Observations and suggestion for impeding bots grabbing FC plots

[Pashino]

This is mainly about FC wards as RMT ppl can't resell personal plots.

If one scours the housing ward listings, checking each FC plot, you'll find that a majority are held by what appears to be bot accounts, approaching 80% in datacenters like Dynamis. Typically 1-4 members, and the plot name has been renamed from a default like 'Plot4-23' to '####4-23' where the #### is the FC's nick(to keep organized on a spreadsheet, no doubt). Even after selling the plot, now showing a more reasonable number of members and some even online, the new owners don't think to rename the actual plot name so can deduce they likely bought the plot from the RMT folks. 3rd party sites often sell medium FC plots for around $800 and large for $2,000.

When premium large FC plots come up for lottery, one often sees the bids jump dramatically overnight a day before the lottery cycle ends and if you wait up for the wee hours to monitor such a plot, you can sometimes catch the procession of tiny 4-member FC's popping in rapid fire to bid on the plot. Yes, some FC's are big enough and rich enough to have a large number of members bid (which is fine) but that is not what happens in most cases involving large FC plots.

There are also plenty of ppl with personal solo 4-member FC's hunting the plots but that is a lesser issue.

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Suggestion:

For medium FC plots up for lottery, require the applying FC's to have at least 10 members, with at least 10 showing sustained membership for the prior 30 days. For large FC plots up for bid, make that 17 and the rules above. It's a bit more work for the code validating the bid, but hardly a load on the server give the scarcity of these plots.

This approach will put a lot of pressure on the RMT bot FC's, as they appear to normally shuffle members around to prep FC's for bidding. Tying up their bot armies to stay locked into a specific FC at the suggested numbers and time period should crimp them considerably, not to mention stiffing solo FC plot hunters.

I strongly urge SE to think this thru before unlocking the remaining 6 wards in Dynamis worlds if it will include FC sections. Having virtually sealed the FC plots in Dynamis(aside from Ishgard small FC plots), the bots appear to be grabbing even personal plots to lock down wards, likely in an effort to add pressure to unlock the last 6 wards.

[AlexiaD]

FC's with 1 to 4 members are not all "bots", they're called shell fcs which are used for submarines for gil making, some are botting of course, but the big majority is not.

Shell FC =/ Botting

Also no thanks for more requirements to bid, it's already enough as it is that you need 4.

This kind of thread is why it's always good to at least look things up a little bit and get informed before you throw accusations towards people, which this directly is.

The last part of your post is literally conspiracy theory so I wont even talk about that lol.

[Pashino]

Not throwing any accusations, just pointing out how the housing situation is and a solution that will help regular FC's get housing and even move up to bigger housing as their FC grows.

Bots, 'personal' FC houses, and shell FC plots for subs/gil all do nothing to grow or enrich the game population but rather frustrate the average players and FC's.

[AlexiaD]

Not throwing any accusations, just pointing out how the housing situation is and a solution that will help regular FC's get housing and even move up to bigger housing as their FC grows.

Bots, 'personal' FC houses, and shell FC plots for subs/gil all do nothing to grow or enrich the game population but rather frustrate the average players and FC's.

"Regular FC's" move just like Shell FC's move, what does that even mean lol, its RNG, shell FC's dont get bonus point in a bidding cycle.

Also me having a house or multiple houses is not supposed to grow or enrich the game population, that aint what having a house is for, I dont have a house for other people, I have a house for myself, I couldnt care less about the "average players and FC's", I play for myself, not for others.

[Mostly_Raxus]

"Regular FC's" move just like Shell FC's move, what does that even mean lol, its RNG, shell FC's dont get bonus point in a bidding cycle.

Also me having a house or multiple houses is not supposed to grow or enrich the game population, that aint what having a house is for, I dont have a house for other people, I have a house for myself, I couldnt care less about the "average players and FC's", I play for myself, not for others.

geeze... calm down blackrock.

[Pashino]

As for the sub farming, I do see a lot of calls for personal plots to have workshops, which I expect will never happen. Should also make Cereleum tanks untradeable (they are already unmarketable), would help trim bulk farming supported by one large guild generating the FC points for the fuel.

[Jojoya]

As for the sub farming, I do see a lot of calls for personal plots to have workshops, which I expect will never happen. Should also make Cereleum tanks untradeable (they are already unmarketable), would help trim bulk farming supported by one large guild generating the FC points for the fuel.

YoshiP had mentioned back in 2022 that they were experimenting with a possible personal workshop system. We've got so little information about the new lifestyle content for Dawntrail that it's possible the personal workshops are a part of it. Hard to say until it's released.

Making the ceruleum tanks untradeable probably wouldn't be that effective. Company credits are too easy to get and it doesn't take that much fuel to run the Salvaged Accessories route. SE would need to revise how Company Credits are generated to have a noticeable impact.

Oh man, can you imagine if every size of house could be built on every single plot? Effectively giving every house a large yard space inevitably changing details about the landscape. Something I think many homeowners would lose their minds over.

I would love to have a Cottage on a large sized plot (if the outdoor item limit were also increased from 40 to at least 150). I think about all my housing in RIFT and every single one I'd put more detail into the exterior areas than interior areas.

[Kyssa]

I am in a small family guild. We are active every single day. We got our large fair and square during lottery event #6. We only placed 1 bid on it (bid #101) and there were 184 bids on it, no doubt, some of those were FC's voting multiple times, which is fine. They had more chances to win and I won't argue- they had more members/gil available to, and they still didn't.

Not all small guilds are what you think they are- and just because we're a small guild, it doesn't mean we deserve less than.

[Corvus_V]

Not throwing any accusations.

You're justified in throwing accusations. He gets as defensive about the prospect of anything changing enough that you know it's his job, because he certainly couldn't justify that things should stay this way without declaring that he's basically a piss-savant.

[Yuniko]

You're justified in throwing accusations. He gets as defensive about the prospect of anything changing enough that you know it's his job, because he certainly couldn't justify that things should stay this way without declaring that he's basically a piss-savant.

Stormpeaks and AlexiaD?`yeah. best to just leave them to their own devices. :shrug: