Endwalker Housing Update

[Dustytome]

Below I've compiled the slide information and a small amount of non-slide information that was mentioned during the liveletter. If you prefer to watch it, here's a twitch link to the housing portion of the liveletter (5h 45m mark if it doesn't take you to the timestamp). new More information from the February 2022 liveletter updated below, you can watch it for yourself here (4h 33m mark).
New Housing District

A new residential area based off of the Firmament called Empyreum will be made available for preview in 6.0 and plots will be made available for purchase in 6.1. There will be 24 wards & 24 subdivisions available.


Changes to the Housing System

- Relocation to plots of land not yet available for purchase will be disabled as of 6.0
- Land devaluation will be removed as of 6.1
- It will no longer be possible to grant brand-new FC members authorization to purchase land or the rank of FC Master as of 6.1.
- new There will be 4 total land purchase systems in place. Lottery (individual), Lottery (FC), FCFS* (individual), FCFS* (FC)
- new Land purchase systems will be ward based and you will be able to tell which system is being utilized by a ward in game. These can be changed each patch.
- new As of 6.1 All wards will start off using either individual or FC lottery systems. FCFS* may be considered if there is a strong enough demand.

* FCFS = First Come First Serve, which is the system currently in place pre-6.1.



New Land Purchasing System - Lottery [6.1]

Lottery will be schedule based and the same across all worlds.
There will be two phases for the lottery, a bid phase and an acquisition phase, each lasting several days.

The bid phase:

- Players may view a plot's placard and enter into the plot's lottery to receive an entery number.
- Each player may only enter the lottery for one plot of land. new For Free Company plots, each member may enter once. Each FC member's single entry does not have to be for the same plot.
- Lottery entry will take place at each empty plot's placard, where players can view the number of entrants.
- Players must pay the full price of the plot upon entry - unsuccessful players will be refunded in full.
- Players cannot withdraw after entering a lottery.

The acquisition phase:

- The winning numbers are decided and winners must claim possession of the land.
- The winning entrant can be confirmed via the plot's placard.
- Winners must claim possession of their land within this period, or it will be forfeit. (only 50% of the purchase price of forfeit land will be refunded.)
- Players who did not win the lottery can receive a full refund within a limited time frame from the plot's placard. (90 days)

Entry Requirements:

For Personal:

- Character must have at least one class 50+
- Character must hold the current Grand Company rank of Second Lieutenant or above.
- Another character on the same service account must not own a private plot on the same World (entry for relocation allowed).

For FC:

- FC must be rank 6 or higher.
- FC must have at least 4 members.
- Another character on the same service account must not own, as buyer, an FC plot on the same World (entry for relocation allowed).

Additional notes:
- The devs are requesting feedback on lottery vs first come first server wards.
- The devs have the ability to select a range of wards to function on either system.
- It was stated that they will log and monitor the system for abusive behavior and will consider such harassment, taking action against abusers accordingly.

(if I missed anything let me know!)

[Dustytome]

Questions I hope to see answered:

How many days for lottery and land acquisition period respectively? (answered: 5 days for bidding, 4 days for claiming)

How long do players that lose the lottery have to collect their bid?

Do players need to take note of which plot they entered for or is there something in game that gives the player that information? (answered: Timers menu -> Estate tab)

Are plots of land relinquished and auto-demolished during the lottery period held until the next lottery period or are they added to the currently running lottery period? (answered: Plot released during an active lotto are held until the following cycle)

What happens when an FC master removes themselves and only a new member that does not qualify for the rank is left?

How long is a member considered too new to receive the fc master rank or land purchase rights? (answered: 30 days)

How many fc members can enter for an fc plot at a time? (answered in February live letter)

If a players has no plots of land purchased on a world, but has multiple characters on the same world that qualify for the listed requirements to bid, is each character on the same world able to bid on a plot or will all attempts to enter be denied on alternative characters after the first?

