Thank you, lottery

I refused to placard spam because I didn't want to bot and didn't want to spend 8 hours of my life in this game not actually playing it. I was never going to get a personal under the old system. I got one under this one.

No, lottery doesn't solve the supply problem, but its a godsend for anyone who actually has a life outside this game. Its a much smaller turd sandwich than the old system, and I thank SE for implementing it.

Good for you.

I'd rather camp a placard. I've lost 3 lotteries on medium houses, and I haven't checked yet, but there's probably none left now in any of the areas' personal wards. Every lottery cycle that goes by gets worse and worse, as fewer and fewer houses are available, and more and more people bidding on the smaller number of what's left.

In a lottery system like this one, every success story is only possible because hundreds of other people lost and feel like crap. This number will grow larger with time.
We need more wards at this point. Even that is just a bandaid, but it's better than nothing and it's something square has shown they can actually do in the past. Failing even this, I think just communicating with players about the situation would go a long way. Since there are people pulling interview statements from like 2015 to back up what they believe about SE in 2022. If Square sat down and just did a live letter and dedicated even 10 minutes of it to explaining why the system is crap in current-year and what, if anything, they plan to do about it, I think a LOT of people would just shut up and understand or at the very least stop hoping for better.

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

In a lottery system like this one, every success story is only possible because thousands of other people lost and feel like crap.

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So you're going to make a negative response to someone sharing their success story, in an attempt to make them feel bad about finally accomplishing something? shame on you.

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Originally Posted by XiaoShengwu

So you're going to make a negative response to someone sharing their success story, in an attempt to make them feel bad about finally accomplishing something? shame on you.

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It's not negative or positive, it's just the truth. OP is praising this system (barely; even op admits it's "a smaller turd sandwich" than what we had before) because she gained from it. Most people didn't though.
If you want to keep being offended for other people though, I won't stop you.

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Originally Posted by XiaoShengwu

So you're going to make a negative response to someone sharing their success story, in an attempt to make them feel bad about finally accomplishing something? shame on you.

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Avoidy does have a valid point too. It is a bandaid for the real issues. Sure lottery is better of the two evils, but it's not even close to touching the underlying issue with housing. I feel the OP came to gloat just a wee bit to the naysayers when it comes to FFA vs Lottery. Which is also a shame because they are just that small 1% of success stories that are out there currently, when there's still thousands still trying to land a house themselves and are being pushed out because of availability. Nothing shameful in pointing out that lottery vs FFA is not the real issue, because it's obvious what is the issue. Sorry you don't get it.

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Originally Posted by Arazehl

Avoidy does have a valid point too. It is a bandaid for the real issues. Sure lottery is better of the two evils, but it's not even close to touching the underlying issue with housing. I feel the OP came to gloat just a wee bit to the naysayers when it comes to FFA vs Lottery. Which is also a shame because they are just that small 1% of success stories that are out there currently, when there's still thousands still trying to land a house themselves and are being pushed out because of availability. Nothing shameful in pointing out that lottery vs FFA is not the real issue, because it's obvious what is the issue. Sorry you don't get it.

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Thank you. Really rustles my jimmies that this guy didn't even read the rest of my post, which was quite constructive.
I'm posting here under the (probably faulty) assumption that sooner or later someone who can affect change in this game will read this section and take player feedback into account. The lottery system is terrible. The system before it was also terrible. A lot of people have already pointed these things out. But if someone's literally going to make a new thread that's just like "I think this system is fine because I won," then I think it's necessary to point out the obvious counterbalance so nobody important reads this thread and thinks people are okay with things as they currently stand. As for OP's feelings, I'd assume she wouldn't mind being told that other people had to lose, since she ventured into a forum full of losers to boast about winning in the first place. She's probably too busy having fun with her new house to care about what I post anyway.

People literally ignore the substance of a post and zoom in on the dumbest stuff, it boggles my mind. More wards. More communication. This is what I want. This is what a lot of other people want too. Okay bye now.

