Need more wards.

[Sourcy]

I don't want the best house. I want A house. Any Size. Any house. Any ward or district. I have lost 41 lotteries and been trying since 2.4 on my main on Balmung to get one.

We need either:
1. More wards added, Smalls on the new wards restricted from people relocating.
or
2. Instanced housing.

Almost every plot available for private bidders on Balmung and Mateus had 2+ bids. Every Medium and up had 3+ an Excess of empty houses hurts nobody. Artificial scarcity for the sake of it is bad for people who want this content and have been wanting this content for the better part of a decade and have been locked out.

[Jojoya]

We don't need more wards - the fact is when 7.0 comes around there will be a OVER-abundance of housing as likely Sharlayan opens;

Where are you getting the information that SE plans to open a new housing district in 7.0 and that it will be in Sharlayan?

There is an overabundance of small FC housing because the devs have no idea what they are doing.

I think a better way of putting it would be that they don't understand what players want from housing.

Honestly I think the problem with the everyone getting their "dream house" is people will just mark it off the "to do" list and once they got it just unsub a few months later. I have seen people praise instanced housing - but every game I see it done really seems to be either dead or gone. I think the reality is that when everyone gets everything they want when they want it; they will just stop appreciating it.

So they mark it off their to do list and walk away if they don't have an actual interest in housing. The housing would still be getting enjoyed by those who like having a home for their character and decorating.

That's already happening here. How many players have their house just to mark it off the to do list but never really make use of them? Because they've done that and won't give up the house they aren't using, it's forcing SE to expand wards so those who sincerely want a house can get it. If this was an instanced system, players checking it off their "to do" list and then igoring it wouldn't be a problem.

The reason those other games are "dead or gone" is because the developers failed at the core aspects of their games in some way. None of those games mentioned were housing-focused games, just as FFXIV is not a housing focused game.

Does it make sense to keep a system going where those who don't appreciate what they have get to keep it, while those who would appreciate having it can't get it? It seems like you're talking about players that only see housing as a symbol of prestige. Not everyone views housing in that way. Remove the prestige element created by scarcity and the former would lose interest in housing while the latter would have a more enjoyable game experience.

I don't want the best house. I want A house. Any Size. Any house. Any ward or district. I have lost 41 lotteries and been trying since 2.4 on my main on Balmung to get one.

We need either:
1. More wards added, Smalls on the new wards restricted from people relocating.
or
2. Instanced housing.

Almost every plot available for private bidders on Balmung and Mateus had 2+ bids. Every Medium and up had 3+ an Excess of empty houses hurts nobody. Artificial scarcity for the sake of it is bad for people who want this content and have been wanting this content for the better part of a decade and have been locked out.

Need to keep in mind that a bid doesn't necessarily represent a houseless player. They could be trying to relocate to a more desirable plot.

Once the more desirable plots are sold and we're down to the "better than nothing" smalls, we'll have a much better idea of just how much unmet demand is left on each world.

Anyone who's been trying and failing to get a house for a decade hasn't been trying as hard as they want you to believe. Not even Balmung filled up immediately when wards 13-18 were added in patch 4.2. It doesn't change that now it's more difficult to get a house but if they had actually been trying to get one for all that time, they would have had it at one point.

[Krakksie]

This housing system has been a disaster by my books. I have been trying to upgrade a house for almost over a year on the new system, where in every single bid ended up as a loss.

Now I understand that a certain someone wants a 'Sense of community in the housing district' but this should not be forced upon every single player. For FC wards I get it you want to see people there, make it so. However SE really needs to make an instanced option for all private buyers, unrestricted of house numbers (enough for all players, but limited to one per account/server). This would mean that FC's are the ones who would be on what we see as current, and all private being in an instanced micro district.

After losing every single housing bid, it gets tiring where you begin to start considering to no longer sub to the game, Ive had a housing design ive wanted to do for the last year but im constantly denied to do it because of this shockingly gatekept housing system.

More wards will never fix this problem. However a private housing instance system would. (all current private houses would be auto relocated to the instanced district to free up space for all FC purchases). This would also allow you as a player to 'upgrade' your house from small, medium or large, without having the ongoing stress and frustration of waiting and losing every single bid for years upon years.

[Sourcy]

I agree, but now imagine how it feels if you didn't even have the small you currently have. The artificial scarcity that could have just been solved with an optional larger instanced system like apartments, or just biting the bullet and outright doubling plots should not be a thing. I'd argue even that if you made an instanced ward that cost 5$ per month to be in it would sell like hotcakes.

The worst part of all this is the second lotto after when the new ones open and you see dozens of smalls collecting dust in FC only wards. Then you bid and lose again. It's maddening. And some of us have been trying since ARR for houses.

[Raim]

I don't think instanced housing is the answer since it would just awkwardly result in two forms of player housing. They just need to invest heavily in servers to match the growing population and add way, way more wards especially on NA/EU.