It states the buyer of an fc plot cannot have ownership of an fc plot on the same world. Does this mean if the leader of FC A (no plot) also owns FC B on an alt (does have a plot), they could simply have a member in FC A put in a bid as long as that member does not trigger the fc ownership rule?

With Devaluation being discontinued in 6.1, will their be a higher discount when relocating since the minimum price will now be the default price, will the relocation discount be adjusted to about 15% of the full price as it is now or will the discount be removed?

[Jojoya]

How long do players that lose the lottery have to collect their bid?

This one did get answered. YoshiP said they planned to allow players 90 days to collect the refund of the entry fee. He apologized that it could not be a longer period of time.

What happens when an FC master removes themselves and only a new member that does not qualify for the rank is left?

I feel like the answer here will likely be that a FC master would not be able to leave the FC unless there is a qualifying member able to become FC master in their place, or unless they disband the FC.

I imagine we'll end up getting answers to the rest as we get closer to 6.1.

* * * * *

My thoughts about the changes in general:

This seems like a complicated effort that still won't fix the underlying problem. The supply does not meet demand in general let alone the demand for the more desirable medium and large plots.

The limits are still per world, not per account. As a single player with a single account, I will continue to have the potential to own 80 different houses if I want (granted it would take a huge stroke of luck) and that would mean 79 other players will never be able to get one.

First come, first serve wards serve no useful purpose in combination with lottery wards if relocation no longer bypasses the purchase timer. Players will still feel forced to placard camp to improve their chances of getting a house. Better to move all wards to lottery so placard camping stops.

We will see more drama as people learn to "play" the lottery system to improve their chances of winning. They will wait until the last possible moment of the entry period before purchasing to stack the odds in their favor based on entries already purchased.

We will continue to see cries of frustration as players continue to not get a house because a player that really didn't care about housing but had nothing better to spend their gil on wins the house then ignores it.

The changes to passing leadership of a FC are good but still won't be enough to stop flipping unless the time period for someone to no longer be considered "new" is unreasonably long.

SE is still not addressing the issue of shared tenancy for alts. They told us over 2 years ago that they were working to make alts automatic tenants of personal houses already owned by the same account on the same world. What happened? Why is my main still unable to share with my alts?

Apartments are still being neglected. Instanced housing has so much potential, as seen in other MMOs, and yet it's being ignored in favor of adding even more dead wards. Why? Give players reasonable options in apartments and the demand for houses in wards would be greatly reduced. Reduced demand for houses would reduce the need to get new server equipment to expand the number of wards to meet the needs of a growing player base.

It's still sad that I could revisit RIFT after a 4 year absence to find my multiple housing Dimensions (all much larger than an apartment including one that's about the size of Little Ala Mhigo and has a 2500 item limit) still intact while SE can't provide more than a tiny room as guaranteed housing to most of its players and can't even do that much on Balmung, where apartments are sold out and now ripe for flipping to Balmung players desperate to get any sort of housing at all.

It's time to stop pretending that band-aids are going to fix anything.

[Dustytome]

This one did get answered. YoshiP said they planned to allow players 90 days to collect the refund of the entry fee. He apologized that it could not be a longer period of time.

That slipped by me, thanks!

I feel like the answer here will likely be that a FC master would not be able to leave the FC unless there is a qualifying member able to become FC master in their place, or unless they disband the FC.

I imagine we'll end up getting answers to the rest as we get closer to 6.1.

Yeah, I'm sure we'll get more clarifications and additional info closer in. Interested to see how the system plays out, though I don't think I'll be participating in giving it a try.

[Nepentha]

Honestly it's like playing whack-a-mole to try to deal with resellers and botters.

On the one hand, with the removal of instant relocation, the relocation sales market is dead in the water. So the large/medium plot snipers who ward scan 24/7 with bot technology will find their operations are now defunct.

But this won't deal with the use of TPP (bot programs) that will continue to flourish if the placards remain a thing.

Also the FC leader thing really needs to be at the very least a 30 day wait period.

