Housing Roulette was an absolute trash idea.

[angienessyo]

There is a small that has 3 bidders on it, with a 4th checking it out, and another small across the street that has 0. Its not the FC ward, so I can't imagine it was FC bidders.

That's how it is on Cactuar. I've been watching the wards where my house is for some FC mates and there's still a lot of houses up for grabs. (think A LOT of stuff got demo'd) Some smalls will have a few bids and there will be a few others in the same ward with no bids. I don't know if this is still the case, but last night my friend saw there was even an Ishgard large with 0 bids. During the population boom we were one of the bigger servers because all the streamers came here, so I'm surprised we have so many houses available and there was quite a few without bids last night.

[Packetdancer]

I still stand by my belief that FCs shouldn't be in the ward system at all.

Admittedly, this is because I think an FC should have guaranteed access to the company workshop, at the very least, and because I think any FC benefits by having a place to gather. Gating those on possession of a house that is, even by the most generous interpretations, dependent on RNG is not good design.

Individuals can snag apartments. Yes, they're still gated from engaging in gardening due to lack of a yard, which is an issue, and the space to decorate in an apartment is fairly minimal... but FCs do not have even that option. If they want a company workshop, or to engage in airship/submersible exploration, or anything else... they currently must have a house, period.

Give FCs an instanced FC airship when they hit rank... I dunno, 4 or 5. Make it a rank perk.

The interior of the airship would serve like a housing interior, letting you use interior decorations, and have access to a company workshop and personal FC rooms. The top deck of the airship would work like a yard, allowing you to place gardening plots and whatnot.

As an added benefit, since the airship is just... up in the air with nothing nearby, as I've suggested when I make this suggestion previously, you could have the FC officers pilot it to new places (thus changing the view you see from the airship deck). Want to park off the coast of Eureka? Why not! Over the Yfaem Saltmoor, with the ruins of Mhach below? Sure! Off the northern coast of Thavnair, along the Corvos Narrow with the Anchorite visible on the horizon? Absolutely! Etc.

By virtue of the fact that there are fewer rank 5 FCs than there are players, you put something of a practical soft cap on the number of instanced airships that are going to be in use at any given time; this (hopefully) alleviates some of the issues that this server architecture seems likely to have with fully-instanced housing in general. It also means that an FC doesn't need to worry about losing their house if people take a break; the instanced airship is a function of FC rank.

I admit this would inconvenience my own FC, because we lucked into a large in Shirogane right next to a marketboard; folks gather at the FC house and can craft and have access to the marketboard and retainer right outside our front gate, which is super convenient. Having a marketboard on the airships (tied to whichever city-state's grand company you're allied with) would probably not fly with the devs, though, who don't want to encourage people to wander off into private areas indefinitely.

Still, it would mean that FCs have guaranteed 'housing' (and access to systems they would otherwise be gated from), and by bumping FCs from the housing ward, you free up additional housing for individuals and eliminate the entire shell FC/FC-transfer loophole that people use to own multiple houses.

It's not a band-... well, okay, it is a band-aid, but it's a big one. Maybe more of a tourniquet than a band-aid?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Akira]

how i would it it is leave the wards for FC only and give everyone an instanced land where they could upgrade over time if they cant outright afford a large that way everybody gets a house.

[Corvus_V]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Disconnecting the company workshop from FC housing is definitely a good thing, because in disincentives the tragedy on Seraph. So I agree. I just also think people should be able to own the size of house they want, instanced. Hell, even if there was the simple "You can't own an apartment/fc apartment and also an instanced house, so pick one" and whatever space they accounted for you would be converted to something you'd actually enjoy decorating, that'd be enough. I just don't really see an end to players getting pissed off about it due to a deliberately manufactured scarcity. If you have the gil to pay for something that's provided by the game itself, you should be able to do that. It's totally unnecessary for it to be frustrating, especially since you can't make your own luck in getting one of the size you want. RNG was always bad. Better than the hopeless grief of placard spamming, but still awful in this scenario in particular. When so few people win compared to the size of the pool, and of literally no extra effort on their part; it's just bound to aggravate people, and they're justified in feeling that way. Giving people an alternative of equal value, (especially in that it doesn't demo) is the only route to ending it.

