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

[skyelu712]

I really do hope they will reconsider and make some wards FCFS and some lottery, just as they outlined for all the other worlds.
Many of us have sacrificed our houses back in our previous world and have been waiting patiently for 6.1 for housing wards to open up. FCFS still doesn't guarantee us a plot, i know, but at least it's gives those of us willing to compete for a plot a chance to do so.

[LunaFancy]

Those numbers are bloated by the fact that just about every person who transferred an active character there made an alt that used the road to 80 buff to level to 30 for the 1million gil and 2 weeks free playtime, in addition to people from all over who did the same and have no intention of keeping those alts here once their 90 days are up. Everyone I know who brought a character over also made a burner to level. I certainly did- on BOTH of my accounts, and since we are restricted to one house per world per account, that removes a sizeable chunk of the numbers right there.

Sure there are loads of sprouts who are newcomers, my FC is full of them, but there are in no way 12k people actually playing on Zurvan.

At any rate, the fact remains that we were encouraged to up stakes and move from established worlds and many of us left homes we loved (I gave up a large) on the assumption that we would be able to get into new houses when the housing opened in 6.1. At that time only Empyreum was discussed as being all lottery and in all past openings of new wards there has been a free for all with no timers at all.

Which is perfectly fair.

What is not fair in the least is to spring this lottery on all the old wards opening on new worlds in a new data centre AFTER people gave up their homes and moved. I can promise you that many people would have made different decisions had this been announced at the outset.

Lottery removes the possibility of establishing neighbourhoods with friends and FC mates, and one would think that developing a cohesive and active neighbourhood environment on new worlds would be something that the devs would choose to encourage for the longevity of the servers.

Lottery may arguably be the fairest way to deal with freshly demolished plots (though imo the issue with timers was the preferential treatment afforded to relocators and the excessive length of the timers themselves rather than the concept) but to do this to people who moved to a fresh data centre in good faith that they would be able to buy back their houses on new worlds with the bonus of creating a neighbourhood of their friends is neither fair nor well thought out.

I choose to believe that lack of forethought is at fault here, as the thought of the devs being so disingenous as to leave the 'by the way all those houses we comped you for? You'll be forced to buy them back through the lottery on the new world for the first time ever' out of their 'move to materia' spiel goes against my experience with the game for 5 1/2 years of playing. But the net result feels the same- important information that would have influenced a lot of people's decision to move was left out of the brief we all got before we moved.

There is absolutely no reason to inflict a lottery system on brand new wards- least of all on a fresh data centre. By all means delay the housing a day or two to enable everyone to get the 'home is where the heart is' quests done if you must. But for the love of the twelve do not subject new worlds in a new data centre to this lottery system. There is simply no need.

[Shibi]

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.

Are you actively playing on Materia now? If so, then you would likely see most people are now established and waiting. You would see the vast numbers of people with crafting jobs advancing fast.

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.

By observation, from the census, and me like many others. It's seems fairly common on Materia for established players to restart at level 1 and leave their old mains behind in JP on NA with friends. Friends are always nice to keep even if one stops playing with them daily.

You can tell this alt and restart at 1, from quality of glamours on level 20s through to how people perform in a low level dungeon when their names are not italic. There are some genuine new players, but then on any server from Lich to Coerl a true new player wont be doing housing for a while anyway.

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.

To assist you when you move to a new NA server - which will have DC travel, so won't be as frontier like as Materia - ranks are pretty simple, getting to 6 is a few runs of Shisui, or a bunch of cheap crafting. Most dedicated players can get Rank 6 in a few days. Even casual FCs who only hand in their retainer quick ventures can get there in a few weeks. Anyone who hasn't gotten their FC to 6 in a month is likely not after housing, it's that simple.

Earning gil is likewise a lot simpler on a frontier server. You won't have as much chance of this, as you will have DC travel from all the other NA servers, so could actually transfer your character and not be disadvantaged too much - want to buy something not on your MB, then just world travel to an old server.

There are without doubt gil capped "housing primals" who are likely looking to grab the LB41s, but they are usually one person FCs, and by nature of that won't get all the plots - even during a full day of house buying.

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

Sorry, it's not your place to dictate how people the game and what they find enjoyable to spend their time on.

[Damptoe]

If the population numbers quoted earlier are accurate

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.

Try playing on Materia. A lot of those players got their bonuses and split.

A data centre where Alliance Raid Roulette doesn't pop for over an hour on a Sunday morning, most certainly will not have any problems with housing supply.
Even a quick look at Limsa is enough to tell, considering most people will be gathered there at the moment instead of their houses.

[Ish_Star]

I personally think that the lottery system is superior - but only when you are dealing with a full server where housing is at a premium. Making everything lottery there makes it fairer for players to obtain a house.

That's not the situation in Materia.

Materia should be primarily FCFS in 6.1, and then add more lottery as the patches go forward and housing becomes rarer.

[Oizen]

So...you want to return to a system that heavily favors botters and RMT gold sellers because the new system may favor botters and gold sellers

[Damptoe]

I wonder if there are any naysayers that are actually in OCE. Would probably be more constructive.

[Taitaibun]

So...you want to return to a system that heavily favors botters and RMT gold sellers because the new system may favor botters and gold sellers

They've done what they can by combatting it with the removal of instant relocation and the incoming free company changes. Lottery will still allow this behavior seeing as those people can also access this system. The changes to relocation and free companies are to deter those acts.
We want to return to this system so the active player base of Materia may enjoy their free company content, gardening content, private roleplay etc etc.

[LunaFancy]

A further issue with the lottery exclusive model on Materia is the one ticket per player concept.

I am hoping this is a translation error because it seems incredibly unfair to open all the housing on a world in one go and not allow a player to bit on a personal and an FC house. They can't be serious about this? So I can bid on a place for my 40+ member FC OR I can get a ticket in hopes of replacing the house I lost when I moved, but not both?

Why?

[Shibi]

We want to return to this system so the active player base of Materia may enjoy their free company content, gardening content, private roleplay etc etc.

Onions wold be nice. Right now it's a case of relying on that one person who brings over hundreds of onions every three days. I wonder how many hundreds of millions of gil they have made? It would have to be a lot.

(Aether being locked for new characters means I have 1 mule left, and I don't want to use him up yet to do the same)

Until then - have a level 3 alt on another data centre... buy up cheap onions and mule them over please you make good profit and my Choco can level more.

heh.