A plan for a relatively fair housing release

[Alien_Gamer]

It doesn't take long on these forums to realize the housing situation is fubar'd with many people having theories on what would be the most fair way to allocate the new housing wards. I don't believe in the one house per server suggestions because they go against how everything in this game is designed, nor am I a fan of surrendering all control to the RNGesus lottery, but I'm also a believer that those without housing should have a better chance at getting a house than they currently do. Then there's also the issue of timing and how someone is always at the wrong end of it somewhere and I can't really disagree with that assessment. You either take the day off work or sacrifice sleep or be really lucky to be off and awake at that time of morning...its not really ideal for anyone but everyone can make it work.

So my proposal is a phased rollout of wards throughout the day with restrictions on who can buy what.

Restriction 1: If you own a house on your account or are in an FC with a house then you can't buy a house in an odd numbered ward.

Restriction 2: If you owned a house or were in an FC with a house within the last 30 days then you are still restricted from buying a house in an odd numbered ward.

Restriction 3: If you buy a house or are in an FC that buys a house during the release then you can't buy a second house for 24 hours.

If you're relocating your house, you aren't bound by the purchasing restrictions.

These restrictions will allow anyone who has a house to have a fair chance at getting another but favors those without one by limiting their competition on half the wards. I also think getting one additional house per housing release is a fair compromise between 1 house per account and 1 house per character.

The phased rollout would be opening a ward or subdivision every 45 minutes over a 24 hour time span. This also assumes only 4 additional wards are being added; I may be wrong but the number added doesn't really matter, its the phased release that's important.

12:00am Shirogane Ward 1 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
12:45am Gridania Ward 1 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
01:30am Ul'Dah Ward 1 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
02:15am Limsa Ward 1 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
03:00am Shirogane Ward 2 opens. No purchase restrictions.
03:45am Gridania Ward 2 opens. No purchase restrictions.
04:30am Ul'Dah Ward 2 opens. No purchase restrictions.
05:15am Limsa Ward 2 opens. No purchase restrictions.
06:00am Shirogane Ward 3 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
06:45am Gridania Ward 3 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
07:30am Ul'Dah Ward 3 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
08:15am Limsa Ward 3 opens. Restricted to new home owners only.
09:00am Shirogane Ward 4 opens. No purchase restrictions.
09:45am Gridania Ward 4 opens. No purchase restrictions.
10:30am Ul'Dah Ward 4 opens. No purchase restrictions.
11:15am Limsa Ward 4 opens. No purchase restrictions.
Repeat for subdivisions.

Any houses that are opened up from a relocation are open to all purchasers without restrictions. After 24 hours from the start any unclaimed houses (not likely I know) will be open for anyone to purchase without restrictions.

This would allow anyone to have a chance at a ward at a semi convenient time regardless of their schedule or time of the world. It alternates restrictions and non restrictions so neither group has to wait half a day to get their preference. It rotates through wards and cities so regardless of what your preference is you won't have to wait a huge amount of time or alter your schedule greatly. And one can hope that it would even out the server loads more throughout the day creating a more stable environment.

People still have to compete with the semi randomness of load times and the race against other players, but at least the player remains somewhat in control instead of surrendering everything to a lottery chance.

Based on all the views I've read, I think this is the most fair/least unfair method of releasing the wards. It hurts the fewest people possible and benefits almost everyone.

Thougts?

[Kittypryde]

Great idea! I would TOTALLY be for this.

[Siniztor]

your idea is nice only thing id say it multiply your wards.. Your releasing 60 houses at a time that seems way low, and a total of 960 houses. Going by there "unoffical" census theres close to 8,000 characters on my server homeless (thats not counting any fc that owns a home now that would be if all characters own the houses now) , keep in mind im on one of the lower servers hense why its in the crappy "preffered" catagory..

