A Better Way for Houses Up For Grabs

[Catstab]

I think the community cost of 40m barrier to entry is too high, but I'll agree that current placard costs are outdated

The 40m is based on 2 things:
1) Placard cost in ARR
2) What people are paying resellers for FC houses in demolition shutdown.

Notably, someone just said they made 35 million in the couple days following the patch. At current, that is enough for 12 smalls or 2 medium houses. Would you say that if you can afford a small house in a day, or a medium in a week, they're too cheap? I would.

[tdb]

Notably, someone just said they made 35 million in the couple days following the patch. At current, that is enough for 12 smalls or 2 medium houses. Would you say that if you can afford a small house in a day, or a medium in a week, they're too cheap? I would.

I think you missed the point. I said there was a window of about two days and I was able to make 35 million during it. But that window is now closed. If I sold the same items now, I'd make about 2 million. The next such opportunity probably won't come before 6.0, which is 8-10 months away.

Edit: And also I had to be prepared for that window of opportunity, by making sure my crafter equipment was up to the task. Easy though crafting is these days, leveling up 6-8 crafting classes and obtaining and melding gear for them still requires a substantial amount of effort.

[Sindele]

Considering the relative difficulty of making that money outside the first week of a patch cycle, I'd hesitate to. Again, I don't disagree that current placard costs are a relic of another age, I just think yours are too high.

ARR placard costs also had some gradation by server and was originally intended to be costs for multiple people pooling their money, among other complicating factors, so drawing that cost straight to the present without alteration is a fraught concept.

Also, comparing it to FC sales is a little perilous because, again, people are often buying those in search of either the 100% guarantee of having a house which otherwise does not exist in the current system, or in search of a return on their profit. Even then, you're not likely to get anywhere near 40m on a small outside of the hyper-congested or hyper-desirable servers. In fact, your prices are higher than I've seen for everything outside of dream plot mediums on Balmung/Gilgamesh/Mateus.

[Catstab]

ARR placard costs also had some gradation by server and was originally intended to be costs for multiple people pooling their money, among other complicating factors, so drawing that cost straight to the present without alteration is a fraught concept

I really think those Durandal numbers fit today's day and age just fine. The Hyperion numbers would be an improvement but it doesn't feel like enough. It really needs to be a price that less than half of players can afford if it's going to crush demand down to a reasonable level.

you're not likely to get anywhere near 40m on a small outside of the hyper-congested or hyper-desirable servers.

For selling an FC? This is simply not true. I'm on 3 reselling discords where I was seeking a personal house at one time. Small FCs are currently ranging 20-40 million based on the server and the day. They've come down a little bit since auto demolition was announced. Before that they were selling for closer to 30-60m, and one Balmung Mist 49 went for 70m (the seller took offers for about 10 minutes after posting). Medium FCs start at 100m unless it's on a dead server.

Right now, forming an FC to camp a house and flip offers 17-37 million profit on a small and 75+ million for a medium. If those outcomes changed to a 3 mil loss and a 75 mil loss,respectively, I'm thinking people would stop playing that market.

[Sindele]

Prices will always move to meet demand, but anyone who was paying >40m for an FC small for anything outside of a Balmung beachfront/heart/waterfall is odds-on getting fleeced. Maybe if you're only going by the offers that actually list the prices they want, which are almost always inflated over true value, but in reality.. nah.

[Maeka]

Imagine someone thinking that 300 million+ is fair for a house, lol.

We're trying to make housing available, not exclude 99% of the population by sheer price alone.

Trying to get 300 million+ with how much competition there is for just about anything in the game is merely going back to "Only no-lifers need apply". And it's the No-Lifers who are already very much at the advantage right now, which is what my whole proposal was trying to get rid of.

My proposal of a straight up bidding and lot drawing is designed to give everybody an equal playing field so long as you have the money to buy in, everybody has the same chance of obtaining a property (with the optional double chance if you do not already own a property, or something akin to that), and it removes the tedium of standing there spamming clicks on a placard hoping to be the guy to sneak your clicks in as soon as it becomes available while simultaneously getting rid of the need for botting and other toxic behavior. Everybody goes there, puts their bid in, and then waits to see if they won.

Not sure why we're talking about workshops and farmers here, especially since they made it that only one account can own one house per server IIRC?

Though IMO, they should give, say, a 6 month warning and those who have multiple houses have to give them up. Even if someone quits over having to give the houses up, you'd be losing what, a dozen players or so? Good riddance. If they can't see how toxic it is to be hanging onto a whole ward of properties, then they are not the sort of player we want in the community anyway.

[Mavrias]

If they can't see how toxic it is to be hanging onto a whole ward of properties, then they are not the sort of player we want in the community anyway.

Bruh, I can't see how this is toxic, or do you just equate "thing I don't like" as toxic? How exactly are they interacting with you negatively? Are they calling you names while farming sub mats or something?

The people are just playing the game, dog. Your blood pressure will be at a much healthier level if you stop worrying about what other people are doing if it doesn't affect you.q

[Maeka]

Bruh, I can't see how this is toxic, or do you just equate "thing I don't like" as toxic? How exactly are they interacting with you negatively? Are they calling you names while farming sub mats or something?

The people are just playing the game, dog. Your blood pressure will be at a much healthier level if you stop worrying about what other people are doing if it doesn't affect you.q

When there's not enough houses to go around, when there's 20,000 players wanting 4,000 houses, you don't understand why 1 player holding onto 10+ houses is toxic behavior? It's lacking in empathy, it's a complete non-caring about their fellow players who want those houses, they're just gonna hold onto the houses because they can, because SE won't take houses away from people who had multiple houses before the 1 per account rule was put into place.

And it does affect other people. It affects everybody who wants a house, but can't get one.

[Mavrias]

When there's not enough houses to go around, when there's 20,000 players wanting 4,000 houses, you don't understand why 1 player holding onto 10+ houses is toxic behavior? It's lacking in empathy, it's a complete non-caring about their fellow players who want those houses, they're just gonna hold onto the houses because they can, because SE won't take houses away from people who had multiple houses before the 1 per account rule was put into place.

And it does affect other people. It affects everybody who wants a house, but can't get one.

So say that one person gives up their ten or so houses. So now maybe ten people get a house. 16,000+ people are still without a house, so in the long run what really has changed?

[Maeka]

So say that one person gives up their ten or so houses. So now maybe ten people get a house. 16,000+ people are still without a house, so in the long run what really has changed?

There's 10 fewer people wanting houses but not getting houses and things are more fair across the board and there's less anger towards that one guy hoarding 10+ houses, refusing to give them up.

And I'm quite sure the 10 people who manage to win those houses the guy is forced to give up would be happy to win their houses, and maybe the rest of the people who tried to get them too, would at least appreciate the chance to win one of those houses.

Don't get me wrong though, this isn't the only solution. We definitely need a way to get more houses out there, but drip-feeding 100 houses in a ward here, 100 there... is going to take absolutely forever. We need a better way.

We need instanced housing.

There's no other way to satisfy 16,000+ players on a server. Yeah sure it's nice to have others walk by and see your house, and that's all well and good. Me? I don't care who sees my house. I'd be fine with some instanced cottage in the woods or something that only I, and those I personally invite, see. I'm perfectly fine with that and I bet there are thousands more who are also perfectly fine with that and/or the thousands of players who would potentially think that Instanced House > No House.

And the "get an apartment or FC house" doesn't work because,

1). No outdoor area
2). Way smaller, even smaller than a small house
3). FC can boot you out then you lose everything