System to Automatically Relinquish Personal Housing?

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Originally Posted by Riepah

Rather than suggesting that people should have their hard-earned money vanishing into thin air if they decide to take a break from the game for a month or two, you should be asking SE for more wards.

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He has been. For a really long time. And neither he nor anyone else has gotten a solid answer. Go long enough without an answer, and the question is bound to change.

I find it far funnier that people still feel the need to chime in and say "no, they can't do that, it wouldn't be fair" on subjects like this, when I think it's been proven by now that the devs aren't really paying attention to this issue anymore.

The main outcry against the timer plan wasn't against the timer itself, just that it was planned to only be for 35 days. Even most of the people against the original plan supported a longer 4-6 month time limit.

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Originally Posted by Riepah

Rather than suggesting that people should have their hard-earned money vanishing into thin air if they decide to take a break from the game for a month or two

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Really though, if you can't afford to rebuy your house for being gone from the game for 1-2 months... You really couldn't afford the house to begin with..

It's great that you have the patience and the gumption to save up to buy the house.. More power to ya, but if you think they cost a "fortune" you're really not the targeted audience for which housing was intended to be. Consider the cost of furniture, gardening soils, and just general upkeep for constant new additions. If houses are expensive, those extras that actually breathe life into the house are astronomical.

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Originally Posted by GenJoe

...you're really not the targeted audience for which housing was intended to be....

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FYI - below is what housing was intended to be said by YoishiP

//quote
1:14:22
Q: Will there be any maintenance fees or other costs for housing, besides the cost of the land and house?
A: In older MMOs, such as Ultima Online, there was a house maintenance fee you had to pay weekly, but in FFXIV: ARR we decided against this system. Similarly, these older MMOs also had a system where your house would break down if you didn’t log in after a while in order to have you continue your subscription, but this is a thing of the past and we won't have any system like that.
//end quote

btw, I agree unsubbed players lose everything, just delete their characters and properties,
let them restore the characters when they resub, and the house is gone with compensation, fair enough.
Moreover, since a FC will be deleted when all members are deleted, FC houses will be deleted automatically as well.
it is a perfect solution to kill all unsubbed houses for everyone suggesting to kill houses.

But for a subbed player who keeps paying every month, I think the case is completely different.
Ppl keep paying the sub should be able to decide not to logon for a while for any reasons,
this is the solution for ppl who having RL issues and cannot logon.

Limited content should be for active players. The system need not be strict or punishing. Simply weed out those who quit the game for good and leave the houses permanently unobtainable (many early wards are of FCs that have long since quit for good).

You could go the route of Ultima Online and allow friends to refresh your house while you're gone. 90 days, just have any friend touch your house... the time limit is restored. Make it impossible to lose a house so long as you're subscribed, as well. This makes it so that it's impossible to lose as an active player (or someone who wants to travel), and pretty much impossible to lose if want to take a break with the intent of coming back next expansion, as you have to do nothing but have friends or Free Company mates. It also encourages being social. If one can't do as much as nothing to maintain a house -- and they're not even subscribed -- then maybe they don't deserve a permanent plot when others are willing to at least do that.

the 30 days SE suggest is to short, as the other older suggest SE can make it like this:

1. Active service: house relinquish after 60 days.
2. Cancel service/Acc not renew: House relinquish after 10-15 days.
3. Add in limit : 1 personal house and 1 FC house/acc

I do believe this system is fair, it give ppl enough time to travel for holiday and as soon as ppl cancel their acc service, the house will be re-move

Temporary absences are way too common to cause complete loss of such an expensive investment. But so long as they ensure that if you lose your house, you get your money back (both plot cost and building cost) plus keep all furnishings and features (including ones that cannot otherwise be removed), then it would be reasonable.

I still think they'd need a longer time before losing it than they initially considered, though. (That initially proposed rule was that if you went 30 days without entering your house, regardless of whether you're active during that time, then you totally lose the house and everything in it.) A more reasonable version would be perhaps if you unsubscribe for 45 days or don't log in to the game for 6 months, you'd lose your plot (bur retain all its items and cost). At some point, though, people who have left the game entirely have to lose their lock on so many housing plots.

DAoC had a fairly fair system for this issue imo, you were inactive for 90 days, your plot would be demolished, however everything in it would be saved on an npc and held until you picked it back up, and talking to another npc would give you a voucher for a free house of equal value to what you had, although you would have to rebuy another plot, though in DAoC plots were cheap, the houses were expensive... so maybe give voucher for plot, but you need to still buy the house?

But yea, I agree, if SE doesn't plan to add more housing access, there should be some kind of system in place that relinquishes plots of inactive players/fcs. Why should I retain the right to limited content if I'm not even playing, or planning to play in the near future. I already have a house, but would gladly give it up if/when I decide to stop playing.

Honestly, thinking about it? They just need to get rid of the wards and make all the houses stand-alone instances. That way everyone can keep their house no matter how long they've been un-subbed and no one will have to wait for a slot to open up because there'll always be some available.

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Originally Posted by FJerome

Honestly, thinking about it? They just need to get rid of the wards and make all the houses stand-alone instances. That way everyone can keep their house no matter how long they've been un-subbed and no one will have to wait for a slot to open up because there'll always be some available.

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they are in it way too deep to make a huge change like getting rid of the wards. and although it sucks the wards are a good thing, it makes the game more social. i like having neighbors, i like going down the block to my friend's house.