House Raffling

[EaMett]

It's not. if they wanted it to be PvP housing, they would never have expanded the number of wards to the point we've had periods where most worlds had surplus housing available for the taking. In 2018, there were dozens if not hundreds of houses available on all but a handful of worlds. It was only when the player population exploded at the start of 2019 that all those available houses started disappearing.

This is simply incorrect. Just outright so.

• Oct 2014, patch 2.4 > 1440 plots available for an average user count of 3107 per serve(**), 46% availability (no before patch stats as this was the first time housing was open to personals)
• Jun 2016, patch 3.3 > 2160 plots available for an average user count of 4224 per server(*), 51% availability (31% before patch)
• Oct 2017, patch 4.1 > 2880 plots available for an average user count of 10 834 per server(*), 26% availability (20% before patch)
• Feb 2018, patch 4.2 > 4320 plots available for an average user count of 8957 per server(*), 48% availability (32% before patch)
• current > 5760 plots available for an average user count of 10489 per server(*), 54% availability (48% before patch). This patch was sold as compensating for lack of demo timers due to COVID19. So is likely to be outside of normal cycles.

* Average users per server follow the 80/20 rule. This means that 80% of the player base reside on servers with this average active user count. I am conflating character and user count to make up for the purchase of FC housing. (as per FFXIV Census)
** The information exists on LuckyBancho but is a pain to compile. If anyone wants to take a jab at it be my guest. Instead, I took a few deltas for specific servers which gave me a base population increase % and applied that to the other servers

As you can see this has been a thing for a long time. They have always tried to maintain housing around the 30-50% mark of the active server population. 2017 was the worst of it (though this may be due to a blip in census data) and current times are one of the best times for housing.

It's always been a limited resource as far back as the feature has been open to personal housing. The initial dev who designed housing (who's name I can't remember for the life of me right now) stated that they wanted housing to be difficult to get in order to get a sense of accomplishment from obtaining one.

Yes, plots were open on some servers years ago but that's just human psychology. If something is easy to get there's no value, no status. When something becomes hard to get suddenly everyone wants a piece of it for those same reasons. That's the entire point of limited availability design. Infomercials use this all the time "buy now, we only have 5 left", "only available for a limited time", etc.. etc..

The availability of housing hasn't changed over the years, it's just that housing became more desirable as it became harder to obtain. And this shift happened years ago for most of the playerbase.

If they intended it to be PvP housing, the demolition timer would never get suspended. It would remain on constantly to force players to stay active to retain their house.

This does not even make sense. They block timers because of natural disasters. As a form of relief to players who may be affected by them. They do this specifically because of the PvP nature of housing.

the concept of PvP with housing, while emergent behavior

As demonstrated above, there is nothing "emergent" about this.

People want houses because they're hard to get (normal human psychology, even if they don't realize it). People also complain about houses being hard to get, what you gonna do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Almagnus1]

As demonstrated above, there is nothing "emergent" about this.

There is and you should go read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence as I'm specifically reffering to behavioral patterns, and what patterns emerge from the playerbase, and how to deal with the ones that are undesireable.

People want houses because they're hard to get (normal human psychology, even if they don't realize it). People also complain about houses being hard to get.

And we're basically saying the same thing, just differently.

[Jojoya]

This is simply incorrect. Just outright so.
snip the rest

Your problem is you're assuming that every player wants a house and that SE believes the same thing.

You're wrong. There's a large segment of the player population with no interest in owning house. SE understands that even if you don't. They've been adding housing as the available housing across worlds disappears, not to keep housing at a certain percentage of the player base to force housing PvP.

Pull numbers out of the air all you want but the real story in the number of houses that have been available at times, not the number of total houses versus total players.

If housing was intended to be PvP, there would never have been times the majority of worlds had houses available not just days but months.

Players on JP worlds (outside of Tonberry and a couple of the legacy worlds) never had problems getting a house once the wards were expanded to 12 until this expansion.

Players on NA and EU worlds had no problem getting houses the latter half of HW or in 2018 as long as they weren't on one of the congested worlds. Variety of what was available may not have been great at the end of HW but there was still no problem getting a house if you wanted one. That's how I got my first house. No PvP. No having to buy from a flipper.

