RNG Fairness

[S0lara]

I originally replied with this in a lot of other posts, but I think it needs to seriously be looked at, so that everyone is on equal footing.

A lot of people made great points in the plethora of post about today's current housing RNG debacle, but regardless of what they did, the RNG code is created by a person, and they inputted 0 as one of the possible choices for output. I have coded in Python and Mathematica before, and if you import random, and then you list the parameters, e.g. list=1,2,3,4,5... It is pretty easy to see, that when they listed their parameters for the housing lottery system, they included 0 (zero) in the list of possible choices that could be rolled. If they did in fact did put zero into their list, as in: listhousing or list1 (whatever you want to call it) = 0,1,2,3,4,5..., when as stated earlier, it should have been list1=1,2,3,4,5...

If what I stated is correct, then in all fairness, they should roll back EVERYONE's bids, because if 0 (zero) was counted as a possible RNG choice, then EVERY roll is invalidated and needs to be done again. I know it sucks for some people, but in all fairness, if zero (0) was included, then redoing it is the most fair solution.

[Seera1024]

The problem with that is if an FC bid on a house in order to relocate their FC house and transferred and they roll back, do they get their original house back? What if they then lose the re-bid if they aren't able to get the original house back?

Sounds like a huge can of worms to open up for lots that didn't land on 0.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to just fix the bug and make sure it doesn't happen again.

And I'd say that this is one of those situations due to the fact that FC's could have moved house.

[S0lara]

The problem with that is if an FC bid on a house in order to relocate their FC house and transferred and they roll back, do they get their original house back? What if they then lose the re-bid if they aren't able to get the original house back?

Sounds like a huge can of worms to open up for lots that didn't land on 0.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to just fix the bug and make sure it doesn't happen again.

And I'd say that this is one of those situations due to the fact that FC's could have moved house.

The thing is, and I gave this example to someone that was trolling my post earlier, is that let's say you go to a giveaway at some store, and you find out that you were the only person who entered the giveaway. When they draw the winner of the giveaway, your name is in there, as well as a ticket for (0) zero, as in you going up against no one. The people holding the giveaway tell you that they are sorry that they accidentally put a ticket with a zero as a placeholder no one showing up, and that unfortunately, you lose. You report this insight, and the company honors the fact that you were the only person that entered the giveaway, and they reroll or choose the winner again, now out of a hat that only has your name on it.

[Seera1024]

The thing is, and I gave this example to someone that was trolling my post earlier, is that let's say you go to a giveaway at some store, and you find out that you were the only person who entered the giveaway. When they draw the winner of the giveaway, your name is in there, as well as a ticket for (0) zero, as in you going up against no one. The people holding the giveaway tell you that they are sorry that they accidentally put a ticket with a zero as a placeholder no one showing up, and that unfortunately, you lose. You report this insight, and the company honors the fact that you were the only person that entered the giveaway, and they reroll or choose the winner again, now out of a hat that only has your name on it.

That doesn't at all address the issue of what to do with the FC's and personal houses that were relocated. What do you with those who WON their bid - as in the system didn't give their lottery result a 0 - but relocated their house?

I doubt the system is set up for a reversal of a housing system without a complete rollback of the ENTIRE server. And that would anger way more people than those affected by the bug. Anyone who progressed ANYTHING but had not put in a bid for a house would be affected.

[UkcsAlias]

That doesn't at all address the issue of what to do with the FC's and personal houses that were relocated. What do you with those who WON their bid - as in the system didn't give their lottery result a 0 - but relocated their house?

The old houses were still excluded from the lottery, so you can just move them back to the old house. Only the next lottery cycle the plot would be free to bid on. Their action of extending the current result timer is on that the best thing they can do while investigating the issue.

The real issue is that some players who got a house, might have bought furnishing from the market, if that would revert, and the next roll they dont get a house. Those things could become a problem, because you cant just revert a sale without issues. But this is only a problem when the generator doesnt give proper random numbers and favors some above others. I suspect they used a standard pseudo generator that is random enough to not be an issue (even if it was considered secure 20y ago, thats already random enough for these lotteries, because there is no spamming aspect that normaly breaks those algoritms).

