Ban Service Accounts with more than 1 FC house

[Aidorouge]

Free Company homes belong to the Free Company not a singular player. So you are wrong does not matter who holds the winning ticket they are not the owner of the home.

Aye, I was the one who won an FC plot back in the day, but when I handed leadership over before moving, the game didn't stop me at the door because I "owned" the house, it only stopped me because the new player "hadn't been a member long enough".

Unless there's some spaghetti code that literally takes 30 days for the game to acknowledge other FC members as "potential" owners? Because it wouldn't surprise me given how wack everything else is around housing and FCs, including the part that lets people cheat the system to inherit multiple houses to begin with.
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Final thought, even if multi-owners are forced to give up all of their houses I'm sure there's an awareness that there still won't be enough houses for everyone because of wanting a specific plot or a specific size on a X or Y server. So, personally I think this will just be a bandaid solution and we'll have another discussion coming up about how housing is still unfair because some still won't be able to get the plot they actually want. So, will getting rid of multi-owners actually fix the issue at hand for all of you?

Yes, it would fix it actually, because I'm less concerned with everyone being able to get a house (which is already known to be impossible due to scarcity, and I don't care to ever own another house myself), but rather I would see an end to gil farming, which can 100% be destroyed overnight if Square-Enix simply patched out the items worth tons of gil.

At which point the house hoarding problem would "fix its self" because the grand majority of those exploiting the current system are doing it solely to print gil and with the incentive gone, many of those shell FCs would evaporate within hours. That's hardly a "bandaid" solution, that's life-changing surgery and it would only take one little hotfix... provided we ever got Square-Enix to realize there's even a problem.

Which makes me wonder if this is even something that happens on JP data centers or if its exclusively an NA and OCE thing (I'm not sure about EU), and much like how Yoshi-P didn't believe RMT was even a thing until he saw it first-hand when he visited NA, or how he might be completely oblivious to all of the DDoS going on right now on NA...

It's entirely possible we're mistaking ignorance for malice, but that also leaves the GMs powerless to do anything because its not like they have Yoshi-P on speed dial, and with them having recently gutted their NA division (which likely includes GMs as they're among the lowest ones on the totem pole), there's little chance of Square-Enix ever realizing there's an issue with house hoarding to begin with because they don't experience it on their side of the ocean.

[NanaWiloh]

Aye, I was the one who won an FC plot back in the day, but when I handed leadership over before moving, the game didn't stop me at the door because I "owned" the house, it only stopped me because the new player "hadn't been a member long enough".

Unless there's some spaghetti code that literally takes 30 days for the game to acknowledge other FC members as "potential" owners? Because it wouldn't surprise me given how wack everything else is around housing and FCs, including the part that lets people cheat the system to inherit multiple houses to begin with.
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Yes, it would fix it actually, because I'm less concerned with everyone being able to get a house (which is already known to be impossible due to scarcity, and I don't care to ever own another house myself), but rather I would see an end to gil farming, which can 100% be destroyed overnight if Square-Enix simply patched out the items worth tons of gil.

At which point the house hoarding problem would "fix its self" because the grand majority of those exploiting the current system are doing it solely to print gil and with the incentive gone, many of those shell FCs would evaporate within hours. That's hardly a "bandaid" solution, that's life-changing surgery and it would only take one little hotfix... provided we ever got Square-Enix to realize there's even a problem.

Which makes me wonder if this is even something that happens on JP data centers or if its exclusively an NA and OCE thing (I'm not sure about EU), and much like how Yoshi-P didn't believe RMT was even a thing until he saw it first-hand when he visited NA, or how he might be completely oblivious to all of the DDoS going on right now on NA...

It's entirely possible we're mistaking ignorance for malice, but that also leaves the GMs powerless to do anything because its not like they have Yoshi-P on speed dial, and with them having recently gutted their NA division (which likely includes GMs as they're among the lowest ones on the totem pole), there's little chance of Square-Enix ever realizing there's an issue with house hoarding to begin with because they don't experience it on their side of the ocean.

