When will houses be available to private owners?

[PredatoryCatgirl]

I doubt they will ever get to the point where all are mixed for buyer type. SE wants to make certain there are always a few houses available for newly formed FCs.

They really need to be. The functionality of a house for an FC is much greater than for a personal, both in literal in game functions (workshop, place for the FC to congregate) and soft ones (showing that you're serious about your FC). Housing was originally designed for FCs and only released to individuals during a time when there were legions of unsold houses rotting away.

On top of this, the "neighborhood feel" only really works in FC neighborhoods. 30 random gamers will not create a neighborhood. 30 random FCs will. I see and interact with my neighbors all the time at my FC house. I think I've spoken two words to someone in my personal ward once.

[Jojoya]

They really need to be. The functionality of a house for an FC is much greater than for a personal, both in literal in game functions (workshop, place for the FC to congregate) and soft ones (showing that you're serious about your FC). Housing was originally designed for FCs and only released to individuals during a time when there were legions of unsold houses rotting away.

On top of this, the "neighborhood feel" only really works in FC neighborhoods. 30 random gamers will not create a neighborhood. 30 random FCs will. I see and interact with my neighbors all the time at my FC house. I think I've spoken two words to someone in my personal ward once.

And yet I have apartments in a FC only ward for my characters without a personal house and for all the time I spend running between my apartments and the Curious Crop exchange, I never see anyone.

While the ward has a few smalls left unsold, most plots have been sold. Among the sold plots only two are open to visitors. One of those FCs has 3 members. The other 18.

The rest of the sold plots are locked, share the exact same default housing skin and are not decorated outside at all (not even a Mini-Aetheryte) unless it's been hidden within the house skin. The FCs have between 1 and 9 members.

Even if all those plots were owned by active FCs with 9 members each, that would still only be a little over 200 players sharing the ward. The chances of running into another player would still be very small.

It's a mixed bag. Certainly an all FC ward has the potential to feel more alive but that does not mean it will be. It depends on what FCs have obtained houses there. If they're mostly large, active and social FCs then you're in luck. If they're mostly 1-2 player FCS, or FCs that log in to raid only, your ward is still going to end up dead.

That's why I'd love to see the wards become the portals to an improved instanced housing system. The more players that have reason to travel through the same area on a regular basis, the more chances there are for player interaction that would make the wards feel alive. We know the wards themselves are capable of holding a fairly large number of players concurrently thanks to some of the huge venue events. Imagine how lively wards would feel if even half that number could own housing within the same ward/subdivision instead of the current 30.

[Khryseis_Astra]

That's why I'd love to see the wards become the portals to an improved instanced housing system. The more players that have reason to travel through the same area on a regular basis, the more chances there are for player interaction that would make the wards feel alive. We know the wards themselves are capable of holding a fairly large number of players concurrently thanks to some of the huge venue events. Imagine how lively wards would feel if even half that number could own housing within the same ward/subdivision instead of the current 30.

Same here… the most activity I see is at my FC house, because we all hang out by the bell there, while waiting for ques or just crafting. But I never see anyone in my actual neighborhood. And the FC only wards are pretty much ghost towns for some reason. I’d expect them to be more lively!

I do hope they’ll look at things and maybe open up some of the FC only wards to be unrestricted… they’ve done it before. And there’s some nice smalls in there, that have been 0 bids the last 4 lottos, so clearly the FCs don’t want them. There’s multiple of a rank 4 plot that I would be happy to call home, but I’ll be competing with 3-10 people minimum on one of the 7 smalls left in the mixed wards next round.

[DeNada]

Same here… the most activity I see is at my FC house, because we all hang out by the bell there, while waiting for ques or just crafting. But I never see anyone in my actual neighborhood. And the FC only wards are pretty much ghost towns for some reason. I’d expect them to be more lively!

Honestly, the reason why FC only wards are ghost towns are likely that they are mostly shell FCs. And those owners only popped in to renew their submarines once every 2 days so you would be extremely lucky if you could catch a glimpse of them in the few seconds it take for each character to load into the ward before popping into their workshops.