Addressing the locked plots and random timers...

[Shosae]

I actually spent a bit of time scouring through these forums and came across a few incidents of people that have camped in front of locked plots that are under a timer for hours on end for multiple days. I thought maybe now is a good time to write my opinions about this:

Now before you assume: I agree that the random timers are effective, but I feel like Square underestimates how many people will literally sit at locked plots for many hours, sleep deprived and possibly ruining their health for this ingame feature until a relocator comes by. I am from Balmung, a congested server that is VERY notorious for being the first among servers to lose housing in minutes, but we despite our shortage we are actually getting relinquished plots coming in about maybe amounts of 2-3 every few days now and most of them are being bought up because there are campers there and so far it seems that a majority of the plots become available after 7-10+ hours, but that’s my observations. From exploring the forums here, so far I noticed that there are other people from other servers who also house hunting in the same fashion: And I believe that having to camp a plot for a good portion of a day is a rather poor choice and a really bad idea....

Yes, we do have the choice to NOT do this, but honestly some people will do it if it means they’ll be able to access the content. That part is a fault in its own, but I still feel it is a serious matter and should be looked into. For one, not a lot of people have the ability to plot camp because they have real life obligations. So basically now it dumbs down to the whole point of how long you decide to spend time camping a locked plot and how fast you’re clicking….I mean you might as well implement an RNG based lottery mechanic where all of your gil is also refunded should you not win the plot(s).

I know the lottery has been rejected before but I feel like this could be useful for the locked plots because it will stop people from having to spend hours camping and it gives people who are unable to do so, just insert their money and check back later if they won or not. Also you can no longer own multiple houses so it’s not a terrible idea. Again, using a lottery system on LOCKED houses may help out.

Now before you reject the lottery idea: I don’t like RNG myself, but most of the game is based on RNG and it’s not as damaging to someone’s physical and mental state. Plus this is more useful for locked plots to stop people from camping so that they can go about with their day. Relocators are probably a whole different issue though...

That's my opinion on this matter, if you have a better idea at all feel free to share, I wanted to put this out after witnessing most of the camping while participating myself. Whether you like my idea or not, I feel there needs to be some sort of improvement regarding buying plots that shouldn’t be something that encourages health issues.

[Madbunny]

1. In this game no one is forcing anyone to anything.
2. Player health should be his/her primary concern and if someone wants to spend countless hours on something its their call.
3. People who spend more time waiting for the plot to be available have a right to have an advantage over others who dont want or cant.
4. People who can spend more time in the game will have all sorts of advantages over others who can play only few hours per week if not less.

A side note: There was quite few situations where someone was camping for hours and then lose the plot to someone who just logged because he went to the bathroom. So i would say lets do next thing - for each hour someone is camping (and the game will check if he is afk or not) for him the random timer will decrease by 5 seconds. In other words, lets say for some X plot the game put a random timer of 12 hours. So for each hour someone is camping for him/her the timer will decrease for 5 seconds. That means if someone was not afk and next to the plot for 11 hours for him the timer will go off after 11h:59m:05 seconds, or 55 seconds before others. In this way he will ger fair chance to grab that plot and not lose because of 30 sec of bathroom time. If that person goes afk or move away from the plot the bonus will reset.
I would say this is fair - lets reward people who spent so many hours camping some plot and not breaking the game for others.

[Kleeya]

And how do you check that people are really afk, and not using some macros or bot to click repeatedly on the buy button while they are at school or something ?

The true solution so that any player can buy a house whenever they want, without harming their health in a 10 hour camping at the same place, is instanced housing. And i am saying that even if i did get a nice well placed little house with the last changes.

[Madbunny]

And how do you check that people are really afk, and not using some macros or bot to click repeatedly

A simple mini-game every X minutes would solve both problems. The game should be something simple but full random so no repeating patterns and must be opt-in, e.g. once you click on the plot you would have an option to select and gain bonus time. But this should be optional and if you dont want then you could just jump in occasionally to check, same as many people are doing right now.
No one is harming their health, its the players choice to wait for long hours in front of the plot. Well at least with my suggestion they will be rewarded as right now you could literally wait for hours, go to take a coffee and once you are back the plot was sold to someone else.

[Jojoya]

People need to take responsibility for their own actions. It's not up to SE to play mom and dad to adults with zero self control.

A lottery would be a nightmare for SE to administer.

If people want to camp, let them camp. It doesn't change someone else walking up at just the right moment to snag the plot and then the camper learns a lesson.

The only thing that needs to addressed further is flippers. Making the timer apply equally to relocations and new purchases would be a start. Trying to figure out a way to prevent sale of FCs with houses would be the final step, though that may not be possible if it interferes with legit FC activity.

A simple mini-game every X minutes would solve both problems.

People already scream at games requiring use of Captchas to try to deter bots. They'd be raging if they had to play a mini-game in order to try to purchase a house.

Nothing is going to stop campers in the long run so why waste effort on the problem?

[Madbunny]

People already scream at games requiring use of Captchas to try to deter bots. They'd be raging if they had to play a mini-game in order to try to purchase a house.
Nothing is going to stop campers in the long run so why waste effort on the problem?

I never said this would be required but optional and i think its fair, e.g. effort vs reward. So if someone doesnt want to play this mini-game nothing will change for him, but if someone decided to sit in front of the plot for hours because the house justify this time then lets reward those players... again if they chose to "apply" for the bonus. I think its really unfair that someone was sitting there for countless hours and then he lost the plot because of some random&stupid reason, like bathroom, coffee, drink, kiss the wife for goodnight, etc. In this way those people will get just a little advantage over others who spend 1/10 of the time waiting or literally were so lucky to jump in the right time.

[Mikki]

Honestly, I feel like the rng timer is mostly a punishment to honest players. Resellers still get around it with relocations and giving away FCs with housing. With the huge change of 1 house per server, I don't even think removing the timer would make much of a difference. And when the solution to these frustrated players complaints is "buy a small house you don't want and relocate to one you do when it is available", then I think we've only created another problem in its place.

I would say we should just remove the timer and see how it goes.

The whole point of the change was meant to give everyone a fair shot at housing. How is it fair that the player who is crazy enough to spend ALL DAY sitting in front of a plot, ignoring work, school and their own health, is the one who is most likely to get the plot now? You can all say that your own life and health are on you and that's certainly true but when you're forced to make the choice to ignore your own needs or never get a chance at this, then I think something is fundamentally wrong here.

Of course, you could also move to a small server... which is what I did. But I do feel a bit sad being a roleplayer and being on a server where pretty much no one RPs. Oh well. I really wanted that house.

[DrWho2010]

it was the dishonest people that lead to this situation. now we have a solution but it is what it is because the bad ppl ruined it for everyone else. this is what we have to live with. *shrug*