Unless someone knew which generator they used, and that generator having some sort of timing issue that favors certain value, i do not see any reason to revert any winner (even though i would like to get another chance)

[dspguy]

The problem with that is if an FC bid on a house in order to relocate their FC house and transferred and they roll back, do they get their original house back? What if they then lose the re-bid if they aren't able to get the original house back?

While I'm not saying I agree with the OP's idea, but the question you have isn't so much of a problem. If an FC relocated, the other house can't go up for sale since lottery is frozen. This would allow SE to revert some of this stuff if they wanted to.

However, I think the bigger deal is the gil spent on buying construction permits, exterior walls, etc etc etc. If they were going to talk about reverting this, they should have said it at 11:10am EST today. Not, 6 hours later or 1 day later. It would be hard to make everyone whole without possibly messing something else up in the meantime.

I think the most likely scenario that is going to happen is:
- anyone that won a plot keeps their plot
- all other plots are back up in the next lottery draw

Why not reroll for just those that lost to the "0 winner?" Lots of people took their gil out in the form of the refund. I think it won't be easy for SE to track all of these transactions (who took out gil, who didn't take the refund, etc etc). In my opinion, that ship has already sailed. The "0 winner" plots, even with just 1 bid will go up in the next lottery.

[Seera1024]

While I'm not saying I agree with the OP's idea, but the question you have isn't so much of a problem. If an FC relocated, the other house can't go up for sale since lottery is frozen. This would allow SE to revert some of this stuff if they wanted to.

However, I think the bigger deal is the gil spent on buying construction permits, exterior walls, etc etc etc. If they were going to talk about reverting this, they should have said it at 11:10am EST today. Not, 6 hours later or 1 day later. It would be hard to make everyone whole without possibly messing something else up in the meantime.

I think the most likely scenario that is going to happen is:
- anyone that won a plot keeps their plot
- all other plots are back up in the next lottery draw

Why not reroll for just those that lost to the "0 winner?" Lots of people took their gil out in the form of the refund. I think it won't be easy for SE to track all of these transactions (who took out gil, who didn't take the refund, etc etc). In my opinion, that ship has already sailed. The "0 winner" plots, even with just 1 bid will go up in the next lottery.

But it has to know which lot belonged to which FC. Not sure the game tracks that piece of information and that would be what is needed to undo things without costing FC's houses.

[S0lara]

While I'm not saying I agree with the OP's idea, but the question you have isn't so much of a problem. If an FC relocated, the other house can't go up for sale since lottery is frozen. This would allow SE to revert some of this stuff if they wanted to.

However, I think the bigger deal is the gil spent on buying construction permits, exterior walls, etc etc etc. If they were going to talk about reverting this, they should have said it at 11:10am EST today. Not, 6 hours later or 1 day later. It would be hard to make everyone whole without possibly messing something else up in the meantime.

While I see what you stated being a huge problem for SE and players affected, if they are able to rollback, which they should be able to, the gil spent should go back...right? You do bring up some good points, but as I originally stated, the rollback makes it fair for everyone involved. You also stated that they should have said something about them acting on this earlier if they were going to revert it...you are indeed correct that the longer they wait, the worse this is going to get.

[redheadturk]

While I'm not saying I agree with the OP's idea, but the question you have isn't so much of a problem. If an FC relocated, the other house can't go up for sale since lottery is frozen. This would allow SE to revert some of this stuff if they wanted to.

However, I think the bigger deal is the gil spent on buying construction permits, exterior walls, etc etc etc. If they were going to talk about reverting this, they should have said it at 11:10am EST today. Not, 6 hours later or 1 day later. It would be hard to make everyone whole without possibly messing something else up in the meantime.

I think the most likely scenario that is going to happen is:
- anyone that won a plot keeps their plot
- all other plots are back up in the next lottery draw

Why not reroll for just those that lost to the "0 winner?" Lots of people took their gil out in the form of the refund. I think it won't be easy for SE to track all of these transactions (who took out gil, who didn't take the refund, etc etc). In my opinion, that ship has already sailed. The "0 winner" plots, even with just 1 bid will go up in the next lottery.

I think those who left their money in [like I did] should be given their plots.

[Livilda]

I think those who left their money in [like I did] should be given their plots.

According to the update, you will.