Require a verification code within X mins after purchasing a property

More than half the house that I've seen get sold in the last week have gone to winners that are AFK.

Please add a capcha feature that requires someone not be afk to verify a purchase by typing in a code shown on the screen within X mins of winning.

EDIT: There's probably not much you can do about people using auto clickers to purchase homes. I feel that's a byproduct of a broken system, but at least make people be present when they win a house. There's something that makes it extra demoralizing when you see a house sell and you realize that half the people there aren't even present.

That or completely change the system to something that doesn't require people to be there for hours at a plot.

Main reason I bring up adding some sort of captcha is because it's something that you could add that requires modifying the existing process the least.

That..

That actually sounds like a genuine change. It'd significantly halt the bots farming the plots and give players a much better Average chance.. Even with Autoclickers being used, they would need to be THERE to finalize, meaning it would also (theoretically) see less and less use.

Personally, can't see a Downside outside of maybe the Capcha maybe breaking in some respect? Like you see it say one word and you type it in, but the program says "nah, it actually says this!". Maybe a 3-attempt before a timeout? (Alongside x mins timer)

TL;DR: Pretty good suggestion. Benefits far outweigh the (potential) downsides.

It might stop the players using the simple scripts for placard spam but some bots can solve some captchas. Still it would be a step toward reducing the problem.

Would the purchase timer be reset after a failed captcha? That could potentially upset players even more if the failed captchas mean they're kept stuck waiting that much longer for the plot.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Would the purchase timer be reset after a failed captcha? That could potentially upset players even more if the failed captchas mean they're kept stuck waiting that much longer for the plot.

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I suppose what they can do is give players multiple attempts, lets say three, to enter the code and the code would change each time so that a bot would have a harder time trying to figure out what it is.

As an additional way to prevent bots buying SE could also add the one-time password (the authentication code you use to log in) as a final step. It would be very difficult to get a bot to be able to access the one time password because it's on hardware that is separate to the pc (mobile phone or small keychain device). I'm sure there is a way to get a bot to access it through connecting the phone to the pc but I imagine that would be a complicated process that could only be achieved by a person with very specialised knowledge.

Having said that someone would eventually create software so that a person who is a novice in that field can do it, but considering phones are not completely standardised with what OS they use and even what version it would still be troublesome to many people to get it to work.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

As an additional way to prevent bots buying SE could also add the one-time password (the authentication code you use to log in) as a final step.

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I definitely support having to enter a code to prevent bots from buying property, though not everyone uses one-time passwords, and for whatever reason may not have access to it.

I'm not sure how advanced bots are with stuff like that, but maybe something like a skill question related to the game, like "what's the name of the NPC standing at x11, y17 in Lower La Noscea" (example, of course, since I doubt there's anyone right there :p) and you have 5 minutes to go there, check, then come back and enter it in the text box at the placard. And of course it would be different for each purchase and could be any NPC in ARR (since having expansion NPCs would make it inaccessible to people who don't own it).

I'm not sure if bots can parse that, and it doesn't have to be exactly that type of question, but something that requires going and looking at something in the game in order to confirm the purchase would be good I think.

What a great solution this is. What a great PR move this would be. Lmfao, you guys need to reflect on the absurdity of the suggestion.

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Originally Posted by Yshtola

What a great solution this is. What a great PR move this would be. Lmfao, you guys need to reflect on the absurdity of the suggestion.

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You could just say "I don't think this is a good idea".

Can you elaborate on why you don't want something added to prevent people from using bots to buy property? :confused:

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Originally Posted by Doozer

I definitely support having to enter a code to prevent bots from buying property, though not everyone uses one-time passwords, and for whatever reason may not have access to it.

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Very few players who have access to a game like FFXIV wouldn't have a smart phone. It's not a chunky piece of software so even an old phone can use it fine. Certainly worked fine for me when I was using a smart phone whose model and OS was several years out of date.