While I'm at it, a freshly created and leveled FC shouldn't even be allowed to buy a plot right away. I've seen so many FC resellers make the FC on Monday and by Tuesday they have a plot already, have passed it onto an alt to hold (if they haven't immediately sold it already), and created a new FC to begin leveling.

Make it so brand new FCs have to wait 45 days before entering a lotto or being allowed to placard click.

Of course, none of this would even be necessary if SE just listened to the playerbase and figured out a way to make housing available to everyone.

[MizArai]

New Land Purchasing System - Lottery [6.1]

Entry Requirements:

- Character must have at least one class 50+
- Character must hold the current Grand Company rank of Second Lieutenant or above.

For Personal:

Another character on the same service account must not own a private plot on the same World (entry for relocation allowed).

For FC:

Another character on the same service account must not own, as buyer, an FC plot on the same World (entry for relocation allowed).

(if I missed anything let me know!)

It was never stated that someone attempting to purchase a lottery ticket for an FC had to be 50+ or Second Lieutenant or above, that was only for personal housing. For an FC, the FC had to have at least 4 members, rank 6 or above, and the thing you posted about not having an FC house on the same world.

Thank you for condensing all the information into one easy to read space! ♥

[Dustytome]

It was never stated that someone attempting to purchase a lottery ticket for an FC had to be 50+ or Second Lieutenant or above, that was only for personal housing. For an FC, the FC had to have at least 4 members, rank 6 or above, and the thing you posted about not having an FC house on the same world.

Thank you for condensing all the information into one easy to read space! ♥

Thank you for catching that!

[Sotaris]

New Housing District

A new residential area based off of the Firmament called Empyreum will be made available for preview in 6.0 and plots will be made available for purchase in 6.1. There will be 24 wards & 24 subdivisions available.


Changes to the Housing System

- Relocation to plots of land not yet available for purchase will be disabled as of 6.0
- Land devaluation will be removed as of 6.1
- It will no longer be possible to grant brand-new FC members authorization to purchase land or the rank of FC Master as of 6.1.

Correct me if I'm missunderstanding but,

Relocation basically is a dead feature then?
How can we change location or house size in Endwalker? Give up your house and enter the lottery like everyone else?

By guess, it's more like that people, who want to relocate, have to join the usual competition of lottery or placard camping, instead of just instant-grabbing their "plot of new wishes" like nowadays.

So basically spoken:
Grabbing a random plot as an entry ticket for something nicer/bigger with bypassing the invisible timer is pretty dead, yes.

If yes, then they should just said "Relocation is being removed with 6.0". Maybe it just me not being native in english that doesn't understand that but seems odd to keep it in if it can't use what it's designed to do.

So then you have to demolish your house and plot cause unless they changed the system it would just say "You already own a house" etc.

[Rathmir]

By guess, it's more like that people, who want to relocate, have to join the usual competition of lottery or placard camping, instead of just instant-grabbing their "plot of new wishes" like nowadays.

So basically spoken:
Grabbing a random plot as an entry ticket for something nicer/bigger with bypassing the invisible timer is pretty dead, yes.

[Jojoya]

Correct me if I'm missunderstanding but,

Relocation basically is a dead feature then?
How can we change location or house size in Endwalker? Give up your house and enter the lottery like everyone else?



If yes, then they should just said "Relocation is being removed with 6.0". Maybe it just me not being native in english that doesn't understand that but seems odd to keep it in if it can't use what it's designed to do.

It's not a dead feature. Relocation will no longer bypass the purchase timer. Those wishing to relocate will need to compete against new buyers but they will still have a chance to win the lottery or placard click war so they can relocate.

So basically spoken:
Grabbing a random plot as an entry ticket for something nicer/bigger with bypassing the invisible timer is pretty dead, yes.

It's no longer a bypass privilege but we're at the point most players are desperate to get any house at all and at least they will still have a small chance to get something better.

Players complained about the resellers and multiple house owners. SE is taking steps to curb the resellers and multiple house owners. As usual, those steps are also negatively impacting legitimate players who simply want to get a house but it's unavoidable as long as SE refuses to a decent instanced housing system.