Housing needs to be addressed.

[kidalutz]

Just spent the last 12 hours standing at a sign with 20 other people as they came and went throughout the entire session. This is literally the worst, most frustrating, punishing, and absolutely unenjoyable way to do this. Squeenix needs to figure out something that isn't horrid like the current problems. I feel like my only options to ever own a home is to leave my server or leave my FC. That is pretty horrible when your only options to attend content is to leave your friends behind.

I just got a plot for the first time ever lastnight I'm super excited about it but I didnt see a bunch of people trying to placard click Is this something thats a regular occurance ont he more crowded servers? If so that sucks and I hope they fix it.

[NanaWiloh]

I think the main issue right now is that people don't know when the timer will expire to allow the land to be purchased, so you just have to be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. The problem with this is people really want a house, so they will go to the extremes of camping out at a plot of land clicking it over and over until it becomes available. At some point however, people need to sleep, go to work, eat dinner, etc. etc ... So obviously this is not an ideal situation.

This was brought up in Gamerescape's E3 interview

Gamer Escape: Regarding housing… trying to get a plot is very difficult, and it takes a lot of time and there’s a random element involved because of the timer. Has there been any consideration to change how the system works?

Naoki Yoshida: This system is necessary to address RMT / gold farmers. We want to eliminate issues where they are farming for land as well, and if we were to remove this system then nobody will be able to buy land properly anymore. We wanted to make it so that it’s fair to everybody. So yes, luck is involved in that process unfortunately, but for the time being we don’t have any intentions of changing the system.

Also, and this is something of a happy problem to have, but there are so many players that are still joining us, so it might be getting to that point where we have to consider adding more plots of land. We’d like to launch Shadowbringers first and let things settle down and monitor how the different servers are populated and make out considerations from there.

So there has to be that random element to prevent land sellers from popping up again. I think something that would be a little better and at least would keep people from needing to camp plots of land, would be to either,

a) have a lottery system where after land gets auto-demolished, players can click on the house placard to be entered into a lottery to be able to claim the plot of land. The price of the lottery ticket would be the price of purchasing the land. If you won the lottery, the land becomes yours after the timer expires. If you lost the lottery, your money is refunded to you.

or

b) set up an auction system where players can bid on the land. The random timer becomes the time remaining left on the auction. When the timer expires, the player with the highest bid becomes the owner of the land.

In my opinion, option a) is the better option because it removes the need to camp the land all the time. There's an element of randomness involved which some players may find less appealing, but I think it's the least stressful option. With option b), players may still find the need to camp the land in order to ensure their bid remains the highest. Depending on how the auction is implemented, however, they might be able to avoid that situation. For example if the auction is blind and players can't see what the current highest bid is, then you would maintain that element of randomness, but players may feel they have a bit more control over the outcome (bidding very high).

Seen a lottery system mentioned before its still has the random element too it like the demo system. As for the auction idea no I would not go that route you got players who have more gil then they know what to do with, some with multiple characters who could walk up and just drop 100+ million or more without a second thought.

[Mew_FC]

Seen a lottery system mentioned before its still has the random element too it like the demo system. As for the auction idea no I would not go that route you got players who have more gil then they know what to do with, some with multiple characters who could walk up and just drop 100+ million or more without a second thought.

So you're against taking out, permanently, large amounts of gil out of the game? Do you have any interest in RMT or something?

[kidalutz]

So you're against taking out, permanently, large amounts of gil out of the game? Do you have any interest in RMT or something?

Funny coming from someone whos trying to offsite sell all the plots they bought for 2.5 billion gil (thus causing someone to consider RMT in the first place) And was formerly bragging having more than enough gil to last for the games lifetime. Go back and troll other things please.

[Mew_FC]

Funny coming from someone whos trying to offsite sell all the plots they bought for 2.5 billion gil (thus causing someone to consider RMT in the first place) And was formerly bragging having more than enough gil to last for the games lifetime. Go back and troll other things please.

Eh, from what I can tell you, all the offers I have ever got, outside of people begging for individual houses, didn't need to purchase gil in the first place. You do realize that you need multiple accounts in order to get all of these right?

[NanaWiloh]

So you're against taking out, permanently, large amounts of gil out of the game? Do you have any interest in RMT or something?

I said this cause I've said on a another thread I have a friend on Lamia who drop 100 million like pocket change. He dropped 400 million during heavensward getting his crafters up, Was still one of the richest players on the server despite dumping 400 mil. He is not the only player in the game who can drop that kind of gil multiple times and make it all back. So if someone like that bids on a house unless someone equally as rich walks up anyone who has been biding can just call the auction over.

[Nothv13]

I agree. Runescape had instanced housing and it sucked. It was so terribly isolating, it felt like I was never part of a community.

The problem is that most of these districts are dead because the plots are so limited, thus for most they still don't feel like a community.

Now, if they would do something like BDOs housing, it could be very interesting. Instanced, but built directly into the world. Make each plot instanced and it shows the oldest purchased house on that plot by default but changeable by you by using the placard. You get more people into the districts, able to somewhat tailor the look of neighborhood, get rid of the buying/selling problem, and you can still get the feeling of a community.

[Mew_FC]

I said this cause I've said on a another thread I have a friend on Lamia who drop 100 million like pocket change. He dropped 400 million during heavensward getting his crafters up, Was still one of the richest players on the server despite dumping 400 mil. He is not the only player in the game who can drop that kind of gil multiple times and make it all back. So if someone like that bids on a house unless someone equally as rich walks up anyone who has been biding can just call the auction over.

At least it was ingame money as anyone who's spending that much on leveling is clearly not qualified to make any budget.

My point still stands, the money your friend "spent" didn't get removed from the game, it just exchanged hands.

Part of the reason why everyone can afford housing, other than the ridiculously low prices, is the fact that there is too much gil in the players' hands. Allowing anyone to bid whatever they want on a specific plot, with or without revealing the highest bid, would not only remove a lot of gil from the game, but it would also bring back housing purchases to what it originally required... Effort.

[NanaWiloh]

At least it was ingame money as anyone who's spending that much on leveling is clearly not qualified to make any budget.

My point still stands, the money your friend "spent" didn't get removed from the game, it just exchanged hands.

Part of the reason why everyone can afford housing, other than the ridiculously low prices, is the fact that there is too much gil in the players' hands. Allowing anyone to bid whatever they want on a specific plot, with or without revealing the highest bid, would not only remove a lot of gil from the game, but it would also bring back housing purchases to what it originally required... Effort.

Lol No, he was not concerned about budgeting. Crafting and Market board lurking are his end game so he is fine with spending gil like that. Rest of the time he is earning gil and saving for no other reason then to have it.

[LalafellDown]

Without the timer you probably wouldn’t even be posting this because you would’ve never had the chance to even compete for the house. It would of been sold before you logged in.