Housing Lottery 6.1 and beyond.

The lottery is fair for the launch of 6.1 because anyone with an interest will have the same opportunity.

After the initial opening of the Empyreum, I suggest that all players receive a server wide login notification or mog mail if and when a property becomes available.

In the interest of fairness, left to the current system of checking for availability will only afford one player with a 50% chance at best. Those chances will diminish as interest grows and the lottery will be a consequence of combinatorial mathematics which renew every time a property goes up for sale.

If all players receive fair notice, though the chances would be far less than a 1%, the chances are equal and finite every single time. Likewise, the chance can only grow as people optionally decline, rather than through lack of awareness.

I believe the players will better receive the opportunity lost if it's shared by more people and include a satisfactory respect for the beneficiary.

Additionally, occupants need the opportunity to relinquish their property without loss. I would suggest that the game offer advantages and rewards to the occupants if they were to relinquish their property after a duration to help stimulate an environment for people to enjoy and pass it on, but that's for another time.

If you agree, please help this topic get where it needs to go.

Thanks for reading!

The non-instanced housing system is broken beyond repair.

The only real thing the lottery system does is remove bots from the equation. (OK, it makes staying on 24/7 useless too)

As long as they cling to "muh neighborhood feel", it won't ever be fixed. Honestly I'm not sure I believe that's the real reason, I just think they actually can't make customized instanced housing work.

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Originally Posted by Conundrum

The non-instanced housing system is broken beyond repair.

The only real thing the lottery system does is remove bots from the equation. (OK, it makes staying on 24/7 useless too)

As long as they cling to "muh neighborhood feel", it won't ever be fixed. Honestly I'm not sure I believe that's the real reason, I just think they actually can't make customized instanced housing work.

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Actual instanced housing would require a duty queue and transfer to the instance servers. This would also mean you wouldn't be able to queue anything else while in your house, or access retainers.
It would kinda defeat the whole point.

But as long as housing is located on the world servers they'll always be finite in supply.

It's catch 22.

One thing they could do is expand apartments and they don't seem to take as much server space, due to not having a "physical" presence in a shared zone, so would pay off more than adding more wards.
But even that will only be a temporary measuren as are every additional server they install for housing.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Actual instanced housing would require a duty queue and transfer to the instance servers. This would also mean you wouldn't be able to queue anything else while in your house, or access retainers.
It would kinda defeat the whole point.

But as long as housing is located on the world servers they'll always be finite in supply.

It's catch 22.

One thing they could do is expand apartments and they don't seem to take as much server space, due to not having a "physical" presence in a shared zone, so would pay off more than adding more wards.
But even that will only be a temporary measuren as are every additional server they install for housing.

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This really isn't true.

Houses and apartments are already instanced on the inside. Unless you have another term for areas that are identical that unique groups of players can interact with and modify individual occurrences of.

It's the exteriors that are ultimately the problem. Which are still instanced (each ward/sub-division is an instance), just more demanding.

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Originally Posted by Arzalis

This really isn't true.

Houses and apartments are already instanced on the inside. Unless you have another term for areas that are identical that unique groups of players can interact with and modify individual occurrences of.

It's the exteriors that are ultimately the problem. Which are still instanced (each ward/sub-division is an instance), just more demanding.

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No they're not instances. A instance is a technical term for a uniquely loaded temporary 'instance', which is hosted on the 'instance' servers. Instances are technically infinite, due to their temporary nature, when one endsn it's gone and another can be loaded.

Housing interiors may be different zones that all share the same layout, but they are not temporary instances. They are permanently accessible as part of the 'world', you can walk into them through their front door and different players can come in and out and occupy the same space at the same time. They are hosted on the 'world' servers along with every other zone that doesn't require a duty queue. They are finite, because they are permanent fixtures that are always accessible.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

They are hosted on the 'world' servers along with every other zone that doesn't require a duty queue.

