possible solutions

[Kytrin]

Just make plots instanced... Only thing we lose is the ability to seamlessly walk onto plots, but I really don't think that outweighs all the negatives we currently have... Limited plot availability being the biggest offender, significantly reduced outdoor furniture limit being another...

Make plots instanced, keep the zones as they are apart from that. Rather than one or two groups gathering at their nearest market board, you'd have a lot more people, since one plot could now have several peoples version instanced. Everyone would just walk to their plot, click on the gate and select which instanced version of that plot to enter, effectively the same as how we enter different wards/subdivisions/apartments now. Could have a system in place where a snapshot of players plots are randomly displayed in the zone to make it feel more lively, or just use template houses to fill the space... Either way, I think potentially being able to have unlimited availability of plots, higher furniture cap for gardens, and making the zones themselves more crowded are all massive benefits that I'd much rather see than "I can jump over the fence to leave my plot".

Heck, making the whole plot instanced might actually let you work some other seamless aspect in, namely letting us just walk into the house rather than selecting it and zoning in... Let that upper floor balcony door finally function, give us greater variety of furniture since outdoor and indoor furniture would now be the same thing, although placing a pond indoors does seem silly, but more freedom and options to create something is never a bad thing, IMO. Heck, could place stuff on the mansion balcony with such a system...

My one and only hesitation with this is I would be concerned about what would happen to those of us who already have houses. I fought hard for the plot I have, both for gil and to snag it before someone else did, and I'm very proud of my premium plot. I wouldn't want all that effort lost.

[ERMITANYO]

My one and only hesitation with this is I would be concerned about what would happen to those of us who already have houses. I fought hard for the plot I have, both for gil and to snag it before someone else did, and I'm very proud of my premium plot. I wouldn't want all that effort lost.

Well in the event that SE drops a dalamud moon over housing districts, to implement instanced housing, then probably current home owners should be given a 1 time free of charge plot acquisition, to a plot size comparable to what they previously owned and at a location of their choice.

[GomJabbar]

Yeah, no... That's not really compensation. If they want to implement instanced housing *from now on*, that's fine - I can support that. What I won't support is scrapping the current ward system in order to do it.

[Jackilla]

I can get behind the ticket lottery system as a way to fix the current housing situation with minimal differences in the way the system fundamentally works. Right now, all of the poor souls who are stuck spending their in-game hours just clicking away at the placards are stuck doing just that, instead of actually playing the game. It's a huge waste of their subscription time.

[ERMITANYO]

Yeah, no... That's not really compensation. If they want to implement instanced housing *from now on*, that's fine - I can support that. What I won't support is scrapping the current ward system in order to do it.

Hmmm perhaps:

current housing districts (which will become kinda like legacy districts) + instanced housing district.

Or

Expanded current housing districts + improved instanced apartment system.

[GomJabbar]

Hmmm perhaps:

current housing districts (which will become kinda like legacy districts) + instanced housing district.

Or

Expanded current housing districts + improved instanced apartment system.

Yep! I'd be ok with either of those. I'm actually expecting Ishgard housing (whenever they decide to implement it) to be fully instanced. I could certainly be wrong, and I'd love another uninstanced ward, but with the resources it apparently takes, I can't imagine that being their first choice.

[not_ya_wify]

Auctions
because I rather be guaranteed a house at a ridiculous price than stay up for 24 hours to not get one.

Even though this seems to be a common opinion here, I\\'m vehemently against solutions that favor rich players over poor players. Someone with a job and family should have the same chance at getting a house as a teenager spending 12 hours a day playing only this game. The houses are already too expensive as they are.

Reverse Auctions
start at a really high amount and drop by 5% every 24 hours. the price used to gate the content, but nowadays it\\'s not really that difficult to make that much gil. more or less the system that\\'s currently in place with a higher price. also people transferring to a different plot would have to go through the same process as everyone else, otherwise what\\'s the point.

That\\'s basically the system that has always been in place. However, what you\\'re suggesting is to drive up the prices to eliminate competition from poor players.

Lottery System
same housing system as the one that\\'s currently in place, except when you find an open plot, you purchase a ticket for a drawing where the winner has exclusive rights to buying the plot for the next 24hrs and if it\\'s not purchased within that time limit, the lottery restarts, and the previous winner cant buy another ticket for the same lot until the next time it goes up for sale.

This is a fair solution that doesn\\'t require an exorbitant change in how the game already works (coding wise).

Premium Housing Wards
pay some extra on your monthly sub for a house.

