Housing Revision opinion

[Arazehl]

So the fact that, being essentially a single player FC, I managed to rank it to 30, earned the money to buy the house, crafted said house and literally every craftable furnishing in it, then proceeded to build and manage 3 airships and 3 submersibles by myself is just ... invalid to you? FFS, I do more as a "single player" FC than some larger FCs I know of. I suppose, by your logic, I'll have to hold off on adding those public RP venues I had planned. Shame ... I was looking forward to those.

A single player doesn't make a "company". You want to keep your workshops, rank and amenities that comes with an FC, then yeah you should be made to do something that should also be the responsibility in owning an FC and recruit to keep the FC status and title. So you made every stick of furniture, crafted up subs and airships all for your own personal gain. How is that remotely a Free Company? That's just a "You Company" using the Free Company title and all that comes with it. You don't want to grow your FC, because you want your cake and eat it too. You just want to turn it into singular ran Party House someday for your own personal gains, is my guess. Even if you do that to be a success you have to "hire". If you can hire than you can recruit.

[Stormpeaks]

A single player doesn't make a "company". You want to keep your workshops, rank and amenities that comes with an FC, then yeah you should be made to do something that should also be the responsibility in owning an FC and recruit to keep the FC status and title. So you made every stick of furniture, crafted up subs and airships all for your own personal gain. How is that remotely a Free Company? That's just a "You Company" using the Free Company title and all that comes with it. You don't want to grow your FC, because you want your cake and eat it too. You just want to turn it into singular ran Party House someday for your own personal gains, is my guess. Even if you do that to be a success you have to "hire". If you can hire than you can recruit.

Not happening, just stop. And thank god it's not happening.

[Devlyn]

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Wow, you are angry, or jaded ... or both. Have a cup of tea and take a deep breath, kiddo. You take a lot of liberties in your summation of my intent both current and future. None of which have any basis in reality. You have neither the position nor authority to define what does or does not make a "company". I own, operate and hold an LLC in real life ... as owner and sole employee. Am I not .. a company? No where in my post did I infer nor insinuate that my ownership and operation of an FC house was for "personal gain". I get that you're a veteran player and have probably seen everything there is to see in this game, but I'll thank you not to apply your blanket cynicism and presuppositions on to me. Not once in my post did I say that I didn't want to grow my FC ... and you saying so is just flat out false. Nor did I say anything about a "party house" ... that's another assumption. What I stated was "public RP venues". I'm sorry if that was a misnomer and confused you, but as I stated, I've been playing less than a year; I'm not hip to all the lingo you kids are using these days, but I assure you, I've zero interest in any sort of nightclub/disco type setting. If you actually want to know my plans, approach the subject with a medium of civility rather than half-assed assumptions and less than thought out contrivances.

As to my intent for ... literally anything I do in this game .. well ... that's just none of your damn business, honestly. So long as I play within the rules set forth, you've absolutely no position from which to argue. As for my "personal gain" from running an FC house ... you are once again being disingenuous since I made it rather clear in my post that it wasn't by design. You seem to think that I've some sort of nefarious, clandestine goal in mind to .. what .. make myself rich? Your naivety is refreshing. You and I both know how laughably easy it is to make money, and I was well on my way to cap long before the notion of an FC house crossed my mind. So, sorry to disappoint, but in my case, an FC house has done exactly what the dev team intended housing to do ... eat gil.

I'm honestly unsure where your hostility is coming from, superstar. But, I assure you, it's misguided. At the end of the day, you and I are on the same team here. I want to see the housing system improved as much as anyone. I want everyone to have a plot of land and find it mind numbingly short sighted of the dev team to NOT see that housing would be coveted a long time ago and take the appropriate steps to mitigate it. But perhaps before we go cutting people off at the knees (I promise that's not a Lalafell joke), we all put our collective noodles in the same bowl and come up with some well constructed ideas that the devs actually take seriously instead of lambasting each other with half cocked scenarios that will ultimately only serve to fracture the community further and alienate a wide portion of the player base.

[Arazehl]

I'm honestly unsure where your hostility is coming from, superstar. But, I assure you, it's misguided. At the end of the day, you and I are on the same team here. I want to see the housing system improved as much as anyone. I want everyone to have a plot of land and find it mind numbingly short sighted of the dev team to NOT see that housing would be coveted a long time ago and take the appropriate steps to mitigate it. But perhaps before we go cutting people off at the knees (I promise that's not a Lalafell joke), we all put our collective noodles in the same bowl and come up with some well constructed ideas that the devs actually take seriously instead of lambasting each other with half cocked scenarios that will ultimately only serve to fracture the community further and alienate a wide portion of the player base.

You mistaken hostility for being passionate toward an idea and garnering an opinion base what you made public by posting. Just because currently there is very limited restrictions and guidelines in place regarding what makes a Free Company and the responsibility of maintaining one, it shouldn't ever make owning a shell FC the new norm. It goes against the grain and as it stands now it's pushing out real FCs who work extra hard to give back to it's members.

