I'm so sad and frustrated right now

[AmemeAmeklin]

It's been the hope of myself and my FC mates of our tiny Ishgard-themed FC for 4 years that we would be able to get a medium once we had saved up enough. Of course, mediums are rare, but we were holding out for Ishgard. We aren't super large or super rich, so it took a while, and by the time we had the gil, there were no mediums and none of us were able to join the clicking wars that were the norm for so long. At least we had a small.

Cue this housing lottery. We put down two bids on a single plot, only to lose it on what appears to be a back-up bid from someone else, because they never went to claim it. It was just the three of us on there. Foolishly, we didn't look around for any other mediums that had zero bids (of which there were several) for round two. Well, of course I wouldn't be writing here today if we hadn't lost both round two AND round three, despite constantly managing to get more and more people in the FC to help out. The next thing I know, we've managed to amass enough gil for 6 bids of 19 million each, which is ridiculous, even though we only managed to get 5 people to actually bid.

What bothers me most is that back-up bid in round one. If not for that person, we would've been able to avoid two additional rounds of struggle, anxiety, and at least on my part, some ulcer-inducing stress of watching and reporting every single loss. Now every medium is gone in Ishgard and I find myself resenting that single person the most.

Obviously if I could go back in time, knowing what I do now, I'd definitely have just sniped one of the mediums with zero bidders in round 1 or 2. But to be fair, I didn't realize people would be so back-up bid happy, not caring that they lost half the plot's value with each unclaimed house, nor did I realize there would be mediums with zero bids at all.

To the back-up bidder for round 1 who never bothered claiming the plot, I really wish you hadn't done that.

To the FFXIV housing devs, consider this story my feedback on the lottery. I give it a 3/10, an okay idea in theory but the execution has caused me much emotional suffering (at least as much as a game can cause me to suffer, anyway).

To the forum goers here, uhh...hi, I guess.

[Divinemights]

It's been the hope of myself and my FC mates of our tiny Ishgard-themed FC for 4 years that we would be able to get a medium once we had saved up enough. Of course, mediums are rare, but we were holding out for Ishgard. We aren't super large or super rich, so it took a while, and by the time we had the gil, there were no mediums and none of us were able to join the clicking wars that were the norm for so long. At least we had a small.

Cue this housing lottery. We put down two bids on a single plot, only to lose it on what appears to be a back-up bid from someone else, because they never went to claim it. It was just the three of us on there. Foolishly, we didn't look around for any other mediums that had zero bids (of which there were several) for round two. Well, of course I wouldn't be writing here today if we hadn't lost both round two AND round three, despite constantly managing to get more and more people in the FC to help out. The next thing I know, we've managed to amass enough gil for 6 bids of 19 million each, which is ridiculous, even though we only managed to get 5 people to actually bid.

What bothers me most is that back-up bid in round one. If not for that person, we would've been able to avoid two additional rounds of struggle, anxiety, and at least on my part, some ulcer-inducing stress of watching and reporting every single loss. Now every medium is gone in Ishgard and I find myself resenting that single person the most.

Obviously if I could go back in time, knowing what I do now, I'd definitely have just sniped one of the mediums with zero bidders in round 1 or 2. But to be fair, I didn't realize people would be so back-up bid happy, not caring that they lost half the plot's value with each unclaimed house, nor did I realize there would be mediums with zero bids at all.

To the back-up bidder for round 1 who never bothered claiming the plot, I really wish you hadn't done that.

To the FFXIV housing devs, consider this story my feedback on the lottery. I give it a 3/10, an okay idea in theory but the execution has caused me much emotional suffering (at least as much as a game can cause me to suffer, anyway).

To the forum goers here, uhh...hi, I guess.

Please be responsible for your own decision making.

[SeiyaSoiya]

lottery has always been a tax on stupid people
don't fall for it, don't bid, don't support it

[SendohJin]

It's been the hope of myself and my FC mates of our tiny Ishgard-themed FC for 4 years that we would be able to get a medium once we had saved up enough. Of course, mediums are rare, but we were holding out for Ishgard. We aren't super large or super rich, so it took a while, and by the time we had the gil, there were no mediums and none of us were able to join the clicking wars that were the norm for so long. At least we had a small.

