Saw this today - I hope you're happy what this Ward system has wrought

[AvalonBright]

Whatever your team comes up with by 4.2, Square, it needs to be a hell of a lot more than just "We added three more wards everywhere" again. I honestly don't know any option besides getting your hardware in order enough to dynamically generate wards. Even LotRO managed this a decade ago.

But an auction method will be even worse than the log-in rush and screw people who aren't billionaires. A lottery method is just as terrible RNG only saving the "couldn't log in" problem. Instancing *everything* ruins the fun of meeting your neighbors and being out in the world. Expandable apartments doesn't allow people to have the fun of decorating the outside of their house or yard. It's completely unfair that Square refuses to properly invest in this game when it's one of their biggest cash cows.

Figure out dynamic wards, and do it soon. People aren't going to keep putting up with this every time new housing comes out.

[BluexBird]

This is so pathetic. Especially when you consider the fact that there is literally NOTHING that you can do in this game with millions and millions of gil.

Also, they say this stuff is against the rules, but don't bother doing anything to people who buy and/or sell houses from other players unless it's within the game. WTF? Back when I used to GM for Ragnarok Online, it was so easy to catch hackers by seeing when stuff got transferred from one account to the other. So I'm pretty freakin' sure they have access to easy-to-analyze logs that will show when someone has just obtained a house AND traded large amounts of gil to another player - an obvious indicator of people trading plots for gil.

And yet, here the GMs choose to do nothing about it. What's worse is that I bet there's people who get scammed out of their money because of this, due to players simply taking the gil and logging off without actually giving up the plot. It was a huge reason why GMs kept an eye for hackers and scammers in RO - to protect the players from getting scammed, and stop people from selling premium items for gil.

[Penthea]

And yet, here the GMs choose to do nothing about it.

Well I haven't read the thread but the post title doesn't say who they are or what wards they're selling in. If this information isn't openly provided then what do you expect Gms to do? Set up a team of patrols on every subdivision on that server?

Yea it's crap but I think you forget the limits SE have when dealing with things that are organised outside of their games or forums.

Don't bash the Gms. Bash SE who have allowed the housing situation to fester.

[BluexBird]

What do I expect GMs to do? It wouldn't be hard to implement a mechanism in the game that triggers when someone relinquishes a plot AND receives a large amount of gil at the same time.

Now that I think about it, relinquishing a plot is a BIG DEAL, considering how sought-after plots are. Plus, there aren't that many plots per server. Think about how often plots get relinquished. I'd say 10 a month would already be a big number. Now what if whenever a plot gets relinquished, GMs (or equivalent) get notified and are able to investigate the character who did so, to try and see if it was sold to another player? It wouldn't take a lot of time, and it would turn the spotlight into people who only bought a house so that they could sell it.

But honestly though, with the way it gets handled, it's like this sort of thing isn't even against the rules.

[Khanscott]

GMs could always make temp characters and nail these guys to the floor in an undercover sting. Drop permabans left and right, nothing of value lost to the community. But such things are little more than fever dreams.

[NaoTenbe]

So this is one of those things a time delay on relinquishing a house, and a house being available would help deal with.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

What do I expect GMs to do?

To be fair, SE puts a lot of obstacles on GMs. One of the biggest issues with PvP right now is how utterly worthless reporting people is. They still insist video evidence isn't admissible but it could be edited. So while a flag to notify when large amounts of gil are moved would help, it's SE who has to allow their GMs to act.

[Penthea]

What do I expect GMs to do? It wouldn't be hard to implement a mechanism in the game that triggers when someone relinquishes a plot AND receives a large amount of gil at the same time.

I agree it should be handled better but you're getting mad at the wrong people. GMs are support staff. They help players who make tickets and they investigate reports. They don't create any sort of content. Developers are the ones who create the tools. You should be getting mad at the people who dictate what tools are made and how they're used, which is SE. Don't direct your anger at people who aren't even remotely calling the shots on how housing is handled.

GMs could always make temp characters and nail these guys to the floor in an undercover sting. Drop permabans left and right, nothing of value lost to the community. But such things are little more than fever dreams.

They would have to be allowed to do that. There might be some legal ramifications about intentionally tricking a player into committing something against the terms of use. Furthermore while GM stands for Game Master, they really are anything but that. They don't get to choose any methods they like while doing their job because they have strict rules to follow. These people are not in constant god-mode, they are customer (and sometimes internal) support. If you don't like what they're doing then get mad at their boss. Not them. Expecting them to take it upon themselves to make huge changes to the state of housing is like expecting a receptionist to make the parking area have more spaces. At most they can pass on what they think needs to be addressed, but no more than that.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

So this is one of those things a time delay on relinquishing a house, and a house being available would help deal with.

Sort of. If they make personal houses too difficult to flip, people will simply buy dummy FCs. Now if housing weren't so limited, you wouldn't see sales like this because who would buy them? I'm glad people keep queuing reddit. It's this sort of thing we need the devs to see.

[Ayerinn]

Sort of. If they make personal houses too difficult to flip, people will simply buy dummy FCs. Now if housing weren't so limited, you wouldn't see sales like this because who would buy them? I'm glad people keep queuing reddit. It's this sort of thing we need the devs to see.

Depends though...larges are too cheap so everyone wants a large - housing would literally need to be unlimited (aka instanced) for their not to be demand for certain locations/sizes.