Quote Originally Posted by caspergrey View Post
Let's be honest, if the odds are 1/10000, you're not winning that plot... it's the same false hope that RNG heavy games give players to think that they "might" have a chance of winning. If you're talking about a large plot that only comes available every 3 months or so... you're not getting that plot if the odds are 1/10000.... ever... might as well play the lotto... and if you do win, there are 9999 people that lose... what kind of game is cool with 1 winner and 9999 losers purely based on RNG and zero merit?
100% this. The ONLY 'fair' thing about a lottery is that everyone has the equal chance to be burned by RNGSUS. It's horrible.

Before the introduction of the timer (and the compounding issue or the relo circumvention of said timer) the housing game was as fair as it could ever be. It's a limited resource so if you wanted a house you watched the wards like a hawk at the top of the hour (when the demoliton timer hit) and you bolted for it when you saw one.

OR you waited til fresh wards dropped and you hit the ground running and your efforts paid off- or you went back to checking for auto demo houses.

If the devs really want to throw a spanner in the works of the RMT trade, then instead of punishing genuine buyers at the purchase placard, they should take the appeal from the private sale market altogether by offering a full refund of purchase price (inclusive of the building permit upon relinquishment or demolition.

At the moment if a player loses their house they are comped 1/3 of the purchase price - if they give it up willingly they receive NOTHING.

And you wonder why people house log every six weeks (thus tying up housing that others would actually be using daily) and the private sales market is thriving. The bloated prices and RMT are only possible because of scarcity and the scarcity is compounded because people aren't willing to lose millions of gil by relinquishing a plot.

Give people all their gil back and watch how frequently the wards pop vacant plots. Stop punishing people at the placard and find ways to make the black and grey markets less profitable at the relinquishment end.