<MATERIA> First-Come First-Served AND Lottery Plots

[LaylaTsarra]

I sincerely hope the feedback makes them rethink all lotto purchases. I suspect they will change that soon enough to accommodate the feedback. Still unclear to me if you can bid once on a FC house and again on a private. I hope we can do both.

[DeNada]

I hope it's all done via lottery.

If housing is not really in demand Materia as you people insinuate, why would you be scared of not able to obtain a plot via lottery.

I feel that those players who are clamouring for FCFS are being ingenious and just want to take advantage of being the few who are able to login during the initial rush while the rest of us are being caught out due to other real life obligations.

So please keep it based on full lottery to be fair to all players, thank you.

[Shibi]

If housing is not really in demand Materia as you people insinuate, why would you be scared of not able to obtain a plot via lottery.

"you people" sheesh.

FCFS in Materia Mist, Materia Lavender Beds, Materia Goblet , and in Materia Shirogane is no more than other regions have already. Why should we wait another 2 months for housing and then a a bigger insult do this via lottery from the get-go? How does that effect Balmung?

I am personally happy for Empyreum to be the same on all Data Centres - a mix, or whatever, but as soon as possible and well before 6.1, Materia should be opened on the old housing areas FCFS.

[DeNada]

"you people" sheesh.

FCFS in Materia Mist, Materia Lavender Beds, Materia Goblet , and in Materia Shirogane is no more than other regions have already. Why should we wait another 2 months for housing and then a a bigger insult do this via lottery from the get-go? How does that effect Balmung?

I am personally happy for Empyreum to be the same on all Data Centres - a mix, or whatever, but as soon as possible and well before 6.1, Materia should be opened on the old housing areas FCFS.

Ok my bad, my use of language may have been inappropriate as English is not my strongest language.

The fact remains that housing in Materia will only be opened up during 6.1 as has been stated since Oceania servers are announced and there has been no indication for SE to do otherwise.

Given that 6.1 is a major patch, it is anticipated that there will be many players returning to the game which will definitely cause a congestion similar to the queues experienced during endwalker release.

Given the case, isn't it more fair and equitable to allow everyone have a fair shot at the plot which they would like to obtain?

A FCFS system will only benefit the lucky few who happened to be free at the exact moment 6.1 is released and the majority of the players would lose their chance at securing the plots they would prefer.

[NanamoEulala]

I pretty much agree with everyone else here regarding opening the old/existing housing districts first in Materia (why waiting until 6.1 for those?), then I won't mind the Ishgard housing to be half or all lottery. I suggest the dev can even try the lottery system with Materia first for those old areas, but it should be only a fraction of all the wards, like maybe 5 out of 30 wards will be lottery or something.

[Shibi]

Given that 6.1 is a major patch, it is anticipated that there will be many players returning to the game which will definitely cause a congestion similar to the queues experienced during endwalker release.

Again, why does a player on Balmung care what happens in Materia?

We won't have many (if any) returners, being a month old, we came after End Walker. Those who zoomed to the end and then unsubscribed are not here. Most players are sprouts, and there are a lot of us.

Releasing Materia Mist, Materia Lavender Beds, Materia Goblet, and Materia Shirogane (the old cities) before 6.1 as FCFS stops any congestion come 6.1

Come 6.1 whatever for Emperyum, all lottery, partial lottery, some personal, some fc only - whatever - same as every other region.

But we have no housing for 2 more months, when plots in the 4 current cities that are empty right now could be put to use immediately.

Materia is in a unique situation right now that needs special consideration outside of NA/EU/JP.

[Kirstie]

You mentioned in the Live Letter that fcfs might be considered if there's demand, there is demand, please reconsider! The lottery system is meant to alleviate the need for players to placard spam to try and get a house, and to a lesser extent, alleviate the housing crisis. On our brand new Materia DC/Servers, this isn't a problem yet, as none of the housing districts are even open, let alone have any problems to require the lottery system.

Waiting 2 more months is a long time, especially if its 100% lottery it'll be even longer depending on RNG Also someone mentioned on page 1, that having all 5 districts open on 1 day will be even harder on the servers congestion, than just Ishgard opening.

Can you please consider opening the older districts (Mists, Lav Beds, Goblet, Shirogane) for Materia DC before 6.1 as fcfs, then when 6.1 comes out with Ishgard, Emperyum can be whatever suits the situation then?

If not sooner, can we please have some fcfs? 100% lottery on 100% empty lots that have never been owned just doesn't make sense

[DeNada]

Again, why does a player on Balmung care what happens in Materia?

We won't have many (if any) returners, being a month old, we came after End Walker. Those who zoomed to the end and then unsubscribed are not here. Most players are sprouts, and there are a lot of us.

Releasing Materia Mist, Materia Lavender Beds, Materia Goblet, and Materia Shirogane (the old cities) before 6.1 as FCFS stops any congestion come 6.1

Come 6.1 whatever for Emperyum, all lottery, partial lottery, some personal, some fc only - whatever - same as every other region.

But we have no housing for 2 more months, when plots in the 4 current cities that are empty right now could be put to use immediately.

Materia is in a unique situation right now that needs special consideration outside of NA/EU/JP.

Because I don't just have a character on Balmung? It's simply a character I have retired as I'm playing mainly on Materia now due to time zone difference.

During today's live letter, please correct me if I am wrong but I'm fairly certainly that SE did not reveal any plans or intentions to release housing ahead of schedule for Materia.