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Doesn't really hold true, the recent "unable to enter your home" error seemingly proves that it's a unique system. If they were hosted with other zones, then trying to teleport into any zone would get it too.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Doesn't really hold true, the recent "unable to enter your home" error seemingly proves that it's a unique system. If they were hosted with other zones, then trying to teleport into any zone would get it too.

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Which just proves they are finite zones that share a space, not individual instances.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Which just proves they are finite zones that share a space, not individual instances.

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It's no different to when you can't load into a world zone because there are too many people in it.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Which just proves they are finite zones that share a space, not individual instances.

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Yes, they don't share the world servers. They are instance servers that load the interior from disk and launch it.

Someone mentioned that it's possible the development team will see the amount of people applying for housing lottery (even tho the massive amount of social media insanity wasn't enough), will cause the team realize what a huge issue the housing market is for people and allocate resources as needed. Over the years I've played, I've seen everything from bald faced lies, dodging, and complete dis-interest from the development team, and when I heard they were going to implement lottery and island sanctuaries (with the hope it's a form of personal customizable space) I came back after a long hiatus.

I'm holding out hope for island sanctuaries. Nothing done around housing that I have seen has done anything but cause every level of grief, drama, people hating each other, bots and dumpster fires.. you name it. I kind of torqued they just leaving it 30 houses with a tiny portion of them being mediums and larges. Allowing players to expand apartments, and adding sharing like houses do would go a REAL long way to address the situation. And for goodness' sake, fix the decorating system. I am so sick of floating crap.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Yes, they don't share the world servers. They are instance servers that load the interior from disk and launch it.

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They're not.
If they were on instance servers, they would require a duty queue.

Another example is the difference between world zones such as Thanalan, Yanxia, Thavnair etc. and the 'exploration' zones of Eureka and Bozja.
Same format, but one is hosted on the instance servers.

Housing interiors work differently to world zones, but they still exist on the world servers and are treated as a world zone. This is how you have seamless transition between the zones from world (thanalan) to ward (goblet) to house interiorn where other players can seamlessly follow you.
All interiors on a ward are counted as one single world zone, which is why it can be congested and refuse to let you in, just like any congested world zone.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Actual instanced housing would require a duty queue and transfer to the instance servers. This would also mean you wouldn't be able to queue anything else while in your house, or access retainers.
It would kinda defeat the whole point..

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... what? This is complete and utter nonsense.

We already have a form of instanced housing in Apartments, which you can queue from. Inn Rooms, The Rising Stones, the side room in Sharlayan and the Grand Company Barracks are all instanced "zones" that is readily available to every single person without issue. Even at full server capacity like we've seen with Endwalker, none of these areas even remotely struggled to load. So the technically not only exists is readily being utilized.

The whole point of instanced housing is it alleviates server space as these zones only load when players are actively present inside them whereas the current Wards are constantly maintained regardless. There's a reason pretty much every other MMO opted for instanced housing. It's widely superior in terms of practical use of space. The only disadvantage for better functionality and infinite housing is you lose the neighbour feel Wards provide. Which is why a lot of people have suggested they do both. Or why so many hoped for Island Sanctuary to fill that void.

Why they haven't gone for instanced house boils down to the sunken cost fallacy. The dev team has stubbornly put so many resources into one band-aid fix after another, they don't want to develop a whole new system. Not to mention, for a business perspective, the current system ensures players with a house will keep their sub active indefinitely as they know their odds of getting another are virtually none.

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Originally Posted by ForteNightshade

... what? This is complete and utter nonsense.

We already have a form of instanced housing in Apartments, which you can queue from. Inn Rooms, The Rising Stones, the side room in Sharlayan and the Grand Company Barracks are all instanced "zones" that is readily available to every single person without issue. Even at full server capacity like we've seen with Endwalker, none of these areas even remotely struggled to load. So the technically not only exists is readily being utilized.

