Housing Roulette was an absolute trash idea.

[Renathras]

I guess my issue here with all these complaints is three-fold:

1) You don't like the lottery system but preferred having to log on as soon as the servers were up and stay online for 18 hours clicking a placard hoping you'd be the one to click it when its timer opened for sale despite being surrounded by a dozen bots and a half-dozen other players, and if you got up to get a drink or go to the bathroom and it opened right then, you lost it and all those hours were totally wasted? That was a better system?

2) People saying they can't get a house when what they mean is they can't get a Medium or a Large, or even worse, when they have a Medium or a Large, it's just not the specific one they wanted - they and everyone else.

3) People insisting that instanced housing is the solution. Not only would it not work with the server architecture - as many have mentioned - but it wouldn't scratch the itch. People wanting specific houses with specific views as "their" house? But if they were instanced, how would that work? Your specific plot house would have to look like every other, there'd be no exterior customization since the exterior wouldn't be instanced. Or if it was like Island Sanctuary where you teleport to it, then you'd be stuck with the ONE view and ONE location that is given. Maybe your favorite house is plot X of housing district Y, but instanced housing wouldn't give you that. It would be either you teleport directly into your house from an NPC, and thus have no exterior to do anything with, or the housing districts would exist, it'd just be one district for show and you'd go to the door of your uncustomizable exterior to zone into the interior just like you do with Apartments. Ignoring all the technical issues involved, that's still not a system people wanting housing would be happy with or want.

.

As further problems, note that housing is kind of a niche thing. Despite some people saying it's one of the "main draws" of the game, I think is how it was worded, that's ridiculous. That'd be like saying PvP is one of the main draws to the game. While these things have their devouts, neither is a core component or crux of the game. Certainly not to the level of spending the resources on them that people are proposing to "fix" the problem - which again, likely wouldn't work anyway. They shouldn't throw half the game's budget into fixing a problem that affects probably less than 10% of the playerbase. Especially since they've already created some options (such as Apartments and FC Chambers) and the complaints are people wanting not only specific sizes but also specific plots, which nothing short of making thousands of Wards would actually solve.

People can get housing. They can't get the specific housing they want guaranteed. That's a problem that will exist until there is unlimited housing. Instanced housing won't solve that, and is likely far to expensive vs the small size of the housing community. Any other fix would likely cause even more alienation. Reducing housing to 1 per person would create alts to get around (though I think that restricting it to 1 per person/FC going forward would be wise), and likewise, they could make housing FC only, but then you'd have 1 person FCs unless there was also some requirement there that it be over a certain size, then you'd be alienating small family FCs. You could limit people allowed to buy to having played the game for so long, but not only would that be arbitrary by definition (shall we start with ARR? Shall contests always be "whoever's character was created earlier"? I bet I have most of you beat starting in 2014...), it would alienate new players and prevent them from getting a house through no fault of their own.

No matter how they do it, there's no GOOD solution, and any solution they employ is going to harm and alienate people. That's why they stick with the status quo since it probably is harming the fewest people, probably is the least taxing on the servers and game back-end, and because the inertia of "this is how it is" means people who are harmed aren't as angry as they would be if they were harmed by a new system - where they would blame the new system. We already see that with this thread. Tons of you who lost the lottery would also have lost the placard war. Instead of realizing that, you blame the new system as if the old one would have done you better. If they make any change, especially sweeping changes, and it didn't work, then people would be blaming the new system - rightly or wrongly - for their misfortune instead of chalking it up to the status quo.

They should introduce a Sharlyan themed Aetheric hydroponic planter so people can use those in Apartments and call it a day. And they shouldn't make ANYTHING IN THE GAME exclusive to airship or sub missions or needing an FC workship unless Apartment owners can commission those. It'd be better for those to simply allow more gathering of the materials, not exclusive access to them.

[Reinha]

1) You don't like the lottery system but preferred having to log on as soon as the servers were up and stay online for 18 hours clicking a placard hoping you'd be the one to click it when its timer opened for sale despite being surrounded by a dozen bots and a half-dozen other players, and if you got up to get a drink or go to the bathroom and it opened right then, you lost it and all those hours were totally wasted? That was a better system?

Yes. You didn't mention the positives of the system, such as fcs having priority for a few weeks to get the bigger houses they want instead of these empty fc wards full of smalls that nobody is bidding on. Or the fact that you couldn't use alts to improve your odds because alts can't be logged in at the same time. Or the fact that when new wards were released there was no RNG involved and you would just buy a plot if you were there first. Or the fact that if you managed to get any plot you could relocate easily instead of being stuck in a region you dislike.

[LianaThorne]

Yes. You didn't mention the positives of the system, such as fcs having priority for a few weeks to get the bigger houses they want instead of these empty fc wards full of smalls that nobody is bidding on. Or the fact that you couldn't use alts to improve your odds because alts can't be logged in at the same time. Or the fact that when new wards were released there was no RNG involved and you would just buy a plot if you were there first. Or the fact that if you managed to get any plot you could relocate easily instead of being stuck in a region you dislike.

1. FCFS only benefits those who are able to wake up at 4 AM and have a powerful PC. Yes it's more convienent to have FCFS so you can just go boop and placard and be done with it but it also enables those who bot to just teleport there and buy them before other people even load in.

2. If we're gonna have instant relocation then it absolutely can't be attached to placard spamming because it's an actual kick in the face to those trying to win the plot to have some random come up and take it like that, coming from someone who used to do it often. The housing system back then encouraged it.

Reverting back to the old ways is not going to fix any problems and forcing people to sit at a placard for hours to have a chance at housing is ridiculous. At least everyone has the same chance to win it and isn't stuck fighting auto-clickers or dealing with people sniping a plot because they want to move for the 10th time that month. (calling myself out here lol)