For the love of god, add a priority system.

[Olivia0x25]

With the new lottery system, square enix basically emulated a section 8 / low-income housing... but worse.

The lottery system is a pain, and has actually INCREASED the pool of people to combat with trying to find a house (which aside tangent, housing SHOULD probably be more reserved for the players that dedicate all their time ON FFXIV, but that's besides the point) which is painful. The pool of maybe 20 people all clicking on a sign at the same time has increased (at least in balmung) to 1000-2000 people searching for a house.

It's fine if you're going to add a lottery system, but PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD add a priority system.

That way if you didn't get picked for housing one week, then you get placed in a pool of higher priority for the next week. That way if you KEEP losing the lottery, EVENTUALLY THROUGH ENOUGH SUFFERING, you will EVENTUALLY be guaranteed a house.

Like I fail to see how this wasn't thought about before implementing this system. Your chances of winning is stupidly low, that you're better off not bothering. At least with a priority system, You can get your hopes up and hopefully get it the next time with higher priority.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

The issue with a priority system is that's SE officially saying "this person's sub is worth more than that person's" which from a customer relations standpoint is suicide. Even if its based off of account age, you're effectively locking new players out, which means we will get fewer new players, which is how communities die.

[LilimoLimomo]

I'll agree that the current housing system still isn't great, even if (in my opinion) it's much better than it was before.

That said, I don't think your proposal makes it much better; it simply adjusts the system so that it's weighted a bit more towards a long-term "first come, first serve". Such a system would discourage newcomers from engaging with the system, as they would feel like they are at a disadvantage relative to those who have been trying longer. Personally, I don't think that's desirable; you want a lottery like this to feel as fair as possible to everyone who applies.

At the core, the improvements to this issue shouldn't be one of deciding who most deserves to get a house; rather, it should be recognizing that the demand outweighs the supply, and doing what's possible to increase the supply to meet the demand.

[Khryseis_Astra]

At the core, the improvements to this issue shouldn't be one of deciding who most deserves to get a house; rather, it should be recognizing that the demand outweighs the supply, and doing what's possible to increase the supply to meet the demand.

Agreed. I’m really hoping that the finale to Island Sanctuary will be some sort of “just off the main island” instanced housing plot, or that maybe whatever the mysterious new “lifestyle content” coming in 7.0 will be instanced housing. Because supply is the real problem, and they can only add so many wards.

At any rate, a priority system doesn’t really help much. If you’re bidding against, say, 100 people, only one wins and the other 99 are all going to have the same priority as you, because I doubt they would go into account age and such. I mean, some people take breaks and let their subs lapse, which SE encourages. So is your account age the very first day you started playing or the first day of your most recent sub? No matter how they do it, someone would be upset.

[Acesfool]

A priority system doesn't make any less sense than someone bidding dozens of times without winning only to have someone come along and win on their first try. The priority should not be based on sub time, it should be based on how many times you have placed a bid for a particular sized plot. People like me who will never, ever, under any circumstances, have a chance to win a random bid should be offered some form of hope.

[Jojoya]

With the new lottery system, square enix basically emulated a section 8 / low-income housing... but worse.

The lottery system is a pain, and has actually INCREASED the pool of people to combat with trying to find a house (which aside tangent, housing SHOULD probably be more reserved for the players that dedicate all their time ON FFXIV, but that's besides the point) which is painful. The pool of maybe 20 people all clicking on a sign at the same time has increased (at least in balmung) to 1000-2000 people searching for a house.

It's fine if you're going to add a lottery system, but PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD add a priority system.

That way if you didn't get picked for housing one week, then you get placed in a pool of higher priority for the next week. That way if you KEEP losing the lottery, EVENTUALLY THROUGH ENOUGH SUFFERING, you will EVENTUALLY be guaranteed a house.

Like I fail to see how this wasn't thought about before implementing this system. Your chances of winning is stupidly low, that you're better off not bothering. At least with a priority system, You can get your hopes up and hopefully get it the next time with higher priority.