Also everyone should use the one-time password because it truly does keep your account more safe. Certainly if it became part of the purchasing process for a house it would give players an incentive to get it. I remember when WoW offered a minion in exchange for having a one-time password authenticator attached to their account the amount of players who used it rose quite dramatically. Some people don't bother with it thinking they don't need it, not classing it as worthwhile because it doesn't offer an in-game advantage or they're just too lazy to set it up. Blizzard realised this so they gave a reward for using it. More players using the one-time password actually does reduce the workload GMs have to deal with.

I admit I'm not exactly fond of the idea to have it or captchas in order to purchase something but it's clear SE have no intention of changing the housing system enough so that things like demolition and the placard timer would no longer be needed. So with this in mind players think about ways to make it more difficult for bots to game the system, and the one-time password and/or captchas are things that could very greatly inhibit them.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

I'm not sure how advanced bots are with stuff like that, but maybe something like a skill question related to the game, like "what's the name of the NPC standing at x11, y17 in Lower La Noscea" (example, of course, since I doubt there's anyone right there :p)

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Someone could create a system that checks for npc locations based on coordinates. If people can create something as advanced as parsers they can definitely create something that merely searches for npcs at a very specific set of coordinates. Bots can complete quests on their own, so searching for something based on coordinates wouldn't be difficult to code.

Also having such a system would make players have to leave the housing area and travel around the game to search for something...it would be potentially adding a lengthy process on top of the already lengthy process that is spamming the placard timer. It would be better to create a system that doesn't require players to leave the plot for what is essentially a quest in order to finish purchasing it.

This is a good idea.
A simple in-game verification would be enough. No need for OTP's or additional running around.

At the very least, the simple bots will get taken out of the picture.

I can already imagine the type of players who would be opposed to this. Bot-users.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

Also having such a system would make players have to leave the housing area and travel around the game to search for something...it would be potentially adding a lengthy process on top of the already lengthy process that is spamming the placard timer. It would be better to create a system that doesn't require players to leave the plot for what is essentially a quest in order to finish purchasing it.

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The simpler it is, the easier it is to bypass. My example was merely that, an example, and if someone can stand there for 16 hours waiting for a plot, they can take an extra 2 minutes to go to a different zone, look at something, then come back. I wouldn't really call that 'lengthy'.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

The simpler it is, the easier it is to bypass. My example was merely that, an example, and if someone can stand there for 16 hours waiting for a plot, they can take an extra 2 minutes to go to a different zone, look at something, then come back. I wouldn't really call that 'lengthy'.

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This highly depends on where the npc is located. If they happen to not be at an aetheryte it could take a while to get to the location. You can purchase housing at lvl 50 before you reach HW. This means the npcs would have to be in no fly zones in ARR content.

Sure you could decide that the npc is always near an aetheryte but the coordinates aren't so precise that only one npc could possibly be standing in that location. Npcs are often clustered together. You can move a step between two npcs and the coordinates on your map won't change. I suppose SE could then decide to choose a named npc with no one else near them.

But none of this really matters because bots could very easily be coded to do this given they can do entire questlines and gathering across multiple zones on their own. Bots are already equipped with the ability to search for and get to coordinates.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

This highly depends on where the npc is located. If they happen to not be at an aetheryte it could take a while to get to the location. You can purchase housing at lvl 50 before you reach HW. This means the npcs would have to be in no fly zones in ARR content.

Sure you could decide that the npc is always near an aetheryte but the coordinates aren't so precise that only one npc could possibly be standing in that location. Npcs are often clustered together. You can move a step between two npcs and the coordinates on your map won't change. I suppose SE could then decide to choose a named npc with no one else near them.

But none of this really matters because bots could very easily be coded to do this given they can do entire questlines and gathering across multiple zones on their own. Bots are already equipped with the ability to search for and get to coordinates.

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Again, I said my example is merely that, an example. Something I made up on the fly to give a general idea of what I was trying to say. You can nitpick it all you want, but it's not set in stone, and doing so doesn't make my idea a bad one. I also said in my original post that it would have to be in ARR zones because it has to be accessible to everyone; not sure why you didn't read that part.

