Housing Lottery Needs some adjustments

[TAS]

There never was a ticket #0 as a winner. We got the in depth explanation of what happened. The winner information didn't correctly transfer from the lottery server to the housing servers and so the system displayed 0 as a default.

Just as you have your anecdotal evidence that it's always a late bidder to wins, I have my anecdotal evidence that it's the early bidder who wins. It's random. It's easy to get suspicious when you're never the winner but that doesn't mean there's something wrong with how the lottery functions.

The "wrong" is in how the housing system was designed so there are never enough of the plots players want to own, leading many to end up bidding on the same plot whether they are a current owner trying to get a better plot, or someone trying to get their first house. Even if there were enough plots for every player to have a house, there would still be players fighting over the more desirable plots and some complaining about how they never win.

The "0 bid winner" example was meant to show that, upon implementation, the lottery system had a critical flaw. Yeah, the servers on their end showed an actual winner, but until it was reflected on our housing servers, the players who had the winning numbers had zero confirmation and zero access.

Thankfully that issue got resolve, but that doesn't mean players, whether they win or not, should be dumped on if they question or speculate that something else could potentially be bugged in the system. After that fix, we never got a (We've continued to observe our lottery system and after tracking the last several cycles, we can confirm everything is working as intended) We just assumed because, so long as someone puts in a bid and winner is able to claim, who cares?

Yes, players who say they've noticed a pattern in lottery winners is purely anecdotal. But, in that regard, so are players who say the RNG system is working as intended. Only a FFXIV DEV can definitively answer that question.

[Jojoya]

Yes, players who say they've noticed a pattern in lottery winners is purely anecdotal. But, in that regard, so are players who say the RNG system is working as intended. Only a FFXIV DEV can definitively answer that question.

And I'm certain they've kept an eye on it since that original critical flaw.

People spend way too much time worrying about things that more often than not are working as intended simply because they need to feel victimized since they aren't getting what they want.

How many times does it need to be repeated: the lottery is not the problem, the limiting ward system is. SE could remove the lottery and implement some other new purchase system but we'll continue to have the same problems when there are not enough houses for every player and FC.

[Ayan_Calvesse]

And I'm certain they've kept an eye on it since that original critical flaw.

People spend way too much time worrying about things that more often than not are working as intended simply because they need to feel victimized since they aren't getting what they want.

How many times does it need to be repeated: the lottery is not the problem, the limiting ward system is. SE could remove the lottery and implement some other new purchase system but we'll continue to have the same problems when there are not enough houses for every player and FC.

I don't think its that simple; the player base will always demand more - just look at ward 25 and how many empty plots there are? I feel that the housing ward volume is fine if/when SE enforces their own housing vision as what most assume was the intention (1 personal 1 FC) then we can see something closer to the actual numbers. The next step would be probably to look at the distribution of housing - as it stands I think you would agree on our DC Balmung is probably the hardest to attain housing on; while it seems Zalera/Goblin are the easiest based on the bidding patterns we are seeing.

[Seraphor]

I don't think its that simple; the player base will always demand more - just look at ward 25 and how many empty plots there are? I feel that the housing ward volume is fine if/when SE enforces their own housing vision as what most assume was the intention (1 personal 1 FC) then we can see something closer to the actual numbers. The next step would be probably to look at the distribution of housing - as it stands I think you would agree on our DC Balmung is probably the hardest to attain housing on; while it seems Zalera/Goblin are the easiest based on the bidding patterns we are seeing.

They've explained before that they can't add different amounts of wards to different servers based on population or behaviours. And they shouldn't, because that just reinforces them being high pop servers, which goes against all measures to get players to move to the least populated servers.
Players need to stop treating Balmung as the only server worth RPing on.

[Pablomaldito]

I don't think its that simple; the player base will always demand more - just look at ward 25 and how many empty plots there are?

Demanding more is a reasonable response to something that is consistently undersupplied.

What are you trying to prove with a comment about an FC only ward? Yeah, Ward 25 still has empty plots, but it isn't going to last long. The much larger supply of FC only houses from the Empyreum launch filled up completely within several months. It's only going to be a few more lottery rounds before the door closes once again on guaranteed houses for new FCs.

[TAS]

How many times does it need to be repeated: the lottery is not the problem, the limiting ward system is. SE could remove the lottery and implement some other new purchase system but we'll continue to have the same problems when there are not enough houses for every player and FC.

Until someone other than another player who doesn't work for Development staff answers the feedback? ¯し(ツ)_/¯

[Frizze]

Until someone other than another player who doesn't work for Development staff answers the feedback? ¯し(ツ)_/¯

So until the game goes offline forever. Got it.

[Jojoya]

Until someone other than another player who doesn't work for Development staff answers the feedback? ¯し(ツ)_/¯

So what major title has developers answering player feedback in the forums, on reddit, etc. on a regular basis?

None that I know of. They have the developers working on development of the game instead. Even when they have Community Managers occasionally responding on their behalf, that response is rarely enough to satisfy the players since the Community Managers can only relay what brief messages they've been handed by the developers. Players always want to know more.

And of course players who start the game months after a response that are having the same issues won't know that the player base was already given some sort of answer. Those questions will come right back up again.