Housing ReclamationFollow

I remember suggesting this back when housing came out and people said I was being "stupid" and "a hater" for suggesting it because quite frankly, if you're not playing, you don't need a physical house that someone else playing could have. Since yoshi didn't want to follow XI's example and give everyone a Mog House and Mog Garden, they need the infrastructure to support an entire playerbase, similar to what GW2 is doing - since they don't have that, this system should have been in place from the get go.

I only read the Japanese notes so knowing history, I don't know if they clarified it but 45 days after 3.1 you get marked as inactive on the house, then 45 days after that it gets marked for being demolished, so 90 total days. The "inactive" period seems to be a way to tell people: "you better sub and go to your house!" The only thing I don't agree with is returning the gil - Houses were a gil sink to begin with..and just handing back even 5% of that gil defeats the purpose, let alone 80%. So while it's a nice thing for players, if any other servers is like Sarga was, there's some people with multiple houses and people who held lots with the very incentive of selling it to people for double-triple the worth.

I think 90 days makes sense. The game was basically made so that you play for a month or so and then quit and come back for the next patch. Yoshi even said he thinks that is perfectly fine and part of his design. So then since the patch cycle is around three months that would allow people to keep their house if they play that way, but frees up the plots from those who don't actually play at all anymore.

I like the idea of vacating abandoned lots. I don't like the idea of destroying people's stuff, especially private chambers which apparently just get thrown into the x-zone.

Yeah, no. I want to get rid of the eyesore lot next door to my private house where a small FC bought the lot, never built anything, then all quit and abandoned the game. FC leadership went to the last person to log on, which was a 43 NIN who was last seen about six months ago.

That'll be the first lot freed, since a FC member can't log in and walk inside the house without building it first, ONLY the FC leader can build it, and whoever resubs and logs in first and becomes the new FC leader may decide to just let it rot, get the money, and rebuy it as a personal home at that point.

Edited, Oct 20th 2015 1:48pm by Catwho

LotRO did it, with the e-mail notice and it really wasn't a problem. I remember getting my e-mail saying I owed so much on rent, to login and pay up, otherwise lose your house.

I think the problem with this style of game is a TON of people cancel their sub for months at a time until more content is added then re-sub. Could be a way to keep people subbed I suppose, but it's a cheap shot. 3 months time is not that unreasonable in terms of cancelling your sub considering the amount of content they release at a time. Either way though, you can't make people happy. Active players feel they should have priority, and people who have paid in the past with potential to pay again feel they should keep what they've earned.

Maybe if the game strayed away from the usual add a dungeon(s), add a primal and a few story line quests every 3 months people would stick around for longer periods of time. But, that's already been argued and beaten to death around here.

It's 90.

45 days of inactive status
45 days after til it demolishes.

Total: 90.

Originally it was only going to be 30 days but yoshi posted that they're re-evaluating it due to the massive outcry from people not even playing the game (yet wanted to keep their house.)

I haven't been subbed for about 3-4 months now, I go back now and then if the new content tickles me. Square no longer deserve an uninterrupted subscription as I stupidly did with ffxi. I even paid my sub for 6 months when I didn't have access to my computer to play, I used to be so blind and stupid.

If they really do this then all they are doing is making 100% sure people will never come back, part of the appeal of coming back is knowing all your things are still there. This is a problem of their own making, not sure why they should punish players for it.

I'm fine with moving inactive houses. What's not cool is eating up players' gil and effectively destroying furniture and layouts because they didn't happen to log for X amount of time. If you're someone who actually liked the housing system, and have been away from the game for whatever reason, learning that is gone is not what I'd call incentive to return. Otherwise, the player should've received a notification upon their return saying their house is A-OK, but they'll need to pick a new lot. That's far less of a sting.

Realistically, they should've abandoned the lot/wards angle and went full-on instanced with invitations and the like required to visit houses not your own. You don't get the annoying neighbor problem. People aren't locked out a zone they'd like. There's no reason to evict. Would congestion be a thing? Hard to say, but over time I'd lean toward the instanced model being less resource intensive.

This is 100% SE ******** players for their own inability to do the system right, ergo, ******* terrible.

For sure... but three months is a long time to go without playing. People can still sub/unsub and keep their houses, so SE hasn't broken any promises with this system.

People who want to stay unsubbed for more than three months and still hold on to their real estate in a housing ward with finite space... that's just wishful thinking, and that's not SE's problem.

Edited, Oct 20th 2015 4:17pm by Thayos

Feels like I'm paying protection money to Square or they will come in and smash my stuff. They made the system limited and now are punishing players for it in the most cynical way possible. Instead of punishing players for taking a break maybe they should offer a service that players don't want to take a break from? Just an idea.

The only people that would be in favor of this are people who are in favor of players being punished for daring to take a break for a few months.

I swear some people who play this game treat it like a cult.


Edited, Oct 20th 2015 8:14pm by Runespider

Is Yoshi P going to show up at your house and kill your dog or something?

If you really think you might play again someday, than all you need to do is log in and sell your house. Then you haven't lost anything, and you can try buying another one later if/when you play again.

Let's be real, though -- you're done with FFXIV. It's pretty dang clear by your past several posts. You ain't going back. You have absolutely no need for a house, and really, neither does anyone else who is realistically going to go more than three months between play sessions.

EDIT: Another good solution to this would have been allowing people to share their personal homes with others. I'd think that between a small group of friends, at least one person would be able to visit at least once every 90 days.

But I'm happy with the way it is. The system doesn't hurt anyone who actually plays the game, even if they only play rarely.

Edited, Oct 20th 2015 6:29pm by Thayos

About the only people I am genuinely concerned for are active duty military, who can get deployed overseas where they literally can't log in - even if they took their computer, there's no Internet access.

As for me, if I'm severely incapacitated and can't log in or even ask anyone to grab my token and log in for me, I think I'll have bigger concerns than losing my house since that means I'm on the brink of death.

I'm not concerned about the paying customer vs non paying customer argument. I'm still paying for FFXI. I want SE to have my money and make wonderful things.