Housing Ideas and Feature Requests

[HeulGDarian]

I want 4 things for housing:
1) Calca and brina vendors
2) A door that is basicly like the doors to go inside houses or apartments or fc rooms , cause i made my fc room be a third/fourth floor of my carbuncle house( basicly the 3 windows of the side)
3) can we pls make it so that if i make a corner that they auto-fill the empty spot, or when there are 2 partitions that theyd hide the line
4) and lastly can we make all white partitions and other white stuff be the same kind of white

[Jibs]

A special housing market board in each housing area. That shows houses for sale, timers etc and lets you buy from there instead of manually going through the ward list.

A new method to buying houses rather then multitudes of people (and bots) spamming the same button over and over in hopes of being the lucky one.

Some way to keep bots from auto spamming house buying. Well thats more of a dream then a request but hey one can ask right?

[jazz0ne]

This thread is super long so I have no doubt I'm repeating some feedback others gave. But it's important to me and I think adding yet another voice to this issue has value.

The current system for purchasing a plot of land, when you are not relocating, is severely broken. It forces players to not play the game, for some random duration of time between about 30 minutes and 24 hours, if they want a minuscule change of acquiring a house.
This issue is compounded with the fact that the demolition timer has been on pause for over 3 months now. I propose that this game is more likely to lose a subscriber over the housing issue than it is to regain a subscriber who left because of COVID-related income worries who also happened to own a house in-game.

I think it's time to end the demolition timer.

The simplest fix to the housing purchase system I've seen proposed, and that I agree with, is a lottery system. Here are some specifics on how I would implement a lottery system:
1) When a plot becomes empty, for a period of time (I suggest 24 hours), the plot goes up for lottery.
2) One player or FC can request one lottery ticket per plot. The ticket is free, but sufficient gil funds must be in the player's inventory or the FC's chest at the time.
3) Once the time period is up, the system determines the random lottery winner. If the winner no longer has sufficient gil, then it goes to the next winner. Otherwise the gil is taken from the winner's balance.
4) If a player or FC has a plot already, and they want to relocate, they also need to participate in the lottery. Technically someone who already has a house doesn't need one more than someone who doesn't have one, so it makes no sense that relocations would get priority like they do now.
5) If a player or FC wins a lottery and gets the plot, they receive an email notification (out of game) and have the standard 45 days to build the house. In addition, they are withdrawn from all other lotteries (but are welcome to join lotteries for relocation).

[jazz0ne]

No a lottery is not the solution to this, people will complain about RNG in these forums, more so than bots. The best solution is to not allow people to own more than 1 house and FC house per service account, any grandfathering that is currently in game should be removed! They also need to simple double the current amount of wards per city state. If for some reason they cannot double the amount of current wards per city state, then the amount of servers per data center should be increased to spread the populations out more, however they need to also open data center travel.

I frankly don't care if people are going to complain about RNG. The long-term solution is more housing, but if Square Enix doesn't want to invest money in resources/power/space/cooling to expand housing, then at least fix the current broken system with something a lot more fair than encouraging players to click the same sign over and over again for a random number of hours. I would not consider using a bot, but you can't deny the current system would make bots seem like an attractive option. Lottery is one idea for a fix that doesn't require more server resources. What other ideas do people have?

[Jojoya]

It forces players to not play the game, for some random duration of time between about 30 minutes and 24 hours, if they want a minuscule change of acquiring a house..

Statements like these make no sense.

How are you being forced to "not play the game" when what you are doing is part of the game? It might be a less than enjoyable part, it might be a poorly designed part, but it is still part of the game. It is the player's choice to be camping placards instead of doing other content.

The smart thing to do is to play the other parts of the game you enjoy and wait for more houses to get added. That's what worked for me in 4.2. That's what worked for six of the members in my FC in 5.1. It will work for others when Ishgard gets added.

Resuming the auto-demolition timer won't be a magic fix. It's also unlikely to happen until 5.31 at the earliest and more likely 5.35. Considering most of the currently inactive owners will likely return for 5.3 since it's the conclusion of the Shadowbringer's story, the number of houses that will become available won't make a dent in the demand for houses.

[jazz0ne]

The smart thing to do is to play the other parts of the game you enjoy and wait for more houses to get added. That's what worked for me in 4.2. That's what worked for six of the members in my FC in 5.1. It will work for others when Ishgard gets added.

While I appreciate the advice, the purpose of my post was to give Square Enix feedback, and to make sure the discussion of this important issue generates sufficient feedback from a variety of users so that if they choose to address it, they will have some potentially good ideas. If the vast majority of players eligible for a piece of content designed to be part of the game are choosing to do anything but that content, then perhaps it is flawed and needs to be redesigned.

I do not think Square Enix had this sort of game loop in mind when they redesigned the way houses are purchased in this latest iteration. It is more likely an unintended gameplay loop that makes people feel like they are not playing anything at all, and it is not at all fun. Leaving a gameplay loop that provides maximum "feel bad" in a game is a sure way to push some players away.

[LaylaTsarra]

Would love to see a low fence option for Shirogane that is in the style of the housing there but that doesn't hide the beautiful view of the water. Personally I've elected to not use fencing because the view is a lot more important to me.

[Sizwe]

I don't know if it's already been suggested, but more control over who's allowed in and out of houses, like a blacklist/whitelist system. Not being able to kick people out of a house, or ban them, feels very unusual for a player housing system.

[youne]

Absolutely agree that purchasing a plot is way too difficult.
For a more fun suggestion (that's probably already come up), a way to have a minion in your home would be a lot of fun. Maybe have an interactive "pet bed" that you can assign one of your minions to. That minion would then be summoned in your house and treat the "pet bed" like the player-- wandering around it, doing it's animations. Just a fun way to do more with a minion, I think

[HeyMcFly]

More item placement slots for Small, Medium & Large houses. Houses still feel really empty if you tried to maximize their space- each housing type needs 100 more items allowed to be placed.

Arched doorways with doors
Dyeable Brick- brick comes in more than just red
Lights, Windows, NPCs shouldn't count as furniture
dyeable Brick, wood & stone partitions
Bay windows
More variety NPCs- I'd like to see the ability to place your favorite Scion for example, standing in their idle pose ex: thancred crossing his arms standing wherever you place him
Outside partition that changes scenery based on time of day/ season or varied partitions based on the weather & season you want; ex: rainy partition looking out to a meadow or forest or an ocean/ beach
Dye partitions as well as doors, not just dye-able doors
Toilets
Vanity with mirror & stool
Trees not in planters- ex: giant oak sprouting through the floor
Long, hanging Ivy
Forest themed decor
Amarout themed decor
Mermaid themed decor
Cottage themed decor