They have to release at lest 5 wards at once or your gonna crash the server even if its just homeless people that amount of people tyning to zone in 1 server will cause a gridlock id say take your numbers and multiply them by 5...20 wards at lest to show there trying, thats still less then half the homelsss on most servers 4,800 homes

I see at the bottom you say "Repeat for subdivisions" your not really saying only open 30 houses at a time are you??? that be a mass cluster **

Edit: If they only release 4 wards Everyone ..Homeless or those who own 1 or more then 1 home needs to come right back here and spam this forums 960 houses isn't even trying lol that bring the NA total from 72,000 to 72,960 for 360,000 charaters lol

Time we stop taking small fixs as all they can do, this is there chance to show there trying and 960 homes isnt trying lol when your almost 300,000 away from just enough for characters not counting fcs

[AriesMouse]

Brilliant idea, but I would change it to be "had leadership of an FC, past or present by X amount of days" instead of just being in an FC that owns a house. There are a LOT of players that are in FCs, but have 0 access to do anything with the FC house aside from go inside and use the bells/chest, so just being in an FC that owns a house shouldn't punish someone from trying to get a personal house.

EDIT: Also, maybe see about adding some restrictions that make it a little easier for new FCs to get houses as well. Maybe as the wards open, maybe some of them give priority to FCs for the first X amount of hours. In order for an FC to purchase the house of their choice, they must have a certain amount of active members ( so no single player FCs being used to basically buy personal housing). 5 for small, 10 for med, 20 for large maybe?

[Rinuko]

Restriction 1: If you own a house on your account or are in an FC with a house then you can't buy a house in an odd numbered ward.

Not sure if you refer to relocation cause you can't buy a second house for personal?

Restriction 2: If you owned a house or were in an FC with a house within the last 30 days then you are still restricted from buying a house in an odd numbered ward.

So players who moved server past 30 days and had a house are being punished here?

Restriction 3: If you buy a house or are in an FC that buys a house during the release then you can't buy a second house for 24 hours.

Again, players is being punished if their FC bought a house.
Then what's the point to be in a FC if you get punished on a personal level?



See my note under 'Restriction 1'.

I fail to see that being fair.
If I read this incorrect, please correct me.

[Alien_Gamer]

number of wards

Back in 3.3 (I think) when they released the additional wards for housing they only released 4 wards for it. We don't have any information about how many will be released yet so I just went with what happened before. Is enough to satisfy demand? Not even close, but then unless they're going to release 40 new wards, it won't be enough to satisfy demand. Its a given that there won't be enough, instead of arguing about that I'm trying to solve the issue of fair distribution upon release.

change it to be "had leadership of an FC, past or present by X amount of days"

I had considered that option but decided to be a little more strict. If someone is in an FC with a house they have access to many of the amenities of owning a house already; they have access to a stable, the chest, aetheryte and a personal room. What they probably don't have access to is the garden and decorating the main house. I want to give a hand to those that don't have any access at all. I will admit owning and having access to an FC house are not equivalent things really but I felt those with the limited access of an FC house were in a better position than those without anything.

Points

I refer to relocation because someone relocating is trading one plot for another, they aren't buying a new plot and thus removing it from selection by someone else.

I apologize, I wasn't clear with why I said 30 days. Consider 30 days the time between when Yoshi announces the housing plan and when it is release for players to buy. Yoshi has stated several times he's concerned about pre-preparation and manipulating the system. The 30 day restriction is to say, you can't make a change now to avoid the rules and manipulate things to your advantage. If its only 15 days then make it a 15 day restriction. Also, if you switch servers in that time, I wouldn't have an issue with you being exempt from that restriction.

Restriction 3 is probably the least fair restriction. Refer to my previous comment, if you're in an FC with a house you have access to many of the features of owning a house. Preference for some of the wards should be given to those with nothing.

Nothing short of a house for everyone will be completely fair, I recognize that. Given that there won't be enough for many years I fear, the question becomes what compromises will be necessary for everyone to have as fair a shot as possible? I think restricting housing like this will help but you are correct, it is not a perfect idea.

[AriesMouse]

I had considered that option but decided to be a little more strict. If someone is in an FC with a house they have access to many of the amenities of owning a house already..

Biggest problem here is that most people want the house for the decorating. Everything you mentioned that they get from the FC house, they can also get from an apartment. I can agree to some degree on being strict, but I feel like punishing anyone for just being in an FC that owns a house is over correcting at that point. It'll just make people start dropping out of FCs a month or so in advance when new wards are going to open.

