Eorzean Evening Post: Patch 3.1 Airship Missions and the Housing Predicament .

The newest Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer Live provided even more details, and a new trailer, about upcoming Patch 3.1. We finally have a release date for the patch, which is Tuesday November 10! This is pretty much about the time I expected the update to happen, given the fact we were informed to look for it early November.

 

Exploratory Mission Hype

A big chunk of the info we got from the Letter dealt with the upcoming Exploratory Missions. In a previous information release, YoshiP indicated that this kind of play was a nod back to more old-school MMO gaming. I can see why he’d say that.

The missions are completely restricted to group content, though you can join via pre-made groups with your Free Company or solo from a quest in Ishgard (which I presume uses the duty finder). The big difference between entering with a FC or through the duty finder is that only the FC groups will have access to the Hard Mode version.

People outside of your FC can join the FC groups for the mission just as long as at least two members of the FC are present. Your FC airships will need to be rank 10 to undertake the mission, and for the hard mode, your airship must have previously traveled to the specific island through a voyage.

Each airship can take a full party of 8 members. However, you can take three ships in with you for a full raid of 24 people!

Once you get to the island, you have 90 minutes to clear as many monsters as you can. These monsters will be the equivalent of our Rank A and Rank S hunts, from my understanding, so they won’t be a pushover.

You can meet up with other teams who are also working to clear the island, but the monster encounters work like FATES. So, as long as you do a decent amount of damage during the fight, you will earn a reward.

Similar to FATES, you can get gold, silver, or bronze chests from monsters. These chests drop aetherial gear which you can equip, desynthesize, or turn into points that you can use to purchase other items.  Along with that, it’s stated that Eso Tomes will be a reward for completing mission objectives. Nice!

You can also switch to another class while you are in the mission, which will be required to gather some of the rare materials that come from the islands. The Letter stated that the skill required to gather these materials had a fairly low cap – meaning, folks with level 60 gatherers and minimum gear for that level should have access to these nodes. This makes for a nice blend of adventurers and gatherers working together to clear content (though, of course, gatherers must also have leveled up a battle class to survive out there!).

There’s not only a time limit for each mission, but also a timer on how often you can enter the missions. After entering a mission, you can’t re-enter for 120 minutes. This means if you spend the entire 90 minutes in the mission, you’ll have a 30 minute cool down on re-entering. That’s fair enough, I feel.

Overall, these exploratory missions seem like the new, experimental content of the patch. The devs are working to make it as attractive as possible by providing a lot of rewards to chase – not just Eso and gear, but also cosmetics like new mounts.

I know that my FC is excited to get on board our airships and give this content a shot. I really appreciate that the missions are aimed towards giving FCs things to work on together. We were lucky enough to have really dedicated artisans and gatherers who put time and effort towards developing and leveling our FC airships. I hope that they continue to work on content that rewards people for taking part in a FC and the community as a whole.

 

The Housing Conundrum

The one big catch for FCs who want to take part in the exploratory missions is that to build an airship, you must first have a FC house. Now, I am a huge fan of in-game housing in MMOs, and it’s obvious, I enjoy playing FFXIV very much. However, housing is the one big beef I have with FFXIV as I have never agreed with how it was implemented, especially when it came to individual housing vs. FC housing.

More and more, features in FFXIV are getting gated behind owning a house. First it was gardening. Then it was chocobo stables, with the ability to dye and train your companion chocobo. Then, with Heavensward, owning a FC house was a prerequisite for building a workshop and developing airships.

Now, actual hard mode end game content is being gated by the ability to build the airships. Which is gated by whether your FC has a house or not.

I don’t object to the fact that these elements are tied to a FC house. I object to the fact that on many servers, there are no houses left at all. Or, if there are any, they are usually the large plots, which are astronomically expensive to buy. And that’s not even talking about the gil you have to spend to buy the house after you buy the plot.

Housing has never been player-friendly in this game. When they introduced “personal” housing, which meant individual players had to compete with FCs for the exact same lots, it only caused all the more scarcity.

We haven’t seen any new housing areas in a while. Up until now, lots and houses that were claimed by inactive players or FCs never expired. That’s all going to change in Patch 3.1 – for better or worse.

As an owner of a personal house and a FC that has a house, the idea of housing reclamation is a little scary for me. I am not a rich player compared to some… but I’ve had luck in making some gil over the years I’ve played FFXIV. Much of it came from just playing consistently over a long period of time, to be honest.

I put a good amount of gil into the FC plot when we bought it, and purchased the entire house to put on the lot. I also saved up for months to be able to afford the little house I do own, and was quite lucky to get it as it was one of the last small plots on our server in all housing developments. So, the possibility that my FC or I could lose our housing due to inactivity is, while unlikely, still concerning.

Starting with Patch 3.1, any house that hasn’t been entered in more than 45 days, and land that hasn’t been built upon in more than 45 days, will become reclaimed. Now, if your lot is reclaimed, you do get an 80% refund for the cost of the land and you have 35 days to get whatever furniture that wasn’t destroyed in the reclaim from the Resident Caretaker.

After 35 days of housing inactivity, the game will send an email to FC members and housing owners warning them of impending doom. So, really, the whole system is working hard to keep unfair reclamations from happening, and I respect that.

I also totally understand the reason we need reclamations, and despite my concern, I’m not against them. Newer FCs have little chance to get a house in the current situation, especially with the team so hesitant to add new housing wards. Something had to give one way or another, now that elements of end-game content are being directly tied to housing.

Still, with the airship exploratory missions coming, I foresee our FC house will be bustling with enough activity, and we shouldn’t have anything to fear. Just be aware that changes are coming, and make sure to visit your personal house more often… if you have one. If you don’t have one, keep your eyes peeled. Some houses will be up for grabs soon enough.