Housing: Purchase Timer - Alternative Idea

[Fluffle]

Straightforward, what if SE used a lottery system rather than an invisible timer (which seems to be set to at max of 22 hours) to buy a house (maybe only for post-addition of residential districts)?

Based on my searches, the main concern that I understand that SE has about the purchasing system is that people can sell the houses for (ridiculous) amounts of prices.

So rather, why not use a lottery system where:

1. A house is closed for the initial 24 hours.

2. During those 24 hours, people may go to the placard and enter into a lottery.
- It will take the amount of gil from a player.
- A player will be assigned a number.
- A player can only enter the lottery once.
- Relocating is still instant bypass.
- (At the end, it will just cast a random number generator based on those who entered)

3. After the 24 hours have passed:
- If the player wins, they will be mailed a letter saying so.
- If the player does not win, the gil will be mailed back to the player.
- If nobody enters the lottery, the house will be open [FIFO]
- (Devaluation timer will start)

From the past few days, my friends have been house hunting non-stop. Of course it is our fault for doing so, but it has interfered with our gameplay (and I'm concerned for my friend's physical and mental health at this point lol).

Feedback appreciated for why this might work / might not work, just no toxicity please. Also if somebody else has already posted this idea or anything, links are appreciated because I did fairly minimal research on this topic.

[Potart]

I totally support this idea!

[Hoboshoes]

I sat at a plot for 16hours spamming when a lottery system could've given me the exact same rng outcome... luck.

[MizArai]

From the past few days, my friends have been house hunting non-stop. Of course it is our fault for doing so, but it has interfered with our gameplay (and I'm concerned for my friend's physical and mental health at this point lol).

Feedback appreciated for why this might work / might not work, just no toxicity please. Also if somebody else has already posted this idea or anything, links are appreciated because I did fairly minimal research on this topic.

Honestly, now isn't a good time to be house hunting on a higher population server. The demo timers are still paused for both NA and JP data centers. The JP timers will resume with 4.5, we have no time frame at the moment for when timers will resume for NA data centers. Without the auto demolitions, that only leaves houses being voluntarily vacated for things like server transfers creating a smaller selection for buyers currently.

I would not be a fan of the lottery system mainly because you can pretty easily switch between a few houses in the same district to check if the timer is over (assuming they're not being heavily camped), while the lottery system would have you placing all your eggs in 1 basket (location) for x amount of time (up to 24 hours in your example). If people are trying to get an FC house and not a personal, you could actually have people actively stalking multiple locations for a house with the current system and you would lose that with a lottery system.

I'm not a fan of our current system. I'd prefer that people didn't have to camp a plot for multiple hours only to lose it when someone else walks up while the first player had to use the restroom (something that happened to me once); however there were lots of people complaining about the housing problems before and this was the best solution SE could come up with at the time. I would still hope that the housing system could be expanded with some sort of instanced housing so that every character on every server could have a house if they wanted without taking away from anyone else.

[Fluffle]

I sat at a plot for 16hours spamming when a lottery system could've given me the exact same rng outcome... luck.

I don't know if it would be the same RNG outcome but what I do know is that you would definitely have a higher chance of getting RSI.

[Ittapupu_Berry]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...53#post4842153

Lovely idea I made a post as well (though not nearly as articulated lol)

[Fluffle]

Honestly, now isn't a good time to be house hunting on a higher population server. The demo timers are still paused for both NA and JP data centers. The JP timers will resume with 4.5, we have no time frame at the moment for when timers will resume for NA data centers. Without the auto demolitions, that only leaves houses being voluntarily vacated for things like server transfers creating a smaller selection for buyers currently.

Absolutely understand, timing is pretty important especially since I'm basing this mostly on recent experiences.

I would not be a fan of the lottery system mainly because you can pretty easily switch between a few houses in the same district to check if the timer is over (assuming they're not being heavily camped), while the lottery system would have you placing all your eggs in 1 basket (location) for x amount of time (up to 24 hours in your example). If people are trying to get an FC house and not a personal, you could actually have people actively stalking multiple locations for a house with the current system and you would lose that with a lottery system.

Very true, it is crucial to prevent loopholes like FCs camping then. But what if one person can enter multiple lotteries (as long as they have the money for it) but only enter an individual lottery once and an FC counts as one person (an FC member can apply for personal housing but the FC can only apply once as though they are an individual)? It allows everybody (fairly) equal opportunity (except for FCs being an immediate & "unfair" example of holism). It would just pull all other applications out if they win one lottery.

I'm not a fan of our current system. I'd prefer that people didn't have to camp a plot for multiple hours only to lose it when someone else walks up while the first player had to use the restroom (something that happened to me once); however there were lots of people complaining about the housing problems before and this was the best solution SE could come up with at the time. I would still hope that the housing system could be expanded with some sort of instanced housing so that every character on every server could have a house if they wanted without taking away from anyone else.

Kinda like WildStar or GW2 (the only other MMOs I can vividly remember with housing). The only problem I had with WildStar/GW2 housing (from what I can recall) is that you don't have a sort of neighborhood, which I feel is very important & makes FFXIV housing special. I like to show off my house and present it to the world rather than show it off to myself or advertise people to come in (which RP places kinda already do).

Maybe instanced housing for FCs? (instance for each residential area)

Also, very off-topic, what if FC instanced housing must start with a cottage-sized house and use the workshop to upgrade the house? (Current FCs with houses automatically get their respective sized houses)

[Ittapupu_Berry]

Also, someone linked this post to me about the topic:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...or-house-plots

[Penthea]

A lot of people don't want to or are unable to do placard spamming. However entering a lottery is near zero effort. This means that on highly populated servers the competition would drastically spike upwards due to the sheer ease of competing for a plot. It's not difficult to afford a cottage these days. Almost anyone without a house could enter the draw if it's a cottage.

And as I already said in another similar thread, players with multiple accounts or groups of people who want to share a house will have a higher chance of winning with a lottery system.

The current system needs serious improvement but expanding the influence of rng is not the way to do it. We need more houses. Not more dice rolls.

[Fluffle]

We need more houses. Not more dice rolls.

True, this is very critical to the overall health of the game.