Just Another Housing Complaint

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Nope. I've done it four times and it didn't feel awful even once.
It felt really nice when my spouse won, though.

That said, automatic refund would be convenient, especially when I'm up to placing six bids at a time.

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Me neither, but I'm not everyone :) I had a complete fit of the giggles when I went to check the results of the last lottery though. My husband had bid on a small in Shirogane and I went to check it less than 10 minutes after the timer ended. Not only hadn't he won, the person that did win had already put up a house and was bouncing around the place adding lots and lots of crazy decorations - it was good to see the house went to someone who was getting so much joy from it!

There are still mountains of FC plots available.

What is lacking is medium/Large FC plots - thats the escalation of the problem; even if SE added more plots; the next ask will be for more larges/mediums.
Most folks do not just want a house.

That being said they really need to up the item limit and allow folks to add "rooms" similar to FC private quarters.

Also possibly removing wards being server based might help...so there would be 200+ wards for everyone to bid on rather then the measly 5 for privates.
They also need to restrict home ownership to 1 per datacenter.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Island Sanctuaryf?
It better not be another Garrison because it too is just another sandbox instance

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Ironically, the first word that entered my mind after YoshiP gave his vague summary of Island Sanctuary during the media tour was "Garrison".

Personal space? Check (WoW's was phased, Island Sanctuary is instanced but for player purposes effectively the same thing).

Ability to place buildings? Check.

Ability to gather things? Check.

Ability to have minions (or companion pets in WoW's case) running around? Check.

Thank goodness YoshiP said that character progression won't be tied to them. That was where WoW went wrong with Garrisons - from originally being announced as completely optional side content that players wouldn't need, it ended up a core feature of Warlords of Draenor.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

Over 90% of player base don't care, that is not what they are here for
Housing to most of players is something nice to have but not a necessity

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Safe to say your number is incorrect when plots have consistently been getting filled on all worlds for the past two years. Even the JP worlds that in the past would usually have dozens of available houses finally filled up their wards.

We don't know the true number of active subscribers but it safely seems to be in the 1-2 million range. If it's one million, we've got enough houses now for about 50% of the player base. What's currently available in the FC wards will rapidly disappear once they're made available for private purchase based on the entry counts we're still seeing on personal plot with many players who want a house still left without one. Keeping in mind houses owned by FCs, looks like at least 40% of the player base (again assuming active subscriber count is one million not higher) cares about houses.

I blame both SE and players for the lack of interest in apartments. SE for two reasons: apartments were no more than a copy/paste of FC private chambers but more importantly they do nothing to promote the presence of apartments in the game. The only housing related quests in the game focus on getting a house. They make no mention of apartments and how the apartment system works. If SE is going to continue with the ward system, they should completely revise those quests to make apartments more prominent and state that sometimes houses may become available for wealthier adventurers lucky enough to secure one.

I blame players for the whole "keeping up with the Joneses, you're trash if you only have an apartment and don't have a house" attitude. Apartments aren't going to satisfy those with a deep interest in housing but they actually would work for a significant part of the players base if players focused on what they do offer instead of what they don't.

Nothing in the game is a necessity. Let's get rid of raids. Let's get rid of Deep Dungeons. Let's get rid of Eureka/Bozja. You can name just about anything to remove and the game would continue on without that content yet there would still be some players upset because it was content they enjoyed.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

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Remember, SE has the actual data of how players interact with housing (FC room, personal, the apartment)
It is not actually difficulty to see why they are only making 19 to 24 for personal housing.
Majority of players just leave it be after they obtained one.

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How do you know how players are using their houses?

For all the complaints about so many empty houses, I don't see that to be the case at all outside of the houses being used for the workshop farms. The majority of houses do get decorated.

Unless you're staking out a particular house or group of houses right next to each other 24/7 and watching the plot entrances to see if anyone is showing up and going into the yard/house, you have no idea how much they're getting used.

My current neighbor has owned their house for at least 18 months now and I have yet to see them. How do I know they're using their house? They redecorate their yard occasionally.

That helps demonstrate the point I frequently make about why wards do not work to provide a neighborhood feeling in their current state. In a game that's running 24/7 with players from around the world on different time schedules, your chances of running into the one or two players who have a house next to you is extremely small because they may not be at their house when you are at yours or they may be inside where they can't be seen.

