Shell FCs are a bigger problem than we think...

[Nepentha]

Shell FC are on that not a problem, its just that there are always players who abuse these things. And most important would be that SE should simply just ban those abusers. Its very clear when this was done, and in this case which accounts were involved


(i bet all of them were trial accounts, and only the winners ended up becoming a sub). At such scale you nearly always will notice a pattern (same FC name, same email domain that isnt a large hoster, same bank account, all trial). It would be efficient if SE can react on that.

But they don't, that's the problem. For some reason you can report obvious ToS violations till the cows come home, but SE will not read and/or act on them. Their solution to these people abusing the system is to change the system to try to stop them. But humans (being ingenious when it comes to finding ways to exploit things for money) will always find a way around any new obstacles you toss into their path.

I'm not saying don't take these measures to combat housing cheats, but like... translate and read the reports people send in, investigate them, and actually remove the problem players, too.

Also trial accounts can't participate in the housing lotto as far as I know.

[Bunnycake]

Trials have a 300k gil cap I believe so yeah they wouldn't be able to participate.

[ElysiumDragon]

The thing is, it's very easy to spot a 'Shell FC' and take appropriate action, once you know exactly what you're looking for. Someone needs to show the devs what Shell FC's look like, and how to completely undermine them.

[HuaTuo]

Ward 2 in Goblet on Materia is an absolute travesty and massive sized middle finger to the entire playerbase. And, as usual, SE does not and will not care at all. I wish some of their staff actually played this game..

[Unkara]

i opend a Shell FC myself for me and my wife, simple because at it is now, an FC can get a house easier
so we can have access to a garden and the workshop, regardless if it's a large house or a small one
i'm a crafter an collecter, and i like it to gather all mats myself so i can craft all mounts and minions for me and my wife
we dont like it to buy everything on the marketboard, there is more of a experiences of success if you get everything yourself, even if it takes longer

The thing is, it's very easy to spot a 'Shell FC' and take appropriate action, once you know exactly what you're looking for. Someone needs to show the devs what Shell FC's look like, and how to completely undermine them.

Shell FCs (Small FC) were never the problem, only people and RMT organizations that abuse the FC System to buy whole wards

Ward 2 in Goblet on Materia is an absolute travesty and massive sized middle finger to the entire playerbase. And, as usual, SE does not and will not care at all. I wish some of their staff actually played this game..

SE Forum: Ok so looks like people are still taking advantage and getting multiple houses.

[Jaquan]

Trials have a 300k gil cap I believe so yeah they wouldn't be able to participate.

Yup, 300k Gil Limit, no ability to use /tell or create Linkshells, joining FC or creating a party. No Marketboard or Retainers either.

[Lachesia]

Why should a failed FC with less members than what was needed to create it be able to hold land?

All FCs with less than 3 members should lose their houses BECAUSE of the shell FC problem.
Edit:
10% is a guesstimate, too lazy to actually math this out >.>

I think you're missing the point everyone is trying to make. The small FCs are not 'failed' FCs, Free Companies are in no-way hundreds of people big, free companies can be a small group of friends that adventure together, in Japan the market for Free Companies is not a huge group of people all running content at the same time, it's a small group of friends usually between 4-8 people large that get together to play the game, that's the reason most of the content only requires at max, 8 people to run, unlike other RPGs that want upwards of 24+ people at the same time.

The difference between FFXIV and an American game like, (gasp) WoW is that the developers for Blizzard cater more towards larger groups which in Japan is considered unnecessary. The restriction on the housing being that it had to be a free company of 4 people or more to establish a house is because the party system only requires 4 people to get anything done in normal content, 8 for higher content.

You keep calling any FC with less than 4 people a "Shell FC" and it may simply be a small FC that is exchanging out members. The fact that you don't take into consideration, the small groups that have people they are going or cycling through the FC shows that no only did you not actually correctly math the statistics FFXIVhousing.com provides, but you failed to work with the invisible variables, something that other players tried to point out and you blatantly ignored. Stop calling them 'shell FCs', they are *small* FCs and you don't know the background of said FCs. You don't know if they're recruiting, or if they're changing out members, or if they just lost a member for one reason or another, and denying them fair access to housing is the same as limiting the number of personal housing to be for a single person. As you can share a personal house with up to 4 people, are you suggesting that small FCs use personal houses and just add their small number of members to that single plot? What about when the numbers grow beyond that? What then?

