Just spent 7 hours clicking a post

[CheshaSolttiri]

My post isn't an ask for a fix,v though if like one. I have an actual question, what was the intention of housing? Like, I've been playing this game since ARR and even then most of the plots were filled. Did they think that this was going to be very niche? Or that housing decorating wouldn't catch on? Or did they not expect the game to actually reach as many subscribers as it has? I'm trying to understand the logic of how and why the housing system was set up as it is. I know that Yoshi p had said that he likes the camaraderie of the wards and how social they can be and I agree that sometimes they are and I understand that there is server space issues. But if they can afford to get a new server system in Oceania I don't understand why they don't have dedicated servers just a housing since it was introduced that way. If that's the way they wanted to be they need to create the infrastructure for that vision. I don't know how this game has it that people are clicking on a post for myriad hours and that's okay with the development team I just don't understand how this is even implemented and is okayed by Yoshi p himself. Any insight from anyone?

[Jojoya]

My post isn't an ask for a fix,v though if like one. I have an actual question, what was the intention of housing? Like, I've been playing this game since ARR and even then most of the plots were filled. Did they think that this was going to be very niche? Or that housing decorating wouldn't catch on? Or did they not expect the game to actually reach as many subscribers as it has? I'm trying to understand the logic of how and why the housing system was set up as it is. I know that Yoshi p had said that he likes the camaraderie of the wards and how social they can be and I agree that sometimes they are and I understand that there is server space issues. But if they can afford to get a new server system in Oceania I don't understand why they don't have dedicated servers just a housing since it was introduced that way. If that's the way they wanted to be they need to create the infrastructure for that vision. I don't know how this game has it that people are clicking on a post for myriad hours and that's okay with the development team I just don't understand how this is even implemented and is okayed by Yoshi p himself. Any insight from anyone?

You nailed it when you said they never expected the game to end up with as many subscribers as did. They've said in interviews that while they had hoped for large popularity, they didn't expect it to happen. They were happily surprised when the player base rapidly increased toward the end of Stormblood.

As for logic within the housing system itself, it's a confused mess because housing was originally going to be FC only. SE hadn't expected lack of demand for FC housing nor the huge demand for personal housing. They decided to roll personal housing in with the FC housing instead of creating a separate system. When demand for housing exploded, they tried adding apartments but players aren't going to settle for tiny apartments when others have houses.

The best time to buy was in 2018. Most worlds had dozens if not hundreds of houses available thanks to the 4.2 ward additions (you can look at the old Housing Census thread to see it). It wasn't until the population explosion and data center reorganization in 2019 that the supply dried up.

You're not intended to be standing at a placard for hours clicking. You're intended to check the placard, go do other things if the house isn't ready for purchase and then check again later. It's your choice to stand there clicking instead of doing other things.

I don't think SE has publicly stated their opinion about players who choose to placard camp. They're pretty hands off on how players choose to use their time while logged in (as long as it's not violating ToS). If you want to placard camp instead of running roulettes or standing in Limsa spamming emotes or whatever, it is your personal choice.

[Arohk]

I have an actual question, what was the intention of housing?

Housing is meant to be a social interactive feature, not for everyone to have their own place to retreat, you can join other peoples houses as roommate and work on it together.
At first i thought the same and why it must be so hard to get a house, it took me two months checking every day until i found a free medium plot but now i am the more happy to have it and i worked really hard on it to look great.

I have now worked on one FC house and two private houses + i have redesigned my small house 4 times, and my medium once, (i spend over 40 hours on it)

One big mistake was to disable the auto demolish, that blocked way too many houses for far too long to get new owners.
Also one problem is that people sit on empty houses not doing anything with it, if you got no time or interest in housing , dont buy one in the first place. I cant even count the amount of abandoned houses on my server sitting empty, but they wont get demolished because the owner logs in every few week just to keep it.

[CheshaSolttiri]

The best time to buy was in 2018. Most worlds had dozens if not hundreds of houses available thanks to the 4.2 ward additions (you can look at the old Housing Census thread to see it). It wasn't until the population explosion and data center reorganization in 2019 that the supply dried up.

This 1000% I was on arguably the least populated server in North America, Zalera, and housing was always available, the big problem with Zalera at that time was that there was so little people on the server that the economy was extraordinarily expensive and gaining the amount of Gill necessary to buy a house was difficult to come by. When they restructured the servers and added Zalera as a preferred world the economy got way better but then houses quickly filled up when Shirogane housing was introduced. I stupidly waited and because I don't have didn't craft, I didn't have the Gil. I know this has been talked about before and it's controversial but I think that they should give veteran players who is stuck with the game for so long a little bit of priority on housing even just a slight percentage more if they implement a lottery system.

[CheshaSolttiri]

Guess I'll just be forever stuck redesigning my FC private square room. I've just been a player for so long that I'm kind of sick of the excuses I hear about 14. The second biggest MMO ever, next to the Titan world of Warcraft and they need to start actually fixing the spaghetti code they keep talking about. At this point they have so many subscribers and so much money that it's no longer acceptable to hear their excuses about why they can't do XYZ. Fix the textures. Fix housing. Fix UI. Fix inventory. I'm over the apologies.

[artlessknave]

Guess I'll just be forever stuck redesigning my FC private square room. I've just been a player for so long that I'm kind of sick of the excuses I hear about 14. The second biggest MMO ever, next to the Titan world of Warcraft and they need to start actually fixing the spaghetti code they keep talking about. At this point they have so many subscribers and so much money that it's no longer acceptable to hear their excuses about why they can't do XYZ. Fix the textures. Fix housing. Fix UI. Fix inventory. I'm over the apologies.

note that the FC room will explode if you are removed from it. the apartments are better and not that much more for permanence. unless you just have both then w/e, redeco as much as you like.

[juicybug]

I really wish they would add instances as well as neighborhoods. Instances acting more like a solo plot outside of the city (but not having to run outside of a town/city- just like taking an elevator to your instance from inside the city) or like walking into the waking sands for example.

[azura84]

I really wish they would add instances as well as neighborhoods. Instances acting more like a solo plot outside of the city (but not having to run outside of a town/city- just like taking an elevator to your instance from inside the city) or like walking into the waking sands for example.

I agree, or just giving us access to gardening even, the problem is the devaluation that would cause for houses, especially if you make it so the houses/apartments are more spacious. I personally think it shouldn't devalue the houses enough, we are social creatures and houses in wards will always be appealing to players over instanced houses but i guess SE just doesn't want to risk that.

[Themarvin]

A friend of mine just went in and bought a plot in the The Mist the other day, and yes there was people camping it too,, but just went in and bought it, not even having camped or anything... allow self a bit more around like this and it just happens that get one, one day.

[Almagnus1]

At this point, having an ingame auction system would probably solve a lot of problems, especially if it took the gil paid for the house and deleted it - and whatever party ends up with the highest bid (be it relo, FC, or personal) gets the house.

I doubt we'll come up with a better system anytime soon, and at least this way it will remove large sums of gil from the economy - especially if the housing restrictions at https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../housing_land/ are enforced.