Fake FCs' Housing Abuse

[Jojoya]

Honestly just requiring a FC to maintain a 4 person membership. If you have more then 1 character from the same service account join the FC; if you leave with 1 character you automatically leave with all of them.

Worst case scenario? You have someone in a "real" FC that gets inconvenienced because they want to pull themselves and their alts from the FC so they lose their rooms. This would mean a single service account could only maintain 2 Shell Fcs; so 4x less. Sure some folks are going to spend money for additional service accounts; but honestly your not going to make it impossible for folks to throw money at SE for stuff.

I'd also take it a step further and require new FC members be required to earn X amount of company credits with the FC before FC ownership can be transferred to them. This would be in addition to the 30 day transfer min requirement.

Forcing all characters on the same service account to be removed from a FC just because the player wants to transfer one of those characters to a different world/FC would be an extremely bad move.

Attaching ownership of the FC house to the FC master would work much better than the current "purchased and maintained by character" provision. Those running the workshop farms would either have to have a separate service account for each FC house or have those houses on different worlds. Someone could still hold an officer rank in multiple FCs on the same world, they just wouldn't be able to be FC master of more than one.

I'm not certain your final suggestion would be effective in any way. Even without a boost, someone could easily get a new character to 2nd Sgt. in its Grand Company within a couple of days then spam Expert Delivery turn ins to meet the remainder of the credit requirement. SE would also have to add a tracker to the game that displayed credits earned by each member. That in itself could lead to toxic behavior in some FCs ("I'm more deserving because I've generated more credits than you").

It would make more sense to move the Land Purchase entitlement from Rank 6 to Rank 20. Back when housing was first added, and even in HW to some degree, reaching Rank 6 was a difficult task unless it was a large FC because the amount of company credits generated was smaller. As expansions have come and gone, the amount of company credits being generated has increased multiple times compared to the original especially when it comes to Expert Deliveries.

A small but active FC with 4-6 members could still get the needed rank in 1-2 months (they're already going to have to wait 30 days before they can buy so it works out well). A solo FC would have a much harder time without spending a crazy amount of gil on the mb.

Another option would be to charge FCs rent in the form of Company Credits. Genuinely active FCs (once they've been established for a few months) are usually swimming in credits even after what's needed to run the subs and airship, and buying FC actions. Credits build up much faster than they get used because there's not anything useful to spend them on outside of the actions, ceruleum tanks and maybe getting Voidrake/Althyk Lavender seeds to grow.

Solo FCs, once again, are going to have a harder time generating the ongoing supply of credits without spending large amounts of gil. The more expenses there are to offset the gil generated by a workshop, the less attractive it becomes to run workshop farms.

[Reinha]

Another option would be to charge FCs rent in the form of Company Credits. Genuinely active FCs (once they've been established for a few months) are usually swimming in credits even after what's needed to run the subs and airship, and buying FC actions. Credits build up much faster than they get used because there's not anything useful to spend them on outside of the actions, ceruleum tanks and maybe getting Voidrake/Althyk Lavender seeds to grow.

Company credits are only accumulated by doing crappy casual and leveling content (that also reward GC seals) which is not something everyone participates in. This kind of "rent" would only be acceptable if it applied equally to the main culprits behind the housing shortage: private house owners. There'd be a lot more houses available if people actually had to pay CG seals to maintain their house, but are we really suggesting people need to slave away doing specific content they don't enjoy just to have a house? Auto-demolition is how the game frees up houses from inactive users.

The only thing that needs to be done is to prevent users from buying a free company house if they have a character in another free company on the same server, and that free company has an estate.

[Jojoya]

Company credits are only accumulated by doing crappy casual and leveling content (that also reward GC seals) which is not something everyone participates in. This kind of "rent" would only be acceptable if it applied equally to the main culprits behind the housing shortage: private house owners. There'd be a lot more houses available if people actually had to pay CG seals to maintain their house, but are we really suggesting people need to slave away doing specific content they don't enjoy just to have a house? Auto-demolition is how the game frees up houses from inactive users.

The only thing that needs to be done is to prevent users from buying a free company house if they have a character in another free company on the same server, and that free company has an estate.

There are a lot of different ways to generate company credits. No one is forced into specific content, though certainly some ways are more efficient for gaining credits than others. That's something I'd actually like to see SE changed - I think Expert Delivery and HQ crafting are overvalued when it comes to generating credits.

