FAIR WARNING New Housing BUG

[Scribbles]

With these new changes... a new bug

Pub 92
"Housing Updates

• Players can no longer customize their houses while the warehouse is down which will prevent lost housing changes due to server maintenance.
• OSI Houses will no longer refresh when previous house owner reactivates their account.
• Players are no longer able to place multiple houses using the resize region and multiple character"

So what they tried to fix with "players are no longer able to place multiple Houses using the resize region and multiple character" ended up 1. not working and 2. creating a new bug.

Here is the scenario.

Player A is selling a house to Player B. Player B has a house but is willing to condemn that house as he is going to sell it as soon as he has the new house. Player B accepts the new House and Condemns his Old House.

This is absolutely normal. Here is where it is not right.

Player B then sells the condemned House. Player B now only has one house on the account. He should be able to resize his new house if he so wishes with no repercussions. However, when he goes to resize the house will drop like normal but he will not be able to replace the house because of the new rule. Player B then is forced to wait the one hour "resize timer" and bring in another account to place the house at risk of losing it all together.


It would be ok if the game told Player B that he couldnt resize because he had traded/accepted a new house to recently and gave a time when he could. But the game doesnt do that, the game lets player b resize like normal and then after the fact does not let him replace.

Fixes:
1. Turn what ever you did off and leave it be as it worked fine for years.
2. Do not allow a player to Resize a house if he is under the 168 hour rule.


Luckily for me I had another account ready to place and no one was in the area to "steal" the spot. However someone else may not be as fortunate.

@Mesanna @Bleak @Kyronix

 

[Eärendil]

Yes, that is a huge Problem. Please take care for it!

 

[sablestorm]

I don't think this is a new bug. If I recall correctly, if you were to trade a house then try and place, you'd have to wait for your housing timer to run out. I remember running into this issue with resizing years ago because in essence, resizing is dropping a placing a house. The only difference is that it is saving the spot for you for a minimal amount of time.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Why on earth would resizing or remodeling have anything to do with a placement timer? That in itself makes absolutely no sense to me. And why have the timer? Just make whatever is already placed go condemned...I place a tower and an hour later find a keep spot---let me place and make the tower go condemned. Instead of micromanaging and making things difficult (I guess trying to follow in the US gov'ts footsteps), here is what you need to make it be: in two simple steps

Step one: you may place a house anytime anywhere on any shard, regardless of where you currently have a house, or when you placed it. When you do-your current house becomes irreversibly condemned.

Step two: There is no step two.

See how easy to comprehend that is?

 

[BrianFreud]

Aye, I think this is older; I ran into a similar issue a year or so ago. Had to turn on another account to run and grab the spot, and the resizing account took a full week before it was able to hold ANY house.

 

[Mr. Smither1]

That happened to me so I just warn everyone if you buy or place a new house wait a week before you resize it to avoid house placement timer issues.

 

[JC the Builder]

You should just never use house resizing, it is a minefield of potential problems.

 

[Tyrath]

Had my resizing issues and now just simply wait until the middle of the night when there are not many people on and drop the plot and replace. minimal risk and no headaches.

 

[Scribbles]

Had my resizing issues and now just simply wait until the middle of the night when there are not many people on and drop the plot and replace. minimal risk and no headaches.

that iwas actually my preferred method, but even that ran into problems this time around. You used to be able to place a house pretty much no matter what as long as there was no house on the account. with the new changes this is not the case. Pretty dumb change if you ask me. Completely unwarranted, not asked for by the customer base, and not to mention they did it wrong. People can still do the trick they tried to remove...

 

[Scribbles]

I don't think this is a new bug. If I recall correctly, if you were to trade a house then try and place, you'd have to wait for your housing timer to run out. I remember running into this issue with resizing years ago because in essence, resizing is dropping a placing a house. The only difference is that it is saving the spot for you for a minimal amount of time.

not true at all. resizing is completely different from placing and has been for many years. But even if you dont buy that... when you try to place a house the game tells you that you cant at this time and gives you a timer. The game point, period end of story should not let you resize your house unless you can actually resize your house.

 

[claudia-fjp]

"they are currently trying to change something with this new publish. I guarantee it screws up, as the last two times they have changed the way housing works they have screwed up. " -Scribbles the Prophet Feb 23, 2016

 

[Scribbles]

"they are currently trying to change something with this new publish. I guarantee it screws up, as the last two times they have changed the way housing works they have screwed up. " -Scribbles the Prophet Feb 23, 2016

I didnt want to be the guy that said i told you so... hehe. Thanks for doing it for me.

 

[Uriah Heep]

at least we got new runebook colors...

