Would the housing market be less crazy if the buying system was a silent auction?

[Pyitoechito]

I haven't actually delved into the housing market myself, but hearing so many horror stories makes me wonder if it would be better if the current system for buying a house was replaced with something similar to a silent auction.

The price of the plot would become the minimum bid, and the devaluation timer would be the bidding period. Everyone who wants the plot secretly places a bid on it (unlimited maximum bid). At the end of the bidding period the highest bidder is awarded the plot, and if there were no bidders the plot devalues and the bidding period starts again. There could be additional features in place like a count of the number of players currently bidding on a particular plot.

The market would change from being an endurance/luck race to a more capitalist one. Those with more gil stand a better chance of getting houses, but that might not be ideal because it would make it much harder for newer or less savvy players to get houses.

Another alternative that would only remove the "endurance" aspect of housing would be a lottery approach. All players wishing to purchase a plot during a devaluation period can join in the lottery, and when the period ends one random player is selected to win the plot. If no players participate the plot devalues, and players would only be allowed to join the lottery of one plot at a time (can't try for multiple plots at once).

In either scenario, I would see players who already own housing also having to participate in either the auction or lottery alongside those who don't have houses to keep things fair.

[Tridus]

That would be better, yes. It wouldn't require people to stand there for hours clicking.

A lottery system would also work, where you get a ticket, and if you win, the money is deducted and you get the house.

I mean, having enough housing would also work. But since we're not getting that...

[Lunavi]

Lottery is better to be honest. The problem with this solution is that it will be terrible unless you are the richest non-houseowner on the server, and even then it would be bad as instead of 4m for a small you would have to pay most likely 50 minimum for a small and gilcap for a large.

[Skivvy]

That would be better, yes. It wouldn't require people to stand there for hours clicking.

A lottery system would also work, where you get a ticket, and if you win, the money is deducted and you get the house.

I mean, having enough housing would also work. But since we're not getting that...

Oyyyy, I agree. Give housing to all people for the love of all that is holy!! D: Now, wishful thinking aside...

To expand on your idea, I think they would need to make the gil deduct immediately, and that you can only have a max of 3 active lottery tickets open (or whatever arbitrary number they want).

If the gil isn't deducted immediately, there could be the issue of someone winning but no longer having the funds. Also, this would probably help prevent everyone from having the max number of open tickets as that would be (potentially) a lot of gil to put down up front - therefore giving more people a chance.

[Shougun]

I mean, having enough housing would also work. But since we're not getting that...

Oyyyy, I agree. Give housing to all people for the love of all that is holy!! D: Now, wishful thinking aside...

The only real long term solution >.>;;

I mean I'm happy people will look for faster short term gauze for the issue of course, but we're going to be staring at some significant housing problem or another till the end of time if the system never changes. No matter what they do if they don't change the system something is going to be off and, imo, in a bad way. "We added 1000 new wards, now everyone gets a house" == now you killed the ward system, everything is a guaranteed ghost town except for maybe for two whole people making the whole concept of neighborhoods well past dead and gone by evisceration straight into evaporation. "We wont add wards because we want them to be lively" == FC and players being severely limited in choices of location, size, and features, a limited concept that can work well in some sandbox/hardcore mmos but FFXIV is not this even FFXI wasn't that hardcore/sandboxy. Giving many players a feeling that they're playing a game from 2003, I see this comment brought up fairly often and I reference that year specifically since I have a strong feeling Yoshida was inspired by Dark Age of Camelot, whose Foundation system was released in 2003. An mmorpg he has talked about in the early days as one he really enjoyed playing and some of their housing system's core concepts are very similar to ours. Not to say anything old must be bad (loads of old games and great old concepts that shouldn't die), but that this house system as it currently is does, imo, feel like an old limited system that would fit well to a game that asks for that sense of limited quantity and resource management- like if this was some living breathing hardcore sandbox rpg (where the idea would fit well and feel to theme of the game).

No matter what the system is going to shoot itself in the foot unless another system is added/greatly expanded upon (like functionality wise, so having apartments upgrade into full fledged instanced houses for example). Personally (and probably dead horse obvious by now, one which I love to beat lol), but I greatly prefer the concept of pocket worlds due to our lore, player power, and the FF graphic/art team. To which I think FFXIV could have some of the prettiest wildstar tier power housing in any mmo (and very fitting especially for this particular game's position in game philosophy (always trying to be the welcoming easy to get into mmo), game themes, and lore itself- felt this since ARR but now it screams it in Shadowbringers).