There's no reason to apply it to private house owners because 1) they don't get company credits, those go to the FC, and 2) FCs get additional features in their houses that private owners don't get.

I get why you'd be upset with the idea considering you're in a 3 member FC that owns a large. But you could have also gotten a private house and added the other 2 FC members as tenants. You're part of the problem by creating artificial demand for FC houses by using a FC for personal reasons.

The point of this is to lower demand for plots by fake FCs, which in turn can increase supply for others.

[Stormpeaks]

There are a lot of different ways to generate company credits. No one is forced into specific content, though certainly some ways are more efficient for gaining credits than others. That's something I'd actually like to see SE changed - I think Expert Delivery and HQ crafting are overvalued when it comes to generating credits.

There's no reason to apply it to private house owners because 1) they don't get company credits, those go to the FC, and 2) FCs get additional features in their houses that private owners don't get.

I get why you'd be upset with the idea considering you're in a 3 member FC that owns a large. But you could have also gotten a private house and added the other 2 FC members as tenants. You're part of the problem by creating artificial demand for FC houses by using a FC for personal reasons.

The point of this is to lower demand for plots by fake FCs, which in turn can increase supply for others.

For NA only ? Sure

Not for EU, there are enough houses on EU for everyone.

Also company credits are stupid easy to get, it would literally do nothing but create annoyance even for what you call "real fcs", forcing them to do things they dont want to do because they need to reach x amount of credits.

[Reinha]

There are a lot of different ways to generate company credits. No one is forced into specific content, though certainly some ways are more efficient for gaining credits than others. That's something I'd actually like to see SE changed - I think Expert Delivery and HQ crafting are overvalued when it comes to generating credits.

Savage, extremes, unreal, criterion, S ranks and ultimate don't give company credits, do they? So one would be forced into casual content they wouldn't otherwise do. It's a silly idea Square would never implement, because they know not everyone spends their time doing fates and dungeons lol.

I get why you'd be upset with the idea considering you're in a 3 member FC that owns a large. But you could have also gotten a private house and added the other 2 FC members as tenants. You're part of the problem by creating artificial demand for FC houses by using a FC for personal reasons.

The point of this is to lower demand for plots by fake FCs, which in turn can increase supply for others.

Part of what problem? Odin has hundreds of free company plots. If I want to create and run a free company I have the same ability to do so as any fc leader that formed theirs years ago, despite your insinuation that I or anyone looking to share a free company with their loved ones is only allowed to enjoy what other people have built.

Getting free company credits would be trivial, but the part that upsets me is the idea that I'd suffer repeating a braindead activity someone without endgame experience conveniently considers the best way to earn housing. This expectation of having to waste my time would be there still, should my fc grow into a 4 man fc that might meet your criteria of a "non-fake" fc.

[Stormpeaks]

To add to what I said earlier :

Cerberus which is one of the most populated world on Chaos, has 510 plots open for both fc/personal
Ragnarok has 390
Phantom has a whooping 4111 plots open
and last but no least, Sagittarius has 5288 plots open.

Light is the same thing, if not with even more plots open.

There is no housing crisis on EU, keep that stuff and all those restrictions for NA if they have to take place.

As for NA

Dynamis has :

Halicarnassus : 4072 plots open.
Seraph : 3366 plots open.
Maduin : 4398 plots open.
Marilith : 4449 plots open.

[Sindele]

The only thing that needs to be done is to prevent users from buying a free company house if they have a character in another free company on the same server, and that free company has an estate.

This is, and has always been, one of those solutions that sounds good but doesn't work on its face, only hurting random innocent players. It doesn't stop the current loophole, because blocking buying doesn't mean anything when you're bouncing houses from one account to another immediately - all it would do is add the need for the buyer to leave after transfer. Blocking transfers is opening a huge can of worms with undesirable knock-on effects for regular FCs (lmao your FC house has been randomly destroyed because your leader idled out and the FC passed to an officer who has alts in housed FCs).

But also, just in general, my third-string alt that's a low-rank member in an RP guild that has a small house should have no bearing on what I do with my main; and creating a restriction that is tantamount to 'all your alts have to leave their FCs and then rejoin after you buy' is just adding a layer of pointless tedium. For similar reasons, you can't just check permissions to see if they're 'really using it', since you can just derank them temporarily. There is no satisfactory way to solve this purely programmatically that both cannot be abused and does not hurt innocent regular players, and it's just not that big of a problem to be worth that.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Another option would be to charge FCs rent in the form of Company Credits.