I think it's pretty sad personally that many people were excited for Ishgard and a new housing district only to find that only 25 percent of the wards were allocated private and that only 24 wards were added with no new wards added anywhere else. Not that it would have solved the problem but a minimum of 30 wards per housing district would have helped the supply a bit.

I also think the FC allocation/split and the decision to go with FC only wards was a mistake. FC purchases have been abused for so long and still are and the current restrictions are only enabling the creating of solo FC's in order to get a house which defeats the entire purpose or intent of what a FC is about in my view. Given that decision enabling ward divisions should have applied to the first lottery or two and not what will probably be in effect until 6.2 hits. By then most if not all housing will be gone.

One can hope with the addition of new servers for data center expansion we'll also see a boost to the number of wards everywhere. A statement of what to expect with housing should at the least be communicated when it comes to how they are going to deal with the supply. They have to have some concrete numbers now as to how many people want housing. When 288+ people bid on a small in Balmung in round 3 that says something and this is only going to get worse. One person won that house but 287 people lost.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

A statement of what to expect with housing should at the least be communicated when it comes to how they are going to deal with the supply.

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As there will be zero FCs on the new servers I think it will follow the same, now established pattern.

90 or so days with zero housing, all cities locked out - including the housing area unlock quests.

Then 1-18 for FC purchases for a scant few more than 4 cycles to give FCs a chance to form, grind to 6, and buy a house.

We don't know the upper limit yet on FC weighted cycles for a new server, but on Materia (like everyone really) it's been three with the fourth coming and no talk of rebalancing yet.

I think this will continue for JP/NA/EU new servers too.

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Originally Posted by Macleod

I'd rather camp a placard. I've lost 3 lotteries on medium houses, and I haven't checked yet, but there's probably none left now in any of the areas' personal wards. Every lottery cycle that goes by gets worse and worse, as fewer and fewer houses are available, and more and more people bidding on the smaller number of what's left.

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You'd genuinely be happier giving up 15-25 hours that could be used to play other parts of the game just to lose out on 3 houses to bots and leave you in the same position as the lottery has so far?

Think hard on that. Perhaps you're someone with lots of extra time on your hands to waste but most players aren't.

It's still not the lottery that's causing the problem. It's the lack of supply to meet demand, whether that demand is to get a house at all or to get a specific size/plot location. It's not going to matter what purchase system SE implements, there will be players who are left unhappy unless SE fixes supply.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

I think this will continue for JP/NA/EU new servers too.

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JP isn't getting new worlds. They're just redistributing some of the existing worlds to a new data center to ease log in congestion.

SE is going to have to tread carefully with the new NA/EU worlds. Data center travel will not be the amazing game changer that some make it out to be. There's a lot to be learned from both Materia and from the current state of the housing system under the lottery. There's no incentive to leave friends behind if you're moving to a worse situation for the sake of benefits that won't materialize for several month.

Previous system was better for players willing to put in the placecard clicking time. It was not fun, plenty of wasted time, but even with bots the chance of getting a plot was several times higher due to smaller competition and plots being available more often than the 9-days cycle.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

... There's a lot to be learned from both Materia and from the current state of the housing system under the lottery. There's no incentive to leave friends behind if you're moving to a worse situation for the sake of benefits that won't materialize for several month.

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Let's hope they know it's a perfect system and don't need to change a single thing <wink>

I say that with a wink, because you were in the threads back in February/March where I was in begging for housing in the old cities for Materia sooner, and you know there were NA players in those 2 threads saying nope, no FCFS for Materia (even though we play in NA), you must wait for 6.1 and lottery.

Even though we know it's not ideal, I still expect that SE will do the 90 days though, with all the damage that does to server identity and community cohesion on sprout servers.

[And yes, you were right about JP, thanks for the correction, its just moving from 12's to 8's.]

