Housing: Purchase Timer - Alternative Idea

[Jojoya]

I suppose, but how many players are going to end up in that position? Most private chambers I see are completely empty. Not every FC is going to kick out a member who's inactive for a bit. It was completely stupid to add in a whole new housing system and pour all those resources into it, only to make it an exact copy paste of something many people - I'd argue most - already had access to.

I doubt they poured that many resources into creating apartments at all. The NPCs were slight modifications of existing NPCs, the rooms are copy/paste of FC rooms almost down to the way you choose the room to visit. About the only time consuming thing would have been creating the exterior and lobby interior for the apartment buildings themselves.

Apartments are a good option for those not interested in being part of a FC or for those in FCs that don't own a house. Lots of FCs do kick out members who are inactive, some will do it if someone has been inactive for as little as a month. Such a FC was probably a bad choice for the player in the first place but not every FC advertises their policy. Other FCs kick out players when the leaders change.

I still would have rather seen SE create a full instanced housing system over the apartments but at least the apartments are something for players until better solutions are created. I'm still curious about exactly what Ishgard housing will be.

[AriesMouse]

snip.

While I agree that yes, there is the risk of someone being kicked out of an FC and losing their stuff, I honestly don't think that justifies the 200k added on cost of an apartment. Some might argue it's for chocobo stable access,but even that doesn't seem worth it. Apartments are over priced, since anything you gain from them you can, realistically, get just by owning your own fc/joining and being in an fc with people you trust, which isn't that hard to do realistically.

It just feels like, compared to the other option (FC room), apartments punish players for buying them/deters them by having a pointless higher cost with little to not benefit/gain for that cost.

Full instanced housing would be nice, or having apartments be their own unique thing would have been so much better. Different layout, different size, something upgradable, or at least something that came in different size options.
Copy/paste FC rooms, as you yourself said, are not worth a higher cost, and generally are not a good solution for housing. They helped, barely, but they bring so little to the table compared to what they could have been.

[Elamys]

Apartments are a good option for those not interested in being part of a FC or for those in FCs that don't own a house. Lots of FCs do kick out members who are inactive, some will do it if someone has been inactive for as little as a month. Such a FC was probably a bad choice for the player in the first place but not every FC advertises their policy. Other FCs kick out players when the leaders change.

I guess a better way to phrase it is this: Apartments shouldn't exist just as a fail safe for people getting kicked out of their FCs, because we already have a perfectly serviceable option in place (the Resident Caretaker) that just needs to be changed to keep things indefinitely. An extra 200k just to keep my stuff in case I get kicked out of my FC (which won't happen for me personally as I'm friends with the FC lead) isn't worth it to me. But I paid it anyways, as housing is my main activity in the game and I wanted an additional space to decorate.

[Levin_Azure]

I thought about suggesting a lottery and making a thread, I'm glad I checked back a bit, haha. Lemme just say, that me and my small group of FC mates have no time to sit there for 10 hours and not be guaranteed housing, especially when we all have jobs and don't want to donate our limited time playing together clicking a sign <u>; I think despite some cons, a lottery system would still be better than this. If the time is shorter, like let's say 4-6 hours rather than 24, there probably wouldn't be a really big pool to choose from. Though in any fashion, a timeframe update as to when the demolishing lock would be removed would be pretty neat too.

[Penthea]

I thought about suggesting a lottery and making a thread, I'm glad I checked back a bit, haha. Lemme just say, that me and my small group of FC mates have no time to sit there for 10 hours and not be guaranteed housing

I think despite some cons, a lottery system would still be better than this.

Oh yes I'm sure sitting around for potentially months or longer while you keep losing a lottery would be better.

[Brynne]

The pros and cons of a lottery system have been discussed into the ground by now. I doubt SE will devote resources to it unless they have absolutely zero plans for a long-term solution to the housing issue and intend to just continue with band-aid fixes (and they decide that the lottery system would be a good idea for a band-aid fix, which is... debatable).

