Housing

[Cirque-it]

Watch out now, people are sensitive 'round these parts. Even though I agree with you, insulting others- no matter how deserving, will likely get your posts deleted. Thus invalidating your efforts into making your point. And what a shame that would be, because people looking through the threads will miss key arguments since mods here sweep the whole thing under a rug, furniture included.

Thanks Gula.. I can be a bit harsh with words, I'll try and be more mindful <3

[Cirque-it]

Just one thing : provide us a proof housing is purposely designed by developers as some kind of PVP mechanic (not what you think but what they say).

I mentioned this too. every fibre in me tells me this is NOT how a dev intends it... I would never EVER design something like housing to be a PvP experience and I cant wrap my head around the guy (if its true) that came up with that... could you imagine that meeting????
director - Okay creators, we want new and fresh ideas on how to make FF as engaging as possible, give me your ideas!
person 1 - Create engaging and dynamic storylines that evolve over time as the game progresses and new expansions are released
Director - LOVE IT
person 2 - Create multiple battlegrounds with unique machanics to stimulate pvp
Director - Excellent!
Person 3 - Create multiple difficulties for a plethora of dungeouns/raids/trials to really get the community together and make boss kills
Director - Obviouisly!
person 4 - Create an immense end game experience with glamours, legendary weapons, and housing neighbourhoods
Director cool!
person 5(looking at person 4) - Oh yeah!! and lets turn that housing system into a pvp environment!
Director and person 4 - Wait WHAT!?????

[Ever_is_the_night]

Housing was meant to be competitive from the very first day. The FC with the most gil or the one that would have enough gil by the time the plot had devalued significantly could claim it as theirs. Even though housing prices are nothing but a sad joke nowadays, the competitiveness remained through player transactions.

[YellowCrystarium]

There are mansions on Spriggan, that server has the highest amount of free plots to date.

[Eldevern]

Housing was meant to be competitive from the very first day. The FC with the most gil or the one that would have enough gil by the time the plot had devalued significantly could claim it as theirs. Even though housing prices are nothing but a sad joke nowadays, the competitiveness remained through player transactions.

This is not the questionable part (thought few people in ARR time were complaining about the prices). What is more is the fact that FCs and individuals are in competition. If it is not a design problem, how to explain they are forced to make FCs first when new wards are released. Many weird things, some details show they always chose lesser evil since they should but don't want redesign wards and housing system. We will see how it turns with Ishgard, but I don't make myself illusions.

[HeyMcFly]

I'm currently lvling my crafters so I can make the gil to buy a M plot when/ if Ishgard housing comes. I've been told to wait for a M plot to open but I know if I don't have the gil ready when Ishgard houses open & if I'm not spamming a M plot to relocate my existing small plot? I know I'll most likely not get another chance to grab a M plot due to how stingy people are with it & the lack of M plots that are given.

[kaynide]

This might be a bit heartless, but I would say restrict the M or L sized houses to FCs only. Then on top of that, have said FCs require a certain number of active members online... both during purchase and regularly in play.

Again nothing crazy, maybe something like 8 online same time to purchase the L, 4 different accounts enter every 45 days or so to negate demolition.

End result makes more effort to have larger FCs if housing is your jam...and should severely negate the 1 person FC housing nonsense.

[EaMett]

Going to post all my responses in no particular order (don't feel like multi-quoting)

To address one aspect. It's clear that there's a mismatch between what some expect the system to be (QoL) and what it is (competitive). Neither are inherently bad and I'm sure you could write books about the pros an cons of each.
As for proof that the system is PvP, it's in the actual mechanic as described in previous posts. If you want a source that it was intended as such, the devs (I believe yoshi-p himself) have stated that it was, and I'm paraphrasing, "meant to be hard/limited so as to give owning one a sense of accomplishment". I will look for an actual quote but it's been a long time and given how hard it is for me to sometimes find quotes from 2-3 live letters, let alone 4 years ago, I wouldn't hold my hopes up. If anything, other people's comments here and in similar threads will attest to this actually being a thing.

