Are we going to solve housing before or after Ishgard Housing turns into a disaster?

You have got 3-6 BOTS hanging out outside EVERY (purportedly) available housing tract on the server, it seems, just waiting for the instant they can snap up the plot and sell it for five times the price on the Black Market!

Square-Enix, you must think we are stupid not to see this.

There are a couple simple solutions:

1) Do not advertise the price, in any capacity, of a non-available lot. If the timer is not up for the plot to go on the market, it's still under (for the purposes of discussion) the ownership of the old owner. The price does not list before you can buy it. If the price is there, you can buy it there and then.

2) If we are going to discourage bot play, then, unfortunately, there can be no other way for anyone to find out the timers. I can basically guarantee you that no plot in the game is now on the market more than a second after it's available. If you don't want bot play, you have to figure out a different way to get this done, or you're going to have people be able to make millions of gil with just the right scripts.

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Originally Posted by Wrestlefire769

1) Do not advertise the price, in any capacity, of a non-available lot. If the timer is not up for the plot to go on the market, it's still under (for the purposes of discussion) the ownership of the old owner. The price does not list before you can buy it. If the price is there, you can buy it there and then.

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How would this change anything? Un-owned plots are generally easily identified by the lack of a house on the plot. The approximate price for a Small/Medium/Large plot is well-known. Knowing the price does not tell you when the plot will be released for purchase. So how would it matter if the price is listed or not before the plot is released for purchase?

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

How would this change anything? Un-owned plots are generally easily identified by the lack of a house on the plot. The approximate price for a Small/Medium/Large plot is well-known. Knowing the price does not tell you when the plot will be released for purchase. So how would it matter if the price is listed or not before the plot is released for purchase?

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Having the price displayed indicates the plot is demolished and ready to go and only the random timer remains. This allows the RMT outfits to set up shop and script the process, knowing that, within 12 hours or so, they're done and can go on to the next housing acquisition, whether they won this one or not.

If you remove that, you at least give the risk that people could actually be on plots other RMT outfits are trying to sell when it's not available for anyone else at this point. That's the difference.

It's just less than 2 weeks till the announcement from ffxiv devs. lets hope the exciting changes stretches to the housing system concerns, and that restored Ishgard is the long awaited solution.

Best time to get a plot is during ward addition. There will be a ton of new wards/plots added with Ishgard. You can be sure they'll add additional wards to all the other regions as well in addition to those from Ishgard itself. The announcement of when they'll be made available should be made well in advance for those who have to work and who can request a day off.

Timers are not going away it appears although we could be surprised. We'll have to wait and see if there are any new rules that come with this big addition to housing. I am also of the opinion there will be more than just housing wards announced. I'd not be surprised to see changes made to apartments. Wishful thinking perhaps, but the showcase is just a couple weeks away as well as a preview of 5.5 where Ishgard release could be announced. .

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Originally Posted by Wrestlefire769

You have got 3-6 BOTS hanging out outside EVERY (purportedly) available housing tract on the server, it seems, just waiting for the instant they can snap up the plot and sell it for five times the price on the Black Market!

Square-Enix, you must think we are stupid not to see this.

There are a couple simple solutions:

1) Do not advertise the price, in any capacity, of a non-available lot. If the timer is not up for the plot to go on the market, it's still under (for the purposes of discussion) the ownership of the old owner. The price does not list before you can buy it. If the price is there, you can buy it there and then.

2) If we are going to discourage bot play, then, unfortunately, there can be no other way for anyone to find out the timers. I can basically guarantee you that no plot in the game is now on the market more than a second after it's available. If you don't want bot play, you have to figure out a different way to get this done, or you're going to have people be able to make millions of gil with just the right scripts.

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I can't speak for what is happening on your world. For Coeurl I know several players who were able to buy their first house on Friday without having to compete against any bots (or anyone else for that matter - most of them were the only camper at the plot they bought). One was even able to buy a house immediately because it was already available when he clicked on the placard with no one else around.

Your proposed solution won't work. A demolished house has no owner and so there is no owner name to be displayed. The lack of an owner name would be just as much of a sign of a house's pending availability as the lack of a price.

Even if SE were to start inserting dummy names trying to fool people, all a flipper would need to do is cruise the wards looking for houses without estate hall constructed. That's a nearly certain sign that the plot will soon be available for sale since "real" buyers build the estate hall almost immediately. Now the flipper knows the plot is soon to be available while normal players are far less likely to have taken the time to check all the wards. You've basically just handed all houses to the flippers on a silver platter.

If SE is going to discourage use of bots for housing purchases and other content, then they need to ban the accounts of players that use them and loudly advertise that it's been done (the weekly RMT notices tend to get ignored). People who use bots casually as a means to make their game play easier are going to be far less likely to do it if they keep losing their account and have to keep buying a new one then start over from scratch.

If you want to take the keyboard scripts out of house sales, then house plots need to be guaranteed to not just every player but every character and every FC. That means instanced house plots. If SE sticks to the ward system, it is a problem that will never go away.

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Originally Posted by Wrestlefire769

Having the price displayed indicates the plot is demolished and ready to go and only the random timer remains.

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No house on the plot (which is quite obvious) indicates exactly the same thing - except for the rare cases where someone has just bought the plot and not built a house yet, in which case I think you can still see who owns the plot.

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Originally Posted by Tooth

Neither, it will never be fixed.

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Then either get rid of all player housing or make player housing real-money above-table in the Mog Station.

If they're not going to fix it, the only way you get player housing anymore is either race the timer on the rare patch that new housing is up or pay the gilsellers.

And here's the worst part of it: It is clear that there is a significant portion of certain playerbases in this game (NA) and also the Community Teams (the likes of Hilton being in league with the scum at the Order of the Blue Gartr and other such account-sellers and the like) who believe that elite top-level play requires conduct outside the Terms of Service. And now, with the current XIV TOS, they can then claim that players playing within the TOS and demanding no bots, etc. are actually obstructing gameplay, stifling the future of the game, and, hence, against the TOS themselves.

If they haven't fixed it by now, it gonna be never. I've abandon all hope and faith in SE and Yoshi-P with this game. Maybe the next MMO in so many years from now will have a housing system that support it whole player base. Not just the cheaters and the people who can sit at a card for hours on end camping, etc.

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Originally Posted by Cylla

If they haven't fixed it by now, it gonna be never. I've abandon all hope and faith in SE and Yoshi-P with this game. Maybe the next MMO in so many years from now will have a housing system that support it whole player base. Not just the cheaters and the people who can sit at a card for hours on end camping, etc.

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I completely agree.. The current system endorses bots and staying up all night clicking the placard and so on. They don't seem to be willing to fix the problem.