Restrict Personal Houses to 1 Per Server!

[anzamoni]

Their continual buff to jobs led to the balance disaster of Heavensward where Bard and Machinist completely destroyed Casters while Warrior dominated and Paladin fell into obscurity-- a trend that has gradually continued as Dark Knights drop due to being decidedly inferior. Regardless, which audience is better to potentially anger? The 10-15% of owners who exploited a known problem or the 85-90% who currently have nothing? SE stands to lose considerably more money from disappointed and homeless players compared to the Mateus couple who own twenty six plots between them.

How many are honest players though? A significant number of alt owned houses on the same server are intended for nothing more than a quick flip. Even if every single one of these players quit, it wouldn't come close to the numbers of players contemplating quitting now that Shirogane is gone.

I fail to see how class balance issues due to dev oversight and lack of testing can apply to housing. I still stand by and developers do as well, buff a class/feature up to the target level. This makes players happy because the thing they want got better, players on the once OP class are unaffected. Nerf a class that is out performing, people who play that class are upset.

Back on point, wiping out these alt owned houses doesn't solve the problem. It's hardly a drop in the bucket, the only reason it is being floated is because people think if a few hundred more houses open up on their server surely they will get one this time! Surely out of the 10k people and hundreds of FCs on their world without a house. Even if you assume 90% of the houses in the game are owned by 10% of the active accounts that is only 135 thousand houses freed up to be fought over by 635 thousand players AND their FCs. We need to focus on a long term solution, not a short term stop gap.

People are just so upset right now that they did not get a home that right now people are willing to punish other players who may have done nothing against the game rules. House flipping is against the games rules, and should be punished. I do not disagree with that. But to punish every player who has houses on an alt because some players who have houses on alts might be trying to sell it for a profit does not seem like a good idea to me. And the worst part about this is we do not have solid numbers on how many homes are owned by single accounts. Even if we just had a percent from SE 20%, 60%, 80% of total housing is owned by a single account with multiple house owning alts. Currently it is all just speculation and anecdotal evidence just like your insistence that the number of players that are actually going to quit because they did not get a house last night will out number those who would leave because they had their house and items taken from them. How many Paladins ACTUALLY quit when they said they were going to during HW when raids preferred WAR/DRK? What amount the Monks, or the Summoners who were going to quit because Egi's were small?

This Mateus thing, they did nothing wrong per the game. They didn't buy them all to flip them. To my knowledge most of the homes they owned had been vacant for quite sometime and they are not trying to flip them for money. They crafted and decorated most if not all of them. So instead of tearing away all the work they put into earning the gil to purchase those homes(I am sure they were investigated for RMT when that story dropped), the crafting and gathering to decorate those homes, and the time spent leveling the alts for each of those homes for a couple of people who would probably be more than happy to have used instanced housing if it were available.

Instead of striping people of things they worked for, how about we get a solution in place first? What is wrong with getting instanced housing and then applying the 1 per server rule? Because then legitimate players who own multiple houses can have their extra homes transfer to an instance, freeing up wards and they don't have to lose as much? I feel like more of these suggestions are about punish those who have than actually finding a solution.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I fail to see how class balance issues due to dev oversight and lack of testing can apply to housing. I still stand by and developers do as well, buff a class/feature up to the target level. This makes players happy because the thing they want got better, players on the once OP class are unaffected. Nerf a class that is out performing, people who play that class are upset.

It doesn't. You simply used it as a point of reference and I commented. To momentarily deviate once again, you are mistaken. Heavensward led to an increased push towards "meta," where PF alienated certain jobs deemed too inferior. White Mage and Paladin suffered most noticeably. The people playing whichever job may certainly relish a buff, however those who find their preferred job increasingly less desirable aren't happy. In fact, there is a whole thread on the DPS forums about Black Mages due to how frequently shunned the role gets for offering next to nothing other jobs simply don't do better.

How many Paladins ACTUALLY quit when they said they were going to during HW when raids preferred WAR/DRK?

Shockingly few. Most either picked up the other tank or gritted their teeth and played their preferred job. Which suggests people who lost their extra houses and quit as a result would be a decidedly small minority.

Anywho, we've digressed.

While it wouldn't solve the housing issue, it would contribute to more plots being made available. No one needs more than a single house, especially in with a finite system like what is currently implemented. They worked hard exploiting a poor designed system that allows one player to own sixteen houses per server. And a good many did so with the sole intent on selling them for exorbitant prices. Since SE constantly likes to tout about their server stability limitation. It makes far more sense they try to ensure everyone has access to housing, not a select few who collect different plots akin to Pokemon. Citing punishment is rather hollow given how ineffectual its execution actually is. People simply post on reddit or other third party avenues to avoid detection. Per your initial post, yo advocated having GMs monitor the housing wards in the hopes of catching suspicious activity. You do realize that comes at an enormous cost, yes? Now these GMs need to be employed for several hours to maybe, possibly catch someone flipping a house.

This Mateus thing, they did nothing wrong per the game. They didn't buy them all to flip them. To my knowledge most of the homes they owned had been vacant for quite sometime and they are not trying to flip them for money. They crafted and decorated most if not all of them. So instead of tearing away all the work they put into earning the gil to purchase those homes(I am sure they were investigated for RMT when that story dropped), the crafting and gathering to decorate those homes, and the time spent leveling the alts for each of those homes for a couple of people who would probably be more than happy to have used instanced housing if it were available.

Actually, they aren't. I have seen their ward and the majority of houses they own are essentially storage. Regardless, the devs boast about their community aspect. Here is a ward where they will never be any neighbours. If anything, it only further advertises the foolhardiness of neighbours. Now I don't bear them any ill-will, and am perfectly fine with their gil be reimbursed. That being said, I also offer no sympathy towards were they forced to relinquish all but four (two personal; two FCs) so the remaining twenty four could go to people who have nothing.

Instead of striping people of things they worked for, how about we get a solution in place first? What is wrong with getting instanced housing and then applying the 1 per server rule? Because then legitimate players who own multiple houses can have their extra homes transfer to an instance, freeing up wards and they don't have to lose as much? I feel like more of these suggestions are about punish those who have than actually finding a solution.

Nothing is inherently wrong with that alternative though it doesn't change no one should own an entire ward.