Quote Originally Posted by Jojoya View Post
Then why weren't players making other suggestions back then if the timer wasn't the answer?

There wasn't a lot of pushback to Almangus's original suggestion. On the surface it was a sound idea and actually did work for all of 4.2 and 4.3, along with most of 4.4. The only world during that period that had perpetual complaints about trying to get a house was Balmung and that's because Balmung was severely congested at that time.

It stopped working as efficiently when the player base exploded in size in the first half of 2019 but there was no corresponding increase in the number of plots on each world.

If we had gotten an increase to the number of plots sufficient for the new size of the player base, the timer would have continued to work well. There would still be some flipping on the side for those trying to get medium and large houses (that will always be a problem as long as the quantities are very limited) but no one would have had to go through a flipper or camp a placard to get their first house.

We're right back to where these discussions always end up - supply. If the supply was sufficient, the timer wouldn't be a problem.
'On the surface' maybe, it was a kneejerk response from a playerbase tired of the reselling and I am sure it looked like a housing savior idea. In reality mmm no, it completely backfired. It was overkill being a 24 hour timer. And no one thought through the ways the resellers and flippers could get around this bar. ​But agreed, SE could easily put this all to rest just by eliminating the supply problem from the equation.

As for why didn't people make their own suggestions, perhaps they weren't even aware of the OF at the time? Or they've started playing since then? I mean, I didn't even know about them till recently myself.
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Quote Originally Posted by Jojoya View Post
No one has to buy a bot program to auto-click a placard. All it takes is a simple macro on a programmable keyboard. Bot developers aren't making a killing off housing in the game (though they're definitely doing well on other grindy aspects).
Have you tried one of those simple macros? I have, others have. We've even shot videos of their use and traded them between ourselves because curiosity. They're not very good lol. Also yes, there are definitely people using this bot and the bot maker is selling it for quite a bit of money to pay for the keys to be able to keep using it. And the use of it is on the uptick as people crowd around placards and get tired of losing out to other people.