FC Wards split is legitimately awful

[Stormpeaks]

I don't see the problem. FC houses are clearly way more in demand and the housing districts were always meant to be for FCs rather than 1 person owning a house they'll never use anyways. The amount of houses I see never used, with nobody around them is absolutely insane.

Besides, if you really wanted a house, you would have got one way before the lottery system was added. Your odds are much, MUCH lower now even if it was all private districts rather than FC.

Evidence please.

[StimulusChick]

Wow, I got a sequel!

So, what are your thoughts on this subject? Are you an FC owner hoping for a house to keep your brood warm and comfy or are you someone who wishes for a personal sanctuary in which to stalk public discords from? How would you make the system better if the lottery is not your ideal solution?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[ElenaRedoran]

Evidence please.

Do you even play the game? I've seen tons and tons of even small FCs that just want a house for their roleplaying venues or whatever else they'll come up with. It's certainly a lot more useful than a dead private house that can't even use submarines

[Stormpeaks]

Do you even play the game? I've seen tons and tons of even small FCs that just want a house for their roleplaying venues or whatever else they'll come up with. It's certainly a lot more useful than a dead private house that can't even use submarines

And I've seen tons and tons of people that want personal houses too, what is your point ?

Also, housing is not all about submarines you know, know something called FUN ?

[Kyssa]

Wow, I got a sequel!

So, what are your thoughts on this subject? Are you an FC owner hoping for a house to keep your brood warm and comfy or are you someone who wishes for a personal sanctuary in which to stalk public discords from? How would you make the system better if the lottery is not your ideal solution?

Inquiring minds want to know.

You posted in public places. I doubt it was that difficult to discern who you were between the 2 mediums. Dramatic ca-ca stirring? I can give you that, but it's not stalking.

edit- You posted your name. For the love of Lala's - - GOODNESS.

[Jojoya]

Here's the thing about personal and instanced housing. Most personal housing are very insular fantasies that players buy and then barely use. They like the idea of having the aesthetics of a personal house, but few take advantage of it in a social manner, i.e. inviting other people over frequently or interacting with their neighbors. And if you made it all instanced then that completely defeats the purpose of having neighborhoods. The ward system is quite antithetical to personal housing, so I don't know why players want to shoehorn personal or instanced housing into it when it functions much better as what it always intended to be: social hubs.

Not everyone is an extrovert and wants to be surrounded by other players constantly. They want a place to go to and relax as a break from the socialization while staying in game to do other things (maybe they're crafting, maybe they're playing games in the Toy Box, etc.).

They want it to be a place that reflects their preferences and style. Inn rooms don't work.

Apartments would have been a good solution except for one thing - they are small. They all to often end up feeling cramped by the time decorating is done do the awkward scaling of some of the furnishings and the need to cram all the furnishings that represent a home into that small space. That's not going to appeal to everyone.

It's pretty ironic to be complaining that personal housing is anti-social at the same time SE has stated their goal is to make the game more solo player friendly. Not every bit of a MMO's content needs to be social.

[Stormpeaks]

Not everyone is an extrovert and wants to be surrounded by other players constantly. They want a place to go to and relax as a break from the socialization while staying in game to do other things (maybe they're crafting, maybe they're playing games in the Toy Box, etc.).

They want it to be a place that reflects their preferences and style. Inn rooms don't work.

Apartments would have been a good solution except for one thing - they are small. They all to often end up feeling cramped by the time decorating is done do the awkward scaling of some of the furnishings and the need to cram all the furnishings that represent a home into that small space. That's not going to appeal to everyone.

It's pretty ironic to be complaining that personal housing is anti-social at the same time SE has stated their goal is to make the game more solo player friendly. Not every bit of a MMO's content needs to be social.

FC houses are nothing like personal housing, they are basically a glorified tenant system where fc members can hang out, they have no say in any of the decoration, be it inside or outside, I dont know why other people even use it as an argument to justify fc houses being more important than normal houses, plus as I mentioned earlier, most fc houses are abandoned and used for submarines, a lot of the time even empty.

[ElenaRedoran]

FC houses are nothing like personal housing, they are basically a glorified tenant system where fc members can hang out, they have no say in any of the decoration, be it inside or outside, I dont know why other people even use it as an argument to justify fc houses being more important than normal houses, plus as I mentioned earlier, most fc houses are abandoned and used for submarines, a lot of the time even empty.

this is going to sound slightly rude but wouldn't it be better to find a new fc? one that isn't run by one person that wants to decide absolutely everything

[dspguy]

I understand the frustration by the OP and others. Bigger picture... if you want access to a house, join an FC. By the end of this, most (not all) FCs will have a house.

