September Destash Raffle

[+Nyx]

The Destash Raffle is now open.

Important changes for this raffle:
You can no longer submit "old" tickets (this includes partials). For this raffle, you will be able to submit tickets that were generated on or after August 1st. In future raffles, only tickets created on or after the start date of the current raffle will be accepted.
I'd originally wanted to implement something like this, but at the time I started these raffles there wasn't a reliable way to do it. I couldn't make the tickets decay after a certain amount of time, because the raffles run for varying durations and that'd be bound to cause problems. But now I've got a way to check for this without making the tickets poof.

Details for this raffle:
- All categories are open for this raffle.
- Players submitting over 50 tickets to this raffle will receive an additional small prize.
- The Plants box will still take 100 seeds for a ticket instead of 275. This change will revert to normal in the next raffle.
- This raffle will run until the ticket goal has been reached, or until January 1st, whichever comes first.
- There will be a participation reward for players submitting 5+ tickets.
- The Grand Prize for this raffle will be a unique patch-graphic item to be used as a sample for a relayer. There are 3 displayed and the winner will be able to choose which one they want. The winner will receive the displayed ticket, and will need to page me to redeem it.

The goal for this raffle is 800 tickets.

Note that the item count on the ticket chest is usually about 20-50 higher than the actual ticket count - this is because as each account submits a ticket, a parcel is created in their name. The item count includes these parcels, but of course they are not counted toward the ticket goal.

For further information regarding the raffle, rules, as well as a complete list of items which are accepted, please visit the following link: http://www.uoex.net/wiki/Destash_Raffle

All of the usual destash rules apply. If there are any issues, send a page in-game.

+N

[Alex]

You can no longer submit "old" tickets (this includes partials).

Was this mentioned somewhere that this was going to occur? I am just wondering since I am sitting on about 25+ full tickets and 75+ partials.

[+Requiem]

It mentions that in this very post.

Important changes for this raffle:
You can no longer submit "old" tickets (this includes partials). For this raffle, you will be able to submit tickets that were generated on or after August 1st. In future raffles, only tickets created on or after the start date of the current raffle will be accepted.

[Alex]

ok .... I was just asking if it was mentioned on a previous occasion, since I have been able to use old tickets for future raffles in all previous raffles and obviously would have not held on to all of them had I know. I just dont see the benefit from changing it since they were account bound already, unless there is an exploit i'm not seeing.

[+Requiem]

As I see it, the point of the raffle is to remove things from the game. When you buy tickets in the trinsic raffles, your gold doesn't keep carrying over until you win something, so why should it be different for these raffles?

A change was made, and nobody forced you to hold onto your old tickets. That was your choice, and assumption that the rules would never change. Nyx has extended any tickets from the August raffle to carry over to this one if you wish to submit them, which I think is being more than fair.

[Alex]

OK, I got the point. Yes nobody forced me and yes I made an assumption that the rules would stay the same as in the previous 4-5 raffles.

My only question was if this was mentioned on a previous occasion that this change was going to occur, especially if yesterday's world chat announcement was intended to encourage the submission of tickets to reach the goal. I accept it and will lock them down for deco/display, just thought a friendly reminder would have been nice.

Also, your example is not quite the same since when I buy a raffle ticket in Trinsic I am "submitting" it for a chance to win, but holding on to my destash tickets and NOT handing it in, I am just holding on to it, not expecting to win or increase my chances to win, just looking to have enough to qualify for a participation reward in a future raffle. I dont do BODs or collect seeds or do gauntlet so I dont get many tickets and was just making sure to have enough for future raffles.

This is all going offtrack. My apologies.

[Wil]

What's the optimal strategy under this rule set? Box stuff in your houses until you have enough junk to generate a worthwhile number of tickets and only then start turning items in?

[Alex]

Wil, yes, I suggest collecting destash items (even past multiple raffles) until you have the right number of items to hand in and get your partial or full tickets. Partially filled chests will decay after each raffle so to avoid wasted items/tickets best is to hold on to the destash items in your house. Make sure you have a list on hand to write down the number of items needed for each.

[Terra]

On the Feb destash raffle i had a question about the tickets(will the unused tickets vanish?) and the answer was "no". But now with the "You can no longer submit "old" tickets" they are as good as nonexistent. Where can we(the players who have them) use the old tickets now? And why we were not warned to spend them on the old destash, cos the rules will change in such way? When there are changes like that there is usually a transit period...

[Annachie]

It would be nice if there was a list of how many items it took to get a ticket or partial ticket. I know a couple have been mentioned.

