"Free Company Houses" should not exist, or at least be re-defined

[Skivvy]

The one true solution is to pay for housing. Any solution basically has to involve that because housing is system resource intensive. They wanted it to be where 1 sub price gets you everything, but that philosophy failed when it came to housing. It failed because everyone pays the same sub but many players don't get housing, and so in effect the many without housing end up subsidizing the housing system for the lucky few who get housing.

This means the only fair systems are things like:

1) charge a higher subscription price to everyone, but include housing for everyone in this price, so everyone gets housing.

2) charge a separate fee for housing, and so anyone who wants housing can pay the fee and cover the system resource costs associated with housing and so get housing. And if you don't want housing, you don't have to pay the fee.

It's crazy that for so long now they never made a decision to fix this and just let the winners exploit the rest of their player base.

I am majorly against them charging for housing. Other MMOs, including XIV's predecessor, manage to give equal housing to all players with no strings attached. It's really quite sad that they didn't have the foresight to see what a hot mess housing would become with the way they were implementing it. I am totally down for a full revamp but draw the line at actually charging customers more for it. This game pulls in so much money as it is, and quite often it feels as if SE is unwilling to put enough of that profit back into the game. I get it, they're a business, they have other projects.....but this game could use some love.

[Dewslam]

The solution to any and all housing is the same: add instanced housing so every FC And every player can have a house. Let people still fight over the prestige of having their houses in the visitable public spaces and districts - but at least give people access to the mechanics locked off by not having a house or FC house.

[PharisHanasaki]

As an FC leader who inherited the FC when I already had my own, private house, I say no. Why should I have to lose my medium house because I ended up with a FC mansion too? My private house is decorated after my personal taste. The FC mansion is decorated to look more like a meeting place for several people. I don't consider the FC house my house, even if I technically own it.

We need a better housing system, not to take away houses from players who have them.

Exactly this. My FC house is where fellow members can get a taste of owning their own house.
They got the right to have a room, and also help decorate, or at least give their opinion on, the interior of our home.

My personal house is that, my personal house, decorated to my own taste, can be all pink, black, orange, or green if I so desire.

We've worked hard to earn one, I don't wish to repeat my experience buying that Medium Shirogane home, ever.
So, no to this OP, sorry.

[RitsukoSonoda]

I am majorly against them charging for housing. Other MMOs, including XIV's predecessor, manage to give equal housing to all players with no strings attached. It's really quite sad that they didn't have the foresight to see what a hot mess housing would become with the way they were implementing it. I am totally down for a full revamp but draw the line at actually charging customers more for it. This game pulls in so much money as it is, and quite often it feels as if SE is unwilling to put enough of that profit back into the game. I get it, they're a business, they have other projects.....but this game could use some love.

FFXI's "housing" was smaller than a studio apartment with no exterior options and primarily served as a storage space for most players because retainers didn't exist. Furniture was generally placed based on its function, bonuses, or effects rather than as a decoration since they could impact the element balance on your mog room which impacted gardening and various items could basically create more storage slots when placed. However the storage slots created by furniture were only accessible from your mog room. Accessing the moogle attendant in one of the temp rooms accessed when you go to other locations only gave access to the things in the basic safe.

Another thing that comes to mind is i that I feel a major part of this housing demand only exists because it's a finite resource. A majority of other MMO's that gave all players free housing seemed to have said resource remain almost entirely unused by mass majority of the game's player base. "They have enough well made, cute teddy bears for everyone? Meh I don't care. They only have 100,000 of the disfigured, poorly made, ugly ones? GIMMIE!"

[TaleraRistain]

Hard no on this one. The FC house is for my FC. There are amenities there just for members. It's designed in a way to be a gathering place. That's not my house. It belongs to my FC.

My personal home is my choice on everything and I don't have to make anyone happy with what I do but myself. I don't lose the ability to have that just because I'm also an FC leader.

[Vespar]

Ive owned 2 houses before letting them lapse, and Ive owned an apartment that I gave up because I never used it after I managed to get a house.
Now I just finished decorating my FC room, not just for my use, but for my FC members to chill in if they so choose.
Out of all of them, I find my FC room to be the coolest. Not to mention our FC house gets used a lot! So... No, I dont share the OP's desire for removal of FC housing.
FC housing has different meanings to different FC's. For some its a homebase, for others its a figure head or to show off. For many its just a way to get free buffs.
Some dont care, others do. I feel it has its place and should be left alone.
What could really be useful instead is instanced personal housing. Apartments are nice, but they lack the functionality of outdoor areas for gardening, decorating, etc..

[Penthea]

My private house is decorated after my personal taste. The FC mansion is decorated to look more like a meeting place for several people. I don't consider the FC house my house, even if I technically own it.

We need a better housing system, not to take away houses from players who have them.

Basically how it is in my case. I have a private home and I'm the fc leader of a fc with a house.

