Housing: Purchase Timer - Alternative Idea

[not_ya_wify]

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.

I think the fee should be the price of the house, but I actually do not think that the fee should be collected until you get the house, similar to a silent auction. This would enable you to enter the lottery for several open houses. IF you should spend your Gil and dip below the price of the house, you will be dismissed from the lottery.

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

Of course, and in my system there is no need for a refund.

How long do players get to enter?

Until the house is sold.

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

Yes, once they win a lottery, they are dismissed from all other lotteries. If you want a different house and you have the gil, you are now able to relocate.

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

the winner is chosen at random and I would advocate that there are those favoritivism buffs that favor people who have been trying for a long time. I don't care if this will put new players at a disadvantage. Giving a better chance to those who have been trying longer is more fair.

The winner doesn't claim the house. It is automatically awarded.

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?

There is no claiming the house. When you enter the lottery you are committing to buy. If you opt out of the lottery before the winner is announced, you won't win. If you spend your house money on something else, you opt out. The gil isn't taken out of your wallet until you are awarded the house.

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

Umm... The fact that it's a lottery? How DO people troll the system would be a question we should ask before this one.

[Jojoya]

Isn't constant real time tracking of all player gil transactions to make certain the player retains the required amount to purchase the house in addition to the amount needed for whatever transaction they're trying to engage in then automatically cancelling the player's entry if they fall below that amount unrealistic when the game can simply put a hold on the player's gil by requiring the entry fee to be paid in advance?

If the players is entering into multiple lotteries, does the game track the cumulative amount of all purchase prices for the lotteries entered or does the game only track the highest value? If only tracking the highest value, will the game still recognize the other entries the player had as valid or will it treat the players as if they had only entered in the one?

When does game decide to hold the drawing for the lottery so the house actually gets sold? Is the drawing held on a hidden random timer if there's not going to be a stated period for players to enter?

How do those who entered find out when a winner was chosen? Are they supposed to keep going back to the house and checking the placard?

If the drawing is held and the winner is offline, is the game able to deduct the gil from the offline character or does it have to wait for the character to be online to deduct it? Could it even assign the owner to the house if the character is offline when the drawing is held?

Until we know how a system works and what the rules are, we can't answer how to troll it. Trolling the system comes from manipulating loopholes in it and any flaws in the underlying programming. Online multi-player games are filled with examples of players who chose to exploit systems not only for personal benefit but sometimes just to disrupt the game experience of other players for their own amusement because they did things not anticipated by the developers.

But as you said in your initial reply, SE isn't looking for us to design things for them so none of this matters. They know players are unhappy with the current housing purchase system. They know some players want a lottery and others are against it. They have their own ideas of what they want the purchase system to be. We have to wait and see what they choose to do to address the situation.

[Penthea]

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.

Perhaps maintaining the current situation is intentional with player population in mind because it certainly does give players incentive to migrate, but I seriously doubt housing was created with it in mind. SE would have saved a lot of money had they made a better system from the beginning, instead of wasting resources on making a broken system and then trying to improve it several times and still not be done after all these years. There are other ways to give incentive without intentionally creating something badly designed.

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

Umm... The fact that it's a lottery? How DO people troll the system would be a question we should ask before this one.

It's surprising that someone who works in UX hasn't come to the simple conclusion that people with multiple accounts could very easily abuse a lottery system.

While they can abuse placard spam right now with bots, that comes with its own risks given botting is against the ToS so not every player with multiple accounts would engage in it. By making a lottery SE would effectively be permitting these players to abuse the system because by doing so they wouldn't be violating the ToS.

On top of that, unless house flipping is completely erased along with the introduction of lottery, then RMT groups could easily use their vast number of accounts to stack the odds in their favour. They could resell houses as another way to get customers and farm gil. Entering a lottery wouldn't cut into time that can be spent on gil farming or selling so they would have literally nothing to lose by participating. Whereas right now placard spam does render accounts unable to do anything else so engaging in that can be considered a loss. A lottery system could be very profitable to RMT groups.

I don't see how SE could stop players with multiple accounts from gaming the system without punishing legitimate players who do things such as share the same gaming devices or live in the same home.

[Themarvin]

Would suggest keeping current system, get a small house anywhere when one opens up then from there on... you can relocate to any size as it is now, no lottery would ever work out, nor auction system where people could outbid each other either.

Gotta be fair to rich and poor in any way possible as it is, and maybe convince some of the multi owner houses out there to give up 1-3 of what they already got as it is the greater good.

[Kaku_Jin]

I would like SE to at least make instanced housing bigger than an apartment as an option for those who just want to mess around with housing. I get they wanted to create this sense of community but when your neighbor is just one person with 14 empty houses (and rubbing-it-in to the fact) it's just depressing rather than anything positive.

SE advertises housing as one of their features on their FF14 site but the reality is most players don't even have a chance at getting a house. The amount being demanded is nowhere near the amount supplied and that's not even including people hoarding said supplies.

[Felinchen]

Yes yes yes! Kaku_Jin is right.
My neighbors don't even talk at all when you meet them at the MB... I always wave and emote but there's nothing coming back...
And at my FC's house I did never see any other player. o_O

I would like to have apartments of different sizes. Maybe even with several floors. Why not? In real life we have big and small apartments, too. This way every player can purchase what fits his needs (or wallet) and it's instanced.

[Elamys]

At the very least, making apartments the same size as an FC room while costing more was a slap in the face.

[MaybeOliverB]

I would like SE to at least make instanced housing bigger than an apartment as an option for those who just want to mess around with housing. I get they wanted to create this sense of community but when your neighbor is just one person with 14 empty houses (and rubbing-it-in to the fact) it's just depressing rather than anything positive.

SE advertises housing as one of their features on their FF14 site but the reality is most players don't even have a chance at getting a house. The amount being demanded is nowhere near the amount supplied and that's not even including people hoarding said supplies.

How hypocritical of you. I'll let you know your very own FC owns a lot more than 1 FC house. In fact, they used to own nearly half of the same Lavender Beds ward when there was only 6 available. You're in no position to complain about what I do with my own houses.

Edit: Btw, you're not even my neighbor

[Jojoya]

At the very least, making apartments the same size as an FC room while costing more was a slap in the face.

Imagine taking a 3 month break from the game just to find whoever was FC leader decided to purge the roster and kicked you from the FC. You've lost the FC room and possibly everything you had stored in it.

There's zero chance of losing an apartment unless you voluntarily relinquish it. Your items will always be stored there.


The extra 200k is worth it for something you will never lose.

[Elamys]

Imagine taking a 3 month break from the game just to find whoever was FC leader decided to purge the roster and kicked you from the FC. You've lost the FC room and possibly everything you had stored in it.

There's zero chance of losing an apartment unless you voluntarily relinquish it. Your items will always be stored there.


The extra 200k is worth it for something you will never lose.

I suppose, but how many players are going to end up in that position? Most private chambers I see are completely empty. Not every FC is going to kick out a member who's inactive for a bit. It was completely stupid to add in a whole new housing system and pour all those resources into it, only to make it an exact copy paste of something many people - I'd argue most - already had access to.