Housing Roulette was an absolute trash idea.

[Corvus_V]

There is not really a right answer to the housing system. The placard was horrendous. The lottery gets abused. Instanced houses makes it no different from your semi-deserted island called “sanctuary”. Having unlimited houses and giving them away to anyone that walks in and pays for one isn’t the solution either, although it would make pointless for those abusing the system and collecting entire wards just because.

Increasing the amount of houses one can bid, similar to the three weekly Cacpot tickets, could improve perception, in a sense, of one’s chances of success.

This would just amount to a trick. It's not really helpful, and doesn't cover the case where you potentially win all 3, so it really is just a perception. I suppose it'd give you a shot at bidding on 2 and waiting till the last second to bid on a 3rd one, or putting all your money in on one plot, but that'd benefit the players with stupid amounts of gil over everyone else. I disagree about the deserted island feel. Just because it's not in a ward, which at this point generally serve as ghost towns anyway, doesn't really mean that it's any less deserted. You can visit other peoples islands, the difference is the fact that you can decorate it. Basically all of this is about being able to decorate; using the furnishings that exist and the opportunity to be creative with it. What the end result for that would likely be, worst case; is that if they existed alongside eachother, the people who abuse it would take up more space since they don't have to contend with the playerbase in its entirety. Which isn't great, admittedly, but at least the people who genuinely play and want to participate aren't being left out in this case. Making this kind of change and untying the company workshop from owning an FC house would also make it so there's no incentive for people to do this as well outside of just being an ass. Then you could actually define it as harassment, or griefing; at the cost of the economy of submarine rewards.

cont.
-.

I feel like a lot of people would be uncomfortable with that, because it's on a much more real level; as much as I hate multi-boxers and RMTers and stuff. The guy on Seraph abused his wallet in order to do submarines, iirc. Not necessarily to sell the plots, unscrupulous as he might be. Not that I'm saying you need to take his word for it. But he did buy smalls; which function the same as the larger houses. Smalls likely wouldn't go for much anyway, but submarine mats can be rare.

The latter part is kind of an entire engine overhaul. When they say that the fact that they don't have a persistent world because of Ps3 limitations, this is actually one of the only cases where I actually believe them. I wish it wasn't like that, but it is. I'm not against the feeling of a neighborhood, the reason I suggest instanced housing instead of anything more involved like an adapting ward is because instanced housing does exist, it just sucks in its current form. (Apartments.) Even something like a ward with plots where everyone can place a large on it wouldn't totally be a solution because the plots would still be outnumbered by the players. So, in theory, I agree with you; just like I'd agree with anyone who came up with any solution that provided everyone the opportunity to buy a house of the size they want. I just think instanced houses would be easier, since you're rarely going to encounter your neighbors anyway.

If the belief is truly that these people are really the reason none of this can work, then I think you guys should be arguing for GM action. It's still just another thing they aren't doing.

[Anienai]

I won 2 houses (1 FC, 1 private) with the new system w/o much effort. I love the new system.

[Midareyukki]

^^;; Spriggan's actually pretty average in numbers though... compared to most others I mean.

That was his claim.

Ye I know

It was empty when we transfered and filled up after. You know, like everywhere else. It's not like it stayed empty, but keep trying to use that or comparing to new data centers.

To be fair, you did say "just checked". As in, in the present. Bringing up the past now is irrelevant because those houses might have once housed FC's who've since relocated.

Either way. Going through your posts is chaotic guys, jeez...

Regardless, you are right in saying that the system they started out with was very inferior and prone to abuse. Which is exactly what happened. Even if it was "legitimate", it was scummy and led to entire wards being taken over by one individual. Since then, they did implement measures to keep people from buying new houses. They deemed that players with multiple houses could keep them, they just couldn't buy any more. Right now you can only have access to 1 personal house, 1 apartment, 1 FC house and be a tenant in up to 3 other private houses you do not own (obviously). Those are the measures that are in place currently. And I'm pretty sure they were when Spriggan was implemented? I could be wrong tho, I'll leave that up to Corvus to fact check

As Corvus said. The Neighbourhood thing sounds lovely in paper, but it's horrible to execute. Logistical issues, network issues, you name it. There's a lot going into the assets required to making our current iteration of housing into a proper neighbourhood that can meet the demands of (for argument's sake) everyone. Even if they waited, I doubt they could prime it any better. Features we currently have would likely not be implemented. Chances are that what we'd get would look very, very differently. And that's not getting to costs and approval, because simply making this is very demanding. Especially in a growing fanbase they didn't realize would grow this much, nor in the span of time that it did! The moment you drop this concept on the table, the guys above you will ask how much it costs to develop it, and at that point they'll say it's not sustainable.

Not saying that this system is sustainable either. I mean... QED: Threads upon threads whenever housing becomes available!

What I am saying is that at some point we need to draw a line. And unfortunately, this was the line SE drew. It is possible they could have gone further. But they didn't. And this is what's led to. Past that, it's really just a matter of restrictions and implementing fair systems, which so far attempts have yielded negative results either way. Either because it was exploitable, either because it promoted an unhealthy playstyle or because it was just unfair.

[Corvus_V]

^^;; Spriggan's actually pretty average in numbers though... compared to most others I mean.

That was his claim.

[HQuest]

This would just amount to a trick. It's not really helpful, and doesn't cover the case where you potentially win all 3.

If you win all three, you can only claim one; maybe when you pick them, you pick them in your preferred order. You win one of the three, other entries are forfeited, you are refunded for them and whoever was second on those you automatically abided, automatically win it, and it goes until all lotteries are end. This also adds the option to bid on different locations and wards - it doesn’t need to be all on the same ward.

