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

[Xirean]

About the only thing I find myself agreeing with you on, at least somewhat, is on some of the drawbacks that come with a lottery system. I won't touch anything else with a ten foot pole. But yeah, people have been asking for it, and I have said time and again...be careful what you wish for. Now that it is actually upon us I almost hate being right. Almost. I think more than anything I feel vindicated. lol It's going to be just as bad as I imagined, maybe even worse.

It's a new system that they have openly discussed that they would watch to see how well it does or doesn't work. Why all the doom and gloom?

[Vahlnir]

It's a new system that they have openly discussed that they would watch to see how well it does or doesn't work. Why all the doom and gloom?

You will see.

[lezard21]

even then an auto clicker will do nothing, new wards have no random timer...

I'm not talking about the lottery wards nor new wards. I'm talking about first come first serve once a plot gets autodemolished or relinquished.

Now without the fear of someone relocating and setting up a vendor 100% of the PC audience will be using autoclickers for this since winning via the lottery wards will be near impossible.

Thus console gamers are guaranteed to never be able to get a house once these changes hit live. Might as well completely remove access to housing wards from console and reduce the game file size.

[Sotaris]

It's a new system that they have openly discussed that they would watch to see how well it does or doesn't work. Why all the doom and gloom?

Must be new here.

People said same thing when the invisble timer was introduced years ago. And now you hear complaints nonstop and bots increasing cause of it.

While bots likely won't increase for a lottery it really a shit system both on paper and practise. Have fun competing with a new different type of RNG and 100s of people standing in line to get a house.

[lezard21]

While bots likely won't increase for a lottery

They won't increase for lottery, but 100% of PC players will now be using autoclickers for relinquished/autodemolished first come first serve plots since they are removing the ability to enforce player justice.

[Naizakane]

Housing lotteries will take the same time investment as weekly Cactpot, calling it wasteful/disrespectful is just complaning for the sake of it.

[Saraide]

I'm all for the lottery plots honestly. Will more people make an attempt to buy a house now, making the chances of winning the lottery small? Absolutely. Did you have a chance without basically giving up playing the game at all under the old system? Absolutely not. This will show the true amount of people who want to buy a house and give everyone a fair chance.

[Fyce]

1. The lottery system they've announced isn't weighted. If you thought it was difficult to get a plot now, have fun being lost in the new system. Your time investment, the time spent to earn the gil and the time spent in the lottery system (counting consecutive lottery's here; as you will lose) will not be compensated in any way, and will only be further trivialized by their other design decisions here. Assuming the roll will be purely random, your chances of winning will only be limited by the amount of users signing up for a plot ( and there will be plenty ). This will leave many players stuck in the lottery loop for a long time. Under the current system, the time you spend at the plot actually increases your chances (albeit, you are unable to play the game [which as I've stated before was the main issue with the current system; but STILL your chances were weighted by time; thereby involving SOME player agency]).

You are currently competing against bots and autoclickers, having to invest hours of active time just to get a chance at clicking faster than an automated software. You're already more likely to lose, and also lose every active hours you had to put in.
At least, the new lottery system only requires a few minutes of active time for you to participate in, and then forget about it until it's time to claim your Gil back and try for a new spot.

Yes, some people will be unlucky and won't get a house. But that's bound to happen with literally every system until there's enough houses for everyone. Even a weighted lottery.

2. The lottery process for individual plots will take DAYS. (WHY???) The window for plot availability was already a lengthy one in the current system. According to the latest devlog, it will take days for a plot to pop in the new lottery system. Why? There's no feasible technical reason. It's just another arbitrary trivialization of player time.

To prevent people being in a rush, while also making sure that everyone who participate for a plot is commited.
Let's also mention the fact that it makes less attractive spots more desirable, as less people will participate on them because of the high commitment required to participate in a lottery. That gives less picky players a better chance at getting a house if they don't care which spot to aim for.

3. You're locked in to a plot once you submit your gil. (WHY???) To prevent foul play? What logical foul play does this prevent... I understand the decision to limit a player to one plot lottery per time. But why would they be unable to withdraw their participation at any point before the winner announcement? They're forcing players to commit their real world time investment, that has already consisted of days, into a decision that will take DAYS. Why would players be arbitrarily denied flexibility in such a decision? How sadistically do they want this process to mimic reality?

