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So I had an idea for getting houses that have been abandoned or auto demolition. Instead of having to have a bunch of people standing around a sign how about allow people to be able to sign up for getting the house. When the timer reaches whatever point SE chooses it would randomly pick one of the users who signed up and they would have maybe 30 minutes to and hour to go and make the actual purchase. If they don't make it it choose from the other people who were on the list.
This would end up causing people who were present and actually ready to buy the house when it goes off its rng timer, to wait "30 minutes to an hour" behind those who are not. Any sort of predictive element will just be exploited.
30 minutes to an hour... more like 3+ hours
I think what OP means is that people won't have to physically stick around there due to the sign-up. Not sure how I feel about it, though. While waiting around did suck (and I did grieve whenever people joined me, ugh), not really sure how it would work in practise. (Sorry for the unproductive comment.)
I like the genesis of your idea OP.
How about a lottery system. You go to the sign and put down the money, this buys you a lottery ticket. When the timer runs out, the lottery executes and all losing players get their Gil back.
The current setup is basically a lottery system anyways, it's just whoever was quick enough to click on the sign, except this system is mentally and emotionally draining to the participants. While I don't really want any RNG element involved in purchasing a house, at least a setup like OP or Chameleon suggested would allow people to just sign up and then go do other things.
I like this idea a lot, but I'd like to tweak a few things. Up that in-between time to more like 12-24 hours just to give the person they won the lottery for that plot time to make the purchase because they could have logged off. Also I'd require a fee (given back to people who didn't win the lottery) or even having the game check to see if the person signing up for the house has the amount of Gil on hand to purchase it just to stop people who can't actually buy the house from taking a lottery spot. To stop people from trolling if you sign up and win but don't make the purchase you lose out on your fee(alternatively if u do buy it the fee goes towards the purchase plot)
I quite like this idea and (during one hours-long plot camp) had time to think about some alternative ideas. What I came up with is very similar to what has been suggested in this thread:
Suggestion for an alternative system for housing purchase timers:
- As in the current system, houses are still on a random-length timer after demolition or being relocated away from and still decrement in cost periodically.
- Upon first interaction with the house placard, a potential buyer is given the option to deposit "earnest money" equal to the house's sale price at that moment in time. The gil is removed from the player's purse and held. This registers the player (or the player's FC, depending on the options chosen) for a "raffle ticket."
- Once during each real-time hour thereafter, the player (or, for an FC house purchase, a member of the FC with land purchase permissions) can interact with the placard to register another "raffle ticket." (This costs no additional gil, but rewards time investment similar to the current system.)
- A player or FC may only enter one house raffle at a time. They may withdraw from a raffle at any time as well (and have their gil refunded) but will lose any accumulated raffle tickets.
- The placard will display how many entrants are participating in the raffle so players may better gauge their odds of winning.
- Once the random timer runs out, a winning ticket is drawn and the house purchased in that player/FC's name at the price they paid when entering the raffle.
- Those who do not win the raffle have their money refunded.
The idea is that this system rewards those who scout often, those who commit to a particular house plot early, and those who demonstrate persistence (like the current system does) without making it optimal to sit and click on the placard for hours and hours in hopes of catching the slivered window of the plot being available.
There is already RNG involved in the current system. It just is, as others have said, a combination of luck, persistence, and willingness to commit. I believe that there are ways to reward that without incentivizing unhealthy behaviors.