Housing: Purchase Timer - Alternative Idea

[Levin_Azure]

I recently tried purchasing a plot in the goblet, and sat there for a few hours on end despite telling myself I wouldn't do it. I had some alone time to watch videos on a second monitor while occasionally checking, but whenever people arrived, it was click fest and nothing else. One of the bigger problems I was faced with was people with their friends/FC members coming over to muscle in, troll, and do whatever to drive others away (Jumping all around, trying to instigate conversation to distract, going out to advertise the plot) Another problem is you and 10 others could be sitting there for 10 hours, and someone else who decided they wanted to relocate could do it right then and there, erasing those 10 hours you spent mindlessly clicking. I'm not trying to advocate for the lottery system again in specific, but I'm begging SE on a fix for this, anything but this. I blame myself for subjecting myself to this, but is it really too much to ask for a house for my FC? <w>;

[Raenori]

Camped 4 different houses for 12 hours or more over the last week only to see them get snagged by real estate sellers and reposted in the housing Discords within 20 minutes of being bought.

Something has to change with the system. The current lottery doesn't help do anything but force an all out spam war to an unhealthy level and the houses still get sniped by real estate flippers with multiple alts and accounts.

[Jojoya]

As people have said over and over, the issue is the lack of available housing on the high pop worlds and not the timer. A lottery system is not going to be any better than the current timer system. Both come down to chance - either you're at the placard and clicking it at the right moment to make the purchase instead of the other 20 people standing there or you get lucky and your "ticket" is the one drawn over the hundreds of others.

You're not going to feel any better when you still don't have a house under a lottery system and you're going to feel worse when it's still the house flipper that managed to win since they're equally eligible for the lottery on their multiple accounts and multiple alts running multiple FCs so they had more tickets in the drawing to start with.

People need to stop dreaming up ways to "game" the current system. Instead, focus efforts on convincing SE to create a new system where every who wants a house can get one.

[Penthea]

The placard spam is a huge problem. It encourages - on certain servers, requires - an extremely unhealthy, mentally draining playstyle, for the exact same results as a lottery would provide.

The placard spam is a symptom of another problem. It's a symptom of extreme housing shortage. That the placards are not much of an issue on servers with constant housing availability supports this. They're mainly a problem where there far more aspiring home owners than houses. So logically the way to tackle this is to have more houses. Lottery will have literally zero effect on the amount of houses in the game, which means it will have literally zero effect on the actual root of the problem that lead to OP making this thread.

Complaining about the placards and wanting to tackle only them is like being stuck in a traffic jam due to broken traffic lights but you're mad at the car in front of you instead of the traffic lights that you know are broken.

If the car in front of you magically disappears, oh look there's another car that was in front of that so you still can't drive away. If you remove the placard system and replace it with lottery, oh look you still have to rely on rng for the same amount of houses in the game.

Focusing so much on the placard is incredibly short-sighted.

People need to stop dreaming up ways to "game" the current system. Instead, focus efforts on convincing SE to create a new system where every who wants a house can get one.

Exactly.

[El_Brujo]

Just came back from a 3 years break! And i been reading how bad is the housing system in the game.

I’ve started to look for a house in gilgamesh a over populated server where 3 houses open up in 3 weeks spam, 2 in the goblets and the last one was in lavenders beds in a nice spot so of course i went to camp that one along with others 3 more ppl camping there. The house was up for sale for about 4 before the first devaluation price comes up so i did spam buy it for about 1 hour them i took a break to make dinner when i came back I clicked buy and boom i own the house!!!! It took me about 2 hours to own a house on first attempt.

All i can say it suck some ppl sit here for a whole day while others in matter of minutes can buy a house which is not fair to the community.

[MizArai]

All i can say it suck some ppl sit here for a whole day while others in matter of minutes can buy a house which is not fair to the community.

I looked up the definition of fair. Marked by impartiality and honesty; free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism. The system is "fair". Everyone has the same access to the same plots. It doesn't matter if you stood there for hours or you just walked up, you have the same chance. Though in all honesty, the system was actually more fair before the current rules and RNG. But everyone complained about how awful the previous system was, and we got the current system, which is worse imo. The only real fix is for there to be a better system in place where everyone who wants a house can buy one. No waiting for some random, unseen timer, just walk up and buy something. It would probably have to be an instanced system, since adding more and more wards just isn't really a feasible system.

[Brynne]

People need to stop dreaming up ways to "game" the current system. Instead, focus efforts on convincing SE to create a new system where every who wants a house can get one.

Although I agree with you, I can definitely see why people would like some kind of quick fix that at least eases their difficulty. The descriptions of standing and clicking for hours on end make me wince. It's not hard to understand why they want something - anything - that gives them a chance at a house without that dreadful experience. So I have a lot of empathy for those calling for the lottery fix. It's pretty easy to say "y'know logically that's not a fix and won't improve anything, might actually make things worse" when you're not the one spending hours clicking on a plot only to lose it.

If SE is working on a long-term solution to housing, they need to ACTUALLY SAY SO, because right now it looks like there's no hope for those people and they're getting increasingly frustrated. At least if they knew something was in the works, they'd have that to look forward to. We can stand here and argue about it all day but the fact of the matter is that this is an untenable situation and something needs to change. If SE is not planning to make proper fixes to houses any time soon, our time is better spent discussing small improvements they can implement instead. And if they do have something in the works, they need to say so. I know they like to keep things secret in order to make big announcements, but even just a short dev response to this thread (or any other housing complaint) saying something like "hey we're planning some housing changes that will improve things, please hold out a little longer" would really help ease people's frustration right about now.

