1 House 1 FC per DC Only

[GeminiReed]

We simply do not know why there is so little housing available because the developers have given us little to no information on why housing continues to be so scarce.

Based on statements they've made in the past -- housing expansion delayed due to inability to acquire server hardware -- we've got a fairly good idea. Something about their server code is ridiculously inefficient or something related to the ward design causes server or client problems. Heck, we know that when too many people are in housing the server(s) running the instances choke and won't let people enter house interiors or apartments.

My hope is that Island Sanctuary is the stress test for a new instancing system that will help address whatever is preventing them from adding enough wards to meet supply. If true then I wouldn't expect any real relief until after 7.0.

[Jojoya]

Now,...i actually do have a theory, probably not a very good one, but a theory nonetheless.
What if...the devs, never intended for us to have enough houses? ....seriously. what if. what if their goal with the housing system was to ensure that those who put in the time and effort to consistently make money and actually utilize their house, were the ones who were able (outside of the obvious bots) to obtain houses?
like i said...probably not a very good theory...but a theory none the less.

No one is being forced to utilize their house, though. SE leaves it up to players to do with them as they want as long as they enter their house at least once every 45 days. If they wanted to force utilization, they would never suspend demolition so owners would be forced on a regular basis to log into use their house.

If they didn't want there to be enough houses, we wouldn't have ward additions that somehow magically manage to fill unmet demand on the JP servers (while ignoring unmet demand on the NA/EU servers). Even JP players would be left wanting.

It's really easy to come up with possible theories for why there's a shortage (personally I believe it's a cost cutting measure so they aren't wasting money on server space that would end up unused on the JP worlds that have half the NA and 2/3s the EU average populations).

It still doesn't make sense when the development teams' goal is to allow all players to experience all the content they're interested in (within reason, ie skill based content is still going to have a skill barrier) while leaving them free to play with their friends. Data center travel is a step in the right direction but still doesn't address that adequately and probably never will.

It makes even less sense when there are several MMOs out there that have shown it's possible to give every character (not just player) the ability to own multiple housing locations.

Based on statements they've made in the past -- housing expansion delayed due to inability to acquire server hardware -- we've got a fairly good idea. Something about their server code is ridiculously inefficient or something related to the ward design causes server or client problems. Heck, we know that when too many people are in housing the server(s) running the instances choke and won't let people enter house interiors or apartments.

My hope is that Island Sanctuary is the stress test for a new instancing system that will help address whatever is preventing them from adding enough wards to meet supply. If true then I wouldn't expect any real relief until after 7.0.

But that doesn't answer why they didn't address the housing situation more effectively even before the semi-conductor shortage started.

If they know the server code is inefficient, why would they double down on a system that only magnifies that inefficiency instead of moving toward a new system without those problems?

People keep talking about not being able to get into houses at the start of Endwalker (can't speak to that myself, I had zero problems getting into my house and apartments) but that was an isolated incident. Every time there's been a problem with accessing instances (Raubahn EX), SE has moved quickly to fix the issue. If it was truly a server capacity issue instead of a hiccup in code or an optimization problem, it would take weeks for the access to get fixed instead of hours (even Raubahn EX was fixed in less than 2 days).

If instance server capacity is the problem, then Island Sanctuary should only be making things worse because it's now going to be every single character (not just player) with their own instance. It's not going to be a solution for the house problem because it doesn't address the reasons why most players want a house in the first place.

[GeminiReed]

But that doesn't answer why they didn't address the housing situation more effectively even before the semi-conductor shortage started.

This is a bit more speculative. I think they didn't believe it was actually a systemic problem until well into Shadowbringers. There were also some budgetary shenanigans during ShB development.

If they know the server code is inefficient, why would they double down on a system that only magnifies that inefficiency instead of moving toward a new system without those problems?

Probably had to prove to their bosses that a supply issue really existed, how bad it was, and that the current system couldn't handle it without a massive hardware investment. Keep in mind that all worlds have an identical configuration. The amount of wards needed to meet the demand on the largest worlds would go to waste on the smallest. If nothing else a more flexible way to allocate plots would be needed to keep their costs in line.

Aside: I don't believe the intention of the lottery was to fix housing supply. I think it was meant as a measure to cut down on auto-clickers and RMT primarily and address complaints about how unhealthy placard camping was as a distant 2nd. The irony of the lottery is that it gives the players the ability to collect much finer-grained demand statistics.

Adding a new housing system is a multi-expansion project and as such that makes it very expensive. If that work helps improve the instancing infrastructure I think it would actually help reduce the amount of server resources they need to dedicate to each world. Trading short-term costs for long term savings is a great argument when it comes down to hammering out budgets. Even better if you can spin that work as a new feature...

If instance server capacity is the problem, then Island Sanctuary should only be making things worse because it's now going to be every single character (not just player) with their own instance. It's not going to be a solution for the house problem because it doesn't address the reasons why most players want a house in the first place.

The hope is that IS comes with a better way to manage population scaling. IMO it would be pointless to develop the feature on the current architecture. I may have a bit more faith in Square's abilities here than is healthy but so far XIV's team has exceeded my expectations for a game developer.

