I'd like to take an extended break from the game, but...

Remake the entire housing system, SE. From the get go it's been terrible in implementation.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

You want to take a extended break from the game or you want to take extended break from paying the sub? I find there to be a difference.

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Only a fool would continue to pay their sub if they're taking an extended break. It's really not a difference.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

You want to take a extended break from the game or you want to take extended break from paying the sub? I find there to be a difference.

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Then there are people out of duty or necessity who have to be gone for 6-15 months at a time.

We should make one thread so anyone who feels like taking a brake can leave a post or message and talk about it. instead of having thousands of the same type of thread remade in the forum ever so often.

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Originally Posted by Kaethra

Then there are people out of duty or necessity who have to be gone for 6-15 months at a time.

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Yes there are, but that not usually the case for people that post here on the forums. The system may not be the greatest and could be better but it what we have to deal with, so if it really that important to them keep their sub going and log in once a month, say hi to FC enter house w/e need to do and log back out. That why I say there is a difference. If OP falls into the military/hardship category then sorry that they put in that position if they just burned out and don't want to play then no I don't feel sorry for them if they don't want to use suggestion I made in this post.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

The system may not be the greatest and could be better but it what we have to deal with, so if it really that important to them keep their sub going and log in once a month

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It's really shitty to have to keep paying SE because they designed a poor system. I'd even guess at it being an underhanded way to maintain subs...

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Originally Posted by Naunet

It's really shitty to have to keep paying SE because they designed a poor system. I'd even guess at it being an underhanded way to maintain subs...

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While this is true, sadly it the hoops gotta jump through if housing/maintaining leadership of a FC is that important to them if they planning on returning.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

While this is true, sadly it the hoops gotta jump through if housing/maintaining leadership of a FC is that important to them if they planning on returning.

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I think we all recognize that. Pointing it out is just kind of digging the knife in and twisting. They made the thread specifically to point out that SE's current system is not good.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

I think we all recognize that. Pointing it out is just kind of digging the knife in and twisting. They made the thread specifically to point out that SE's current system is not good.

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and there been plenty of other threads about the same topic, they were a dime a dozen back when it first happened, so I don't see them changing it by making another thread.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

and there been plenty of other threads about the same topic, they were a dime a dozen back when it first happened, so I don't see them changing it by making another thread.

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Things only change when people keep talking about it.

squeaky wheel. Oil. etc.

complaining about complaining is much more unproductive and the housing reclaim feature is a smaller aspect of a much larger flaw in the player housing fiasco. The more SE keeps hearing about it the more likely something will eventually be done about it.

I have ti agree if theres no discussion then nothing gets changed. No ideas are exchanged therefore nothing can be done to change things. If nothing else, the recurring threads should mean its a discussion that hasnt been resolved. Even if the op idea isnt perfect its a good cause of concern with examples given in previous posts, that something should be looked at.

The auto-demolition is there to prevent the limited housing plots from being occupied by people who don't play. I think that's fair.

The fact that housing is not unlimited is a problem, but considering it's one that they haven't solved yet, I'm assuming there's a significant underlying technical reason for why they can't do it, and something that would likely require a major redesign of the housing system as we know it. They're working with what they've got until there's a better option. The community cried out because all the housing plots were taken and not all of them were actually being used, which auto-demolition helps mitigate to some extent.

The only real fix here is making housing plots available to every single player who can afford them. Until they have the server capacity or the system redesign necessary to do that, I think it'll be next to impossible to satisfy everyone.

It's very disappointing that they decide to continue using the flawed ward system for Shirogane when it's obvious the system isn't working.

At the very least they should increase the time before auto demolition kicks in.

ESO has less resources available to them and they still managed to make a housing system that blows ours out of the water, not only there's no limit of houses, you can buy as many as you can afford, you can have a house in every area if you want to. This is only possible thanks to instancing.

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

And before anyone says it, no, I couldn't have known when I bought a house that this would be the case, because our FC got one back when the director claimed he wouldn't put a timer on housing because he felt like it was a cheap way to make people keep playing.

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Not disagreeing at all, but do you know where they had mentioned this? That would be a very interesting piece to read after the whole housing debacle. Houses are a huge investment, and that's a huge slap in the face if they did in fact renege on their initial promise.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

Not disagreeing at all, but do you know where they had mentioned this?

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Supposedly live letter IX:
https://www.bluegartr.com/archive/in.../t-118689.html

You have to scroll down quite a bit to find the quotes - alternately, search for:"thing of the past" with your browser :P

Couldn't find a better source right away.

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Originally Posted by Zojha

Supposedly live letter IX:
https://www.bluegartr.com/archive/in.../t-118689.html

You have to scroll down quite a bit to find the quotes - alternately, search for:"thing of the past" with your browser :P

Couldn't find a better source right away.

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Thank you! That's pretty horrible in that case. Where are the pitchforks?

