Housing, a rant (but I hope a constructive one)

[Vasgarth]

Hello fellow Eorzeans,

if, like me, you've been trying to buy a plot of land for a while you'll certainly be aware of what a fantastic activity SE has made sure to force us into. Namely, go to ward N, teleport to plot N, realise it's still "Not ready for sale", teleport back, rinse and repeat for every ward. This wouldn't even too bad if, sometimes (if not most times), the plot you've patiently been waiting in front of for 4 hours suddenly gets snatched by someone who simply decided to relocate, because sod the hidden timer and whoever already has a house obviously must have priority over the poor lowlifes that still don't have one.

Now, salty irony aside, I would like to discuss which kind of options SE could implement to solve the issue. I've thought of a few, and I'd really like to hear your thoughts (obviously this is just mindless chit chat as I know full well that SE is not really that concerned, but still, who knows ?).

1. Procedurally generated Wards
   
   I honestly can't believe that SE can't do this. When a Ward fills up and all plots have been bought, *poof* new Ward pops up. Keep the one house per person per World limit, keep the FC housing limit as well, but at least this way anyone can buy a house. Make the prices steeper, so that the Housing district can't get flooded, but no so much as to force people to sell a kidney to buy a small house.
   
   
2. Separation between FC Wards and Individual Wards
   
   This is really pretty self explanatory. It wouldn't even change the experience much as the plots would get filled up pretty quickly anyway.
   
   
3. Start banning 1-man FCs
   
   Again, pretty self explanatory. Ban the seller, ban the buyer. Apply your ToS for once. Everyone's happy and you'll probably free at least half of the plots currently owned.

[Halivel]

1. It's a good option but... just imagine, that all active characters on Ragnarok (more than 12 thousands according to FFXIVCensus site) will buy a house. And it's only those who finished 4.1 MSQ. And same on all servers. What kind of load will it be for Data Centers? Is it worth?

3. 1-man FCs can't buy houses already, it was changed in 4.2 when there was a nightmare with housing. They need to have at least 4 people in it and be 6th level at least if I remember correct. Same as players can't buy more than one private house per World as well (though if they had it earlier then it can't be helped, SE will not take away houses that were bought).

UPD. patch note about changings in housing system: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...33e139e9792abf

The following adjustments have been made to provide more players access to housing and its features:

Plots designated for free company use will be limited to purchase by free companies with at least four members.
Individuals will be restricted from purchasing plots for personal use for a limited time.

• Following the release of 4.2, we will evaluate the housing market and decide when to remove the restriction on sales to individuals.
• Players may still relocate private estates.

Players will be permitted to own only one private and one free company estate per World per service account.

• Players may still relocate any private or free company estates they presently own.

To discourage the resale of plots, any plots relinquished by owners will be unavailable for purchase for a limited time.

• During this period, said plots will still be available for relocation.

[Dustytome]

1. Procedurally generated Wards
   
   I honestly can't believe that SE can't do this. When a Ward fills up and all plots have been bought, *poof* new Ward pops up. Keep the one house per person per World limit, keep the FC housing limit as well, but at least this way anyone can buy a house. Make the prices steeper, so that the Housing district can't get flooded, but no so much as to force people to sell a kidney to buy a small house.

They have to dedicate an exact amount of resources ahead of time for this, it's the same as just adding more wards other than maybe the ward listing being invisible until some conditions are met. You'd also have people trying to game the system to activate a new ward listing for a shot at the plot they actually want.

[Vasgarth]

1. It's a good option but... just imagine, that all active characters on Ragnarok (more than 12 thousands according to FFXIVCensus site) will buy a house. And it's only those who finished 4.1 MSQ. And same on all servers. What kind of load will it be for Data Centers? Is it worth?

3. 1-man FCs can't buy houses already, it was changed in 4.2 when there was a nightmare with housing. They need to have at least 4 people in it and be 6th level at least if I remember correct. Same as players can't buy more than one private house per World as well (though if they had it earlier then it can't be helped, SE will not take away houses that were bought).

