Getting Housing is a Problem

[Catstab]

We got on at 8 and all housing was gone

That's totally impossible.

Timers last a minimum of 8 hours on relocated houses. Many of the new 720 houses were relocated to. That means that the houses those players relocated from were open and on timers until at least 4 pm eastern time, 8 hours after the server came up, in the original wards 1-21.

[Shibi]

Sadly, it is how it is, and it won't change in the near future. So like grinding raid progression you need to get in there and just do it.

We did not expect the demand to be as bad as it was.

For weeks and weeks anyone who was placard clicking had known demand would be huge.

We got on at 8 and all housing was gone

The housing discords had spreadsheets that tracked the vacant properties, and those show you were wrong. And this is the thing... Most housing becomes available around 12.5 hours from the point it's vacant, 10 to 14 hours being the prime window. This means you could have come on - with your FC members - at 6pm your time and likely taken a property.

Best advice I can give is; join the housing sweep discord plus rope in your FC members to look three or four times each day, turn up to a placard around the 12 hour mark with as many FC people as you can and get to clicking for 30 to 45 minutes. The more FC members you can get clicking the greater your chance.

[Catstab]

The housing discords had spreadsheets that tracked the vacant properties, and those show you were wrong. And this is the thing... Most housing becomes available around 12.5 hours from the point it's vacant, 10 to 14 hours being the prime window. This means you could have come on - with your FC members - at 6pm your time and likely taken a property.

Best advice I can give is; join the housing sweep discord plus rope in your FC members to look three or four times each day, turn up to a placard around the 12 hour mark with as many FC people as you can and get to clicking for 30 to 45 minutes. The more FC members you can get clicking the greater your chance.

With respect, OP did amend her statement when pressed to 'all houses with no timers were gone by the time I woke up' as she was not interested in placard clicking. So while you are correct, this is covered in previous pages of the thread. Appreciate you lending some advice, too. I also supplied my reddit thread with new ward tips and general camping tips. Hopefully something helps her out!

[alpacaurbags]

One thing - you are going to have to get over this if you ever want something that is in high demand like housing. You are definitely shooting yourself in the foot if you are not willing to work with how the servers come online.

Despite whether we got on then or not, I heard from others that most housing was gone or on a timer anyway and the queue was in the 1000s, so despite what both you and Catstab below say, there was indeed no housing the rest of the day. We checked at 8 am.

[Frizze]

Despite whether we got on then or not, I heard from others that most housing was gone or on a timer anyway and the queue was in the 1000s, so despite what both you and Catstab below say, there was indeed no housing the rest of the day. We checked at 8 am.

Even the lowest population servers saw the most desirable plots scooped up in the first few minutes. The full lot of 500+ smalls took anywhere from 30 mins to several hours to go through on the north american servers(the smaller japanese and euro servers actually still have some houses open even now). But as Catstab points out, its statistically impossible that all 720 new houses on your server were taken by first time buyers. Many were relocated into from less desirable plots in wards 1-21(and some of those plots were relocated into from even less desirable plots). Those timers expiring throughout the rest of the day is what these people refer to when they say housing was available the rest of the day.

But repeating what others have said isnt why i started typing this response. I did so to dispel a misconception. A queue in the 1000s to log on means that the login server was congested. Those players were being distributed to all the various servers. Had you been sitting 2000th in line and taken 20 mins to log in, you still would have found a few hundred houses to choose from. Not the best plots, but plenty of options.

[alpacaurbags]

Honestly could care less about your comments on what is true or not.

The problem is the housing system. You are all saying: "work within the system, you aren't doing enough or trying hard enough, this is what it is."

I am saying: the system needs to be fixed. I shouldn't have to do that. It shouldn't be this hard.

Not here to argue semantics on some patch that didn't add enough houses.

Even if there were houses on a timer (my free company mate checked, so maybe a couple were left, I have no idea, still does not matter), we then what? Sit there all day with 10 other people?

I'm saying that shouldn't be how you get a house. So stop defending the problem?

[Catstab]

Honestly could care less about your comments on what is true or not.

You can be fine with posting things that aren't true. But, you don't get to choose whether or not people who read it say back "hey, that can't possibly be true!"

Is the timer system bad? Yes. Have many people expressed their displeasure? Yes. Has anyone offered a better solution? Unfortunately no. Best we can do for now is educate people about the standing system and encourage them. And when people post blatant falsehoods like "No houses were open 2 hours after the server came up" or "I've been trying to get a house for 7 years with no luck" it only serves to distract from productive conversation.

[alpacaurbags]

I don't know how many houses were on timer, if any, were up. However, all houses that were not on a timer were gone. Even if they were up, we all had to go to work. It's not a falsehood to say all houses from the addition were unobtainable to us. We all had to work that day. By the time we got back on, all were gone.

I also never claimed I've tried for 7 years. Housing on the server was okay a year ago or so, but our server pop has increased and housing is crazy now. We have one ward with a free company that owns half the houses in a subdivision there, uses each property as a different cafe or whatever for RP. Like sheesh. There should be a limit here.

[Catstab]

all houses that were not on a timer were gone.

This statement is a lot clearer now that you've said what you mean, rather than using hyperbole and saying 'no houses were open' when a few hundred were.

Yes, the houses not on timers all sold out by 6:30-7am eastern. If you got on at 8, you were less motivated than the ~400 or so first-time-buyers that did get to skip their camp. You were still free to claim the remaining ~300 houses that were on timers any time between 4pm eastern on patch day and 4am on 10/14.

Have you used the official forums previously? I made a post on these forums and also on reddit/FF14 cautioning players that the new houses would sell out in 20-40 minutes and that anyone who wanted to skip the timer would need to be logging in the second servers went live, with a plan as to where to run. At least now you know for next time, you can't wake up 2 hours after servers go live and hope to claim one of the no-timer houses.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...me_buyers_and/ here it is for reference. There are some general tips for camping at the bottom, and the tips at the top should come in handy next ward release.

[alpacaurbags]

This statement is a lot clearer now that you've said what you mean, rather than using hyperbole and saying 'no houses were open' when a few hundred were.

Yes, the houses not on timers all sold out by 6:30-7am eastern. If you got on at 8, you were less motivated than the ~400 or so first-time-buyers that did get to skip their camp. You were still free to claim the remaining ~300 houses that were on timers any time between 4pm eastern on patch day and 4am on 10/14.

Apologies if it was unclear. No, I have not used the forums previously but figured this was the place to provide feedback to Square about this issue.

There were far less than 300 houses left, for the record. According to my FC mate I checked with about this, there were a handful and they were all heavily camped.

At any rate, speaks to the issue again, which is all I'm trying to express here. I don't have a solution to the problem. I think a lack of a timer and a lottery system all present their own unique problems as well. At any rate, I would never claim to know more than Square about the ins and outs and pros and cons of such a system. I'm sure they've thought through many options, but I hope they listen to feedback on some of the problems.

I do stand firm, however, that FCs should have priority housing to benefit the many rather than the few.