House camping function

[Jojoya]

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.

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.

[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.