This self foot shooting experience carries into features too like we can't easily have larger houses or yards made with the currents system, we can't have super massive object/projects (meaning the wards are putting a lock on what content we can hope to see tied with housing- no towers or other grand concepts), we can't have certain objects that might not fit the theme (final area ShB impossible without seriously damaging the image of the wards and perhaps the lore for those not there yet, but would not be an issue in a pocket world), adding new ward themes breaks down the fabric of the communities and so we're limited on frequency of new theme spaces (which in other words is like saying "adding new things to the wards make the wards worse at maintaining neighborhoods as you fracture communities each time you add a new wards, it hurts itself to improve itself", while if we had a pocket space SE could be reusing assets far more readily like "you liked that floating sky island in the HW raid did ya? well we made those objects housing options now!!!"), and more. .

As for the proposed solution specifically I lean more towards lottery over auction and the current placards, but I know that's also a contested concept. Ideally we don't have to worry about the placards as we'd have instance houses and wards for physical address of those that want them (Howel's Moving Castle style). Personally I like lottery since it stops players from competing at the placard against bots, pounding their keyboard for hours upon hours, not playing the game, not engaging with anything meaningful what so ever, and still has an inkling of hope for all players (I imagine the auction taking more gil out but also making more players that had trouble with the funds before feeling even more separated and not "in the in"). Of course if you go lottery you might see bots enter in large groups to skew their chance to win... so it's not a clear victory and I'm fine if people think it's a net loss but I just see the whole placard face spam as a greater net loss. Though as said in the beginning the real fix (imo, fix being based on that I think limited housing is a horrible concept for a themepark FF high magic fantasy game- so the limitations are not a feature but a burden of the system given my point of view) would be getting people into an instanced smoothed out modern system (pocket world like ideas), and keeping the wards for those who want the neighborhood. There in ward users having a yard, pocket world, and a house space that can portal between the two, while instanced users wouldn't have a yard in a physical ward address they could still do all the features a ward user could inside their pocket space (gardening there instead) and if a ward user took a break or stopped caring for the ward they'd keep the house, pocket world, and objects and just lose the ward spot instead.

[Hash_Browns]

I don't think people wanna pay 100m gil for a small though.

[Mistyregions]

I don't think people wanna pay 100m gil for a small though.

That's the freemarket, it will only support what people are willing to pay, if you are priced out, get an apartment. You are not entitled to a house.

If we want to regulate housing because people might have to pay some gil for it we should regulate the MB as well. I bet that idea wont fly. The only reason people want regulated housing prices because it's a salve serving policy. Like I said apartments exist and if you really wanna house you gotta work for it.

[Hash_Browns]

That's the freemarket, it will only support what people are willing to pay, if you are priced out, get an apartment. You are not entitled to a house.

If we want to regulate housing because people might have to pay some gil for it we should regulate the MB as well. I bet that idea wont fly. The only reason people want regulated housing prices because it's a salve serving policy. Like I said apartments exist and if you really wanna house you gotta work for it.

Ah yes, let's compare locking content behind hundreds of millions of gil to selling items on the market boards.

Inventing a new arbitrary worse system because people are getting handcramps isn't a solution.
Y'all are just trying to give an alcoholic smokes instead of beer.

Also, apartments aren't appealing.
They lack an outdoor area, a garden, and well.. any freedom besides 1 tiny room.

Housing was never suppose to be expensive, or something people sell.

[Mistyregions]

Ah yes, let's compare locking content behind hundreds of millions of gil to selling items on the market boards.

Inventing a new arbitrary worse system because people are getting handcramps isn't a solution.
Y'all are just trying to give an alcoholic smokes instead of beer.

Also, apartments aren't appealing.
They lack an outdoor area, a garden, and well.. any freedom besides 1 tiny room.

Housing was never suppose to be expensive, or something people sell.

Right and living in a studio apartment IRL compared to a IRL mansion is also not appealing. Just like in IRL, if you dont have the money, you cant get it, you have section 8 housing for you instead.

I understand the want an desire for a house, but that doesnt mean its owed to you. I feel the housing market should be a FFA. If you really want the house you'll fish up 999mil gil, if you dont, then you obviously didnt want it.

[monk-dps]

Right and living in a studio apartment IRL compared to a IRL mansion is also not appealing. Just like in IRL, if you dont have the money, you cant get it, you have section 8 housing for you instead.

I understand the want an desire for a house, but that doesnt mean its owed to you. I feel the housing market should be a FFA. If you really want the house you'll fish up 999mil gil, if you dont, then you obviously didnt want it.

OR just maybe, maybe SE could like make housing instant so everyone can get a house and we don't have to worry about the 1% flipping all the plots cause it's not just about not having the gil. Unlike real life XIV has a massive botting problem and the system itself is completely flawed. It's a video game and shouldn't be compared to real life at all.