My own thoughts about this housing system.

[Blue_Myu]

Now I haven't been playing very long. I've got 1 level 70. I'm a noob by most standards. But I've been looking at buying a house off and on and I have to say...

This is quite possibly the worst system I've seen when it comes to housing in any game. And I've played quite a few of them with bad housing.

I've camped at a house for 14+ hours, competing with people using a script.
I've seen houses that I'll check back every few hours and find the exact same people, some not using a script, some that are suspiciously clicking the placard repeatedly despite the fact there's nobody else there.
I have nothing to show for it but my unbridled rage for the system.

Dedication will win houses, some might say. I need to git gud, I need to camp hardcore.
Maybe so, but apparently scripting will, because the last few people that I've seen won a house have openly admitted to using a script to automate the plot process. Do they get punished? Honestly I haven't heard stories about it.
Friends of mine have used this script to win houses, and have encouraged me to do the same.

When it comes to video game design, especially MMOs, botting and scripting should be expected and anticipated.
It's by designing your system around player interaction that you can avoid such things, but this system seems to encourage scripting.

If a person doesn't bot for a house, worse case scenario? You got them sitting at the computer, hitting 0,0,0,4,0 for 23-24 hours for a chance at a house, only to lose it for 5 minutes because they went to go use the bathroom and didn't decide to use a mountain dew bottle instead.
You can't tell me that's what was intended to come from this system.

Now, you might have noticed I didn't discuss availability. Yes that is also an issue. Instanced housing would resolve this issue, as would an auction system on the current houses (Highest bidder wins). And would curb the botting issue at the same time. There are many solutions.
I understand that the housing system currently though was made with extreme dedication, and I appreciate such efforts, don't get me wrong I can only imagine how difficult such a thing is to do, but currently, the way to get a new house, and the current amounts available, is ludicrous.
If the amount of housing should be limited to what it currently is, then may it be so, but for the love of all that is (Insert Favorite Summon Name Here), please fix the buying system.
Before I start to get desperate enough to script myself.

[Penthea]

Now, you might have noticed I didn't discuss availability. Yes that is also an issue. Instanced housing would resolve this issue, as would an auction system on the current houses (Highest bidder wins).

How would an auction system solve availability? Putting in an auction system doesn't magically create new houses. That would just keep houses in the hands of wealthy players, and make the rest far more tempted to engage in RMT. An auction system is definitely not a fix. We need more houses, not different ways to purchase in the same bad system.

I completely agree that the current acquisition process is awful and that the best way to succeed is to cheat, whether that's botting the placard spam, RMT or both. The vast majority of threads and posts in this forum are about the same thing; being unable to get a house due to a system that punishes players who don't violate the ToS. Instead of fixing the heart of the issue, which is availability, SE adjusted the acquisition process...so now we have this horrendous situation. What we had before wasn't better either. We literally got a swap from one bad situation to another.

We need instanced housing. Extra wards have shown to only be temporary fixes, again and again. Band-aid fixes on acquisition only replace one problem with another, so we still have the same amount of complaints. If this keeps going in this direction it will eventually get to a point in which the server strain from having so many wards will exceed that of having instanced housing. The ward system is unsustainable from a player and dev point of view.

I really hope SE's tease about Ishgard housing will present something that isn't just an addition to the ward system.

[ERMITANYO]

If a bidding or lottery should replace the random timer, it should be like when one is bidding/rolling for an item in a dungeon, and not through gil.

When a plot becomes available the gavel turns green signifying that the plot is open for bids, possibly for a 1 hour period. When the gavel turns red it means all bids have been entered and bidding is closed.

Consequently all those who made a bid will be notified by moogle mail. Showing their respective bid values and the winner has 24 hours earth time to purchase the plot, or else the plot will become open once again for bidding.

Also, a player will not be able to roll or bid for another plot not unless a winner has already been determined for the plot where he/she made a bid/roll.