 

[Scribbles]

at least we got new runebook colors...

hahaha

 

[Zuckuss]

Why on earth would resizing or remodeling have anything to do with a placement timer? That in itself makes absolutely no sense to me. And why have the timer? Just make whatever is already placed go condemned...I place a tower and an hour later find a keep spot---let me place and make the tower go condemned. Instead of micromanaging and making things difficult (I guess trying to follow in the US gov'ts footsteps), here is what you need to make it be: in two simple steps

Step one: you may place a house anytime anywhere on any shard, regardless of where you currently have a house, or when you placed it. When you do-your current house becomes irreversibly condemned.

Step two: There is no step two.

See how easy to comprehend that is?

If done that way, then people could continuously own and occupy two house spots.

 

[Lord Arm]

I heard u can have issues if u have extra house on siege and try to resize. any problems if u place and try to move from old house? like private and cant get in to move? lol

 

[Tyrath]

that iwas actually my preferred method, but even that ran into problems this time around. You used to be able to place a house pretty much no matter what as long as there was no house on the account. with the new changes this is not the case. Pretty dumb change if you ask me. Completely unwarranted, not asked for by the customer base, and not to mention they did it wrong. People can still do the trick they tried to remove...

Curious ...... Do you have a Siege house? If you drop or resize a prodo house with a house on Siege the timer does apply. I learned this the hard way when I went to resize a keep into castle and still had 63 hours left to wait. Dropped the Siege house and could place the castle but then had to wait the full timer to replace the siege house.

 

[Scribbles]

I do have a siege house but its been there for a while.

 

[Tyrath]

There is your problem. Does not matter how long the siege house has been there. If you place a new house on prodo and drop it or try to resize it the timer goes into place. Dropping or trading the Siege house removes the timer on prodo but starts the timer on siege. Confused yet? I do a lot of house shifting so I deal with this often and it is a real PITA.

 

[Scribbles]

There is your problem. Does not matter how long the siege house has been there. If you place a new house on prodo and drop it or try to resize it the timer goes into place. Dropping or trading the Siege house removes the timer on prodo but starts the timer on siege. Confused yet? I do a lot of house shifting so I deal with this often and it is a real PITA.

HMMM for a year and a half ive never run into this issue with the siege house. Id say ive probably dropped, resized, traded, accepted at least 50 houses on that account alone in that span and never ran into the issue until now.

 

[Scribbles]

As soon as i get all of my houses and accounts back in order ill be doing another test for sure.

 

[Uriah Heep]

If done that way, then people could continuously own and occupy two house spots.

yeah for 5 days at a time...lol

 

[Zuckuss]

yeah for 5 days at a time...lol

Which could be exploited. The way the system is designed, the house decay timer precedes the replacement timer, meaning that the condemned house will fall well before one can replace.

If there was no timer, one could theoretically occupy two spots 100% of the time by electing to drop the second house at their whim and immediately replace it, condemning the first house... rinse and repeat. They could do so at any point within the five days and simply wait until no one was around to "refresh" the spot(s).

Harmless? Perhaps in most scenarios. But I can tell you that the first time it came down to this type of situation involving castle spots, foul would be cried. Your earlier post had the demeanor that your opinion was a "no brainer" and obvious, so I just wanted to point out the possible reasoning for the way it's set up.

 

[Scribbles]

Which could be exploited. The way the system is designed, the house decay timer precedes the replacement timer, meaning that the condemned house will fall well before one can replace.

If there was no timer, one could theoretically occupy two spots 100% of the time by electing to drop the second house at their whim and immediately replace it, condemning the first house... rinse and repeat. They could do so at any point within the five days and simply wait until no one was around to "refresh" the spot(s).

Harmless? Perhaps in most scenarios. But I can tell you that the first time it came down to this type of situation involving castle spots, foul would be cried. Your earlier post had the demeanor that your opinion was a "no brainer" and obvious, so I just wanted to point out the possible reasoning for the way it's set up.

I dont think its necessarily a foul if two competing players have the same tools. However, i agree on the circumstance that not all players have access to the same info.

 

[Tyrath]

Didn't want to speak to this more until I did it again. I have a Siege house on this account that has been in the same place and same account owning it for like 4 years. I demolished a Great Lakes house this morning owned by the same account but that house was transferred to that account and the 7 day timer had not spun off yet. So I tried to place the atl house and got the you must wait 106 more hours. I traded the Siege house to account without a house and the 106 hour timer was gone. In the past this has been the same scenerio with resizing and owning a Siege house on the same account. The only time it is not a issue is when the prodo shard house is past the 7 day timer. I have helped quite a few others out with that were having this problem, because most believe that the Siege house does not effect prodo shard housing. If you do not a own a Siege house you can drop and place houses all day long with the 1 hour cool down. It works the reverse on Siege as well if you own a prodo house and drop a siege house that is not past the 7 day timer you get the however many hours message. Been this way since the second house on Siege came into existence. Just not a issue the majority of people will come across. Something in the coding flags you as already having a house and triggers the 7 day timer whether it be on a fresh placement or a resize. Easy way to deal with it is keep one account on Siege homeless so you can just transfer the accounts house to that account and then after the 7 day cool down transfer the house hack to the proper account. I reported this as a bug a long long time ago but since nothing was done to correct it, I know assume they consider it to be a feature

