<MATERIA> First-Come First-Served AND Lottery Plots

[Shibi]

FCs are usually going to have members who either already own a house,

Not on Materia. They locked all housing so nobody has anything.

We really do need to choose between going in on FC house to start a community to help the datacentre, or a personal house.

[LunaFancy]

. It's going to be rare that every single member of a FC is trying to buy a personal house at the same time the FC is attempting to buy its first house.

This might be true in an established data centre where housing has been available forever, but in a new data centre where nobody has housing and the housing is freshly dropped with a system that allows anyone with 3 million gil to shoot their shot in a lottery, I think you are being optimistic.

When the data centre opened the lottery was only slated for Empyrean. It's right there in the slides, everyone who moved based their decision on the assumption that, since no statement to the contrary had been made the old wards would open FCFS with no timer as they have done in the past.

SE has acted in bad faith for an entire player base of veteran players who have been handing over their money in the form of a sub for years to maintain a house.

[Shibi]

Not only did SE act in bad faith by changing the rules, they have hurt our DC by holding out housing for so long. 90 days only lets the gil farmers grind more and more shell FCs to capture the market.

Housing should have been opened fully FCFS after 30 days. Then Emperyum done like the rest of the world.

[LunaFancy]

I went back in the News section on the Lodestone and checked what happened when they opened Light in EU, they held the housing for FCs for SIX weeks, then opened for personals three weeks later. Going by that time frame we should all be settled in our homes now and awaiting the Ishgard housing lottery launch like everybody else.

I can see the data centre losing a lot of veterans who either go back to their old data centres or simply quit the game in disgust. Then, when the current crop of new players finish the MSQ and the shininess wears off, the servers will be a ghost town - because the long term players who had moved to show support have departed because they were treated with utter disregard after making sacrifices to support the devs.

I have paid a sub religiously now for over 5 years and I can honestly say this is the closest I have been to quitting in that time and it's pretty close right now. I'll see how 6.1 pans out but even if I get the FC a house and replace the personal I gave up and stay, I will never feel the same about the devs.

Well done SE, top job. You've demonstrated your contempt for the OCE player base and created a gil farmer haven. At least when they shut the servers down in a few years it will be at great financial loss to themselves.

[XiXiQ]

I agree, materia shouldn't be in this lottery until at least one round of fcfs.


I don't actually care which plot I get, I just want one. Now instead of just finding an available one (and there will be thousands at open) I'm supposed to hang my hat on a single plot, then hope for RNG.


I also don't get this "oh but new players and players coming back" need to be equal with me. Why? I've been here for 8 years coughing up my money, but suddenly the johnny-come-latelys need to be on equal footing?

[NanaWiloh]

This might be true in an established data centre where housing has been available forever, but in a new data centre where nobody has housing and the housing is freshly dropped with a system that allows anyone with 3 million gil to shoot their shot in a lottery, I think you are being optimistic.

When the data centre opened the lottery was only slated for Empyrean. It's right there in the slides, everyone who moved based their decision on the assumption that, since no statement to the contrary had been made the old wards would open FCFS with no timer as they have done in the past.

SE has acted in bad faith for an entire player base of veteran players who have been handing over their money in the form of a sub for years to maintain a house.

Only one slide I have found in the live letters mention the empyrean and the new housing. Its using the Empyrean as a example and makes no mention of Materia.

[KidHeracles]

I'm really happy that all plots will be lottery (see: "At the release of Patch 6.1, all land available for purchase will be subject to the lottery system.") Here's how it would've looked like if some wards were FCFS at 6.1 launch:

• Selecting your preferred housing plot either through housing maps and YouTube housing area tours, or an alt on another DC.
• Practicing your rush to your housing plot: make sure it take seconds to choose a ward.
• Logging out at the entrance of your preferred housing area
• Repeatedly closing and opening the client to log in the moment the maintenance period ends
• Hoping to be first in queue
• Logging in, loading the housing ward selection screen
• Rushing through the ward lists to find one that's FCFS
• Madly clicking on the ward to enter
• Dashing to your preferred plot
• Madly clicking on the placard to get it before someone else

That is not a positive player experience.


There are more plots going up for sale than active players: 7200 plots total per server across the 5 housing areas.

There hasn't been any word yet, but I think given how Light was FC-only sales first, there's a good chance that the first lottery will also all be FC-only. As FCs must be at least 30 days old to own a house (see condition: "You must have been a member of your free company for 30 days or longer."), we know today how many FCs are possibly eligible for the lottery: if 6.1 drops on 13th April, that's 932 FCs on Ravana who could be eligible by the time the lottery closes on 18th April.

If you've got an FC, you can put in multiple contested bids for the housing plots that you want, and have a backup option on an uncontested plot. If an FC wins multiple plots, then you can choose which plot you want.

As for personal housing:

• If you don't want competing bids and don't care which plot you get, I recommend a mid-range Small plot in a Goblet sub-ward, like Plot 58. Wait until 30 minutes before the entry period ends and find a plot with 0 entries, there are guaranteed to be some somewhere, 7200 plots are going up for sale.
• If you want everyone to know you've got the best party house, go for Mist Ward 1 Plot 5 and take a chance on the beach house of your dreams.

[DeNada]

I don't think there will be a lock on personal houses given how few FCs which are eligible to purchase a house in Oceania currently.

Speaking of which, I don't really understand what's the big deal about full lottery in Materia. We are in a unique position where supply is greater than demand and as long as you pick wisely and don't go for a dream plot such as LB 11/41, Mist 5/35, Shirogane/Empyreum 30/60 etc. there will be very few or even zero competing bids. And if you are indeed going for a dream plot, having a lottery makes it fair for those who are going for them instead of only a selected few who can jump into the servers instantly at 6.1 launch.

[LunaFancy]

The issue is that many of us left houses under the impression we could replace them via FCFS when housing launched. Now, instead of having the chance to get the same plot back through having 24 options of that same plot across the wards, we are locked in to ONE chance to get back what we gave up to support the development of the data centre.

Most of us would not have left our houses on the old worlds had it been made clear that this system was going to be in place across all the wards.

[LaylaTsarra]

There's still hope. I'm sure Square Enix just forgot to mention the exception for Materia because we're so small and insignificant.

Sadly they've made it clear that the lotto will apply to all regional housing areas.

In addition, changes to purchasing methods, such as the lottery system, will be implemented across all residential districts