Being considerate towards others is why Yoshi-P and the devs built the housing system this way, I agree that the split for FC and Personal housing should have been more even, but even I know that small FCs that are just building, or prefer to keep their number small because it's a group of friends that play together, are NOT shells. They just don't meet YOUR criteria of being a Free Company.

(P.S. 3 active members isn't including the FC lead. The FC lead is member number 4)

[Jojoya]

I think you're missing the point everyone is trying to make. The small FCs are not 'failed' FCs, Free Companies are in no-way hundreds of people big, free companies can be a small group of friends that adventure together, in Japan the market for Free Companies is not a huge group of people all running content at the same time, it's a small group of friends usually between 4-8 people large that get together to play the game, that's the reason most of the content only requires at max, 8 people to run, unlike other RPGs that want upwards of 24+ people at the same time.

The difference between FFXIV and an American game like, (gasp) WoW is that the developers for Blizzard cater more towards larger groups which in Japan is considered unnecessary. The restriction on the housing being that it had to be a free company of 4 people or more to establish a house is because the party system only requires 4 people to get anything done in normal content, 8 for higher content.

You keep calling any FC with less than 4 people a "Shell FC" and it may simply be a small FC that is exchanging out members. The fact that you don't take into consideration, the small groups that have people they are going or cycling through the FC shows that no only did you not actually correctly math the statistics FFXIVhousing.com provides, but you failed to work with the invisible variables, something that other players tried to point out and you blatantly ignored. Stop calling them 'shell FCs', they are *small* FCs and you don't know the background of said FCs. You don't know if they're recruiting, or if they're changing out members, or if they just lost a member for one reason or another, and denying them fair access to housing is the same as limiting the number of personal housing to be for a single person. As you can share a personal house with up to 4 people, are you suggesting that small FCs use personal houses and just add their small number of members to that single plot? What about when the numbers grow beyond that? What then?

Being considerate towards others is why Yoshi-P and the devs built the housing system this way, I agree that the split for FC and Personal housing should have been more even, but even I know that small FCs that are just building, or prefer to keep their number small because it's a group of friends that play together, are NOT shells. They just don't meet YOUR criteria of being a Free Company.

(P.S. 3 active members isn't including the FC lead. The FC lead is member number 4)

It's true that not every FC with 4 or fewer total members (including FC Master) is a failed FC.

It's also true that not every FC with 4 or fewer members is a legitimate FC. Many are shells used to exploit the housing system to sate personal greed.

A FC that drops to a single member (the FC master) immediately after acquiring a house and stays that way is not "exchanging members". Please don't pretend it is. That's a player being inconsiderate of others, especially when that's not the only FC with a house they have on their account.

I doubt "being considerate" was ever a phrase listed as being part of the housing concepts when they were developed. If being considerate was a core philosophy for housing, SE would be doing something about the exploiters. You probably should stop pushing it as such.

I don't agree with the person you quoted that small FCs should have their houses taken away but SE needs to take a closer look at how the housing system is being exploited by some individuals through use of small FCs and how that is blocking access to the content for others.

[ElysiumDragon]

I'm looking at some data now, and I think my server has a serious issue with Shell FC's.

[Besame]

I have a very small Rank 30 FC in a small house. It started with 4 and there are only 2 of us active atm because one stopped playing for a while and left the FC to me. I never intended to have a large FC, it is not my thing and am real picky about whom I fraternize within game. We do enjoy the FC perks and constantly run my subs for goodies. I keep it nicely decorated and enjoy sharing it with a select few like-minded people that I can trust and not be constantly pestered as I was with a larger crowd. I am here to play the game for me not cater constantly to the whims and demands of others. I intend to keep the small fc and small house. I do not need another FC. I have a medium house and an apt. So, this is how I roll, don't like it???, too bad for you cuz I am quite pleased