I would imagine they would make some allowances for people to leave one Free Company and join another, perhaps with some restrictions. Â I don't know if I've heard any official word on this though.
I also believe I recall reading somewhere that company housing can be opened up to those from outside your Free Company... Â I went and did a little digging. Â What follows is from the THIRD LIVE LETTER FROM THE PRODUCER Q&A:
HTH~ Â
Sorry for the double-post.  I had a little downtime.  Here is some more information from the 4th, 5th, and 6th Live Letters from the Producer about Free Companies and the housing system that may be relevent to this discussion:
Fourth Live Letter
Fifth Live Letter
Sixth Live Letter
I also believe I recall reading somewhere that company housing can be opened up to those from outside your Free Company... Â I went and did a little digging. Â What follows is from the THIRD LIVE LETTER FROM THE PRODUCER Q&A:
Quote:@1:21:34
Q: Can you give us more details about Free Companies?
A: First, you'll need a group of four people. Then, you'll all need to join a Grand Company, whichever you prefer. Afterwards, you can form a Free Company under that Grand Company by visiting the Grand Company desk.
Free Companies each have a shared box for storing items and transferring them between members. However, imagine I’m the free company leader. If I want, I can configure it so that only I have the authority to remove items, and that the other three members can only deposit items.
We’ve created a very detailed system of permissions. Free companies will also have a point system that is similar to exp, which will allow Free Companies to grow. By completing quests, defeating monsters, and conquering dungeons together, the company can grow to level two and so forth.
Leveling allows for greater customization of your Free Company. Players will have more options when designing their company crests and decorating company headquarters, and they can even increase the size of their building. There are also special Free Company achievements. Unlike linkshells, which are more relaxed, Free Companies are more like organizations with shared goals.
Also, if you have a solid group of 8 people and there’s another Free Company you’re friends with, since it’d be difficult to merge Free Companies, we’ve designed an alliance system that allows Free Companies to work together. You’ll be able to utilize a shared discussion area on the Lodestone, and company leaders can control who has permission to post. It’s quite a complex system.
If you’re the type of player that doesn’t want to interact with people on a daily basis, but you have some interest in joining, you can join as a guest. Also, by inviting new people and helping them out, you will be rewarded with items that will help your free company grow more easily. We’re still considering how to implement this. We don’t want to make things too strict, but we don’t want to allow unrestricted access—especially since there is item sharing.
HTH~ Â
Sorry for the double-post.  I had a little downtime.  Here is some more information from the 4th, 5th, and 6th Live Letters from the Producer about Free Companies and the housing system that may be relevent to this discussion:
Fourth Live Letter
Quote:[0:45:55]
Q: Will houses be personal or shared?
A: First it will be joint housing. A house of this size is going to require everyone to dish out some dough. It’s pretty expensive.
You can make furniture available to people of the same free company, or, if you want, you can set permission levels so all of your friends can use the furniture and what not. There are quite a few settings.
The reason why we’ve decided to establish them as free company bases first is because inside of the houses there is a new kind of system that involves parks and towers.
Parks would give a bonus to everyone in the free company, like an extra 25% to experience points earned. It could make crafting faster to level, or maybe give success bonuses for HQ crafting. It's a system that allows members to add things that will give boons to the entire free company. You’ll be able to increase the size of your house, and also your company can rank-up through free company points, allowing you to place more parks and towers around.
I’d first like to create a strong community within FFXIV. When new members join, you’ll be able to get more points, and we’d like to establish a system that encourages people to support new players coming into the game. Once the community has had time to come together we will then allow players to have their own private housing and branch out from there
Even for an MMO, I believe it’s nice to have a place to call home.
*The video shows off housing art for each region.
[0:48:48]
Q: Isn’t the largest size house almost too big.
A: With it being so big, you have so much room to put lots of neat stuff. For example, if you defeat Ifrit, you can place his skull on the wall above the fireplace.
[0:49:58]
Q: Roughly how much will housing cost including the furnishings and interior designs?
A: I think that maybe 4-5 players, each with one level 50 class could probably buy a house if they put all of their earnings together.
From there it will be possible to buy more land and rebuild, things like that. There will be lots of things you can do like have the roof changed to a different style, and then paint it whatever color you want.
[0:53:11]
Q: Can someone who is affiliated with a different Grand Company join the same Free Company as you? Could you give us more details about the Free Companies, please?
A: Regardless of which Grand Company you belong to, you can belong to the same Free Company. If we were to put strict limitations on this, then it would be hard to add people who want to play casually and it wouldn’t be possible to play with friends who already belong to a different Grand Company.
