Plots everywhere demolished and open!

[Seraphor]

I think the issue I ran into with housing is that the idea was people would buy up buildings and decorate them to form districts, but in the actual game there's little incentive to walk around the districts themselves, so it turns into a luxury instanced thing that loses meaning pretty fast.

I hate bringing up shroud of the avatar, but the one idea they did have that was pretty solid was having the towns and cities have the housing plots in them. People basically would still go through the towns and pass by homes owned by actual players in the course of playing the game day to day, unlike what FFXIV has where we got a new hub city each patch and are constantly moving farther and farther away from home so to speak. The obvious issue with this is that the size of cities would be enormous and constantly sprawling out further and further much like real life cities.

The central hub of Uldah would be like the heart of Chicago, and houses would flood out from all districts completely covering the country side all the way to the port in Western Thanalan. Then housing demolishment would result in vacant districts that would became derelicts. If they had done zoning and other aspects differently, this could have been pretty interesting having to deal with monster infestations when plots got abandoned, and home owners needed to constantly battle off these creatures from damaging the walls or climbing into the homes via walls.

Imagine right now, with all those homes being abandoned, just how much chaos there would be if the few remaining owners had to start calling people in to try and keep the monsters from destroying half their living spaces. Soon you'd have all the players moving their homes together into clusters, with the smaller homes around the bigger ones like buffer zones...

Edit: Actually, we need this. Like, having to buy new furnishings from monsters ruining houses would probably add more motion to the crafting market. Plus it causes a more natural destruction of a limited number of houses...

I'm hoping this is what they do with Ishgard housing.
They've placed some crafter/gatherer NPC's in there, and there's even a building that looks suspiciously like a public (non-FC) workshop.
If these are retained in the actual wards themselves, it could be a living housing ward.
They would of course need to roll it out to the other four locations as well if they did this, but I can imagine them taking their time to do so.

[Dagget]

Louisoix update 1800 gmt Jan 23rd

Shirogane 57/0/0
Mist 125/0/0
Beds 153/3/0
Goblet 232/31/0

[Vickii]

How great would real life be if you leave your house alone for a couple of months (maybe to travel the world) and its gone when you come back because how dare you do that!
Its even worse in a game where it really is just pixels that are restricted only by SEs choice...they created something that will never be enough for everyone even if each housing owner plays every single day...

Also we live in a time of a pandemic. People have lost jobs, may have gotten really ill, lost maybe other people or have nowhere to stay. Of course a house in a game would not be on the first place in their minds..but that should not mean that one hurts them even more by taking that away.

I think in a general sense auto demolish is... neccessary. I left the game in 2018 and came back in 2020. I was sad to lose the house but they have to think of their subscribers and I wasn’t playing or paying and someone else was. We’re in a situation where new people can only get houses when old people leave. So this is.. a solution to the problem and probably the best one given how housing is currently.

However the Covid thing makes it a bit harsh. Because at least some of these people aren’t playing because they lost a job or were sick. But the auto demolish is a vital part of letting new players get a house so at this point you need to ask how long do you let them stay empty? I think it’s been well over half a year already.

So I can see why they do it. Can also see why some people disagree.

[SturmChurro]

My arm is about to fall off after clicking on this plot for over an hour or so at this point. Is SE trying to promote botting?

[Vahlnir]

My arm is about to fall off after clicking on this plot for over an hour or so at this point. Is SE trying to promote botting?

I don't think it was their intention to promote botting in order to obtain a housing plot, but definitely a lack of foresight on their end. They tend to lack foresight pretty often. Either way, hopefully your arm's sacrifice will be worth it in the end. What it comes down to, really, is whether or not it's worth it to you. Sounds like it's the principle of the matter at this point though, which I completely understand. lol

[SturmChurro]

I don't think it was their intention to promote botting in order to obtain a housing plot, but definitely a lack of foresight on their end. They tend to lack foresight pretty often. Either way, hopefully your arm's sacrifice will be worth it in the end. What it comes down to, really, is whether or not it's worth it to you. Sounds like it's the principle of the matter at this point though, which I completely understand. lol

Waste all this time. I don't think a house is worth it. My right arm is literally going to be sore for days, and since htis plot is only 1 of 2 left in Lavender Beds - competition keeps coming. It won't sell, to anybody. I'd go try The Goblet, but I JUST KNOW if I leave now, it'll sell as soon as I leave. I doubt I'll even get a Goblet house. Housing on Excalibur might as well be exclusive, apparently. Ridiculous.

I love missing out on an entire part of the game, just because I am playing on a fairly populated server. Lovely design all-around by SE.

Not to mention the threat of somebody just relocating, so you and everyone else sitting on the plot just wasted ALL their time. For an mmorpg of this size, to have THIS POOR, of a housing system, is unacceptable. For them to continue releasing housing items, when a large portion of their playerbase are literally unable to get a house, is unacceptable. No, I don't want an apartment either.

[Vahlnir]

Not to mention the threat of somebody just relocating, so you and everyone else sitting on the plot just wasted ALL their time. For an mmorpg of this size, to have THIS POOR, of a housing system, is unacceptable. For them to continue releasing housing items, when a large portion of their playerbase are literally unable to get a house, is unacceptable. No, I don't want an apartment either.

Yeah, it has been a horrible system all along. Sadly, people seem content to ask for fixes for what is already in place when they should be asking for real change. If SE is content to keep moving forward with the current system they need to allocate the resources to add enough wards and plots for everyone, now and in the future. Maybe make the game auto generate a ward when one fills up or something. I don't know. What I do know is that something's gotta give.

[SturmChurro]

Yeah, it has been a horrible system all along. Sadly, people seem content to ask for fixes for what is already in place when they should be asking for real change. If SE is content to keep moving forward with the current system they need to allocate the resources to add enough wards and plots for everyone, now and in the future. Maybe make the game auto generate a ward when one fills up or something. I don't know. What I do know is that something's gotta give.

I don't see how they can move forward with the housing system as is. A limited number of new wards will not solve this issue iether. With an announcement of a new expac, and an influx of new players, this issue will only be exacerbated. I, and others here shouldn't have to sit at a placard and click it ten-thousand times (literally), for the HOPE of getting the plot. Housing should be made availalble, and a room is not a good substitute. Players are being needlessly left out.

I hadn't realized before today just how terrible this system actually was. I had ignored it, assuming I never got the chance, taking other people's word for it. I was always told "good luck", on getting a plot here, and it seems that is truly the case. I never thought it was actually this bad. Many of the people here trying to get this plot have complained about how people just come in out of nowhere, like Shiridawn states, and relocating an older house resulting in a massive waste of time for everyone there hoping to get a house. Unacceptable. This expansion better address this issue, in a big way. This has been left too long as is.

[Moonlite]

Yeah, it has been a horrible system all along. Sadly, people seem content to ask for fixes for what is already in place when they should be asking for real change. If SE is content to keep moving forward with the current system they need to allocate the resources to add enough wards and plots for everyone, now and in the future. Maybe make the game auto generate a ward when one fills up or something. I don't know. What I do know is that something's gotta give.

Honestly do you believe anything will give? At this point SE are as comfortable/secure in their way as what 1.0 gave us. Maybe even more so I am not sure in all the years buying square games I have ever seen a more "dedicated" fan base. I am actually surprised I read through all the posts and haven't seen the usual suspects saying get an apartment, houses aren't for everyone, and the other unique opinions some people have.

[LisSquid]

I really wish there was a way to stop people from making fc alts and eating entire wards. I was looking forward to some new neighbors when I saw the same fc tag pop up all around me. Love neighborhoods, these dead instances really do make me feel like I'm part of a real community /s