Open plea to the Devs

[Athame]

Dear Readers,
I came to FF quite recently compared to most of the vets in-game. Finally, I managed to save up the money required for a small plot and begun the Pvp nightmare that is savage Housing. At first, I thought that the horror stories posted online were just a few disgruntled players, sadly I have to say they are true. In the course of the last 26 hours, I attempted my luck by camping in front of 4 open small plots in succession to no avail. In the course of this time, I sprained one of my wrists, neglected sleep, and ended up logging out in a bad mood. I wasn't alone in the suffering, over the course of the hunt, several people migrated from plot to plot with me and must have endured similar frustrations. While most people were attempting to get the plots fairly, several times I'm quite sure people were using auto keys or other software, the suspicion being raised when their chars kept clicking the signs minutes after the plot was already sold. I can't blame them, show me one person who pays a monthly subscription to a game just to spend hours clicking on a placard, and ill take this point back.
Now to the main reason for this post.
Over my course of playing ff, I fell in love with the game, the story, and mostly with the community were in hundreds of hours of playtime I only encountered 2 Toxic players, smth unthinkable in my old game.
After spending 26 hours doing nothing but endlessly clicking through the same screen in the vague hope that maybe the next click will give me fortunas blessing I have to put the game down for a while and play smth else.
Don't get me wrong I still enjoy most aspects of the game, but the feeling of defeat after losing the chance at a plot after hours of attempting, in 2 instances to someone who showed up in the last minutes is something I haven't experienced in any game before.
To people who say, who cares about housing, or just wait for the Ishard expansion. Housing is an integral part of social MMOs, from swtor to ESO and even the shortage in FF its popularity can be demonstrated. Players want the chance to express themselves in something like a house. As to waiting for the expansion, seeing how fast new plots in new wards are gone shows how this doesn't work.
I don't know how or if there is a solution, whether having a lottery, that can be exploited in its own way is the solution. But please do something about the housing shortage. With the influx of new players, in some cases servers being so full that people can't make characters how can the current system continue to work. Simply adding wards wont fix the underlining limitations.
I love your game, but housing broke me.
I hope everyone is keeping safe in these times and taking care of themselves, don't do what I did, wait/hope that the devs find a solution

[Sotaris]

Paragraphs. Please use paragraphs.

[Uvi_AUT]

NO! Not instanced housing! More housing-instances! I dont want to be alone at my house. ESO`s housingsystem sucks.
Why cant the Devs simply make more Instances, now that they see how many new players are there.

[Sotaris]

Why cant the Devs simply make more Instances, now that they see how many new players are there.

Multiple reasons.

1. They want housing to be a rarity and premium
2. Costs. They need to invest in new server hardware and atm at least there is a shortage on getting servers + travel restrictions
3. Housing isn't a priority on the dev team

[Kniteroad]

NO! Not instanced housing! More housing-instances! I dont want to be alone at my house. ESO`s housingsystem sucks.
Why cant the Devs simply make more Instances, now that they see how many new players are there.

The weird thing is, as someone who has been lucky enough to have a house, I rarely ever see anyone in my neighborhood. I don't think I am alone there. I think the idea of a neighborhood was a fun idea of YoshiP but it didn't really happen. Anyone else's experience different?

[Sotaris]

The weird thing is, as someone who has been lucky enough to have a house, I rarely ever see anyone in my neighborhood. I don't think I am alone there. I think the idea of a neighborhood was a fun idea of YoshiP but it didn't really happen. Anyone else's experience different?

It was a huge deal 2013-2016 or so.
I don't see many either in my ward and the issue is people buy their house and then don't do anything with it. I decorate mine and change it time to time.

In my FC ward I see sometimes like 2-3 people outside of people in my FC.

[Besame]

The weird thing is, as someone who has been lucky enough to have a house, I rarely ever see anyone in my neighborhood. I don't think I am alone there. I think the idea of a neighborhood was a fun idea of YoshiP but it didn't really happen. Anyone else's experience different?

Same as you. I have not seen anyone at my personal med house in the LB except for a hunt team member that drops by to sign my book with some silly altered or invented adage occasionally for about 2 yrs. My neighborhood ward and the MBs are a ghost town. I find I look forward to seeing my friend's zingers lol. In my small FC, I only see the members. The rest of that ward is also empty of life. I'd be fine with an instanced solo plot that I could assign public or private (friends) entry to.

[anguel]

The weird thing is, as someone who has been lucky enough to have a house, I rarely ever see anyone in my neighborhood. I don't think I am alone there. I think the idea of a neighborhood was a fun idea of YoshiP but it didn't really happen. Anyone else's experience different?

nop never seen anybody arround me (i mean owner or visitor) i have my house for nearly 2 years now in spriggan, i live to a guy having a large house right next to me, and he came a bit after me, despite that no never saw him or anybody arround it kinda feels dead tbh


the problem with housing for me is not lottery or whatever, is the fact the moment you buy it, its free forever (i mean by that no rent whatsover), implementing a "renting" system (pay to the game) idk 1M every month, would make the housing market MUCH MUUCH more fluid

saying this from experience because (oh i can see ppl are goign to be mad at me xD) 8 month ago i took a 5 month break, but left sub going, basicly every month i just had to log in rq 5 min interact with something in my house and done, and managed to keep the house doing absolutly nothing for that 5 month period, that is why i feel like implementing a renting system would help things

or could add as a "rent" like having at least 1~2 commendation a week (even on a dps if your friendly and not being an ass its easy to get !), just to confirm that yes you are active !

[True-to-Caesar]

TL DR : add instanced housing like ESO, so late sprouts and unlucky peasants like us can get a home to decorate.

[EaMett]

OP there are a number of things you can do to make your life easier it doesn't need to be a constant grind, just a long term one.
- Don't camp for hours on end, camping 1h every day for 10 days and camping 10h one time doesn't change things much. In fact, the more people you compete against the better the first option.
- Only go for smalls in the golblet, you highly reduce the risk of relocations
- Don't camp houses that have been up less than 12h. Feel free to make that 14,16 etc.. Put the threshold where you want. Yes plots could open before that but you'll increase your odds of getting a house when you camp by only camping these plots.
- Make note of demolition timers when devs disable/re-enable them. Don't forget to check 45 days later. Those are windows you want to aim for.
- Ward/Zone additions. Increase you odds by practicing running to your plot (on multiple classes with movement enhancement features). If you manage to log early run to your desired plot. If that's taken make sure you have a backup ready! If you get connection issues, or log in a little late (10-15mn in) make sure you have a "worse-case scenario" plot that you think nobody would want right away (some small in goblets). Alternatively, although I don't recommend this since it's a pain for other players, if you have the gill you could straight up buy your "worst-case scenario" plot and then relocate if you find something better.

The above can reduce the opportunities you get since you're limiting yourself to specific plots. But they will also greatly reduce the total amount of time you spend in districts clicking placards.