Rework the housing system

[Jojoya]

It's not impossible to get a house but it is definitely difficult on most worlds (I haven't visited the JP worlds for several weeks, a couple of them might still have houses left).

It's extremely unlikely you'll be able to buy a medium house directly. You'd be much better off buying whatever small you can find so if a medium does become available you can relocate to it. It will cost you a bit more but it will improve your chances of getting what you want.

Demolition timers were reactivated with 5.4's release on December 8th. Sometime on January 22nd, we should see a small surge in available houses as the 45 day timer will end on those plots with owners who stopped playing during the demolition suspension and never returned. There's always the chance that a few houses might become available before then so it doesn't hurt to be looking daily.

[ReynTime]

I don't know why people think the current system is better than a lottery for getting your first house. At least with a lottery there wouldn't be unpunished click bots being used to gain advantage...

[Vahlnir]

I don't know why people think the current system is better than a lottery for getting your first house. At least with a lottery there wouldn't be unpunished click bots being used to gain advantage...

Because it increases the competition significantly. It also doesn't fix the underlying problem.

[Ludattore]

I think i understand this system...thank you so much for the help guys!! We will try to do it xDD

[Themarvin]

Put it so you need to be having had an account for 1 year to be able to purchse a small plot, 1.5 year for a medium plot and finally 2 years for a large.

[Vahlnir]

Put it so you need to be having had an account for 1 year to be able to purchse a small plot, 1.5 year for a medium plot and finally 2 years for a large.

Might be one of the worst housing "fixes" I've ever seen suggested.

[Ogmion]

You are expected to work and earn all the content you consume whether it be easy or not.

If you want people to work to earn something, you need to actually reward people for working. The current housing system does not reward work; it rewards luck, and even has several features (such as allowing those who already own houses preferential treatment) that actively suppress how effective work is.

[Realism_Snide]

I don't know why people think the current system is better than a lottery for getting your first house. At least with a lottery there wouldn't be unpunished click bots being used to gain advantage...

Because I would rather put my name in a raffle that will happen at a random time and go to sleep than click on a placard for 20+hours. Plus, this is a much healthier option.

[Barwara]

It seems like the core issue is servers. Not enough server space for more housing, more storage, more inventory, etc. I'm a bit surprised tbh. It seems like SE should just expand their servers to introduce more of everything and we wouldn't need to have conservations about the faulty system. If the player base is so huge and the game so popular (and seeing how they make us pay extra for so many things), I'd expect of them to improve their capacity for storing player data.

The game is already quite generous when it comes to making items in game accessible. Gill and free gear is thrown at you constantly (almost too often). Everyone has a shot at winning items when raiding and dungeoneering. There seems to be no preferential treatment, so except for event items, every player has an equal chance of amassing all of the cool gear and what not. Why then does housing need to be "exclusive"?

I personally do not like the concept of exclusivity in games. Not everyone has the time and money to dedicate 100% of their time and life to a... game... It's disrespectful to ask people to do certain things (take a day off from work!), sometimes within a limited period, to obtain 'exclusive' items. A bit of grinding doesn't hurt; working for what you want is good and it's satisfying. But the stuff that's going on for housing is just plain silly.

I expect the person who can only play 1 hour a day, or maybe few hours a week, to still have the same chance at amassing everything in the game as the player who plays daily for many hours. It will take the casual player longer for sure, but he isn't in any way at a disadvantage.

Side note:

I appreciate the idea of neighbourhoods, and of certain plots being dedicated to "cafes" and other such public services to further accentuate the experience. That being said, so far I have never ever seen anyone else strolling in any neighbourhood I visited, so I'm curious to know if anyone has had the experience of living in a neighbourhood that's actually lively, and where things are happening? XD

[Jojoya]

I appreciate the idea of neighbourhoods, and of certain plots being dedicated to "cafes" and other such public services to further accentuate the experience. That being said, so far I have never ever seen anyone else strolling in any neighbourhood I visited, so I'm curious to know if anyone has had the experience of living in a neighbourhood that's actually lively, and where things are happening? XD

If you're lucky enough to get into a ward that has a couple of very large and active FCs that have members that like to chase each other around the ward, it can be lively. The ward my personal house is in had bursts of activity for a few months thanks to a very large FC that also had a house there but that FC is no longer as active so I rarely see anyone now outside of one of my neighbors when we occasionally meet at the MB. Since the start of the expansion, I'd had maybe 5 players randomly show up at my house when I was there (no real way of knowing how many might have been by when I wasn't there though I do see the like count in my message book increase along with getting the occasional message).

Our FC house can be active with members coming and going at times, or we're gathering for map parties/mount farming, but that's at the FC house. The members aren't roaming around the ward so if you're on the far side of the ward you'd never know we were there.

I think people forget what makes their own real life neighborhoods feel active. People outside for an hour or two doing their yard work, children playing, general traffic as people are out on errands or going to/from work.

We lack those things in game. Gardening only takes about 5 minutes tops and most house owners don't bother with it. There are no children for our characters. We don't need to travel through the ward - we port to our houses, and port away from them unless we're going to a MB, Summoning Bell or merchant in the merchant area. If we're at our house, we're far more likely to be in it where we can't be seen instead wandering around outside.

If my house plot was instanced, I doubt I'd notice the difference.

SE feels like they're trying to address the emptiness with the Firmament. We see NPCs scattered all over and when we get close, we can see small snatches of dialog in the floating speech bubbles. But in a way, I think that just emphasize the emptiness even more because we can't interact with those NPCs. They're decorative elements that start being mentally blanked out after a while.