 

[UNKNOWN of Atlantic]

Well I Least I don't think I have a siege house cus I bought an accounts years ago off ebay that was an old bod runner account ..just Blah chars ...Never had any problems till a few months ago I placed at an idoc ...Resized the plot to an 18x18. that was like 4:30am .. EST & they did a revert back to like 4am ..Now said account is bugged cant place till after the 7 day waiting period ..I could place a house, sell it & go place another house in 5 mins Now I cant due to this Bug ..I have one other account that is bugged this same way. So I don't do anything past 3:30 am anymore cus Amazingly we have 60 min server down times with reverts back 30 mins to an hour ....... seems like Atlantic is only shard that constantly has so many problems.....

 

[AtlanticRealtor]

not really!!!
Europa = 5 days without the Server goes down
LS, GL and Chessy = Missed 1 day
Atlantic was down last night for well over 3 hours!

so it is all over!!

 

[Tyrath]

Just did this again and took pics since words are failing. Dropped a house I recently placed, I can't replace for 100 hours!
Go siege and hand off the account that can't place for another 100 hours house to one of the homeless accounts
Return to GL and walla can place now and the 100 hour timer is gone

 

[Scribbles]

Just did this again and took pics since words are failing. Dropped a house I recently placed, I can't replace for 100 hours!
View attachment 45015 Go siege and hand off the account that can't place for another 100 hours house to one of the homeless accounts View attachment 45016
Return to GL and walla can place now and the 100 hour timer is gone

Only reason im doubting this is because ive never had a problem like this before. Being that ive had the siege house for at least a year and a half and never had this happen causes my speculation.

However its not to say that its a bug that only effects certain accounts and for some reason after something happens.
Ill be testing this on wednesday when all my accounts are back to 0.

Definitely appreciate the insight @Tyrath its way more than the staff has given us.

 

[Scribbles]

Just did this again and took pics since words are failing. Dropped a house I recently placed, I can't replace for 100 hours!
View attachment 45015 Go siege and hand off the account that can't place for another 100 hours house to one of the homeless accounts View attachment 45016
Return to GL and walla can place now and the 100 hour timer is gone

couldnt wait had to try.

So i just passed of my siege house. my timer still exists and still wont let me place with absolutely no houses anywhere. Even test center.

 

[Tina Small]

Just did this again and took pics since words are failing. Dropped a house I recently placed, I can't replace for 100 hours!
View attachment 45015 Go siege and hand off the account that can't place for another 100 hours house to one of the homeless accounts View attachment 45016
Return to GL and walla can place now and the 100 hour timer is gone

How long did you wait after you transferred the house on Siege before you tried to place on GL with the same account? Seems like in the past your account had to be house-free for at least an hour before you could place again, especially if you were still within the 7-day period after placing or receiving a house.

 

[Tyrath]

Took those pics over the span of 10 minutes. The House on GL that dropped was 68 hours old so the 1 hour cool down would not apply. As soon as the Siege house was transferred the 100 hours left on the 7 day time went away.

 

[Tyrath]

couldnt wait had to try.

So i just passed of my siege house. my timer still exists and still wont let me place with absolutely no houses anywhere. Even test center.

Sometimes you have to log out close the client and restart the client, log in. If you have no house anywhere then you should be able to place one on prodo.

 

[Scribbles]

Sometimes you have to log out close the client and restart the client, log in. If you have no house anywhere then you should be able to place one on prodo.

Well f me... So I went to test center to make sure i didnt have a house there. And voila there was a house there... I dropped the house and logged back on to ATL... go figure the 60 some hours i had left were gone...

So you were somewhat right... it wasnt siege but test center lol.

@Tyrath Thank you for all the help. Much more help than i got from the staff.

 

[Tyrath]

couldnt wait had to try.

So i just passed of my siege house. my timer still exists and still wont let me place with absolutely no houses anywhere. Even test center.

Something else I have encountered rarely with this is it gives you the message you have to wait x hours but you can place anyway. That has happened 3-4 times out of a couple hundreds transfers and house drops.

 

[Scribbles]

Something else I have encountered rarely with this is it gives you the message you have to wait x hours but you can place anyway. That has happened 3-4 times out of a couple hundreds transfers and house drops.

That is actually what im used to... Ill get the hours but at the very bottom of that in italic font it says false. When it says true i cant place, but false means you can place no matter the hours.

A word from professor hindsight.

If you are messing with housing make sure you dont have siege or test center houses. lol.

 

[Tyrath]

Ahhh apologies I forgot TC The officials won't even acknowledge this is a problem or that it exist. And as I said its not something most people are going to encounter.

 

[Tyrath]

It should be noted that as long as all 2-3 houses Prodo, Siege and TC are older than 168 hours none of this weird stuff will happen. Errrr or rather I should say........ Should not happen