Allow People To Withdraw Their Bids

[LordSunny]

This is probably going to be more preachy and venting, but I feel so defeated with this housing system.

I've been trying for over a year for a house. Waited during the release of Empyreum, tried bidding when the new Empyreum wards were released, and was one of those folks who stayed up hours clicking the placard when that was a thing.

I have lost on every. Single. House. Even when it was only 2 people bidding (including when lotto dropped).

I recently moved to the new DC to try my luck. So far, Maduin is calm and there are a *ton* of empty lots.

So why, with a ward that has over 4+ empty mediums, and 6+ empty smalls, are people bidding against eachother in 50/50 bids?

I honestly wish I could retract my lotto ticket to try for an empty plot with no contest, but if I lose this lotto, I will have to wait an entire cycle to bid against other folks who are either 1. Moving in with alts or 2. Other folks who didn't make the first cycle.

I appreciate no longer having the days of clicking a placard and the lotto system is a vast improvement. But for the love of god, why lock people in? Or better yet, why penalize fellow players when there are literally numerous equally sized plots open?

I'm just salty about the entire experience and will be doubly so if I lose to rng yet again.

[Iscah]

I would guess that the "no withdrawals" approach is intended to stop people from getting their friends who already own houses to put in fake bids on the plot that the house-seeker wants, resulting in what appears to be a heavily contested plot, and then withdrawing those bids just before the cutoff time.

[Curisu]

You could have just waited for the very last minute to bid on that plot with the least amount of bidders.

But as iscah said, it probably is not possible to prevent that kind of fake bids.

[DeNada]

May I know which plot did you go for in the new servers?

I still see plenty of plots with zero bids, you probably went for a highly desired plot such as Lavender Beds Plot 41/46 which is normal for it to be contested due to their sublime locations.

Don't be too despondent, you still have a chance to win the lottery and even if not, you'll stand a better chance now going into the next lottery round to enter late in an uncontested plot to make certain your winning chances.

Best of luck!

[Jojoya]

If you're concerned about competition, it's always best to wait until the last possible moment to bid so you have a better chance at controlling if there will be any and how much it will be.

As for why people place bids on plots that already have bids, there are many reasons.

It's one of the very popular plot locations and that location is starting to get multiple bids in every ward.

They're after that specific plot location, not just any plot with the same size house.

The ward is their favorite number.

It was the location of their house on their old world.

They have friends bidding on other houses in the ward and they're trying to be near each other.

Someone did something foolish like publicly say they're calling dibs on X plot and some troll with more gil than empathy and common sense decided they were going to mess with that player (I have seen plenty of that sort of thing in a discord this past week, I hope very much you didn't tell anyone what you were bidding on).

On the positive side, being on Maduin you will be able to get a house even if you don't win tomorrow and you need to wait an extra 9 days. It's better than being on 24 out of 28 of the other NA worlds where pickings are slim this week from the few houses vacated by transferring players and it will likely go back to being no houses in the next lottery.

Let's hope that all that bad RNG in the past means the good RNG has been saving up to grace you at 7:00am PST tomorrow and you will have your house at last.

[LordSunny]

Let's hope that all that bad RNG in the past means the good RNG has been saving up to grace you at 7:00am PST tomorrow and you will have your house at last.

Thank you tons for the good vibes! I am honestly keeping my fingers crossed that I end up with some good news tomorrow.

[LordSunny]

An update, as promised!


....I did not win

[Pablomaldito]

An update, as promised!


....I did not win

/console
Sorry to hear that you didn't get the plot of your choice. Since you want to be in a specific area to be near friends, it may not yet be time to play it super safe. If being near friends were my goal, I would immediately bid on a plot near them. Round 2 bidders with many options may be more averse to competing for a regular plot now that the premium plots are taken. I don't think Maduin is going to run out of houses any time soon, so claim an early bid near your friends.

Besides, using a fantasia to change to Lalafell surely brought you good karma.

[LordSunny]

Besides, using a fantasia to change to Lalafell surely brought you good karma.

bahahahaha! I am hoping so! :-D

There certainly seems to be a lot of housing still available. I was saving up the entire time for both a Personal Med and FC large, so affordability isn't really a problem at this point. Just a matter of finding what's still available and going from there. I just don't know how many people might be fighting for whatever mediums might be left? And if it's worth waiting until the last minute to bid this time around if that's the case or if I should just bid right off the bat?

What has worked in your experience? (and anyone elses who reads this post! )

[Shibi]

I just don't know how many people might be fighting for whatever mediums might be left? And if it's worth waiting until the last minute to bid this time around if that's the case or if I should just bid right off the bat?

What has worked in your experience? (and anyone elses who reads this post! )

My lottery wins to date have been getting in as soon as possible with the hope others would move on by. But I am a "don't second guess myself" sort of person so I don't have issues locking in choices early. A lot of housing friends I speak to regret placing their bid early as they do get doubts (quite normal and nothing wrong with this btw), and a few threads here over the last few months on "let us withdraw our bids" as well. Well, like this one!

Watching the patterns of bids in the first rounds of Materia, Empy and now Maddy/Dynamis where there are a lot of choices, the bids on a specific plot do mostly balance out - Most bid plot on Maddy in round 1 was LB11/41 with 3 bids on all 24 versions, except subdivision 13/41, 14/41, and 15/41 all having 4 bids (from memory) so people were starting at 13 and ticking through very evenly by the end, balancing it out.

Generally the subdivision does seem to get less bids than the main division, I sometimes wonder if some people don't know how to move into the subdivision.

If I wasn't a "don't second guess" person, I'd likely wait until the morning of the last day, head into the subdivisions, and choose a B tier medium with zero bids - then log out and not return until it's all over :P


Good luck Sunny!