House camping function

[drkekyll]

That in turn is going to disrupt the communication between game server and player client that the player is still in camp mode to purchase the plot.

I don't think that would have any impact on the game server knowing you're still in camp mode unless you were trying to toggle it on at the last minute (in which case, that's unfortunate but *shrug*). Otherwise it can be coded to avoid that issue. The rest of your concerns are valid though. But not knowing how long I'd need to wait around to know if I get the plot or not is the worst part about the current system to me. I don't really care about the clicking as much as not knowing exactly when and for how long to be concerned.

[artlessknave]

It would depend a lot on the unmet demand for a given server. Having 300 players (zone instance limit) all standing at a relatively precise location is not good for server stability and generally is murder on the players' consoles and computers. If only a couple of dozen players were showing up, then the timer could go away.

Keep in mind some players showing up wouldn't even be there to purchase. They would only be there to mess around spamming spell effects and what not because they'd have a captive audience. The servers would still be trying to communicate that the effects are happening to my system even if I have their display disabled. That in turn is going to disrupt the communication between game server and player client that the player is still in camp mode to purchase the plot.

I'd say keep the timer in place, just make the max duration shorter than the current 24 hours or whatever it is.

absolutely, server load is an issue. I've thought of having something like a duty instance, where only the active campers show up, but then that adds load to the duty servers (possibly fairly small overall though. i think there is like 1 plot open at a time on my entire server, but still a consideration). I would have to leave the details of the implementation to SE, because I just don't have access to the infrastructure to know what can and cant be done.
it possible that this would allow so many people to start camping that it could be a huge issue.

[artlessknave]

What is this in response to? Because I'm not sure how a camping function would favor bots in any way. It favors people with nothing else to do in game at any given time which can be anyone. If you're responding to Thorncraft's word vomit, please don't. They have posted that in several threads as well as their own. This thread is about the camping function and I'd love to stay on topic with questions and suggestions to make this something SE might actually do.

Personally, I'm in favor of the deposit that's refunded when someone else gets the plot. I'm also not entirely convinced transfers shouldn't just wait with everyone else, but that's certainly not a deal-breaker for me. Removing the punishing need to click if you really want a house would be enough.

Also, would you even need the random timer anymore with this? Like... as long as there was some amount of time for word to spread about the plot, everyone could know they need to be in camp mode by a certain time and there's essentially just a raffle to all the characters present with the gil.

exactly how you pay for it would be up to SE. pay a deposit and refund, or pay as soon as timer ends, or something else that accomplishes similar, all depends on what can actually be implemented. maybe it would take the hamsters to long to calculate the refund for 30 players all putting in a deposit. i just don't know, but to match the current system, you would have to have the money ready, the same as if you were spamming the placard. maybe you get a ticket and have an hour to pay before the next person, but that becomes more of a lottery system, which they have clearly refused, or are unable, to implement. again, minimalism is the goal.

I would leave the random timer because it aims at a different problem, scalping. you cant buy a plot and sell it for ludicrous prices if you cant choose the buyer. as soon as you have a predictable timer, plot flipping becomes viable.

[drkekyll]

I would leave the random timer because it aims at a different problem, scalping. you cant buy a plot and sell it for ludicrous prices if you cant choose the buyer. as soon as you have a predictable timer, plot flipping becomes viable.

This problem is solved by a timer at all; it needn't be random. As long as there is time for other people to get to the plot to click, you can't guarantee a direct transaction. FC selling is easier. The random aspect adds very little here, and the length of the random timer just favors people who can AFK for the entire window meaning you're encouraging people to not play the game.

[artlessknave]

This problem is solved by a timer at all; it needn't be random. As long as there is time for other people to get to the plot to click, you can't guarantee a direct transaction. FC selling is easier. The random aspect adds very little here, and the length of the random timer just favors people who can AFK for the entire window meaning you're encouraging people to not play the game.

yes, you can, because if the timer is 4 hours long, you dont relenquish the plot until a time when you know that 4 hours later there will be the least number of players online, and your buyer knows the exact time. THAT is why it's a random timer, as soon as it's a predictable value you can manipulate it to increase the changes of what you want. if you can get 10 plots for 50 mil gold each, and sell 80% of them sucessfully for 150 mil each, you still made a profit over the loss on the 20%. if you can convince your buyer to pay the full price up front...then you made even more profit. that kind of scamming is allowed in EVE, but not ffxiv.

[artlessknave]

Bots would still win over human beings and there still is th edge that PC users will and can use 3rd party software to steal away housing from PS4 and 5 users who can not do such thing themself and with that creating an unfair advantage.

x amount of clicks per placecard per day, would flush all that out and add a somewhat similar system to what you propose.

no, they wouldn't, that's the whole point, to give the bots and macros the exact same chances of a real player. the current system rewards macros. macroing the placard is *stupidly* easy. pretty sure I can write a macro for it *from memory*. it takes like 10 lines, that's part of what gave me the idea for this, to make macroing pointless in the first place.

I'm not against having to refresh "camp mode" periodically, but since that could likely just be macrod anyway, what does it actually accomplish, other than again, specifically giving bots and macros the advantage? 24 hours is actually a bad number, 10-20 is reasonable. too often and it just encourages automation again, too long and people will just leave it for a week.
hacks is outside my intended scope, that's an SE problem. the main bot that I have seen for ffxiv doesn't hack the game, it just reads RAM content which is not protected, or reads network packets, which are again, not protected. nothing I can think of to do about that other than using malware like other asian game companies do.

[Caitsithhh]

Bots would still win over human beings and there still is th edge that PC users will and can use 3rd party software to steal away housing from PS4 and 5 users who can not do such thing themself and with that creating an unfair advantage.

x amount of clicks per placecard per day, would flush all that out and add a somewhat similar system to what you propose.

Oof placard spam on console.

[Themarvin]

Better system would be if am at a ward for more than 30 minutes, you wont be able to click placecards anymore, especially if having been standing still in a radius of 15m of it as in setting up perimeter detectors around open plots, after that you will fget a 3 hour lockdown before can click a placecard again, timer will be cumulative of course, meaning cant just enter, click go away enter again and or activate a timer in which amount of time you can be clicking it for then expecting a lockout for 3 hours.

At least people would get to play the game as well.

[artlessknave]

Better system would be if am at a ward for more than 30 minutes, you wont be able to click placecards anymore, especially if having been standing still in a radius of 15m of it as in setting up perimeter detectors around open plots, after that you will fget a 3 hour lockdown before can click a placecard again, timer will be cumulative of course, meaning cant just enter, click go away enter again and or activate a timer in which amount of time you can be clicking it for then expecting a lockout for 3 hours.

At least people would get to play the game as well.

no. better idea is the lotto they are aparently going to make. if they do that then I dont care anymore.