The big housing problem, why it isn't the amount of houses

[Jojoya]

I doubt SE is going to "fix" housing until the next FF MMO comes out. I'm no programmer, so I can't say for certain how much work it would be to uproot the original code and rewrite everything. Then, you have to think about the people who already own a plot. How will these people be affected if SE decides to go with instanced housing suddenly?

With the Island Sanctuary feature coming in 6.0, maybe that would help with the housing problem? Not sure what this will include entirely, but one can hope.

It's just a mess in the long run. Can't please everyone, you know? You try and fix something, it's never good enough for certain players. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We already have instanced housing side by side with the wards. They can continue to co-exist.

But they've got to focus on enhancing the part of the system that will accommodate all the interested players, not just the lucky ones.

This is why it would be a good thing having housing available to everyone; to keep furniture as a ongoing gil sink.

Most furnishings aren't a gil sink, though. They're just a way to redistribute gil between players.

I'll spend far more gil buying furnishings (or materials to make them) from other players when I redecorate than I spend at the gil vendors who sell furnishings.

[GeminiReed]

I doubt SE is going to "fix" housing until the next FF MMO comes out. I'm no programmer, so I can't say for certain how much work it would be to uproot the original code and rewrite everything. Then, you have to think about the people who already own a plot. How will these people be affected if SE decides to go with instanced housing suddenly?

No need to rip out the existing system just add a new one. Of course they'd unlikely be in the same in-game locations but just having a viable instanced alternative will address the vast majority of complaints.

With the Island Sanctuary feature coming in 6.0, maybe that would help with the housing problem? Not sure what this will include entirely, but one can hope.

My hope is that they consider instanced housing for IS but I do not expect it. But there are several reasons for the complaints regarding the limited housing. One of those is the gated access to cross-breeding of plants. At a minimum I expect that Island Sanctuary will address at least that.

Of course it is Square and they often miss the mark on what is reasonable.

[linayar]

Isn't there a limit to how many characters can be created on a world? If it's a supply issue, eventually they will get to the number of characters that are available per world.

They just need to remove FC housing and make all FC leader's personal house have the option to have all the features of an FC house.

Also, they can either empty all the houses and have everyone start fresh in 6.0 with one house per account or they need to restrict those who have multiple houses so they cannot transfer any of their houses until they only have one house.

[LianaThorne]

Isn't there a limit to how many characters can be created on a world? If it's a supply issue, eventually they will get to the number of characters that are available per world.

They just need to remove FC housing and make all FC leader's personal house have the option to have all the features of an FC house.

Also, they can either empty all the houses and have everyone start fresh in 6.0 with one house per account or they need to restrict those who have multiple houses so they cannot transfer any of their houses until they only have one house.

Sorry, I personally like having a separate estate for my FC and a house for me and my boyfriend to share. Just because we choose to open an FC to help people doesn't mean we should give up our right to privacy/our own home as well.

Also, wiping everyone's property will cause a massive riot. So we also lose all of the furniture we paid for so everyone can have a clean slate? It's not cheap. I personally have sank well over 50 million gil in furniture alone with my multiple re-designs over the past year. If we don't lose it, where do we put all of it? You also can't expect people to carry around all of their furniture or purchase extra retainers to store it all.

[linayar]

Sorry, I personally like having a separate estate for my FC and a house for me and my boyfriend to share. Just because we choose to open an FC to help people doesn't mean we should give up our right to privacy/our own home as well.

It's an option. It's either that or remove personal housing instead and make housing be for FCs and just have apartments for players. But if they do that, they should restrict it to active FCs with a set minimum number of active accounts as members of the FC to avoid one-person FCs holding a house. And they also need to limit how many players (ideally 1) per world from one account can be an FC leader, if they don't already.

Also, wiping everyone's property will cause a massive riot. So we also lose all of the furniture we paid for so everyone can have a clean slate? It's not cheap. I personally have sank well over 50 million gil in furniture alone with my multiple re-designs over the past year. If we don't lose it, where do we put all of it? You also can't expect people to carry around all of their furniture or purchase extra retainers to store it all.

I believe there is a place that temporarily stores furniture.

[MoonPhaseAlpha]

I think the issue is not the amount of houses square, I think the issue is the distribution as well as the systems in place...

The issue is player greed. There are lots of players out there that own multiple houses on alts. Some even own half/entire wards on a server to themselves.. These individuals have housing portfolios they gladly boast about. It's ridiculous. If these players let go of their absurd need to own more than one house than more players can enjoy this feature.

[Avatre]

The issue is player greed. There are lots of players out there that own multiple houses on alts. Some even own half/entire wards on a server to themselves.. These individuals have housing portfolios they gladly boast about. It's ridiculous. If these players let go of their absurd need to own more than one house than more players can enjoy this feature.

This is one reason I feel the "grandfathered in" approach to housing was a bad decision. Anyone who had multiple houses should have been forced to select one(two if one of them is a FC house) to keep, and the rest should have been sold back(get 50% of the gil spent to originally purchase the house back). Though, they really should increase the storage space for housing, especially with them adding more and more seasonal items to them. Make something akin to the armoire that you can put the housing items in, or allow us to have outdoor storage with the appartment.

[LianaThorne]

This is one reason I feel the "grandfathered in" approach to housing was a bad decision. Anyone who had multiple houses should have been forced to select one(two if one of them is a FC house) to keep, and the rest should have been sold back(get 50% of the gil spent to originally purchase the house back). Though, they really should increase the storage space for housing, especially with them adding more and more seasonal items to them. Make something akin to the armoire that you can put the housing items in, or allow us to have outdoor storage with the appartment.

I half agree with you. Grandfathered approach was a huge mistake but at the same time, if people own multiple houses and have no where to put the furniture from those houses after storage fills up (i.e. forced to discard if they don't have retainer space) on top of only getting 50% back of what they paid for the house, it's still kind of a meh deal and ultimately still results in a loss. I don't know how well that would go over either. I think they ultimately were forced to go with this approach because of the potential of pissing lots of people off.

[LianaThorne]

It's an option. It's either that or remove personal housing instead and make housing be for FCs and just have apartments for players. But if they do that, they should restrict it to active FCs with a set minimum number of active accounts as members of the FC to avoid one-person FCs holding a house.

I believe there is a place that temporarily stores furniture.

Again, no. Nothing needs to be removed. As it was stated before, the issue isn't # of houses. We literally just got new wards put in not that many months ago. The issue is how Square implemented allowing people to make alts and get additional housing. I'm not going to be the one to air out how it's done because I also don't want to encourage that behavior. The fact remains, some people own entire wards. That is the issue, not that FCs and personal housing shouldn't exist.

[linayar]

Again, no. Nothing needs to be removed....The issue is how Square implemented allowing people to make alts and get additional housing.

So something needs to be removed. Some restriction needs to be put in place to not allow that to happen. Like it or not, a current house owner needs to be forced to vacate their property.