The Balmung Apartment Issue

[Raim]

They should have demolition for apartments but make it more lenient like 3-6 months. Wont be an issue for a casual player, and it'll only affect people who quit or otherwise aren't invested.

[Kenky]

They should have demolition for apartments but make it more lenient like 3-6 months. Wont be an issue for a casual player, and it'll only affect people who quit or otherwise aren't invested.

If they do that, then they ruin the only selling point of the apartments. That being they don't demolish.

Having a system that would "automatically" add more Apartment Districts would be great. But I can easily see people taking advantage of it, alongside hard drive space rather quickly filling up. Maybe make it require human-input if it grows too much?

[dspguy]

While I think housing wards in general should just spin up another instance when housing sells out, I'm sure SE will claim it is PS4 limitations or something like that.

But for apartments? That seems ridiculous. It is literally an instanced room. Tack on another page every time one fills up. Limit it (if not already) to one per service account or something. This can't be that hard.

[lorthera]

I'm going to bump this thread up since this is actually a huge part of my feedback regarding the upcoming system changes. Something needs to be done to help the apartment issue, and purchase system revamps don't really do a whole lot.

As of Feb 2022, Balmung is still locked out of apartments. Mateus currently has ~100 apartments in Goblet, and ONLY Goblet. Everywhere else is completely filled. Empy will bring relief, but I'm concerned that we'll just be right back to square one in a couple months.

[Jojoya]

I'm going to bump this thread up since this is actually a huge part of my feedback regarding the upcoming system changes. Something needs to be done to help the apartment issue, and purchase system revamps don't really do a whole lot.

As of Feb 2022, Balmung is still locked out of apartments. Mateus currently has ~100 apartments in Goblet, and ONLY Goblet. Everywhere else is completely filled. Empy will bring relief, but I'm concerned that we'll just be right back to square one in a couple months.

Don't forget we're also getting a new NA data center with 4 new worlds plus an additional 4 new worlds in 2023. I doubt the new apartments in Empyreum will be sold out before that happens, and there will be players transferring to the new worlds to escape congestion/get a better chance at a house.

With more apartments on the way, SE is probably going to wait to see how things settle after everything is added before they make any new long term plans.

In the meantime, most of the other Crystal worlds have plenty of apartments available. Players desperate for an apartment can choose one of them for a home world while using world visit to be part of the Balmung and Mateus player-generated content communities. I know a lot of players who spend relatively little time on their home worlds because they're doing things with friends on other worlds. World visit is only inconvenient if you're frequently checking your retainers. Otherwise, it's really no different from doing things on your home world.

[Sindele]

I'd put $50 on Balmung's Empyrean apartments being sold out within a month, $100 on less than three months. The lack of supply has been around for so long that people will be waiting to pounce on this with multiple characters, and the fear of being locked out will drive a wave of FOMO purchases.

World Visit just isn't always a good enough replacement.

[lorthera]

In the meantime, most of the other Crystal worlds have plenty of apartments available. Players desperate for an apartment can choose one of them for a home world while using world visit to be part of the Balmung and Mateus player-generated content communities. I know a lot of players who spend relatively little time on their home worlds because they're doing things with friends on other worlds. World visit is only inconvenient if you're frequently checking your retainers. Otherwise, it's really no different from doing things on your home world.

You're forgetting the reason why apartments are filled on Balmung/Mateus. These servers are both roleplay servers. Players on these servers enjoy housing because it gives them the ability to host venues and create personalized spaces for their characters. Because housing is so difficult to obtain, most people instead opt to having apartments (or FC rooms, if available!). They're easy to buy, not as expensive as a full on house, have no activity requirements, and easy to maintain.

On top of this, roleplayers love alts. Many people have multiple characters they enjoy writing out. So the ability to have an apartment on each and every character? Each character having their own customized space that will never demolish? It's a great feature.

It's not as simple as "just move off server" when it comes to roleplayers. Roleplayers want to be where roleplay is. They don't want to have to world hop to go to RP events (venues on Balmung and Mateus typically get higher attendance because of this). They want to stay centralized in their RP communities/fcs/link shells. While it's certainly possible for someone to do this, it's incredibly likely that they would be disconnecting themselves from the very reason they made a character on Balmung/Mateus

Plus all things aside, a player shouldn't need to fork over real life money for a server transfer to access apartments. Of course, it's something they can consider! But it really comes down to a failure of our current system in that people are having to pull maneuvers to even access this type of content.

[Nepentha]

It's not as simple as "just move off server" when it comes to roleplayers. Roleplayers want to be where roleplay is. They don't want to have to world hop to go to RP events (venues on Balmung and Mateus typically get higher attendance because of this). They want to stay centralized in their RP communities/fcs/link shells. While it's certainly possible for someone to do this, it's incredibly likely that they would be disconnecting themselves from the very reason they made a character on Balmung/Mateus

Plus all things aside, a player shouldn't need to fork over real life money for a server transfer to access apartments. Of course, it's something they can consider! But it really comes down to a failure of our current system in that people are having to pull maneuvers to even access this type of content.

I am kinda tired of the 'just leave' mentality. Why? SE said from the start they could add more apartments if they filled up. Plenty of people did leave, and ended up returning because they loved the server they left and missed the community there. Crossing over to other worlds isn't the same. I cross over for events sometimes, too, but tbh I'm happy when I return back to Brynhildr. There's something psychological about being 'home'.

[Lee102]

The Balmung/Mateus apartment issues are starting to lead to re-selling of apartments, just as there are with houses. If everyone here is so obsessed with stopping sells, there needs to be more apartments available. Yes Ishgard is going to bring some relief, but for now if you want an apartment on these servers, put up a party finder for WTB apartment for 5 million. I got a Balmung apartment in the goblet this way. No more sweeping for it, it was done. If there was enough supply, I would've bought one from the game, without issue. On Mateus, if you want a specific area for your apartment, it's becoming the same thing. And it's the same thing with people going to markets for housing, if there was enough supply people wouldn't turn to the markets. It's not hard to make gil with crossworld selling, no RMT involved. But it is difficult to obtain a house. I watched a friend try for an fc house for over a month, then I went to market for them, and they were no longer suffering at losing camps. You want to stop the markets, but the markets put an end to the suffering at the placard. Also, since the removal of Instant Relocation, the markets have already Drastically slowed down. I'm not here to argue, I'm just pointing out, if the supply was there, people wouldn't be looking for the market in the first place, but there's starting to be a market for apartments too.

[lorthera]

Bumping this again as ~3 months after launch, apartments are now full again on Balmung. This is including the apartments added with Empyreum.