How long should you be entitled to your FM Spot once you've secured it?

I think it would be good for us to have a bit of a discussion about whether or not spot-sniping is blacklistable - it creates a lot of grief in the community blacklist.

Additionally, if a majority of the community agreed it is not blacklistable, and dislike the current spot 'stunlock' system we have, then how would you feel about a feedback thread suggesting a 'cool off' between shop resets? With a cool-off, you'd need to wait at least X minutes before re-setting your shop, after either closing it or having it automatically closed. Not sure how feasible this is from an implementation point of view, but it'd be good to hear what people think regardless. In the poll options I have put a 'brief' cool down for a few minutes, this would still allow people to reset if they are in a hurry. And a 'long' cooldown (e.g. an hour?) as this would spread spot availability over different time zones a lot more quickly.

Stealing spots by botting is against the TOS, so let's not consider that issue here. Consider "spot sniping" in this context to mean somebody manually stealing the spot.

Spoiler

I do not bother with 'spot sniping' myself, as I generally stay away from ch1 bottom row, as it is overpriced and drama-filled!

 

I think the general sentiment in the community blacklist, at least in the past it is not blacklistable for snipping a spot. As for my opinion on this matter, well, rather than punishing people for putting effort into resetting / securing their spot or making it easier to "reset" a store. I think our current system is pretty fair, if you dont put in any effort in securing your spot (copying title in advance/duo client reset/resetting only once a day making it predictable to snipe) you deserve to lose it. I'd rather we have a longer duration fm store permit for QOL (eg: 1 month).

 

Agree with Miera that if you're careless and lazy and someone places their shop down on your spot, that's kinda on you. Doesn't take much effort to check the minimap to see if there's a red dot sitting on top of your store, and to quickly paste your shop title from a notepad. And I don't feel that spot sniping is a blacklistable offence, but then there are the FM hounds that are constantly hovering around spots in rooms 1-6 in Channel 1 that are borderline annoying. If they're harassing players for their FM spots then it might be blacklist worthy.

With regards to the shop cool-off idea, I think it has some flaws. It'd encourage more people to leave their merchant mules in the FM to camp for a spot that potentially opens up, as they know they'd have time to grab it since the original owner would not be able to reset their shop instantaneously. Those who can multi-client and have permits on 2 accounts can also take over their spot during the cool-off period, and reset it again once that cool-off period wears out, rendering this functionality moot for its intended purpose. For those who lost their spots in rooms apart from 1-1 (say 1-6), why should they be inconvenienced by having to go find another spot with less foot traffic?

I don't deny that it sucks for the players who are in regions that don't benefit from the server maintenance/patches as getting a great FM spot is significantly harder and more challenging for them. And I don't think there'll be a solution to that conundrum that appeases everyone :\

 

Oops, good point! Silly me.

 

FM is a free market, nobody owns any spots there. It's just players are so deeply hurt for losing their valuable spot and cry after it makes me never understand these mushroom video game players in real life. It's you as a shop owner RESPONSIBLE for securing your own spot in FM. If someone takes "your" spot then it's GG, move on, no hard feelings. People blacklist everything nowadays it's just pathetic to be honest at this point.

It doesn't take any effort to look around you if there are players near you to take your so called precious spot. Come on can't you guys just move on with it, this is a 2d mushroom game lol.. too much elitism here. I wonder how these guys even function outside mapleroyals, can they even take criticism or a no as an answer at all? No offence.

 

You are entitled to your spot as long as you own it, and dont lose it to a "botter" If you lose it to anyone else, in a legit way, move on and try again. Should never make it to blacklist as well

 

I wish shops never time out.
I quit playing long ago cause all my inventories are full, but selling stuff is waaaay too much work, after finally learning enough prices to fill a shop it times out and you lose your permit before making any significant space in your inv.
I tried playing without looting anything but it's just not the same.

 

Good luck trying to find a spot in fm1....

 

I think everyone is entitled to their FM spot after they've secured it, but the thought of said person can occupied said FM spot for the entire duration as long as they reset their spot before the time limit ends seems very unfair to me, FM spot sniping is fair as it's a free for all environment so I don't think it should be blacklist-able.
So to make it fair for everyone in every tine-zone why not just implemented a system where the FM will be auto cleared every day so that everyone has the chance at securing 1-1 spot?

I think FM spot should be reset from Monday to Sunday at different time so that people from other time-zone can have a chance of securing a good spot

 

Im really really sad that this is an almost 20 years old game and people still sniping FM Spots.
I can understand that better FM spots can sell you more, but most of the people are using Owls.

I really think people should be punished for bad behavior or etiquette.
Because im quite sure, many people have been quitting in the past because bad behavior or bad etiquette of the other people.

 

Reset FM at different time of the day from Monday to Sunday

Eg. Monday FM will reset at xx server time and at Tuesday FM will reset at xx server time to make it fair for everyone from different time zone to be able to secure a good spot

 

Since we have 24hours in a day if we divide that by 7(days) we'll get around 3.43hours (which is around 3hours and 25min ) since on Monday we just assume it will reset at 0.00am so on Tuesday the store is reset at 3.00am server time, and we can just add another 3 hours on the following days

And to make it more fair and unpredictable, the staff can just add a little bit of downtime +/- just like with area boss which after you killed it it will respawn either +20/-20 to its original spawn time with the remaining (3 hours extra, since 3x7= 21 hours) and announce the message for the whole server to know the FM spot has resetted

In this way no one will be able to snipe or hoard a spot ever again and everyone will know exactly when the shop will be reseted on certain time of the day +/- the shop reset time

 

8+ years here, i have never once gotten a fm 1 spot. Even after a sc or patch. I logged out in fm 1 and spammed log in the millisecond the servers came up and couldnt get a spot. The best i got was fm 2 one time. And the experience i had after getting that spot wasnt worth the hassle. Between the angry whispers and messages in my shop about taking someone spot, when i tried to later reset my shop i lost it to multiple people that just waited me out. I dont even bother anymore. It seems like its always the same people from the same guilds that have those prime spots. Its one person competing against dozens or more people and multiple guilds you have little chance. It would be nice if to see new groups having shops set up for once instead of the same people. But then theyd probably find a way to swap it with another account of theirs or someone with their guild or friend group so it would still end up being the same people. Idk how you can stop it.

 

Why is "No, but spot sniping should be blacklistable" not an option?

Like yes, nobody is entitled to a spot but if someone comes by ready to renew a spot and you're standing there spamming the shop button under them that says something about your character. It says that's not an associable person and that's why it's blacklistable, not because the original shop owner inherently deserves that spot.

I've never seen a spot sniper not be an asshole, personally.

Honestly I think it's best to keep the community blacklist pretty ambiguous in these regards. Often times the people who speak up for or against objectionable behavior can tell you more than the original posts, and the blacklist then can work double time.

Edit: personal opinion, but as the blacklist has no enforcement ability whatsoever I think it's best regarded as a means of communicating problematic actors to the community, and trying to codify some sort of standard is both a massive overreach as well as something that harms its original purpose.

 

It's unclear how this point is relevant. This is true regardless of the options.