SUGGESTION: In-game Demolition and Reclamation Notifications

[Razla]

I'd like to suggest adding in-game notifications for pending demolition, demolition having occurred, and item reclamation. As an in-game event, and a potentially very devastating one, it seems a little strange that there isn't a pop-up notification as soon as you log in that your house and/or items are about to go kaboom or have already kaboomed.

If not a pop-up, even in-game mail would be nice. Especially since it's an in-game event, it's a little weird to only have potentially unreliable notifications outside of the game (email going to spam, inbox flooded, email never received, etc. etc).

Other suggestion: Add a paid service option to reclaim items past the 35 day cutoff.

While it sucks to lose the house and the gil, I'm far more upset over losing my items, most of which were seasonal exclusives I spent a lot of time farming extras of.

Backstory: I've been sporadically logging in over the past 2 months due to travel and attending events. I realized I hadn't been to my house in a while and tried to port to it yesterday. It was gone. I ran to the Housing Caretaker to reclaim my stuff. Nothing. Panicked, I searched my email and found out my house was demolished in early June and I missed my item reclamation by 4 days. I had been using my house to store a ton of my seasonal exclusives and I am devastated. I had been logging in during this time and would have immediately known if there were in-game notifications.

[Dustytome]

Other suggestion: Add a paid service option to reclaim items past the 35 day cutoff.

I know the point is to entice the company to add the option by waving money at them, but if they can store it on the off chance someone will pay, they can just store it indefinitely without the need to pay. They created the housing problem to begin with, they don't need to be rewarded for making it require auto-demolition due to initial and continued poor design choices. I can get behind in-game notifications that pop up though, especially since email seems to be spotty from the source before any user side misplacement takes place.

[DrWho2010]

the game does give you a notice however. It's in the timers tab on the second page. people may not know about the second page but it is there. FC things like the workshop progress and airship/submarine ventures are located there as well.

[SendohJin]

the game does give you a notice however. It's in the timers tab on the second page. people may not know about the second page but it is there. FC things like the workshop progress and airship/submarine ventures are located there as well.

that's the problem, it should be a log-in message in addition to that. the timer should also have that new item marking that the menu has when it updates so people would know to look too.

[MsQi]

how about remove demolition?

[Kurando]

If not a pop-up, even in-game mail would be nice. Especially since it's an in-game event, it's a little weird to only have potentially unreliable notifications outside of the game (email going to spam, inbox flooded, email never received, etc. etc).

To be fair, that's really the customers responsibility to ensure they are getting any notifications through correctly (by email). Just like with any ongoing service you might pay for in the world (not just MMOs), you are expected to have up to date contact information with the company should the customer need to be updated on anything. Yeah things happen sometimes emails can take a while to come though or get lost in a bundle of others you aren't able to read yet, but with most email services there are ways to flag important mail our create rules to ensure you see them. Alternatively making an alternative email contact just for SE could help but they definitely do notify you giving plenty of time to act.

On reading the email it does say that you can keep track of demolition using the in-game Timer menu, so technically that should be more than enough to do something about your housing. Having a login message isn't going to help much if you aren't logging in to begin with (whether real life priorities or not).

[Jojoya]

that's the problem, it should be a log-in message in addition to that. the timer should also have that new item marking that the menu has when it updates so people would know to look too.

Most demos are because someone isn't even logging in to play, not because they are playing stopped visiting their house. A log in message won't help those players.

If someone is logging in and their house still gets demo'd, then they weren't using the house in the first place and it should be freed up for someone who will use it.

how about remove demolition?

Then players without housing would never be able to get it because people who stopped playing the game would own most of it. The only time a house would become available is if the owner transfers to a different world.

It is not a herculean effort for people to step inside their houses once every 45 days to avoid auto-demo. If it is a problem for someone, they should stick to an apartment since those don't get demo'd. With 100 slots to place items and another 100 for storage, there's plenty of room for someone to store the seasonal event items they've farmed without any worry they'll lose them.

[Rymm]

With 100 slots to place items and another 100 for storage, there's plenty of room for someone to store the seasonal event items they've farmed without any worry they'll lose them.

While I agree with just about everything you said, I just wanted to point out that a lot of the seasonal items are yard pieces. I've personally never tried to, but I don't think you can store yard items in the indoor storage space that an apartment provides. Otherwise, yes, if someone is logging in but can't make the time to stop by their house once in more than a month, then I agree it should go to someone who would actually use it.

I know stuff comes up sometimes but, aside from emergencies, there are steps you can take to prepare for such a thing. I just got back from a three month trip to the States. I knew I was going to be gone for longer than the demo timer would allow but that I would also be back to playing the game as soon as I returned, so I took steps to prevent losing my home. I know getting demo'ed sucks (happened to me in the past) but if housing is such a priority for you, you need to make an effort to keep it. It's coldhearted but that old quote seems applicable: "Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

I do think that the "30 days before your stuff is deleted" timer is complete bullsh*t though. The "unused" house is freed up for other people so there is absolutely no reason not to keep the demo'ed stuff in storage for a longer period, if not indefinitely. It isn't actually physically rendered in the game world anymore, so how much memory could it possibly be taking up? That part of the whole demo process always struck me as unnecessarily punitive.

Edit:
I just wanted to make it clear that I've got nothing against the OP's suggestion of adding in-game notification. I just feel like no matter what SE does to notify people, there are still those who will miss it and then complain that they lost their house. If they add an in-game notification like the OP wants then it's only a matter of time until someone pops up saying that the text scrolled by too fast, or there was no confirmation checkbox to close the window and they didn't read it, etc. You can't force people to pay attention. At what point has SE fulfilled their due diligence?

[InkstainedGwyn]

To be fair, that's really the customers responsibility to ensure they are getting any notifications through correctly (by email).

It's also SE's responsibility to make sure they're sending the emails. My emails don't go to my spam (I've checked.) I've gotten other emails from them. But when my house went into (planned) demolition, I got one email, the day before. Not the 15-day warning, ever. The 3-day warning came at 1 day. That's not my fault, that's SE's fault, even if it's just faulty automation.

[Kurando]

I also received the emails about the demolition timer plenty of time in advance and was notified correctly on what I should do and how I can keep track of it to resolve the problem. So we seem to have conflicting experiences, I don't think it's faulty... but regardless, as a home owner you should be well aware of the demolition effect anyway. Going in to your house just once a month is enough to reset the timer, that's all it takes just a few minutes, SE doesn't play the game for you.