So if new housing drops.

[Mistyregions]

What is stopping a person from having 40 odd alts patch camping the start location, running a simple bot progam/mirror to unlock it while running a multi boxing with all the accounts and buying an entire ward, and flipping them for 999 mil a pop.

[gilmorej]

Because who would pay another player 999 mil to abandon a plot and then *still* have to sit there themselves click-camping the sign post for hours because of the random timer, with a chance to lose it to someone else?

Hello?

[Moonfish]

Sanity, maybe? When Shirogane dropped it was not swarmed with bots afaik, and the last time they added wards it was limited to relocations and free companies to start. Someone running 40 bots to buy an entire ward should be miles off anyone’s radar.

[NessaWyvern]

Because who would pay another player 999 mil to abandon a plot and then *still* have to sit there themselves click-camping the sign post for hours because of the random timer, with a chance to lose it to someone else?

Hello?

If they bought it as a FC house, all they would have to do is change FC ownerships. Boom, player sells a house without having to abandon the plot.

[Kidria]

I reckon it'd be similar to how they did Shirogane, honestly. And if it's tied to the Restoration, which in turn is tied to the SERVER progress and isn't flipped on all at once, there's not a definite 'hey it's camping time' moment.

[Jojoya]

What is stopping a person from having 40 odd alts patch camping the start location, running a simple bot progam/mirror to unlock it while running a multi boxing with all the accounts and buying an entire ward, and flipping them for 999 mil a pop.

Reality.

/10char

[Vidu]

What is stopping a person from having 40 odd alts patch camping the start location, running a simple bot progam/mirror to unlock it while running a multi boxing with all the accounts and buying an entire ward, and flipping them for 999 mil a pop.

1) Multiboxing 40 alts would require 40 systems the game could run on.

2) To buy a house you still need to have certain requirements to fullfill, like reaching level 50 and being a second lieutenant in one of the GCs. They would need to level 40 alts to 50 AND do all that GC-stuff (I doubt that buying jump potions would be worth the investment)

3) Other people - no matter how good that persons scrpits are, I'd imagine they'd end up in a queue just like everyone else so its not a given that all 40 alts will get logged in in time.

4) The question: Can 40 alts even be created on the server in question? Some servers are after all simply completly locked for character creation or only have some tiny windows to allow for a few characters being created. Lots of the bots we're seeing atm on the EU-servers are being created on the new ones and use the world travel to come over, because they just cant create characters on the popular servers.

5) To make 40 alts on one servers you need to buy the game 5 times and pay 5 subscriptions... not impossible, obviously, and I suppose we all know of someone doing that to game the housing market, but still not a very likely scenario.

I'll give you the benefit to assume your post was a bit hyperbolic, so to answer the underlying question: Will the housing market be gamed? - Sure, to a degree, probably. Globaly speaking the odd plot will go to someone who technically shouldnt have that plot - like a shell-FC. But log in queues, restrictions on character creation and who can even buy land are making a scenario you described pretty unlikely...

[YatoShishi]

new housing? did I miss anything?

[DumdogsWorld]

There are people in some less reputable countries who do this kind of stuff for a living. Having 40 systems to run copies of the game on is something many of them already have at their disposal. As far as copies of the game go, many of these guys rely on using compromised accounts - they're not the ones paying for them.

However...

Every time I've heard stories about somebody buying up an entire ward, it's about somebody who's just way too good at making gil in this game, using FCs or what-not with his own alts to do it. They often go to "FFXIV real estate" sites and offer to sell their stuff for ridiculously high prices. These aren't some sweatshop bots - these are guys with way too much free time on their hands, who may or may not be participating in small-time RMT.

My guess is the real big-time botters simply have no interest in the FFXIV housing market.

[MsQi]

1) Multiboxing 40 alts would require 40 systems the game could run on.

More than 1, but less than 40.