Housing: Purchase Timer - Alternative Idea

[Ittapupu_Berry]

If you're not fussy about size and location placard spam is merely a mild annoyance most of the time on my server because the population isn't so bloated that all the wards are constantly full. I just counted over 30 unclaimed plots in the Goblet. Shirogane is the only residential district that is full. The placard locking people out of purchase is usually only a delay rather than a road block filled with stress and competition from spam clicking.

That's very fortunate for your server, however on highly populated servers there tends to be no plots available. Even the Goblet. Goblet is completely full like the others. And just like every other residential area, if a plot is open, at least 3 people are there spamming a card with you for hours on end.

At least there's nice people on Levi, made a few friends while we deprived ourselves of food and sleep. It wasn't a delay as much as it was a brain frying ordeal.

[Ittapupu_Berry]

at least make the rng truly fair, and something that is inclusive for all that qualify by the rules to purchase a house. A lottery system could be made to benefit people rather than the current system that just screws people over endlessly. Hell, it could even be made so that if a certain number of people apply for a plot via lottery, that the plot is then locked and people can not relocate to it. That could cut some of the headache and heartache out for a lot of people.

yessss positive thinking and brainstorming, well done m8

[Penthea]

That's very fortunate for your server, however on highly populated servers there tends to be no plots available. Even the Goblet. Goblet is completely full like the others. And just like every other residential area, if a plot is open, at least 3 people are there spamming a card with you for hours on end.

But do you not get my point? Things on my server are more favourable because there are more houses per active accounts. Placard spam is little more than an annoyance because there isn't so much competition. Surely the answer to your plight is to decrease the amount of competition by giving players more and better access to housing with various improvements to houses and apartments, as well as the addition of more wards?

I really struggle to understand how you seem to want merely another brand of rng instead of a legitimate improvement to the housing situation as a whole. Especially a suggestion that wouldn't change much for servers like mine, and would probably make things much worse for servers like yours.

I get that you want to remove the stress and tedium of placard spam, but you can't just look at placard spam on its own. You need to look at the reasons that make it so horrendous on servers like Leviathan, and why it isn't such a problem on servers like Moogle.

yessss positive thinking and brainstorming, well done m8

Am I to take from this that you do not think that giving players access to more and improved housing is positive thinking? That you would honestly prefer to rely on luck than to have more choice?

I remember what it was like to not have a house and to want one so damn much. I was lucky to get my house when I did and I really hate that I had to be lucky to get it. No one should need to be lucky to get a house. The housing system must get to a point in which it's normal for everyone to have one. Lottery will not normalise the status of having a house.

Well whatever happens I truly do hope you will get a house soon. You clearly want one very badly. Hopefully you will be able to get one when the world visiting and free server transfers get introduced. Maybe you could go to a new server on the same data centre and buy a house, or grab one someone left behind. If you are considering leaving then I suggest you have a look at other servers now to figure out which would be the best destination to increase your chances of getting a plot. Preparing as much as possible will increase the likelihood of success. Good luck.

[Ittapupu_Berry]

I really struggle to understand how you seem to want merely another brand of rng instead of a legitimate improvement to the housing situation as a whole. Especially a suggestion that wouldn't change much for servers like mine, and would probably make things much worse for servers like yours.

:/ Never said i disagree with that, though I can see how you came to the conclusion that I do. idk if I've said this yet but I feel that implementing a lotto system would be an easy thing to do while they make those new houses. I want both our ideas. More houses, and a system of acquiring them that gives more people a chance at a home. I don't care that it brings more completion. That means the people that were being excluded before get a fair shot and can play the game instead of clicking a sign for 22 hours. If there must be an rng to determine who gets a house, I'd like the more inclusive one.

[Penthea]

:/ Never said i disagree with that, though I can see how you came to the conclusion that I do. idk if I've said this yet but I feel that implementing a lotto system would be an easy thing to do while they make those new houses.

That's quite the assumption to make. There is still 1.0 spaghetti code lurking in the game. We really don't know if it would be easy or even possible to make a lottery system up to the standard you want. SE have cited server issues as the reasoning for not introducing a lot of things that are standard in other games.

However things such as more tenant slots for houses and tenancy for apartments are possible given that tenant slots already exist. Letting fcs use apartments is possible given that fc houses already exist. There are many ways to improve the current situation that we know would be possible with the current limitations of the game. Lottery would be something completely new and would have to be made from scratch. It would be easier and faster for SE to improve and expand on what we currently have than make something entirely new.

I want both our ideas. More houses, and a system of acquiring them that gives more people a chance at a home.

