Major changes needed for housing

[Kaurhz]

Just no. For your point about relocating. If they relocate they don't own two plots, the other is freed.

As for fc buying, yea it happens. But it also happens that leaders stop playing and the fc falls to the next person and that person my have a character in another fc with a house, that caused issues when se made the housing changes so se changed it. Not perfect but I don't think se can really police it so they put it back this way.

As for not allowing people to make alts in a time frame or fcs to be made at all in a certain time frame... You have got to be kidding me. That would be a fast way to hurt se's business. I have a personal house on my main. I can't buy another one on an alt on the same server... So what is even your point here? And not allowing people to make an fc is stupid and defeats the purpose of an mmo.

Lastly, yes people were grandfathered in because they had multiple houses when there wasn't a housing shortage and more importantly, when se's own rules allowed it. Those people broke no rules.

Here is my housing proposal - stop trying to punish the players and se implement housing for all through wards and/or instance housing (actual houses, not just apartments).

Whether or not something has broken the rules is irrelevant when there's not only a clear shortage of housing on many servers but equally a desire on the part of SE to reduce the people that own several houses. There's no universe where a single player should have multiple houses, including those that were grandfathered in because they were lucky enough, or rich enough to own several houses across multiple characters/accounts.

Expanding on the apartment system is not a half-bad idea. If they can introduce a miniature garden; a community garden of sorts where each player with an apartment has access to such a feature and multiple-sized apartments then it'd work out perfectly.

[Arillyn]

Whether or not something has broken the rules is irrelevant when there's not only a clear shortage of housing on many servers but equally a desire on the part of SE to reduce the people that own several houses. There's no universe where a single player should have multiple houses, including those that were grandfathered in because they were lucky enough, or rich enough to own several houses across multiple characters/accounts.

Expanding on the apartment system is not a half-bad idea. If they can introduce a miniature garden; a community garden of sorts where each player with an apartment has access to such a feature and multiple-sized apartments then it'd work out perfectly.

I don't think it's irrelevant when SE grandfathered people in from the start. If they were going to take houses away they should have done it when they implemented the changes. They didn't and I think it would be bad business if they did it this late in the game. I get people are upset there isn't enough housing and I wholeheartedly agree. But the changes that need to be made is SE fixing crap so they can actually offer unlimited actual houses (again either in wards and/or instanced housing).

I know there are a couple people who own whole wards and yes, I agree that shouldn't be a thing. But those people are very few and even if they lost all their houses there STILL wouldn't be enough housing for everyone who wants one and doesn't have one. New people are starting this game every day and a lot are staying. There is no way that everyone who wants a house will have one unless SE actually fixes it so there is unlimited housing available. I had held out hopes that SE was actually going to make Ishgard housing instanced - like go to a plot and choose that spot for your instanced housing - but either they didn't think of that, didn't like that idea or can't implement that idea.

And as Awha stated, there are people who would just get more accounts and transfer fc houses to those accounts. Pretty sure that's already a thing for some of the people who own whole wards (one in particular who buys fcs to own the houses could only have 8 on one account on a server and he/she owns pretty much an entire ward - I for the life of me can't remember which sever it is but they post here on the forums from time to time to flaunt it).

[Vahlnir]

I don't think it's irrelevant when SE grandfathered people in from the start. If they were going to take houses away they should have done it when they implemented the changes. They didn't and I think it would be bad business if they did it this late in the game. I get people are upset there isn't enough housing and I wholeheartedly agree. But the changes that need to be made is SE fixing crap so they can actually offer unlimited actual houses (again either in wards and/or instanced housing).

Yeah, any restrictions they could apply to players who own an obscene amount of houses would be too little too late, and it wouldn't solve the actual problems with housing. I think it would be satisfying to watch play out but...it really wouldn't accomplish much now. They should have nipped that one in the bud early on. This is on them more than it is the players gaming the system.

[Arillyn]

Yeah, any restrictions they could apply to players who own an obscene amount of houses would be too little too late, and it wouldn't solve the actual problems with housing. I think it would be satisfying to watch play out but...it really wouldn't accomplish much now. They should have nipped that one in the bud early on. This is on them more than it is the players gaming the system.

Agreed. The whole housing debacle is one of SE's own making. They just need to have unlimited housing available. They said last year they bought more servers just for housing but the pandemic put travel restrictions in place so they've had to put that on hold. I really hope that when they can get those in place that crazy amounts of housing becomes available. So much housing available that anyone who wants one can have one (I know I'm stretching here but I hope it comes true just the same).

[Krotoan]

Agreed. The whole housing debacle is one of SE's own making. They just need to have unlimited housing available. They said last year they bought more servers just for housing but the pandemic put travel restrictions in place so they've had to put that on hold. I really hope that when they can get those in place that crazy amounts of housing becomes available. So much housing available that anyone who wants one can have one (I know I'm stretching here but I hope it comes true just the same).

6.0 will introduce Ishgardian housing. Likely this is an entire full set of wards equal to the 4 others, which is indeed several hundred houses added to each server.

[Kaurhz]

I don't think it's irrelevant when SE grandfathered people in from the start. If they were going to take houses away they should have done it when they implemented the changes. They didn't and I think it would be bad business if they did it this late in the game. I get people are upset there isn't enough housing and I wholeheartedly agree. But the changes that need to be made is SE fixing crap so they can actually offer unlimited actual houses (again either in wards and/or instanced housing).

And as Awha stated, there are people who would just get more accounts and transfer fc houses to those accounts. Pretty sure that's already a thing for some of the people who own whole wards (one in particular who buys fcs to own the houses could only have 8 on one account on a server and he/she owns pretty much an entire ward - I for the life of me can't remember which sever it is but they post here on the forums from time to time to flaunt it).

