Shadowbringers [5.0]: Post may contain potential spoilers.
The Pendants
Hello one and all. Today is going to be a different post from the norm. How so? Well. We are gonna talk about what I’ve been doing in FFXIV the past two days. Firstly, lets talk about today’s screenshot. Up above is a shot from the Crystarium which is sort’ve of an inn like area. Its actually a fairly neat shot that I wonder why I didn’t get previously. To be frank, I sort’ve just jumped through the zone for Crystarium. I only had like 4 or 5 shots for the area. Heck I don’t even have shots for Eulmore.
Secondly, some may ask why (which is probably zero) I decided to take this shot while I’m still doing The Tempest zone. Its simple really. I just felt like it. For aslong I’m doing a “streak” of 100 screenshots per expansion. I’ll be content with it. Doing them in a chronological order was more of an easy way for me to get screenshots. Anyways, onto the real meat of today’s post. Housing!
The “True” Endgame
So… I’ve gotten a “tad” hooked onto the housing aspects of the game right now. To be more accurate, I now have enough gil to afford a small plot of land. Mostly due to the submersibles that I’ve been running for about a month and a half now. Although, I did start getting into the market board game and selling furniture which has proven to be fruitful. Then again I am a newbie when it comes to understanding the market board, so its hard to see whether or not I’ll get anything sustainable out of it.
Moving on from that. I decided to spend numerous hours on finding potential plots to try and bid for. Before we go into talking about which those plots are though. Lets talk about each Residential District and my opinions on them.
Residential Districts
The Mist
The Mist District is basically a beach with bird poop rocks splattered around it. I’m sorry, but thats all I see with these white stone materials. I can’t remember what type of rock they are, but they look blinding to me and is honestly the sole reason why I would never pick a plot here.
The beach itself is fine and looks cool in a way, but there’s another district that does it far better than this one. Regardless, I do like how the large plots are placed around this zone. Makes me wonder if our Free Company would’ve looked like were it to be here.
The Goblet
I can bare with this district if I had no choice. It has a somewhat round shape to the foundations underneath the plots and is next to a cliffside which is interesting to a degree. The most interesting spot is in the middle with the large pool area along with the waterfall. If I had any choices. I probably would try shooting for next that waterfall or somewhere close by the pool since it seemed like a relaxing spot.
Aside from that. I don’t really like the setup of this place. Plus it feels like those modern games from mid 2010s that tried to be too realistic and just end up being brown scale for design. Still this place will likely allow the most freedom of choice in terms on how you want your house to built. What I mean is that there isn’t set theme that would be weird if you tried to diverge from it.
Lavender Beds
This is one of my most favorite Residential Districts in the game currently. Its mainly because I really like the foresty vibe. Plus the lake/pond area next to the waterfall looks really cool. Sadly, our FC has to be on the polar opposite in the zone to reach. I will say that this zone has a more maze like design where there isn’t clear and straight paths to follow. I can easily imagine people getting lost in this district even with the minimap.
I spend so much time in this zone that this might be the zone where I spent the most time in. While I love this zone, I can’t deny that its gotten rather old with me and the views are great to a degree. There happens to be another zone that captures a bit more.
Empyreum
Quite possibly my least favorite out of all of the districts. Yes even The Mists. For a simple reason. It feels way too big and spikey. I swear the distances between the buildings are insane and it just isn’t at all I want in a “snowy” version district. I actually hoped that this would be a great district, but it took the stone theme of The Goblet and combined it with the churchy theme and it sort’ve ruined it for me.
Heavensward is a great expansion for me, but man I cared little for the theology side of the story. All I can say is that its cool that it exists, but I can’t imagine staying here for all that long. Which is a great shame because I really love cold environments.
Shirogane
Quite possibly the best district in the game. Its a damn shame that our FC isn’t located here at all. The beach, the hot springs, hell even the market area just look amazing. You want to whats also great? Its how compact everything is! I’m sorry but I really like being able to see other people plots It justs feels more alive when everyone is together even if you never see the fools. There are places in this zone where its a tad peaceful. However the “hidden” hotsprings honestly beat out any contender on general view for me.
When I walked into the hidden shores for the first time. It honestly reminded me of the pure joy of experiencing the Island Sanctuary for the first time. I can imagine myself just camping out in the hidden shores as my new crafting spot or just messing around in general. With all of that said, its about time we talk about where I want to try getting my plot.
(I’ll probably be over there when I finalize this post. Well now editing after post.)
Picking a plot
Its probably obvious at this stage but I intend on getting a plot in Shirogane. Lavender Beds is a close second but the hidden shores and the other points of interest in Shirogane really beat it out of the water. Thankfully, there are plenty of options available to bid in the upcoming new lottery phase. I scouted roughly 5 plots that I would be content with bidding. The only problem is that I don’t have a lot of gil on me to bid for multiple plots. As such its going to be a hail mary on me getting one at all. I might be able to pull off two bids but its gonna depend on the submersibles and my fortunes with the market board.