Also lets not mix mechanics with rewards. You can have pvp mechanics with no rewards/titles/etc. You can lose your ranking if you idle, you can lose your house if you idle all the same. It's a real issue that you can outright lose items in the process and this should be addressed but it's an issue entirely different from availability.

Devs have recognized at several points that there was a supply issue. They initially added subdivisions, then Shirogane, then more wards twice. And soon to be Ishgard. There are currently ~5k plots per server for about ~15k active characters for the more populated servers (as per census data). They've always been chasing roughly 1/3rd the active player base of the most active servers with their updates. This has been pretty consistent and intended.
They also acknowledged that the community wanted higher priority housing for FCs and gave them just that during the post Shirogane ward expansions. This is a big reason why mansions are currently really hard to access for individuals (they were always in low supply but this made it extra hard). Again, I reiterate, this was a community request.

When it comes to the question of whether or not wards are lively or fill the desire the devs had of a "neighborhood feel" you really need to scope out your expectations for such a requirement. And try to guess what the dev's own requirements were. There's a huge range here, from wanting it to be a Limsa crowd all the time to wanting to see some people in the ward at all times of the day or maybe only during peak hours, or perhaps just being fine running into your neighbors every now and then. And how do you want this to be across the wards? Does it have to be in all wards? is it ok in only a few?
It's hard to judge how successful the system is without knowing what the initial goals were. Personally I run into most of my neighbors, I'd say once a week or every other week. I have a chat, sometimes I go into content with them. I wouldn't call my ward lively by any measure but it's good enough.
With that said I don't know what their goals were, I don't know what you guys think they should be and my personal experience of it being good is anecdotal at best.

[Eldevern]

It is not some kind of PVP, it is some kind of player versus "system" with some kind of Pay-to-win logic. There's... nothing to do with PVP (to be some kind of PVP, at least, it should be players vs players only and not player vs players vs FC thought the current system doesn't value any kind of merit or skill... just luck with time of connection and RNG.

What I can notice is NA players are focused really much more on rivality and competition, than European players who are more QoL oriented. More I'm reading the forum, more it appears to me. We will never agree, that's cultural as it seems.

[EaMett]

It is not some kind of PVP, it is some kind of player versus "system" with some kind of Pay-to-win logic. There's... nothing to do with PVP (to be some kind of PVP, at least, it should be players vs players only and not player vs players vs FC thought the current system doesn't value any kind of merit or skill... just luck with time of connection and RNG.

What I can notice is NA players are focused really much more on rivality and competition, than European players who are more QoL oriented. More I'm reading the forum, more it appears to me. We will never agree, that's cultural as it seems.

FC's are owned by players and the players go to the plots to purchase them. You as a player are competing against other players to be the fastest to purchase a plot. It's PvP. You're entitled to not like it, but doesn't change it's nature.
And the main component towards your ability to purchase one is time. It has some randomness and some "skill" related but those are both minor.
If purchasing houses when no wards are added, you just need to spend a lot of time on placards, that's all there is to it. Yes there's a RNG component and some people can get lucky/unlucky but overall more time spent = higher chance of getting one.
When wards and new housing areas release it's a measure of time skill and a bit of luck that come into play. People rehearse their movements for hours to leverage all movement abilities from their classes (that they spend hours leveling for those abilities sometimes), jumping from nin to brd etc... They place post-its on their screens to know exactly where to click in order to validate menu choices before they see them (or rehearse controller patterns). They put thought into picking their plots to avoid competition or at least have a backup option that is also fully rehearsed. They decide where they logout to avoid congestion. They stay up all night to make sure they don't get caught up in patch issues and are ready to go on launch. They refresh their launcher non-stop to get in. It's PvP, if you don't go that far you'll lose to those that do. And if you go that far you can still miss out to people who are faster. Simple as that.
Yes you can do all that and then rng error out or get dced and put into a queue but if you're prepared you'll still get access to a plot despite that, even if it isn't what you were originally going for and you're stuck on a small in the goblet. As long as you get your first entry house upgrading is easier on you, from there it's just a waiting game (time).