FFXIV housing needs the Bozja Duel Notoriety system implemented

[Ironbars4564]

If SE is unable to address the scarcity issue with housing, then implementing the Notoriety system into the housing lottery is a practical solution that can be implemented immediately.

The notoriety system SE implemented to address the frustration of being locked out of Bozja/Zadnor duel content because of RNG is an improvement to the current housing lottery system with no downside.

Every time you lose a housing lottery your notoriety increases 1 point. The people with the highest notoriety are then the only people able to win and the roll against each other. And if you don't win, you have at least increased your notoriety and with it, your chances of winning the next lottery.

This creates an effect that can be best described as a waiting list that requires active participation, and the people who have been actively waiting the longest get the house.

Under this system, you are eventually guaranteed to get a house, which means there is hope. I waited 2 years for a medium house, and yesterday I was in a lottery with 5 other people and by sheer luck won. I am very happy, but many of my friends who have also been waiting for years did not win, and seeing their frustration is very demoralizing. The notoriety system will help alleviate some frustration, because even with a loss you are progressing toward your goal.

[Rosekitten]

Not going to lie, this may be one of the better ideas out there in the forums right now that runs in line with how the housing issue is being addressed. Personally I'm not in the housing race. Being on a once small pop server and having my fc have a large and my personal near it.. I'm not about to tempt fate and move either.

But like stated. If they aren't going to properly address the lack of houses.. may as well give people a system that'll eventually lead to them getting a house. It's not a perfect system but also being honest here.. I'm not in the lotto is a better system boat either so ..

[Moxiesan]

What really needs to happen is to take a minor patch cycle and design an infinite expanding ward system (or at least to storage capacity). If LOTRO a free to play MMO can do it, so can a company taking in millions per month from subs and cash shop. Just a little over 8000 houses per server (only 2160 personal now) is purely unacceptable.

[WitchHaiku]

I don't think you realize that they're most definitely capable of fixing everything they've ruined but won't because the game is doing fine as is. Player count is healthy, forget about polishing, we don't need that!~

[Sythex]

Every time you lose a housing lottery your notoriety increases 1 point. The people with the highest notoriety are then the only people able to win and the roll against each other. And if you don't win, you have at least increased your notoriety and with it, your chances of winning the next lottery.

That's assuming houses ever go back up on the market. We all know that SE holds people's subs hostage with the repossession system they have in place. I see a lot of people holding onto their subs just to keep a house they're not using instead of letting the house fall to someone who actually wants to utilize the space. A notoriety system would only solve the problem if lots went back on sale frequently, however they do not, especially on busier worlds.

[Sindele]

It's an idea that comes with all kinds of fraught downsides if you think it through, has some incredibly perverse incentives to do things that we probably don't want people doing, and punishes people overly for wanting a specific type or location of house. A hypothetical:

You specifically want a medium house in Shirogane.

First things first: it is now to your benefit to stalk every plot that demolishes and keep a running log of everyone who runs up to the placard and places a bid, ever. Collaborate on this one: find a bunch of friends that have specific desires and spread surveillance across as many plots as possible. The more visibility you have, the more you can start guaranteeing placements - and once this scheme gets running you'll get more and more people joining in as your track record of placements improves.

If and when the bidding on a certain plot hits a certain height - depending on the gil you have to burn and your taste for risk, this might vary from 20 to 100 to 150+ depending on the height of your notoriety and how much you want to protect it - throw down a bid of your own. Your goal here is to lose. If you get unlucky and win, just refuse to claim so you get 50% of your bid back and repeat the process. If someone else wins, great! Mark all other observed bidders notoriety +1 and strike the winner off. Repeat the process in successive lottery waves until you're reasonably sure you're at a notoriety tier that has no challengers and can ensure the plot you want.

But maybe this isn't degenerate enough, so let's ramp it up: if you have sufficient capital, you and all your friends can spin up alts and submit shell bids on them, too! The more you saturate the pool, the better your chances of sparing the mains. The best part is that if any of your alts hit, you can simply fail to claim the plot and thereby start another round of notoriety juicing at the same plot next cycle with all the misses at +1 tier! The more people you can use for this the merrier, since the pool size will naturally decay as individual alts hit and get knocked down to zero, but a few rounds of this can all but guarantee the participants get lotteries all to themselves when it counts.

Your only competition will be people who catch on to your scheme and "leech" off of it (which is nonetheless to your benefit, since anyone helping to dilute the pool is a plus in your book) and people who bid on whatever plot they see randomly - and because the cycle works weekly, those ones are very unlikely to ever get ahead of you if executed correctly. More likely, they'll eventually get caught up on some less-desirable plot, leaving you ready to strike the instant your desired plot springs up, and anyone else who wants a specific kind of plot but 'plays fair' in the dust - very likely permanently.

