In Regard to Housing in Patch 4.1

[Snow_Princess]

Hello, everyone. This is FFXIV Producer and Director, Naoki Yoshida.
Patch 4.1 saw the introduction of the residential area, Shirogane, and though we are pleased to see so many players enjoying this area, we also received a great deal of feedback regarding this newest addition to housing.

While a great number of you were interested in either purchasing or relocating to a plot in Shirogane, we failed to prepare sufficient plots for players, and for that I deeply apologize.

This problem was only made worse by the increased stress on the servers from players rushing to log in after the end of maintenance. As a result, the system implemented to prevent players from abusing the relocation feature failed to function properly, preventing some players from relocating altogether.

Although this issue will be addressed in today’s hotfix, we understand this does not address the underlying issue. In light of the feedback we have received, we will be working to bolster our servers in preparation for additional wards in the Lavender Beds, the Goblet, Mist, and Shirogane by patch 4.2.

We’ve also received considerable feedback as to how they should be added, and we will be making an announcement outlining the number of new wards and how they will be sold after reviewing said feedback. To prevent speculation, we will refrain from releasing information until absolutely necessary. We ask for your patience and understanding until we can provide you with these details.

I hope we can count on your continued support, and that you all will continue to enjoy the various new content added in patch 4.1.

I wonder if it was fully thought out why there are issues.

A small clique of people try buy up a lot of plots to flip
A person owning too many houses though FC and alt chrs
A leader of a legit FC should not be punished from owning a house
There are HUGE issues with the game economy that leads to the housing shortage. Basically people have too much gil with nothing to do with it, so they go in turn try to get a house. The amount of plots you have for this game would never cover the demand, and you can only do that with appropriate pricing, or have a section of housing like sea of clouds shown here:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...46#post4440046
Also it would be really nice to have wards at the foundation, so people can live in snowy area who like that sort of thing.
Then there is this that needs considering when you add new wards/plots/etc:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ore-houses-are

Though I am wondering why nothing was done for 4.1 when we had the same thing happen in 3.3 (9-12 is 4 wards, x 3 cities, same amount of wards we got in 4.1) so there should of been hints it wasn't going to be enough

It should also be noted some people are getting suspended unfairly just because they got a house:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-get-suspended

[Savagelf]

I more worried about gil farmer tried make quick buck off people

[SerenityChiba]

I just wanted to give my two cents on the housing situation. Obviously, it needs a LOT of reworking done to it. I've been anticipating Shirogane since the FIRST MENTION of the Far East in FFXIV, & was not able to get a house there. There was glitches logging in, & by the time I was able to get into the game, all the houses were bought, IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES.

[SerenityChiba]

There needs to be a restriction on the housing. Make it so that only ONE personal house & ONE FC house, PER ACCOUNT & PER SERVER (or even per data center). These houses can then be shared and accessed with any and all alts that are created on that account. So if the main character has an FC house & a personal house, any additional characters made can access & share the houses that the main character purchased. There needs to be a block where people can't snatch more plots using the same account once they already own a house or FC house. There's people out there that make multiple FAKE FC's just so they can purchase houses, & then plan them for resell/profit later on. If something like this were to be implemented, those that already have multiple houses/FC houses on their alts, will have their houses taken away from them so that it will free them up for people that WANT to buy houses.

[SerenityChiba]

Granted, it may not seem fair, taking the houses away from them, but at the same time, THEY are taking houses away from the other people that want to purchase houses. There can be a warning of a system being implemented to kick them out of their houses on a certain date, & that they need to vacate before then. I'd give them some incentive though, so they aren't too butthurt about it. Those that aren't able to vacate on their own, will have their housing possessions sent to an NPC for reclaim, as well as a portion of the house cost. This way, while they may be mad about losing those extra houses, they can't be TOO mad, seeing as how they would be getting their stuff back and some gil. Adding more plots and wards will not solve anything unless something is done FIRST about people purchasing multiple houses on their account.

[SerenityChiba]

I also think that more large houses should be added. There's a lot of people out there that would love one, but since they are very limited in quantity, they aren't able to purchase one.

[Tigber]

I've seen some people throw around the lottery system. We already have that, it's called "who can get through the launcher boss first." A lottery is a terrible idea and as someone who has been saving up and waiting for a house for years, I don't want RNG to have any part of it.

Very glad that finally some solutions are being looked into because housing is my favorite thing to do in this game and when I wasn't able to get a Shirogane house because my log in button wouldn't work I was absolutely devastated, I wanted to quit.

[Theodric]

At the end of the day various MMO's - some of which are older than FFXIV - manage to provide player housing for everybody who desires it without any shortages. That should be FFXIV's goal as well - otherwise even loyal players are going to start reconsidering whether it's worth investing in the game if they are denied access to a major part of the game.

[Hyperon]

There are a lot of terrible ideas here. One of which is the one house per person and one fc thing. News flash for anyone who hasn't figured it out, the FC leader does not own the house. The house is property of the FC, not the individual who traded in the money for the house. You can test this yourself if you like. Go to your personal, ask for FC leader, demo your house, buy it again as a FC, and then leave the FC. It doesn't say "Are you sure you wanna leave? You just got the house for the FC." It just lets you leave. It also funny enough doesn't give you back ownership of "your house". Actually before I left my server I gave my FC away to a friend of mine within the FC. I owned it along with the house. There was nothing reminding me that by leaving or giving up FC owner to someone else that I lose the house.

[Diaphoni]

FC's still only have one house, do you mean the members then buy all the houses around the FC house thus eating up an entire ward? It's really the FC forming a community/neighborhood & many people love living near each other & being able to 'visit'. Demanding that they find a way to stop that from happening seems more like salt than a real complaint. The real problem is the lack of connectivity between mains & alts, feeding the gil-seller market & the housing barons. Fairie has a player who has his main & 3 alts. He owns 4 large houses, one on each char. Never decorated them, never even bothered with the aetheryte. He owns them purely to brag & say he HAS them. That is the core of the problem right there. and that is what I think we're all hoping they fix. Account limits would be a good start, & linking alts to mains would let them see who's got 8 alts & 8/16 houses & fix it.