This would make me stop playing the game altogether, especially if it\\'s a $20 sub as you suggested. If I was on a congested server, I would be ok paying $50 ONCE to get a large house. Paying $20 every month would be outrageous. I\\'d even be pissed if they charged $5 a month for a house. Also, even with one time payment you would basically be pissing of the majority of the player base who DOESN\\'T live on a congested server and who can reasonably expect to acquire a house with a little effort. "Oh, we\\'re charging you $50 for something now that you could have gotten for free because a few players on Balmung aren\\'t willing to transfer to a less congested server. Blame them that everyone has to suffer."

Also, how would this work with FCs? Is the FC leader responsible for paying? Will all members be charged an equal amount? Then what happens if someone quits playing? What happens if the FC leader stops playing and the house goes to someone else? How do you recruit new members to your FC if they immediately have to commit to paying real world money for a house they may never even use?

[not_ya_wify]

FC Apartments
self explanatory

Apartments need an overhaul in general. We should be able to have tenants and as we level up our character in Grand Company rank, we should get permits to renovate our apartments to make them larger or add floors.

FC Districts
separate districts for FC USE ONLY meaning you can only purchase a house there if your the leader of an FC and the size of the house you can buy is determined by the average amount of active FC members.(active meaning they just log in once every 2 months) this would be to prevent a dieing FC with 1 member left from keeping a plot to himself, when an alive FC would love to have it.

Sometimes, my FC dies out and I don\\\\'t have the mental capacity to recruit for new members, but people often come back after several months hiatus. I just had someone come back 2 weeks ago who hasn\\\\'t been playing for 2 years and someone else for 9 months. This would basically force me into a recruiting frenzy when I really don\\\\'t have the mental capacity to care for sprouts and I really want to spend my time working on something else. Just to keep my FC house that I\\\\'ve put so much time, gil, and effort into decorating.

Instanced Housing
(on a plot of land in the environment of your choosing).
Or at least provide instanced plots in addition to the system that we have now, because alot of people wouldn\\\\'t want to lose the progress they made.(the gil they saved up to buy a plot, the time they spent at a housing placard hoping they end up being the one that gets it. This guy has a great idea as far as instanced housing goes:

This is an ok solution because it has the benefit of creating very lively neighborhoods. The disadvantage being that you can\\\\'t advertise your design skills through yard decor and people will stop to randomly just walk up to your home and check it out.

Fix Transfers
make people who are transferring to another plot go through the same process as people who are not transferring.(you camp a spot for 16 hours and someone walks up and takes it in a few seconds, are you kidding me?)

The reason transferring is prioritized is because if someone transfers to the plot you were camping at, that means another plot just opened up somewhere else. There aren\\\\'t any fewer plots available than there were before. You may not like their old plot as much as the plaquard you spammed but from the developers\\\\' perspective, a house is a house. And now that you have one, you too are able to relocate to a better location. So, this isn\\\\'t an issue that needs fixing.

[not_ya_wify]

Achievement Based Housing
create a legendary housing district for people who accomplish extremely difficult tasks in the game like top 10 pvp players in the server or those who clear the most difficult raids while having all jobs at max level whilst being the first to do so on their server, or art contest winners. things like that.

Not sure how I feel about that one. But that\\\\\\\\\\\\'s mainly because I\\\\\\\\\\\\'m not a hardcore gamer and I\\\\\\\\\\\\'m not interested in being a top player in PvP or raids. I play this game mainly for housing, so a house in the legendary district would be highly desirable, but doing raids would be undesirable (and pretty much impossible skill wise). Most of the housing designers I know peg me more as creative types who are mostly focused on furniture, glams and crafting (which isn\\\\\\\\\\\\'t to say they don\\\\\\\\\\\\'t do raids. I just dont.) In that case, design contest winners might be most likely to overlap with the people who care a lot about housing. A house on such a district would also be a way cooler prize than the boring glams that are always the same for each contest and don\\\\\\\\\\\\'t really go with any outfit in the game. But I find it unlikely comparing the effort they\\\\\\\\\\\\'ve put into those winner glams versus the effort it would take to create a unique housing district for special people and this would also take up additional server space like any other new ward would.

[not_ya_wify]

1) ...significantly reduced outdoor furniture limit being another...

2)...Rather than one or two groups gathering at their nearest market board, you'd have a lot more people, since one plot could now have several peoples version instanced...

3)...Could have a system in place where a snapshot of players plots are randomly displayed in the zone to make it feel more lively...

4)...unlimited availability of plots...

5)...higher furniture cap for gardens...

6)...making the zones themselves more crowded are all massive benefits...

7)...letting us just walk into the house rather than selecting it and zoning in...

8)...give us greater variety of furniture since outdoor and indoor furniture would now be the same thing... more freedom and options to create something is never a bad thing, IMO. Heck, could place stuff on the mansion balcony with such a system...

Ok, you are making this option seem way more attractive than I initially thought.