[chocolatebabysundae]

Players that are in an FC with housing should not lose the ability to purchase a personal plot for themselves so I do not agree with those points. Also, the relocation feature should be turned off and unavailable with the addition of new wards come 4.2 and turned back on a week after they release said wards. Every other point sounds fine but I will say that these new plots should only be for players without housing.

[Legion88]

All in all this really seems to be the best solution players have brought up.

I have only 3 big problems.

1. Your release schedule...

30 Houses at a time is nothing, even 60 Houses.
It should be more of +1 additional ward in ever housing district including subdivisions per hour.
Also just 4 additional wards seems a little low i would suggest at least doubling the current amount to we would get 12 additional wards in every housing district.

2. Your Restriction 3...

You exclude every FC member from a FC with a FC house for this reasoning:

I had considered that option but decided to be a little more strict. If someone is in an FC with a house they have access to many of the amenities of owning a house already; they have access to a stable, the chest, aetheryte and a personal room. What they probably don't have access to is the garden and decorating the main house. I want to give a hand to those that don't have any access at all. I will admit owning and having access to an FC house are not equivalent things really but I felt those with the limited access of an FC house were in a better position than those without anything.

And this:

Restriction 3 is probably the least fair restriction. Refer to my previous comment, if you're in an FC with a house you have access to many of the features of owning a house. Preference for some of the wards should be given to those with nothing.

To make this not only "unfair" to FC members exclude everyone with an appartment too. They have all you discribed above.
Or make it more fair for everyone and rethink it again like this:

Brilliant idea, but I would change it to be "had leadership of an FC, past or present by X amount of days" instead of just being in an FC that owns a house. There are a LOT of players that are in FCs, but have 0 access to do anything with the FC house aside from go inside and use the bells/chest, so just being in an FC that owns a house shouldn't punish someone from trying to get a personal house.

3. Big indirect excluding for FCs...

At first you are hindering FC members to get a personal house and then you set the available amount of houses so tiny that it is an even more lottery to get a house in the timeframe.
I know all you dream is a little personal house you can decorate and gardening and skipping through the fields of flowers. /s
But for FCs there is more then just a little decorating and gardening, there is also workshop, airships, soon submarines and they can give home to a much bigger mass of players as a personal house, not to forget the social hub of a FC.
So i would change the first 5 to 15 minutes to be open only for FCs without a FC house.

[Alien_Gamer]

I know all you dream is a little personal house you can decorate and gardening and skipping through the fields of flowers. /s

I have a house, your sarcasm is misplaced.

You missed the primary point of the thread. Its not about the number of wards released, its about spreading out the release of wards over a 24 hour period so people don't have to go to extreme lengths to even try and participate. Its also about trying to mitigate some of the issues that plague the releases such as people buying multiple plots and resellers buying chunks of housing and some people not having any access while others have a lot of access.

Unless SE decides to release 50 new wards so there is at least one house for everyone then there will always be people rushing to buy as soon as it opens. And until SE makes instance housing or releases enough wards for everyone it will continue to be an issue; those are the only two permanent solutions for housing. Its a subject that has been beaten to death on the forums and its gotten pointless to continue it; we know what we need, SE knows what we need, now we're just waiting for them to find a way to give it to us. I'd rather focus my efforts on making the releases as beneficial for the most people as possible given the limited availability.

Yes, FCs houses have more ammenities than personal houses, that has nothing to do with plot availability. I also don't think FCs inherently deserve a chance to corner the market on houses by giving them X minutes head start on access. Alternating wards with restricted purchases with unrestricted purchases doesn't lock anyone out of buying a house whereas locking all wards to FC onlly purchases for 15 minutes does almost guarantee that people won't be able to buy a house without making a solo FC. The reason I didn't include apartments in the discussion is there's supposed to be enough available for everyone on a server. If everyone can have one then it doesn't become a limiting factor.

But no, I'm not opposed to making the restriction to FC owners instead of FC members. I can see both sides of the debate and it would take more discussion to find where an appropriate dividing line would be.