Fix Housing Megathread

[Valfreyja]

The timer is the main thing that needs a dramatic overhaul. Up to 24 hours is obscenely excessive and in no way necessary at all.

8 hours is more than enough time, I would say. Literally every house I've seen the past few days, have all had 12 hour timers, minimum. There was one in Gridania just tonight that had at least 20 hours on it.

It was there at midnight with people camped already last night, and didn't sell until after 7pm tonight.

[Praesolus]

The timer is the main thing that needs a dramatic overhaul. Up to 24 hours is obscenely excessive and in no way necessary at all.

8 hours is more than enough time, I would say. Literally every house I've seen the past few days, have all had 12 hour timers, minimum. There was one in Gridania just tonight that had at least 20 hours on it.

It was there at midnight with people camped already last night, and didn't sell until after 7pm tonight.

I agree with this. It's so hard to get a house these days unless you have the time to sit there and spam the button.

[Valfreyja]

Another idea that stops house flippers and is fair to everyone, is a lottery system.

House comes up for sale. Everyone who touches the Placard is assigned a single number, increasing until 24 hours has passed. Then one number in that range is drawn. They get mail saying they've won, plus an item. Go to the Placard again, where they present the item, and pay for the plot.

You still have a timer to stop the flippers, and nobody cares because again, you only go by one time to get your number. So there is no frustration over sitting and clicking, and losing to people who just run up at the end.

(I do agree, we need at least double the housing we have now, though.)

[Praesolus]

That sounds pretty good Valfreyja. But yes, increasing the number of housing would be great (even with the new residential area coming).

[Valfreyja]

I'm starting to think the whole "as little as 30 minutes" part of the invisible timer is a lie. That they are intentionally high to increase visibility on plots that are going up for sale, so more people can come to the clickbait placards.

[Valfreyja]

Auctions can work and not encourage RMT. Just use Price is Right rules.

Fix each house size with a price range of min to max. Let's use Small as an example. 3 million minimum, 15 million max. When a house goes up for sale, a random amount is chosen within that range.

Bidding lasts 24 hours. Each service account is allowed a single bid. The winner is the one that either exactly hits the price set on the plot. Or is the closest to it WITHOUT going higher.

So if a Small comes up and the price is set at 4,596,295 gil, then anyone bidding OVER that is going to lose. But if someone bids 4.5 million and nobody does higher, then they win it.

You take a moment out of your game time to bid, you get notified by mail if you win. You have X amount of time to redeem an item to claim your plot.


One bid per account keeps things honest and fair. By having to match a price, or bid near it, but not higher, it is fair for all involved. Doesn't matter if you RMT and buy tons of gil illegally. You can't just walk up and bid a high amount and win the house.

It's entirely based on luck and RNG. And further, it prevents house flippers because bidding will always last 24 hours. So the timer is still in effect. The only difference is instead of sitting for hours on end clicking a placard and hoping, you can stop by, make your bid, and leave to do other stuff.

To me, honestly, that seems like a much better system.

Edit: To clarify, the first bid at an amount is the one registered and counted. So if there are multiple bidders for 4.5 million, the first to do so is the one that gets the house. But what they pay is 4,596,295 gil. Give them 24 hours to come back to the Placard with an item in their inventory (mailed to them automatically when they win). So the purchase button would then require that item to be handed over, and the gil would be deducted from their inventory.

[Valfreyja]

To be honest, a lot of the crap added with Stormblood needs to be removed. Relocation is a prime example. People shouldn't be allowed to bypass the timer and steal a house out from under those without houses, who are restricted by the nonsensical timer. Allowing them to get the nicest places.

Bad enough you make people camp at houses to try and get one. Only to have someone run up and grab it before time runs out, so you basically just waited for nothing.

The timer is awful, in and of itself. With Relocation it's even worse. With Relocation getting 30% knocked off the house from your previous house, it's a disaster.

Relocation should cost MORE, not less. If they want to bypass the timer, they should be forced to pay more for that convenience.

[Tyssyn]

Although I know the devs won't do this, I have an idea for what I think is a good compromise solution. The houses in the wards would be FC only houses, keeping the neighborhoods the devs are so invested in alive, then either revamp apartments to have the same amount of rooms with a 'backyard' accessible through a door in the apartment, or have 1 plot of each size per ward that was an 'instanced' house of that size for personal houses. Either option would actually make wards feel fuller, because there wouldn't be as much need for the sheer number of wards needed for as many people who want to have houses. An 'outside yard' is a necessity since so many people want houses to be able to crossgrow the different special items needed for things.

Either of the instanced housing options would also remove complaints about how someone's neighbor decorated their yard or used a housing shell they don't like. People could still visit the instanced houses, just like they can an FC room or apartment.

[LaylaTsarra]

Sounds like there are new rules incoming for Ishgard. Should be interesting to see what they come up with and whether or not they've solved the FC issues of buying more than one.