If I had to fault anything I think they keep their plans way to close to the vest than they should be. Let the whiners whine, they'll never be happy.

People keep talking about not being able to get into houses at the start of Endwalker (can't speak to that myself, I had zero problems getting into my house and apartments) but that was an isolated incident. Every time there's been a problem with accessing instances (Raubahn EX), SE has moved quickly to fix the issue. If it was truly a server capacity issue instead of a hiccup in code or an optimization problem, it would take weeks for the access to get fixed instead of hours (even Raubahn EX was fixed in less than 2 days).

Seen it a few times during the first (and maybe second) lottery results period when tons of people were decorating their new space. That was always going to be temporary. Now that wards are back to being ghost towns the resource allocation can handle it.

[Themarvin]

No. Find another talking point that isn't more restrictions.

More restrictions, because players can't handle themself and some feel entitled to rob other worlds off property.

They could however make a system, that would work well to get rid of the grandfathering though.

1 House 1 FC need to be kept active... but for the auto demo timer, each additional following house the entering of it would add a cooldown of 10 days, before you can do the safety of the next one, not matter which world, sooner or later it will overlap, so you need to plan on which house(s) you want to keep and which ones you must let as the cooldown will not permit to get a clear on the 45 days, is another solution, system would require you to flag your personal house and FC.... and that can only be done once per 60 days or something, if you want to change to another favourite house.

90days cool down on it all, as well as add tax onto more houses than 1 FC and 1 Private.

It is a fair duty, for those that want to keep wards hostage,

[Rhea_]

Would be good to plug that hole for good, since we got the new servers opening up for their wards soon, so it can't be exploited, don't you think so?

I don’t think there is going to be that much of that from what I saw in the past. I think it will be a small minority even considering that. I believe I've seen like 2 people voice this on Reddit since we learned about the new servers, which I called out as being an asshole move, cause I think it is.

Still don't fault anyone for going out of their way though as it is allowed. That being said, it could be more people but we'd just speculating without facts so it's just a waste of time.

It would be more likely for people to transfer and get their house rather than making alts and get a house.
When we saw Twintania open up, we heard a similar thing but the wards remained empty for months after months.

[Themarvin]

I don’t think there is going to be that much of that from what I saw in the past. I think it will be a small minority even considering that. I believe I've seen like 2 people voice this on Reddit since we learned about the new servers, which I called out as being an asshole move, cause I think it is.

Still don't fault anyone for going out of their way though as it is allowed. That being said, it could be more people but we'd just speculating without facts so it's just a waste of time.

It would be more likely for people to transfer and get their house rather than making alts and get a house.
When we saw Twintania open up, we heard a similar thing but the wards remained empty for months after months.

It is not popular thought and idea among multiple house owners yes, you stand correct in that.

And also it is an issue, I know quite a few that will exploit the feature already and already has been doing so with the new ward we just got, so yes there is a problem, it may not hurt now, but in 6 months when people again complain about multiple houses on their new server being owned by people who is having mains on their own, is an entire other side story, whether you like it or not, something must be done.

Yoshi P. has on multiple occations halfways been keeling over everytime in public when asking about housing and new housing areas, plugging the problems for good, would make it easier to get the next step and make more houses free to the crowd, and even by the removal of grandfathering... there will be a Rama Scream among those few you claim who has doen so and is affected by it, but it would be a minor issue if so and also put these people on the same line of everyone else.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

removal of grandfathering

[Divinemights]

It is not popular thought and idea among multiple house owners yes, you stand correct in that.

And also it is an issue, I know quite a few that will exploit the feature already and already has been doing so with the new ward we just got, so yes there is a problem, it may not hurt now, but in 6 months when people again complain about multiple houses on their new server being owned by people who is having mains on their own, is an entire other side story, whether you like it or not, something must be done.

Yoshi P. has on multiple occations halfways been keeling over everytime in public when asking about housing and new housing areas, plugging the problems for good, would make it easier to get the next step and make more houses free to the crowd, and even by the removal of grandfathering... there will be a Rama Scream among those few you claim who has doen so and is affected by it, but it would be a minor issue if so and also put these people on the same line of everyone else.

Every time some self-proclaim genius making an idea that they think themselves is smart and brilliant always turned situation from bad to worst.
Take a chill pill and go out side to walk the dog
SE is not going to do this nor touch grandfathered houses

[Nepentha]

It is a fair duty, for those that want to keep wards hostage,

I just... every time I think this can't get more hilarious. It does.

[Azyreal]

Just... stop with this trash. FIX THE PROBLEM. Stop making worthless adjustments to an already broken system. FIX IT instead. We've run out of band-aids on a gaping femoral artery bleed.

Our community needs to tell SE to get instanced housing in place and make this available so we can focus energy on improving the QoL instead of people building tents along the housing ward walkways. My God, they treat housing like we are in San Francisco or Los Angeles.

How about people just stop ruining the game instead of asking for a server infrastructure that is not worth upgrading to for SE ? Try using your head instead of complaining because people want things to be done more equally. They really should limit FCs at the very least and wipe the slate clean for FCs that took over a whole ward. Can't believe people manage to incorporate the worst of capitalism inside a video game.