It goes without saying Square Enix would actually have to do something. But I will never agree on a complete speculation that it's impossible from a company that saves so much in assets and makes so much off this game in particular. If they get so much from us, when so many people are pissed about something they should be working on solutions that scale to the playerbase. Wards will not work.

[localareanetwork]

While better than placard spam, I think the method we have now is a bit too fair. Maybe make it an actual bid system if someone *really* wants a house

Or they could uh, do the thing they said they'd do, and make some wards first come first serve and some other ones lottery..

[Corvus_V]

While better than placard spam, I think the method we have now is a bit too fair. Maybe make it an actual bid system if someone *really* wants a house

Or they could uh, do the thing they said they'd do, and make some wards first come first serve and some other ones lottery..

As much as that'd be great for me, because I can usually manage to make time one way or another, and my PC is powerful (and it is what they said they'd do, so it was what I was expecting); if we've really learned anything from the lottery system it's just how inadequate the wards are in general. I'd still more or less be here advocating on someone else's behalf just because of how obviously crappy it is. Or other people would be. More wards, or first come first serve, etc, placard spamming or lottery; no matter what, with a manufactured scarcity that serves no actual purpose or benefit; some people will just not own houses, or the size they want, etc. Placard spamming, lottery, etc all just serve different subsets of people more than others. Even if people insist lottery doesn't, it does. You're still benefitted by being online and bidding at the last second on plots that either have no bids or you've managed to pick the ones with the lowest bidders. It's also just a shift in time. I benefited the most before, I'd have won 3 consecutive large houses if not for the lottery system. It'd just be other people who were pissed off by it because they couldn't log in as fast, or weren't prepared or didn't have a plan, or had work and didn't/couldn't get time off, etc. So it's really only more fair.

There was definitely things they did wrong, in spite of that. easily foreseeable things, without even considering the bugs like Winner 0; like the division of FC wards just being outrageously oversized in comparison to individual player demand. But ultimately wards just serve to piss people off without an actually fair or equivalent alternative. None of it addresses the fact that people are unhappy that houses demo in the first place. It's just all around a shitty system with no actual social pay-off. It'll never keep up with the people who want to just decorate and it's a really silly hill to die on to insist that this is the best way.

[RobynDaBank]

There is a small that has 3 bidders on it, with a 4th checking it out, and another small across the street that has 0. Its not the FC ward, so I can't imagine it was FC bidders.

I'd personally judge only come the last day of the lottery.

[Deceptus]

2023 and We're STILL seeing multiple instances of a single FC trying to take over a ward, on a populated server no less. THIS.SHOULD.NOT.BE.HAPPENING.

[Stormpeaks]

2023 and We're STILL seeing multiple instances of a single FC trying to take over a ward, on a populated server no less. THIS.SHOULD.NOT.BE.HAPPENING.

Did you ignore all of the available plots on purpose ? You know, the ones that have a price tag on them and that are not sold and that people are free to take at any time ?

[Midareyukki]

2023 and We're STILL seeing multiple instances of a single FC trying to take over a ward, on a populated server no less. THIS.SHOULD.NOT.BE.HAPPENING.

That can't be right, can it? An FC can't own multiple houses, at least not anymore (because I remember a time where at least individual owners could have multiple houses). And that tag means that it's an FC-owned house, not something by an individual. Something's not right with that image. Probably an exploit or something. Especially since, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the 25th Ward a recent addition? One added in after the restrictions started being put in place on individual owners?

If that's the case then that doesn't appear to be happening under normal circumstances.

So, yeah sure, you have multiple open plots. But the bigger question is how the heck are they keeping those plots to begin with when it, I assume, shouldn't be possible? At least not as of the implementation of the 25th ward?

Edit: I got a possible answer. One group, multiple FC's, same name, usually with alts. If so, Square likely won't bother to look into it, since they treat it as a different FC each time.