Remove the FC/Personal housing ward classifications for OCE?

[Damptoe]

The FC/Personal ward restriction have more than served their purpose by now. It's not a big deal, but the FC wards are depressingly empty on OCE servers and it would be nice to let them fill up a bit.

[Jojoya]

They wouldn't be able to remove the classifications but they could switch some of the FC wards to personal so players could move personal houses in.

I don't know how much of a difference it would make. My FC's ward is full yet it still feels depressingly empty when I'm there because there's rarely anyone else in the ward.

[Shibi]

The FC/Personal ward restriction have more than served their purpose by now. It's not a big deal, but the FC wards are depressingly empty on OCE servers and it would be nice to let them fill up a bit.

Yep, they always said they can change from lottery to FCFS on any individual server. There is no need for lottery, and the associated FC only wards, for us on materia.

Now that everyone is settled, and the prime houses have been allocated fairly, it's better to just open it up on Materia to immediate placard buy. Doing that would also remove the FC only reservation.

[Jojoya]

Yep, they always said they can change from lottery to FCFS on any individual server. There is no need for lottery, and the associated FC only wards, for us on materia.

Now that everyone is settled, and the prime houses have been allocated fairly, it's better to just open it up on Materia to immediate placard buy. Doing that would also remove the FC only reservation.

Are we certain the FC/personal designations are tied to the lottery as opposed to the ward? I got the impression that the designations exist regardless of lottery or FCFS.

[Shibi]

Are we certain the FC/personal designations are tied to the lottery as opposed to the ward? I got the impression that the designations exist regardless of lottery or FCFS.

Are you certain there is not? The ward desigation is tied to the placard after all. The FCFS code is quite old, based on SEs hesitance to change old spaghetti it's not hard to believe that there is no lock on walking up and buying.

I do get the feeling this will also be an issue on Dynamis. After the initial housing rush is over - like EU there will be a lot of servers left.

Flipping to FCFS after a while is smarter, and without ward splits it allows people to have a FC and house next to each other. This is the biggest problem on all new servers since June, few combos for personal/fc (outside of the wards that flipped over). A pain when you move between them.

[Jojoya]

Are you certain there is not? The ward desigation is tied to the placard after all. The FCFS code is quite old, based on SEs hesitance to change old spaghetti it's not hard to believe that there is no lock on walking up and buying.

I do get the feeling this will also be an issue on Dynamis. After the initial housing rush is over - like EU there will be a lot of servers left.

Flipping to FCFS after a while is smarter, and without ward splits it allows people to have a FC and house next to each other. This is the biggest problem on all new servers since June, few combos for personal/fc (outside of the wards that flipped over). A pain when you move between them.

If I go back to the original announcement about the new housing purchase system in Mar

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...796b3f56abbd28

we get:

Depending on the housing ward, land may be purchased on a first-come, first-served basis, or by lottery.

At the release of Patch 6.1, all land available for purchase will be subject to the lottery system.

followed by:

Housing areas are divided into plots available for purchase by either free companies or private buyers, and a plot’s usage is restricted accordingly.

* Methods of purchasing land and/or purchase availability may vary by World in future updates.

So it's the housing areas (wards) that are divided by FC or private. It doesn't state that the division is tied to the purchase method.

I don't believe going FCFS would allow FCs and individuals to buy houses in the same ward at the same time based on what's said there. For the types of owners to mix, it would require the ward designation to be changed - which honestly it should be on a regular basis to allow the mix. Swap them around every 2 months with the .X patch then again with the .X5 patch.

While I don't have an issue with wards that are mostly vacant going to FCFS, we end up with the question of what happens when all the mediums and larges are filled up so only smalls are left. Will FCFS be true FCFS opening the door to RMT again even of a plot owned privately, or will it go back to the placard timer FCFS as it existed at the start of the expansion (no relocation bypass)? The major money is in the mediums and larges, not the smalls. Would FCFS have to be switched back to lottery at that point?

[Shibi]

So it's the housing areas (wards) that are divided by FC or private. It doesn't state that the division is tied to the purchase method.

And as far as ward split absolutely zero has been said. So any statement that it works one way or another is simply made up. You make up your stance, and I make up my stance. You can't state it as a fact any more than I can. And you really shouldn't in your first post in this thread. And I should on my belief in my first post too, tbh. Neither of us is right, because neither of us know. SE have said nothing. Guess, but state it's a guess, not a fact. OK?


