Why can low level alts purchase FC housing?

[Nepentha]

Bear with me, bit of a tale here.

Last month, a large house in the Mists popped on Balmung. Of course everyone was there. The crowd had hundreds of people in it hoping to win the plot. But the person who actually won it was of course in a lvl 6 FC that had only 4 members. Soon after the purchase, they pulled out 3 of the four members. It was promptly listed for sale on a well known RMT site for $1000. And it sold.

I had been there cheering on a friend and witnessed this, so I sat up and began paying attention. I watched as these individuals soon formed another FC, leveled it up to 6. Soon enough they were at another housing camp, a small this time. And they won that, too. Looking at their RMT page listing, of course that exact housing plot appeared, selling for around $280. By now it, too, has sold.

I'm sure you can predict what happens next. Yes, they created a new FC. Leveled it to 6, and appeared at yet another housing placard camp.

The character they used to camp the next plot was only lvl 17. They did not win this time! But... they then won the next camp, another small house that went up on their RMT page for sale shortly after winning it. (It's still for sale somehow.)

Of the last 5 housing camps they've been at, they've won 4 of them. On low level alts, or characters that haven't leveled up their rank with their Grand Company, meaning they can't purchase personal housing.

So why the discrepancy? Why do you have to jump through hoops to be allowed to purchase personal housing but not FC housing? Hell you have to be level 50 in at least one job, and be rank a Second Lieutenant with your grand company before you can even purchase an apartment or an FC room.

But to get an FC house all you have to do is have four characters sign your charter and hang out long enough for you to get that FC to rank 6 (it does not take long at all to do this) and then even if you're level 17 and don't even have a grand company yet, you can jet over to the latest housing camp and buy an FC house.

Why is that? Because that's how most botting and/or RMT sellers are gaming the system right now.

(Addendum: Yes, this person has been reported by a lot of people. They just bought a medium FC house yesterday morning and the plot sold for 550 euros to someone later the same day. Clearly nothing is being done about him.)

[Jojoya]

I agree it's strange that FC purchase rights don't also include a requirement to at least have obtained Second Lieutenant with the character's Grand Company. On the other hand, that wouldn't be much of a barrier to the activity you're witnessing since it would only take a few days to get the rank and the character is permanently set once that happens.

There really aren't all that many restrictions that would be effective when real money is involved. One account gets locked by purchase restrictions? Switch to another account until the first account has passed the restriction period. The RMT is more than paying for the cost of license purchase and subscription. The upcoming changes in 6.1 might slow down how rapidly a single character can buy and sell plots but they won't stop it as long as there aren't enough plots to meet demand in the player community.

As for nothing being done about the individual in question, there's really nothing SE can do that would have an effective impact. They can ban the account but he'll be back in business within a week on a new account doing the exact same thing. The most they accomplish is making another $20 selling a new game license to the individual.

The only thing that would have an impact is to radically change the housing system so that such exploits can't occur, and that will never happen as long as SE chooses to stick to wards. Demand will always outstrip supply as long as there is profit to be had from a limited housing system, whether gil (via gardens and workshops) or real money (via sale of plots).

The small house you reference probably hasn't sold because we're getting close to Ishgard opening. I imagine a lot of potential RMT buyers are holding out until then since their chances of getting a small house for "free" will temporarily be very high at release. It's the medium and large houses that will continue to attract high RMT demand since those are much harder to obtain and competition for them at Ishgard's release will be fierce. Once the new supply of houses is sold out in 6.1, then you'll see a resurgence in small house RMT transactions.

[IckeDerTyp]

No way it sold for that much...

Yoshi please... Fix the housing finally T_T

[Nepentha]

As for nothing being done about the individual in question, there's really nothing SE can do that would have an effective impact. They can ban the account but he'll be back in business within a week on a new account doing the exact same thing. The most they accomplish is making another $20 selling a new game license to the individual.

I agree with most of what you said, except this. It would at least show to the community that they actually do read our reports and act on them. The way they have reports set up, there's no transparency whatsoever. For all we know those reports go right into a trash bin somewhere. While I realize they can't tell us results due to privacy concerns, they could at least let us know someone has reviewed it. (I'm talking off the website, which is the only place you can report RMT and botting activity.)

