Housing System & Development Suggestions

[Novirae]

Many of us here love housing. It can encourage so many things, including social engagement, creativity, crafting, and can foster a sense of local community within the wards.

For those trying to obtain a plot, the current system can induce stress, anxiety, pressure and toxicity between players, though in my experience, the community has stayed respectful and kind towards those who do succeed in obtaining a plot, though how long this remains is uncertain.

The land acquisition system is incredibly punishing, especially for first time buyers. I understand the reasons why these measures were implemented but I would like to highlight both the negatives alongside some suggestions to positively improve the housing system in a plea for considered overhaul.

These are of course my own thoughts but it is my hope that at least some may be considered as the game continues to develop.

Please keep in mind that I do love this game and the community very much, I just feel there is so much room for improvement on this particular system that I have seen cause so much needless stress to myself and others. I apologise for the length of this post and if any of this has been repeated before in previous threads.


The current system:

• Currently a character can possess one plot of land, one apartment, one fc room and acquire FC plot.
• Personal plots require entry once every 45 days, otherwise demolished.
• FC plots require entry once every 45 days, otherwise demolished.

Free Companies rely heavily on housing features - pretty much all FC specific content is bound by furnitures (aetherwheels) and workshop, including air ship and submarine (which is housing only).

Plot Availability

When a plot becomes available it will unlock within a random time frame of 20+ hours. Anyone who already owns a plot can relocate instantly.

A player stands by a sign for any time between 1-20+ hours clicking furiously on a placard that may unlock at any time for purchase. The player can invest any amount of those hours and have any efforts negated instantly. Should for any reason a player be unable to purchase a plot (say, has items on a housing vendor from demolition) there is no prior warning and will only become apparent once the plot is available and will block said player from purchase.

Continued..

[Novirae]

The current difficulties of the current system:

Camping a plot is a choice, yes. Those that wish to do so knowingly enter this arena. Some have more free times than others. Practically, many are unable to spend their free time in game so may have little to no chance of accessing one of the games features, thereby excluding a large chunk of the gameplay population. It seems an gross oversight that any MMO is happy to enable players to spend their free time within the game, one they are paying to play, spam clicking a sign, sometimes up to 80 clicks a minute for 17 hours (which was how my last grind went) with no guarantee of success. Some players who do choose to camp, miss sleep and food just so as to not risk suddenly losing their chance at a plot becoming available. I’ve even witnessed a player (badly) use some form of macro in an attempt to snag a plot ahead of others.

Psychologically, the time invested only encourages you to keep going, as otherwise previous time will be wasted. One big push and you ‘might’ have a shot at gaining a plot.

Any time during that period a player already owning a house may relocate even should a new buyer camp for 15 hours straight.

The RNG timer combined with ‘first click wins’ is mayhaps the worst kind of acquisition SE have implemented, this in turn potentially encourages toxic behaviour and negative feelings, which I know FFXIV strive to avoid, while encouraging positive gameplay, creativity and community engagement in so many other areas.

As it stands, demolition will take place if you do not enter your house for 45 days. Many experience no notifications and on several occasions (but not all) warning emails go to your spam inbox.

Demand of player housing still outweighs supply.

As existing house owners can relocate instantly to any plot, they could potentially buy more desirable plots for a price from another player. Such a trading market still exists, just in a different form to those of earlier years.

Some benefits of having more accessible housing system:

• Creates a social hub for more in-game communities.
• Allows more housing enthusiast communities to grow, create and inspire others.
• Creates additional relevance for crafting classes (as a large margin of available furniture comes from professions).

Obviously, I am aware that there are server limitations so not all these ideas are practical for SE to implement with their current structure, I just have hope that things in regard to this post will improve in the future.

Continued..

[Novirae]

Housing system suggestions:

1. Have a new ward generate when all plots in the area are full. Or..

2. Have one additional ward per housing zone with a small village (think british cul-de-sac) containing for example five small standardised houses providing an instanced version of a house with an entrance portal at the gate (allowing a personalised garden from the inside). The instanced plot could be slightly more expensive than a normal small plot and can be bought outright (like apartments or other MMO’s housing structure, think BDO or ESO). This way, players can choose to have more room than an apartment, yet knowingly sacrifice the ‘exclusivity’ of a plot in the normal wards. Allowing more players to have housing may increase the supply and demand in the crafting market.

3. This option would only be applicable to current system to reduce wasted hours of several players: A wait list option per plot (that could prioritise Free Companies). When a plot becomes available, a timer of around 2 hours begins. If no interest is registered the timer resets. Those seeking a plot submit their interest via the placard (so they’re not left camping a sign for countless hours). As the system is highly RNG based anyway, the plot then is distributed to a random player on that list. A prompt is then sent to the ‘winner’ who can either accept or decline. The plot then chooses another player/FC from the list.

4. Increase the player tenant allowance a little and/or allow tenants to have private chambers.

5. Extend apartments to have two floors (with increase of furniture/storage capacity).

6. This option would only really apply if more residence options are added to meet demand: Change the 45-day timer to inactive sub for say 6 months. If a player is active in game, their plot should not be demolished.

7. Demolition: Implementation of an active in-game warning that needs dismissal e.g, “You have not entered your house in X-days, it will be demolished on <date>”.

8. Add the ability to convert your personal plot into an FC plot. I would have happily given up my small personal plot for the FC use.

