Support for FCFS housing in 6.1

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Originally Posted by LunaFancy

They never even alluded to the entirety of Materia being lottery. Even when they started muttering about the possibility they teased us with partial FCFS and partial lottery.

And why on earth would there be people who don't want houses in anyone's FC? Do you understand that not a single soul on the data centre has had the ability to purchase a plot until now? God even people who have never wanted it before are going to be lotting on OCE to 'try their luck'. .

I give up, I swear it's like banging my head against a brick wall trying to explain that the situation on Materia is not like the situation on every other data centre.

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They also never alluded to Materia being treated different from the other data centers. Again, always better to plan for the worst case scenario.

Not every player cares about housing. That's not difficult to understand. That doesn't mean they don't want to be part of a social group like a FC. FCs aren't about housing.

If someone has two (or more) characters in a FC, only one is capable of owning a personal house unless each character is on a separate service accounts. That leaves one to buy a personal house and the rest to help out the FC.

We understand that Materia's situation (for now) is different from other data centers. We get that players there are increasingly frustrated. If it had been up to me, I would have made housing available 4 weeks after the worlds opened - plenty of time for veterans to get their characters transferred or new players and reroll characters for veterans leveled enough to be eligible to purchase. I feel it is a bad decision for SE to wait as long as they have to give you access to housing.

It doesn't change that SE has chosen for its reasons of its own to wait until 6.1 and apply the lottery to all Materia wards just as they are doing with all other regions. We can't change things for you. Only SE can do it and at this point they probably don't have the time needed with all the other things they need to do to prepare for the patch release.

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Originally Posted by DeNada

I still don't see any problems for Materia given the extremely low number of current active player there.

Anyone who just want a house WILL get a house provided they aren't fussy and go for unicorn plots.

I think someone looked up the numbers and even on Ravana which is the most populous Materia server, there are only about 1K free companies, and that's not discounting those which are ineligible for housing at 6.1 due to being new or not rank 6.

Just to put things in perspective, there are going to be 7k new plots per server and from what Yoshi-P alluded in the latest live letter, they will be allocating more plots for FCs so at least half or 3.5k plots will be available for FCs alone.

Simply put, empty wards are going to be more of an issue then players not being able to secure a house.

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But it could be a problem for those who were hoping to secure a medium or large for their FC at the same time they wanted to secure a medium or large for themselves. There's only going to be 720 large houses and 1680 mediums. It's hard to say how many players transferred characters to the Materia worlds with sufficient gil (or more) to buy those prime plots and if they've spreading any excess gil around the community to stimulate the economy.

As I have said, if you are going for highly desired plots which include any large or medium, be prepared to face competition.

Even so, given that most characters on Materia are new or alts, I would think very few of them has the resources to bid for a medium or large plot so the competition will naturally be low.

You certainly don't expect to be ensured a medium or large simply because you want it. In established servers, even a small plot would have dozens of players camping (bear in mind I'm not even talking about lottery here where the number of bidders would be even more), so why should one expect a medium/large just because you want it?

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

...It's hard to say how many players transferred characters to the Materia worlds with sufficient gil (or more) to buy those prime plots and if they've spreading any excess gil around the community to stimulate the economy.

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I don't think I can get a prime plot, in fact I am steeling myself not to get anything at all. But I started at level 1 on my OCE main, and I've collected:

https://i.gyazo.com/53e32382ebe06857...80905eaa65.jpg

On top, I've given away a few million to friends to help them reach their smalls.

How? Selling Leather, Ore, Diadem mats, and I chain-ran healing leveling dungeons for a month and sold the Materia X / Materia IX on the MB - Granted it's dropped off a lot recently, plus I am not logging in as much and when I do. I now do zero healing, the news of lottery only was too sad for me.

Getting gil isn't hard if you know what is needed by other people, and don't buy glams. And knowing what people will want is just experience.

I thought the OP was to voice support of FCFS as a feedback, not the opposite? If you don't agree, just make your own post to voice feedback for the opposite? I for one am heavily for FCFS system on at least SOME wards. And totally against ALL lottery. Im sure SE wanted lottery from the get-go and only gave us false hope for FCFS in the weeks running up to producer letter to minimize the blow-back from the community in favor of FCFS. Yes, we would change our sleep patterns, and cut every corner to get the plot and as for the people who made some questionable choices in their lives to be in position when they cannot set aside a specific time-frame (probably not more than 10-20mins) known weeks ahead due to job commitments and such, well, you will still have the chance to enter the lottery, isn't it. I think lottery really sucks, and even more so on Materia, where ALL housing will open all at once (that's some 7500-ish houses per world)

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Originally Posted by Shibi

I don't think I can get a prime plot, in fact I am steeling myself not to get anything at all. But I started at level 1 on my OCE main, and I've collected:


On top, I've given away a few million to friends to help them reach their smalls.

How? Selling Leather, Ore, Diadem mats, and I chain-ran healing leveling dungeons for a month and sold the Materia X / Materia IX on the MB - Granted it's dropped off a lot recently, plus I am not logging in as much and when I do. I now do zero healing, the news of lottery only was too sad for me.

