since this one is more in line with the topic, I'll drop it here as well.



There needs to be a reckoning with the sale of FC's. Word on the pixelated streets is that the plan going forward is to bring the interested buyer into the FC and in order to bypass the 30 day "timer", the seller will just delete the FC leader so the buyer simply "inherits" the FC and it's plot/house. They're not even talking about simply leaving the FC and handing it over like they do now.

It's a definitely possibility though we don't know if the game will allow a player to delete a character that is FC Master of a FC that has a house and no other member eligible for FC Master. Even if the character can't be deleted until Master is transferred, 30 days isn't a big deal and they're still free to remove the other 3 characters they used to meet the member limit. It just means slightly more juggling of characters between any newly formed FCs to start over.

[Yodada]

They've been cashing in all along. Run garden and workshop, earn gil, sell gil.
It comes down to whether the operator wants a short term cash grab or long term income. That those houses have been like that for at least 2 years (I remember seeing them when I did a 2019 census) tells me the owner is probably after long term income or they would have been already sold.

Any evidences for that? Or is it just a rumor or witchhunting. I saw those post of the ward already a year ago and no one could provide any evidences that this person is selling Houses or even Gil which they did with those so far.

[Nepentha]

I will say that bypassing a system in purpose explicitly created to avoid people misusing the housing system causing other FC to be unable to use housing can fall into Obstruction to play - other obstruction to play. Located after buying plot of land to resell.

If will be enforce or not.. is another topic.

What's actionable is actually reselling the plot. The way they go about it is within the rules, even if it skirts past the spirit of them.

[Kyssa]

It's a definitely possibility though we don't know if the game will allow a player to delete a character that is FC Master of a FC that has a house and no other member eligible for FC Master. Even if the character can't be deleted until Master is transferred, 30 days isn't a big deal and they're still free to remove the other 3 characters they used to meet the member limit. It just means slightly more juggling of characters between any newly formed FCs to start over.

They've (the flippers) likely tested this to the best of their limits right now and found it to be a workable solution. Now, they can cite the need for a higher payment due to the process as well.

[Jojoya]

Any evidences for that? Or is it just a rumor or witchhunting. I saw those post of the ward already a year ago and no one could provide any evidences that this person is selling Houses or even Gil which they did with those so far.

FCs with only one or two members, with the FC master name following a very specific theme. Houses undecorated (occasionally there would be a Summoning Bell inside the door if the plot wasn't next to one of the ward Summoning Bells). Gardens in use growing shards. FC workshops added but no private chambers. Or at least that was the state when I visited in 2019. I don't know if it's changed since.

Obviously no one can prove they're selling gil (unless you're someone attempting to buy from them) but what other reason would there be for having so many houses only being utilized for the gil making features in a game where gil has relatively limited use for a single player? If some of the houses had been decorated, I would have assumed a decorating aficionado that hadn't had time to get to every house yet but at that time, not a single house had been decorated outside of a summoning bell just inside the door of some houses (probably to save the trip into the workshop to access the summoning bell there when the house was not right next to a summoning bell placed in the ward).

Also I forgot another way that those houses could be making gil - selling Grade 3 FC actions (add a new member, they removed the primed wheel from the stand, leave the FC, rejoin their original FC and add the primed wheel to their active actions - very popular for expansion launches or around special events like Make It Rain). I honestly can't remember if I saw any aetherial wheel stands when I was looking at those houses so I don't know if they're also doing that.

I'm not going to claim that every FC house group set up in similar fashion is selling gil but certainly some of them are. There's a large amount of "under the table" gil selling between players just as happens in any game. One of the FFXIV related Discords I'm in had its members DM spammed by such a player a few months back and he was happy to share his gil farming methods with those who responded before he got banned from the server. It just takes knowing who to talk to and a way to reach them outside of game.

They've (the flippers) likely tested this to the best of their limits right now and found it to be a workable solution. Now, they can cite the need for a higher payment due to the process as well.

So far I'm not seeing the patch available for download. Until that happens, they have no way to test. They can only make guesses based on what was possible before the patch.

There are some circumstances that will prevent a player from deleting a character. We can hope this will be a new one, though it's still just annoyance and not obstacle. RMT would just have to set up a few extra service accounts to meet the 4 member requirement faster. There are way too many loopholes (such as "owned as buyer") for the FC changes to have any real impact.

The lottery itself is the only real barrier to RMT at this point. They have to beat the lottery before they'll have something to sell.

[Big_Bap]

I'm not going to claim that every FC house group set up in similar fashion is selling gil but certainly some of them are.

Obviously no one can prove they're selling gil (unless you're someone attempting to buy from them) but what other reason would there be for having so many houses only being utilized for the gil making features in a game where gil has relatively limited use for a single player?

My man, you really need to ditch the Koolaid.

[Nepentha]

FCs with only one or two members, with the FC master name following a very specific theme. Houses undecorated (occasionally there would be a Summoning Bell inside the door if the plot wasn't next to one of the ward Summoning Bells). Gardens in use growing shards. FC workshops added but no private chambers. Or at least that was the state when I visited in 2019. I don't know if it's changed since.

Obviously no one can prove they're selling gil (unless you're someone attempting to buy from them) but what other reason would there be for having so many houses only being utilized for the gil making features in a game where gil has relatively limited use for a single player? If some of the houses had been decorated, I would have assumed a decorating aficionado that hadn't had time to get to every house yet but at that time, not a single house had been decorated outside of a summoning bell just inside the door of some houses (probably to save the trip into the workshop to access the summoning bell there when the house was not right next to a summoning bell placed in the ward).

Also I forgot another way that those houses could be making gil - selling Grade 3 FC actions (add a new member, they removed the primed wheel from the stand, leave the FC, rejoin their original FC and add the primed wheel to their active actions - very popular for expansion launches or around special events like Make It Rain). I honestly can't remember if I saw any aetherial wheel stands when I was looking at those houses so I don't know if they're also doing that.

I'm not going to claim that every FC house group set up in similar fashion is selling gil but certainly some of them are. There's a large amount of "under the table" gil selling between players just as happens in any game. One of the FFXIV related Discords I'm in had its members DM spammed by such a player a few months back and he was happy to share his gil farming methods with those who responded before he got banned from the server. It just takes knowing who to talk to and a way to reach them outside of game.

The lottery itself is the only real barrier to RMT at this point. They have to beat the lottery before they'll have something to sell.

Jojoya, you and I butt head sometimes and agree sometimes, but please stop accusing people of RMT without actual proof and do some research. In all the research and data gathering I've done, the people who are RMTing are the ones who count on fast sales. None of them want to kit out subs or grow gardens. It's too much work and takes too long to get going and can't really be automated. Not like the easy fast cash of botting your way to FCs and selling them no sooner than you've bot packetbombed them. The one RMT housing botter I've been tracking has easily made thousands of euros by reselling the houses they've botted at the placard.