Solo/Alt FCs with Housing are a Problem, and this FC "Housing Deniers" Proves It

[Rikos]

I wanted to share this I came across recently as a perfect, albeit infuriating, example of why the current Free Company (FC) housing system is so frustrating for the general community.



Here we have a Rank 6 FC called "HOUSING DENIERS" with only 4 members (the absolute minimum required to purchase land). They have claimed a valuable LARGE plot, which provides significant in-game benefits, notably the Submarine Workshop.

This is what we commonly refer to as a "Solo FC" or "Alt FC"—a company created by a single player using alternate characters to circumvent personal housing limitations and claim a valuable FC plot.

It is technically a legal maneuver, but it’s an outrage. With the current housing scarcity, especially on congested servers, seeing a plot—which is supposed to benefit a large community of players—used by what is essentially one person feels like a slap in the face. The FC's very name, "Housing Deniers," shows they are aware of the problem and are actively mocking the system and the players struggling to find a home.

The Current System Rewards Hoarding
This system actively rewards the hoarding of property and punishes genuine, large, and social Free Companies. My point is simple: We need changes to both the access requirements and the mechanics that tie high-value FC activities to a limited resource like housing.

Suggested Policy Reforms
1. Decouple Workshops from Housing
The single biggest reason for "Solo FCs" is the need to access Submarine and Airship Workshops. This essential functionality must be decoupled from housing:

Implement an FC Workshop Hub: The game should introduce a dedicated port, hangar, or similar facility where all Rank 6+ FCs can access a Workshop-like area to manage their Submarines and Airships.

This would make the necessity for FCs to acquire housing much less stressful and significantly less privileged. All FCs should have equal access to this content.

2. Stricter FC Housing Requirements
If housing plots are to remain limited, the requirements for those plots must reflect a genuine community need based on size:

Minimum Member Requirement: The current 4-member requirement is easily exploited. This should be scaled based on the plot size:

Small Plot: Minimum 4 active members (current requirement, for small groups).

Medium Plot: Minimum 8 active members.

Large Plot: Minimum 15 active members.

Stricter Activity/Demolition Rules: FC houses should require proof of a truly active roster to prevent auto-demolition. The system should require a number of unique member logins that matches the minimum member requirement for that plot size (i.e., a minimum of 4 unique members for a Small plot, 8 for a Medium, and 15 for a Large must enter the house or log in within the 45-day window).

We must stop allowing a single player to lock away an entire FC plot, its benefits, and the opportunity for a real FC community to thrive.

[Alicie]

We need not to impose further restrictions or complications regarding existing player housing model.
Current housing needs to be completely taken down and reimplemented from scratch as instanced, unlimited housing so that everyone can have a house of desired size and theme for every character and every FC.
SE needs to stop with half-measures and start doing actual work. We pay them for that.

Stricter Activity/Demolition Rules: FC houses should require proof of a truly active roster to prevent auto-demolition. The system should require a number of unique member logins that matches the minimum member requirement for that plot size (i.e., a minimum of 4 unique members for a Small plot, 8 for a Medium, and 15 for a Large must enter the house or log in within the 45-day window).

Worst possible idea to come up in a game which heavily bleeds players so much so that even FCs that previously had hundreds of active members may not even have 10 currently.
I'm not even going to mention how badly this will impact roleplaying community where FC typically is used as a management grounds while actual playerbase comes from different worlds and data centers.

[Rikos]

We need not to impose further restrictions or complications regarding existing player housing model.
Current housing needs to be completely taken down and reimplemented from scratch as instanced, unlimited housing so that everyone can have a house of desired size and theme for every character and every FC.
SE needs to stop with half-measures and start doing actual work. We pay them for that.



Worst possible idea to come up in a game which heavily bleeds players so much so that even FCs that previously had hundreds of active members may not even have 10 currently.
I'm not even going to mention how badly this will impact roleplaying community where FC typically is used as a management grounds while actual playerbase comes from different worlds and data centers.

that's why there is a if in my suggestion. "If housing plots are to remain limited...." What I do believe will be alleviated with decoupling from FC workshops already in my suggestion. Most fake FCs made just to access workshops for gil farm would not need plots anymore.

[ZenoDiogenes]

If you don't run a solo FC on either your main or your alt, you are playing the game wrong.
SE decided to design it this way. Don't blame it on ppl who like to be efficient.

[Aneshda]

I don't know what the housing situation is like on other data centers, but on Twintania (Light) alone, I counted 100 free house spots in Limsa yesterday, including 5 medium and 1 large plot.
We definitely need a better house system, and Yoshi P. should start working on it, because with dwindling player numbers, excuses are useless.
Every paying player should have the opportunity to buy a house. There's no excuse for limits or some weird server code.