I was wondering if players would do some role-play with this. For our overseas players in particular, I can see people identifying with the military structure in-game. So maybe, for example, you have a group whose members are devoted to the Maelstrom Command, and everyone has the same motivation to get the Maelstrom Command to the top of the three Grand Companies – some kind of role-play like that. If this becomes the norm, however, you have to consider that casual players will have a hard time joining in, or that a player's friends may have joined different Grand Companies
For example, if we compare this to society – this starts to break into reality a little too much, but anyway – let’s say that the parent company is the Immortal Flames and we made a subsidiary company, a free company. But if we get contributions from players of three different Grand Companies, our reputation will vary depending on where we choose to focus our efforts. It should be easier to build a reputation if we devote our energies to one company, and swear to fight for that company only. So there could be this whole "reputation" concept – I'm sure the naming will change though. If you rise higher within the Immortal Flames, you could get a special title, or something like that, which would allow both casual and hardcore players to participate in this kind of role-playing.
Fifth Live Letter
Quote:[0:14:24]
Q: What's the difference between Free Company housing and individual player housing?
A: Free Companies will be able to purchase an estate to use as a base of operations. Once set up, they can expand the house by adding a variety of parts to it. When setting up individual housing, the same features will be available, so there will be no fundamental difference between them. However, for individual housing, additions to the house will only benefit the individual player, while for Free Company housing all of the members would receive their effect.
[0:15:22]
Q: How much will the housing and land cost?
A: We'll be keeping this a secret until the official launch of the game. Please wait until we're able to introduce the specifics on what you can do with housing.
[0:16:14]
Q: Will housing be implemented at launch?
A: We plan on releasing housing in the first major update after launch. Housing will cost quite a bit, so we were concerned no one would be able to afford housing if we released it at launch, resulting in an empty housing zone. However, around phase 4 of the beta test (open beta), we'd like to show off the housing areas and perform stress tests.
[1:25:31]
Q: What type of Free Company rewards and achievements will there be? How will the ranking system work? Are there benefits to forming a Free Company?
A: We're planning to introduce a variety of achievements related to Free Companies (initial formation, membership numbers, quest or FATE completion, etc.).
As for rewards, we don't want to force players to form Free Companies or punish players in small Free Companies, so there are currently no plans to introduce rewards based on Free Company performance in battle. However, there will be benefits for those who have maintained a Free Company for an extended period of time. As players continue using a Free Company, its rank will increase, and this will lead to rewards—more color/pattern customization options for your Free Company crest, more available features for Free Company housing, etc.
Sixth Live Letter
Quote:[0:08:26]
Q: What kind of bonuses will players receive by using housing?
A: I've mentioned a couple of things here and there in the past, like placing items such as towers on your property. By placing various items around the house, players can receive a variety of different enhancing effects. As an example, you and your friends or free company members can receive a two-week-long EXP bonus or a bonus to gil received. Of course, we won't create anything that pressures players into buying a house, but they will still have benefits.
[0:09:27]
Q: If you buy a small house and piece of land, when it starts to get too cramped will it be possible to upgrade to a larger house?
A: We're working on a system for moving that will be introduced in a patch. Also, depending on lag and stress on the servers, we may allow players to own a second house. But yes, you can be sure that when we're finished, you'll be able to upgrade to a bigger house.
[0:10:11]
Q: Will it be possible to sell land deeds in the market ward or other places?
A: Yes, it will be possible. They can also be traded. Just as an example, you could give a house to that special someone in your free company as a present.
[0:10:53]
Q:Is it possible to have multiple houses? For example, to have a primary residence in Limsa Lominsa and a villa in Gridania or Ul'dah?
A: Right, it's just like what I was talking about before. Having a main house with another house located in a different country. Once we have a better understanding of the burden this will place on the servers, we might be able to implement this.
[0:53:48]
Q: Will we be able to craft furniture for housing?
A: We've prepared this kind of furniture.
*Furniture artwork is introduced in the video.
So let's say you start a free company. You have a group of guys within the free company dedicated to battle content. You might also have a group of guys who only do crafting or gathering. One day the battle team defeats Ifrit and obtains material needed to build something. The high-level crafters can then use that material as a base, the gatherers can go collect other rare materials that are needed, and together they can finish building the trophy. You’ll be able to create all kinds of stuff, and we're sure you're going to love it!
[1:15:53]
Q: You've stated before that crests for linkshells and free companies can be freely designed by combining various parts. Can you show those parts now?
A: *Examples of free company crests are shown in the video.
"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." Â ~ Lewis Carol
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