If we must have the lottery please let us withdraw entries and try another plot

[Jojoya]

Thanks for the clear-up.

I wonder if people will post angry threads when they see the one demolished plot for the fortnight appear in a FC ward so they can't enter the raffle for it?

Of course some players will. As long as they do not have a house and their attempts to get one keep failing, they will continue to be angry that other players have what they can't get. Sadly, they'll blame the other players instead of blaming those really responsible - the developers.

Many of them will resort to making shell FCs to improve their chances of getting a house. It's not hard to get friends to use their alts to help form a new FC, or they could invite new players. The main they want to have a house enters for a personal in a personal purchase ward, use alts to purchase entries for a FC house in the FC purchase wards. Someone prepared in advance could get a FC to rank 6 in less than an hour by spamming Expert Deliveries (lots of cheap level 80 end game gear on the MB to buy to turn in).

I know you and Azuri talked above about removing personal housing but that would be a mistake on SE's part at a time they are actively trying to attract solo players to the game. Having a home for your character can be an important part of a solo game style for many. Remove personal housing and you just encourage more players to make shell FCs for the sake of getting a house. Nothing gets solved and legitimate FCs find it harder to get a house due to increased competition.

SE needs to stop slapping bandaids on the system and fix it. This is getting ridiculous considering other games don't have a problem providing their players with housing. I know the devs have a certain vision in mind but there comes a point when you need to accept that vision is not resonating with or working for most of your paying customers.

Agreed, allowing withdrawals with no penalties will simply allow players to troll bids or rig their bids to help their friends eg. mass bidding on a plot to give the illusion that there's a lot of competition only to withdraw their bids near the end, hence allowing their friend to sneak their win with zero competitors.

As I've said, there has to be some sort of deterrent and I feel that the 20% of plot price is a decent one since it's not a negligible amount but still lower than the 50% penalty if you win a bid but choose not to accept it.

I think you underestimate just how much gil some of the trolls have. A few of the known housing trolls have multiple characters and retainers at gil cap - that's why they could keep relocating over and over just to reset purchase timers and piss off those who had spent hours placard camping.

Loss of a plot's purchase price multiple times meant nothing to them. Losing a few hundred thousand gil would mean even less.

There is no adequate deterrent when it's only gil at stake. Gil is too easy to make.