i’m with you, i have already said it many times, posted a topic about it and keep making arguments against the current building freedom.
You are not alone with this, and i think i know how you feel, as i feel exactly the same way, not only for those beautiful buildings but for all what people do to abuse the claim system and the little that has been done from the side of funcom to counter it.
I’m glad to see more people raising their opinions against it, hope funcome find it as important to change it as it is for us, which would be unnecesary if those players would understand that they are not playing alone, that they are not the owners of the server, and that they don’t deserver a better treatment than the newer players even if they “help” with items and thralls.
Their buldings, their roads and maprooms even with their good intentions do nothing but harming the community in the long run, so far at the point it’s already spoiled. but yeah that’s just my opinion, right?
I also agree that an upkeep cost to mantain their buildings would grant them the actual right to have them, if one player alone can pay it to keep all their buildings and land claimed that should mean he’s investing his or her time to do it, diferent from now that only cost you a fast travel and a walk nearby to render your buildings.
This would mean that it’s not impossible to claim a lot of land and build as much as you want but that it will cost you more to keep it, making the server more clean and enjoyable for the rest of the players that want to play in the same public server as you do.
Of course this has been debated that would take a negative effect on pvp servers, but it’s the same, an uppkeep cost to keep your better defenses. Perhaps the jump tower would still be an issue or the trebuchets, but that could be fixed from another perspective, leaving the building for what it is, to build, not to claim excesive amount of land. I’m no expert on the PvP side on this matter but trying to defend the current system by saying that exploiting it is the only way to defend yourself againt attackers and offline raiders it’s the same as saying that cheating it’s the only way to play against cheaters.
Again, i hope funcom realizes the importance of fixing this flawed system, i really do.