Housing Roulette was an absolute trash idea.

[Avoidy]

The old housing system was a steaming plate of diarrhea.
The new housing system is a smaller, solid turd in a bowl.

People are seriously out here defending the new system, which 90% of the time has 100 people bidding on a single plot, like "well at least we're not eating diarrhea anymore! *chews turds* I mean it could always be worse haha! The turd is smaller now!" Yeah, the new system is objectively better than the old system. But the old system was so bad, so atrocious, so unforgivably shitty, that that isn't saying much. I'm sick of hearing "at least this one's better than what we had before" when what we had before was such a low bar. Under the old system, people were peeing in bottles and pooping in socks so they could stay at their PC for 9 hours straight clicking a placard. Most people were botting. Most of the winners would get their plot and then continue clicking the placard for hours after winning. The old system rewarded cheaters. The new system rewards luck. They're both shit. We need either instanced housing or more wards, don't care which. And before someone on some low population world or something chimes in with "oN mY wOrLd thErE aRe pLenTy oF pLoTs", I'm talking about places that actually need the help, obviously.

They need to shorten the bidding cycles. If you can't manage to login without needing a 9 day window, you probably don't really need a house anyway. You'd just be taking it from players who use it more actively.

This too, if we're stuck with this awful bidding system, then at least shorten the cycles. There's no reason a "Results period" should take this long. Same with the bidding period. Holy hell. And if you win but can't manage to show up for 2 days to click a placard and get your bid, then it should go to the next bidder instead. If #2 wins a plot and the only other bidder is #1, but #2 seriously can't bother to show up, then #1 should get it. Why the hell does it go back out for a second lottery. Such a stupid goddamned system.

[MrJPtheAssassin]

They need to shorten the bidding cycles. If you can't manage to login without needing a 9 day window, you probably don't really need a house anyway. You'd just be taking it from players who use it more actively.

I completely agree. Personally, I rather have a 7-day cycle that way the day a cycle starts is the same each week and you don't have to check the timers menu every day to see if the next cycle has begun or not.

The old housing system was a steaming plate of diarrhea.
The new housing system is a smaller, solid turd in a bowl.

People are seriously out here defending the new system, which 90% of the time has 100 people bidding on a single plot, like "well at least we're not eating diarrhea anymore! *chews turds* I mean it could always be worse haha! The turd is smaller now!" Yeah, the new system is objectively better than the old system. But the old system was so bad, so atrocious, so unforgivably shitty, that that isn't saying much. I'm sick of hearing "at least this one's better than what we had before" when what we had before was such a low bar. Under the old system, people were peeing in bottles and pooping in socks so they could stay at their PC for 9 hours straight clicking a placard. Most people were botting. Most of the winners would get their plot and then continue clicking the placard for hours after winning. The old system rewarded cheaters. The new system rewards luck. They're both shit. We need either instanced housing or more wards, don't care which. And before someone on some low population world or something chimes in with "oN mY wOrLd thErE aRe pLenTy oF pLoTs", I'm talking about places that actually need the help, obviously.



This too, if we're stuck with this awful bidding system, then at least shorten the cycles. There's no reason a "Results period" should take this long. Same with the bidding period. Holy hell. And if you win but can't manage to show up for 2 days to click a placard and get your bid, then it should go to the next bidder instead. If #2 wins a plot and the only other bidder is #1, but #2 seriously can't bother to show up, then #1 should get it. Why the hell does it go back out for a second lottery. Such a stupid goddamned system.

Yeah, the ppl who defend the lottery system get under my skin a lot. Most of us can agree that the old system was bad, really bad, but to act like the lottery system is the one and only way they could had fix the housing system is laughable. Yeah, the lottery system is better than the old system but that's not saying much since I don't think you could have replaced the old system with any worst system. Like anything they could have done would have been better than the old system, that's how bad it was. I just don't want to setter for a system that still is bad just not the worst.

[Eraden]

I completely agree. Personally, I rather have a 7-day cycle that way the day a cycle starts is the same each week and you don't have to check the timers menu every day to see if the next cycle has begun or not.



Yeah, the ppl who defend the lottery system get under my skin a lot. Most of us can agree that the old system was bad, really bad, but to act like the lottery system is the one and only way they could had fix the housing system is laughable. Yeah, the lottery system is better than the old system but that's not saying much since I don't think you could have replaced the old system with any worst system. Like anything they could have done would have been better than the old system, that's how bad it was. I just don't want to setter for a system that still is bad just not the worst.

The Lottery was not meant to fix the housing system. There are far too many people who think that the Lottery was meant to fix housing in its entirety. This is a mistaken assumption on their part. It was meant to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance at accessing a limited resource. It works well for that purpose. The only real way to fix the housing system is to supply more houses. A LOT more houses. Either by adding more wards, making instanced houses or upgrading the apartment system, or a combination of all three.

[MrJPtheAssassin]

The Lottery was not meant to fix the housing system. There are far too many people who think that the Lottery was meant to fix housing in its entirety. This is a mistaken assumption on their part. It was meant to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance at accessing a limited resource. It works well for that purpose. The only real way to fix the housing system is to supply more houses. A LOT more houses. Either by adding more wards, making instanced houses or upgrading the apartment system, or a combination of all three.

