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.