Why can World of Warcraft offer housing for every player who wants a house? Why can World of Warcraft offer an item limit of 10,000+ items, while SE can't even manage more than 100 items per apartment, 200 items for small houses, and so on.
And why can other games offer permanent rooms in every inn + permanent houses? Whether you take a break for a month or a year, you don't lose anything.
Yoshi P. has unfortunately become too comfortable and too ignorant. Instead of offering players the best possible experience for the millions that SE earns each month from Final Fantasy, players get old stuff in new colors and with new names.
Major changes are undesirable because that costs time and effort that would be better spent on other games that barely generate any players.
Star Wars: The Old Republic, EverQuest II, Elder Scrolls, and World of Warcraft are all old games that cost the same amount of money as Final Fantasy Online each month: 11.99 dollars/euros.
They have all been very close to the brink of ruin, but have still managed to learn from their mistakes and do better. Even Final Fantasy was on the brink, then made a comeback, and where do we stand today? One step away from the abyss...
Let's take EverQuest II for example. You can rent a room in any inn. You can look at the rooms beforehand, and you can choose between 1, 2, or even 3 rooms.
All inn rooms, regardless of size, cost the same. I think it was 7 copper. In EverQuest II there are copper, silver, gold and platinum as currencies. Absolutely everyone has 7 copper, even the dead rat on the corner in the game.
The rooms have an item limit of 200 per room, but I'm not entirely sure anymore. For accommodation with 3 rooms there are already 600 items.
In EverQuest II there are houses in the game, spread all over the world, which you can look at, at any time via the house menu. You can teleport to any houses via the menu and take a close look at all the rooms, including the outside grounds.
There are also specially designed houses that you can buy for a small amount of money in the item shop, and they come in many shapes and sizes.
Every player can have inn rooms (one in each inn) and buy as many houses as they want.
In Star Wars: The Old Republic and Elder Scrolls Online you can also have multiple rooms and houses. They all have an item shop and they all sell special houses, decorations and furniture for little money.
Most things can be crafted in-game through professions, or found as loot in dungeons, raids, chests scattered throughout the world, or from bosses in the world, quest rewards, and achievements.
In WoW, too, you'll find the odd item in the shop. Meanwhile, in Final Fantasy, players lose houses because, for whatever reason, they can't or don't want to play the game for a while.
A dead neighborhood like in Final Fantasy is like a broken arm that no longer works, but you want to keep it despite the constant pain, even though amputation and a prosthesis would be a better option to finally live without pain.

[Alicie]

I say just outright kill gil-farming from submarines, nuke it to bloody zero even, and I say this being the owner of a solo FC where I initially made it just to get gil. Ironically, even IF I wanted to expand said FC into a real one, I'm on Maduin, so bloody good luck finding anyone to invite anyway. There's also the added humor in how I still haven't reached a point in making any profit from said submarine because it was a pain to build even just the one (no way was I buying even starter parts at those MB prices), and more painful still trying to rank it up to where it can do its little "golden path" (which then requires building more parts anyway).

Frankly I'm at the point where I might be convinced to just GIVE AWAY the damn FC and house to someone else if I knew they were going to do some good with it. But I would bet you real money that if I made a PF advert offering a free-free company with a Medium house I would be bombarded by Au Ra Bards alts with gibberish names going "Mine? Mine? Mine?" and less than 12 hours later the plot and FC would be up on some RMT website if not immediately converted into a submarine farm by someone with the resources to put out all 4 with best parts day one, so I might as well keep the damn place if only to make sure it doesn't end up in the hands of some malcontent.

I feel like the only way this FC and house is going to find a truly good second life is if some large friend circle/FC from another data center collectively moves over here because they're tired of being stuck with a Small house (or no FC house at all), or they already have a Medium FC house where they are, but they all want personal houses that just don't exist on their world ...but you can probably guess how often a scenario like THAT happens.

Just farm gil via submarines yourself, problem solved

[CCheshire]

Oh, and I thought this was going to be about how some ppl camp L plots and famous M plots with fake FC to sell them for RMT later on, which should be stopped.

[Sunhwapark]

Stricter Activity/Demolition Rules: FC houses should require proof of a truly active roster to prevent auto-demolition.

Well, that sounds like an easy way for people to grief FCs or start drama.

[Hyperia]

As I mentioned in another thread on this, simply move the workshop from the house and into the grand company and there will no longer be a need for workshop houses.

That will solve this issue and those houses will go up for sale fairly quickly. The workshop is the only reason these single player FC houses exist.

[Asari5]

instanced housing for privat players and submarine companies

housing as it is now for the large active fc's

i would include active rplers who actually decorate and use their house into the second group (only for small andmedium houses though), but i dont think its possible to justly define who belongs to that group.

and they should probably raise the item limits