One lottery per player is to make everyone on the same level in terms of chances. It's also to make people commited to a plot.
The reason why you cannot withdraw is again for the commitment you take by making that decision, but more importantly to avoid multiple players participating just to scare competition away, only to withdraw at the last second because their objective was only to help one single friend to get that spot.

4. They've stated that they're still debating the decision to implement a lottery system, and that they will have the option to assign it individually per ward. If you didn't need any more confirmation that this is a flaccid, un-thought out decision, here it is. They've literally put design decisions, that influence the gating of arguably one of the best systems in the game behind a monumental time investment, on the backburner and have simply made last minute concessions. Completely unacceptable.

It's clearly not a system designed in a hurry. It prevents a lot of what makes the current system bad (house flipping, RMT, unfair advantages, etc.).
The only reason why they are thinking about not implementing it to all wards is simply because they are wondering if they want everyone to be on an equal footing, or if it would be beneficial to keep the unbalanced system for the people who enjoy it.
The lottery would then become the "last chance" system that would still allow a few to get a shot at it.

5. The final and most egregious decision imho, is that home owners will be unable to bypass the housing timer with relocation as per the launch of 6.0. What. WHY???. Why arbitrarily penalize already existing home owners! The decision to relocate doesn't lower the housing supply... It is used much less for house flipping vs. FC ownership.... Why throw this nonsensical decision in? Not all organized house purchasing is detrimental to the community. What of friends and guildmates who want to be neighbors? No more. Just an absurd limitation, inconsequential to the root problem.

Bypassing the timer by relocating allows you to buy a house just to relocate. It's basically an exploit of the system that doesn't really make any sense in a design perspective.
Also, the relocation bypass gives house owners an advantage above people who don't have a house. So, if you don't have a house... well, you don't have a house, but ontop of that, someone who is already priviledged can snatch a spot you were looking forward to try to get. How much more miserable do you want people without a house to be?
Keeping that unfair system just for the few people who want to be neightbors is detrimental to a majority of unfortunate homeless players.
Just be happy to at least have a house when hundreds of players don't.

[Jojoya]

Valkyrie pointed out the removal of the random timer which settles that. That was indeed said. But yeah, they are still working out the details.

Nothing was said in the Live Letter about the random timer being removed. It's the land devaluation timer that's being removed in 6.1.

It would make no sense to have FCFS wards without the random timer because that would be a field day for resellers just as it was back pre-4.1.

It's a new system that they have openly discussed that they would watch to see how well it does or doesn't work. Why all the doom and gloom?

Why would you expect there to be sunshine and happiness when all we're getting is a fresh layer of whitewash over the problems with the system instead of repairs to the deteriorating structure?

None of the changes address the real problem with the wards - lack of supply.

There will still be players unable to get a house because even with the addition of Ishgard, supply isn't even close to the size of the player base. On the other hand, SE is continuing to allow players to purchase and own multiple houses per account (they just need to be purchased on different worlds). Each house over one owned by a single player represents a player that will never get a house.

The changes may limit the ways reselling can occur but they do not stop resellers. An exploit has already been found that negates any benefit from the new rule regarding purchase permissions for new members.

As long as there are any FCFS wards, players will feel forced to placard camp to improve their chances of getting a house. Lottery wards may be just one entry per lottery period but there is no such restriction on the FCFS wards that can offer multiple purchase opportunities per lottery period.

[Brightamethyst]

3. You're locked in to a plot once you submit your gil. (WHY???) To prevent foul play? What logical foul play does this prevent... I understand the decision to limit a player to one plot lottery per time. But why would they be unable to withdraw their participation at any point before the winner announcement? They're forcing players to commit their real world time investment, that has already consisted of days, into a decision that will take DAYS. Why would players be arbitrarily denied flexibility in such a decision? How sadistically do they want this process to mimic reality?

To prevent to the following scenario:

Player A bids on an empty plot.
Players A get 20 of his friends to to also bid on the plot.
Player B sees 20 people already signed up and moves on to find something less contested.
Player A's friends retract their bids right before the timer ends.
Player A wins the lottery unopposed.