Lottery is a joke.

[Amenara]

I don't quite understand what you mean, if someone bids for the purpose of moving house, that still leaves an open plot in a different ward that those people can bid on. I don't understand how this inherently screws the "have nots" since they will still have the opportunity to bid (on a different property).

Let me reverse your sentiment on this one, let's say that SE adopted the opposite, new home buyers would have a priority over relocators on a plot. It would accomplish the same thing, 2 people have a house instead of 1. Would that feel fair to you as a relocator that you can't move your house because someone had priority over you in buying the plot? That is what you are asking for in your case where the relocator has an advantage over a new home buyer. It accomplishes the exact same goal of 2 people owning a house.

That is why the current system of having equal odds for relocators and new home buyers is the fairest solution. It gives everyone the exact same chance on the exact same plot without having a preference towards anyone.

[Zedix]

Let me reverse your sentiment on this one, let's say that SE adopted the opposite, new home buyers would have a priority over relocators on a plot. It would accomplish the same thing, 2 people have a house instead of 1. Would that feel fair to you as a relocator that you can't move your house because someone had priority over you in buying the plot? That is what you are asking for in your case where the relocator has an advantage over a new home buyer. It accomplishes the exact same goal of 2 people owning a house.

That is why the current system of having equal odds for relocators and new home buyers is the fairest solution. It gives everyone the exact same chance on the exact same plot without having a preference towards anyone.

I was running out of characters in that post so I had to shorten my explanation for multiple sections. So I will give the expounded answer here. Buying houses acts as a gil sink to help fight inflation. In order to maximize player opportunity as well as the gil sink, it would be in the best interest to remove the most gil possible [given 2 people own a house in both situations we can ignore that as justification]. So letting relocators have the priority allows more gil to flow out of the economy while still maintaining the same end opportunity for all [2 people owning a home; albeit not after a single auction]. If a new owner buys the house that house is now locked up and nobody will be able to purchase that house for the foreseeable future, thus less gil sink. Where as if a relocator buys the house it just moves the available plot and maintains the option for either more relocators [for more gil sink] or more first time buyers based on the scenario. I agree the current system is the fairest, but I don't think it accounts for the cascading impacts that the housing system supplies to the game. Not to mention, don't you think more investment into something should yield greater favor either for yourself or the broader community? But as I stated, the most fair outcome is the already implemented system, but fair does not always ensure the greatest possible outcome.

[UkcsAlias]

So letting relocators have the priority allows more gil to flow out of the economy while still maintaining the same end opportunity for all

As gil sink housing barely does anything. A single purchase that can last for years barely makes a dent. You can easily make millions of gil per month. Relocating on that therefor barely does anything, even on large houses. Most players that have a house will have it for a very long time (easily years).

Relocating is only disruptive towards new buyers. Since their opportunity of finaly getting a house might be spoiled hard. Seeing your 25% odds (which are already bad) turning to 10% just because of relocaters is not good. Especialy when the next cycle you end up at 0.5%.

At the same time, if as relocater you instead get a penalty in your odds. You wont be even closely harmed as much, since you already have a house anyway. You can just try without any risk of losing your house. 25% for someone without house, vs 10% for someone who already has one, still means a 75% chance for the one without, to remain without. And this is still the number that matters most. Since even with a 99% chance of winning as new buyer vs 1% of a relocater, if you get that 1% case, its still leaves him without house. Yet in the 99% case, for the relocator nothing changes, he still has a house, just at a less optimal place for him.

[Jojoya]

I don't quite understand what you mean, if someone bids for the purpose of moving house, that still leaves an open plot in a different ward that those people can bid on. I don't understand how this inherently screws the "have nots" since they will still have the opportunity to bid (on a different property).

An open plot that might well end up taken by another owner who wants to relocate. Then that player's old plot goes through the same process.

At best ends up a delaying action in helping players without a house get one, and an unnecessary delay at that. At worst, it ends up a toy in the hands of bored rich players who will play relocation leapfrog to keep available plots of out of reach of those who don't have a house or helping RMT gain more control over prime plot locations.

Someone who already owns a house has no need for priority over someone who doesn't. Both can enter the lottery and take their chances. It was one thing when in the past relocation delayed the availability of a house by only 24 hours at most. Now that delay could end up weeks depending on lottery timing and how long a relocation lottery period would last.

If you're thinking relocation would be instant like it was prior to 6.0, I can promise that won't happen. That would blow the gates wide open again on relocation RMT.

The only reason I make these "band-aid ideas" is because it is abundantly apparent that no matter how much the community complains, SE will never make instanced housing, or at least not for quite some time. Perhaps Island Sanctuary will be the reprieve for some of this but only time will tell.

Except we already have instanced housing. Every bit of housing except the outdoor area is instanced.

