Ishgardian Housing Wards suggestion

[Kenky]

I find it ironic that you're asking this after refusing to see any benefit in my suggestions for a raffle system to replace the timer. You also haven't addressed that in any way, so as you say it'd only delay the inevitable. Perhaps not even that, since in all likelihood SE would announce the requirements well in advance to give everyone ample time to gather whatever amount of scrips is required.

Simply saying a "Raffle" system is not very helpful. I believe I even pointed out prior what I saw wrong with it. Purely because when one says a raffle, it is never fully explained beyond that, but even then the main reason why I (and plenty of others at this point) refuse a raffle-esque system because FFXIV already has a lot of RNG added into the game and, as a result, people would prefer actually having a hand to play in obtaining such a thing, rather than it be handed to them by a number generator. While there are benefits to this system (mostly medical, as I have stated prior), it comes with its own drawbacks. I believe in the post you're referring to, I even say I am not denying or refusing your choice, but to rather get to sit down and discuss it in finer details, rather than leaving it at "Well a raffle is better".

Obtaining the item through your own means will (on average) always be better than being given something on a programs idle whims. As an example, maybe looking at items you earn through doing Eden and succeeding against the boss VS just being given one of the eight random options.

And yes, I know it is quite ironic for me, of all people to ask for people to be civil. Especially given my 'track record' of being abrasive and antagonistic. But people change (or at least try to, anyways) and if the main result is housing getting better for those that do not own one at present, it will be worth it.

[tdb]

Purely because when one says a raffle, it is never fully explained beyond that

I guess you haven't read all of my posts where I explain it in detail then. To be fair, they're kinda scattered around in several threads. For your benefit I'll recap it here (and add some new details and explanations I thought of just now).

When a plot frees up, if there's already an upcoming raffle and it's more than 17 hours away, then a newly freed plot will use that same time. Otherwise the raffle time will be set at 22 hours from now. The delays are chosen to be odd amounts in order to get raffles to happen at varying times of the day, and with these values there should be around 4 raffles per day as long as plots are freeing up at a steady pace. Players will be able to confirm the raffle time for a particular plot from the placard. I have noticed that players like it when their actions have some impact on their chances of winning, such as when new wards are added and logging in quickly gives a better chance of finding a plot that's still free. This visible timer is intended to give a similar opportunity for planning, while not taking up inordinate amounts of time. It also allows strategizing by looking for raffles occurring at less active hours of the server, if one's real life schedule allows being in-game at unusual hours.

At the appointed time, the option to enter the raffle opens up. This could be an option on the placard menu, or for some extra flavor an NPC with a table and suitable paraphernalia could appear near the plot entrance. Players will have 10 minutes to enter the raffle, and wandering too far from the plot will automatically withdraw the participation. In such an event it will be possible to enter again as long as the timer is not up, in order to minimize the impact of accidents. Remember that there can be multiple raffles going on at the exact same time, so players will have to choose which one to go for. This is also intended to give players agency; one could just go to their favorite plot and hope they win that, but the 10 minute participation timer allows one to scout out multiple plots in advance and check how many players are at each one, eventually choosing the one with the least competition.

There are some aspects here which I can't fully evaluate due to insufficient data. I'm hoping that aligning the times of multiple raffles will cause players to spread out, reducing direct competition. But I don't know how often plots free up on the more crowded servers. On my server, before the demolition timer freeze, there was easily tens of small plots available. Currently Lavender at least is completely full, but it hasn't been 45 days since unfreezing demolitions yet so the situation is not representative of normalcy.

Jojoya also raised a point about the ward zones themselves becoming congested if a lot of people rush to a single plot at the same time. It would certainly be bad if there's only one plot being raffled and 1000 players all go for it. But I don't know the real numbers so can't estimate how likely that is to happen.

Obtaining the item through your own means will (on average) always be better than being given something on a programs idle whims. As an example, maybe looking at items you earn through doing Eden and succeeding against the boss VS just being given one of the eight random options.

In principle yes. That's why I craft my own gear instead of buying it from the MB. Normal mode content in this game is so easy though that after the first week beating the bosses just feels like a formality.

To give your idea a fair treatment, I think lore-wise it makes sense. If it were to be implemented, I would approve just because of the flavor it adds to the housing. I just don't think requiring the scrip item is that much of a hurdle, and you yourself said you think the other requirements are trivial. Based on the participation in the restoration fates and the rankings, there's easily enough people capable of obtaining scrips to gobble up most of the plots. And since SE seems intent on giving everyone an equal chance to obtain houses, I expect that they would announce the scrip requirement early enough that anyone who wants a house will have time to collect the scrips. Going from zero to max scrips takes less than two hours for a max level crafter.