"First Come First Served" Plots

[Luxyn]

With Ishgard housing coming soon and the changes to housing in 6.1, I can't help but see a fundamental problem with how "first come first served" plots will work.

From what we've been told so far, there's going to be 2 types of ward from 6.1 onwards: "FC-only" wards, and "Personal-only" wards. These designations are going to apply to wards that already exist, but plots that are owned will not be affected until they are relinquished.

From there, plots are going to be broken into two kinds of purchase type: "Lottery" and "First Come First Served". SE has outlined how lottery plots will work, but they have not gone into detail for first come first served yet.

Here's the problem: If first come first served is just the same system as we have now, with a large group of people clicking for hours around a sign until one of them gets lucky... how is that any different to the lottery system, except one is far more painful?

It will be a decision between "Do you want to just throw your gil at the plot, walk away and hopefully get lucky" or "Do you want to click for hours upon hours upon hours of your life, wasting time and hopefully get lucky", if that is the case. They may as well make all plots lottery in this case, because the random-timer is the single worst thing they've ever done to the house buying system.

It won't be so bad if they at least tell us *when* the timer is running out for these plots. Sure, you have a bunch of people taking note of the time, and then they all surround the sign at the appointed hour and all get ready to click - but surely that's preferable to everyone standing around for hours on end? I've had friends stay up all night losing sleep trying to get a plot. People do it all the time, and it's not healthy, but it's what the click-system encourages.

Either that, or make first come first served plots work like housing did before the timer ever existed - as soon as it is relinquished, it is available for purchase. Yes, this makes house flippers a problem, but I think most people who really badly want a house would rather pay a premium in gil to a house flipper than spend countless hours clicking signs with no guarantee they'll get a plot.

Tl;dr: As long as the clicking for countless hours to get a "first come first served" plot is eliminated, it'll be better. Otherwise, they may as well make all houses lottery, because that would objectively be better than "easy lottery vs painful lottery".

[Risvertasashi]

FCFS is indeed how it works now.

As for why SE is proposing doing both types, it's that they recognize not everyone likes the lottery system - for those that can camp a housing site for hours on end, their chances of getting a home will actually go down with the lottery system. It largely benefits those that don't have the time to camp, or those that find it too painful.

But in that same liveletter they also said they're looking for community feedback on how much should be lottery vs FCFS. If you think they should all be lottery (or vice versa), that's valid feedback that they're looking for. However, unless the feedback is just about unanimous, it'll probably be some split to keep both camps happy (or erm... keep both from getting too unhappy).

...If you think the system should be redesigned from the ground up, well, I'll agree with you, but I think at this point what we got is what we got. Of all the suggestions, SE chose to implement lottery, likely because it's practical and works in place with existing systems.

[Mr_Gyactus]

But in that same liveletter they also said they're looking for community feedback on how much should be lottery vs FCFS.

Feedbacks?
How are we supposed to evaluate a system and submit a feedback if we don't know details or rules until it's already too late?
If they do things like in Shirogane 2nd world war we could know details 1-2 weeks max before 6.1.

btw I don't see any real issue removing completely the live system, and I have free time, Free time I can use elsewhere, free time I don't risk to waste because a lucky one lives at 2 km from SE server or has a better internet connection.

Reading the thread I suppose no one know what's happened with Shirogane. Players used 3rd program to spam auto-login. Who logged in less than 1 minute queue was able to buy a plot, the others weren't. In less than 5 minutes every plot L-M-S was sold.

So no, it's not a matter of organization or numbers, just a matter of cheating + ISP.

[Nezerius]

Feedbacks?
How are we supposed to evaluate a system and submit a feedback if we don't know details or rules until it's already too late?

More specifically, they're asking for feedback on how many plots should use the Lottery system, and how many should keep the FCFS one. Their current plan is for the majority of the plots to use the Lottery system, with a limited amount of FCFS plots. This was stated in the Live Letter, but didn't show up as text on any of the presentation slides.

The same Live Letter also explained the rules of the Lottery system:

-Lottery period lasts for several days
-Can only enter the lottery for one plot
-Full price gets deposited on entry (gets refunded if the player doesn't win the plot)
-Can't withdraw after entering a lottery
-Land acquisition period lasts for several days after the lottery period ends
-Winner's name shows up on the placard
-Winner must claim the land within the land acquisition period, or it will be forfeit (only 50% of the purchase price will be refunded)
-Players who didn't win the plot have to claim their full refund within a limited time frame.
-After the land acquisition period ends, the next lottery period will start for any remaining plots that haven't been sold yet.

[Mr_Gyactus]

More specifically, they're asking for feedback on how many plots should use the Lottery system, and how many should keep the FCFS one. Their current plan is for the majority of the plots to use the Lottery system, with a limited amount of FCFS plots. This was stated in the Live Letter, but didn't show up as text on any of the presentation slides.

The same Live Letter also explained the rules of the Lottery system:

-Lottery period lasts for several days
-Can only enter the lottery for one plot
-Full price gets deposited on entry (gets refunded if the player doesn't win the plot)
-Can't withdraw after entering a lottery
-Land acquisition period lasts for several days after the lottery period ends
-Winner's name shows up on the placard
-Winner must claim the land within the land acquisition period, or it will be forfeit (only 50% of the purchase price will be refunded)
-Players who didn't win the plot have to claim their full refund within a limited time frame.
-After the land acquisition period ends, the next lottery period will start for any remaining plots that haven't been sold yet.

Ok, so this is what SE explained.

Now, in 6.1 we'll have 24x2 new wards or 1440 new houses (144 large, 336 medium, rest small).

If it was me, I would put every (144) large and every (336) medium size plot in the lottery at the same time, leaving the small ones FCFS.
this way everyone bet on what he wants, and take the risk to get nothing (not "well if we don't get the large we try the medium..." nor "well we can try ward 2 and next time ward 12...").

[Luxyn]

That's just a new one to me - there's people who LIKE clicking for hours on end with slim chances of success? lol

[Risvertasashi]

That's just a new one to me - there's people who LIKE clicking for hours on end with slim chances of success? lol

I mean, they probably don't enjoy the act itself, but some of those that have a surfeit of free time want to be able to use said free time to increase their chances of getting a plot. (If it were up to me, I'd make every single plot lottery, but I also wouldn't penalize players for withdrawing from the lottery before the drawing - only if they do so after they've won).

Moreover, let's say you're an FC leader for a second. You can recruit your FC officers to also click the sign, and have coverage in case someone AFKs, and have shifts for when people get off to go to bed or plot your murder. This, too, significantly increases the odds the FC will get a house. The lottery hurts the chances of people that organize like so.

[Jojoya]

With relocation no longer bypassing the purchase timer, there's really no point to first come, first serve other than giving advantage to the bot users and FC flippers.

That's just a new one to me - there's people who LIKE clicking for hours on end with slim chances of success? lol

I wouldn't say they like the clicking but their chances of success are far better when they're only competing against 10-20 players instead of 1000.

[LitheSuxman]

Or maybe they can just add more wards... problem solved.

[Risvertasashi]

Or maybe they can just add more wards... problem solved.