Don't worry, GMs lied to/misled players in JP about FC housing too

[Antagonist01]

In 6.1, a new restriction to purchasing FC housing was added:
“4. You must have been a member of your free company for 30 days or longer.(*)
* This is a new requirement introduced in Patch 6.1, in order to preserve the integrity of the lottery system.”

Maybe understandable, but JP worlds have been re-grouped: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...25cb0c1c99b3c4

As a result, free transfers have been given to members of the JP DC. One rationale is:

“To reduce disruption caused by the World redistribution of Japanese data centers, the Home World Transfer Service will be free to use for a limited time. After reviewing feedback from players, we have decided to ensure that this time period occurs before land in the new residential district becomes available for purchase in Patch 6.1.”

New problem: FCs relocate, but don’t have time to get FC housing. The result is being unable to participate in the Ishgard housing lottery.

Concern was raised on the Japanese forum, the GMs posted an update: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fd1648e8f2189d

“We would like to apologize to those who were looking forward to the upcoming lottery system and purchasing land in Empyreum but no longer meet the lottery system requirements as a result of their free company changing Home Worlds in anticipation of the World redistribution. The newly added requirement is necessary to prevent the resale of land and would be difficult to change. As such, we will look into individual requests from free companies that have been affected by this issue.”

TL;DR

• Multiple FCs left Meteor-destined servers to reform.
• They applied for exemption (April 11 for mine), provided GMs requested info about history, members and transfer dates.
• GMs ignored these applications and/or didn't respond until after April 17 (post-lottery), and decided not to waive 30 day limit despite meeting conditions.

Technically nothing was guaranteed, but double digit numbers of people in the same FCs in Meteor servers for 1-3 years with no history of re-selling land, were unambiguously affected by the server redistribution, and moved to a new server/FC with same leaders in hopes of staying in touch with friends. If this doesn't meet the conditions, what does?

Not expecting anything from this. Trolls might respond, and I don't know what % of FCs got screwed (but definitely more than just mine). But let it be known that GMs selectively apply their decisions/mislead their players about housing even in JP.

[MagnusMKI]

I've done GM work on MMOs before, and the rough contradiction between the idea and action with that vague maybe language screams "One of the staff got screwed by this too, and is asking the boss. If we can do it for him, we can hopefully do it for others" and they got a big ol NO. I'm sorry your FC got screwed out of it.

[Grizzy]

man that sucks, sadly just another thing to add to the burning pile that is the Emp housing launch.

[Jojoya]

I doubt the GMs have lied. GMs aren't the development team and have no knowledge of the programming involved. I'm sure they've done what they said they would - contacted the developers to see if there was some way to change purchase eligibility for those who transferred. This is an instance of an oversight by the development team in making the transfers available right at the time the lottery was being implemented instead of making them available sooner.

Out of curiosity, what percentage of FC plots didn't have any bids at all on the JP worlds? It could be that there will still be plenty of plots left (though not medium/large) by the time the FCs that transferred become eligible to purchase.

If the concern was the loss of a medium or large house on the old world, the FC probably shouldn't have transferred because there was never a guarantee they would be able to get a medium or large on their new world.

[StarkeRegulus]

Scummy as F...

[Antagonist01]

It probably isn't the GM who is typing the response themselves who are able to do it because they said they "submitted our request" for investigation and "escalated it". But someone in the FFXIV dev team is responsible for this type of flawed and inconsistent decisionmaking and the announcement was made by the "support team".

These clowns claim to implement restrictions to "preserve the integrity of the system" and meanwhile this happens: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ultiple-houses.

Legitimate FCs being denied, meanwhile people creating shell FCs to game the system still get a pass. Hmm.