Some Suggestions for the Never-ending Struggle of Buying a House

[Kenky]

It's not like the timer system prevents botters from benefiting from multiple accounts either. Having multiple bots click at the placard increases the chance that one of them gets the plot. So I don't really see how a raffle system would be worse. If anything it would decrease the botters' chance of winning and/or tie up more of their resources since there'd be more real players in the running.


Is it really worse to click once and not get it, as opposed to spend six hours clicking and still not get it? Or does this come back to the "I can't tip the scales in my favor" argument?

The Timer system doesn't stop them at all, as you stated. But they have to at least be there and take up that account in order to participate. Putting your name in a box would (theoretically, at least) mean that the botters could log-in, put their name down, then immediately swap out. Meaning far more bot traffic and far more 'fake' ballots.

And yeah, Every service account is its own thing and has every right to do everything any other service account can do. That is why we have problems in the first place, but to go back on that choice now would only light the gasoline they've unconsciously poured.

Is it really worse to click once and not get it? You would think not and you'd be entirely correct, it goes back to the "tip the scales" argument. If there is a way to increase a persons chances of getting this 0.01% thing to occur, you can imagine a notable few (debatable on 'few' in this case) would do everything they can to achieve said increases. We've even seen it happen with people actively camping plots for 24+ hours with barely any time AFKing. one cannot truly quantify just how far the obsession rabbit-hole goes, but by the looks of it, it's pretty darn deep.

[tdb]

The Timer system doesn't stop them at all, as you stated. But they have to at least be there and take up that account in order to participate. Putting your name in a box would (theoretically, at least) mean that the botters could log-in, put their name down, then immediately swap out. Meaning far more bot traffic and far more 'fake' ballots.

Why does everyone assume that a raffle system has to be a "put your name in a box and walk away" thing? It's easy enough to formulate in such a way that you have to be present in order to be eligible. Here's some of my previous posts on the topic:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5475899
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5478753

It's true that this would allow botters to farm materials or whatever while waiting for the raffle time. But is delaying the market board crash by a fleeting moment worth sacrificing housing (the only actually limited resource in the game) to the botters?

[Kenky]

Why does everyone assume that a raffle system has to be a "put your name in a box and walk away" thing?

Because if it wasn't, then it would legitimately be no better than the current system. You'd still be sitting there, doing next to nothing. The only difference would be no wrist-damage from placard-spamming.

Being online to be eligible is an agreeable point, until you take in people randomly dropping out or losing connection, while the bots remain until the server straight-up shuts down on SE's side. Granted, this is a rare thing nowadays, but it could still happen and still be used to say SE screwed up, when it wasn't SEs fault they lost the plot.

Again, in a pretty dense minefield, yet we're the ones that put the mines down. I'm not saying the suggestions you offer are wrong or in any way considered "inferior". Just that it would require more conversation, from every possible angle to try and minimize potential loopholes.

Because we both know people love exploiting loopholes.

[tdb]

Because if it wasn't, then it would legitimately be no better than the current system. You'd still be sitting there, doing next to nothing.

You'd be sitting there doing nothing for 10 minutes max, not 10+ hours. The time when you need to go and sit there would be known well in advance so you could plan to wake up or get off work early or whatever.

Again, in a pretty dense minefield, yet we're the ones that put the mines down. I'm not saying the suggestions you offer are wrong or in any way considered "inferior". Just that it would require more conversation, from every possible angle to try and minimize potential loopholes.

And I would be open to conversation, but I seem to mostly get variations of the argument of "but then I'll have less chance to win".

[Jojoya]

You'd be sitting there doing nothing for 10 minutes max, not 10+ hours. The time when you need to go and sit there would be known well in advance so you could plan to wake up or get off work early or whatever.

That would depend on how many players are trying to buy the house. We've seen how many players are willing to camp a placard with the hidden timer so imagine how many would be willing to show up when the time is known. Wait until 10 minutes before the drawing time and you might find you can't even get into the ward because the ward is already at population limit. It's not just a matter of how many want to buy. It's also how many will get their friends to show up to keep them company - or just to keep more out so their chances of winning will improve.

It would also block other players who already own a house or apartment in the zone from getting to their houses and apartments. It doesn't matter if the player plans to be in their house or apartment and not in the ward. They have to be able to enter the ward first to get to it. That's going to get those players angry.

SE is highly unlikely to choose a "you must be present to win" design, assuming they would ever go the raffle route (which I doubt). It would create more problems than it would solve.

And I would be open to conversation, but I seem to mostly get variations of the argument of "but then I'll have less chance to win".

Because that's what players are ultimately concerned with - "winning" a house.

If changes don't improve their chances of getting one, what's the point? It's nothing but a waste of time and effort that solved nothing.