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Let's hope they know it's a perfect system and don't need to change a single thing <wink>

I say that with a wink, because you were in the threads back in February/March where I was in begging for housing in the old cities for Materia sooner, and you know there were NA players in those 2 threads saying nope, no FCFS for Materia (even though we play in NA), you must wait for 6.1 and lottery.

Even though we know it's not ideal, I still expect that SE will do the 90 days though, with all the damage that does to server identity and community cohesion on sprout servers.

[And yes, you were right about JP, thanks for the correction, its just moving from 12's to 8's.]

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I still feel that lottery was the correct decision, though I agreed with you (and the others) at the time that the long delay was unnecessary. As expected, RMT and players operating multiple shell FCs showed up. The lottery at least would give players a fighting chance to win against those abusing the system.

What I don't think any of us anticipated was SE reserving 18 wards in every housing district including Materia worlds even though there's no way any Materia world already had 5400 FCs let alone FCs that would meet purchase requirements. Instead of RMT and shell operators having to fight to get their foothold on prime plots, SE handed them over on a silver platter.

Imagine if SE had made an exception for the Materia worlds and set it up as wards 1-4 FC and 5-24 personal even with the lottery. That would still have been 1200 houses for FCs but 6000 for Personal. Do you think you'd still be seeing problems or would almost everyone be settled into their personal house if they wanted one by now?

Sadly, I agree with you that SE is likely to do the same thing again on the new EU and NA worlds this summer. Maybe now's the time to open a dialog in General Discussion with feedback in hopes they can still make changes to whatever their plans are. It's not just housing that will be an issue.

I don't know 3 cycles and Ward 16 Sophia has only 1 FC and that's mine. Large plots are sitting there with no bids.

https://iili.io/haFmWF.png

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Originally Posted by PredatoryCatgirl

I refused to placard spam because I didn't want to bot and didn't want to spend 8 hours of my life in this game not actually playing it. I was never going to get a personal under the old system. I got one under this one.

No, lottery doesn't solve the supply problem, but its a godsend for anyone who actually has a life outside this game. Its a much smaller turd sandwich than the old system, and I thank SE for implementing it.

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WooHoo! Congrats on your new home! May it bring you joy and wonderful memories.

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Originally Posted by XiaoShengwu

So you're going to make a negative response to someone sharing their success story, in an attempt to make them feel bad about finally accomplishing something? shame on you.

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they should feel bad.

their win comes at the cost of vastly more people losing out.

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Originally Posted by MaeveHatesHousing

they should feel bad.

their win comes at the cost of vastly more people losing out.

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You must be a crazy Karen in real life if you act this way in a forum. You sound like you'd fit right into a lot of those subreddit Entitled People/I Don't Work Here stories.

No player should feel bad for winning the lottery. SE should feel bad that a lottery is even necessary because they will not fix the supply problem.

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Originally Posted by MaeveHatesHousing

they should feel bad.

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I recall, during ye olde days when we had placard clicking, when we lost I (and many others) would cheer the winner (after checking they had stopped clicking). We could cheer, and clap, and pop realm reborn red, we would songbird, and more. Quite a few times I would drop half a million gil on the winner as a housewarming gift if they had been doing the rounds with me.

A lot of my friendslist comes from the time I spent at the placard, winners who had spent weeks or months with me on property after property who consequentially won and were very happy.

I would feel happy for their win, even though I just did 2 to 4 hours of prime time clicking and was tired and grumpy and cursing the system and having a sore wrist.

Why should anyone feel bad that an RNG roll chose them? Be it a mount or minion in an ex, gear they need in a savage, or a house in the lottery.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

No player should feel bad for winning the lottery. SE should feel bad that a lottery is even necessary because they will not fix the supply problem.

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Yep.

The system has been broken for years. Lottery - by it's nature of being low effort - has made the cracks easier to see. And we need to keep pushing SE to sit down and fix it for people.

