Support for FCFS housing in 6.1

[dspguy]

Lottery gives everyone a chance at a house who wants one. FCFS is just a different form of lottery where the RNG comes from if you manage to get in the queue early. However, only a small subset of the playerbase can login at 5am EST (or whenever the servers come up). Personally, do lottery going forward. No more placard spammage.

To be fair, we should be well aware that a lottery-based system lowers each individual player's chance of getting a house vs the old system. However, there is no more wasting hours of time at a placard.

[Drip]

I am a new player and I don't personally own a house... call me crazy if you want but I support the split

[Asteria77]

I would very much like just a few wards to be FCFS. I hate having to leave it up to luck and chance, and while it could be unfair to some people I think having just a few wards would really not hurt anything. Like 2 or 3 FC and Personal wards FCFS, the rest lottery? Please?

[Illmaeran]

I don't think new purchases should be FCFS, but having a couple wards specifically set aside for Relocation (non-OCE) or for people who previously own a home on a different data center (OCE) being FCFS seems like a good idea to me. We need to keep in mind that in this case, FCFS means one click, not camping a placard for hours hoping to be the lucky one.

[VerdeLuck]

I would very much like just a few wards to be FCFS. I hate having to leave it up to luck and chance, and while it could be unfair to some people I think having just a few wards would really not hurt anything. Like 2 or 3 FC and Personal wards FCFS, the rest lottery? Please?

Are you suggesting they set aside 20% of the houses just for a small group of people to have a better shot at those than everyone else?

[Asteria77]

I think others were saying it would be 12.5% for 2 FC 2 Personal actually, but I’ll have to check the math

[Fenril7]

Are you suggesting they set aside 20% of the houses just for a small group of people to have a better shot at those than everyone else?

3 wards is 12.5% of the total 24.

I already know what you are going to say about that, but honesty if you are going to keep crying that 12.5% is going to hurt you, how about we flip it and they give us 21 wards of FCFS and you take the 12.5% of the raffle?

[Erisiel]

Wow! I posted this a while ago and wasn't expecting any responses. Thank you to everyone for keeping your responses mostly civil. I'm still here supporting a small sliver of wards to be FCFS when Ishgard housing drops in 6.1

Honestly, I have to agree with Souljacker in that surely there are people who would give up their houses in exchange for instanced housing should it ever be an option. Or at least options, like gardening and FC workshops, that aren't tied directly to a physical house.

As for plots, I realize it would cause a slew of problems in regards to reselling (which they are working on), but perhaps SE would consider another personal house moratorium in order to give preference to FCs. But as far as I know, they haven't announced any further details about the division of the wards.

At any rate, it's important for SE to hear our feedback so please continue to let your voices be heard. And remember to be kind to each other!

[Nepentha]

Wow! I posted this a while ago and wasn't expecting any responses. Thank you to everyone for keeping your responses mostly civil. I'm still here supporting a small sliver of wards to be FCFS when Ishgard housing drops in 6.1

Honestly, I have to agree with Souljacker in that surely there are people who would give up their houses in exchange for instanced housing should it ever be an option. Or at least options, like gardening and FC workshops, that aren't tied directly to a physical house.

As for plots, I realize it would cause a slew of problems in regards to reselling (which they are working on), but perhaps SE would consider another personal house moratorium in order to give preference to FCs. But as far as I know, they haven't announced any further details about the division of the wards.

At any rate, it's important for SE to hear our feedback so please continue to let your voices be heard. And remember to be kind to each other!

Knowing that people are using third party programs for launchers with plugins to ensure they have a smoother login, and the advantage it gives people, I am still against allowing FCFS wards. Until SE shows they can and do read reports and act on them accordingly, full lotto is better as it ensures equal access to everyone with no chance for automated advantages.

[Skoll_the_Sun-chaser]

I support Lottery, but only if it's limited to the new Ishgard housing for the first 3 to 5 months as a trial run, before any decision is made on if it expands beyond the Empyreum.

Pros:
1. Less people clicking plots for the duration of the hidden purchase timer (which can be as long as 24 hours)
2. Less traffic in the open plot areas, as there's no need to linger once you've put a ticket in
3. A cap to how many tickets a single person can put in for the lottery (I'd reject the idea if more than 1 personal and 1 FC ticket were allowed at a given time per person)
4. Reduces the likelihood of excessive server queues during new ward releases. (the only plus to having it as a system, instead of a semi-optional feature)

Cons
1. Removes the option to show support for those who may be house hunting, as there's no longer a reason to linger at the plot and therefore no need for people to show support for friends who may not be in the same Free Company as yourself, or might even be on another server entirely.
2. The Limbo period of the plots, as it looks like the lottery process will take much longer than the maximum 24 hour timer of the standard Hidden Timer plots (one of the biggest reasons that I don't like the Lottery system)
3. Heavily favors larger FCs, so the small FCs that are made of Friends and possibly Family will suffer from the Lottery System. (yet another big reason I don't like the Lottery System)

Opinions on the changes to Housing:
Housing tends to be a major factor for a lot of people, both solo players and community people, so I feel that there should not be a preference in targeted groups shown when adjusting housing systems. Favoring any one group will make the others unhappy over time, and it would only lead to more redesigns of housing if a focus group is involved. Some people want to play with just people they know, others want to stay off to the side and have friends scattered across Data Centers instead of all on one server. Small Free Companies are being ignored in favor of the larger groups, which means those smaller FCs who may be made of a group of close friends and/or family members would have a harder time getting a plot when facing Larger FCs who can devote dozens of players to a single plot.

In regards to the Ward Distributions, I am Strongly in favor of separating FC and Personal housing from each other so that Personal house hunters will have more of a chance at obtaining a house. I feel like the separation is a good move, and will improve the conditions for people who seek to obtain a personal house, or who don't want to be part of an FC just to have housing. I can see that system freeing up plots over time, as more and more solo players will be getting their first house with that system. Unfortunately, it doesn't really help Small FCs because they'd still be competing with the Large FCs, which often have more people to spare for attempting a plot purchase.