Like The Settling Of Oklahoma, But With Catgirls
October 11, 2017 10:11 AM Subscribe
On October 10th, Square Enix released patch 4.1 for Final Fantasy XIV, The Legend Returns. While there were many long awaited features released in the path, such as the first part of the Final Fantasy Tactics themed 24 man raid Return to Ivalice, one part of the patch stood above all else:
The fourth player housing area, Shirogane, would finally be opened for sales of land.
To say that this was anticipated by the playerbase would be akin to saying the Pacific is a little wet. Prior to the start of the patch maintenance period, players gathered at the entries of the district, setting themselves to Busy to prevent trade sniping (making trade requests to cancel another player's actions.) And once servers went live, the rush was massive, with Shirogane selling out within minutes, and relinquished houses in other districts selling soon afterwards. Many players got caught up in login queues, ending their chances of getting a house before they began. And even with it being against the Terms of Service, people bought land purely for speculation, with private sale prices well into the hundreds of millions of gil.
The playerbase has, to put it mildly, not taken this well. Both Kotaku and MassivelyOP have written longform pieces on the way the housing system in FFXIV is failing players in light of this recent land rush. In addition, there are numerous threads on the official forums castigating the development team for allowing this to all happen.
Previously on the Blue.
To say that this was anticipated by the playerbase would be akin to saying the Pacific is a little wet. Prior to the start of the patch maintenance period, players gathered at the entries of the district, setting themselves to Busy to prevent trade sniping (making trade requests to cancel another player's actions.) And once servers went live, the rush was massive, with Shirogane selling out within minutes, and relinquished houses in other districts selling soon afterwards. Many players got caught up in login queues, ending their chances of getting a house before they began. And even with it being against the Terms of Service, people bought land purely for speculation, with private sale prices well into the hundreds of millions of gil.
The playerbase has, to put it mildly, not taken this well. Both Kotaku and MassivelyOP have written longform pieces on the way the housing system in FFXIV is failing players in light of this recent land rush. In addition, there are numerous threads on the official forums castigating the development team for allowing this to all happen.
Previously on the Blue.
No tower construction as far as I can tell, no magical nonsense dwellings, artificial scarcity in Infinite Fun Space (and for FFXIV, not something like EVE or Black Desert Online!)...
What a mess.
posted by Slackermagee at 10:35 AM on October 11, 2017
What a mess.
posted by Slackermagee at 10:35 AM on October 11, 2017
Yeah, I'm really puzzled why this is apparently an issue when FFXI had player housing--admittedly, a very rudimentary form of housing--automatically set up on a per-player basis. How is it that FFXIV got this part so dramatically wrong??
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 12:05 PM on October 11, 2017
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 12:05 PM on October 11, 2017
Basically because they made a system designed for one thing (guildhalls for free companies) do double duty for another (player housing).
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:33 PM on October 11, 2017
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:33 PM on October 11, 2017
You can get FFXI-style housing (rooms, apartments) easily. The limited resource is actual houses you can see from the outside.
posted by thefoxgod at 6:39 PM on October 11, 2017
posted by thefoxgod at 6:39 PM on October 11, 2017
You can get FFXI-style housing (rooms, apartments) easily. The limited resource is actual houses you can see from the outside.
On the high population servers (Balmung, Gilgamesh(a.k.a Greg)), even apartments are in short supply.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:59 PM on October 11, 2017
On the high population servers (Balmung, Gilgamesh(a.k.a Greg)), even apartments are in short supply.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:59 PM on October 11, 2017
Ah, I'm on Cactuar which is not nearly so busy.
Of course, if you are in a free company that has a house you can have a room in it (this is what I do).
Definitely the rooms/apts _should_ be FFXI-style (instanced and available to all). With houses since the idea is to be externally visible it does have some impact (since if anyone is in the zone they have to keep the instance running), but still seems like they could provision a lot more than they have.
I think it made sense to make houses be mostly for FCs, but the problem is that they then tied some game stuff (like chocobo-related stuff) to houses, so people wanted individual houses if they weren't in a FC...
posted by thefoxgod at 10:09 PM on October 11, 2017
Of course, if you are in a free company that has a house you can have a room in it (this is what I do).
Definitely the rooms/apts _should_ be FFXI-style (instanced and available to all). With houses since the idea is to be externally visible it does have some impact (since if anyone is in the zone they have to keep the instance running), but still seems like they could provision a lot more than they have.