Instead, they are asking for general feedback on lottery vs FCFS. With the information we have on hand, we can infer that Materia housing will be released on 6.1 with the rest of the world. Just because a few players complaining on the forums will have little impact on their decision on this front.

Now, with that point in mind, we can debate on whether there should be FCFS wards in 6.1 in general. Whether there is any housing in the next two months is simply a moot point and have no relevance on the exact feedback which SE is asking during the live letter.

Now I agree that Materia is in a unique situation compared to the rest of the world. However, we do not have the actual number of players on hand and those from unofficial sources appear to indicate that the number of players exceed the number of plots including that of Emphyreum. I'm still convinced that lottery is the fairest way to distribute housing plots, especially if the demand for housing outstrip supply which seems to be the case. As I have mentioned, FCFS only appears to benefits the priveleged few who are able to login the moment the server goes up after 6.1.

However, I'm willing to concede that perhaps just a few wards can be allowed for FCFS solely on Materia for those who really desire it although it's a concession I'm still loathe to accept given that lottery imo is still the fairest way to distribute since each player has an equal chance to secure the plot which they desire.

[Shibi]

Because I don't just have a character on Balmung? It's simply a character I have retired as I'm playing mainly on Materia now due to time zone difference.

Thank you for clarifying you are on Materia.

During today's live letter, please correct me if I am wrong but I'm fairly certainly that SE did not reveal any plans or intentions to release housing ahead of schedule for Materia.

No, they didn't but that doesn't mean people can't ask for the old cities to be released right now. Housing is something that a lot of people do need. Reminding SE that it would be helpful to us seems a good use of the forum. Especially if they are here looking for threads on "should Ishgard be fcfs or lottery" and see these.

I'm still convinced that lottery is the fairest way to distribute housing plots, especially if the demand for housing outstrip supply which seems to be the case. As I have mentioned, FCFS only appears to benefits the priveleged few who are able to login the moment the server goes up after 6.1.

You are welcome to that conviction. I think more people just want housing now.

Don't forget, lottery will still be there for Emperyum should they open the old cities now so you will still get your chance. People who wish to wait and participate for one of those 1,440 plots will be no worse off, than on any other server in any other region. In fact they could be better off as there will be less competition for those over a server - say on Aether.

But right now, we do need housing opened up. And that needs to be FCFS with maybe a few lottery wards as suggested above to do a production level debug for the rest of the world.

[Jojoya]

I hope it's all done via lottery.

If housing is not really in demand Materia as you people insinuate, why would you be scared of not able to obtain a plot via lottery.

I feel that those players who are clamouring for FCFS are being ingenious and just want to take advantage of being the few who are able to login during the initial rush while the rest of us are being caught out due to other real life obligations.

So please keep it based on full lottery to be fair to all players, thank you.

A lottery makes it more difficult to get a specific plot the player might want and increases the length of time before they can own.

We didn't get all the lottery specifics last night but we were told back in November that there would be a "several day" lottery period followed by a "several day" land acquisition period before the next lottery occurred.

As an example, let's say "several day" means one week. That means someone who doesn't win a house in the first lottery period will be stuck waiting at least two weeks before their next chance to win a house. They might again not win, meaning yet another two before the next chance.

That said, I agree that the lottery is the fairest solution for the housing system we currently have.

We won't have many (if any) returners, being a month old, we came after End Walker. Those who zoomed to the end and then unsubscribed are not here. Most players are sprouts, and there are a lot of us.

Except you're not truly a sprout. You're an experienced player who knows how to make gil. That gives you a significant advantage, even on a new character, compared those who are truly new to the game.

I also imagine most of the delay is with FCs in mind. They want all the new FCs to have a chance to rank up and earn gil for their house purchase instead of the transferring players with hundreds of mlllions of gil getting a head start by buying up multiple plots with shell FCs.

SE announced before the data center opened that housing would not become available until 6.1. They had also already announced that the lottery system would begin in 6.1 and they were leaning toward all purchases being lottery at first. You should have known what to expect.

If the character populations on the Materia worlds had remained low so that the supply would have been equal to the demand, first come first serve for the initial sales would have made more sense. Instead populations exploded far above the number of plots that will be available. For the sake of fairness, SE really doesn't have much choice other than to go with the lottery.

You mentioned in the Live Letter that fcfs might be considered if there's demand, there is demand, please reconsider! The lottery system is meant to alleviate the need for players to placard spam to try and get a house, and to a lesser extent, alleviate the housing crisis. On our brand new Materia DC/Servers, this isn't a problem yet, as none of the housing districts are even open, let alone have any problems to require the lottery system.

If the population numbers quoted earlier are accurate

Sophia 30,002
Sephirot 26,935
Ravana 25,881
Bismarck 17,226
Zurvan 12,197

then it is already a problem. There will only be 7,200 houses per world to split between both FCs and individual players, and the lowest population world is already well past that number.

But right now, we do need housing opened up. And that needs to be FCFS with maybe a few lottery wards as suggested above to do a production level debug for the rest of the world.

Don't confuse what you want with being a need. Housing is completely optional in this game - you do not need it.

I do sympathize. I'm considering going to the new NA data center when it opens later this year so I'd be in the same position you're currently in - staring at a bunch of empty house plots when I'm itching to decorate and probably trying to get a workshop up and running for a new FC.

But I also support SE's decision to delay so the playing field is leveled while new player and transferred players both get established on the new worlds.