I've lost the lottery both times. The outcome was expected, but I didn't waste countless hours spamming a placard against (some) players using bots. I think it is working as intended. I'd like to believe that the winners are just regular players like the rest of us as opposed to many of the old system winners that may have been planning to resell or used a bot to win it.

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Originally Posted by PredatoryCatgirl

I refused to placard spam because I didn't want to bot and didn't want to spend 8 hours of my life in this game not actually playing it. I was never going to get a personal under the old system. I got one under this one.

No, lottery doesn't solve the supply problem, but its a godsend for anyone who actually has a life outside this game. Its a much smaller turd sandwich than the old system, and I thank SE for implementing it.

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To be fair: people who have no lives outside this game are more likely actually going to maximize their use of acquiring a house. If SquareEnix was doing the equivalent of dangling a crack pipe over an addict's head, you just did the equivalent of grabbing that pipe, then smashing it and laughing.

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Originally Posted by Macleod

I'd rather camp a placard. I've lost 3 lotteries on medium houses, and I haven't checked yet, but there's probably none left now in any of the areas' personal wards. Every lottery cycle that goes by gets worse and worse, as fewer and fewer houses are available, and more and more people bidding on the smaller number of what's left.

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I just checked the districts. 11 small houses available - assuming no one else claims houses (and the one I lost the roll on still hasn't been claimed).

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Originally Posted by ijuakos_xqwzts

To be fair: people who have no lives outside this game are more likely actually going to maximize their use of acquiring a house. If SquareEnix was doing the equivalent of dangling a crack pipe over an addict's head, you just did the equivalent of grabbing that pipe, then smashing it and laughing..

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No, I did the equivariant of grabbing that pipe, taking a few puffs, and then putting it in my pocket. And if it really is a crack pipe, I'd be doing them a favor. If we're going to make gross false equivalencies here, lets at least portray them accurately.

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Originally Posted by Arazehl

Avoidy does have a valid point too. It is a bandaid for the real issues. Sure lottery is better of the two evils, but it's not even close to touching the underlying issue with housing. I feel the OP came to gloat just a wee bit to the naysayers when it comes to FFA vs Lottery. Which is also a shame because they are just that small 1% of success stories that are out there currently, when there's still thousands still trying to land a house themselves and are being pushed out because of availability. Nothing shameful in pointing out that lottery vs FFA is not the real issue, because it's obvious what is the issue. Sorry you don't get it.

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I have a house and have had one for years and years, so I don't have a horse in this race. But, I agree with you. I see it all the time. People come to gloat that their positive/success story should automatically invalidate everyone else who hasn't had good luck, or has legit complaints. "Well, it was good for me, therefore, it's a wonderful system."

First round I got a small house for my FC... second round I got my medium house in the mist, thank you lottery, for I did not have to spam some placecard and competete with bots, it is very much appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

First round I got a small house for my FC... second round I got my medium house in the mist, thank you lottery, for I did not have to spam some placecard and competete with bots, it is very much appreciated.

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Good for you.

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Originally Posted by PredatoryCatgirl

If we're going to make gross false equivalencies here, lets at least portray them accurately.

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It sounds like you're the one suggesting that you're doing a housing junkie a favor by denying them a house.

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Originally Posted by ijuakos_xqwzts

It sounds like you're the one suggesting that you're doing a housing junkie a favor by denying them a house.

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You mean in your analogy where you compared it to smoking crack, one of the most addictive and destructive things you can do to yourself? Yes, I am doing them a favor, because I won't use it like an addict, because its not crack for me.

Or you can just admit that your gross false equivalency is just that, that in game housing isn't a drug or anything anyone actually needs, and stop making me out to be the bad guy because I won a virtual dice roll and don't want to spend 8 hours of my life in this game not actually playing it. (Not an exaggeration, btw. Prime time for placard camping is roughly 8 hours.)