If your own personal house is a deal breaker, play another game. So far, it doesn't seem personal housing is a deal breaker, hence why SE continues down the path they are going down. If the bottom line gets hurt by the lack of personal housing, money talks. They'd go and do something about it.

Keep in mind that low supply housing is a huge money maker for SE. 70 servers. About 7200 plots per server results in roughly 500,000 plots across all servers. While there are some players with multiple houses on one account, for the most part, each homeowner equates to a guaranteed sub. Every month. No one wants to risk losing their house. 500,000 x $15/mo x 12 months = $90M/year income just in subs due to housing. If the finances continue working out, then I expect house supply will remain low.

[Jojoya]

Assuming SE either wants to push housing towards FCs, or has hard numbers to back up why they are splitting it this way. I would be very surprised if the FC wards don't fill at the same rate as the personals. A 2-person FC is just as valid as a 50-person one. The 30 day requirement will deter people/bots making new FCs, and by the time 30 days passes, Ishgard will all be claimed.

A FC with only 2 members can't buy a house, unless you're talking about 2 unique individuals with multiple characters in the FC.

FC wards will be filling fast because RMT has been preparing for this day since Empyreum was announced and the initial lottery detail released back in November. They already knew what needed to be done even if players were caught off guard because they weren't paying attention and thinking out the repercussions. They knew there would be a waiting period to work around and logically that period was going to be around a month. They didn't wait, unlike players that wanted to believe that the new system would be a magical fairyland that solves all housing issues and allow them to get a house first try. They were already setting up their FCs back at the start of the year. They're well past the 30 days they need to be eligible to buy.

The FC related changes (including the 30 day new member period) are only an annoyance. They are not a deterrent and definitely not an obstacle.

The only obstacle in this system is lottery RNG. How many legitimate FCs will be entering to compete against RMT? How many will manage to win over RMT?

I don't see the problem. FC houses are clearly way more in demand and the housing districts were always meant to be for FCs rather than 1 person owning a house they'll never use anyways. The amount of houses I see never used, with nobody around them is absolutely insane.

Besides, if you really wanted a house, you would have got one way before the lottery system was added. Your odds are much, MUCH lower now even if it was all private districts rather than FC.

Except FC houses are not clearly way more in demand. We know this from past ward additions. It's not FCs purchasing their first house that fill up the new wards in the absence of a personal purchase moratorium - it was the relocators who filled them up. Then as plots remained empty for weeks, players turned to create shell FCs for the sake of getting a personal house. There would still be plenty of open plots of most worlds when the personal purchase moratoriums ended and new buyers started filling up the plots that weren't worth relocating to.

FC houses are nothing like personal housing, they are basically a glorified tenant system where fc members can hang out, they have no say in any of the decoration, be it inside or outside, I dont know why other people even use it as an argument to justify fc houses being more important than normal houses, plus as I mentioned earlier, most fc houses are abandoned and used for submarines, a lot of the time even empty.

It's because FC houses have FC only content like the workshop and the ability to charge Grade 3 FC actions. FCs really don't have any good ways to raise gil for FC activities other than the workshop unless they're going to relay on member donations.

Of course you run into the flip side of the problem where individual players want access to that same content and the only way to get it is to create a FC so they can buy a FC house. Then they can have everything housing related at their finger tips. What's technically intended to benefit FCs ends up in the hands of individuals who are willing to bend the rules to get what they want while players who want to abide by the spirit of the rules go without.

this is going to sound slightly rude but wouldn't it be better to find a new fc? one that isn't run by one person that wants to decide absolutely everything

Ever try finding such a FC to join? They're rare. They're usually limited to close knit groups of friends who already trust one another. They generally aren't looking to add new members.

There's some justification for FCs keeping tight control over who has access to things like decorating and workshops. Unlock access to every member and you can find someone's hard work that was being enjoyed by most of the FC destroyed by a single member. Having someone working on a big project on the Fabrication Station and another player walks up in the middle of the process to cancel it, causing the first player to lose all the materials already used. Airships and Submersibles returned from a voyage get looted by a random member that keeps everything for themselves instead of putting it into the FC chest where it can be used to benefit the entire FC.

I understand the frustration by the OP and others. Bigger picture... if you want access to a house, join an FC. By the end of this, most (not all) FCs will have a house.

Joining a FC doesn't not give anyone access to a house. The access only exists if the FC Master (or the officers if they have the ability to set rank permissions) allows it.

Players aren't looking for a house to visit. There are hundreds of houses on every world already open to visitors. They're looking for a house to make their own.