Regarding the New HQ Turn-in Feature and Housing Situation

[elizeugba]

I am a newer player and when I play an mmo I like to have a goal, and that goal isn't raiding because I am a carer in real life.

I would love to have my own house, and am fine with this being a long term goal, but now I just feel that it will be impossible. I can't stand around for days spamming a placard. Players should only be able to own one house.. how on earth did that person on twitter manage to buy so much up?!

She moved to a "dead" server on purpose because there are several completely empty wards. She did this specifically to not bother other people and there is still a good number of empty wards available. She also said that she bought all the houses in that ward for the minimum possible price, which means that they were available for a long time before she bought (probably since 5.1). I think the real problem is people buying houses in big servers to sell them for real money or for a ridiculous amount of money (like 50M for a small plot). But all this could be solved with instanced housing.

[GeminiReed]

Have we considered the idea that maybe the goal is not to ensure every player has a fair chance of getting a house?

They've made several poor design choices in the past. Some have even been corrected.

What makes this one inexcusable is the gating of game features (gardens, workshops, airships, submersibles). Not only that, it has fostered a black market and would not surprise me to be responsible for some RMT.

[Luna-M]

They've made several poor design choices in the past. Some have even been corrected.

What makes this one inexcusable is the gating of game features (gardens, workshops, airships, submersibles). Not only that, it has fostered a black market and would not surprise me to be responsible for some RMT.

The latter part is only applicable on FCs. You can't transfer ownership on a personal and even if previous owner release their ownership you still have the RNG timer in play.

[GeminiReed]

You can't transfer ownership on a personal ...

Obviously. FC-only restrictions just help the flippers and their less than ToS complaint shenanigans. For those desperate enough to pay black market rates not being in another FC is a very small price to pay.

[TwistedTea]

Obviously. FC-only restrictions just help the flippers and their less than ToS complaint shenanigans. For those desperate enough to pay black market rates not being in another FC is a very small price to pay.

Except the sale of relocations and FCs with houses are not against the TOS as long as there's an in-game contract. An example of housing related "Trade Fraud"(also covered by SE):

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...like_quitting/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...yne_mercer_of/

Majority of players selling relocations/FC houses are not flippers. They just want the gil/time they have invested into their houses/FC houses back.

Also, there are ads on the house market discord/reddit sometimes for less than placard price.

[ICountFrom0]

Give us ONE WARD of INSTANCED housing and solve this whole mess. Allow people who just want a home to have their home in an instanced plot. You already have the coding for it in place (Apartments) don't tell us that it can't be done. Or do as many of us have suggested and implement apartment upgrades with hanging gardens capable of cross-breeding. And FC apartments.

Stop adding wards. Only botters and house flippers are getting them. Do something to actually FIX the problem.

I would double the cost of my apartment to have a "back door" into a yard that was instanced. I would double that AGAIN to have a side door into another room. If they just let us keep buying more apartment rooms... that would be lovely.

[Nexxus]

Housing would have been better used in instanced zone, like Black Desert Online, anyone can own the same house. (apartment for exemple, but with houses).

[Lyoko]

You know they could made apartments upgrade-able with a second floor and have balcony for gardening.. even it just have walls around like conservatory so dont have to have an outside view. Also craftable storage chests as furniture?.. we can restore a kingdom, yet when comes to a flat, we cant renovate it XD. Also sorry, first time on forums and didnt know where to post suggestions. >.<

[BehindTheFlowers]

2. While we are very grateful for the increase in players due to the new updates, the housing demolition timer has remained disabled due to COVID-19. We are planning to add more plots soon, but due to the current situation, the installation process has been slowed down. While we cannot proceed with physical installations, we will optimize the server and add as many plots as we can up until Patch 5.4.

Stop doing that. It is only creating problems. Instead of doing a stop gab meassure like that, overhaul it! I am confident that if one took time to rethink the whole thing. Make it simpler for players to put their lot in for a plot, and avoid both bots and having them sit and click for ages untill they physically get hurt or rage quits. Then there can be server optimizing, and a lot of happy customers to be had instead.

Simple things can be done with the system as it is now, or the whole thing can be redone. I personally advocate for a system where players can put in an fixed amount of gil for a plot depending on size.
And if there is alot of players doing the same, then after a X amount of time the algorythms draw a winner, and the winner get X amount of time to fetch their plot documents and build a house.
The rest get their gil back and can try again.
And of course if one should build in a big fair thing. Each time someone plops gil down for a plot they get a score, and the higher the score the higher their lottery number can get. So those that have tried since the whole system launched would eventually get a house.

It can coexist with the current system where those that relocate or buy a fc plot seem to get first priority. Relocation just sutract from that said secret score for the future, or will perhaps pose a time penalty or something. I am sure there is smart brains in SE (though they did not work on the housing from the start) that can throw some ideas around and get it working.

That is my constructive critizism.

[JamieRose]

A message from Naoki Yoshida regarding the new HQ turn-in feature and housing situation:

2. While we are very grateful for the increase in players due to the new updates, the housing demolition timer has remained disabled due to COVID-19. We are planning to add more plots soon, but due to the current situation, the installation process has been slowed down. While we cannot proceed with physical installations, we will optimize the server and add as many plots as we can up until Patch 5.4.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused. The full details of the announcement is currently being prepared. Thank you for your patience.

My patience has run out.