I know this isn't what you want to hear but right now you're already guaranteed a house by doing one simple thing:

Transferring your character to one of the Dynamis worlds. There are plenty of houses still available.

Since you don't sound like the type willing to transfer your existing character or create a new character on one of the Dynamis worlds to buy a house, might as well move on.

Your priority suggestion won't do much either if you fighting against 1000 other players as you say. You'd be fighting against those 1000 players who likewise are already in the system and losing each week. Miss entering a week due to some real life issue and you're back to the bottom of the priority queue behind those 1000 other players. What then?

A priority system such as you propose makes your chances of getting a house no better than they currently are, or even worse because of the miss a week penalty.

The problem with the system is the static supply per world and it will remain a problem as long as SE cannot/will not make the supply flexible as demand on a world changes. IF players aren't willing to go to the worlds that have houses available, then they'll have to take their chances along with everyone else trying to get a house on their home world.

Agreed. I’m really hoping that the finale to Island Sanctuary will be some sort of “just off the main island” instanced housing plot, or that maybe whatever the mysterious new “lifestyle content” coming in 7.0 will be instanced housing. Because supply is the real problem, and they can only add so many wards.

I'd say we can safely eliminate a housing plot on Island Sanctuary as a possibility since we've got the 6.5 patch notes now and the special site says this patch is the culmination of the Island Sanctuary efforts.

I don't feel like the mystery "lifestyle content" coming in Dawntrail will have it, either. If they were close to having an instanced housing system ready for release (with "close to" meaning they know it would be ready for release at any point in 7.x), they would have no reason to be mysterious about it and plenty of reason to be upfront about it (like getting upset players off their back about housing).

[Battler-Ushiromiya]

The issue with a priority system is that's SE officially saying "this person's sub is worth more than that person's"

Mine IS worth more, that's why I have two houses.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I'd say we can safely eliminate a housing plot on Island Sanctuary as a possibility since we've got the 6.5 patch notes now and the special site says this patch is the culmination of the Island Sanctuary efforts.

I don't feel like the mystery "lifestyle content" coming in Dawntrail will have it, either. If they were close to having an instanced housing system ready for release (with "close to" meaning they know it would be ready for release at any point in 7.x), they would have no reason to be mysterious about it and plenty of reason to be upfront about it (like getting upset players off their back about housing).

Wishful thinking on my part I know, but I still hold out a tiny bit of hope yet… lol we know this is it, but it could be a nice surprise! Not everything makes it into the patch notes. And if an instanced plot ended up being the same as a ward plot, they wouldn’t need any new interfaces to explain, it would just be a quest to unlock.

As for not being upfront about it, sometimes I’m surprised by what they think is a big deal to players. The question at Fan Fest springs to mind, about how surprised they were that we would want more pasture space for the animals. So do they really get how upset people are with housing? Or do they just think, they wanted a lotto, they got it, that’s fine, let’s work on something else? lol

[Acesfool]

I know this isn\\'t what you want to hear but right now you\\'re already guaranteed a house by doing one simple thing:

Transferring your character to one of the Dynamis worlds. There are plenty of houses still available.

Since you don\\'t sound like the type willing to transfer your existing character or create a new character on one of the Dynamis worlds to buy a house, might as well move on

I'm pretty tired of people suggesting this. For starters, you're not guaranteed a house that way, except maybe a small. And I put in the time to have enough gil to buy any size house I want. Why should I be expected to leave my FC and friends to get it?

[LilimoLimomo]

And I put in the time to have enough gil to buy any size house I want.

It's unfortunate that the housing system is communicated so poorly to players when they're first learning about it. I've seen so many people thinking that if they just get enough money to buy a house, they can get one. Then they finally get the money and think they're at the finish line, only to slam face-first into the reality that they haven't even started the race yet. Definitely a bummer.