Implement a lottery for house plots

[Amenian]

and a Mancat

You!

I like you!

[Moonlite]

snip

You know the reason we didn't get more housing is because the zones are persistent open world zones. So A) every server has to have the same and B) every time they add one it puts more strain on the server. If we have heard one line over and over it is "Limitations". The moving could be down the road to some awesome new system. But most people strongly doubt it with a fourth housing area being added.

[NolLacnala]

I know you're on Balmung (and a Mancat) but do try to keep up.

[Vanitas]

This thread has been thoroughly entertaining.

[Alien_Gamer]

I don't see how a lottery could benefit the player base as a whole, none of your examples actually work to support your arguments.

-The total pool of eligible people does not change between what we have now and your lottery. Its fine for you to say programming magic to filter out or prioritize people but in reality thats impossible to do fairly; a program can't see whats actually going on to be able to judge all edge cases and make an accurate assessment of who should be prioritized over someone else. So the only result from this is SE is unfairly picking who should have a house and who shouldn't. That is worse than what we currently have.

-The amount of time people have to get a house in your system would be set to 1 week. Currently we have as much time as we want to get a house and on some worlds there were houses left open after a week so you'd only be making it worse for them. Are you going to suggest treating players on one world differently than on others? That would be playing favorites and end up worse than what we have now.

-The current system gives players control over when and how they try to get a house. Your system removes that control and replaces it with RNG. This doesn't make for a better system for the players, removing control is a bad thing. Always. You can claim its still random if you get in or not but thats not true, it just appears so. You log in at X time, if there are Y people ahead of you then you wait your turn. its not a random number thats generated, thats competition for the same resource. A player still has control over when and how fast they try to log in to get a house. Just because the housing resource is limited it does not make it random if you get it.

-The claim that some players are at a disadvantage due to the time is irrelevant. Here's a couple pertinent facts to consider: 1 the maintenance patch must end at some point in time. 2. that time will be inconvenient for someone somewhere no matter what the time is. 3. Access to servers can't be staggered by time zone because multiple time zones can access the same server. 4. Because all times are equally valid in that scenario, you do the patch when your business is open. (this is the same for all patches, not just housing). 5. Players knew when this patch was going to hit weeks ago, they all had plenty of time to make arrangements to make sure they could log in if they chose to do so. 6. If players can't make time for it, thats not the fault of the developers and the developers are under no obligation to make changes for each special case.

-Your world has too much competition to get a house. This is a player created problem and your lottery system doesn't alleviate it in any way. it only changes it from log in to get a house to roll a die to get a house. Your odds of getting a house don't actually improve by having a week long lottery because you're still competing against everyone else that is in the market for a house. If anything it will lower your odds because those people who couldn't make time for the patch, can now buy into the lottery for it.

-Lotteries are not more fair than first come first serve. A lottery itself is a fair system for distribution but in this case you're removing players from being able to control when and how they try to get a house. See previous comments about that.

The ONLY thing your suggestion does is change when you try to get a house. It does not improve the system for anyone and would make it worse for some. You are trading the headache of waking up early to get the house with RNG to possibly get a house.

[Vladmiere]

I am not saying it is the best idea but you assume an awful lot. The current system gives some control yes but only to the top end as it stands. The lottery would shift it out of the hands of people who manipulate the system (against the tos mind you) to flip houses for a profit. I am not going into specifics but there are several third-party pipelines were such houses are advertised and when you have around 50 for sale at all times on Balmung despite how easy it should be to track and punish the people nothing is really done about it.

To say that Balmung created its problem is also twisting words wrong. It is not Balmungs fault that people who were on here for a year before ARR was even released should be forced to move if they choose not too and there is already an unfair discrepancy from one server to the next. Higher prices are proof enough of that. The amount of time it would take for certain people to get a house would still be near the same. This is only changed for the initial rush of plots to give people who have the gil for the property but not the means of time. Having to do a rush against an entire server in a game centered around casual play is going against its own themes.

