Devs: Will Hurricane Michael Stop the Demolition Timer?

[Kazrah]

So I remember once joking about how the demolition timer for houses would be halted for 30 days if a fly sneezed in Africa. Now that I'm in the crosshairs of a category 3 hurricane that was claimed to have the potential to knock out power in my area for as much as a month, you can probably tell how much I'm regretting that joke.

I'm certainly not asking because I want to keep my house....in fact, this would be a good time for me to lose it given my intention of transferring my main eventually. I'm mostly asking for the other players in the Southeastern United States who may also be affected by this hurricane as well as previous ones given the path of this storm going into areas still recovering from previous flood damage.

Tomorrow will likely start my forced hiatus from the game when Hurricane Michael knocks out my power. How long this hiatus will be, I have no idea. To all of my fellow players in the path of this major storm, please stay safe out there.

[InkstainedGwyn]

They didn't stop it for Florence, so I'm doubting they'll stop it for Michael unless things somehow go significantly differently, some areas of NC and SC were devastated.

Honestly, I'm going to be very disappointed if they don't stop the timers for this. Florence was bad, but nothing like Michael. Michael by itself should be enough for a halt but with the two coming so close together, there are a lot of people displaced/in dire straits right now.

[Dustytome]

To those affected, stay safe! Can't really help with the housing timer part, but those growing things in the gardens can plop their garden's/flower pots into storage and their progress will be frozen until you place them back down. Alternatively you could see if anyone would be willing to tend them until they're all sparkly since they won't go bad at that stage anymore. Hopefully everyone has access again by the time the system eats their plot.

[Alrin]

At least try contacting GM that beast tribe summoned Garuda and you as a true WoL will be fighting it so there is a possibility that your aetheryte crystal will not be working for some time.

They will probably not be able to do anything about your house but hey no harm done trying that.

[Vahlnir]

Mostly depends on the severity, and just how many people are affected. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the demo timer, but I'm sure they have a specific number (ish) that they adhere to before deciding to halt the timer. Also, anyone who happens to be in the path of the hurricane, be safe.

[Jojoya]

As others have said, it will depend on the severity. We'll have to wait and see.

In the meanwhile, I hope everyone in the path stays safe!

[Kurando]

They'll halt the timer on a drop of a dime for Japan players

Well to be fair it's much more difficult for people to evacuate for things like earthquakes and tsunamis which can happen with little warning (which is often the case for Japan). When the US has stuff like hurricanes, residents and companies generally have enough warning to prepare and work around these types of situations. The general population density of Japan is much tighter as well meaning more people are effected by natural disasters than the spread out density of the US, not to mention the SE servers in JP (the backbone of the entire game) can suffer as a side effect.

Of course I'm in no way suggesting that US shouldn't get a stop on demolition if the situation is really bad (Puerto Rico was hit bad previously I believe), but it's not exactly fair to compare natural disasters between the countries like this as if Japan gets special treatment.

[Kurando]

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I'm pretty sure the point is that if the damage/impact can be reduced (i.e through early warnings) then there is less reason to constantly turn off the demolition timer. I mean of course no one is expecting an home owner to find other ways to log in to the game when the priority it getting their life together again, but in some situations people/companies can be better prepared for that's all. When Japan had the devastating tsunami a few years back (which had little warning), the Japanese government literally forced companies to ration electricity/power meaning non-important things such as this game had to be shut down briefly to help conserve national supplies. I don't believe the US has ever been in this situation on such a national scale (at least not for a very long time), so you can appreciate why Japan is often a no brainer when it comes to demolition, because the scale of vulnerability is so much higher.

There are plenty of natural disasters in the world (Indonesia just suffered from a big disaster) but SE cannot turn off the timer for every single one and the game does not revolve around the US. Granted any disaster is bad but there is a big difference between instant impact where action is often taken immediately (tsunsmi, earthquake etc), to a delayed impact (hurricanes) where decisions are made after when the full damage can be calculated. If SE decide to take action in due time, they need to be allowed that.

[Kurando]

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It's not about what is more important but that's fine, US takes presidence over everywhere else in the world, as per usual. You'll feel strongly about the timer, cool, it either gets stopped by SE or it doesn't, I'm not going to get any further in to it.

[MizArai]

I'm pretty sure the point is that if the damage/impact can be reduced (i.e through early warnings) then there is less reason to constantly turn off the demolition timer. I mean of course no one is expecting an home owner to find other ways to log in to the game when the priority it getting their life together again, but in some situations people/companies can be better prepared for that's all. When Japan had the devastating tsunami a few years back (which had little warning), the Japanese government literally forced companies to ration electricity/power meaning non-important things such as this game had to be shut down briefly to help conserve national supplies. I don't believe the US has ever been in this situation on such a national scale (at least not for a very long time), so you can appreciate why Japan is often a no brainer when it comes to demolition, because the scale of vulnerability is so much higher.

There are plenty of natural disasters in the world (Indonesia just suffered from a big disaster) but SE cannot turn off the timer for every single one and the game does not revolve around the US. Granted any disaster is bad but there is a big difference between instant impact where action is often taken immediately (tsunsmi, earthquake etc), to a delayed impact (hurricanes) where decisions are made after when the full damage can be calculated. If SE decide to take action in due time, they need to be allowed that.

They waited until after Irma before they suspended the timer for Harvey and Irma. And no amount of prep could have prevented the flooding that occurred in the Houston area from Harvey (not that forming about a day before a storm hits gives people much prep time anyway). 50+ inches of rain is just too much, especially when you add in everything that was coming from upriver into the calculations. Too much water, it just could not drain into the gulf fast enough. I know people here in Texas who still are displaced from Harvey, still trying to get homes repaired or re-built.

The only "blessing" I can think of with Michael was that it moved fast, so it didn't stick around and 'cause even more damage, but those 155mph winds are stupid bad, and the fact that it was a hurricane or a tropical storm as it continued to roll through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia would not have been great for them either.

I'm not really pushing for the demo timer to be paused here, if I was affected by something like that I'd find a way to keep my house in game through all that mess because it is important to me, but I am trying to help people realize how much damage these huge, nasty hurricanes can cause, and how long it can take to fully recover.