On wards being deserted, I agree. There is really no incentive for one to be active on a residential ward. After you decorate it’s outside, other than the weekend RP nights, which most of the time happens indoors anyway, it is a shame it being so underutilized. However IS are a thing only because it is fresh. Give it a few more months and not even you will be going there that often anyway. Just as duties that won’t pop up on a roulette.

Everything else discussed aside of the engine overhaul goes back to how to allow one house “per human being” vs “per subscription”.

And the gil making via submarines is sort of clever, yet completely pointless. Not to diminish his accomplishment but to keep it long term is too much disposable money for something you can’t really directly recoup. But as the song goes, “mo money mo problems”, and even the big fall.

Perhaps SqE could implement a way to expand your plot, as done with the island? That would make a lot of folks happier. You buy what’s available, do a simple quest, pay a difference and expand your property. Even Animal Crossing has this

[Corvus_V]

If you win all three, you can only claim one; maybe when you pick them, you pick them in your preferred order. You win one of the three, other entries are forfeited, you are refunded for them and whoever was second on those you automatically abided, automatically win it, and it goes until all lotteries are end. This also adds the option to bid on different locations and wards - it doesn’t need to be all on the same ward.

You're right. Though, it still benefits wealthy players more than anyone who can just afford the plot, and that's my gripe with it (unless you don't pay for the bid). They were trying to avoid giving people the option to forfeit and bait bid so they couldn't mislead other players during the bidding process. All in all, though, the lottery system isn't the solution. In the end what I think this would honestly do is just make it so that whatever house you bid on has 6 bids instead of 3. The probability still more than likely works out, give or take, unless people aren't bidding on the same house (which they might, if they want a plot in particular).

On wards being deserted, I agree. There is really no incentive for one to be active on a residential ward. After you decorate it’s outside, other than the weekend RP nights, which most of the time happens indoors anyway, it is a shame it being so underutilized. However IS are a thing only because it is fresh. Give it a few more months and not even you will be going there that often anyway. Just as duties that won’t pop up on a roulette.

On IS, I already don't go there. I kind of maxed it because of how passively I could do it and then I got enough of the cowries to buy anything there but didn't end up wanting any of it anyway. During that launch I also took note of how little it actually impacted anything, despite being an instance tied to the housing server. In my worst case scenario, I had to make 1-3 extra attempts to enter my island. Sub 30 second inconvenience. It's part of why I'm sure an instanced house would be a non-issue. If people already aren't spending time in their wards, or even in IS to a debilitating extent; they aren't going to be sitting in their houses 24/7 for the sole purpose of making the server crash, lol

Everything else discussed aside of the engine overhaul goes back to how to allow one house “per human being” vs “per subscription”.

And the gil making via submarines is sort of clever, yet completely pointless. Not to diminish his accomplishment but to keep it long term is too much disposable money for something you can’t really directly recoup. But as the song goes, “mo money mo problems”, and even the big fall.

I don't know what they're doing with it. It honestly wouldn't be the first time a middle-aged adult with a lot of expendable income and no other hobbies did something like this. It happened in ArcheAge too. The practical thing would be RMT. Some people, like the ones on Mateus, iirc, just want their own ward. Not that it matters. Again, while I hate multi-boxing and having multiple accounts for the purposes of circumventing account restrictions, there really is very little you can do against someone determined to circumvent them. You put one barrier up like that and the next thing you know the guy is asking his grandparents for their driver's licenses. I wouldn't put it past the people on Mateus to do something like that either. The best thing to do is to just make it really, really expensive for people to do so and remove all the incentive. Who knows, maybe the people on Mateus wouldn't have even done it if they didn't have to have neighbors in the first place?

[Yeol]

Each system they introduced has its downside.

When housing was first added to the game, it was first come first serve. You log in, run the plot, and purchase it. There was no invisible timer to purchase a plot once it got demolished.
Downside: You had to race against other players and RMT.

Then they added the invisible timer in hope of reducing the number of RMT purchasing plots as soon as they become available. That didn't work. It made a lot of players result to using 3rd party tools, and programmable buttons in order to join The Placard (Savage).

And most recently, they introduced the lottery system. In hope of making it fair for everyone (This includes both the players & RMT). Yet, this still falls in favor of RMT since RMT has multiple accounts (A whole team) that can bid on plots while the average player only has few alts at most.

I don't have time to calculate the odds, but I and four of my friends managed to purchase our plots when new wards were added to the game and the system was first come first serve.

[JOsha]

Title says it all, I'd rather go back to fighting bots at the placard for hours at a time because at least my dedication eventually got me a house.

It was luck. Not Dedication.
Someone could've started clicking 2 mins before and got the house vs someone who had been trying all day. Why? Cause he was lucky to be there at the right time. You're just mad and angry, which is clouding your judgement and common sense.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

It was luck. Not Dedication.

Been there before, 3 houses lost, with 2 of them gone to some random who just came to spam click for like 15m before getting it vs me and few other who had been there for hours. Third house was lost to a relocator.

Yeah, no. I'm not going back that. Lotto gave me a chance however slim that was AND the time to actually play the game elsewhere.

[Toutatis]

It was luck. Not Dedication.

Agreed and many were just using bots.

The old panel clicking system was the dumbest one. It was unhealthy and mind numbing to those trying to do it the legit way. Then, imagine having to take a short break or receiving a call the moment the timer expired. Many have real life obligations that do not allow them to play the game without interruption and stupidly click on a panel during hours.