9. Low priority but, additional placement options for furniture would be great for the building community (reference: ESO). Having to painstakingly bug items into place is clunky, though perhaps understandably the argument against this would be that SE doesn’t wish placement to have that flexibility. However, the reality is that players find workarounds which could be there as standard. Ruining immersion by having a floating wardrobe in a house? Well, we have giant flying whales and cars so..^^.

Continued..

[Novirae]

Additional notes:

• Ideally a player should not have to, in effect pay, real money to maintain the house by locking you to a minimum of 6-month subscription over a year period, with threat of demolition on a 45 day timer. If a player has been subscribed for years and wishes to take a break or has financial/life trouble, they should not be punished for this, especially considering the painful system some players go through to secure a plot. Housing is an in game item you have already paid for. The threat of demolition isn’t a healthy way to keep players subscribed.
  
• A couple of sleepy misclicks while trying to attain a plot for your FC and you can accidentally relocate (I have shaky hands so I nearly made this mistake several times). A third confirmation just for this option would be ideal, as relocation is instant, timing to click the button is not of essence.
  
• You should never, ever lose items you have paid for from the Mogstation, timers or no. You have paid real money and thus such items should either be returned to player inventory or the mail (or a reclamation NPC in the main city).

Personal experience with the system:

Lastly as a point of reference for this wall of text:

• Purchase of FC plot when Shirogane ward opened up. Witnessed two friends put time aside from work to battle the server queues, disconnects, only to lose out on plots when they were empty, ready and available to buy, due to a server bug.
  
• Loss of a medium plot due to demolition notification email going into spam, I had active subscription and regular porting to house but seemingly only using the garden. Several friends have also suffered the same fate.
  
• Purchase of personal plot after server move, total time 15 hours.
  
• Purchase of FC plot after server move and rank up, total time 17 hours (3 FC members trying - 2 plots unsuccessful).

Yes these hours might seem extreme and a highly impractical (insane) waste of time, but if you want a plot, it’s what you have to do to have a decent chance, or potentially no chance, it’s a roll of the dice. It’s an entire system based on a gamble. I thought, once it’s done it’s done, and I didn’t want to waste the hours already invested, so I kept going.


Thank you for reading though this and again I apologise if there are any duplicated thoughts in here. I've done my best to present this in the most concise way possible. I've said for a long time I would put together a large post surrounding this topic so this is the result. Input is always welcome and appreciated! Best wishes for your travels in Eorzea!

-Aeyvi

[IkaraGreydancer]

The 45 day timers makes sense to me. If you havent been in your house in over a month you clearly dont need it. Best to give it to someone who does. And I dont think fcs should have priority housing. Fc housing should be separate. Giving fcs priority on houses only promotes the creation of shell fcs imo. Otherwise, not bad ideas. It was a nice read

[Novirae]

Thanks so much for the feedback! Yeah I totally see your point, and it's totally valid. They're only a variety of suggestions and I understand some 'solutions' are imperfect .

[IkaraGreydancer]

Thanks so much for the feedback! Yeah I totally see your point, and it's totally valid. They're only a variety of suggestions and I understand some 'solutions' are imperfect .

Yeah. I have no idea how SE is gonna fix this. Instanced housing seems like their best bet. Or the separation or personal housing and fc housing (like we were promised)

[Novirae]

Yeah. I have no idea how SE is gonna fix this. Instanced housing seems like their best bet. Or the separation or personal housing and fc housing (like we were promised)

Always keep hope, maybe they already have something in the pipeline!

[ERMITANYO]

I'm looking forward to the shadow bringers expansion and its upcoming patches, because whatever lapses SE might have incurred or overlooked in terms of housing, they might change or just improve upon (in the event that they don't change the lapses) in this coming expansion.

Also, with what SE had minutely stated in the past live letters about ishgardian housing, that it will be enabled after ishgard has been reconstructed through doman enclave-like contributions. I'm hoping that this will be a form of instanced housing with its entrance enabled once a player/s achieves full reconstruction of the proposed area.

[Shougun]

Just wanted to let you know you can go past the character limit of each post by editing your post, like for example:

[over the character limit text, can't post] <- copy this for saftey (maybe put it somewhere just in case lol)
[cut down to under the limit] <- posted
[edit post and paste the whole monster, save post] <- victory

Might not worry about that now though since if you delete a post it still leaves a shell post that you deleted it lol (but for the future it might help ^^).

Also while I prefer instanced, my own zone, housing like Wildstar (I haven't put value in the neighbor element, having been in a full housing area for a few years now) I wanted to mention that with the change that a ward grows when full it would be like LotR Online's housing which doesn't have the issues like we have, so.. your solution has been implemented and works .

The British cul de sac thing sounds super cute .

I think if they could get apartments up to the speed of houses (size upgrades, like the floors you suggested) and a balcony/garden area (full garden support and outdoor furnishing) then we'd be in some pretty good shape (still people might want a physical location out there but at least we could start saying things like apartments are quite equal to house). I'm actually curious if Ishgard is going to be fancy places like BDO basically.

Whatever happens I hope that both the barrier to housing can be lowered and the supply raised to meet the new demand, I feel housing is a brilliant concept for an MMORPG (make a home away from home.. have a home!) so it's something I hope they can get everyone into and also then improve on with new systems and interactions.

Best wishes back at you