Lets actually state on the things I’m looking for in a plot. There are two main interests honestly. Nearby point of interests and distance from the market board. Ideally, I like to get a combination of the two, but they are fairly difficult to acquire and ain’t cheap since they are generally “first-class” plots.
Anyways, I haven’t fully decided on what I want to bid on yet and is one of the many reasons why I’m making this post. As mentioned before. I’m going to list 5 plots. 3 of them from Shirogane and 2 from Lavender Beds. There are more in Shirogane I will be fine with, but these three are sort’ve my main picks. I should also state that the upcoming shots of the plots will be the demolished version of them. Didn’t really feel like getting a shot that belonged to someone’s house.
Shirogane Plot 4
This plot happens to nick both of my wants in a plot. Its nearby the market, the generally beautiful pond in front of the apartments and quite a hop away from the beach. It also has a market board right around the cliff behind the building which is great but annoying at the same time. Sure I can easily get to one in a jiffy but I gotta walk all the way around back into the plot. Secondly, it ain’t all that close to the hidden shores which is a significant interest of mine.
As a whole this is a great plot and I had originally wanted this one, but there are two others competing for my interest.
Shirogane Plot 47
Man… If it just had a market board nearby. Its not super far, but its about the same distance as some of the other market boards I can currently reach. Still it has an amazing beachside view and is right next to the entrance of the zone (even though its a subdivision). Truthfully, I been on and off with this plot of land. Its gotten to the point that I couldn’t really decide and left it as a backup even if knowing that all of these plots will disappear after the next lottery ends.
Oh yeah I should mention that you can’t climb the ladder along the wall. Its a sad illusion. I gotta mark a point or two off for this plot.
Shirogane Plot 14
Holly Molly. You see that market board? Its right next to the entrance of the plot! Heck there’s even an aethernet shard right next to it as well. In terms of convienence this is the best by far. Its even the closest plot to the hidden shores that I want to be able to visit. There’s just one problem. Its possibly in one of the worst locations for this zone.
What do I mean by that? Well… You know how I mentioned about First-class plots? There’s a class that is assigned to a plot that mainly determines the price of it. First-class is the most expensive and is 3,750,000 gil while Fifth-class is 3,000,000 million gil. Take a guess on this plot’s class? Fifth-class and there’s a reason for it.
Have you noticed all of the other plots surrounding it or have you noticed how the plot is blocked off on all sides but the front? If you were to build on this plot. You better hope that you got an amazing interior since the exterior ain’t gonna be much to look at. If anything I think the type of class dictates the price and visibility of the plot.
Anyhow, I’m truly conflicted with this plot. I really want it for the market board and the distance to my favorite point of interest, but I don’t know if I can work with the horrible layout with the pathing around the plot. I can believe that the devs added the market board there for this specific reason.
Lavender Beds Plot 24
This is the first plot I had discovered that will soon be available for bidding. Its honestly was one of the best spots I could’ve asked for in Lavender Beds if it wasn’t for the fact that I discovered Shirogane. Its gonna be a tough choice with this one sadly.
Lavender Beds Plot 7
I actually wanted this one because I thought it would be funny. Fun fact, two of my friends in this game managed to get 2 plots right next to each other. One of them had shared the estate to me and coincidently this plot is the same one I was shared with (mind you its in a different ward from this one). I don’t really want this one yet at the same time I have no issues if there were no choice.
Initial Bidding
I’m probably going to pick either plot 47 or plot 14 as my bid. If I’m fortunate enough to get enough gil before the bidding phase ends. I might just bid the other one as well. To be quite honest, I doubt many reading this would care this was more of an excuse for me to decide on what plot to bid for in the grand scheme.
I’m kind’ve sad that the chances of me getting any are pretty low to begin with. I saw one of the plots having over 50 bids. Thats a 2% chance on winning the lottery. This will be a difficult battle and I really don’t want to suffer too much. I’m just imagining that I will get my first plot over the course of me bidding nearly over a year or two. It would be an easy way to force me to not wastefully spend gil though.
Conclusion
This is a hefty post. Probably a way for me to make up the past two days of missing posts. As a side note, I’m not really burdened on missing daus all that much. I’ve been doing this for over a year now and missing a day or two every once in a while isn’t going to dissuade me from continuning to make these posts. I can confidently say that I won’t stop till I reach post 500. Although, I might take a week long break when I do reach it like I did in March.
Man though, this is gonna be a pain to post. I gotta add all of the screenshots to this and that isn’t a smooth process. To put it another way. There’s a reason why I don’t add multiple screenshots to these posts. Lets just hope that all of the images get added on the first try.
Anyway, I do believe that this post has officially became the longest one on my blog. I always wanted to achieve over 2000 words in a single post, but always missed the mark in the past.