But I'm guessing you won't do that, because you're determined to blame someone for SE not giving us enough houses, and we can't actually blame SE now can we?

God you guys endlessly cry for months. You all hated place cards so you cried and said give us lottery! They gave you lottery and now you cry omg i still can't win this is unfair lottery is trash do instanced housing now or go back to placecard spamming! So entitled, so ZZZZZZ. Why don't you stop giving suggestions and just call it like it is for once in your damn lives and say I want a house and what I want is most important because i am ENTITLED to it and I will never be happy until I get what I WANT.

Eventually you will win a house and decorate it like one time then never touch it again for years until you ultimetly lose it. It doesn't matter. Stop crying..... touch grass.....

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Originally Posted by SuperSxyNerd

God you guys endlessly cry for months. You all hated place cards so you cried and said give us lottery! They gave you lottery and now you cry omg i still can't win this is unfair lottery is trash do instanced housing now or go back to placecard spamming! So entitled, so ZZZZZZ. Why don't you stop giving suggestions and just call it like it is for once in your damn lives and say I want a house and what I want is most important because i am ENTITLED to it and I will never be happy until I get what I WANT.

Eventually you will win a house and decorate it like one time then never touch it again for years until you ultimetly lose it. It doesn't matter. Stop crying..... touch grass.....

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Ever stop to consider that most of those crying about the lottery now weren't the ones asking for it in the first place?

Honestly, I'd say you're the one that needs to go outside to touch grass if all you're doing is complaining about people complaining.

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Originally Posted by SuperSxyNerd

God you guys endlessly cry for months. You all hated place cards so you cried and said give us lottery! They gave you lottery and now you cry omg i still can't win this is unfair lottery is trash do instanced housing now or go back to placecard spamming! So entitled, so ZZZZZZ. Why don't you stop giving suggestions and just call it like it is for once in your damn lives and say I want a house and what I want is most important because i am ENTITLED to it and I will never be happy until I get what I WANT.

Eventually you will win a house and decorate it like one time then never touch it again for years until you ultimetly lose it. It doesn't matter. Stop crying..... touch grass.....

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Players are encouraged to leave feedback here. We can't do it in game.

Shame on you for posting like this.

Lottery for limited plots is not a good system. Its just a less bad system than placard spam.

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Originally Posted by PredatoryCatgirl

Lottery for limited plots is not a good system. Its just a less bad system than placard spam.

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For any limited system, lottery is generaly a fair system as it gives equal chances. Even for those who play longer it is (only during its transition it might not feel like that). Over time you will see a lot of bidding cycles, this automaticly increases the odds for you (slow, but steady).

100x1% chance to win, in the end still results in a 65% overal win chance (and after 200 this is 85%). Dedication is rewarded. It might not feel like it (since after 200 cycles there is a bit less than 15% chance of still not having a house), but it still beats the 99% chance of not owning a house for someone who just did 1 cycle. Add to that the potential addition of fresh wards with massively increased odds, and the percentages will be even better in your favour.

The real issue is obviously lack of space, but in such limited system, RNG is the best. Dont blame the lottery for the real issue.

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Originally Posted by UkcsAlias

100x1% chance to win, in the end still results in a 65% overal win chance (and after 200 this is 85%). Dedication is rewarded.

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100 lottery cycles is 900 days which is 2.5 years. For a slightly better chance than a coinflip. That's assuming there are houses to bid on every cycle, which there soon won't be. It also assumes there are only 100 bidders for a house, which is not the case.

What a garbage system.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

100 lottery cycles is 900 days which is 2.5 years. For a slightly better chance than a coinflip. That's assuming there are houses to bid on every cycle, which there soon won't be. It also assumes there are only 100 bidders for a house, which is not the case.

What a garbage system.

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Blame the limited houses, not the lottery system! It takes that long because of a serious lack of houses. Dont expect that a shorter cycle gives better chances on that either, since there will simply be more cycles in which no houses will be available at all.

