So, a lottery system and a divide between FC and solo wards, eh?

[NanaWiloh]

YoshiP said there would be separate first come, first server and lottery wards. He didn't say wards would switch from first come, first serve to lottery after being filled.

Even the latter does little when it comes to house flipping. Flipping would continue to occur through the transfer of FCs. It's not like you need to be a member of a FC to do things with the members in that FC other than converse through FC chat. My FC has extended membership through our Discord. A lot of former members and just general game friends are effectively part of our FC without being in it.

There already are plenty of players who set up (or bought) shell FCs solely to get a house because it was the faster route for getting one when there were private purchase moratoriums on new wards or easier once the moratoriums were lifted but everything was sold. They're technically not abusing the system because they have just the one FC house allowed under the rules. They're just claiming what they're allowed as a FC because they were having difficulty getting it as a private player.

There are only two ways to kill house flipping:

Kill the wards and move to a purely instanced system that lets every player/FC buy the exact plot type they want. Clearly SE has no intention of doing that with the way they keep throwing effort and money at more wards even though nothing they are doing is solving any problems.

Kill FC housing and make all wards personal only through lottery purchase only. Doubt they're going to do that either because that means they'll have to come up with another system to give FCs a shared private space for their members to meet along with host the FC only features that currently require house ownership.

Oh wait, make that three ways:
Kill housing altogether. Can't flip what doesn't exist. That would be a disaster for them. It wouldn't kill the game since there is a sizeable chunk of the player base that cares nothing about housing but it would plant that seed of doubt in people's minds about what might be next to go.

In short twice as much crying about housing...great. It will be a game of choose your pain. Place card click or let rng screw you over.

[Jojoya]

In short twice as much crying about housing...great. It will be a game of choose your pain. Place card click or let rng screw you over.

That's the result of SE ignoring the core problem. As long as there aren't enough houses, there will always be complaints and unhappy players.

There will also always be those who abuse the system for personal gain, whether it's buying to sell for profit or buying from those who do to bypass the purchase system limitations.

[Besame]

YoshiP said there would be separate first come, first server and lottery wards. He didn't say wards would switch from first come, first serve to lottery after being filled.

Even the latter does little when it comes to house flipping. Flipping would continue to occur through the transfer of FCs. It's not like you need to be a member of a FC to do things with the members in that FC other than converse through FC chat. My FC has extended membership through our Discord. A lot of former members and just general game friends are effectively part of our FC without being in it.

There already are plenty of players who set up (or bought) shell FCs solely to get a house because it was the faster route for getting one when there were private purchase moratoriums on new wards or easier once the moratoriums were lifted but everything was sold. They're technically not abusing the system because they have just the one FC house allowed under the rules. They're just claiming what they're allowed as a FC because they were having difficulty getting it as a private player.

There are only two ways to kill house flipping:

Kill the wards and move to a purely instanced system that lets every player/FC buy the exact plot type they want. Clearly SE has no intention of doing that with the way they keep throwing effort and money at more wards even though nothing they are doing is solving any problems.

Kill FC housing and make all wards personal only through lottery purchase only. Doubt they're going to do that either because that means they'll have to come up with another system to give FCs a shared private space for their members to meet along with host the FC only features that currently require house ownership.

Oh wait, make that three ways:
Kill housing altogether. Can't flip what doesn't exist. That would be a disaster for them. It wouldn't kill the game since there is a sizeable chunk of the player base that cares nothing about housing but it would plant that seed of doubt in people's minds about what might be next to go.

Yes please, kill housing so I can finally have the reason to quit the game

[Theodric]

A lottery system isn't ideal, though it makes things fairer than having people stand around clicking a placard for hours on end. It discourages that unhealthy habit, at least.

[artlessknave]

I don’t really appreciate the lotto system. The problem isn’t procurement, it’s supply. A lotto system doesn’t fix that - they need to somehow up the supply or lower demand by allowing gardening in apartments.

the lotto isnt supposed to fix supply, it's supposed to fix the procurement problem, because it's unhumanly terrible.
the supply problem requires hardware/resources/whatever. making the aquisition system not *the most retarded system I have ever seen* is one seriously low hanging fruit that needs to plucked. if servers grew on trees they would have added more already.

[Sinkiki]

I like the idea of FC wards and lotto system. However I'll repeat that apartments need to be upgraded to reduce demand. It certainly doesn't help when some seasonal events award you with an outdoor item many people can't use, just rubs salt in the wound.

[Flay_wind]

Tbh, the lottery would solve the clicking problem. Like recently there was a small house auto-demolished in my Goblet ward. I was checking on it periodically and quite often there was a group of 10 people or so just sitting there clicking the placard. Considering how terrible the random timer system is, it's definitely for the better at least in that regard.

[Jojoya]

Tbh, the lottery would solve the clicking problem. Like recently there was a small house auto-demolished in my Goblet ward. I was checking on it periodically and quite often there was a group of 10 people or so just sitting there clicking the placard. Considering how terrible the random timer system is, it's definitely for the better at least in that regard.

Solves the clicking problem but does not solve the supply problem.

People who watch the placard campers are going to get the wrong idea about how easy it will be to get a house under the lottery system. Those 10 people clicking the placard were just the ones who were willing to give up playing the rest of the game to get a house. They're only a tiny fraction of the players who would like to buy a house.

Once the lottery is enacted, it's not going to be a 1 in 10 chance to win the house. It's going to be a 1 in 500 (or perhaps worse) chance. All those players who preferred playing the rest of the game over placard camping will now be buying tickets to get their chance at a house because there's minimal time investment required for that chance. They will be doing it with every newly available plot that appears within what they can afford until they finally get a house.

You're also going to get a lot of players who don't particularly care about housing to buy tickets because why not? Doesn't cost them anything meaningful to enter nor even if they win because they've already got so much gil they aren't using. That way if they ever did decide they wanted to do something with housing, they'd already have a house and not have to worry about trying to win one in the lottery.

[Almagnus1]

So we finally have an official source on this, from:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5614790

A lottery system will be implemented for purchasing housing plots. Relocation rules will be adjusted, and there will be designated areas for purchasing plots via lottery, or first come, first served. These are currently in preparation for the release of the housing area in Ishgard.

Players will only be permitted to enter the lottery if they meet the requirements necessary to own housing. A number of features have been prepared to prevent RMT and troublemaking, such as depositing the gil upfront and disallowing participation on Free Trial accounts. Furthermore, there will be a gil penalty for those who do not purchase a plot after being selected in the lottery. Please note that this penalty will be quite strict.

Additionally, certain areas will be reserved for purchase as personal or free company housing. Details regarding this and other housing-related updates will be shared later.

[Besame]

More band-aid fixes for an ongoing problem that could be so easily remedied with instanced housing.