The whole point of instanced housing is it alleviates server space as these zones only load when players are actively present inside them whereas the current Wards are constantly maintained regardless. There's a reason pretty much every other MMO opted for instanced housing. It's widely superior in terms of practical use of space. The only disadvantage for better functionality and infinite housing is you lose the neighbour feel Wards provide. Which is why a lot of people have suggested they do both. Or why so many hoped for Island Sanctuary to fill that void.

Why they haven't gone for instanced house boils down to the sunken cost fallacy. The dev team has stubbornly put so many resources into one band-aid fix after another, they don't want to develop a whole new system. Not to mention, for a business perspective, the current system ensures players with a house will keep their sub active indefinitely as they know their odds of getting another are virtually none.

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Once again, none of those things are actual instancesn just tiny zones hosted on the world servers.
This makes them finite.

When players ask for "instanced housing" what they're asking for is "infinite housing", that requires hosting on the instance servers, which would require a duty queue.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Once again, none of those things are actual instancesn just tiny zones hosted on the world servers.
This makes them finite.

When players ask for "instanced housing" what they're asking for is "infinite housing", that requires hosting on the instance servers, which would require a duty queue.

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Another thing is database access. Glamours, retainers, saddlebag, etc. These things can only be accessed while on the world servers. Access to these databases is evidence that a zone is located on the world servers.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

If they were on instance servers, they would require a duty queue.

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Sorry, your ideas are wrong.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Sorry, your ideas are wrong.

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Ironic when you're the one ignorant to how the servers work.
Everything I've said is factual.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Once again, none of those things are actual instancesn just tiny zones hosted on the world servers.
This makes them finite.

When players ask for "instanced housing" what they're asking for is "infinite housing", that requires hosting on the instance servers, which would require a duty queue.

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That's literally the definition of an instance, my dude. Go to Radz-At-Han or some other populated field/world zone right now and type /instance. Ever wondered why the command is called that?

I don't know how you're getting the idea the duty instance servers can't fill up either. They absolutely can and have in the past in periods of extreme traffic, notable example being Stormblood and Raubahn EX. Even now it can happen occasionally, you just get a prompt that you're being queued into a solo instance and will start when there is space. Very similar to the way housing instances work, just without the queueing in that case.

In short, you're creating a very specific, incorrect definition of "instance" which doesn't hold any water.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Once again, none of those things are actual instancesn just tiny zones hosted on the world servers.
This makes them finite.

When players ask for "instanced housing" what they're asking for is "infinite housing", that requires hosting on the instance servers, which would require a duty queue.

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... do you have any actual knowledge of server structure and how instances work? Games like Black Desert already have instanced housing and they don't require any sort of queue. What you're describing simply isn't how instanced housing would work in this game or any other. It'd be functional identical to Apartments, which the dev team has outright said are infinite. Duty queues are for content with backend systems such as raids or stuff like playing as the Scions. They essentially have to load a series of models, scrips and etc. all of which have to work in a specific sequence. None of this is true for housing. Hence why Apartments work seamlessly. At most, you may run into congestion issues like we see how, especially if housing remained on a low priority server but that's about it.

Bluntly stated, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

This is a cost related problem not a technical one.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Ironic when you're the one ignorant to how the servers work.
Everything I've said is factual.

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Citation needed.

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Actual instanced housing would require a duty queue

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And what orifice did you pull this pearl of wisdom out of? Do you understand at all what instanced housing actually is?

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

No they're not instances.

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Then explain that to YoshiP who has told us that interiors are instanced and without the weather conditions required for the garden patches and intercross gardening, which is why we can not use garden patches or intercross garden inside of houses/apartments even though we can grow things in flowerpots.

You're limiting yourself to a very narrow definition of "instance".

It doesn't change that instanced housing not only can but does exist. Just about every other MMO with housing is an example. It serves a player base better than the ward system ever could which is why it gets used.

This pedantic argument about the true nature of the hardware structuring of instances is kind of meaningless
We want housing that exists in an isolated environment that only manifests when we actively travel there
The exact methodology by which this would be achieved is largely irrelevant to the player