Such devastation... this was NOT my intention...

[GeminiReed]

In the end, supply is the problem. SE can keep juggling purchase changes all they want but it won't fix anything. Resellers will always find a way to exploit the system for profit as long as anything comes in a limited quantity. Even if SE was able to expand wards on demand as each world needed more housing, the limited number of more desirable plots would keep the resellers very happy.

I had some grand plans for my original house but that rapidly fell apart for a variety of reasons and have since let it auto-demo. My second one is for whenever I get the building itch. That one's in a great spot in the Mist so IS would have to be something super special for me to consider letting it go. Believe me I dislike feeling beholden to sub just to keep it so there's some motivation to find a replacement.

I wonder how much of the supply problem is due to the gating of gardening, workshops, aetherial wheels, airships, and subs. Decoupling those from ward housing seems like a ridiculously easy way to reduce demand. Hopefully Island Sanctuary takes care of plot gardening. All the guild workshop features could be made available if they'd repurpose an unused door near the GC's space for FC's without housing that leads to a workshop.

Because of the gating I'm going to be part of the problem. I'll be on the lookout for a small for one or more of my alt-FC's just to gain access to those features.

[Brightamethyst]

Considering some wards sold out within minutes, before people could even get through the login queues I'm not sure how this is worse. More people will have a chance, and that's more than what could be said before. RNG is still RNG, this time tho, it's not the login queue screwing you over.

Yeah. Without the lottery it's basically a guarantee that every single large and medium, and most of the smalls as well, would be gone within 5 minutes of servers coming back up. Anyone who thinks camping out and praying to the gods of RNG and login queues in the middle of the night is more fair is than a lottery is kidding themselves.

[Vahlnir]

Yeah. Without the lottery it's basically a guarantee that every single large and medium, and most of the smalls as well, would be gone within 5 minutes of servers coming back up. Anyone who thinks camping out and praying to the gods of RNG and login queues in the middle of the night is more fair is than a lottery is kidding themselves.

A lottery might be more fair, but that doesn't make it a good system at all. The chances of getting a house are already pretty slim. They are about to go even lower with a lottery because the competition is going to be even more fierce. I'm not saying what we had or have is a great system though. All of them have been terrible. It's just going to get so much worse is unless they can address the supply issue or provide true instanced housing. It's pretty sad when most free to play games handle housing better.

[van_arn]

My issue with the current system is it encourages an unhealthy playstyle of clicking on placards.

The announced changes are an excellent step in the right direction.

I wish they were more restrictive at an account level for estate ownership, but I'm not going to throw out changes because they're not exactly what I want when they're still a step in the right direction.

[Divinemights]

My issue with the current system is it encourages an unhealthy playstyle of clicking on placards.

The announced changes are an excellent step in the right direction.

I wish they were more restrictive at an account level for estate ownership, but I'm not going to throw out changes because they're not exactly what I want when they're still a step in the right direction.

In 2022, you are going to see people wishing this lottery system was never in place

[van_arn]

In 2022, you are going to see people wishing this lottery system was never in place

Of course, people will be furious they "never get a house." Which is going to happen anyway with a highly-contested limited resource.

The difference is people will eventually no longer have an option to stare at a placard and click it for up to 24 hours, and that's a good change for the game.

I'd be fine with SE forcibly removing housing from multi-estate owners, multi server/dc-estate owners, and "trickle activity" owners. Those can wait for now, but the relocation and transfer limitations will put a good damper some of those players anyway.

[Dhalya]

The biggest issue is that it becomes so convenient and easy that everyone will join the lotteries, making it much harder for people that really care about this content, we can already see at least 40% of houses being empty-ish or with few quest rewarded furniture thrown around randomly... so yeah not too happy about this

[linayar]

A lottery might be more fair, but that doesn't make it a good system at all. The chances of getting a house are already pretty slim. They are about to go even lower with a lottery because the competition is going to be even more fierce. I'm not saying what we had or have is a great system though. All of them have been terrible. It's just going to get so much worse is unless they can address the supply issue or provide true instanced housing. It's pretty sad when most free to play games handle housing better.

It may be lower chance, or not, depending on the number of people actually wanting a specific house as you can only choose one house at a time. At the very least, you don't have to continually click on that placard.

Also, there will be wards where the current system still exist for those who prefer that method of first click (during availability) first serve.

[Xirean]

The biggest issue is that it becomes so convenient and easy that everyone will join the lotteries, making it much harder for people that really care about this content, we can already see at least 40% of houses being empty-ish or with few quest rewarded furniture thrown around randomly... so yeah not too happy about this

More people being able to try housing sounds like a good thing.

[Epowerj]

I have mixed feelings about the new system. On one hand, we won't need to click for 12 hours for a chance at a house. On the other hand, the system is now based entirely on luck while at the same time making housing much easier to try for, meaning that there will be a lot more competition. Also, it doesn't completely get rid of bots. A botter could still create a couple dozen alts that each put in their bid for the house, use that house as a FC house, then sell the FC.


In truth, I don't think any system would help the housing situation. As long as there are more people who want a house than there are houses, there will always be a housing shortage. No matter the housing system, getting a house would need to either be gated on luck, time investment, or gil. Or maybe FC size.
The only real solution is to increase the the amount of available houses.