Empty FC Wards

[UkcsAlias]

While the number of characters that had access to Free Company housing cannot be disputed due to being taken directly from The Lodestone, the number of characters who had access to personal housing through ownership and tenancy is much lower than what's written above.

At the same time, most of the FC members also do not realy have any access to the house in regards to interaction. Its usualy just a few members that decide the layout, effectively being tenants on that. Of your 46k mebers, i suspect at most 4.6k members could actualy do something. Most members there are just inflating numbers and can use the house at best for a teleport discount.

And i do not consider stable usage as a part of that! Appartments also provide that capability, so its not FC unique.

[Rilifane]

At the same time, most of the FC members also do not realy have any access to the house in regards to interaction. Its usualy just a few members that decide the layout, effectively being tenants on that. Of your 46k mebers, i suspect at most 4.6k members could actualy do something. Most members there are just inflating numbers and can use the house at best for a teleport discount.

And i do not consider stable usage as a part of that! Appartments also provide that capability, so its not FC unique.

This is exactly what bugs me when people say "But if your FC has a house, you have a house! An FC house means 100 people can use a house!".
No, they can't.
They can teleport to it, they have a stable and maybe they're even allowed to water plants. And that's it. FC house design was always up to a selected 1-2 people in every FC I've been in, everyone else could only teleport, clean the stable/ train chocobos and sometimes water/ fertilize the garden. And if your FC had terrible taste, you were stuck with being able to relax in a gaudy house. What a privilege. Company Chest, Sub/ Airhsip, FC projects and maybe Wheelstand management was also either done by the FC leader or a selected officer.

The main reason people ask for their own house is being able to decorate it to their liking and gardening.
FFXIV often appeals to people that have a creative streak so being able to decorate is a huge appeal for them. Apartments are basically Harry Potter cupboards and you can't float furniture through the basement or close it off for more items on the main floor, which greatly limits the design choices. An apartment is not "half of a small house" as some people claim. It's much less than that.
And gardening/ farming has always been a popular minigame for many people even if it's just watering daily. The process of growing resources yourself is quite appealing and it's the reason why Island Sanctuary may offer that without needing a house.

[dspguy]

Image says it all, why are personal houses relegated to second class when all of these weren't even bid on? Am I going to have to make my own FC with dummy members just to get a house?

I don't think the 0 winning bid bugged plots have been claimed yet. Many will fill up, but not all. I wouldn't use that picture to tell your story... yet.

If you look at the FFXIVHousing site - it shows a lot of Houseless FCs. The 1-18 ward restriction for FCs is designed to handle that. Over a few lottery sessions, we will see those wards fill up. If they are still partially empty at that point, maybe SE will open it up to private buyers.

[Big_Bap]

At the same time, most of the FC members also do not realy have any access to the house in regards to interaction. Its usualy just a few members that decide the layout, effectively being tenants on that. Of your 46k mebers, i suspect at most 4.6k members could actualy do something. Most members there are just inflating numbers and can use the house at best for a teleport discount.

And i do not consider stable usage as a part of that! Appartments also provide that capability, so its not FC unique.

Easy solution to what obviously doesn't appear to be a problem on the NA server, because yall are fine staying in large FCs. Don"t like it? Make your own with some friends.

Don't want to? Don't complain.

[Themarvin]

Trust me, it is the right thing to do with empty FC wards right now, they will open up later, they did so with shirogane as well, however they offered people who wanted to relocate that option as well back then, the op has not played the game long enough to know or realize that it is certainly a different approach in this game, than which he came from.

[not_ya_wify]

Image says it all, why are personal houses relegated to second class when all of these weren't even bid on? Am I going to have to make my own FC with dummy members just to get a house?

Y'all do realize there was a major bug preventing lottery winners from claiming their houses and they are still working on trying to fix the issue. I also think giving that many wards to Free Companies is overkill but saying that all these houses are empty because nobody wanted them just isn't true. I'm also betting that they are watching the situation and will later release FC wards to individuals. They've done this before where ALL wards were ALL FCs. (That's why I never got a personal large house...) They do this to give dibs to FCs which cater to more than one player. After all the Free Companies took the houses they wanted many small plots were still open. So, the released it back to individual purchasers. Of course, for an individual buyer it sucks if you set your sights on a mansion but that's one disgruntled person versus 15 in an FC

[not_ya_wify]

FC house design was always up to a selected 1-2 people in every FC I've been in, everyone else could only teleport, clean the stable/ train chocobos and sometimes water/ fertilize the garden. And if your FC had terrible taste, you were stuck with being able to relax in a gaudy house. What a privilege. Company Chest, Sub/ Airhsip, FC projects and maybe Wheelstand management was also either done by the FC leader or a selected officer...

Apartments are basically Harry Potter cupboards and you can't float furniture through the basement...

An apartment is not "half of a small house" as some people claim. It's much less than that.
And gardening/ farming has always been a popular minigame for many people even if it's just watering daily.

I've had an FC with a large house since Shirogane opened. In the beginning I made sure to include every one of the interactive furnishings, so FC members can use them but nobody really did except for one or 2 people and over time I had close to 200 members. So, now I don't even put those out anymore. If anyone asked, I would though. It's true that I'm the only one who is decorating the house but I'm a decorator, so I don't get a whole lot of complaints and the FC members that are still there love to hang out. Also, a lot of FCs (and individual owners) with not so talented members but Gil to spare will hire a decorator to do their house design for them. Anyways, other than placing furniture, every FC member who has been there for 2 weeks and interacted with us gets access to everything: workshop, actions, gardening, whatever. Still, I'm the only one who purchases actions and turns them on, cleans the stables, and I haven't used the garden plots in months if not years. The only thing only I and the officers have access to is placing furniture and the orchestrion.

I also would say apartments are actually a little larger than half a small house. Apartments are 3x4 partition lengths while the top of a small house is only 3x3. It's true you can't push anything through the basement ceiling but most people who do that will block off the basement anyway. So, you actually have a 3x3 space with 200 items vs a 3x4 space with 100 items or if you don't block off the basement, you have a 3x3 + 3x4 space with 200 items. As a decorator, I think the item to space ratio in apartments is the best in the game and I love to decorate apartments. I think all the item limits should be expanded to be proportionate to apartments. In comparison, a mansion would need a minimum of 1600 items to have the same item to space ratio as apartments and that is if you only count floors. If you declare the large empty space in the middle on the top floor, you'd even need more slots than that. But instead you only get 400 items which doesn't even cover what you would need in a medium to get the same item to space ratio.