SE need to stop this!

[LaylaTsarra]

It's really not hard to make hundreds of millions in a month via marketboard flipping so thinking a tax would stop that is a nice dream but a dream none the less.

They will never cease to stop with trying to penalize people who own homes and take them away from them. Those buying entire wards shouldn't be the reason for penalizing the normal people who buy just one or a FC and a Private. SE needs to fix the problem but the problem shouldn't be addressed by penalizing everyone for the transgressions of a few.

Those buying up entire wards are probably making a ton of money with them and sure won't be hurt much by any tax on housing. RMT would love a tax I suspect as they watch their profits grow.

[LianaThorne]

They will never cease to stop with trying to penalize people who own homes and take them away from them. Those buying entire wards shouldn't be the reason for penalizing the normal people who buy just one or a FC and a Private. SE needs to fix the problem but the problem shouldn't be addressed by penalizing everyone for the transgressions of a few.

Those buying up entire wards are probably making a ton of money with them and sure won't be hurt much by any tax on housing. RMT would love a tax I suspect as they watch their profits grow.

The question then comes in, if they choose to fix it then who gets affected by it? Does everyone who own multiple plots? Only those who weren't grandfathered in? (Which will probably cause some issues with those who weren't and feeling like it's unfair). Either way, a tax won't stop anything with how actually braindead it is to make gil with an hour of your day.

Personally I look at someone buying an entire ward as someone taking up plots that no one is actively trying to buy so it's not like they're ripping plots out of peoples hands that are trying to bid on them. Game just has a lot of emptier servers that people don't want to move to and those that did are capitalizing on it. Like I said already, the plots are there sitting unwanted and unbid on. If people are so upset about others buying multiple then move there yourself and buy one. It's literally free transfer to any new server and there are probably tens of thousands sitting across all of the new DCs and servers we've gotten over the past year.

Punishing the majority for those that are doing that is a choice (and usually stems from jealousy from not bring able to get a house on their current server and a refusal to move to get one (even with cross-DC now being a thing to keep in contact with friends and do content) which is entirely a "them" problem)).

[LaylaTsarra]

The question then comes in, if they choose to fix it then who gets affected by it? Does everyone who own multiple plots? Only those who weren't grandfathered in?

Grandfathering only applies to private homes. The rules changed back in 4.2 and people can't buy more than one private on a server although that is certainly allowed elsewhere and didn't change with the new rules. They had the option to restrict housing to one private per account but they didn't. They continue to allow purchases on different DC's and servers and that's on SE not the people following the rules who elect to do that.

The problem has been Free Company homes and they made an attempt to try and stop/limit this with the 30 day hold on new FC's as well as the transfer of leadership but ultimately the problem arises where people can still buy multiple FC houses is the time given for FC purchases in FC wards is way too long so they can still by pass the rules or intent of one FC per server because these wards stay FC for so long.

FC wards on Dynamis are sitting open now with only Large and Mediums going up for grabs in the first round for the most part with so many homes just sitting and that will continue to sit for quite some time allowing ward buyers time to spin their magic.

The length of time and the split of FC/Private have been way out of balance. I have no problem with FC's getting 1st shot at homes but those wards should stay FC for the first month or 2 or 3 after sales open and then private sales should commence. These ward owners are only able to do what they do because they have so much time to do it. Certainly if they own multiple subscriptions well they are paying for access with different accounts and there isn't much that can be done in that regard I'm afraid. SE will certainly take the added subs.

The current ward splits and the lack of demand for FC's with housing sitting open for so long has also encouraged the creating of personal FC's which is simply a reaction by some to the way FC sales are set up and are essentially buying private FC's.

[LianaThorne]

Grandfathering only applies to private homes. The rules changed back in 4.2 and people can't buy more than one private on a server although that is certainly allowed elsewhere and didn't change with the new rules. They had the option to restrict housing to one private per account but they didn't. They continue to allow purchases on different DC's and servers and that's on SE not the people following the rules who elect to so that.

The problem has been Free Company homes and they made an attempt to try and stop/limit this with the 30 day hold on new FC's as well as the transfer of leadership but ultimately the problem arises where people can still buy multiple FC houses is the time given for FC purchases in FC wards is way too long so they can still by pass the rules or intent of one FC per server because these wards stay FC for so long.

FC wards on Dynamis are sitting open now with only Large and Mediums going up for grabs in the first round with so many homes just sitting and that will continue to sit for quite some time.

In addition the length of time and the split of FC/Private have been way out of balance. I have no problem with FC's getting 1st shot at homes but those wards should stay FC for the first month or 2 or 3 after sales open and then private sales should commence. These ward owners are only able to do what they do because they have so much time to do it. Certainly if they own multiple subscriptions well they are paying for access with different accounts and there isn't much that can be done in that regard I'm afraid. SE will certainly take the added subs.

The current ward splits and the lack of demand for FC's with housing sitting open for so long has also encouraged the creating of personal FC's which is simply a reaction by some to the way FC sales are set up.