And finally, server imbalances is also unfair by nature of population competing. This idea is just that an idea. It can be altered to only have a lottery for those worlds that they are constantly restricting new character creation on and still leave the smaller servers alone if need be. And yes the pool of eligible people would change because of the first come first serve setup we have now it would keep prices lower at the cost of an overall lower % for certain people who have the means and the methods to find these houses. And no our current system is quite unfair. It's the same people that get the plots for the most part. Its the norm over the exception because I have bought houses in the past from said people before it even became against the tos.

[Alael]

i kinda find all kind of RNG specially in game disgusting so ill say no to this.

[FoxyAreku]

Worst idea I've ever heard. First come first serve at least rewards effort, no one should ever get anything as major as this just because luck decided it.

[Gun-Cat]

Why does it have to be fair? and what is not fair about it in the first place? You put in the effort and you get the reward, everyone has the same opportunity to log on early or stalk out the maintenance.

I am all for an effort/reward system. But as it stands it is just as much a lottery getting into the server first than it is doing an actual lottery. If you are one second off you are stuck in a 500 queue and you can kiss the plots goodbye on the more populated servers.

If you really wanted to reward people who worked hard, it should be a 24 hour auction, with potential buyers being able to bid whatever they want for each plot. That way people who worked hard and got a lot of money can get what they want and people with less will have to settle for a less desirable plot. That would be the fairest system I could imagine* and would help fend of Gil inflation.

*under the pretext that plots will be kept in limited supply.

[Alien_Gamer]

snip

Control to the top of what? Everyone has control over if they have the gil to purchase, when and how they log in and how they want to get to the plot to purchase it. Nothing about the game content influences that, what does is network and server load but thats a different topic. You started this thread about housing availability not flipping. These are two separate problems and need to be addressed separately but your lottery does nothing to stop flipping either, it just changes who can do it.

I did not say players had to move but if players chose to remain on a known overpopulated server then those players need to deal with the consequences, such as increased competition for resources and longer queue times when the server is busy. SE never forced anyone to stay on Balmung and they've been trying (perhaps ineffectually) to get people to stop converging there for years. Also, housing prices have been the same across all servers since 3.3, that isn't a valid argument anymore. There is also a rush around everything when its first released in this game, housing is no different in this regard. The main difference is there is a limited supply of housing compared to other items. Either way, the casual nature of this game doesn't really have anything to do with that and has nothing to do with buying a house. If a player wants to try for the house, they have ways of doing so. Your lottery removes those options for no benefit to anyone. The only thing you're trying to do here is leverage a system to increase the chance for you or your friends to buy a house instead of letting them work to buy it along with everyone else.

Its unfair that people on an empty server have less competition than those on the most populated server? If its so unfair and housing is such a priority for you then move. Many people felt that way and did move when the transfer bonuses were implemented. Those that chose to stay were explicitly accepting the overcrowded nature of the world and all the consequences of such. By choosing to accept that you forfeit any claim on it being unfair compared to other worlds. You had the chance to move and declined. First come first serve is the only fair way for players to buy housing within the system as it is currently.

SE will not create a separate lottery for each server because that would be playing favorites and they won't do that. The only reason they've done it with the creation/transfer incentives is because they were worried about the health of their servers...which if they don't make that a priority, we don't have a game to play in. Housing comes nowhere near that level of importance.

How does the lottery change the price of housing? that's set by SE not the players and its uniform across all worlds. The price won't lower just because there's a lottery. If you're referring to house flipping again, the lottery won't change that either. Players can sell their plot for whatever they think they can get away with. That they got the plot from the lottery or standing in line changes nothing about that. Also, the people that are buying the plots now, have the same chance as everyone else to buy them, that also wouldn't change under the lottery because there's no way for SE to effectively stop them from entering and flipping.

And no, I think the current system is bad and does need an overhaul. I just think your lottery is worse.