Current FC / Private ward split encourages players to leave FCs

[Vuro]

My evidence for this trend is totally anecdotal, but I’m willing to bet other groups/FCs are experiencing this issue.

Now, let me be clear: I do think FCs should have an advantage when it comes to housing because they're locked out of huge features without a house. However, giving them 3/4ths of all available wards is pretty extreme, and while I'm confident this isn't a permanent thing, this distribution needs to change sooner than later.

My FFXIV friend group is comprised of 13 people, which would be a great number for an active, healthy FC. Unfortunately, due to the housing situation, 6 of those people have formed their own FCs specifically to more easily obtain plots (which they all now have). So, instead of having one strong, unified company, we have four tiny FCs between us all.

The remaining 7 of us are in the same FC, but after today's lottery results, one of my friends is contemplating leaving because she badly wants a small in Empyreum, of which there are dozens of vacancies in the FC wards. Even though she'd much rather stay with the company, she's been trying and failing to snag a house for so long, she's starting to feel that making her own FC is the only way to achieve that goal when so few private plots are now available.

Although my partner and I are very lucky to have small plots of our own, we'd really like a medium –it's hard not to be tempted to form our own FC when another friend scored an Empyreum medium completely uncontested during the first lotto (it also doesn't help that our current FC leader isn't keen to let other people decorate the shared house, but that's a personal problem lol). We've put enough work into our FC that I wouldn't want to abandon it now, but it kind of sucks knowing it would be SO much easier to grab a medium if we left!

I appreciate that the good intentions behind the current split, but at this point, the distribution might be doing FCs more harm than good.

[DeNada]

You've hit the nail on its head. After round 2 of the lottery, there's extremely few personal plots left for bidding for the 3rd round whereas there's still hundreds of FC plots still unbidden, for players who are desperate to get housing, this is the avenue which Square Enix have driven the players to.

If the intention of the developers is to allow the FCs a fair chance to obtain a plot, they have had plenty of chances by now and any further delaying of the personal/FC ward split adjustments would have warped their original intentions of a more cohesive community as more players will continue to leave their FCS to spin off their own instead, resulting in a fractured player base and ghost wards since the FCs are basically just shell entities and not actual FCs.

[Aossi]

My partner and I just left a good FC for this exact reason. We're forming one now in the hopes in 30 days these numbers are still skewed. If the developers shift the ratio we can always go back to the folks we liked being around but... I cannot use the private house my alt owns, and I want to demo it - but before I do I NEED a house on my main.

Another massive way the company could change things is allowing all characters on a single account to access private homes. I am not sure why they restrict players like this when every other MMO I have played automatically allows alts to use the main's property. There are tons of people out there buying billions of FC houses simply because of the main/alt differences with land ownership vs private housing. That means not allowing alts has also contributed to the loss of FC members, as well.

[Yodada]

My evidence for this trend is totally anecdotal, but I’m willing to bet other groups/FCs are experiencing this issue.

Now, let me be clear: I do think FCs should have an advantage when it comes to housing because they're locked out of huge features without a house. However, giving them 3/4ths of all available wards is pretty extreme, and while I'm confident this isn't a permanent thing, this distribution needs to change sooner than later.

My FFXIV friend group is comprised of 13 people, which would be a great number for an active, healthy FC. Unfortunately, due to the housing situation, 6 of those people have formed their own FCs specifically to more easily obtain plots (which they all now have). So, instead of having one strong, unified company, we have four tiny FCs between us all.

The remaining 7 of us are in the same FC, but after today's lottery results, one of my friends is contemplating leaving because she badly wants a small in Empyreum, of which there are dozens of vacancies in the FC wards. Even though she'd much rather stay with the company, she's been trying and failing to snag a house for so long, she's starting to feel that making her own FC is the only way to achieve that goal when so few private plots are now available.

Although my partner and I are very lucky to have small plots of our own, we'd really like a medium –it's hard not to be tempted to form our own FC when another friend scored an Empyreum medium completely uncontested during the first lotto (it also doesn't help that our current FC leader isn't keen to let other people decorate the shared house, but that's a personal problem lol). We've put enough work into our FC that I wouldn't want to abandon it now, but it kind of sucks knowing it would be SO much easier to grab a medium if we left!

