Houses are lost sooner

[Naunet]

The problem is like apartments that there's no community. Nobody else would see your house or walk by it or anything.

This is so patently untrue. Actually play an MMO with instanced housing and you will realize that you can have just as much if not MORE of a community with it. WildStar's housing community is thriving and people visit each other's housing plots constantly for RP events, mini-game style events (you can design a housing plot to do things like mini golf or an obstacle course, a race track, a dueling arena, heck probably even a D&D map, etc), and just to look at the gorgeous creations. Folk in the community engage with each other, provide ideas for new ways to build something, and offer support in terms of decor or encouragement/advice. It is a more involved community than any FFXIV's housing supports, especially as that game approaches housing as something for everyone, not just those with crap tons of gil, time, and a heck of a lot of luck.

[Titor]

The problem is like apartments that there's no community. Nobody else would see your house or walk by it or anything. They could enter your instance but that's clunky and makes the world feel more artificial and divided. It's exactly the same compliant people have with the world being instanced with zones.

I own a large house in Balmung (And have moved houses around a variety of wards). And do you know how often I see other people? I see the person that owns the house near mine maybe once or twice a week. One person on very rare occasions. I don't know why everyone acts like wards are bustling with activity. Even on Balmung, take a stroll through most of the newer wards (especially subdivisions). You won't see a lot of people unless its a ward that has a huge FC in it, which is rare. The older wards are dwindling too as people go inactive and houses get bought up by individuals or smaller, newer FCs.

The community argument is getting old. There's no community. It's clunky and limited, I'd much prefer instanced housing.

[Shougun]

Instanced housing is not much different than having an apartment room. The only difference would be that you can decorate the outside.

It's a poor solution and would diminish the appeal of having a house.

I disagree, since 90% of every district I've been has been quiet there is no point (to me) to having a "community" set up as it doesn't even exist to a tangible level. I'd rather be able to have an instanced house with far more customization power than a community area where I've got a tiny plot of land to work with. To add though, a few people have suggested community building options for zones - so perhaps you could purchase a massive "instance" with friends and build a community of your own (like there is a FC island suggestion in the housing threads). So instance doesn't HAVE to be communityless, and for FC instance it wouldn't of course.

Although some people have been recommending keep the old and add a new one, for those who still liked the older version. Perhaps that'd be best, although I think over time it'd be a deprecated system anyways due to the fact an instanced system has a massive amount of more customize-able requests you can make.

Example from Wildstar: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=929526289

(I mention wildstar a lot but there are many other mmos who've done instanced housing, LotR is similar to FFXIV's but again the whole community aspect is lost to me since the areas except for the hardest to get into are usually ghost towns, loss of features, in SE's case limited housing, and difficulty getting the location you want for "near zero community" not really worth it imo). Although in the comparison with LotR, they actually had the wards generate when one was full - and I believe the amount of space you could work with was bigger as well.. so... ;/ ? lol

[ShadowHunterrX]

There is a house on the moogle server from a FC that transfered 2 years ago to a another server. But keeping the house for no reason by logging in on the alts to save it. The same people who left the server bec of all the selfish people.... yea who is the selfish one

[Iromi]

Honestly, I don't even see why people keep houses if they aren't playing.

There is this FC on my server who has not touched the game since 3.0 launch and keeps their house...its like, well I usually don't judge and all..but why keep a house if you aren't playing? If I truly quit I'd give up my FC/mansion or pass it on to someone who plays and can enjoy it. It seems incredibly selfish to keep a house and log in just to keep it for no reason...

If it was someone coming back and on a break sure, but come on, its nearly been 2 years lol.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Honestly, I don't even see why people keep houses if they aren't playing.

There is this FC on my server who has not touched the game since 3.0 launch and keeps their house...its like, well I usually don't judge and all..but why keep a house if you aren't playing? If I truly quit I'd give up my FC/mansion or pass it on to someone who plays and can enjoy it. It seems incredibly selfish to keep a house and log in just to keep it for no reason...

If it was someone coming back and on a break sure, but come on, its nearly been 2 years lol.

If its been two years and the house is still taken someone is using it. Even if they only visit the house once every 45 days... someone is using it. There's nothing wrong with a paying customer making as much or as little use of their housing as they desire. Someone is paying a sub and accessing that property to prevent its foreclosure and there is nothing wrong with that.

What I feel is a problem (but by no means the only one) is when a person, for whatever reason, feels like its ok for them to buy multiple houses while others who would like to own a house can't even find one available. It's selfish in my opinion. Limiting accounts to one house per server won't solve limited housing availability, but it will make what housing is available more equitable. There's no reason someone should own multiple houses in each residential area (AND have an apartment to boot!) while others who want a house can't get even one. At least limiting houses to one per account per server assures each private home is only being claimed by one account. It doesn't guarantee a private home for every player who wants one but it does at least make sure the limited housing available isn't being hoarded by those with the means to buy multiple homes.

[Valenth]

... Limiting accounts to one house per server won't solve limited housing availability, but it will make what housing is available more equitable. There's no reason someone should own multiple houses in each residential area (AND have an apartment to boot!) while others who want a house can't get even one. At least limiting houses to one per account per server assures each private home is only being claimed by one account. It doesn't guarantee a private home for every player who wants one but it does at least make sure the limited housing available isn't being hoarded by those with the means to buy multiple homes.

Yup, one house per account per server is what I would consider more fair too. Other than that I'm pretty content with the housing in this game. I regularly meet up with my neighbors in the ward of our FC. ^^

[addz3]

Honestly, I don't even see why people keep houses if they aren't playing.

.

The reclaim process should only be for people who delete their accounts and not based on subs, this would be fair. Also as many people have said, limit the amount of houses 1 person can have.

[Senn]

I would prefer they remove the housing demolition timer entirely.

[Anzaman]

I would prefer they remove the housing demolition timer entirely.

Perhaps not entirely, but I'd prefer them to increase the timer from 45 days to several months. Current timer doesn't really allow you to take breaks, and I can imagine some people wanting to go for a break after 3.55 part 2 until closer to Stormblood release, but don't want to lose their homes meanwhile.