There were hundreds of houses available on some NA and EU worlds during 2018 and dozens available on most of the rest. They didn't disappear until other MMOs died or had serious content issues at the start of 2019. Explain why that would be in your PvP housing theory.

I'm guessing you're one of those who only value housing if it's something others can't have which is why you're pushing your PvP theory.

Most players aren't like that, fortunately, and neither is SE.

[Sairys]

And maybe SE will go back on their initial design. But you can't use the latter as an argument. I could, for example, argue that instanced housing is boring because everyone can eventually get one if they play the game for long enough. And that's not something worthwhile to strive for.

I would question the actual design and intention behind it?
My understanding has been that the limitations aren't intentionally by design but because the design of wards/gardening has a server cost which causes the limitation. As demand has gone up apartments, wards, and rules have been implemented to increase the accessibility but the rate of ward additions has been subject to server limits.

I think this mindset of housing being something people strive for is also... not accurate.
The current system you just get enough money and then there's a level of chaos that makes actual acquisition effectively random both between releases as well as at them. Factors coming together to randomly mean you get a house isn't an achievement, it's not competitive, it's just luck.

[TwistedTea]

...if you take a step back, that's the point, it's by design. The limited access is a feature not necessarily a flaw.
It's like the ishgard restoration competitions. There are only 12 spots at the top, for the 12 most dedicated players. There's only housing for 30%-50% of the most dedicated players...

I can see where you're coming from. But then SE needs to bluntly state that persistent ward housing is not for every player.

[Arielen]

bad post op

[PewPewPewPewPew]

Please explain why any FC that has less than the number of players needed to create it (which is 4) should be able to own property. IMO all FCs that have 3 or less members should be stripped of their property after a sufficient amount of time has elapsed so they have the opportunity to bring their FC to bring it up to at least four members.

This is the fifth or sixth time now that you've argued that FCs and their houses should be terminated if the membership count falls below 4. Micro FC's are a thing. You have even acknowledged it in posts.


Link to Pic

Yet whenever asked why, you have continued to dodge. 4-people to make an FC is a technical requirement to make an FC. SE has not written anywhere that a FREE COMPANY must absolutely be no less than four people or else.

> Please explain why you think the number of people in an FC correlates with the proficiency of that FC and the effectiveness/activity level of that FC.
> What exactly is "active"? Who determines what active is? You?
> Why is being over 4 so specifically the difference between being deserving of a house and not?


So if 4 friends are playing actively, and one has an unfortunate circumstance that prevents them from playing or they decided to just quit one day, that FC should be wiped off the planet now according to you and have their house removed. There are 3-man FCs that are more effective and active than some 50-man FCs. But according to you any FC with less than 4 people is an abomination and should face immediate termination.

Once again you've decided this time to move the goal posts as you always do every conversation. So why don't you tell us this time what your excuse is? Are you even capable of thinking about things beyond so strictly black and white?

[Divinemights]

Almangus1, you really need to stop
Read your ideas but it seems you don’t realize that you are creating more issues than resolving one
SE is not going to do anything on grandfathered because it has far more negative impacts
You are now extreme far leftist and pretty much intends to violate people’s rights
That is not acceptable in either Western or Eastern
Remember, in general only 5% of player base will use forum regularity
Most of players do not use forum if they are happy
You are now have a dilution of people supporting your fantasy because these people didn’t get their house
Even less than 1% your idea comes true, those who are impacted will come to this forum complains
Just stop, making suggestions is once thing but intends to violate others right is another

Beside if bot and player health is really your concern, isn’t it better just to change it into one player can only click on placard once per time frame (30 mins).
Isn’t this much better than you non sense crusade about relocation timer?

[Almagnus1]

Ok, it's time for everyone to have a read of https://support.na.square-enix.com/r...la=1&tag=forum, which are:

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[Divinemights]

Stop dodging
Just answer me, if bot and player health is the primary concern, isn’t put a restriction onto allow player click only once every 30 mins a much better resolution than your predatory ideas of violate people right to relocate?