Our fc house is designed specifically with a fc in mind. It doesn't look like a home for one, it looks like a venue that a large group can attend. It has no bedrooms. It has seating for several people on each floor, and each floor is designed with a different theme to appeal to more than one type of taste. I have taken suggestions from fc members so I'm not making all the furnishing decisions. There is a huge amount of furniture at the fc house that I would never want in my own house. But that's okay because it's not only my house.

Additionally I furnish the ground floor and the garden to match every event in the game, so right now the house is very festive for Xmas and the New Year. I actually spend several days planning the furnishings for the events and try to never do the same thing twice. It keeps things fresh and members often look forward to what's coming next. They even take screenshots at the house when it is furnished to match in-game events.

I put in a lot of work to make my fc house as great as possible for my members. The only reason why I don't allow everyone to have furnishing permissions is because a lot of drama occurred in the first fc I was in (I was not in a rank with any authority) due to members constantly changing the house to suit their personal tastes and someone started removing furniture without telling anyone. It was a huge mess. I don't want to risk that happening in my fc. No one in my fc minds the restrictions on who can furnish. They understand my reasoning.

I don't view myself as the owner of the fc house. I'm the main caretaker for it. It's a never-ending project to make my members happy. Not a vanity project to fulfil only my personal desires.

Yes there are some people who use fcs to have one or two private homes but I don't think it's right to punish every single fc leader in the game just because a small portion of fc house owners don't use their fc house for social purposes. What's wrong is that the game currently has system design that permits house hoarding. However SE have taken measures in the past to combat this, and are introducing more in the future. It's not a problem they're unware of.

The root of the problem is availability issues. Even if absolutely no one abused the system there would still be an incredible amount of players and fcs without a house. And there would be still people who would find some way of viewing someone's ownership as invalid. Regularly some players criticise small fcs for having a house, claiming that they could never get the full use of it due to being a small group. I have seen criticisms directed at fcs who have not yet gotten a workshop. I have even seen someone criticise a fc for never changing their furnishings so they claimed they did not deserve the house because they were never adventurous with it. Unless everyone can get a house with ease there will ALWAYS be unhappy people ready to find something to scrutinise to justify why they should have the house instead.

[LaylaTsarra]

The ONLY difference is that FC leaders would not own separate houses; thus if you DO own a private estate AND a FC estate, you would either give one of them up, or give the FC estate to a trusted member. And if you don't have a member you would trust enough to give the estate to... well, that sounds kind of like a "second house" for you.

Sorry I own a FC house and a personal right next to it on Spriggan. I am entitled to have my own private estate just like everyone else. I shouldn't have to share my house and call it a FC with everyone when they are able to own their own private houses and be a part of that FC.

[Skivvy]

FFXI's "housing" was smaller than a studio apartment with no exterior options and primarily served as a storage space for most players because retainers didn't exist. Furniture was generally placed based on its function, bonuses, or effects rather than as a decoration since they could impact the element balance on your mog room which impacted gardening and various items could basically create more storage slots when placed. However the storage slots created by furniture were only accessible from your mog room. Accessing the moogle attendant in one of the temp rooms accessed when you go to other locations only gave access to the things in the basic safe.

Another thing that comes to mind is i that I feel a major part of this housing demand only exists because it's a finite resource. A majority of other MMO's that gave all players free housing seemed to have said resource remain almost entirely unused by mass majority of the game's player base. "They have enough well made, cute teddy bears for everyone? Meh I don't care. They only have 100,000 of the disfigured, poorly made, ugly ones? GIMMIE!"

For what it's worth, XI has expanded the housing to include a 2nd story, patio area, and a somewhat large garden/monster rearing space. The housing is more limited in many ways, but it still manages to give housing to all. The game is almost 20 years now, so it probably deserves a bit of slack. XIV, however, was the new shiny MMO, and it makes me sad that they chose to make housing finite instead of expanding and improving upon what was seen previously. Wildstar is still my favorite housing system that I've experienced. I think that game did a good job of showing how expansive instanced housing can actually be, and that it doesn't have to simply be a square box (like our apartments in XIV).

As far as the topic of FC housing goes, I do wish there was some sort of a way to toggle/convert an existing personal house into an FC house, but I don't see most people wanting to give up their personal housing to designate it as the FC house, and other options would only encourage FC selling/house flipping. As far as my own selfish reasons go, I want access to a workshop. My dream is that one day they will create some sort of workshop instance that isn't linked to owning a house for FCs. It's not great that so many are locked out of that feature. :X

[Catwho]

I run an FC but I can't be arsed to decorate. We have a special rank in the FC called "Interior decorator" and it's given to the folks who enjoy that. Every once in a while I come in and they're doing a full tear down and the place is a construction zone. I know they're having fun.

If your FC leader is selfish and won't share those decorating rights, maybe you should find a new FC?