[Ironbars4564]

If you get unlucky and win, just refuse to claim so you get 50% of your bid back and repeat the process. If someone else wins, great! Mark all other observed bidders notoriety +1 and strike the winner off. Repeat the process in successive lottery waves until you're reasonably sure you're at a notoriety tier that has no challengers and can ensure the plot you want.

I dont think you understand the notoriety system. In Bozja if you win a duel, your notoriety resets regardless of whether you enter. In housing, if you win the plot, you notoriety would reset to 0 regardless of if you claimed the plot. The bidding cycle is a 9 day cycle. There is no getting ahead through some scheme. The maximum you can build your noto is 1 point every 9 days assuming you risk your own noto to bid on something in every bidding cycle even if its something you dont want. There is nothing you can do to give yourself a noto advantage over the massive pool of players bidding on houses every cycle. So when the medium in shiro that you want so bad comes up, there is still going to be a massive pool of high noto bidders who have been bidding on everything every cycle. This system only gives you an advantage in terms of the number of times you have lost a bid. The people who have lost the most, will have the best chance.

[Theox]

I don't know whether I understand it the way you inteded it to actually be, but wouldn't this system cause all kinds of problems? Do correct me if I'm wrong. Like for example what if 2 people with the same odds at winning a house enter a lottery? Say, I have a 100% chance at securing a plot and some other person enters a lottery with 100% chance also, who gets the house then? The first person to click the plackard with 100 notoriety automatically wins or several people with 100 notoriety now have to compete and it's a completely new RNG fest for these people as well? Or if you lose a house with 100 notoriety to someone else then your notoriety goes 101 or it stays the same or it resets? That's a lot to think about. And then again you'll have people who are going to complain that they will never get a house because they're new to the game and can never increase their notoriety to the same number as those who's been playing since the implementation of the system, the housing now becomes more exclusive than ever since now we're gonna be having an informal queue of people waiting to get a house. We already had a post on here that suggested we prohibit housing for newer players and people didn't quite like it (although I'm not against it at all).

Again, I might have misunderstood this system completely so please correct me if I'm wrong here.

[Sindele]

Well, first things first: if there's "nothing you can do to give yourself an advantage", then what's the point of adding a system with the explicit goal of providing an advantage to repeat bidders?

I'm very aware that notoriety resets on a hit, that sentence is only to outline the cost of a worst-case scenario for the manipulator, ie. a win on a house you don't want. The point is that the statistics become much more game-able with a mechanic like this, such that you can statistically maximize - if not outright ensure - your chance of winning exactly what you want by deliberately manipulating the pool for houses you don't want, and leaving behind anyone who isn't doing the same thing.

The nine day cycle is a double-edged sword: because all demolitions will now be compressed into 9 day waves, an organized bidding contingent can focus all their bids on one target (preferably a maximally-desired small, like a Mist beachfront or Shirogane) to use any unwitting bidders as extra pool members, while other high-notoriety competitors that 'just want any house' will gradually fall off buying up less desired things (probably Goblet smalls). Mateus had a Shirogane small with nearly 300 tickets (during a ward release!!) - in a hypothetical universe with a notoriety mechanic, that might as well represent a free +1 on its own.

Again - it's a system that actively punishes people for having any preference in the location or kind of house they want, while simultaneously providing an advantage to those who deliberately make use of alts and have a willingness to engage in borderline stalk-y behavior.

This is entirely before we get into the unpalatability of a system that will, in case of extreme supply crunches (hi Balmung!), ultimately result in a queue that can be measured in years.

Hey, there's another thought - does your notoriety reset on server transfer? If so: hope you never have to move or switch mains! If no: you could get some serious expected value from moving somewhere like Balmung or Mateus for a couple months before a ward release to get some nearly-free notoriety off 500+ ticket lotteries!

[EthanXdeath]

If SE is unable to address the scarcity issue with housing, then implementing the Notoriety system into the housing lottery is a practical solution that can be implemented immediately.

The notoriety system SE implemented to address the frustration of being locked out of Bozja/Zadnor duel content because of RNG is an improvement to the current housing lottery system with no downside.

Every time you lose a housing lottery your notoriety increases 1 point. The people with the highest notoriety are then the only people able to win and the roll against each other. And if you don't win, you have at least increased your notoriety and with it, your chances of winning the next lottery.

This creates an effect that can be best described as a waiting list that requires active participation, and the people who have been actively waiting the longest get the house.

Under this system, you are eventually guaranteed to get a house, which means there is hope. I waited 2 years for a medium house, and yesterday I was in a lottery with 5 other people and by sheer luck won. I am very happy, but many of my friends who have also been waiting for years did not win, and seeing their frustration is very demoralizing. The notoriety system will help alleviate some frustration, because even with a loss you are progressing toward your goal.

no, just no, we don't need more BS on this already RNG heavy BS. They simply need to increase the number of available wards to private buyers and create more wards per residential area, and cut the number of small houses by half and increase the amount of medium and larges.