How the invisible timer can REALLY ruin housing

[Kazrah]

So I'm not posting this because I would do this (which I wouldn't), nor do I promote anyone doing this. Because I feel that something needs to be done about the invisible lockout timers on plots, I'm going to explain how they can be abused by potentially a single person to further worsen the housing crisis in the game.

Suppose, for example, you're sitting on a ton of gil even after buying a housing plot. Maybe you want to upgrade or you don't like where your house is or maybe you just want your house elsewhere, so you transfer to another open plot. Sure, you might annoy someone who had been sitting on that plot for hours waiting on that invisible timer, but transferring a plot bypasses that timer and you get that new dream plot, putting your original plot on the timer. Then maybe that dream plot you just bought isn't all you wanted it to be for some reason or another, so you buy another, again bypassing that invisible timer and getting that plot. This now puts two plots at the start of their invisible timers.

Now suppose someone more malicious with way too much gil and even more spare time comes along. If they kept doing this for multiple plots, meaning multiple plots would be on the start of their invisible timers. So long as they have the money and spare time, that one person could effectively keep several plots on lockdown with the sole intent of barring multiple players from purchasing a housing plot unless they already own one. What makes matters worse is that while it could technically qualify as "disruptive behavior" according to the Terms of Service, there would be no real way of proving that such an individual did this since they still only holding one plot at a time to their name.

Once again, I have no intention of committing the aforementioned act, nor would I ever condone anyone committing such an act. I only point it out for the purposes of alleviating the overall issue of housing in this game.

Now how could it be fixed? My guess for the dev fix would likely be to make those invisible random timers prevent plot transfers since that would be the easiest fix (and sadly what seems to be the go-to when it comes to fixing complaints), which would only result in expanding how many players there are who are already vehemently and/or angrily opposed to the invisible random timers.

Another easy solution would be to simply remove those invisible random timers, although that would go against whatever bizarre reason there is for why those timers are there in the first place. The compromise would be some sort of indicator saying "this plot's about to be available soon", but that seems like way too much work for what is already an utterly idiotic system.

At the end of the day, I'm not quite sure devs are truly aware of how far players are willing to go to get their precious piece of land in the game. Players will wait 12 hours (which I did), 24 hours or longer just to get a house. The least devs can do is do something about the timers so that they are not a risk to the physical well-being of dedicated players who may not have a problem sacrificing it for a house or emotional well-being of players victimized by someone abusing the system.

[Gula]

There's a certain very annoying, obnoxious and player who must not be named who does this. They admitted as such, and I don't think has been banned for it, despite well deserving of it, because the people they are abusing likely don't know who they are, and wouldn't report it. But it is possible.

[MaybeOliverB]

I'm going to explain how they can be abused by potentially a single person to further worsen the housing crisis in the game.

From SE's perspective, more gil gets taken out of the game so why would they care? There are servers in this game where housing can be purchased on sight. If someone's harming themselves when they have better options, that's on them really.

There's a certain very annoying, obnoxious and player who must not be named who does this. They admitted as such, and I don't think has been banned for it, despite well deserving of it, because the people they are abusing likely don't know who they are, and wouldn't report it. But it is possible.

[Kazrah]

From SE's perspective, more gil gets taken out of the game so why would they care? There are servers in this game where housing can be purchased on sight. If someone's harming themselves when they have better options, that's on them really.

They'd care because no amount of gil lost on a server can pay off all the bad press they've been getting about the housing issue along with unhappy players, both of which result in potentially lost revenue.

Then again, if you're causing the problem, you clearly wouldn't understand how much damage abusing a system can do to a game.

[MaybeOliverB]

They'd care because no amount of gil lost on a server can pay off all the bad press they've been getting about the housing issue along with unhappy players, both of which result in potentially lost revenue.

Then again, if you're causing the problem, you clearly wouldn't understand how much damage abusing a system can do to a game.

Bad press about housing? Game outlets are praising this game at the moment, especially with the release of ShadowBringers. They just announced how they went beyond 1m active players. Obviously they are worrying about a minority of players on the NA servers, who instead of unsubscribing, spend their free time clicking on a placard or use automation . There's no lost revenue over this. If anything, the current system keeps player subscribed just to reset housing timers, which is an issue on it's own.

I very much understand housing, just look at the signature. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy and delusion that is plaguing this forum. Before complaining about the visible minority of multi-house owners, it might be wiser to talk about the thousands of players who take advantage of the very generous demolition timer or those who willingly let their house get demolished when they could obviously relinquish right away instead of letting their house in limbo for 45 days. Then there's personal house owners who don't have the maximum amount of tenants that is permitted as those players are effectively preventing any houseless rank 6 FC from having a house.

[Ryaz]

Considering you don't get any gil back when you relinquish your house and 80% when you let the timer go, it's not really strange that people would rather let their time lapse than give up their plot right away. The system doesn't encourage people to do that.

[MomomiMomi]

Considering you don't get any gil back when you relinquish your house and 80% when you let the timer go, it's not really strange that people would rather let their time lapse than give up their plot right away. The system doesn't encourage people to do that.

Which is yet another issue with the system that nobody ever talks about.

[MaybeOliverB]

Considering you don't get any gil back when you relinquish your house and 80% when you let the timer go, it's not really strange that people would rather let their time lapse than give up their plot right away. The system doesn't encourage people to do that.

And somehow that excuses the behavior? Most auto-demos are small houses. If the owners are so desperate to get 3m back, even though they decided to unsub (in most cases), why do they own a house to begin with. 3m is absolutely nothing at this point in the game's life. Literally pocket change. Time being the most valuable thing one can have, I find it quite shocking anyone believes that such a meaningless amount of gil can justify keeping a plot from going back to the market for a month and a half.

And they call us selfish huh...

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

And somehow that excuses the behavior? Most auto-demos are small houses. If the owners are so desperate to get 3m back, even though they decided to unsub (in most cases), why do they own a house to begin with. 3m is absolutely nothing at this point in the game's life. Literally pocket change. Time being the most valuable thing one can have, I find it quite shocking anyone believes that such a meaningless amount of gil can justify keeping a plot from going back to the market for a month and a half.

And they call us selfish huh...

3 million is pocket change to YOU. Not to every player.

[MomomiMomi]

3 million is pocket change to YOU. Not to every player.

It's pocket change to anyone who puts even a modicum of effort into trying to make gil.