Getting gil isn't hard if you know what is needed by other people, and don't buy glams. And knowing what people will want is just experience.

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I hope you do manage to get one. At least you've demonstrated the potential is there and you're as prepared as you can be.

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Originally Posted by HuaTuo

I thought the OP was to voice support of FCFS as a feedback, not the opposite? If you don't agree, just make your own post to voice feedback for the opposite? I for one am heavily for FCFS system on at least SOME wards. And totally against ALL lottery. Im sure SE wanted lottery from the get-go and only gave us false hope for FCFS in the weeks running up to producer letter to minimize the blow-back from the community in favor of FCFS. Yes, we would change our sleep patterns, and cut every corner to get the plot and as for the people who made some questionable choices in their lives to be in position when they cannot set aside a specific time-frame (probably not more than 10-20mins) known weeks ahead due to job commitments and such, well, you will still have the chance to enter the lottery, isn't it. I think lottery really sucks, and even more so on Materia, where ALL housing will open all at once (that's some 7500-ish houses per world)

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You don't get to dictate who can participate in a discussion and what they're allowed to say. Dissenting opinion is just as valid as agreement. All SE asks is that we keep our posts more or less on topic.

I agree that SE probably was already favoring lottery when they announced it because FCFS has too much potential for exploits bots and RMT. As I've pointed out elsewhere, there's still room for FCFS on worlds where demand is so low that plots remain empty even after a couple of lottery periods. Because players would not need to resort to bots or RMT to buy houses on those worlds, FCFS would be safe to use. If all those plot did fill up later, SE could switch back to the lottery.

So we look to Materia over the next month. What will actually happen with housing on the Materia worlds? Some believe there are already too many players and FCs, and that everything will sell out. Others think there are almost no players eligible to buy and the wards will remain mostly empty. It's a learning experience for all of us, and hopefully SE will take those lessons to heart when it's time to open the new worlds for EU and NA this summer.

No, I do not believe FCFS should ever be a thing. The lottery is far better, and way less stressful. Anyone looking forward to the "rush" just likes pain and agony.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

I hope you do manage to get one.

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Thanks Jojoya. I do want to start growing my FC, but I have never started this task - in this game or other MMOs - without having the base of operations first. Others claim a homeless community can be formed with everyone sitting in Limsa, but this goes against what I have seen in some 18 years of MMO playing.

At this point, with 6 alts over 2 service accounts I think I will do 1 FC bid on a Mist Medium, and 5 FC bids on a Mist small, and just hope I can deflect people towards other small plots. To maximise my chances for the FC I will forego a personal.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

So we look to Materia over the next month. What will actually happen with housing on the Materia worlds? Some believe there are already too many players and FCs, and that everything will sell out. Others think there are almost no players eligible to buy and the wards will remain mostly empty. It's a learning experience for all of us, and hopefully SE will take those lessons to heart when it's time to open the new worlds for EU and NA this summer.

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One thing we have learnt already is that 90+ days for release is just too long to cement a community together, and those first days are 100% crucial to do it in. 90+ days also allows far too many gil sellers to grind up their shell FCs - this could more prevalent when JP/EU/NA words become available as there will be intra-DC travel for those by then.

The no-housing lockout on JP/NA/EU worlds will been to be longer than the 30 day minimum FC membership, maybe 45 or 60, but I really hope that SE learn from what I see as huge mistakes they made for us, and don't lock the rest of the world out for 90+ days again. That was bone-headed of them.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

One thing we have learnt already is that 90+ days for release is just too long to cement a community together, and those first days are 100% crucial to do it in. 90+ days also allows far too many gil sellers to grind up their shell FCs - this could more prevalent when JP/EU/NA words become available as there will be intra-DC travel for those by then.

The no-housing lockout on JP/NA/EU worlds will been to be longer than the 30 day minimum FC membership, maybe 45 or 60, but I really hope that SE learn from what I see as huge mistakes they made for us, and don't lock the rest of the world out for 90+ days again. That was bone-headed of them.

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They had also locked out Spriggan and Twintania for a considerable amount of time when those worlds were added.

Worlds opened Jun 18, 2019.
Patch 5.08 (Aug 28, 2019) - housing opened to free companies only. That was a 71 day wait.
Patch 5.1 (Oct 29, 2019) - housing available for personal purchase. A wait of 133 days.

As time continued to pass and personal housing was still unavailable, more and more shell FCs started appearing because it was the only way for players to get a house. Maybe SE learned something from that, and so they're allowing Materia to have both FC and personal housing at the same time.

Wasn't there someone who bought up 2 whole wards in Spriggan or Twintannia when they were new?

It would be disastrous to lock down personal housing again for new servers as more and more ppl would resort to shell FCs, which defeats the purpose of delaying personal housing in the first place and allow unscrupulous players to accumulate obscene number of houses for personal use, to the detriment of the remainder of the player base.

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Originally Posted by DeNada

Wasn't there someone who bought up 2 whole wards in Spriggan or Twintannia when they were new?

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Yes and the delay of personal housing sales for months only enabled these people to do what they did. I have a couple characters on Spriggan and got my FC house there and the houses in that ward sat open for months and months so much so that i was able to buy a personal right next to my FC in Shirogane on the beach when they finally opened personals for sale.