GM's in this game are borderline useless cause of how tight of a leash they are on and what ever god awful guidelines they have to follow. I don't blame them for the position their stuck in, Bet more then few would like to help more then they are allowed too.

[Naphtalia]

Unless there's some spaghetti code that literally takes 30 days for the game to acknowledge other FC members as "potential" owners?
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Yes, it would fix it actually, because I'm less concerned with everyone being able to get a house (which is already known to be impossible due to scarcity, and I don't care to ever own another house myself), but rather I would see an end to gil farming, which can 100% be destroyed overnight if Square-Enix simply patched out the items worth tons of gil.

At which point the house hoarding problem would "fix its self" because the grand majority of those exploiting the current system are doing it solely to print gil and with the incentive gone, many of those shell FCs would evaporate within hours. That's hardly a "bandaid" solution, that's life-changing surgery and it would only take one little hotfix... provided we ever got Square-Enix to realize there's even a problem.

Which makes me wonder if this is even something that happens on JP data centers or if its exclusively an NA and OCE thing (I'm not sure about EU), and much like how Yoshi-P didn't believe RMT was even a thing until he saw it first-hand when he visited NA, or how he might be completely oblivious to all of the DDoS going on right now on NA...

It's entirely possible we're mistaking ignorance for malice, but that also leaves the GMs powerless to do anything because its not like they have Yoshi-P on speed dial, and with them having recently gutted their NA division (which likely includes GMs as they're among the lowest ones on the totem pole), there's little chance of Square-Enix ever realizing there's an issue with house hoarding to begin with because they don't experience it on their side of the ocean.

To answer as much of this as I can:

- The 30 day restriction was implemented to try to curb how quickly people could make FCs in an attempt to slow down multi-owning/house trading. So ultimately the game doesn't view new members as eligible for leadership until they've been there for 30 days.

- As far as RMT, it would make a dent sure but it wouldn't 100% remove it because a large chunk of RMT also comes from botting. The million lalafell alts you see running around all the time are leveling for the purpose of farming gil, for example through Eureka bunny fates. There's probably newer ways that they farm it now but I just remember that being one of the main ways of funneling RMT when I first started playing.

- As far as it happening on JP, it does. There's a rather well known person on Tonberry (I think?) who owns an entire ward and has since housing was first implemented however many years ago now. She might actually be the first ever ward owner but unsure. My old FC leader told me she slowly bought up all of the plots because they were just sitting for months on end or something like that when the game had a much lower population. EU also has their share of multi-owners as well. It's definitely not an isolated OCE/NA thing.

[ShadowyZero]

i say we just need a complete overhaul of this housing system its long overdue and had been a complete after thought in the developers minds since they added the lottery thing an they've pushed back the update that was supposed to happen because its likely they realized their system can't really handle it an don't won't take make any false promises to get yelled at by the fans and housing enthusiasts etc.
and what i would i like to see is for them to either de-couple wards from private owners an give private owners their own instance with which they can design their own homestead with any house size they want it to be an let the free companies run and preserve the ward style housing. that or just completely add a secluded housing separately so people can leave the ward if they want too to put less stress on the ward servers i think that may have been something they were trying to experiment with using the island sanctuary but backed off cause it was effecting the housing servers still an making them crash.
but yea i think a making a separate housing option would have a pretty decent impact an make the wards balance out better.

[Aidorouge]

- As far as RMT, it would make a dent sure but it wouldn't 100% remove it because a large chunk of RMT also comes from botting. The million lalafell alts you see running around all the time are leveling for the purpose of farming gil, for example through Eureka bunny fates. There's probably newer ways that they farm it now but I just remember that being one of the main ways of funneling RMT when I first started playing.