I agree that there should be more private homes (especially on the packed servers) but if there isn't population to fill it, then the same will just happen with those that already make alt accounts entirely to buy additional private homes (which is already happening since Square basically funds your first month and a half of sub for free + with demo off you dont need to actively maintain the sub.....paying for the base game really isnt that expensive for those that have disposable income). If there aren't enough actual unique users, I don't see it changing even with swapping more to private. There will always be loopholes unless they just trash wards entirely and switch to an instanced set up where players can buy as many as they want.

[LaylaTsarra]

I agree that there should be more private homes but if there isn't population to fill it, then the same will just happen with those that already make alt accounts entirely to buy additional private homes. If there aren't enough actual unique users, I don't see it changing even with swapping more to private.

Privates will sell unless you're talking about Materia which has it's unique issues right now. In my ward on Sophia a second medium just sold after months with 3 large, 2 mediums and 2 smalls being sold. There are 4 mediums just sitting there with no buyers. That's 7 houses sold with 23 open plots after months and months and that is only my subdivision. My ward was initially a FC ward allowed to go private but I don't suspect these problems will exist on Dynamis or even the new EU servers. If they keep FC wards (after all those are houses that can be sold to people) as they are for months you're going to see the abuse happen.

I can't speak for whether or not ward sales have been going on here on Materia given I haven't really taken the time to look. They certainly have the time to do it if they so choose

[LianaThorne]

Privates will sell unless you're talking about Materia which has it's unique issues right now. In my ward on Sophia a second medium just sold after months with 3 large, 2 mediums and 2 smalls being sold. There are 4 mediums just sitting there with no buyers. That's 7 houses sold with 23 open plots after months and months. My ward was initially a FC ward allowed to go private but I don't suspect these problems will exist on Dynamis or even the new EU servers. If they keep FC wards (after all those are houses that can be sold to people) as they are for months you're going to see the abuse happen.

I can't speak for whether or not ward sales have been going on here on Materia given I haven't really taken the time to look. They certainly have the time to do it if they so choose

I mean, Dynamis has been up for a month so far and outside of Seraph (for obvious reasons) there are still close to 3000 privates left. Unless we get a massive wave of new players then I don't see them selling for a long while still. Even the new EU servers still have about 1100 privates available between the two.

If you're curious Google Paissa Housing and check out that site, it lists up to date plot information for both Privates and FCs. Really good tool to help get an idea of the popularity of your server.

[LaylaTsarra]

I mean, Dynamis has been up for a month so far and outside of Seraph (for obvious reasons) there are still close to 3000 privates left. Unless we get a massive wave of new players then I don't see them selling for a long while still.

If you're curious Google Paissa Housing and check out that site, it lists up to date plot information for both Privates and FCs. Really good tool to help get an idea of the popularity of your server.

Yeah Seraph is pretty crowded, shades of Balmung.

Well private houses can't be used to build ward abuse it's the FC wards. That needs to be addressed in a big way and sooner rather than later. Keeping that split for months and months is just asking for abuse. Can't sell a private or use it for air/sub revenue which is in my view the main reason for the abuse.

The 12/12 split can work for a short time giving FC's the opportunity to get large and mediums for their memberships but that can't be kept like that for extended periods in my view. And with respect to population growth in my view more of Aether's and Crystals servers need to go congested. I don't know much about Primal don't have an alt there but their overcrowded servers need to go that route as well.

And I'll have to look that site up thank you.

[LianaThorne]

Yeah Seraph is pretty crowded, shades of Balmung.

Well private houses can't be used to build ward abuse it's the FC wards. That needs to be addressed in a big way and sooner rather than later. Keeping that split for months and months is just asking for abuse. Can't sell a private or use it for air/sub revenue which is in my view the main reason for the abuse.

The 12/12 split can work for a short time giving FC's the opportunity to get large and mediums for their memberships but that can't be kept like that for extended periods in my view. And with respect to population growth in my view more of Aether's and Crystals servers need to go congested. I don't know much about Primal don't have an alt there but their overcrowded servers need to go that route as well.

And I'll have to look that site up thank you.

Like I said earlier, people can just make alt accounts entirely if they got the disposable income to do so. That's the only way that private houses can be monopolized. But yes, FCs are the easier way to do it.

I honestly can't remember off the top of my head but have they ever shut down an entire DC for new players or transfers before? I think that might be a smart move to do as it'll help push people into the newer DCs if they haven't considered doing that before. But also, it is a dead period content wise so I wonder how much of an effect it would have compared to starting that during 7.0 for example when people would coming/returning in large numbers to see the new MSQ? Aether is probably the most congested out of all of them though due to the huge streamer presence there, Primal from my knowledge isn't as bad but still could probably do with several severs being put into congested rather than the entire DC.

Also you're welcome. C:

[Nepentha]

Well, that sucks, but the rent idea sounds like horribad idea.

Just like the invisible timer.

Just like the lottery.

Why our first reaction is always to wish bad solution to fix bad idea??

Because people are short sighted and immediately leap to punitive ideas that assuage their outrage rather than actual solutions to the problem.

Instanced housing would be a better solution, giving everyone access to housing.

[Hanayumi]

This is how I see it with minimal modifications to current system
1) Close out housing/refund everyone
2) Update apartments with upgradable size feature, allow outdoor furniture indoors, add share ability with alt characters in same server
3) Restrict houses to FC only, add further restrictions to "alt" FCs, and add rent with FC credits