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Originally Posted by Divinemights

You are smart, it is not difficult for you to understand what I am saying.

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You are also smart. It should not be difficult for you to understand that while you don't see houses as being important to the game, other players do. We all have are different interests, and the strength of those interests will vary player to player.

Right now we can see the unmet demand for houses from the entries in the lottery. That unmet demand is not quite as strong as some assume since some of those entries represent players who already have a house and are trying to relocate but there is still more unmet demand than available supply to meet that demand at this point.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

To be fair that's a medium.

You can also enter - on Siren - for a Goblet 20/31 (16 entries), Goblet 21/31 (16 entries), Goblet 23/10 (16 Entries), Goblet 19/39 (17 Entries) and so on.

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LOL. "You just have to make a whole new character or transfer, miss the current lottery period because you can't bid on current lotteries if you transfer" She can't "also enter on Siren". This makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by mauiestlauiest

LOL. "You just have to make a whole new character or transfer, miss the current lottery period because you can't bid on current lotteries if you transfer" She can't "also enter on Siren". This makes no sense.

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I haven't seen anything stating a player cannot enter a lottery on their new home world during the current entry period if they transferred during the entry period. The 30 day waiting period only applies to FCs.

What SE has said is that players can't claim a plot or refund on their old home world with their character if they transfer it.

You're also taking Shibi's comments out of context. He was replying to a player on Siren and pointing out there were other plots also available that same lottery period, not just that specific medium the poster was talking about.

I would also like to see a solution to this issue.

Things are getting out of hand, and it would be nice to at least hear something from the devs since it's been awhile. I would like to think they are aware of the current situation.

We need something to change here, because there is no way the demand can feasibly be met as things are now.

I think I would feel better if something official would be said sometime soon, let us know that they at least know what's going on and that they actually care. Because, even if that might not be the case, it feels as though they don't care, from a player viewpoint. Say something! What's going on, and why? What's being done?

Thank you.

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Originally Posted by Gaspodia

Me neither, but I'm not everyone :) I had a complete fit of the giggles when I went to check the results of the last lottery though. My husband had bid on a small in Shirogane and I went to check it less than 10 minutes after the timer ended. Not only hadn't he won, the person that did win had already put up a house and was bouncing around the place adding lots and lots of crazy decorations - it was good to see the house went to someone who was getting so much joy from it!

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That's like the exact opposite of what happened my last run. The number before mine had won the plot and it never got claimed. I rebid on the same property and the handful of houses left have 100+ each.

Of the whopping FIVE remaining houses in Shirogane 100+ people are bidding on each.

Shockingly the more houses dry up from past bids, the more competition there is for the remaining few thereby making it even less likely you'll get one if you didn't get one on the first bidding round.

Nice system you got there SE.

So I'm not going to get into a full on opinion. I just want to provide some information for those here. Information current as of 11:30am MST on Mateus:

Previous lottery cycle had 313 FC smalls open to start in Empyreum alone.

The start of the entry period for this cycle it was at 282.

As of my last sweep? Its down to 255.

255 SMALL PLOTS. That are FC only.

So we went from 313, to 282, now at 255 on last sweep. All of them small FC plots. Its early in the results period, but I wanted to give a piece of information without an actual opinion

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Originally Posted by S1lentSymphony

So I'm not going to get into a full on opinion. I just want to provide some information for those here. Information current as of 11:30am MST on Mateus:

Previous lottery cycle had 313 FC smalls open to start in Empyreum alone.

The start of the entry period for this cycle it was at 282.

As of my last sweep? Its down to 255.

255 SMALL PLOTS. That are FC only.

So we went from 313, to 282, now at 255 on last sweep. All of them small FC plots. Its early in the results period, but I wanted to give a piece of information without an actual opinion

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Another interesting piece of information if you get bored enough to collect it - how many of the owned small plots are owned by FCs created on or after March 28th of this year and how many of those have 4 members or less. (Just in Empyrean, would be too difficult to sort out the smalls newly purchased in other districts)

Wondering if the shell FCs are starting to move in as some of us have predicted.

I'll check Coeurl's once I get in game a little later.