With shell FCs there is tons wrong with it and it grows month after month, year after year. SE needs to suck it up and fix things with housing in more ways than one. Besides what are you afraid of? That you'll lose your FC play things, because you're not really an FC anymore? You could be with a little effort. If there were tighter restrictions and I had an FC like you describe in your post, I would probably lash out against the idea too, but thing is I don't. I have a real honest to goodness FC and that FC doesn't belong to me but to my members. So I'm not going to excuse myself to you for being passionate towards things I hold dear in this game or when I see things that are somewhat off kilter.

[Devlyn]

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I don't believe it was I that made any such mistake. You can dress your sanctimony up in all the pretty bows you want, but hostility is hostility. There are better, and more effective ways to convey one's passion for a given cause. I would venture to believe that I'm just as passionate about rectifying the housing issue as anyone, and will always openly advocate for its fair availability to all players. However, I'm not going to do so at the cost of invalidating another player's effort. I don't delude myself to think myself or my situation to be better than anyone else, which you seem to have no trouble with. And you didn't make opinions about what I posted ... you made assumptions. Subtle though it may be, there is a difference. The fact of the matter is, you're conflating two entirely separate issues when it comes to housing. Personal FCs are NOT the problem you think they are. They're a side effect of a larger issue that you either seem to be willfully ignorant of addressing or simply ignore in lieu of making ad hoc attacks at anyone that doesn't have a "real honest to goodness FC."

That's an awfully tall horse you've got there, chief. How's the air up there? Spare me your incredulity.

And let's just be totally clear here, I'm not lashing out at the idea of FC "restrictions" nor am I afraid of anything regarding it. Because when push comes to shove, you know as well as I do that it's a non-starter; even if you can't admit it to yourself. It will never happen. Ever. Like .. ever ever. This is not the hill you want to die on when it comes to housing. So how about instead of taking pot shots at people and attempting to devalue the work they may have put in, you use that big ol' brain of yours to come up with some ideas for actual solutions that aren't simply a veiled attempt to let everyone know you have such an awesome FC while trying to appear somehow seemingly insightful into the mysterious inner workings of housing in this game? I'll wait.

What I will lash out against is this notion that simply because a lot of people chose to not be a part of a large FC, they should be excluded from access to the opportunity FC housing provides for the members they DO have. Just because we're few in number, doesn't make us any less valid.

[Reinha]

as it stands now it's pushing out real FCs who work extra hard to give back to it's members.

The number of FCs is not capped so solo FCs don't take anything away from larger FCs. There is even plenty of housing for both kinds of FCs.

Creating a FC only to circumvent the FC/Personal ward restriction might not technically be cheating, but still not the way it is intended to work.

It's literally the way it's intended to work. The same player character can buy and own both a personal house and a free company house. Two houses. FC houses are not an alternative to personal housing, they are an addition to it. One that is available to everyone with no extra Gil cost or botting required.

[Jojoya]

A single player doesn't make a "company". You want to keep your workshops, rank and amenities that comes with an FC, then yeah you should be made to do something that should also be the responsibility in owning an FC and recruit to keep the FC status and title. So you made every stick of furniture, crafted up subs and airships all for your own personal gain. How is that remotely a Free Company? That's just a "You Company" using the Free Company title and all that comes with it. You don't want to grow your FC, because you want your cake and eat it too. You just want to turn it into singular ran Party House someday for your own personal gains, is my guess. Even if you do that to be a success you have to "hire". If you can hire than you can recruit.

It really doesn't matter how a free company gets redefined and what member requirements you put on a free company to retain a house it has purchased. Players intent on owning the house will always find a way to keep meeting those requirements.

Easiest way is to form a "cesspool guild". Just keep randomly inviting more and more players. Enough will accept to meet the requirements.

After all, the FC Master is under no obligation to grant any FC member access to the house, garden(s), or workshop, or share anything produced with the FC members. The FC Master can choose to keep it all. The members can join and leave, oblivious to the company credits they're generating for the FC Master to use to make more gil for personal use.

How has increasing the requirements for FC house ownership improved the situation in that case? It hasn't.

On the other hand, if SE increased the supply of houses to meet demand there would be no reason for players to make shell FCs unless they were looking for workshop access. Most might like the idea of having a workshop but they'll never do it - it's too expensive and time consuming to get airships and submersibles set up even if you're an omnicrafter capable of building all the parts. It's worse than gardening, which is another piece of content that many players claim they need access to but then given access rarely (or more often never) use.

All these threads complaining about players "cheating" the system (which they aren't because SE specifically left the option open to them) does is divert attention away from SE so they're not under pressure to improve the system. Continuing to attack each other is not going to result in houses appearing out of thin air.

[TwistedTea]

All these threads complaining about players "cheating" the system (which they aren't because SE specifically left the option open to them) does is divert attention away from SE so they're not under pressure to improve the system. Continuing to attack each other is not going to result in houses appearing out of thin air.

Yup, while we carry on bickering for crumbs, SE is whistling away not addressing the fundamental issue; supply.

We would not have to argue if there was a fully instanced housing system that would have enough supply for everyone.

Suggestions made over the years:

1. Improve apartments. Let us upgrade them in size to condos/penthouses for gil.

2. Maybe Island Sanctuaries or something similar can be fully instanced housing.

3. Keep the existing ward houses for those who want to fight it out for 'exclusive/flex' houses.

A fully instanced house which is a viable alternative to ward houses should be the baseline for all players.