I think it made sense to make houses be mostly for FCs, but the problem is that they then tied some game stuff (like chocobo-related stuff) to houses, so people wanted individual houses if they weren't in a FC...
posted by thefoxgod at 10:09 PM on October 11, 2017
Jesus Christ it was literally "First one to run to the house and click it gets it"? That's insane. That is so obviously the worst way to do it, it makes me wonder if it was set up entirely by high-school summer interns. That's fucked.
They could have done anything to distribute them -- pre-opening auctions or raffles, housekeys dropped by rare wandering mobs or raid bosses, first X people to reach level Y or get a particular cheevo... and they picked the option that's both the least interesting, and most guaranteed to piss everyone off??
posted by rifflesby at 10:34 PM on October 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
They could have done anything to distribute them -- pre-opening auctions or raffles, housekeys dropped by rare wandering mobs or raid bosses, first X people to reach level Y or get a particular cheevo... and they picked the option that's both the least interesting, and most guaranteed to piss everyone off??
posted by rifflesby at 10:34 PM on October 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
I was one of the many, many people caught in this bloodbath. My husband and I both logged on when the servers came back up on Tuesday. At 3am!! Took him about 30 seconds to get to the character screen and he was already 300th in the queue (server completely full). I was about a minute behind him, and I was 1,200th in queue. It was freaking nuts.
He managed to get us a small house in Shirogane, but we could have gotten a medium sized plot if he had actually believed me about how insane the rush would be and had mentally prepared himself for the crush. Needless to say, I'm still more than a little pissed at him for being so cavalier about it beforehand.
Ahhh Squeenix & FF14, crushing home ownership dreams and causing marital strife since 2010.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 6:09 AM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
He managed to get us a small house in Shirogane, but we could have gotten a medium sized plot if he had actually believed me about how insane the rush would be and had mentally prepared himself for the crush. Needless to say, I'm still more than a little pissed at him for being so cavalier about it beforehand.
Ahhh Squeenix & FF14, crushing home ownership dreams and causing marital strife since 2010.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 6:09 AM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Jesus Christ it was literally "First one to run to the house and click it gets it"? That's insane.
wait until you hear about red-lining
posted by runt at 6:17 AM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
wait until you hear about red-lining
posted by runt at 6:17 AM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
first X people to reach level Y or get a particular cheevo
They did this. In order to buy in Shirogane, you must:
* Be level 61 or greater in one combat class,
* Completed the entirety of the A Realm Reborn and Heavensward stories,
* Have reached the city of Kugane (which requires the above two),
* Hold the rank of Second Lieutenant or better in one's Grand Company,
* Have liquid assets of at least 3.5 million gil.
But for an endgame player, those requirements are trivial.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:43 AM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
They did this. In order to buy in Shirogane, you must:
* Be level 61 or greater in one combat class,
* Completed the entirety of the A Realm Reborn and Heavensward stories,
* Have reached the city of Kugane (which requires the above two),
* Hold the rank of Second Lieutenant or better in one's Grand Company,
* Have liquid assets of at least 3.5 million gil.
But for an endgame player, those requirements are trivial.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:43 AM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
And Yoshida has responded in regards to the 4.1 land rush.
Further expansion of all four districts slated for 4.2, with details kept close to the vest.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:48 AM on October 12, 2017
Further expansion of all four districts slated for 4.2, with details kept close to the vest.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:48 AM on October 12, 2017
I just saw that response by Yoshida.
I really hope that 4.2 doesn't drop until Q1 2018, as I took Tuesday off for the launch of 4.1, and I'm basically out of vacation days until the new year refresh.
If I miss out on another chance at a house (and yes, I would totally release our small plot if we can get our hands on a medium) because I can't get time off, I might just cancel my subscription and spend the time learning Korean and studying for my Supply Chain Certs instead.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 8:14 AM on October 12, 2017
I really hope that 4.2 doesn't drop until Q1 2018, as I took Tuesday off for the launch of 4.1, and I'm basically out of vacation days until the new year refresh.
If I miss out on another chance at a house (and yes, I would totally release our small plot if we can get our hands on a medium) because I can't get time off, I might just cancel my subscription and spend the time learning Korean and studying for my Supply Chain Certs instead.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 8:14 AM on October 12, 2017
Don't worry friends you can always just buy a apt room on empty worlds like Jenova and gain all the positive aspects of housing w/o dealing with the demolition timers. I understand why some people like extra dress-up though but it's pretty silly considering we now have cross-world friend lists and Party-finders.
Also, the game gives all players ways to make 500k in less than 1 week from dailies, raids, and just reselling items.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 3:28 PM on November 9, 2017
Also, the game gives all players ways to make 500k in less than 1 week from dailies, raids, and just reselling items.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 3:28 PM on November 9, 2017
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posted by Fizz at 10:14 AM on October 11, 2017