- As far as it happening on JP, it does. There's a rather well known person on Tonberry (I think?) who owns an entire ward and has since housing was first implemented however many years ago now. She might actually be the first ever ward owner but unsure. My old FC leader told me she slowly bought up all of the plots because they were just sitting for months on end or something like that when the game had a much lower population. EU also has their share of multi-owners as well. It's definitely not an isolated OCE/NA thing.

Making a dent is better than just doing nothing at all and letting the problem get worse (though the possibility that's there's more bots than actual players anymore is already dire), otherwise what's the point of complaining about anything at all if the answer is always going to be "can't be helped, get used to it".

Though if this is indeed happening on JP data centers too, than Square-Enix likely does not in fact care about house hoarding (or frankly, the game in general) and we're all stuck with a game that barely functions while it coasts through maintenance mode.

[Naphtalia]

Making a dent is better than just doing nothing at all and letting the problem get worse (though the possibility that's there's more bots than actual players anymore is already dire), otherwise what's the point of complaining about anything at all if the answer is always going to be "can't be helped, get used to it".

Though if this is indeed happening on JP data centers too, than Square-Enix likely does not in fact care about house hoarding (or frankly, the game in general) and we're all stuck with a game that barely functions while it coasts through maintenance mode.

Never said "can't be helped, get used to it". Just was saying that it wouldn't 100% destroy RMT, we'd ultimately need more drastic measures for that to happen. Complaints should be given about it, of course.

I think they're stuck in a problem of their own making with how they handle leadership transferring because it is something that is needed in the event FC leads need to step down but don't want to have the FC disbanded as a result. I think having that as a function is fair and should exist for the community. It would just need to somehow be corrected or adjusted to check for other characters a person has on the same server before passing lead over and I'm not sure how technically difficult/time consuming that would be with how they've built the game already.

[Themarvin]

+1

I too think something should be done about it.

[s32ialx]

Never said "can't be helped, get used to it". Just was saying that it wouldn't 100% destroy RMT, we'd ultimately need more drastic measures for that to happen. Complaints should be given about it, of course.

I think they're stuck in a problem of their own making with how they handle leadership transferring because it is something that is needed in the event FC leads need to step down but don't want to have the FC disbanded as a result. I think having that as a function is fair and should exist for the community. It would just need to somehow be corrected or adjusted to check for other characters a person has on the same server before passing lead over and I'm not sure how technically difficult/time consuming that would be with how they've built the game already.

exactly it should check are there more than 1 active players with more than 30 days and what are their ranks, does the highest most active player rank already have an alt that already owns and FC with a house (if yes do not pass lead / if no pass lead). But no instead how it ACTUALLY works is whose the first person to login after the FC leader quits, pass lead.

[Brandr]

Before reading this thread I was like "is it really a big deal?".

Then after reading the evidences of hoarders arrogance, like owning a whole ward and naming all houses the same, their unapologetic replies, I changed my mind.

I'd onboard on mass ban. Like, banning 10 hoarders would free half of all houses of a world.

[Naphtalia]

exactly it should check are there more than 1 active players with more than 30 days and what are their ranks, does the highest most active player rank already have an alt that already owns and FC with a house (if yes do not pass lead / if no pass lead). But no instead how it ACTUALLY works is whose the first person to login after the FC leader quits, pass lead.

That's pretty "normal" I think in the MMO/online sphere for it to work that way, at the very least I know SWTOR's guild system auto applies the leader role to whoever logs in first after the lead goes inactive. I know quite a few gachas and mobile games that do the same thing as well when it comes to their guild system (though they have ways to vote people out of leadership). The only difference is that housing is tied to FCs so that turns a relatively normal function in a game into a problem.

Again, I don't know how complicated it would be for the system to do that but the issue very clearly lies in the inheritance system, even moreso than the bidding system because houses are still just sitting abandoned on Dynamis lol. A friend of mine had a mansion sitting in his ward for about a month before he finally just bid and relocated since no one else was. XD