What we're looking for SE to do is improve the instanced portion of the housing system by giving it more options. Larger apartments to choose from. Instanced estate plots that allow players to have an outdoor space to decorate in addition to the interior space but without that annoyingly small outdoor item limit.

Island Sanctuary won't be a reprieve because it only addresses one of the many reasons players have for wanting a house over an apartment (the desire for a personal outdoor space). It doesn't even address the desire for larger spaces to decorate because we're not going to be able to use furnishings on Island Sanctuary. Our customization is limited to the buildings placed and their appearance.

Players will get their sanctuary - but they're also still going to want a house. After all, if 7000+ other players on their server get to have both, then they should be able to have both as well.

SE needs to stop clinging to how they want players to engage with the housing system and start redesigning the system to better work with what players want from housing and how they engage with it.

[Themarvin]

It only feels bad because don't have an advantage anymore, and it hurts for those that RMT on housing, which suites me perfectly fine.

[Zedix]

As gil sink housing barely does anything...just at a less optimal place for him.

A player may earn millions in a week, but that isn't brand new currency. It takes months for a single player to generate a few million gil. Even when I go out to make money, I barely generate a few hundred thousand a week. Not to mention there is usually a house on the market every week, we can assume that's at least 156m a year on the LOW end. I don't quite understand where you are getting the 25% and the 10% nor how those numbers somehow leave 75%.

An open plot that might well end up taken...RMT gain more control over prime plot locations.

Let's assume youre right and the people who own homes are all out to spite the homeless (like I said before, I've literally never met anyone like this in my years playing this game) and are willing to waste all their gil just to prevent people from owning homes, that is a lot of gil removed from the economy. Yes it delays a vacant house from being filled. Unnecessarily though? I would say not, purchasing housing acts as a large gil sink, that alone is justification, all other gil sinks within the game can be circumvented in one fashion or another. (I expounded my original position in a post above responding to Amenara about the gil sink idea)

Someone who already owns a house...wide open again on relocation RMT.

You can decrease the wasted time by implementing the suggestion I mentioned before of just shortening the window from 1 week to 2-3 days, plenty of time to get what you want or have new housing circulate faster to ride out waiting on relocators. And no, it shouldnt be instant, having the lottery system is good, like you said to help prevent bots and RMT from running amok. There should be some friction and some chance in the lottery, but just with emphasis on optimum total outcome, not just filtering people into houses.

Except we already have instanced housing...housing and how they engage with it.

Instancing indoors was likely one of the only ways to get indoor housing to function on the engine of the game as a whole. Anything that SE implements costs server space, and SE has mentioned before that having individual instances for every single player would eat up large amounts of data on their current architecture. This game was built on the remnants of a game engine designed to run 'smoothly' on a PS3. They wanted housing to be designed this way for a reason, and I'm sure they will do more when it becomes a viable option that doesn't cannibalize the future prospects of the game. Not everyone can have everything they want, players or devs. The devs may not always be right and as players it is our job to tell them we are not pleased, but I also feel we should give possible "band-aid" solutions that may help the game in the short term until they come to agree with us.

[Silverbane]

Even when I go out to make money, I barely generate a few hundred thousand a week.

Then you're doing it wrong. Level 88 crafting levequests alone can generate 400,000 gil a week, every week, guaranteed, in about 40 minutes (or 280,000 gil in 10 minutes, typically, if you don't craft your own turn-ins.)

[Aelin_Ashryver]

No need for relocators to get an advantage and I say this as one who had that advantage and used it in fcfs to get better small plots when I was in early days of my housing life.
When you are the one without a house and are at a plot, losing it because relocator had an advantage was shitty. It's not a nice feeling I wish on anyone.

The gil sink argument feels pretty weak sauce, I can make millions in a week. Is it 'fresh' currency? No. But tackling bots would do more to solve gil issues than changing housing rules would. For a player like me buying a mansion is not that difficult. Also shortening the lotto window just screws over people that cannot play as often.

The lottery is fair and the odds can suck, it is what is it. Deal with it or move to a server where your odds are better. If you are unwilling to do that it's understandable but also your choice, the new servers are very easy to get a house on if you really care about getting one.

[Shuuli]

I think the only change they should make is that if you have a house already you should not be able to enter another lottery with the same success percentage. Anything else seems fair.

[BRVV]

The cycle was chosen this long so that players that can't play every day have a chance of getting a house.

The whole "gil sink" stuff baffles me a bit. You do realize this isn't real currency? That we don't have to aggressively fight inflation of gil, right? You can get a lot of gil from npcs. Due to the rise in new players gil inflated anyway. All those precious gil you get from msq alone... But does it matter? The potion selling npc won't starve. The ONLY 2 things gil matters is are:
1. The maximum of gil. There is a limit of how much gil one player can posess
2. Pricing on the market board

Number 2 is in the controls of the players by the way (and sadly: bots)