Why by Round 3 haven't your FC put in your own backup bid to at least move to an Ishgard Small plot? That would at least satisfy your Ishgard theme to some degree.

Obviously if I could go back in time, knowing what I do now, I'd definitely have just sniped one of the mediums with zero bidders in round 1 or 2. But to be fair, I didn't realize people would be so back-up bid happy, not caring that they lost half the plot's value with each unclaimed house, nor did I realize there would be mediums with zero bids at all.

To the back-up bidder for round 1 who never bothered claiming the plot, I really wish you hadn't done that.

If their FC won a Large plot, why should they claim a Medium instead?

lottery has always been a tax on stupid people
don't fall for it, don't bid, don't support it

Not remotely the same since you get your money back if you lose.

[Shibi]

It's been the hope of myself and my FC mates of our tiny Ishgard-themed FC for 4 years that we would be able to get a medium once we had saved up enough. Of course, mediums are rare, but we were holding out for Ishgard.

Lottery was never and will never be a guarantee that someone would win haus of dreams.

Mediums are rare, yes, and they are slightly easier now over the past, but they are still rare. Previously under relocation rules it was quite well established that any wild mediums would be snapped up by a bot 1 minute past the hour and pretty much immediately listed for 300-500 million gil. Rarely someone beat the bot on those, but more often than not, they didn't.

Now there is an even chance with all other people wanting it for their dreams.

As your theme is Ishgard, to salve the hurt a little, aim to move to a nice small in empy, and once there, keep entering for mediums. No different to placard clicking for 2 hour prime-time windows, then moving to the next, but know you will still need to enter many medium lotteries until the RNG gods smile on you.

Ultimately SE need to sit down and work out what we want in housing, then implement it. The system as it is now isn't working. The lottery bandaid has just made it more obvious.

[Themarvin]

Lottery was never and will be a guarantee that someone would win haus of dreams.

Mediums are rare, yes, and they are slightly easier now over the past, but they are still rare. Previously under relocation rules it was quite well established that any wild mediums would be snapped up by a bot 1 minute past the hour and pretty much immediately listed for 300-500 million gil. Rarely someone beat the bot on those, but more often than not, they didn't.

Now there is an even chance with all other people wanting it for their dreams.

As your theme is Ishgard, to salve the hurt a little, aim to move to a nice small in empy, and once there, keep entering for mediums. No different to placard clicking for 2 hour prime-time windows, then moving to the next, but know you will still need to enter many medium lotteries until the RNG gods smile on you.

Ultimately SE need to sit down and work out what we want in housing, then implement it. The system as it is now isn't working. The lottery bandaid has just made it more obvious.

Lottery is the same as it was before, now with no clicking and people using unfair advantages with botting.

Houses with clicking = 30-40+ people or not more for the duration of when the house is up and waiting invinsible timer. - all cons as none console users can exploit it with auto clicking botting.

Lottery = people just need to get a lottery ticket, you see the number of people actually bidding on it. - no cons only pros

[ameliaw]

You should have bid on the last day possible, or at least have one person from your fc doing that...
I don't like the lottery either, but you could have avoided that heartache yourself.

[AmemeAmeklin]

You should have bid on the last day possible, or at least have one person from your fc doing that...
I don't like the lottery either, but you could have avoided that heartache yourself.

You say that like it's a guarantee, but the sensible thing would've actually been, during the first round, to simply wander around looking for mediums without any bids at all on the last day. :P

That said, we did try. It's not easy coordinating adults with jobs in numbers more than 3, though.

[Risvertasashi]

Before getting too up in arms about the lottery, I think it's worth considering the real underlying issue: Lack of supply. Take a look at 20 other of the largest and most successful MMOs, and you won't find a single one where it's as difficult to get housing as FFXIV - even when they're free-to-play and charge no real money (and sometimes no in game money too!) for housing.

And, also, having lost out, I think you can understand now how it feels for those that have similar dreams, but have to bid against 50~100 or even more other players.

Welcome... to the Final Fantasy 14 housing system.

[hynaku]

ESO pretty sure has instant housing and can buy a castle sometimes from their cash shop.