If you own a house already, you shouldn’t be allow in the lottery.

[Sarevok_Thordin]

Existing House owners have a right to the lottery as everyone else does, infact their old plot will open up once they complete the transfer.

Be glad they cannot use the relocation bypass.

[dspguy]

I sort of agree with the OP and this mainly has to do with how the lottery system is going to work after the initial rush.

There are 5,760 plots per server right now. All of those FCs and private owners can buy a ticket; a ticket with the same odds as everyone else for a particular plot (1/N chance of winning). And the best odds to win a house in the lottery is the first round, assuming that SE puts all 24 new wards up in the lottery at the same time. Tens of thousands of players are going to buy a lottery ticket on these 1,440 new plots. Once those 24 wards are spoken for after the first lottery round, any FC or player that won and relocated will leave behind an empty plot.

An empty plot with still tens of thousands of players wanting to buy a lottery ticket and only a few plots available.

Honestly, I think they should rethink the 100% refund on the lottery if you lose. It sounds terrible to say that, but maybe they should put something in place to act as a gil sink. How about they drop the price of the ticket to 50k for a small, 250k for a medium, 1M for a large but it is nonrefundable. It might deter people later on from having 40,000 entries on a single small plot and only encourage people that are really interested in housing.

This is likely a very unpopular idea...

[Jojoya]

Honestly, I think they should rethink the 100% refund on the lottery if you lose. It sounds terrible to say that, but maybe they should put something in place to act as a gil sink. How about they drop the price of the ticket to 50k for a small, 250k for a medium, 1M for a large but it is nonrefundable.

Those amounts aren't deterrents. They'd actually increase trolling by players with no intent of purchasing because the amounts are so laughably small.

Consider it this way: The cheapest small plot is 3 million gil. That means if someone trolling actually wins a plot and doesn't buy it, they're out 1.5 million gil.

It would take entries over 30 lottery periods for that player to lose that much gil if it's just a non-refundable 50k per entry.

When I logged on this morning, I had already made 385,000 gil just from items selling on the MB since I logged out last night and I don't particularly work hard at selling things on the MB compared to many of the players out there.

[NanaWiloh]

50k is a laughable amount..

[dspguy]

50k is a laughable amount..

Doesn't mean a non-refundable ticket it is a bad idea. What amount does make it work? How about full price?

[UkcsAlias]

That includes those who already have a house and are looking to upgrade

If the upgrade destroys their old house, then i would consider that fine. Then that is basicly the same as relocating, and still keeps a limit of 1 house. As long as they are limited like that, they do not take up any additional space in housing areas.

And whenever such player then wins a lottery, it will cause that old house to be enabled in the next lotery. Giving players more chances to join a lottery. That would even be a positive effect.

[NanaWiloh]

Doesn't mean a non-refundable ticket it is a bad idea. What amount does make it work? How about full price?

What joy said is one reason why its a bad idea. You make the full price non-refundable you shaft the average player.

[Nepentha]

Doesn't mean a non-refundable ticket it is a bad idea. What amount does make it work? How about full price?

No amount will make it work. This is a bad idea from the get-go.

[Jojoya]

Doesn't mean a non-refundable ticket it is a bad idea. What amount does make it work? How about full price?

Then you punish the poor players that can't afford to lose that gil because if they don't win, they have no way to enter the next lottery to try again. They're back to gil farming for weeks if not months trying to get enough gil to try again.

In the meantime, rich players laugh it off because they've already got enough gil to enter the lottery hundreds of times and know how to quickly make more gil to replace what is lost.

A recurring property tax is more likely to deter those not actually interested in housing from entering (why keep paying month after month for something you're not interested in and don't intend to use?). It's also another situation where it's going to impact players with less gil disproportionately more than richer players even if you scale it so the tax percentage gets higher as the plot value increases (a rich player can afford a 10% tax for a large plot more easily than a poor player can afford 5% on a small). As much as I'm actually in favor of one myself (primarily as a gil sink), the majority of players throw up a brick wall at the suggestion.

The only thing that is going to solve the problem is for SE to stop acting like shuffling purchase system RNG fixes supply versus demand and start work on implementing a system where every player and FC is guaranteed a house if they want one.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

If they move plot the one they left is then available for someone else so.. no? Nobody is losing out become someone moved house.