Yeah, I agree it was never meant to fix the housing as a whole but based on how some of these lottery lovers talk you would think they believe it was. The lottery system does nothing to fix the real problem and that is why I don't like it. I felt the time that went into making the lottery system could had be spent on fitting the real issues with housing and that's the supply. Adding 5 to 10 wards every expac isn't going to keep up with the demand for housing. At this rate, the dev team will always be behind the demand and we never see the issues fixed. Personally, I think the only real fix is instanced houses but even that suggestion has some real pushback. In this thread alone you see nah-sayers trying to shoot down the idea by saying it is not possible and ect. If it's not possible then what should be done? Adding wards at a snail's pace isn't going to help either. Yeah, I don't know anymore. All I know is I hate how the system is and I don't like time and money being spent on band-aid fixes.

[Renathras]

which 90% of the time has 100 people bidding on a single plot,

This isn't true, though. When looking to where I wanted to bid, I checked all the new plots on Lavender Beds. I think I found one Small with 5 bids on it, the rest were 2, 1, or 0 (including the one I bid on), and sometimes, not just that specific plot on that Ward's subdivision, but rather multiple incarnations of that plot across several of the wards. Even the "desired" Smalls tended to have 2 bids on it. That was me checking about 2 days before the deadline. I even found a Medium there right by an Aetherite and MB that had 0 bids on it. I then went over to Goblet and looked around. Same thing. In general, the Mediums had 5-8 bidders and the Smalls had 0-3. I even glanced at a few Larges, and they tended to have 8-12, though some had less than the Mediums.

"90% of the time"? That's not remotely true.

You can say "But but SERVER DEPENDENT"; sure, if you were saying 90% of the time on a handful of servers. But 90% of the time means across all servers and datacenters and wards, and that's not anywhere close to true.

And again: Instanced Housing doesn't work. I and others have addressed this. You people promoting instanced housing need to stop saying "We need instanced housing" and start showing everyone you actually know what it actually is and addressing the problems with it with your suggestions for how to fix those.

...but to act like the lottery system is the one and only way they could had fix the housing system is laughable.

So what's your solution that will fix it and have no downsides and not cost SE far more money than it's worth?

I do agree a 7 day cycle would be nice, though. Or 14 day. Something that works evenly in a week. But I don't think it's necessary, I just don't see it as particularly worse or better. I guess I'm ambivalent on that.

The fact people say "then people that are working every day will miss on it" is ridiculous, if they cant log in at all in 2 days of result phase, perhaps they shouldnt have a house ?

Your family goes on a 4 day vacation. Congratulations, you can't have a house.

Your company has a busy week where you're so tired when you get home you crash instantly. Congratulations, you can't have a house.

You're a student with a lot of homework or tests and don't have time for a few days to login. Congratulations, you can't have a house.

You're in the military as a Reservist (many nations have a few months or a couple years compulsory service) but have your 2 day weekend coming up. Congratulations, you can't have a house.

You're active duty but generally have internet, but for 2 days you go on a march or area way from base. Congratulations, you can't have a house.

You're an EMT/Nurse/Doctor/Fireman and have a long work period then come home and crash after 36 hours of working. Congratulations, you can't have a house.

I could go on...

9 days isn't an eternity. 4 days to claim vs 2 isn't some huge inconvenience for anyone and is a pretty reasonable timeframe. It doesn't catch all situations, but it gives most people a reasonable chance without being onerous. And there's no "walk of shame". In life, you win some and you lose some. No one's shaming you or trying to rub it in your face decorating their house. Most people are just excited they got a house and are playing around with the new systems they hadn't experienced before.

The Lottery was not meant to fix the housing system. There are far too many people who think that the Lottery was meant to fix housing in its entirety. This is a mistaken assumption on their part. It was meant to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance at accessing a limited resource. It works well for that purpose. The only real way to fix the housing system is to supply more houses. A LOT more houses. Either by adding more wards, making instanced houses or upgrading the apartment system, or a combination of all three.

This.

The only ACTUAL solution would be to have infinite servers, because people want specific plots, of which there's only one per Subdivision/two per Ward. And that's impossible.

They can (and should) leverage the Apartment system more, though it won't satisfy everyone in the end. Instanced Housing is a pretty bad idea (as many have said) and people are ignoring that to keep trotting out the buzzword phrase that they don't really understand, but the short version is it would be unstable, require massive spending on what is a niche element of the game a small percent of players actually care about (it'd be like if they devoted half the game's income for a year into JUST PvP for several years), and wouldn't even satisfy since the exterior would be placehold or you'd have IS where you just teleport somewhere and have no customization.