I'm glad that you do want a better housing system. However there would be no need for lottery if the competition for houses gets drastically reduced. It would be very redundant to create a feature from scratch that would only be relevant temporarily, never mind how it would have little to no relevance on a lot of servers. SE so far haven't been in the habit of making housing features targeted at specific types of servers. As far as I know, aside from free server transfers and server locks, SE haven't made any features targeted at handling situations on specific servers.

I don't care that it brings more completion. That means the people that were being excluded before get a fair shot and can play the game instead of clicking a sign for 22 hours. If there must be an rng to determine who gets a house, I'd like the more inclusive one.

The thing is the main intention of the placard system is to prevent house flipping. Not to create a lottery. The lottery is a side effect of preventing house flipping. An actual lottery would be intended to be...well, a lottery. I would hate for SE to go into the direction of focusing on players to be lucky to get houses instead of making and improving content that meets the demands of the population.

[Jojoya]

Anyone have an example of another MMO already using a lottery system for game rewards similar to what would be required for a housing lottery and can give details on how it works?

I wouldn't be certain that a housing lottery system would be an easy thing for them to create and implement even if it bears some similarities to loot rolls or Cactpot. There are also some major differences that players would expect.

Stop and think things through. Exactly how do you think the lottery system should work.

What's the entry fee supposed to be? Some think it should be the price of the house just to prove the player has the gil to purchase it.

Can it be canceled and refunded before a winner is chosen if the player changes their mind?

How long do players get to enter?

If there is more than one house available, can a player enter multiple lotteries at the same time?

How is the winner chosen? How long does the winner have to claim the house?

What happens if the winner doesn't claim the house? Do their forfeit their entry fee? Does a new lottery start or is the game supposed to pick a new winner from the other entrants? If it's the latter, do the other players have to continue waiting for a refund of their entry fees until the house is claimed in order to still have a chance to win?

What's to stop people from trolling the system or manipulating it to increase their chances of winning?

[Elamys]

The problem with seeing if there's another MMO that does lottery for something like housing is that I can't think of a single other MMO where housing is a limited commodity.

[Jojoya]

The problem with seeing if there's another MMO that does lottery for something like housing is that I can't think of a single other MMO where housing is a limited commodity.

Doesn't have to be for housing specifically. Could be for any game reward that's in limited quantity/availability.

There are a lot of pitfalls with a lottery system that need to be considered before just blindly saying "but this would be better because it seems simple". It's not as simple as it looks.

[not_ya_wify]

I'm not speaking for myself here because I'm on a fairly low pop server and got exactly the houses I wanted without competition both times I tried: Large house on plot 46 for my FC when Shirogane first opened and medium house for myself on plot 31 in LB when they added new housing.

That being said, I know this is a problem on high pop servers. I have friends who tell me about plaquard spamming and how awful it is. However, after adding new wards MOST servers have an excess of unclaimed cottages. So, from SE's perspective, the housing market is balanced now. I know you're thinking 'but I'm on a high pop server, they should give us more housing.'

Have you ever considered this terrible housing situation may be intentional? Think of it from SE's perspective: they DO NOT want you to be on a high pop server, period. SE wants their servers to be as balanced as possible, so they offer incentives, such as free Transfers to low pop servers, road to 60 buffs, sometimes they won't allow new characters to be created on legacy servers at all. High pop servers are causing some kind of problem, so they are trying to incentivize people to spread out. Adding extra housing to high pop servers would do the opposite. It would incentivize people to stay on those servers, not make them spread out. In fact, the housing situation is probably the best incentive they have to force people to spread.

And I'm sure next time they add wards because the market becomes unbalanced or they add Ishgard housing they'll add the same amount of wards on each server and it won't be enough for high-pop servers. Purposefully. Because you're not supposed to be on a high pop server in the first place.

[not_ya_wify]

To get back to the whole lottery system discussion: I don't think anyone thinks that a lottery would be preferable over more housing but it is preferable over the current situation. The lottery idea would essentially be the same as what is there now, minus the hours of spamming. What's the big problem people have with the new timer system (as opposed to the old non-timer system): hours of spamming. So, yes this is a solution to the problem we have (and by 'we' I mean 'you' because I don't have that problem). It's not intended to be a solution to the housing shortage on high pop servers.

Stop and think things through. Exactly how do you think the lottery system should work.

As someone who works as a UX researcher, I can tell you that SE doesn't want us to design their games. They want us to tell them what is working for us and what isn't and then they give this information to their designers, their trained professionals who can come up with designs by themselves.

That being said, I'm still gonna answer your questions for the fun of it.