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

[TwistedTea]

Botters would have no advantage with FCFS. In fact, real players are much more likely to reach a housing plot to snap it up before a dumb bot can. The lottery just gives these RMT and bot users equal odds with a normal player.

This is simply untrue. Housing bots come in all flavours. FCFS ward rushes favour botters using 3rd party launchers, some of which can directly teleport to the placard etc

Saying this as someone who volunteered to find open plots and to keep track of when those plots sold, from Jun 2019 - Mar 2022 for the House Alerts Discord.

And when it comes to placard clicking with FCFS wards, bots do not lose focus or have to rest like human players.

The lottery system does not address the fundamental problem of supply, especially on NA servers.

But the FCFS system significantly favours bots/automation.

Unfortunately SE has gone for blanket approach of applying the lottery to all regions.

Ultimately, the solution is fully instanced housing so that every player who wants a house can get one.

The existing ward housing can exist alongside the fully instanced housing for players who want 'exclusive'/'prestige' or whatever houses. Those players can fight it out amongst themselves.

[Damptoe]

This is simply untrue. Housing bots come in all flavours. FCFS ward rushes favour botters using 3rd party launchers, some of which can directly teleport to the placard etc

Saying this as someone who volunteered to find open plots and to keep track of when those plots sold, from Jun 2019 - Mar 2022 for the House Alerts Discord.

And when it comes to placard clicking with FCFS wards, bots do not lose focus or have to rest like human players.

The lottery system does not address the fundamental problem of supply, especially on NA servers.

But the FCFS system significantly favours bots/automation.

Unfortunately SE has gone for blanket approach of applying the lottery to all regions.

The point is that none of the placard clicking or focus is relevant for the grand opening when you just need to click the placard once.

I just don't agree with FCFS favouring bots and automation.
Admittedly, I have no experience with the situation in NA and maybe it's more rampant there than JP where my previous experiences with three ward openings were.

However, the situation in NA and OCE is very different.
If a player or botter wants a house, they will probably get it whether it's lottery or FCFS because there will be plenty of open plots for months after 6.1 releases depending on the world.

The lottery introduces a few barriers for real players on this data centre and prevents nothing.
It's a great solution to the problem the developers introduced when they added the random timer after relocations, but it barely has any purpose for the initial purchases on OCE.

The benefits of the lottery in the context of OCE are obviously that it gives people who can't be online at the exact hour of the 6.1 launch a chance to make a bid for their favourite plot.
Which is why it would be great if OCE got the option of having both purchasing options.

I know there's no point arguing this anymore though because we're already stuck with this silliness as you said.
I'm just extremely disappointed I transferred my main here given how the housing situation turned out, but I'm going to stick with it regardless. Gave up my plot already anyway.

[Nepentha]

The point is that none of the placard clicking or focus is relevant for the grand opening when you just need to click the placard once.

I just don't agree with FCFS favouring bots and automation.
Admittedly, I have no experience with the situation in NA and maybe it's more rampant there than JP where my previous experiences with three ward openings were.

On NA (and EU too I believe) we have an entire underground of bot developers who are actually making money charging players to use their software. These bots are sophisticated enough to auto run to the placard and auto relocate. Including popping speed buffs or mounts as part of the automation.

Some are actually hacking teleporting to the placard. They will get to the placard before you do.

Not to mention all of them are using third party software for their launcher, which is smoother and less clunky than the one SE is using presently. It will give them an advantage logging in faster.

However, the situation in NA and OCE is very different.

That is very true. TBH I don't really have any ideas to offer on that one. I just know that botting is more than placard clicking automation, and absolutely favors those who use bot software in most FCFS situations.