[Avoidy]

This isn't true, though. When looking to where I wanted to bid, I checked all the new plots on Lavender Beds. I think I found one Small with 5 bids on it, the rest were 2, 1, or 0 (including the one I bid on), and sometimes, not just that specific plot on that Ward's subdivision, but rather multiple incarnations of that plot across several of the wards. Even the "desired" Smalls tended to have 2 bids on it. That was me checking about 2 days before the deadline. I even found a Medium there right by an Aetherite and MB that had 0 bids on it. I then went over to Goblet and looked around. Same thing. In general, the Mediums had 5-8 bidders and the Smalls had 0-3. I even glanced at a few Larges, and they tended to have 8-12, though some had less than the Mediums.

"90% of the time"? That's not remotely true.

You're misunderstanding me. When I said 90% of the time, I meant 90% of the lottery cycles that we've had. Obviously in this recent lottery you'd have low amounts of bids, because square released new wards recently. This time was a remarkable exception. But for the next bidding cycle on balmung we'll probably see 30-40 people bidding on a single plot (lots of people relocated which freed up a few plots here and there), and the week after it'll be back to business as usual with a couple of available plots and triple digits. Perhaps it'll get better now that auto demolition is back, but only time will tell on that front.

But yeah, in the lottery before this one, there were like 2 plots available and triple digits on both. And before that it was the same. And before that it was the same. Balmung's just screwed in general though, not gonna lie.

[MrJPtheAssassin]

So what's your solution that will fix it and have no downsides and not cost SE far more money than it's worth?

I do agree a 7 day cycle would be nice, though. Or 14 day. Something that works evenly in a week. But I don't think it's necessary, I just don't see it as particularly worse or better. I guess I'm ambivalent on that.

Tbh I shouldn't even reply to you since I have you on ignore list and you are one of the main ppl on this thread that gets under my skin the most but hey I just hate myself I guess. Why do I have to come up with a solution for problems the devs created themselves? I stand by what I say that you and other who don't like the idea are just nah-sayers and want everyone to think it's impossible when its not. Yeah, it would mean they would need to spend money on reworking the housing system but they could do it and make a bunch of ppl happy. Just because you and others want to cling to the fantasy idea of a neighborhood feel, that doesn't even exist since no one hangs out in the wards anyway and rather afk in limsa, doesn't mean anything to me and the other who wants instanced housing. You say we need to stop isn't going to make us stop. I'm going to continue and no one especially you, a negative lil lala, is going to stop me or discourage me. So you keep on with your "Its impossible" train and I keep going on my "instanced housing is only the real fix" train. By the way, other games(including mmos) have shown that instanced housing can work so it's not all impossible. Just requires the devs to actually put in more work and money instead of making cheap and lazy glam items for the cash shop.

[Renathras]

When I said 90%...

Ah, okay, that makes more sense. I think that might partly be the biggest servers, though. My server is one of (as far as I can tell) the bigger ones on Primal (not the biggest, though), and when I've checked with prior auctions, the range tends to be 30-70 depending on plot. I'm not sure what it will be next week with everyone who didn't win scrambling for the plots left, though...

Tbh I shouldn't even reply...

I'm sure, though I'd point out having people on ignore who aren't trolls (clearly my posts are thought out and reasoned, so at the very least you can be sure of that) isn't entirely...well, whatever.

For why you have to come up with a solution: Because you're the one insisting there is one. The post I reply to you were berating people thinking this was the best solution. But you have no better one. So this may, in fact, be the best one. If you weren't so sure there was a better way, I wouldn't have asked.

You say we're nay-sayers, but we seem to have a better handle on it than you do. Instead of explaining why we're wrong, you just tell us we are. Again, you don't have a solution. You aren't saying "Instanced housing is possible and doable and wouldn't break the bank because...". Instead, you seem to simply assume it is and attack those who say otherwise. "make a bunch of ppl happy" - how many? What percentage of the playerbase are we talking to spend literally millions of dollars trying to please? 1%? 3%? 5%? "fantasy idea of a neighborhood feel" - how is it a "fantasy idea"? Just today I was mucking around my house and ran into a neighbor and struck up a conversation. I like looking at other people's designs and what they're doing in the neighborhood. How is an actual thing a "fantasy idea"? (Never mind this is a "fantasy" game, so that would be fitting...)

"who wants instanced housing" - okay, what is that? What even is instanced housing? I think I asked you to define the term before, but I've not seen anyone offer a concrete definition of what that is. Probably because that would allow it to be pointed out how it isn't feasible. But when you say "instanced housing", what do you mean exactly?

Where did I say you "need to stop"? You're trying to ascribe motivations to people that they don't have. "negative lil lala"? I'm not being negative, I'm just describing reality. There's neither positive nor negative in my appraisals.

"So you keep on with..." - If it's not impossible, tell me how it's not impossible. you know, the thing I asked you to do that you immediately said you weren't going to do? How are you so sure it's not impossible?

"other games have shown that instanced housing..." - again, define instanced housing. Then we can talk about if it's possible in this game or not. Other games also have PvP and playable Panda Bear races. Some other game having something doesn't mean it would work in this game.

[MrJPtheAssassin]

snip

Be my last reply to you and then I put you back on ignore bc I just cant stand you at all. I just say that I agree to disagree and leave it that. Have fun settlering on anything the devs give us and never challenge them to change things. I'm sure that mindset won't hurt them or the game in the long run. Have a wonderful day and bless your heart.