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

[LunaFancy]

I hope that if a SE representative sees this thread they make a note of the fact that the people against Materia data centre having FCFS aren't even ON Materia worlds, and summarily discount them due to their complete lack of relevance to the situation.

You know what they say about opinions and a specific part of the human anatomy, right? Just because you have one, doesn't mean you should wave it around in places where you have no vested interest. Especially when you have clearly got little to no understanding of the specifics of the geographical area the data centre services.

There is absolutely no accessibility reason to make all the wards in Materia lottery, there is a limited variance in the time zones across the area, from East to the West the variance is four hours, North to South is more like two hours at most - the servers will be going up in prime time so nobody is missing out because of time zones. If you want housing you have enough time to sort your schedule to be there when the servers open.

The chances of there being a log in queue at all is limited to Ravana and MAYBE Sophia. So that's not an issue.

And yes, most of us will not really have to worry about getting the house we want because of the low population - with FCFS that is. As it stands if more than one of us lots on the same plot then we have to wait for the lottery to go off, then wait for the next lottery to enter then rinse and repeat. All while wards are standing empty.

I don't understand the reasoning of NA people coming in using arguments based on their own data centre circumstances that bear no resemblance to the reality of the new Materia data centre on the other side of the world. Especially when they aren't even on the data centre in question.

If people who actually play with their mains on Materia want FCFS, then I think that counts for more than the opinions of people who aren't even on the data centre in the first place. 50/50 lottery and FCFS should be the very least they do with the old wards.

[Jojoya]

Onions are just a small part of this that I use as the example, and you should realise it.

I'm sorry but what other items that can only be obtained through housing have such a significant impact on game play that having access a week sooner because SE went FCFS instead of Lottery will make a substantial difference?

Workshop RNG is so crazy at times that starting a workshop one week sooner is not going to make a difference. Any early advantage will get canceled out when RNG goes sour later.

Furniture is a non-issue because it can be produced on demand. There's no need to stockpile it or even the materials to make it (outside of what comes off timed nodes and not many of those are needed) in advance.

No one has to leave their friends behind because we're free to create characters on every data center. I might not be able to do every single bit of content with my friends on other data centers but I'm still able to visit and do at least some content.

Again if the concern is that SE is waiting too long to even open housing, I'm with you 100%. It's needed sooner. Six weeks after a world is opened is more than long enough for players and FCs to get established to a minimum level needed to obtain housing.

That's not what is in question. The issue is FCFS versus lottery. You are not going to suffer just because you have to wait a few extra days for a lottery to happen.

I'm not saying their inventories are filled up with housing items right now. I'm saying they're not going to start spending on housing items until they have a house to dump them in because of inventory constraints. Lotteries will just delay that while people are locked up in the process to get a house and failing, when they could have just bought another one already with FCFS.

NA and EU can keep their lotteries. We promise we won't make you adopt our upside down ways.

And the lottery probably is not going to delay anything more than a week longer while in the meantime giving all players a fair chance to get a plot they want instead of the majority of premium plots going to RMT with the rest going to those who have the real life privilege of being able to log in when the servers come online.

But fine, let RMT have immediate and near total control over the best housing in your data center. Not my problem, right?

[Shibi]

Again if the concern is that SE is waiting too long to even open housing, I'm with you 100%. It's needed sooner. Six weeks after a world is opened is more than long enough for players and FCs to get established to a minimum level needed to obtain housing.

That's not what is in question. The issue is FCFS versus lottery. You are not going to suffer just because you have to wait a few extra days for a lottery to happen

I still don't get why you, as a player who is not on Materia, are so intent on imposing your will on people half a world away, in a data-centre that has zero bearing on your own now or in the future.

But still, I will answer this; Don't you see that these points are mutually exclusive?

It seems to be a popular opinion on Materia that us Materia players want old city housing now so we can put down proper roots and grow our community and cohesion, to keep our players playing on our data centre and not melting back to their NA and JP homes.

But there is no lottery until likely mid to late April. It's not in the code. It's likely not even in QA testing yet. It's effectively a moot argument for those calling for housing now.

Come 6.1, when Emperyum is released world wide, Emperyum should be the same method and mix in all data centres. That and demolished/abandoned properties.

No different to how you have it on Coeurl.

[LunaFancy]

I agree with Shibi on this. And yes, we knew that housing would be delayed when we moved- but since the data centre was supposed to launch with 6.1 I guess we all assumed 6.1 was going to be soon after they released the worlds early - not that we would be waiting FOUR MONTHs for housing.

Four months with no FC workshops, no market for furnishings, people with retainers full of the furnishings they took from the houses they left, for four months. At least release some of the old wards now for players that gave up housing in good faith to populate the empty worlds on a new data centre.

And before anyone comes in crying fair to the new players- yes, I do believe players who relinquished plots on their old worlds are owed a shot at housing over and above the new player. We gave up something in good faith, and are being rewarded with a longer than expected stretch of homlessness and on top of that - pure random chance luck of the draw when the housing actually drops.

What a truly awful way to say thank you to veteran players who supported the initiative to create a new OCE data centre and gave up good queues, flourishing markets and established housing in doing so. I have newbies in my FC whose chocobos are going untrained, we should be levelling airships NOW not waiting for months to hope for a random chance at getting an FC house.