This is really not as hard as you think it is. First off, they have it set so that the more people online, the fewer credits you earn, and this is deliberate so that large FCs don't rocket past small ones. Secondly, just as now there is a market for magitek repair kits, all this will do is create a market for militia chokers, or whatever the easiest thing to craft for the most credits is.

Any measure of resource requirement that isn't an overly taxing punishment on a small FC can be easily overcome by a single rich player.

[Jojoya]

This is really not as hard as you think it is. First off, they have it set so that the more people online, the fewer credits you earn, and this is deliberate so that large FCs don't rocket past small ones. Secondly, just as now there is a market for magitek repair kits, all this will do is create a market for militia chokers, or whatever the easiest thing to craft for the most credits is.

Any measure of resource requirement that isn't an overly taxing punishment on a small FC can be easily overcome by a single rich player.

I understand that a single rich player has the potential to overcome this fairly easily.

The question would be if it's worth it to them. Why are they buying the additional houses in the first place?

If they are just looking for more houses to own and decorate, then nothing is going to stop them. They will always find a way around it.

If the goal is additional workshop access for gil farming, though, does it become worth it if almost all the gil you're making off the workshop has to be put back into generating the FC credits needed to pay the rent? Militia chokers are nice for getting to level 6 quickly. They're one heck of a pain in the neck for generating company credits in large amounts.

Note I didn't even suggest an amount of company credits that I feel reasonable for rent. I don't have access to data that SE would have on how many company credits are generated by typical FCs. All I have to go by would be the amounts generated by the FCs I belong to.

The one this character belongs to is a good size though not what most would consider large. One of my alts had inherited it when the original FC leaders took an extended break from the game for RL reasons. I gave it to a friend who did want to run a FC after the former leaders came back and no longer wanted it. The FC had very little in the way of company credits when I gave it to him because my alt had been the only active member for about 6 months. I was actually using the Militia Chokers to get credits to buy Ceruleum tanks at times. But it's almost 4 years later now and the FC has close to 70 million company credits available.

I have a small FC I run with an alt on Coeurl that's a sort of "haven" for friends who have alts they occasionally want to play in a quiet atmosphere away from the activity and noise in their main characters' FCs. Since activity isn't constant, there's only 2.8 million credits built up after 18 months (but the workshop is running with max level subs so it's going through Ceruleum tanks fairly fast).

Then there's the FC another alt belongs to on Marilith. It has 5 unique members currently active on a weekly basis and 6 that play intermittently as RL allows. It's up to 3.5 million credits already in the not quite 4 months since Marilith opened.

If the latter is typical for the small FCs, then charging 250k company credits a month for rent wouldn't be a stretch for most though it would be a stretch for my Coeurl alt FC where it's just my alt plus a few others that log in about once a month or so. But it could also be argued that my alt FC doesn't really need a house because of the limited activity.

Now look at a rent charge of 250k credits from the perspective of someone who is getting multiple FC houses to workshop farm. The FC master characters aren't active characters generating company credits. There are no other active members generating company credits. The credits they're currently using to run their subs come mainly from items purchased for Expert Deliveries. With the rent, they'd have to buy that much more. That starts taking a huge chunk out of the profits they're making from the workshops.

Is it still worth the effort for a minimal return? Sure, they could invite players to join their FCs to generate the needed credits but it's a risk as the players they are likely to get would eventually leave to join active FCs or stop playing so there goes their credit source until more players are recruited.

There are no perfect solutions but I think a company credit based rent system for FC houses would at least reduce the number of players who are obtaining multiple FC houses for personal use.

[Stormpeaks]

Except its just not necessary, there is housing for everyone, and this just adds more annoyances for both "real" fcs as you call them, and "fake fcs", lets just stop trying to take things away from people yes ?

If people want houses on NA, Dynamis is wide open.

EU has 0 issues with housing, even on the oldest world which is Ragnarok.

Stop creating a problem where there isnt one.

This constant obsession with taking things away from people that have worked for what they have is actually becoming gross at this point, or this whole "yes lets add more chores to keeping a house, so people HAVE to do things just in order to keep their houses, that sure is very fun !"