The point was to have the player answer a question that isn't just simply "1+1=?" because bots can obviously do that. I'm not sure why you're against the concept of making it harder for bots to buy houses. Complex questions that have to be answered in order to acquire or win something is not new. I had to answer a super convoluted one for a contest once (that involved like multiplying then dividing numbers from obscure parts of three different video games), it's not that far-fetched. It's also probably not that difficult to implement some kind of quiz or question that only a human brain can parse. Bots are set to do certain things, search for certain words, etc. It's not that hard to come up with something they can't do.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

AI'm not sure why you're against the concept of making it harder for bots to buy houses.

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You misunderstand. I don't like the idea because it's not fixing the root of the issue which is the very limited number of houses. I would prefer a system that cannot be abused by bots and house hoarders, which would be proper instanced housing. If we had that instead there would be no need for demolition, placard timers, using bots to compete in the housing market, or threads like this one.

I'm not a fan of band-aid fixes but at this point it's clear we will get little more than that from SE.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

You misunderstand. I don't like the idea because it's not fixing the root of the issue which is the very limited number of houses. I would prefer a system that cannot be abused by bots and house hoarders, which would be proper instanced housing. If we had that instead there would be no need for demolition, placard timers, using bots to compete in the housing market, or threads like this one.

I'm not a fan of band-aid fixes but at this point it's clear we will get little more from that from SE.

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What was there to misunderstand? You literally never said anything about limited house numbers. You suggested one-time passwords as a way to prevent bots from buying houses, you didn't say anything about instanced housing.

Clearly you're arguing something different in your head, so I'll just let you continue doing that by yourself.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

The point was to have the player answer a question that isn't just simply "1+1=?" because bots can obviously do that.

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The problem is bots can be programmed to respond to anything that's in the game's programming, and they're generally able to do it faster than players can once the "test" parameters are known.

Quiz a player on what NPC is at a specific set of coordinates? Bot gets programmed with a list of all NPCs and their coordinates, and find the right NPC name faster than a real player could google ir or find it in-game. You might stop the players using a simple repeating script they've set up on a programmable keyboard/mouse but you're not going to stop the actual bots.

What you're suggesting still doesn't solve the real problem - lack of houses. It just becomes a waste of developer time trying to make things more difficult for real players who are still struggling to get a house.

Solve the supply problem and there would be no need for captchas or purchase timers. That would be a much better use of developer time than continuing to complicate a system that shouldn't be complicated in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

What was there to misunderstand? You literally never said anything about limited house numbers. You suggested one-time passwords as a way to prevent bots from buying houses, you didn't say anything about instanced housing.

Clearly you're arguing something different in your head, so I'll just let you continue doing that by yourself.

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I didn't go into detail but I did make it clear that I recognise that suggestions like OP made are necessary because SE have no intention of changing the housing system. I thought that comment made it pretty obvious that I'm unhappy with how the system works even if I didn't say exactly why.

I'd rather SE just make a better system instead of have players jump through even more hoops to get a house.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

I admit I'm not exactly fond of the idea to have it or captchas in order to purchase something but it's clear SE have no intention of changing the housing system enough so that things like demolition and the placard timer would no longer be needed. So with this in mind players think about ways to make it more difficult for bots to game the system, and the one-time password and/or captchas are things that could very greatly inhibit them.

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An in game pop up (In game...not cell phone app or anything) requiring you to enter a code that pops up on the screen after you win the the plot would be a great idea. Randomized code. 3 to 5 mins to respond. If you dont you lose the plot and get your cash back.

CAPTCHA can be difficult to read for people with partial vision. It would be quite annoying to spend 12 hours clicking actively, win, then get a captcha wrong three times and lose it. It's better they address the root cause, than throwing more and more complexity at the problem.

https://i.gyazo.com/ba36d285172b4bc3...026a846882.png

They could design a script to do the captcha.

Now this is one idea I can get behind. Got my support on this one :D

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Originally Posted by Jibs

An in game pop up (In game...not cell phone app or anything) requiring you to enter a code that pops up on the screen after you win the the plot would be a great idea. Randomized code. 3 to 5 mins to respond. If you dont you lose the plot and get your cash back.

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^ this too