Lottery is a joke.

[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.

[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.)

[Jojoya]

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.

Actually, A Realm Reborn was built on a new engine. This is something YoshiP has clarified many times. The "spaghetti code" that players always talk about has more to do with compromises SE had to make so the game would be PS3 compatible as they had promised it would be. PS3 support might have ended back in Stormblood but SE is still going through updating parts of the system that had been limited by it.

As for every player not being able to have a personal instance, this is demonstrably not true. Otherwise they would have never implemented solo duties, squadrons and Trust/Duty Support. Apartments would not be available for every player let alone every character like we have (unless you're on Balmung and that's a different issue) on top of every character being able to have a FC private chamber if they belong to a FC with a FC house. And we most definitely would not be getting Island Sanctuary in 2 weeks.

You're repeating misinformation that players personally invested in the ward system due to prestige, workshop farms or other reasons use to try to convince others that an improved instanced housing system is not possible.

None of the band-aids suggested by players have ended up improving the supply situation when SE has chosen to implement them. They all have come with their own set of problems. It makes no sense to continue slapping bandages on a wound that keeps bleeding instead of treating the wound so the bleeding will stop and healing can occur.

As for being a gil sink, I don't think you understand just how much gil is floating around out there. It's not just how much gil is currently being generated. It's all the gil generated in the past including the massive amounts of 1.0 gil that SE was never able to completely remove from the player economies along with gil earned by others who no longer play but had in various ways passed their gil to players that still do.

I've got enough more than enough gil on my account to purchase all 60 houses in a ward. I already have my one personal house on my dream plot (I would not relocate it to any other plot currently in the game) and one FC house that I'm not likely to be relocating even though it's just a small. Because I want other players to have the chance to enjoy house ownership, I make no attempt to purchase additional houses even though I easily could. So where's the gil sink for me with the current system?

There are other players that make me look like a penniless street beggar. They have multiple characters and retainers at gil cap. Where's the gil sink for them in the current system?

On the other hand, improve the instanced system so all my characters could have an instanced house or at least much larger apartment and I would be happy to spend a significant chunk of the gil I have getting them those houses. Improve the instanced system even farther so it's possible to have multiple houses per character like many of the other MMOs with instanced housing allow, and I would buy even more.

Now there's a gil sink.