Questions on Servers and Housing.

[Sinfury76]

Hello all, I am pretty much new player, I have a 18 Pugilist on Famfrit that I am playing mainly to just test the game and get a feel for it whether I wanna continue or not. Turns out I am enjoying the game a lot and subscribed to it. That out of the way, I wanted to branch out on few concerns, firstly servers and housing...is housing gonna be available to me once I have enough gil to purchase one? Because if I can't theres not much reason for me to play the game. I came to this game with housing in mind for the most part, I like to adventure and then show off my hard work in game in a house, so I tend to play games that has that feature. I doubt I play on Famfrit where my Pugilist is I am eyeing up Midgardsormr as my home. Is there gonna be housing plots available here or is it lost cause, if not here then what worlds should I be looking at?>

Secondly I am not enjoying the Pugilist job at all because well its repetitive, BUT as I understand it thats pretty much all jobs in the early stages of the game so is it like just grind it out it will get better deal or does the job just feel that way through its maturity?

I really like the name of Midgardsormr as a server home but if it is not practical because of my end game wishes where should I play? I am in the US and would prefer North American data centers but I will change to a completely different DC to get my needs met if I have too. Now someone on Famfrit told me Square is doing something to housing in the next few updates to make them more available to people because as I understand it there is a lot of people waiting in line for one, but I was unable to find any info on this. Thank you all for any feedback you can provide me!

[The_Last_Dragoon]

You get more actions and better rotations as you go along with your class. If you want a taste of what your job will be like at lv60, I recommend doing Palace of the Dead once you get to lv30 (I think you still need your job crystal to properly get certain weaponskills).

In terms of housing, apartments are pretty much always available, but even if you have the money for the land to build your house on, the whole thing is a huge gil sink, so it's something you can't really think about 'til you're in endgame anyway. Usually, the best time to get a house is when they add Wards, which will essentially add a bunch of plots at once without timers so that people can at least own a house, and then if they don't like the zone they can then look into relocating which bypasses the timer. I'm also pretty sure you can only buy houses on the server your character originates from, so if you want to have a house on Midgardsormr, then you need to move your character there or better yet, restart on that server since you're still early on in the game.

[Sinfury76]

Ok I am not really sure what you mean by timers but from what I am gathering from your post is there are apartments which is always available but they may add plots of land at various times throughout the game? I take it you can have more decorations and room with plots of land compared to apartments? When you speak of apartments you are talking about something totally different than Inns correct? I have already been introduced to Inns rather early on.

Also I figured that Housing would be a endgame thing as well as a gil sink which tbh is totally fine with me. I am just more concerned about whether that will be open to me once im ready for that part of the game, I don't want to be not able to access it at all.

Thank you for your clarification!

[The_Last_Dragoon]

An apartment is essentially and Inn room that you can decorate as you please, it is only a fraction of the cost to build a house and is plenty of room for a new adventurer to decorate with interior items. Houses allow for particular exterior decorations as well as the ability to customize the house itself (the cost of which is immense and is not included in the initial purchase of the land). Gardening is the main reason to get a house, since you cannot crossbreed seeds in an apartment. If your sole desire is to decorate a room with a bunch of unique things from your adventures then an apartment will definitely suit your needs and fulfill them in a more timely manner.

As long as the team continues to open new wards, you will always be granted a rather fair chance at getting a house provided you have the money when those wards open. There are also, of course, houses that are either sold or auto-demolished due to inactivity, but those run into the problem of a random unseen timer that prevents another player from buying the plot until it expires. Unfortunately, these timers can go on for over a day, and any plot of land can potentially be taken by a previous land owner vacating their old plot for the new one (This of course comes at great expense since they literally have to buy another plot of land).

[Frizze]

Ok, lets get some answers in here. Apartments. While there is technically a limit to the number of apartments available on any given server, functionally the limit is so high that it is unlikely ever to be met(even the most crowded server only saw some buildings sell out, with many many more options open). Specifically, each apartment building has 90 rooms. There is a separate building in each division/subdivision of each housing ward of each housing district(so 180*18*4 apartments per server currently). Apartments are indoor housing space that you can decorate as you like within the item limit(i think the limit is 200 items placed for an apartment, but i might be wrong). Functionally they are identical to Free Company private rooms, but you cant lose your apartment for being removed from an FC. The other advantage to apartments is that they arent subject to demolition.

The housing wards. You can actually explore these now if you like. Theres a quest in or near each city that gives you aetheryte access to the connected housing district, but even without doing the quest you can physically walk into the district and look around. Currently there are 4 housing districts, each connected to one of the major towns. The Goblet for Ul dah, Mist for Limsa, Lavender Beds for Gridania, and Shirogane for Kugane(you cant go here until you reach the appropriate step of the stormblood main quest). Each district contains 18 individual housing wards, each of which has a division and subdivision comprised of 30 plots(so 60*18*4 is the current number of plots per server). Houses come in 3 sizes(the plot you buy determines which size house fits it), and each allow for a small number of yard decorations(housing items are classified as to where you can put them) plus a growing number of indoor decorations as well. The housing plots on a server can sell out, and most of the NA servers are currently at or close to housing capacity. New houses can be built after this, but it requires a plot of land to open up. Some times people give up their land - they dont want it anymore, they transfer to another server, they decide to sell it. When this happens their plot opens up. Ward houses are also subject to auto-demolition. If you dont enter your house(the inside specifically, the yard doesnt work) once every 45 days the server will reclaim the land and let someone new build there. The server keeps a running count of how long its been since every plot owner has last been inside, and at the top of every hour it demolishes any houses past their 45 day mark(checking for open plots at the top of the hour will sometimes yield a surprise new house available). With any of these plot openings, the server sets a random hidden timer of between 6 and 24 hours before the plot can actually be bought. If you already have a house, you can choose to relocate during this window - relocating gives up your old plot for someone new to buy and puts you into the new one. The other way that new houses can be built is if/when the devs add more housing wards. Obviously, a new ward would have all its plots open for purchase/relocation so each one puts a new batch of houses into the game. As for what you were told about them "doing something with housing", there are rumors and speculation about what might happen in the next few months/patches but nothing has been announced one way or the other.

As for where to find more info about open plots, you can do some research yourself. Once you do the housing quests you can use the main aetheryte in each city to check all 18 wards and see which have open plots. Then if you like, you can use the world visit function to check out the rest of the servers on your data center and see what has the most openings. Alternatively, the housing board on these forums has a census post that is regularly updated by several users with info about open plots. Hopefully this mass of words contained at least a few that will be helpful. Good luck!

[Sinfury76]

Awesome information The Last Dragoon and Frizze, thank you both. I feel comfortable now that I can own a apartment and at least do that first and plan for a house later, besides it will give me time to level up and save money and by then there should be a few patches out already and see where it goes from there.

For the here and now I will stay on Midgarsormr as my home server.

Many Thanks!