My absence and return - thoughts on demolished houses

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Originally Posted by hydralus

Really? I think it's a bit on the long side. Every MMO I've played that had limited housing gave you a month (EQ2, Asheron's Call), and Archeage (The only MMO in recent memory to not do instanced housing) gave you 2 weeks. Not only that but they all made you pay rent for upkeep. And Archeage had some content you couldn't do if you didn't have a house, much like gardening or airships in FFXIV, so it made even more sense to make the holding period shorter. So, I'm not seeing where the 'stupidly short' comment comes from, when this is one of the, if not the longest grace periods I've ever seen.

I was honestly shocked to learn that people were able to keep hold of housing for over a year before they finally wised up and realized that, hey, people who stopped subbing shouldn't keep this limited resource.

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I don't think Archeage is a fair comparison. That game is vastly different, it's very competitive, and owning land can give you massive financial gains. It's not just a fluff house where you can have fun decorating with a garden plot and stable on the side. Also, just about everything that you can do on a house can be done elsewhere if you don't own property. Don't own land but want to garden? Go plant in the open world. Want animals, go raise them in the open world. Want to craft? Go find a station in town or any one of the public houses people have set up. Want to rest your LP? Go sleep in a public bed. Make taxes? Go find a public property (which are everywhere).

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Originally Posted by Penthea

I am saying this based on experience from playing mmos for over ten years. It is actually very common for active players to not log in for a month and a half.

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Does gaming experience matter? If so I've been playing MMOs for just over 16 years, and this is the first MMO with limited housing that I have ever seen people complain so much about the grace period.

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Originally Posted by Penthea

What is far less common is players not logging in for 90 days

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The optimist in me says that's a good thing, ain't it? People who play more get to have the good stuff while people who play less (or at the very least do not subscribe for very long periods of time), do not.

And this is only for personal housing, mind you. Long as you have a FC house you're golden, long as someone's stepping inside the house.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

I don't think Archeage is a fair comparison. That game is vastly different, it's very competitive, and owning land can give you massive financial gains. It's not just a fluff house where you can have fun decorating with a garden plot and stable on the side.

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Crossbreeding plants and FC airships have made me pretty hefty bundles of gil... although to be fair, Archeage had a more robust economy than FFXIV. And for people who want a housing experience, there's still apartments. You can plant, use the chocobo stable, decorate... airships are a no but you'd need a FC for that anyway. And apartments are permanent. Hell I have a house and I still have an apartment on a character. They're pretty sweet.

Granted they still haven't increased the number of available apartments on the busy servers, so that's an issue.

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Originally Posted by hydralus

Does gaming experience matter?

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Well considering the point I was making yes. I was just stating that in my ten years of playing mmos I have seen it to be very common for active players to be unable to log in for around 45 days due to very common events that happen in life.

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Originally Posted by hydralus

this is the first MMO with limited housing that I have ever seen people complain so much about the grace period.

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As Skivvy already pointed out, housing in FF can grant a very significant financial advantage to players.

Fcs cannot get airships to fetch crafting materials only available through airship missions without a house. Fcs cannot craft housing skins to make money without a house. You can't do any cross planting without a house, which means you will have to fork out hundreds of thousands of gil for Thavnairian Onions (which most players need at some point), Jute for weavers or for the seeds/already grown minions.

I am one of the fortunate ones who has a house. I have made millions from gardening.

Housing used to its full capabilities is most certainly not only cosmetic. This is why players are demanding change.

Something I'd like to see is bigger apartments. Like a two-story flat or something, if you want to pay more for it. They're instanced, right? So it shouldn't be that big of a deal, though I admit I know nothing about coding and such. Like 1mil for an apartment that, inside, is like a small cottage. I'd love to see something like this added in.

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Originally Posted by hydralus

Crossbreeding plants and FC airships have made me pretty hefty bundles of gil... although to be fair, Archeage had a more robust economy than FFXIV. And for people who want a housing experience, there's still apartments. You can plant, use the chocobo stable, decorate... airships are a no but you'd need a FC for that anyway. And apartments are permanent. Hell I have a house and I still have an apartment on a character. They're pretty sweet.

Granted they still haven't increased the number of available apartments on the busy servers, so that's an issue.

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Speaking on a personal level, my XIV housing needs are quite simple. I would love for them to simply expand apartments, and maybe even the inns, to include a "private garden" that is equal to the number of gardening plots you can purchase on a house. Introduce public stables around Eorzea and that would take care of the other concern of mine.

If they could find a way to make sure that all players could purchase an apartment, I think that would help appease a large number of players. Let people who just want function purchase an apartment while those who are wanting the "full housing experience" can purchase the more limited housing.

As an aside, keep in mind that at one point houses were permanent too. Who's to say that SE won't change their mind on apartments?

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Originally Posted by Penthea

I am saying this based on experience from playing mmos for over ten years. It is actually very common for active players to not log in for a month and a half.

They might have exams or school/college project to do, parents sometimes even prevent them from logging in at exam time, they might go on a work trip, they might have to go to hospital, they might be moving house or even emigrating and getting internet running could be taking long, or their gaming machine could die and they don't have enough cash to get a new one within 45 days.

What is far less common is players not logging in for 90 days, which is three months. Very active players in a mmo seldom don't log in for a quarter of a year.



That doesn't make it right though. This decision making is certainly not done in the interest of fairness to the home owner. It is instead an incentive to be more active and continue to pay your sub, or be more active and pay your sub in the hopes you can snag a house someone lost.

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You may think its not fair that someone loses the house after 45 days of not logging in but think of all the active playing people who want a house and didn't get the chance to buy one (the reasons for that don't matter). Is it fair that buying a house still gets blocked by someone who doesn't even log in and/or doesn't pay a sub? I don't think so. And even if they would increase the time there would be people who complain that its not enough.

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Originally Posted by Ilan

You may think its not fair that someone loses the house after 45 days of not logging in but think of all the active playing people who want a house and didn't get the chance to buy one (the reasons for that don't matter). Is it fair that buying a house still gets blocked by someone who doesn't even log in and/or doesn't pay a sub? I don't think so. And even if they would increase the time there would be people who complain that its not enough.

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Personally, yes, I'd say that would be fair, as any system should have permanence as one of its core features.
If that system then has issues (as the current implementation does), then you need to rethink the bloody system.

Should have a friend set as a co-owner and had them check in on the house while you were gone. That's how you get around that. Everyone gets an email about the demolishing. If you really cared you would have spent the little bit of money and logged in and let a friend handle it while you were away.

Personal housing was a mistake from the start.

Fc housing, according to the servers and space limit, were a safer choice. May be abolishing smal houses (they are ridicoulos small) and stick with medium and large.

For solo player a little bigger apartaments are better design choice. incorporating seed plant and workshop.