ArcheAge - You Scripter!

Now that ArcheAge is over a month out, properties are trickling in for unpaid taxes and are slated to be demolished.  The un-landed are searching zones, setting up spreadsheets, timers to make it to demolitions at all hours of the day/night.  People have friends help click, do area raid  invites to screw up the competition's clicking (hint - turn off raid, party, guild, etc, invites while at a demolition).  It can be very unfriendly at times.  PvP zones, guilds will go purple to kill off the competition on a desirable spot.

I've attended some land-grabs just for fun, some with the intent to try and win. (Would have loved the location below on the river in Marianople.) When a property is coming up for demo, people start hovering around hours before the actual demo time - which I don't get - it's not first in line for a Black Friday sale - as your position doesn't signify anything.  If you're there five hours before or five seconds, it's the winning click that counts!

  Big crowd for a place on the river in Marianople (couldn't screenshot the whole group waiting).

As buildable land is a finite resource in ArcheAge (there is much open/unused (no NPCs even!) land just not designated for housing/farming.)  People really want their own slice for a myriad of reasons: some want the house to decorate and call home; others. its all about farming for trade/crafting, or hoping on the rare Thunder-struck tree or Blizzard Bear Cub - everyone thinks they need their little chunk to call their own.

Whomever wins is always accuse of being a bot or scripter, etc., and often is.  Many properties are purchased by the same few names and resold within a short time.  Which feeds people's fury at losing again.  It's okay to lose to the player next to you from XYZ Guild, but not so much to a scripter that isn't even in visual distance and resells the property usually at a huge profit.

 This was a fairly normal group waiting.

When I read that you could be 80m away from a property getting demo'd, I thought that explained why we might not see someone that snags a property and always 'assume' they're a bot/scripter.   (Not saying there aren't alot of bots/hackers, etc., in game!)

Soooo, I had to try it.  How far could away could I be and actually still click to win. I found this 16x16 getting demo'd in Karkasse Ridgelands at 4 a.m. - perfect! If I didn't win, it wouldn't be a total loss - yes another 16 would be great - ever in need of more materials for trade runs - but it was not the ideal location I wanted.  So a perfect test - if I get it great, if not no loss there. 

This toon is only 22, so aside from the concern about getting killed prior to the click-a-thon (for the anti-PvPers - 3 deaths in a month in KR - it's pretty darn safe!), I wanted to see if I could indeed click from here and win.  I'm not sure of the actual distance, but there is one 16x16 and one 8x8 below the hill I'm on.

Did I win?  Darn right!  I out clicked the handful of people there by the time 4:14 rolled around.  I don't think they saw me or if they did, likely assumed I was /afk or something, but not actively involved in the land grab.  

You want to see this screen only the "build" button NOT greyed out.  That's a you didn't win.

When I came down (hoping I wasn't going to get a purple bloodlust attack going), I was accused of being a scripter.  I told the guy I wasn't who was naturally angry he'd lost.  Honestly though, there isn't any reason someone could or should be that far away IMHO (I don't know if I could have been further away as in no line of sight). Maybe highly desirable places in PvP zones - you might want some distance but I think you should be no further away than the adjacent property.

I really wish it would switch to a lottery type system. Put in your 1g (10g whatever), name comes up it's yours. Total RNG, but no cheating, no scripting, no macro's off your keyboard or mouse, no lag-loss, etc.  Straight up RNG, which we are all use to!