However, let me state that right now, on Materia, and on the new EU servers, and soon enough the Dynamis servers (after a few lottery rounds for fairness), retaining lottery is of no use - there are simply too many empty plots. Ideally, what I would like (ON NEW SERVERS) to see that that lottery (and hopefully split) runs for a few rounds, maybe 5 or 6, then if it's say > 5% free plots it's all removed and the system returns to FCFS (without split hopefully). People can combo their FC and personal next to each other, and all buys are instant. It remains FCFS until housing is down to 5% then lottery comes back on.

It's become clear that lottery serves little purpose on new servers after a few rounds, and the ward split should follow the same idea, so I'd love to SE do something to remove both until the new servers fill up.

While I don't have an issue with wards that are mostly vacant going to FCFS, we end up with the question of what happens when all the mediums and larges are filled up so only smalls are left. Will FCFS be true FCFS opening the door to RMT again even of a plot owned privately, or will it go back to the placard timer FCFS as it existed at the start of the expansion (no relocation bypass)? The major money is in the mediums and larges, not the smalls. Would FCFS have to be switched back to lottery at that point?

Placard timer for 10-12 hours, then walk-right-up buy.

RMT won't be advantaged. There is no relocation, and with clicking first there is no guarantee of a S-Tier demo sale. There are enough of us on the housing discords to spot an LB11/41 for sale and then be there at the placard to click and confound any attempt of RMT if it's demolished.

[Damptoe]

It's not really about having FC member personals in the same ward as the FC house.

It's more that this really sucks to look at and it's like this in most of the FC only wards even on Ravana and Sophia which are the largest servers.



The few new neighbours we've gained in our ward are just 4 member Rank 6 FCs farming submarines since they have unlimited time and plots to set them up.

The only purpose of this suggestion is to hopefully let these wards fill up with at least a few real players.
I doubt there is anything technical holding them back from flipping a configuration value to enable something that was possible for years. If it's simply a change in policy for simplicity sake that's holding them back, then yeah they can flip the FC/Personal allocations more frequently to achieve the same result.

For the time being, I think it makes a lot of sense to just open every ward to any type of purchaser or flip the allocations. It doesn't matter how they achieve it. If the data centre actually grows enough for real competition, then they can switch it back to how it is now.

Like I said in the OP, this really isn't a big deal but the way it is now also doesn't make a whole lot of sense on this data centre. This post is just meant as a little nudge towards SE that maybe this allocation isn't necessary anymore.

[Jojoya]

It's not really about having FC member personals in the same ward as the FC house.

It's more that this really sucks to look at and it's like this in most of the FC only wards even on Ravana and Sophia which are the largest servers.



The few new neighbours we've gained in our ward are just 4 member Rank 6 FCs farming submarines since they have unlimited time and plots to set them up.

The only purpose of this suggestion is to hopefully let these wards fill up with at least a few real players.
I doubt there is anything technical holding them back from flipping a configuration value to enable something that was possible for years. If it's simply a change in policy for simplicity sake that's holding them back, then yeah they can flip the FC/Personal allocations more frequently to achieve the same result.

For the time being, I think it makes a lot of sense to just open every ward to any type of purchaser or flip the allocations. It doesn't matter how they achieve it. If the data centre actually grows enough for real competition, then they can switch it back to how it is now.

Like I said in the OP, this really isn't a big deal but the way it is now also doesn't make a whole lot of sense on this data centre. This post is just meant as a little nudge towards SE that maybe this allocation isn't necessary anymore.

But where would those players come from to start filling in some of those plots? I wonder if anyone has numbers on how many new purchases are being made each lottery cycle.

I imagine by now that anyone who wants a house and can afford it has one. If the ward designation was removed or flipped to personal, you might see a few relocate to snag the available mediums I can see but those smalls would take a very long time to fill in because there are just too many houses on the Materia worlds compared to players that want a house.

What you need is for SE to put on a heavy marketing campaign for the holidays to draw in new OCE players to help fill in all the wards instead of just shuffling existing owners around.

[Shibi]

What you need is for SE to put on a heavy marketing campaign for the holidays to draw in new OCE players to help fill in all the wards instead of just shuffling existing owners around.

We have a heavy marketing campaign, and our numbers are filling out nicely, to the point we often have login queues now. But as you know, housing desire is not a 100% thing and it generally takes players quite a while to earn that first 3 million gil.

I mean, fair suck of the sav mate. Please stop trying to so heavily dictate and gatekeep what we desire on our servers, from your perch in North America. It's quite colonial of you.