Otherwise, yes, this will continue in some fashion until SE finally realizes this is not sustainable and takes another route to player housing.

[Jojoya]

I agree with most of what you said, except this. It would at least show to the community that they actually do read our reports and act on them. The way they have reports set up, there's no transparency whatsoever. For all we know those reports go right into a trash bin somewhere. While I realize they can't tell us results due to privacy concerns, they could at least let us know someone has reviewed it. (I'm talking off the website, which is the only place you can report RMT and botting activity.)

Otherwise, yes, this will continue in some fashion until SE finally realizes this is not sustainable and takes another route to player housing.

We already know they read our reports and feedback on the subject.

There would have never been a purchase timer added in 4.2 if they were ignoring us.

Relocation would still be bypassing the purchase timer if they were ignoring us instead of being subject to it as of 6.0.

There wouldn't be the upcoming changes to transfer of FC leadership in 6.1 if they were ignoring us.

They could separate illicit housing activity actions in the weekly "Actions against..." notices but that still doesn't accomplish anything. It's not a deterrent to anyone engaging in RMT.

Are you really going to feel any better seeing "oh they banned someone last week" when you also know that same person is already back to engaging in housing RMT before the weekly notice even gets posted using a new account purchased with the money they made from the RMT sale on the account that was banned?

I know it wouldn't make me feel better. I want meaningful action taken, not pointless statements for sake of appearance.

If RMT in housing is going to get stopped, then the system that supports RMT needs to be replaced with one that does not have loopholes for RMT to exploit. How to do?

- Go to a fully instanced housing system. Other MMOs have amazing instanced housing systems, including ESO which is also multi-platform so "PS4 support" can't be used as an excuse. Characters get to own multiple housing locations instead of being restricted on how many they can have. There's no RMT drama interfering with any player's ability to get the specific housing they want because everyone can have the same thing.

- Still intent on keeping wards? Then remove FC houses from the ward system and go all personal houses with all purchases 100% lottery. Give FCs a version of squadron barracks as a meeting hall with workshop attached based out of the affiliated GC headquarters. That takes the RMT out of FC ownership short of a lazy player wanting a workshop that's already fully established.

[worldofneil]

There wouldn't be the upcoming changes to transfer of FC leadership in 6.1 if they were ignoring us.

Sorry I don't wish to derail this thread, but what upcoming changes to transfer of FC leadership in 6.1?

[Jojoya]

Sorry I don't wish to derail this thread, but what upcoming changes to transfer of FC leadership in 6.1?

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5709666

Second slide (top right): "It will no longer be possible to grant brand-new FC members authorization to purchase land or the rank of FC Master."

The specific period that a member would be considered "brand-new" wasn't stated during the Live Letter, only that it would be "significant" (which doesn't mean much).
My personal guess is that the period will be the same as the current auto-dethrone for failure to log in (35 days).

It's going to slow down how often house flipping via FC transfer can happen but I don't see it stopping it altogether. Flippers will simply focus their efforts on purchasing then finding buyers on other worlds and accounts while waiting for the "escrow" (new member period) to expire on their current pending sale.

Again, SE is creating a mess by making restrictions per world instead of making them account wide regardless of world. Any player with multiple houses, even if each is on a different world, is taking away the opportunity for another player to be able to own a house at all. It's rather crazy that a single player with a single account is able to obtain up to 80 houses under the current rules and will be able to continue to do so even after the rules changes simply because SE won't make the ownership restriction account-wide. They keep tossing flimsy band-aids on a system that needs a thorough overhaul.

[Nepentha]

I'm gonna go ahead and boop this back up to be seen since it's definitely feedback.

[NanaWiloh]

Has likely been said more times then be counted. But FC houses belong strictly to the Free Company itself. This is why FC house purchasing has a different requirement. It is not seen as a house intended for one person despite people using them that way.

[Jojoya]

Has likely been said more times then be counted. But FC houses belong strictly to the Free Company itself. This is why FC house purchasing has a different requirement. It is not seen as a house intended for one person despite people using them that way.

But that doesn't mean that changes can't be considered that would prevent such abuses of the system or at least ensure that others get fair access.