[Avoidy]

Honestly stop adding useless FC wards, and I say this as someone who GAVE UP, made an alt, boosted it, created a shell fc for him, and used that shell fc to finally buy a goddamned house after losing my personal on a goddamned coin toss. Even though it's literally how I got a home, I will still say it anyway, like I've been saying.
Stop with the FC wards. Stop adding them. Anyone who owns an FC and doesn't have a house at this point for that FC doesn't need any more exclusive chances. This shit is ridiculous, you've had your shot. On balmung, the meme RP server with loads of people, small private homes had 1-2 people bidding before the lotto ended. Some smalls literally just had 1. Imagine if they'd opened that FC ward 25 up to individuals. Imagine how just that, would have helped disperse the demand to give more people what they wanted and create less competition and 50/50 shots. Since they're hell bent on the ward system anyway, stop giving FCs privileges; literally my fc ward is empty as hell and the winners are all shells like mine is. No genuine FC got into my ward. It's sickening. I am one person, but I won a home in a free company ward. Same with all the other people in the free company ward. MAYBE just make it an individual ward instead. How incompetent do they honestly have to be I swear to god.

Or failing that, actually address the ward problem on a world by world basis. Balmung is perpetually screwed housing-wise. It should get priority over worlds that don't have a similar problem. They started this, sort of, with Dynamis. I want them to keep it going. Done in earnest, balmung should legit have 2-3 more wards than every other world on crystal, minimum, because it's a perpetually congested RP server i.e. hella people are gonna want homes here compared to some of these other worlds that -- let's be real -- are only congested for 6.3 and are gonna die hard in like a month.

[Sourcy]

Honestly stop adding useless FC wards, and I say this as someone who GAVE UP, made an alt, boosted it, created a shell fc for him, and used that shell fc to finally buy a goddamned house after losing my personal on a goddamned coin toss. Even though it's literally how I got a home, I will still say it anyway, like I've been saying.
Stop with the FC wards. Stop adding them. Anyone who owns an FC and doesn't have a house at this point for that FC doesn't need any more exclusive chances. This shit is ridiculous, you've had your shot. On balmung, the meme RP server with loads of people, small private homes had 1-2 people bidding before the lotto ended. Some smalls literally just had 1. Imagine if they'd opened that FC ward 25 up to individuals. Imagine how just that, would have helped disperse the demand to give more people what they wanted and create less competition and 50/50 shots. Since they're hell bent on the ward system anyway, stop giving FCs privileges; literally my fc ward is empty as hell and the winners are all shells like mine is. No genuine FC got into my ward. It's sickening. I am one person, but I won a home in a free company ward. Same with all the other people in the free company ward. MAYBE just make it an individual ward instead. How incompetent do they honestly have to be I swear to god.

Or failing that, actually address the ward problem on a world by world basis. Balmung is perpetually screwed housing-wise. It should get priority over worlds that don't have a similar problem. They started this, sort of, with Dynamis. I want them to keep it going. Done in earnest, balmung should legit have 2-3 more wards than every other world on crystal, minimum, because it's a perpetually congested RP server i.e. hella people are gonna want homes here compared to some of these other worlds that -- let's be real -- are only congested for 6.3 and are gonna die hard in like a month.

There are dozens of untouched smalls that got zero bids in every district ward 25 on Balmung. And about 20 new smalls from FC only wards 1-8 in various places have popped up from smalls moving out. Next week it is entirely possible that there will be quite literally over 100 small lots in FC only wards that will simply be picked up by shell FC's to Resell via RMT or cheese to make personals while the 200-250 people who didn't win their 50-25% chance on their small have to fight over the paltry 10 or so available smalls that come up from people moving.

[Fable]

If it was up to me (it isn't) I would just create a new instanced FC zone and remove FC only wards entirely. The FC plot could fit 3 houses. 1 mansion, 1 medium, 1 small but the houses could all be downsized.

[Avoidy]

There are dozens of untouched smalls that got zero bids in every district ward 25 on Balmung. And about 20 new smalls from FC only wards 1-8 in various places have popped up from smalls moving out. Next week it is entirely possible that there will be quite literally over 100 small lots in FC only wards that will simply be picked up by shell FC's to Resell via RMT or cheese to make personals while the 200-250 people who didn't win their 50-25% chance on their small have to fight over the paltry 10 or so available smalls that come up from people moving.

Yup, it's completely ridiculous. I see posts here that are like "but muh fc, I need a spot for muh fc" and I just have zero sympathy at this point. Literally the only FCs struggling for housing are doing it to themselves because they're desperate for a medium or a large.
I wish Square would get their heads out of their asses and just open the remaining plots up to individual buyers already.

[Yodada]

I wish Square would get their heads out of their asses and just open the remaining plots up to individual buyers already.

We all know what will happen afterwards. Didnt won the Large, Medium etc. outcries. I wont bid on a house in Uldah cries. I dont want a non desired plot I want a LB41 or a M35 cries. The players especially the OF cant be satisfied.