Well, it certainly in part defeats the entire purpose of the changes they've made thus far considering to a good degree the damage has already been done long before they even introduced the system- So I feel grandfathering people just in part defeats it. I don't mind the shortage as much as I do mind the simple fact many people are sat on multiple houses with very negligent usage of them. An entire ward whilst far and few; still comes up as greedy and taking away from those that would genuinely use the house. Not sure what the person was thinking when they thought invisible and randomized timers was a good idea, anything that delays the initial purchase window even with a fixed timer.

The last paragraph is precisely why they just need to be more relentless and delve closer into scorched earth. Make it so there's a payment over-time. Be it with Gil or grand company seals for personal housing, or company (FC) credits for houses registered as an FC. At least then there's an upkeep requirement, which wouldn't make it very pragmatic for those that are excessive or negligent to housing in general. I know there's 1 person on Spriggan that has an entire Goblet ward to themselves. Have yet to see them doing anything significant with it in the past 12 months, which is why I'm very annoyed by this topic because there are players and FCs who would genuinely benefit from a medium/large house. Smalls still available on Spriggan but that doesn't preclude the point that it's downright greedy and unnecessary, especially when there's going to be an inevitable upsurge of active players as we delve closer to 6.0. But alas the latter part of this is just my ramblings.

[Arillyn]

Well, it certainly in part defeats the entire purpose of the changes they've made thus far considering to a good degree the damage has already been done long before they even introduced the system- So I feel grandfathering people just in part defeats it. I don't mind the shortage as much as I do mind the simple fact many people are sat on multiple houses with very negligent usage of them. An entire ward whilst far and few; still comes up as greedy and taking away from those that would genuinely use the house. Not sure what the person was thinking when they thought invisible and randomized timers was a good idea, anything that delays the initial purchase window even with a fixed timer.

The last paragraph is precisely why they just need to be more relentless and delve closer into scorched earth. Make it so there's a payment over-time. Be it with Gil or grand company seals for personal housing, or company (FC) credits for houses registered as an FC. At least then there's an upkeep requirement, which wouldn't make it very pragmatic for those that are excessive or negligent to housing in general. I know there's 1 person on Spriggan that has an entire Goblet ward to themselves. Have yet to see them doing anything significant with it in the past 12 months, which is why I'm very annoyed by this topic because there are players and FCs who would genuinely benefit from a medium/large house. Smalls still available on Spriggan but that doesn't preclude the point that it's downright greedy and unnecessary, especially when there's going to be an inevitable upsurge of active players as we delve closer to 6.0. But alas the latter part of this is just my ramblings.

I personally wouldn't be bothered by an upkeep payment in gil or fc credits. For my personal I could totally handle that and I use my house all the time. The FC I'm in is active and credits is no problem to come by. My only concern here would be for the people who don't tend to make much in gil. I have friends who have personal houses and they had to scrape the gil to get it and they use their house a lot. And while I know gil is easy to make in this game now, some people really aren't very good at it still. I can't speak to the fc credit thing really because again, the fc I'm in is active and we are always racking up the fc credits.

[Awha]

Well, it certainly in part defeats the entire purpose of the changes they've made thus far considering to a good degree the damage has already been done long before they even introduced the system- So I feel grandfathering people just in part defeats it. I don't mind the shortage as much as I do mind the simple fact many people are sat on multiple houses with very negligent usage of them. An entire ward whilst far and few; still comes up as greedy and taking away from those that would genuinely use the house. Not sure what the person was thinking when they thought invisible and randomized timers was a good idea, anything that delays the initial purchase window even with a fixed timer.

The last paragraph is precisely why they just need to be more relentless and delve closer into scorched earth. Make it so there's a payment over-time. Be it with Gil or grand company seals for personal housing, or company (FC) credits for houses registered as an FC. At least then there's an upkeep requirement, which wouldn't make it very pragmatic for those that are excessive or negligent to housing in general. I know there's 1 person on Spriggan that has an entire Goblet ward to themselves. Have yet to see them doing anything significant with it in the past 12 months, which is why I'm very annoyed by this topic because there are players and FCs who would genuinely benefit from a medium/large house. Smalls still available on Spriggan but that doesn't preclude the point that it's downright greedy and unnecessary, especially when there's going to be an inevitable upsurge of active players as we delve closer to 6.0. But alas the latter part of this is just my ramblings.

Problem with the gil approach once again only negatively impacts those less fortunate. Since personally for me to use it the cost would have to be insane for me to even feel it. Just one of my alts has 400 mil.

Also how do we define negligence? I own multiple large plots I do not decorate any of my plots I just use it for gardening and workshops. I am using them but by the standards of those on my server I do not because my houses are barren.

Scorched earth methods hardly ever truly negatively impact those they are aimed at it. It mostly impacts everyone else.

[SamSmoot]

Just make it so every plot can have hundreds of owners (instanced) You select the house you want to see there (and enter) via the placard, which shows a list with thumbnails.
Less desirable plots would have their prices lowered as needed to get more population in those areas.
Eliminate multiple wards (no need) With everyone in one "ward". the population in the streets would be much greater, making the housing areas seem less deserted.

[linayar]

Just make it so every plot can have hundreds of owners (instanced) You select the house you want to see there (and enter) via the placard, which shows a list with thumbnails.
Less desirable plots would have their prices lowered as needed to get more population in those areas.
Eliminate multiple wards (no need) With everyone in one "ward". the population in the streets would be much greater, making the housing areas seem less deserted.

The benefit of the ward is to be able to see the individual outside decorations just by passing through. If you're going to make it like your idea, then might as well remove the ward and choose your house from an NPC.