UPD. patch note about changings in housing system: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...33e139e9792abf

It is worth it for the simple reason this it’s an experience SE created for the players, not for “some” players, and as it stands now there’s a very limited slice of population that can really experience housing as it was intended to be. This is not endgame content we’re talking about. It’s not an extremely hard duty that only few select people can do at launch.

As for the one man FCs, the workaround to it was found ages ago. Create a dummy FC, boost it to needed rank, buy house, invite buyer to FC, get paid, empty FC. Bam. Done. There’s a whole subreddit of house sellers and buyers. There’s a whole ward on Ragnarok in the Mist that is basically owned by one person only, and it has been like that for ages.

@Dustytome: there will always be people trying to cheat the system, but that is not an excuse for not doing anything (or even making things worse, as it happened with the updates to the housing system). With the amount of subscribers that we have, not to mention the sale of additional items (the whales alone can probably cover it), I can’t believe SE doesn’t have the resources for something like this.

[Awha]

No one doubts that SE does not have the resources, the main question is how much of allotted resources granted to FFXIV by SE would end up going into constantly expanding the wards as they fill up.

[Erza_Scarlets]

They should work on instanced housing for personal houses.
Make one island per character with ability to make it small, med, or large.
With a yard included in each one and everyone can have large house if they choose to pay for it.
Same prices as normal houses for upgrades to med or large.
Once the instanced housing for personal homes is made force all non fc owners to move to single personal instanced house per character.
Leave all the wards as is for fc only homes and limit it to 1 per account on world regardless of how many fcs alts might be in. Forcing players that may have abused the fc trick to get more houses to pick one fc with a house to stay in.

This way all characters will have instanced houses that only load when your in the zone or invite someone to your island. No one would be left without houses. All the fcs will still have the wards for airships/submarines. It may take some time to do it, but it would be far better system then what currently is out there and wards would still be used and there for fcs. With the amount of housing items they add to the game its sad there hasn't been real housing fixes added. So much potential just wasting away. Having so few large and med houses also hurts the system. No idea why they didn't just have same size plots and let you choose if you want small, med, or large house in the first place.

[Eldevern]

Well if SE is unable to find the ressources, how Black Desert or Wildstar did?

[TenraiNagi]

I’m all for seperation of FC housing from personal housing in that FC housing should keep the current ward system and personal housing should be instanced with a housing size progression system and other features. This way it keeps the social aspect of housing between FCs which is great, and a more personal house that we can progressively improve and invite people to. I explain more about it in this thread.
Cost and resources are surely an issue, however it doesn’t have to happen all at once. And it’s definitely worth the investment since the demand on housing is high.

[LaylaTsarra]

They aren't doing away with the ward system and they won't be taking houses away from people to separate FC and Personal housing. They've already shown they won't take houses away from people by grandfathering multiple home owners.

Requesting instanced housing to co-exist alongside wards could be an option although I think we'll see an expansion of the apartment system where small, medium and large apartments might be an option. They're already indicated they would be looking into this although they really haven't said anything more about it since the release of housing in Shirogane.

[JBee]

I think this will be less of an issue once the data center shuffle happens. Lots of people are hanging on to their housing until then specifically because of the reimbursement that will be happening. The being paid for your items inside is a little unclear, and I think several are under the impression (right or wrong) that having ANYTHING inside your home will net you the full indoor furnishings reimbursement payout.

Housing was literally turned into long term investing.

That coupled with the demo timers being deactivated still, it's made a pretty crummy time for people trying to get housing. Don't think a lot of people realize it either, and people just offhandedly say something like, "Oh every server has plenty of housing!" and junk. These people have not looked recently and are working off assumption. When one comes open now, there is generally a flood of people all standing at the sign in busy status - good portion of which are checking that sign at very rigid intervals for longer than humanly possible...

Pretty frustrating when you're someone legit trying to get a house for yourself or for your fc.