Lack of Housing - Still an Issue

[Aerowaffle]

A pretty good idea, that. It would also be a solution for anyone wanting to have a shared house with their eternal bond partner.

I've heard that SE is looking into sharing houses between eternal bond partners (don't quote me on that though), but I really hope they don't just limit it to eternal bond partners if they do implement it.

People can be roommates without being married.

[Gralna]

wasn't there something about a guest book in the accidental full release of the 2.5 patch notes?

[Zelas]

wasn't there something about a guest book in the accidental full release of the 2.5 patch notes?

See? That's another reason why we need SE to state something.

We have a BUNCH of "maybe this" and "didn't I see that somewhere?"

But no official words for months.

Pretty sure they've done enough to get people hyped about Heavensward, now. Instead of always answering the same questions and sharing the same information about the coming big release, why can't they answer the actual concerns?

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Make non-full servers have double experience and more new people will join them.

[Grimmel]

wasn't there something about a guest book in the accidental full release of the 2.5 patch notes?

The only problem here is that people allowed on this guest book won't be able to move furniture freely thus making it feel "Not like their own" home. To be honest I'd rather own a house than just be a guest in one.

[Dhex]

I think they planned on a more inclusive player base with larger community blocks where smaller social or special focus groups would be using Linkshells (128) would form within large Free Companies (512) - I base this entirely on the member limits and the structure of the housing wards. Additionally with the upcoming shift in focus for Free Companies with the greater customization, airship workshop, and voyage content - that might be exactly how Japanese players are structuring their community and why things are the way they are. NA/EU might have constructed their communities differently - in such a way that doesn't work with the developers intentions.

More housing wards might be nice - but honestly most wards even full of houses are devoid of players and a wasted dump of resources as is. There's two options; We change how we think about community structure in FFXIV and as players form larger Free Company groups so that more people can utilize the housing tools (not likely going off of the typical attitude a lot of players have about others); or hope the developers gut and rebuild their housing system from the ground up (not likely either considering how much effort they've already invested).

Right now individual & small groups of dedicated/lucky players are the only ones that have access to housing and that's a bummer for the people that missed out.

Just adding a few plots in Ishgard or anywhere else is a band-aid and does not really fix the overall problem.

[Zumi]

On Sargatanas which is pretty high pop

Housing Available
Gridania - 2 medium, 1 large
Uldah - 16 medium, 10 large
Limsa - 0

So yea there is still houses on a high pop legacy server.

[Verdan]

I don't understand how it seems like neighborhoods are setting the servers on fire. Lotro does the same thing this game does, except it auto-generates districts when particular plots are full. There's so many districts you can lose your dang house if you don't favorite it. Why are these neighborhoods so taxing on the servers, and is there a way they can change it so they're not?

[Gillionaire]

I feel like there should be some sort of incentive to go from having a house to not having a house. As it stands, there are plenty of players that own a house, but don't really do much with it. But since they already have a house, there is no reason for them to give up the plot since there is no downside to having an unused house once already owned.

Having some sort of overtime cost to the house would provide some incentive for people to give up plots that aren't being used.

Another solution (that doesn't directly involve adding more plots), would be to increase the permission system for housing. So that a group of friends can share a single house with everyone having full permissions to modify and use everything in (and outside) the house. There are several instances where friends want to use the same house (exclusively between them), but don't want to be in thier own free company purely for that reason.

That would be nice but there are two schools of home owners in this game that I've noticed.

That really doesn't work because most people that are adamant about keeping their house had saved up for months to buy the house.. The longer it took them to make the money, usually more vocal they are.. and if there's any significant upkeep for the house, they won't be able to afford it.. or they'll have to keep making money just to keep the house. THESE are the people who actually get the full use out of a house, using it AS a house and would be at risk of losing the house if upkeep was implemented.



The other school of players are the ones WITH money.. They didn't really have to save up, usually crafters or gatherers.. Honestly, the lack of housing isn't even an issue to these people, they can just buy a FC with house attached or pay off somebody to relinquish etc.. These people have means to circumvent the housing shortage, and are not very vocal on the forums about the issue. Upkeep will not bother these people very much, they play the game to make gil, they won't be affected, and will be able to keep the house no problem, but their houses will still remain unfurnished.


Not everybody that currently owns a house are exactly rich by any standards.. Some of them have saved up for a long time just to be able to afford it.. Most people that don't currently own houses are in a similar situation and have just barely enough to cover the depreciated price, making houses more expensive won't help them at all.

As a crafter myself, I see a problem with upkeep system, it will put people on the streets or make it a chore to keep the house in their possession. Can you imagine somebody saying "I have to go spiritbond for the next week and make 2m gil to keep my house for this month" I don't wanna see that in a game.

I don't understand how it seems like neighborhoods are setting the servers on fire. Lotro does the same thing this game does, except it auto-generates districts when particular plots are full. There's so many districts you can lose your dang house if you don't favorite it. Why are these neighborhoods so taxing on the servers, and is there a way they can change it so they're not?

That's a good question, one I share as well..

I think the answer lies somewhere in the incompetence of SE staff.. and lack of funding for servers.
With the way the game is made, there are some serious flaws that shouldn't even exist in the first place.. Yet, they just skate by like the problem isn't there. UIs are a big one, FC privileges are also pretty hideous.. Optimization is also a big issue, there's almost no performance difference between low graphics settings to high settings.. If additional housing wards are putting that much stress on the servers, either the servers need to be upgraded, or their programming needs to be optimized to perform better..

A good programmer can optimize efficiency by huge margins, and maybe that's what SE's lacking..




Want an example? RANT ALERT

I was creating a FC recruitment shout yesterday with my friends and after having pasted it about 3 times, they stopped getting the message.. Completely stopped seeing it.. I didn't know I was talking to a wall and of course we're clueless as to what's going on. So I start to change bits and pieces of the recruitment msg, my friends are STILL not getting it. So I broke it up into 5 pieces, yet they only get 4 out of the 5 msgs. I sent it via mog mail, NOPE the message gets cut off there too. Throughout this whole ordeal, I was not getting any notice that my msgs will be filtered out nor were my friends aware that I was even talking to them. This is their idea of anti-spam measures.. Every time somebody says something similar more than a few times, it just simply does not register on chat.. AT ALL without any warning, nothing. I eventually had to type out the msg on my phone and send it via SMS.

That is just one example, how sophomoric is that as an antispam measure, it's such a brute force method, I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of their programming is also done in the same manner, that is the only way I can think of as to why extra wards would put so much stress on the servers.

[Intaki]

Houses arent as remotely required for enjoying the game as many seem to claim. (for the majority of the game's playerbase)

Without a house you lose access to: easy access to facilities, chocobo coloring, chocobo training, and gardening. All of that in addition to not getting access to the actual housing which continues to be developed on the dollar of players who are barred wholesale from accessing it.

Implying that you have any idea what the majority of the playerbase thinks only makes you look like even more of an imbecile than you already are.