It;s been a month since launch, the established player base who transferred should, in all fairness have a chance to restore the personal plots they gave up now, and FCs with the means ( and show me a legit FC without 3 mil by now ) should be able to get their houses NOW. Give us a couple of each old ward early FCFS and hold the rest for lottery if you want, but dear gods let those of us who left behind worlds get on with building the new ones NOW.

[Ish_Star]

I can only reiterate:

On the established DCs the implementation of lottery is an improvement - it makes it not about who can sacrifice their life or bot the best to get the house.

On OCE the situation is different.
Even as a person who absolutely supports lottery, I would be much happier to see Materia be 100% FCFS from 6.1 to 6.2.
Then from 6.2 SE can apply housing to it in alignment with the apparent need of the worlds/server - be that keeping FCFS or adopting a mix of lottery and FCFS.

The strength of lottery is when the world has an extreme housing shortage, which just isn't the likely case in Materia.

[Conbat_Rem]

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.


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.


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.

I completely agree. I would love for the housing to be open, as you all would, but I also know how people like to take advantage of the markets, buy up all the housing, and sell them for way more than they're worth. Most other DC's housing are filled with those who have multiple plots even for themselves as well as alternate accounts.

As much as I would love to just go in and pick something now, I will happily wait to ensure complete fairness for all.

[Broken_Wind]

+1 for non Ishgard FCFS on Materia (even if only half the wards)

[LunaFancy]

The plot hoarding on other data centres is the result of grandfathering in plots purchased under old rules that allowed all alts on the same account to own a plot. The FC hoarding similarly happened under rules that allowed accounts to own more than one FC house. Those rules have been changed and it is no longer possible to hoard entire wards. As for multiple account holders owning plots- that won't be changing since each extra account counts as a completely different player.

The fact remains that SE encouraged veteran players who already held plots to move to the new data centre, while stating that Ishgard and only Ishgard would be having the lottery system implemented. Notice that none of us are asking for that to be changed, because we signed on for that.

What we did NOT sign on for was a full implementation of lottery across the old wards. You seem to be a new player so don't understand the cost of uprooting an endgame character and moving to a new data centre. Queues for endgame content are awful, the market is horrible, the experience is not really great. I realised that going in and went anyway in order to support SE in their efforts to support the OCE area, however I did so under the belief that when housing was released, the old wards would be FCFS as they have ALWAYS been when new worlds are launched.

I don't think that I am the only veteran player who is looking at their sacrifice to support the devs in a new light now, I can't say that I would have moved if they had made it clear that this horrible lottery system would be in play across all wards, it is disingenuous of them to move the goal posts in this way.

And yes, people who left houses behind to populate the new data centre with experienced players to support the huge number of sprouts deserve to have a FCFS chance at getting their old homes back. If we all left the servers in protest the data centre would surely feel our loss.

SE needs to stop ignoring the loyalty of long term players in favour of appeasing newcomers, we've already lost veteran rewards, have had the crafting system gutted and seen levelling bonuses out of control in favour of appeasing the new players, please don't betray the good faith we showed in moving to a new data centre by forcing the lottery system on old areas in new worlds like this.

It's not even about the inability to get a medium/large plot, with how awful the markets are I am sure we'll have enough, but my god this is going to make for an awfully slow and tedious process with all the waiting between draws if someone (and there will always be someone) decides to lot on a plot with an entry even though there is the same plot un-lotted in four other wards. The lottery on demolished houses in full worlds makes some sense (it's still an awful idea though imo) but 24wards across 5 areas on a new world being lottery is utterly ridiculous.

Let sanity prevail please.

[Meowsalotte]

What we did NOT sign on for was a full implementation of lottery across the old wards. You seem to be a new player so don't understand the cost of uprooting an endgame character and moving to a new data centre. Queues for endgame content are awful, the market is horrible, the experience is not really great. I realised that going in and went anyway in order to support SE in their efforts to support the OCE area, however I did so under the belief that when housing was released, the old wards would be FCFS as they have ALWAYS been when new worlds are launched.

I don't think that I am the only veteran player who is looking at their sacrifice to support the devs in a new light now, I can't say that I would have moved if they had made it clear that this horrible lottery system would be in play across all wards, it is disingenuous of them to move the goal posts in this way.

This is a legendary post, and articulates all my feeling (and I'm sure many others) share. Completely 100% agree! SE has basically backtracked from what they were saying, and I regret letting go of my old house already if they dont bring FCFS.

[Yodada]

The FC hoarding similarly happened under rules that allowed accounts to own more than one FC house. Those rules have been changed and it is no longer possible to hoard entire wards.

Mmhh you know that this is still possible? The Housing "TOS" only prevents from buying more than one plot as FC if you are holding already one. But its not forbidden to get more plots via FC Master "Trade". Funny thing is the "only one FC plot buy rule per account" isnt even available all the time. You could buy on Spriggan and Twintania litterally multiple FC-Plots even if the FAQ said it shouldnt be possible. It seems that SE is running a population breakeven in the background when this additional rule will be applied or not technically.