Sincerely hoping that a longer term solution is coming with Shadowbringers and the hinted-at Ishgard housing. But at the very least we'll hopefully have the demolition timer turned back on soon and that should ease things up a bit.

[Levin_Azure]

Lemme tell you, it'd be a hell of a lot better to do that rather than standing day in and day out repeatedly clicking a sign when I could actually be playing the game I subscribed to. If I lose the lottery, at least I didn't waste time not leveling or doing other things I'd like to do.

[Penthea]

Lemme tell you, it'd be a hell of a lot better to do that rather than standing day in and day out repeatedly clicking a sign when I could actually be playing the game I subscribed to. If I lose the lottery, at least I didn't waste time not leveling or doing other things I'd like to do.

I really wonder why people think lottery is a legitimate fix for something that is essentially already a lottery. It's as if all they want is a zero effort lottery system instead of something that actually improves the housing situation enough to reduce the need for luck or remove the need for it entirely.

I probably would have quit the game if I had to enter an actual lottery to get a house. It's ridiculous to think that relying on pure luck to engage with very indepth content is acceptable. Turning housing acquisition into a glorified lootbox is a terrible idea.

[Levin_Azure]

I'm not saying it's THE solution, I'm saying it's better than what we have now. It's frustrating not being able to house my FC full of friends, even more so that I have to waste the time with said friends that I don't get much of to not achieve the house. I've already come to terms that I'm not going to be able to get a house until at least 5.0, but even then it might still be tough.

[Penthea]

I'm not saying it's THE solution, I'm saying it's better than what we have now.

Sorry but no it's not.

Placard spam isn't an issue on every server. On Moogle it's little more than a mild annoyance because there's always some unclaimed plots. If you're not fussy about where you get your house you can usually have one in seconds provided you have the cash. How would lottery improve the situation on servers like Moogle? Well it won't because it would force a wait time on the purchase of any plot regardless of how long it is empty, and it would add rng because players could potentially all bid on the same plot instead of choosing separate ones.

It won't improve the situation on highly populated servers either because while placard spam is a lottery, it's a lottery only a small number of players can realistically compete in due to the need for ample free time and patience. With actual lottery trying to get a house would be near zero effort which means a far larger number of players can participate. So right now you could be competing against 10 players on a placard, but with an actual lottery that number could easily be multiplied several times.

Never mind how a lottery system obviously favours players with multiple accounts, and players who are working together to get a house. Your odds would be reduced by simply being one player getting a house without help. Everyone knows about those two players on Mateus who own an entire ward. Some here know MaybeOliverB who frequents these forums and claims to own 27 ungrandfathered houses, which means he owns several accounts. Can you imagine how many times these people could enter a lottery?

Others suggested that luck could be boosted based on things such as how many times you owned a house, how many times you have entered the lottery, how old your accounts is, etc as a way to mitigate some bad luck. But then this means new players automatically start off with bad luck and any system that punishes you simply because you're new is bad. It would be an awful way to introduce content to new players.

It's frustrating not being able to house my FC full of friends, even more so that I have to waste the time with said friends that I don't get much of to not achieve the house. I've already come to terms that I'm not going to be able to get a house until at least 5.0, but even then it might still be tough.

I completely empathise and sympathise with your situation. I haven't forgotten what it feels like to have no house. The feeling of hopelessness I had is still very clear in my mind.

But the way to tackle housing is to the reduce the amount of competition. Placard spam isn't much of a problem on Moogle because there are always unclaimed plots which means there is very little competition. Whereas on other servers where wards are always full there is constant competition. Likely this is one of the primary reasons why SE are introducing world visiting so players can still do things like rp on Balmung but get a house on a less populated home server. Best of both worlds sort of thing.

Lottery will not reduce the competition. It will only reduce the amount of effort involved in taking part. The ease of participation will actually increase the competition.

You obviously want to be lucky enough to get a house but the point is no one should have to be lucky to get a house. What SE should aim to do is reduce the reliance on luck, not increase it. The main problem with housing isn't the type of acquisition, it's the demand vs the amount of houses. It's severely imbalanced. This is what needs to be fixed.