Rework the housing system

[tdb]

I'll say that a raffle still sounds like it'll have the same issues. The problem with the current system isn't just there not being enough plots but the rng on when plots can be bought. Players are already upset with this borderline random decision of who can and can't own a house, and another kind of rng probably won't sit well with people. Personally, if the devs are going to keep insisting on non-instanced housing, I'd like to see far more plots, an actual measure to ensure that a person isn't using FC's to own entire wards, and probably even a monthly gil tax for owning plots. I know that last part probably isn't preferable but it'll help diminish the amount of people that have taken multiple/many plots already, but a lot of the issue is not knowing what the devs are capable of/willing to do.

Yes, a raffle system does not address the insufficient amount of housing. But until a sufficient quantity can be provided, or if for some reason it can't, I think a raffle would be more fair and enjoyable than the current timer system where you have to camp the placard for hours. You might not have any better chance at getting the plot, but at least you'd only have to spend a few minutes on it.

[ramsesh]

We know Ishgard housing is coming after the Restoration is completed on all worlds. Let's see what it does to address the current problems.

This is incorrect. We do not know it’s coming because there’s been no official release or statement.

I don’t care if the game hints at it—they are awful and bait, so until it’s been confirmed officially, this is still a rumor.

[LaylaTsarra]

I don’t care if the game hints at it—they are awful and bait, so until it’s been confirmed officially, this is still a rumor.

Pretty big hint. There is no way the development team would tease rebuilding a housing ward/district by everyone doing Firmament reconstruction and not come out with more housing. Sure it's not official until formally announced but it's coming. I think the only thing we don't really know yet is if it will be something new (instanced housing) or more of the same and when. My guess is 5.5 or 5.55 but we'll have to wait and see.

[ramsesh]

Pretty big hint. There is no way the development team would tease rebuilding a housing ward/district by everyone doing Firmament reconstruction and not come out with more housing. Sure it's not official until formally announced but it's coming. I think the only thing we don't really know yet is if it will be something new (instanced housing) or more of the same and when. My guess is 5.5 or 5.55 but we'll have to wait and see.

No. We don’t know if it’s coming or not. This community is absolutely ridiculous with how it overhypes things, and then is inevitably depressed and riotous when they don’t get what they envisioned.

Until it’s announced it might as well be absolutely nothing.

Don’t mistake this for a lack of desire; I do want the housing district, probably as much as anyone else. But at this point SE has disappointed me enough to know not to get my hopes up, and I’m just trying to remind people to do the same so they aren’t disappointed if it isn’t what they want.

For the record my guess is 6.1 as I sincerely doubt they’ll do a housing district at the tail end of an expansion, they would smartly use it the same way they did Shirogane in 4.0 going into 4.1.

As said above, they are likely waiting until any necessary infrastructure is in place. That’s reasonable.

[Jojoya]

This is incorrect. We do not know it’s coming because there’s been no official release or statement.

I don’t care if the game hints at it—they are awful and bait, so until it’s been confirmed officially, this is still a rumor.

YoshiP specifically stated this in an interview he did prior to the last Live Letter. The FFXIV subreddit Discord posted the translation of the interview.

It is indeed coming.

It may not be coming as quickly as players hope since all he said was "after". That could mean 5.5, 6.0 or even 6.5. Considering what a contentious topic housing has become, I doubt they're going to push it off into the distant future if that can be avoided. They know they need to do something sooner, not later.

Yes, a raffle system does not address the insufficient amount of housing. But until a sufficient quantity can be provided, or if for some reason it can't, I think a raffle would be more fair and enjoyable than the current timer system where you have to camp the placard for hours. You might not have any better chance at getting the plot, but at least you'd only have to spend a few minutes on it.

Chances of getting a plot would become worse than they currently are. House hunters would no longer be competing only against those willing to put in the extra effort to camp the plot but they'll be competing against those who didn't want to bother in the past. When it only takes a couple of minutes, players are more likely to go "sure, why not?"

Then there would still be all the little details of how the raffle would actually work that SE would have to figure out how to program. If the idea is to make getting a house more fair and less annoying, they're going to have to go beyond the usual real life "buy as many tickets as you want then wait to see if your number is called, you must be present to win".

As said above, they are likely waiting until any necessary infrastructure is in place. That’s reasonable.

Not just reasonable but necessary. Whatever they did to optimize the existing servers to accommodate the additional wards added in 5.35, I certainly have been feeling it on my PC. I've been getting a lot of lag only in while in a housing district that I wasn't experiencing before the wards were added.

[tdb]

Chances of getting a plot would become worse than they currently are. House hunters would no longer be competing only against those willing to put in the extra effort to camp the plot but they'll be competing against those who didn't want to bother in the past. When it only takes a couple of minutes, players are more likely to go "sure, why not?"

If you think it should take effort to get a house, make it require completing a series of 20 fetch quests to be eligible for the raffle each time. Or gathering and crafting a pile of items. I don't see why the effort required should be in the form of an extremely repetitive task which is easy to automate using a keyboard macro program.

Any participation requirements means that the players who enjoy those kinds of activities or can stomach jumping through the hoops will be at an advantage. So what kind of players do you think are more deserving of getting a house than others?

Then there would still be all the little details of how the raffle would actually work that SE would have to figure out how to program. If the idea is to make getting a house more fair and less annoying, they're going to have to go beyond the usual real life "buy as many tickets as you want then wait to see if your number is called, you must be present to win".

Only one ticket per player, obviously. Can't do much about alt accounts, since those are effectively separate players from SE's perspective. Being present is required so a player can't enter multiple raffles at once. There could be a cooldown, or intentional aligning of multiple raffles so players have to pick which ones to participate in.

[tdb]

I bet they're holding back with the official announcement until they have the necessary server capacity installed. That way they won't have to break any promises.

[Kuroka]

As long as they dont state "there wont be any ishgard housing" its comming and if they dont say that before, they deserve the storm just like the male viera/female hrotgar one - just say outright no instead of teasing us.

[Themarvin]

Long answer short, go to any server, and inspect all the wards... most of those wards mostly is Ghost Cities anyway, most of these houses is not even used, I say reduce the demo timer to 15 days from 45 days, that way you need to keep subscribed to keep a house.

For the waiting system now, it is excelent, before that you could do real estate and it was a method for farmers to gain credits illegal, also it is illegal to sell a plot for more than what it is worth.

[Jojoya]

Long answer short, go to any server, and inspect all the wards... most of those wards mostly is Ghost Cities anyway, most of these houses is not even used, I say reduce the demo timer to 15 days from 45 days, that way you need to keep subscribed to keep a house.

For the waiting system now, it is excelent, before that you could do real estate and it was a method for farmers to gain credits illegal, also it is illegal to sell a plot for more than what it is worth.

Most of the houses do get used. They're just not getting used at that moment you happen to be passing by, or the owner is inside where you can't see them.