Have no clue how the housing will play out on Materia but on Spriggan and Twintania housing wards were empty for the longest time.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Yes and the delay of personal housing sales for months only enabled these people to do what they did. I have a couple characters on Spriggan and got my FC house there and the houses in that ward sat open for months and months so much so that i was able to buy a personal right next to my FC in Shirogane on the beach when they finally opened personals for sale.

Have no clue how the housing will play out on Materia but on Spriggan and Twintania housing wards were empty for the longest time.

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Materia will also be operating under the new system where some wards are FC and others are personal. That's going to help things fill faster.

I'm still very concerned about YoshiP's comment during the Live Letter that there will be more FC wards than personal wards. If he was just referring to Empyreum, I get it even if I still don't agree. They want to make certain any FCs ready to buy can get a house because of FC content that requires a house to access. If he was referring to all housing districts, ouch.

The demand for FC housing (at least by genuine FCs) just is not that high. If it was, we wouldn't have seen new wards in the past remain mostly empty until the personal moratorium was lifted. I remember doing a census back in 2019 a few weeks before 5.1 was released and seeing all the empty plots still left on Spriggan and Twintania (not to mention the wards that were being filled up by the shells FCs).

Hopefully the weighting toward FCs will only last the first 4 lottery periods, and we'll see some FC wards switched to personal after that (when 6.15 would release if it's the usual 6-7 weeks we've seen in the past). It's demoralizing when there are plots sitting vacant and there are players are ready to buy but can't because SE has locked access to FCs that have already purchased a house if they want Certainly SE should keep some wards reserved for FCs at all times but when FCs are historically about 30% of the house owners, it should be 30% of wards.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Materia will also be operating under the new system where some wards are FC and others are personal. That's going to help things fill faster.

I'm still very concerned about YoshiP's comment during the Live Letter that there will be more FC wards than personal wards. If he was just referring to Empyreum, I get it even if I still don't agree. They want to make certain any FCs ready to buy can get a house because of FC content that requires a house to access. If he was referring to all housing districts, ouch.

The demand for FC housing (at least by genuine FCs) just is not that high. If it was, we wouldn't have seen new wards in the past remain mostly empty until the personal moratorium was lifted. I remember doing a census back in 2019 a few weeks before 5.1 was released and seeing all the empty plots still left on Spriggan and Twintania (not to mention the wards that were being filled up by the shells FCs).

Hopefully the weighting toward FCs will only last the first 4 lottery periods, and we'll see some FC wards switched to personal after that (when 6.15 would release if it's the usual 6-7 weeks we've seen in the past). It's demoralizing when there are plots sitting vacant and there are players are ready to buy but can't because SE has locked access to FCs that have already purchased a house if they want Certainly SE should keep some wards reserved for FCs at all times but when FCs are historically about 30% of the house owners, it should be 30% of wards.

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Are FC and Personal plots going to be separated by ward or on an individual plot level? I have seen no information that would clearly indicate one vs the other. If you have that information, can you tell me where it is?

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Originally Posted by Eraden

Are FC and Personal plots going to be separated by ward or on an individual plot level? I have seen no information that would clearly indicate one vs the other. If you have that information, can you tell me where it is?

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It's what we were told back in November. Wards would be set to either FC or personal, and they will be able to change the ward type during patch maintenances if needed.

Do you honestly think SE is going to go through each and every one of the 518,400 plots that will be in the game come April 12th to decide what type of plot each should be? Do you have any idea how many man hours that would take?

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

It's what we were told back in November. Wards would be set to either FC or personal, and they will be able to change the ward type during patch maintenances if needed.

Do you honestly think SE is going to go through each and every one of the 518,400 plots that will be in the game come April 12th to decide what type of plot each should be? Do you have any idea how many man hours that would take?

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I was referring to Ishgard only. It wouldn't take very long at all to set up a template for the plots in each ward and then transpose it to every server.

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Originally Posted by Eraden

I was referring to Ishgard only. It wouldn't take very long at all to set up a template for the plots in each ward and then transpose it to every server.

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I haven't seen anything that indicated Empyreum will be treated any differently but you never know with SE. Sometimes they're deliberately vague.

I wish they had provided just a little bit more of the screenshot in the image that was intended to show ward designation in the Lodestone topic. That might have given a clear answer to your question.

No thanks. As someone who went through 2 housing savages so far just to be able to buy 2 small homes (fc and own), i cant wait for the fricking current systems to be removed from the game.

Lottery is fair, random is fair and i am all for equality between everyone ( those who can play 18 hours a day or those who can only play 2 hours a week ).

It's not exactly 100% fair now either, at least not for personal housing. Right now, people who have multiple alts can buy one lottery ticket for each of their alts and use them all to enter the lottery, thus increasing their chances, compared say to a new player who only has one single eligible character, or compared to people with not much time on their hands who do not have the time to create/level several eligible characters. If we wanted it to be 100% fair for all, then all players should be allowed just one single lottery ticket per server or even per data centre. But at the very least, only one single lottery ticket per server.