Disclaimer: I'm not arguing for lottery. But it'd be nice to see something offered as an alternative besides "please rework housing from the ground up". My suggestion would be to put access to features like airships somewhere other than housing so that homeless FCs can at least start to work on that if they wish (and it might free up a few plots, who knows).

[Penthea]

Though in all honesty, the system was actually more fair before the current rules and RNG. But everyone complained about how awful the previous system was, and we got the current system, which is worse imo.

How was the old system better? Before the random timer so many were buying houses with the sole intention of selling them off for several times their price. I have looked on the housing market forums at the prices and on some servers cottages were going for 30 million. And that was just the fee for them to demolish the house. You had to pay the fee the placard asked for on top of that. How is this much better than placard spam? Most players don't even have half that gil. This often drove players to use RMT to get enough gil. There was also no protection from getting scammed because by reporting the scam you would be also admitting that you were violating the ToS by attempting to buy a house from a player instead of the placard. It was awful. The annoying placard system we have now was introduced because of this.

At least now because of the placard timer most people who are trying to buy a house are doing so because they actually want the house. Not because they want to sell it off for a gigantic profit and take advantage of other players, and make them consider risking their account by not only purchasing from a player but also using RMT to be able to afford the house. This is a small comfort to those who still have no house I know. But at least you don't have to worry about the placard scamming you out of 10+ million gil.

The old system was bad and the current system is bad. They're both horrendously bad, just for different reasons.

The only real fix is for there to be a better system in place where everyone who wants a house can buy one. No waiting for some random, unseen timer, just walk up and buy something. It would probably have to be an instanced system, since adding more and more wards just isn't really a feasible system.

I completely agree. Even with the part about adding more wards because frankly the ward system is silly. Having a limited amount of slots for content is never a good thing. Housing should have been completely instanced from the beginning. Everyone could have as many houses as they want, whatever house they want, wherever they want, buy whenever they want and demolition timers wouldn't exist. It could have been wonderful.

But at this point it would be shocking if SE were to do an overhaul. If they really wanted to they would have done so several years ago. So the most we can hope for is things like more wards, more tenancy slots, etc.

Honestly unless we get proper instanced housing there will always be players are unfairly left out. There is literally no incarnation of the ward system that can ensure equal treatment and opportunity to all.

[MizArai]

How was the old system better? Before the random timer so many were buying houses with the sole intention of selling them off for several times their price. I have looked on the housing market forums at the prices and some servers cottages were going for 30 million. And that was just the fee for them to demolish the house. You had to pay the fee the placard asked for on top of that. How is this much better than placard spam? Most players don't even have half that gil. This often drove players to use RMT to get enough gil. There was also no protection from getting scammed because by reporting the scam you would be also admitting that you were violating the ToS by attempting to buy a house from a player instead of the placard. It was awful. The annoying placard system we have now was introduced because of this.

At least now because of the placard timer most people who are trying to buy a house are doing so because they actually want the house. Not because they want to sell it off for a gigantic profit and take advantage of other players, and make them consider risking their account by not only purchasing from a player but also using RMT to be able to afford the house. This is a small comfort to those who still have no house I know. But at least you don't have to worry about the placard scamming you out of 10+ million gil.

The old system was bad and the current system is bad. They're both horrendously bad, just for different reasons.

People are still buying and selling houses for profit. They can only sell to relocators now or sell whole FCs with a house attached. The only thing this system changed was who can buy the house. I don't see how changing the system so that it's harder for people to buy their first house helps anyone. Because that's all the current system has done is make it harder for a new player to buy their first house. Anyone with a house can walk up and relocate, by passing the random timer. So house selling is still very much a thing, and usually still for very inflated prices. So, I call the old system better. With everything else equal, at least with the old system a new person could buy a house from a re-seller or walk up to a plot and instantly buy it without sitting for an undetermined amount of time placard spamming only to lose the house to either a relocator or someone else spamming the placard as well.

To me, the only reason the old system was bad was because of the limited numbers of houses (which is still a huge problem). If everyone could walk up and buy a house somewhere, then reselling would (mostly) die off, since there wouldn't be a need for it (other than preferred plots, certain mediums and larges throughout the wards).

[Penthea]

People are still buying and selling houses for profit. They can only sell to relocators now or sell whole FCs with a house attached.So house selling is still very much a thing, and usually still for very inflated prices. So, I call the old system better.

Never said house flipping is gone. But it has been dramatically reduced. I still look at those housing market forums out of curiosity and I can tell you that they're significantly less active now than before 4.2. The placard system is an imperfect solution. Like all the features of the housing system to be honest.

The only thing this system changed was who can buy the house. I don't see how changing the system so that it's harder for people to buy their first house helps anyone. Because that's all the current system has done is make it harder for a new player to buy their first house. Anyone with a house can walk up and relocate, by passing the random timer.

But it was super difficult to get your first house before anyway. I don't know why you have this idea it was easier before. You actually see more plots free now because the placard is preventing purchase usually for several hours. Before those plots would have been snapped up within minutes of becoming available and you may never know they were unclaimed at all.

You probably think the current system is worse because now you see free plots you can't get, whereas before you may just not have seen any free plots because you missed the tiny window where they were unclaimed.

I completely disagree with a system that makes it difficult to buy a house, but I also completely disagree with the idea that the old system was better. It was not. It was very easily and regularly abused.

At least with the old system a new person could buy a house from a re-seller or walk up to a plot and instantly buy it without sitting for an undetermined amount of time placard spamming only to lose the house to either a relocator or someone else spamming the placard as well.

If your sole concern of the entire system is the placard, then yes that is better. But if you have other concerns such as not wanting to engage in activity that is against the ToS that could get your account banned (yes house flipping as a buyer or seller is against that), being able to get enough gil to satisfy an asking price that is several times the actual price of the plot, and then not getting scammed by the seller...then no, it's not a better system.