[+Nyx]

This -is- the transition period. If you're holding onto tickets from more than 1 month ago, well.. why didn't you submit them before? Hanging on to tickets in order to change your results in future raffles is a manipulation of the system that goes against the purpose of the raffle. Receiving a participation prize or potentially winning a raffle you didn't actually participate in, because you hoarded tickets from a previous raffle is something I've never thought was okay. The tickets were never meant to be held onto for future use, but as I said in my original post - the functionality for me to prevent it wasn't available previously and it is now. I also have no idea why anyone would expect anything about the raffle to stay the same, as this raffle has changed (often drastically) every single time it's been run.

In the end, it comes down to the fact that the staff don't need to run every change or idea by you guys, you shouldn't expect that we're going to do so. If you aren't a fan of a change, that's okay. But I just don't see the sense in getting upset because the ~3-5 people who were hoarding tickets weren't given a heads up in advance of a change that will prevent them from taking advantage of the system in a way I never intended or wanted, but was previously unable to stop. Honestly, if I'd said "hey, small handful of vets who're manipulating the raffle by hanging onto bulk tickets, I'm gonna change this, so you better dump all your hoarded tickets into this raffle!" that would be completely inappropriate and borderline cheating. We've usually got 40-50 accounts participating in each raffle, if 1/3 to 1/2 or more of those folks had been hanging onto big chunks of tickets then perhaps I'd have given more leeway for turning in very old tickets one last time, but when I looked yesterday I found less than 5 people doing it, and only 3 doing it in a larger scale (more than 15 stored whole tickets and/or lots of partials). It's enough that it's not really fair to others to let them drop their oodles o' tickets this raffle, but not enough folks doing it that I feel it warrants a last hurrah of using old tickets.

I am considering reinstating the policy where tickets roll over onto future raffles, now that tickets will have to be 'current', and am also considering lowering the number required to receive a participation reward again; but that will be decided at a later time and I'll let y'all know when/if that happens. I'm also mulling over the item counts list - I've never really wanted to do it because then it's a pain to maintain the list any time I make changes and people get pissed off if it's not perfectly accurate at any given moment. I'll keep thinking on it.

[Alex]

I don't have anything against the change and understand the reasoning and fully accept it, I even think its good. I just said I thought a friendly reminder that this change was going to occur would have been nice, in global, forums, or wiki. As I stated earlier, since I dont submit many tickets and dont have the ability to produce many tickets, I was holding on to them to be able to submit 5 tickets to each raffle in order to receive a participation reward and have a minimal chance at winning. I would have structured my entire destash strategy accordingly had I known of the changes. If you look at my past entries, im pretty sure I never submitted more than 10-20 tickets with a relatively low average compared to others. I speak for myself, I cant say that's true for others.

[+Nyx]

Alex, if you want to participate in the raffle but you don't receive these types of items from your usual gameplay then perhaps you should buy them from younger players who do. It's not as if you can't afford it nor as if it's hard to find someone willing to either sell or farm these items for you. Vets who can easily obtain enough items for a participation reward every raffle choosing instead to hoard old tickets just seems particularly uncool to me.

Also, there's nothing to 'remind' about - you can't remind somebody about something that never happened previously. This function was never available before (or the raffle would've already been like this), so while it bothered me that people were doing this, I couldn't stop it. Now I can; so I am. THIS is your heads up.

[GrundyGolem]

I have a question about destash wasn't the intent to remove items but isn't it actually causing people to horde items to use in the destash? The way it was explained to me is it was intended to help remove items but it is inherently causing people to store more items just to be able to turn them in. I have even started hording things I know have been on the list that I would never bother keeping if it weren't for the chance for a possible reward in the future.

Maybe I misunderstood what it was for altogether but that was what I was seeing if it was intended just to give the vets something to do I see that as a project worth doing but I know I wouldn't horde the stuff I am starting to collect if it wasn't for destash.

Side Note:
It seems to me that there should be no time that the reward for removing items from the system involves hording items to remove them from the server intentionally.

[+Nyx]

The first Destash raffle removed something like 100k items from the shard. Since then, yes it's still to 'destash' people's junk. Basically, people are going to hoard junk regardless of whether there's a raffle going for it (or there wouldn't have been 100,000 items removed in that first raffle, when nobody had ever had any idea those items would ever be of any use whatsoever). If you feel the need to hang onto some items to put in the raffle, that's fine, but the number of folks doing that now vs the number who'd been hoarding those same items when they had no expectation or hope of those items ever being useful, is far heavier on the hoard-with-no-hope side. The first couple raffles had double or more the usual number of participants that we've had in the last several raffles. Once those folks' stashes were gone, they stopped bothering and only occasionally go drop items in once they've got enough. Nowadays, the raffle is as much a way to give use to useless and undervalued items on the shard as it is to encourage folks to get rid of junk they may or may not have held onto otherwise. At some point, the items you're hanging onto for the raffle, will go into the raffle and get removed. It's still better than being hung onto for years and years in someone's house never to be used, sold, or removed until the house drops.