That each bid only has 1% is because of a big lack of houses. With 5x as high of a supply, this would become closer to 5%. The lottery scales almost linear on that (only when nearing the 100% this doesnt work anymore since at that point people will start bidding in such way that location becomes a factor.

Lets look at the odds at a 5% winrate and the number of cycles needed there. And for convenience, lets start at 20 cycles: 64.2% win chance (vs 63.3% of the 100x1% rate). And for reference after 100 cycles at 5%: 99.4%.

Now lets say the supply is equal to the player base, location will matter. And as a result some plots get no bids, while some get 5 bids. You will still have to face the randomness here (20% winrate), and again, more of these opportunities means a higher chance of obtaining it. It doesnt matter what state we are in, it works, and it works in a fair way.

Thats why the lottery is good. It scales in the best way with demand vs supply. Its that the supply is currently not even close to what is required.

Again, dont blame the lottery on this, blame the lack of wards. Because the lack of wards is what is garbage here.

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Originally Posted by UkcsAlias

Blame the limited houses, not the lottery system! It takes that long because of a serious lack of houses.

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Actually I do blame the lottery, because my chances weren't as low as 1% before the lottery. It was a 2 hours after a housing patch to pick and choose which house I wanted. Or it was looking at house prices at the quiet end of a patch and figuring out which house had been demolished 12-24 hours ago and going there, usually with no other players in sight because they didn't want to deal with the random placard timer that wasn't even a problem if you were smart about it.

I would have preferred to keep things as they were, when the barely active players could not enter the housing market by just logging in once a week.

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Originally Posted by UkcsAlias

The real issue is obviously lack of space, but in such limited system, RNG is the best. Dont blame the lottery for the real issue.

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That was kind of my point. Lottery is a fix for limited supply. Address the supply, and we don't need lottery. But no instanced housing because potato.

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Originally Posted by PredatoryCatgirl

That was kind of my point. Lottery is a fix for limited supply. Address the supply, and we don't need lottery. But no instanced housing because potato.

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Lottery is not a FIX for limited supply. It exists because there's limited supply and it wouldn't be necessary if supply meets demand but lottery doesn't fix the supply problem.

It was a matter all the same to choose a “lesser evil” with game of “chance” than permit longer the placard spamming (which was relentless) & any possible third party cheater.

Truth is housing problem was always prevalent & it kept being so with lottery.

I believe those who are upset with the lottery system cannot bear along through the changes & therefore robbed them of the opportunity to gain leverage upon placard-farming or otherwise.

While I am yet wary of this new system I won’t deny it settled in much more convenient for anyone to roll on a chance to obtain it.

Just the nature of some people that can’t bear losing their “bet” on it & resort into upheaval madness all because of lottery.

I am with OP & glad I am not the only one that sees the silver lining on it.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

Actually I do blame the lottery, because my chances weren't as low as 1% before the lottery. It was a 2 hours after a housing patch to pick and choose which house I wanted. Or it was looking at house prices at the quiet end of a patch and figuring out which house had been demolished 12-24 hours ago and going there, usually with no other players in sight because they didn't want to deal with the random placard timer that wasn't even a problem if you were smart about it.

I would have preferred to keep things as they were, when the barely active players could not enter the housing market by just logging in once a week.

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My question would be, as you are having a hard time with plottery now, how didn't you get a house back then, if it was easier and all?

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Originally Posted by Shibi

My question would be, as you are having a hard time with plottery now, how didn't you get a house back then, if it was easier and all?

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I got a house three times and relocated a couple of times as well. Back in the day we had to demolish the old house before running to the new plot to buy it. After relocation became a thing it was easier to swap houses. At some point I got tired of having a house and demolished it, then got a new one later on after placard timers had been implemented.

Now I have a small at a waterfall in Lavender Beds but I wanted a house in Ishgard. Probably would have gotten one if it weren't for the lottery.