600+ Empty Plots. Open Them to Personal Buyers

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

But they seem to have this strange idea that mirroring housing on every world is the right way to do things even though world populations will never be balanced across all worlds.

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That was odd. Maybe they expected a higher population or maybe the plan was to keep the current bias in place long enough for newer FC's to qualify. OTOH they do seem to have a blind spot when it comes to human nature.

I'm trying to think of what other things that would be tunable per server. The only things I'm coming up with are New/Preferred/Standard/Congested stats and maybe the population thresholds that trigger soft congestion. They may not be able to change ward flavors without a recompile vs. changing a property in a config file or changing a record in the database and restarting. Even if they did it right their change management policies may prevent them from deviating from the common config unless absolutely necessary.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

They may not be able to change ward flavors without a recompile vs. changing a property in a config file or changing a record in the database and restarting.

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Systems-wise it would make most sense it's a database file and restart. That's a little more weight behind 6.2 being the first rebalance too, as it will be a longer maintenance window than the minor patches.

One can guess they will need longer maintenance as they need to check and double check the database with each change, and get it signed off.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Systems-wise it would make most sense it's a database file and restart.

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When it comes to game software in general I have very little faith that sane implementation decisions were involved much less adopting best practices that have been in use for decades. Sometimes that bias runs a bit rampant. FF:XIV and GW2 have been some of the more solid games I've played.

The more I think about it the less hardcoded values make sense. If that were true then they'd need separate executables for each server. Even I don't attribute that level of silliness to some of the less well run games.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

When it comes to game software in general I have very little faith that sane implementation decisions were involved much less adopting best practices that have been in use for decades.

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Hehe, I can relate to this.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

The more I think about it the less hardcoded values make sense. If that were true then they'd need separate executables for each server. Even I don't attribute that level of silliness to some of the less well run games.

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There was somewhat of a hint in the zero bug, where it was stated "a server" to use the localisation team's words, but well, let's say a daemon to be more accurate to the japanese - "had trouble communicating/updating the placard database with the results". We know they replayed those results into the database and the winners were accessible.

The placard are effectively what allow or forbid entry, they hold the current FC/Personal allowed/FCFS flag too.

It would likely make good design sense to have the placard read a value from the placard database to display and allow either FC, Personal, or FCFS clicking.

Edit: And as you correctly implied - good design and reality often are not the same.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

I'm guessing you're talking about on Ravana? Being on one of the Materia worlds, you're in a different situation compared to the other worlds because your populations and the number of FCs are still fairly low.

It's a different situation for the rest of us. We're still seeing a lot of entries on the larges and mediums that have appeared in our FC wards.

I'm not saying I like or agree with the way SE has been handling the ward distribution. I think they went overboard favoring FCs. They at least should made an exception for the Materia worlds considering they are new worlds and have a relatively small number of FCs at this point. But they seem to have this strange idea that mirroring housing on every world is the right way to do things even though world populations will never be balanced across all worlds.

If you're looking for one of those larges or mediums for personal use, all I can suggest is create a shell FC and enter for one once you complete the 30 day waiting period because it looks like SE is going to sit back and wait until 6.2 is released in August before they change any wards and even then it may not be the change that players want.

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At a very minimum, they need to open the older housing areas (ie everything that's not Empyrium) up to individuals on the Oceanic servers to bring them in-line with every other server. It really is silly to cap it on new servers in this way. I understood the first cycle, the second cycle, maybe the third, but now we're stuck with a bunch of dead FC wards. I didn't bother entering the last lottery which I think had about 5 small plots for individuals across the entire server. Copy/paste of the restrictions on established servers just does not work -.-

I agree. Even in my FC, it is a consensus that most FC's want medium or Large housing. All the empty small houses should be gradually thrown into the lottery. Start with Wards 15,16,17. Add them in and slowly add the others if demand requires it. That leaves opportunity for FC to still have open housing to pick from. Or at the very least add 25-27 wards.

There should at least be equal Private to FC homes as there will ALWAYS be more private citizens than FC's. This is a simple math issue. If a player can only belong to 1 FC and a FC is comprise of at least 4 players then there should only be 1/4 FC homes as opposed to private owners. (Word problem, I know, I dislike them also)

Please look at the bidding demands that are happening right now. Private homes are in demand. If I got a home here I would happily give up Animal crossing to spend more time on FFXIV :D

Here's hoping that a smart change can happen. I don't believe much that posting on forums make any difference but who knows <<Shrug>>