[Brynne]

I really hope SE's tease about Ishgard housing will present something that isn't just an addition to the ward system.

Me too. They really need to stop doubling down on this ward system and provide some form of instanced housing on top of it. If Ishgard housing is just another set of wards, I'm predicting a LOT more salt when all the available plots are snatched up.

I also agree that a lottery or auction system would just create a new brand of salt and not solve anything. If they're going to implement a quick fix to ease the suffering, I'd rather they reduced the maximum time on the random timer so it's not encouraging players to sit and click for 24 hours or more. 7-8 hours is more than enough.

[HyoMinPark]

Now, you might have noticed I didn't discuss availability. Yes that is also an issue. Instanced housing would resolve this issue, as would an auction system on the current houses (Highest bidder wins). And would curb the botting issue at the same time. There are many solutions.

I’d rather instanced housing. Having auctions held for houses guarantees that housing stays only in the hands of players that have a lot of gil—those that do not would never have a chance for one. I don’t think it’s a solution to the current problem; it’s just another bad system replacing an already bad system.

Now, a raffle would be better, as it would be completely RNG and you can’t tilt the scales in your favor simply by having heavier pockets. But it doesn’t solve the issue of availability.

However, I would still prefer unlimited instanced housing. Upgrades to apartments would also be nice—main reason I haven’t bought one on my alt is because it’s just not worth the price. Might as well spend 300,000 on an FC room, because then I have access to an entire house plus private chambers.

[JLW]

It would be nice to see housing handled more appropriately in Ishgard. The original EQ2 system of instanced housing would be perfect given the state of FFXIV. Apartments show that the technology already exists for numerous people to log into their instance of the same building. I suspect that most players would forgo a yard to actually have a house.

[Dyvid]

FFXIV is a victim of its own success. They didn't think a failed MMO would become the break away success it is today and through caution to the wind when housing first came out.

Going forward, instance housing would require a huge undertaking and months if not years to add. That is to say if the game's current architect could even handle it. What player can do and should is it ask for apartment improvements and adding a new district in Ishgard. Apartments are your instance housing, you need to suggest way to make it more impact to you. Outdoor Balcony, improved size, etc. Feel free to use the link in my signature to post your ideas.

[mjorge1991]

FFXIV is a victim of its own success. They didn't think a failed MMO would become the break away success it is today and through caution to the wind when housing first came out.

Going forward, instance housing would require a huge undertaking and months if not years to add. That is to say if the game's current architect could even handle it. What player can do and should is it ask for apartment improvements and adding a new district in Ishgard. Apartments are your instance housing, you need to suggest way to make it more impact to you. Outdoor Balcony, improved size, etc. Feel free to use the link in my signature to post your ideas.

I really like that idea. The only thing about the apartment i wish they could do like a partially open apartment, something where light streams in from the top.

[ERMITANYO]

SE should definitely look into improving apartments, to include, better designed apartment buildings, amenities, more rooms, indoor gardening, and possibly an instanced balcony which follows in game weather and day/night cycle.

If this website: https://ffxivcensus.com is accurate in its data, there are 605, 525 active players world-wide.

In total ffxiv currently has in 285,120 houses (60 plots x 18 wards x 4 districts x 66 worlds). Assuming all things equal, the stated figure is almost half of the total number of active players.

However, that is just for the plots, and does not include Apartments, if we take apartments into account assuming there is an equal number of apartments and plots, that would be 570, 240 (285, 120 x 2) homes in total. Thats already a majority of active players.

Now come shadow bringers, if we include ishgard as a housing district we would have, 356, 400 plots (60 plots x 18 wards x 5 districts x 66 worlds).

With apartments (assuming apartments are equal to plots in number) that would be 712, 800 housing units (356, 400 x 2).

712, 800 housing units enough to supply the demand for ffxiv housing.

[mjorge1991]

Yea except you are not taking into account that every player can create 8 characters per servers and there is a personal house and FC house so yea.....distributionnis not even.