[tdb]

That would depend on how many players are trying to buy the house. We've seen how many players are willing to camp a placard with the hidden timer so imagine how many would be willing to show up when the time is known. Wait until 10 minutes before the drawing time and you might find you can't even get into the ward because the ward is already at population limit. It's not just a matter of how many want to buy. It's also how many will get their friends to show up to keep them company - or just to keep more out so their chances of winning will improve.

It would also block other players who already own a house or apartment in the zone from getting to their houses and apartments. It doesn't matter if the player plans to be in their house or apartment and not in the ward. They have to be able to enter the ward first to get to it. That's going to get those players angry.

Ok, that's a valid concern. It could potentially be mitigated by having multiple raffles at the same time, causing the players to disperse across multiple wards. But that would require having multiple free plots, and I don't know how often plots free up on the more populated servers.

Because that's what players are ultimately concerned with - "winning" a house.

If changes don't improve their chances of getting one, what's the point? It's nothing but a waste of time and effort that solved nothing.

I guess you can hold on to the timer system then, while chasing after the unicorn of instanced housing. I can come up with any number of suggestions which gate access to housing behind questing, crafting, fates, dungeons, raiding or whatever game activity (much like it's currently gated behind placard camping), but they're all going to be resisted by the players who don't like that particular type of content. Maybe the unicorn will appear one day, but I wouldn't count on it.

I'm just happy I don't have to bother with placard camping since I already have a house for both myself and my FC.

[Jojoya]

I guess you can hold on to the timer system then, while chasing after the unicorn of instanced housing.

- - -

Maybe the unicorn will appear one day, but I wouldn't count on it.

The unicorn has existed all along. All house interiors are instanced. Apartments are instanced.

SE just needs to remove the requirement to own a piece of a non-instanced exterior before the player can have a larger interior.

[Themarvin]

We don't need more houses, lottery, or the likes... the reduced timer idea works though, but let it be from 1 hour to 48 hour interval, this more that seek interest this higher the timer goes untill it caps at 48 hours, to disrupt people that never log out, simply restart the servers every day at the soft restart timer.

We already got enough ghost towns, so restrictions on ownership is what is needed, and more tight auto demo timers and more down those lines, see below

Below, should tidy up some:

1. Remove Grandfathering, people that own multiple houses same account, get an upkeep system to the additional houses, where hase to pay 5 million gil per extra house per month.
2. Remove 1 person FC, gotta be 6 different accounts in FC to get a house.
3. max 1 FC house per account, but could have one on each server am on.
4. max one player house per account
5. reduce the auto demolition timer to 15 days
6. auto demolition if your subscription runs out giving a 5 days chance to renew.
7. that SE go and check out the black market on reddit, for housing, it is there, especially for 1 person FC's and there is alot of Gil and RMT going through that system.

[Realism_Snide]

We don't need more houses, lottery, or the likes... the reduced timer idea works though, but let it be from 1 hour to 48 hour interval, this more that seek interest this higher the timer goes untill it caps at 48 hours, to disrupt people that never log out, simply restart the servers every day at the soft restart timer.

We already got enough ghost towns, so restrictions on ownership is what is needed, and more tight auto demo timers and more down those lines, see below

Below, should tidy up some:

1. Remove Grandfathering, people that own multiple houses same account, get an upkeep system to the additional houses, where hase to pay 5 million gil per extra house per month.
2. Remove 1 person FC, gotta be 6 different accounts in FC to get a house.
3. max 1 FC house per account.
4. max one player house per account
5. reduce the auto demolition timer to 15 days
6. auto demolition if your subscription runs out giving a 5 days chance to renew.
7. that SE go and check out the black market on reddit, for housing, it is there, especially for 1 person FC's and there is alot of Gil and RMT going through that system.

Only 1 of these would actually help tidy things up, and that is point #2. Everything else would just cause more problems, or make it more unfair to players who don't make this game their full time job, or just goes against what the developers are going for. Making it a raffle and/or instanced housing would fix the biggest problems.

[Themarvin]

Only 1 of these would actually help tidy things up, and that is point #2. Everything else would just cause more problems, or make it more unfair to players who don't make this game their full time job, or just goes against what the developers are going for. Making it a raffle and/or instanced housing would fix the biggest problems.

The rest would work easy... you can mold
#3 into 1 FC House per server am on.
#4 Max 1 house per account, IS how the system is now.
#5 doing something about the auto demolition, would get rid of the players who only play on and off all the time.
#7 that SE openly show that they go out and bust the black market, hitting both buyers and sellers hard, a FC should not be a commodity of value to sell, other than the plot worth and day to day value of materials spendt on making airships and submarines.