My experience with housing

[RodP]

Hello everyone.

I'd like to give feedback on the housing system as I've been trying to get a house but it is just way too difficult and painful.
I am somewhat of a new player, I've played for 6 months now. For 6 months I have enjoyed every single thing I've done so far in the game. It's the first time I've had a bad time playing this.

tl;dr: Life and Play Time wasted, I felt like I was in war with people.

Yesterday after the maintenance a plot was left open to buy in the ward where my FC's house is. I've been wanting a house there for some time now and I've been saving for weeks just to get it. I went to buy it but it wasn't ready to purchase. So I waited. As I was waiting, several people came to get it as well. We were there for 5 hours trying to get it just for a person to come and relocate their house.

I am sorry if this comes across as ranty, I know the devs are doing their best to keep the game the best they can but this was just awful. While trying to purchase the plot I even got a person trying to trade with me just to bother me with the trading window popping up. This is my main complaint. I don't think that for owning a game you should be granted a house, but the problem comes when trying to get a house feels like I'm clashing with people.

Not only that, a person told me that if I wanted a plot in specific I should go get one anywhere and then when the one I want gets free, relocate there. That means paying for 2 houses.

As of now It's been almost a day since the maintenance and I'm trying to get a house to relocate in the future - with people coming to te same plot I've been waiting for to open for hours.

Again, I really appreciate what the devs do for us but I really felt like sharing this so maybe they could improve it. I really hope my message gets to them and some day they make it so no one has to go through this anymore.

[Mew_FC]

Square Enix has lowered the costs of housing by 5 times (or more) since housing has been released. Players ended up complaining about other players reselling houses and now this is what players like you have to go through. Let's give a good round of applause to those people who wanted to change a system that worked perfectly fine. /clap

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

Let's give a good round of applause to those people who wanted to change a system that worked perfectly fine. /clap

People must not remember how bad it was before the timer was a thing.

I remember when Shirogane was released, it took about 30minutes for every house in every single ward to be purchased. There were numerous reports of people going to placards and finding characters with bot names already at placards instantly (teleport hacking). Then days or weeks after all the land was sold you'd go through the wards and see some wards completely barren (no houses built) because it was all bots that had purchased land solely to resell it.

Then the resellers would way overcharge you the price of the land to relinquish it to you, upwards of 50m for smalls for example. A lot of people also didnt understand how reselling worked either, so they would spend all their gil paying the reseller, not realizing that you then also need to have the gil to purchase the land for yourself. The end up not even being able to purchase the house because they didnt have anymore gil. It was a very shady practice and often the sellers made off with the persons gil because to admit that you engaged in reselling was to admit that you broke the ToS and no one got reported. Even if they did get reported, most of the arrangements were made out of game in discord or reddit and GMs couldn't do anything about it.

It's the same reason why content sellers never get banned, and those guys are charging real money, not gil. But that's another issue.

[Mew_FC]

Lets deconstruct some of this...

I remember when Shirogane was released, it took about 30minutes for every house in every single ward to be purchased. There were numerous reports of people going to placards and finding characters with bot names already at placards instantly (teleport hacking). Then days or weeks after all the land was sold you'd go through the wards and see some wards completely barren (no houses built) because it was all bots that had purchased land solely to resell it.

Just because a player's name is not something you would use doesn't mean they are a "bot". Just so you know, teleport hacking is the fastest way to get banned in this game. Especially when there are other players around. So much that automation softwares are warning you about it, publicly. No one in their right mind would use a tele hack when you can use aetherytes or speed modifiers. Not that it matters, those "bots" you speak of had to go through the login queue. Just like everyone else. Some players are so poor, even though housing has never been this cheap, that they can't even afford a housing permit. If you have well documented cases in which "barren wards with the sole purpose of being resold" have actually existed, then please bring your evidence forward. Until then, the situation you are describing is either false due to your perception of what a bot is or anecdotal at best.

Then the resellers would way overcharge you the price of the land to relinquish it to you, upwards of 50m for smalls for example. A lot of people also didnt understand how reselling worked either, so they would spend all their gil paying the reseller, not realizing that you then also need to have the gil to purchase the land for yourself. The end up not even being able to purchase the house because they didnt have anymore gil. It was a very shady practice and often the sellers made off with the persons gil because to admit that you engaged in reselling was to admit that you broke the ToS and no one got reported. Even if they did get reported, most of the arrangements were made out of game in discord or reddit and GMs couldn't do anything about it.

It's the same reason why content sellers never get banned, and those guys are charging real money, not gil. But that's another issue.

Who cares what amount of gil players are asking out of anything in this game when there's literally people in party finder selling the weapons from UWU (which are in fewer numbers than houses). The ToS clearly states that you cannot value anything in this game for real money. It doesn't mention anything regarding trading items, mounts, weapons, gear or houses.

If players don't understand how something works, even though it is clearly explained on the lodestone, and are willing to spend 50M... that's on them. Nobody forced them to hand out that gil. You know, there's something in the ToS called Fraud. It's not very lengthy, but you are no allowed to fraud other players in any way. If someone's smart, they will put all the transaction details in the game chat. GMs will absolutely take action when someone isn't holding on to their end of the deal. Yes, even with houses. Once again, you cannot find anything mentioning that trading houses is a prohibited activity. Not in the ToS, not in the game rules, not on lodestone.

To reiterate, if a player forks over 50m without understanding how any of this works and that they didn't include the details of the trade in the game chat to prevent being scammed, then they should read about Charles Darwin...

[Brynne]

I feel for you, OP. Seems like everyone has an opinion about what 'caused' the housing situation in this game, but when it comes down to it, the system is just broken. I hope that SE will take a good hard look at it after ShB drops and they have some time to do so, rather than just throwing more wards in and hoping that quiets people down for a while. The game is growing, and this system is not flexible enough to accommodate that.

[DrWho2010]

they wanted to have the "neighborhood" type feel to it. it's gone on for too long now to go back and wipe it all and start over as a different system. Yoshi-p has stated in interviews that if there was one thing he wishes he could do over again it would be housing. but now they're stuck with the system they felt that they wanted to have. just going to have to accept it.

[Besame]

I think setting your character as 'busy" stops the trade window trick.

[LaylaTsarra]

I think setting your character as 'busy" stops the trade window trick.

That doesn't make much difference in my opinion with an random timer. It is important however when new wards are released and all homes are open to purchase.

[ERMITANYO]

An apartment with the convenience of a plotted house, just minus the neighborhood set up, to act as a starter home untill the opportunity presents itself to acquire a house with a plot.

[Canadane]

Not only that, a person told me that if I wanted a plot in specific I should go get one anywhere and then when the one I want gets free, relocate there. That means paying for 2 houses.

You get the majority of the first plot back when you relocate.