I appreciate that the good intentions behind the current split, but at this point, the distribution might be doing FCs more harm than good.

Why does it matter if one FC splits into several small ones? I mean its not forbidden to create a Linkshell for talking with each other or still doing stuff together. So why should it be a problem then? If those arent talking to you after they created their FC i wouldnt call them Friends anyways.

You even have more benefits, be it several workshops (e.g one of your Friends FCs can run airship, subs, farming housing stuff etc), more garden plots for different crops, different buffs where people can switch in between (e.g. make one for the standard buffs, gather/crafting stuff, etc.) they need. And as the obvious one more Houses of course. You can even try to get your smaller Friends FC into the same location for a village type RP stuff etc. e.g. one house could be a forge, one a cafe etc etc etc.

[Nepentha]

The remaining 7 of us are in the same FC, but after today's lottery results, one of my friends is contemplating leaving because she badly wants a small in Empyreum, of which there are dozens of vacancies in the FC wards. Even though she'd much rather stay with the company, she's been trying and failing to snag a house for so long, she's starting to feel that making her own FC is the only way to achieve that goal when so few private plots are now available.

Although my partner and I are very lucky to have small plots of our own, we'd really like a medium –it's hard not to be tempted to form our own FC when another friend scored an Empyreum medium completely uncontested during the first lotto (it also doesn't help that our current FC leader isn't keen to let other people decorate the shared house, but that's a personal problem lol). We've put enough work into our FC that I wouldn't want to abandon it now, but it kind of sucks knowing it would be SO much easier to grab a medium if we left!

I appreciate that the good intentions behind the current split, but at this point, the distribution might be doing FCs more harm than good.

To be perfectly honest, this is the way tides are shifting. I've said it before, but there's no reason to cloister people into the same FC together anymore. Actions are nice, but not make or break. The FC workshop and garden are things most rank and file FC members never touch in a larger FC. Apartments are a better investment than FC rooms as you can't get kicked from them and have all your work demolished as you can with an FC room. There's inter-DC travel, crossworld parties, crossworld linkshells, and even outside venues such as Discord that connect people.

You can't tell me you and your friends never speak, now that you aren't in the same FC. I'm sure you still connect as much as you did before via other means. And now your friends have their own house they have control over to decorate, use the workshop, etc.

My own friends group is in the same boat. We began in a larger FC together, and over the years drifted to our own smaller FCs, some on entirely different servers in the same DC. Hasn't changed anything though. We still talk every day, still gather together to do things. We use crossworld parties, linkshells, we travel to each other's venues for roleplay or doing something such as Fates together. Is it weird to be in this FC with just a handful of people? Sometimes if I think about it, yeah, but like, everyone's drifted to where they are for many different reasons. In the end, nothing has changed enough that we've lost contact with each other.

[KurohNeko]

My partner and I just left a good FC for this exact reason. We're forming one now in the hopes in 30 days these numbers are still skewed. If the developers shift the ratio we can always go back to the folks we liked being around but... I cannot use the private house my alt owns, and I want to demo it - but before I do I NEED a house on my main.

Another massive way the company could change things is allowing all characters on a single account to access private homes. I am not sure why they restrict players like this when every other MMO I have played automatically allows alts to use the main's property. There are tons of people out there buying billions of FC houses simply because of the main/alt differences with land ownership vs private housing. That means not allowing alts has also contributed to the loss of FC members, as well.

Yeah don't understand why my alt can't use my house when it's account based. lazy coding probably.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

Do what I did, make an alt and make an fc on said alt. I am going through stormblood msq atm on the alt. It's been lovely doing msq again, super hyped to do shb and ew again, and I got an fc house to experience subs and airships as no fc I had been in would let me access that content. All your friends could have leveled or boosted an alt and jus grabbed the plot that way. I really enjoyed doing the new trimmed down ARR. My little FC is gna be a year old in a couple days! Some friends put their alts in it to also try subs and i have a couple sprouts in there now too ^^

I find our community to be in discord for the most part. I am temporarily out of my main fc on main char to do some crafting of furniture on the mansion I won in the first lottery. All fc events are organised on discord and we even have a linkshell to talk in game. You and all those friends should make a linkshell