I'm baffled at the implementation of housing in this game. :/

Yoshi P was definitely biting off a lot more than he could chew when it came to housing. I think he had a grand vision for housing that there simply was not enough resources to support. There was Free Company housing to start with, which wasn't too bad. It was expensive - but hey, you have a whole FC paying for it, so in that regard it was pretty reasonable. Yoshi P promised that player housing was coming soon, and that it would be cheaper than FC housing. I think he also said that it would be separate from FC housing. Obviously, that didn't happen; player housing was shoehorned into FC housing, without any drop in price and with WAY too few plots to accommodate everyone who wanted a house. I suppose he figured the high price would deter folks, but obviously that didn't happen (and would have irritated plenty of folks even if it did).

He also promised that housing would have no auto-demolition, which from the get-go was a stupid thing to promise when it comes to non-instanced housing. Even assuming enough housing was available for all past, present, and future players, the fact is that people leave the game permanently. Without auto-demolition, entire districts would become ghost towns of players who've left the game without any plans on coming back. Adding auto-demolition to the game was a smart thing to do to clean up these forever-gone players' houses - and the fact that it (very slightly) eased the housing shortage was a side benefit.

Honestly, I like the idea of non-instanced housing, but frankly, the gaming world is not ready for it to be done right. I'd like a single, massive zone with tens of thousands of plots - literally a city of player houses where you can wander for hours and take in the sights. It's a pipe dream for now, but maybe someday...

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

Not disagreeing at all, but do you know where they had mentioned this? That would be a very interesting piece to read after the whole housing debacle. Houses are a huge investment, and that's a huge slap in the face if they did in fact renege on their initial promise.

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http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ht=Live+letter

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.

I have no problem with auto-demolition. I have a problem with how short the timer is. If they made it longer, people who quit would still have their houses removed. But as it currently stands you can't even take more than a 1 month break.

I will say again, 95 days would be a great compromise.

Pretty sure that YoshiP and the devs didn't want housing reclamation, but the poobahs at SE likely did. This is a company that deliberately does undersized print runs of all of their exclusive merchandise because they know that people won't spend egegrious amounts of money on things that are available all the time.

Reclamation just sucks, period. I don't know how anyone can be in defense of it as a system over a permanent solution to housing shortages as a whole.

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Originally Posted by loreleidiangelo

Reclamation just sucks, period. I don't know how anyone can be in defense of it as a system over a permanent solution to housing shortages as a whole.

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Reclamation is not, and never was, a viable solution for housing shortages. There's simply not enough housing being demolished to even pretend that it is a solution. It helps a little, sure, but what's really needed are more plots.

Reclamation IS necessary, though - not because of the housing shortage, but to clean up the abandoned houses of people who have left the game. When people leave the game permanently, they should lose their house. Otherwise, districts become empty ghost towns as more and more people leave. A player who has left the game no longer cares about their house. There's no reason that SE should continue to maintain their property just in case they maybe might return to the game someday.

I do have issue with the current necessity of actually entering your house to maintain it. In my opinion, maintaining your subscription should be enough to maintain your house, even if you never log into the game. Players may be placed under circumstances that prevent them from logging in for long periods of time; military deployment, severe sickness or injuries, and so on. As long as SE is getting their money, though, I don't see any reason why they should lose their house. The continued subscription is indication enough that you intend to return to the game eventually, even if you can't log on right now.

This is partly why I have reservations about trying to get any housing in Shirogane other than an apartment. I don't have, nor make a lot of gil, nor do I want to deal with the mad rush for housing there, especially when I'm already comfortably dug in where I am. I'm on a "wait and see" status for the relocation system they have in store, and I feel like, while it won't be cheap, it may not be an option for me, but again, wait and see.

Ideally, I'd say double the size of apartments (I mean come on, they're personal chambers for 200K more), and that'd be enough for me personally.

I miss my mog room in XI, Jueno was such a fun place right at housing entrance. It gave the game a tighter knit community feel. No fees, just socialist housing for everyone lol! As the owner of a small house that I purchased and built from the ground up with all crafting, I feel I got kicked in the nuts when it got demolished when I unsubbed and took a break. Thanks SE! Now I'm just a homeless man living in the back alleys of pearl lane in U'ldah

I would only support reclamation if three conditions were met:

-Housing becomes available and unlimited to anyone who has the interest and the gil to buy one. Whether they keep wards or go fully-instanced, I don't care anymore, so long as availability is no longer a concern.

-The full amount of gil for the purchase price of the home is refunded to the homeowner upon reclamation. This includes a voucher for the actual house deed of the same size as the home they had previously (I'm kind of flexible on this second part, though - I think the vouchers are cheap enough to warrant their existence as a reasonable gil sink for most players).

-All furnitures are preserved and stored at the housing dude indefinitely, meaning a returning player won't run the risk of losing rare furnishings if they happen to take an extended break.



If those conditions were met, then yeah, I'd be fine with reclamation as a general cleanup policy to evenly distribute active population among housing wards. But not a single one of those three is met currently, and has no plans to be in the future. Reclamation's only purpose ATM is to keep a stranglehold on the subscriptions of a few players during large content droughts and to appease angry masses who view themselves more "deserving" of player housing compared to someone else for whatever reason or another.

I personally like the OPs idea, it would let people leave for as long as they like without feeling tied to the game AND could be used for the housing transfer system. 2 birds with one stone. But like others have said, it wouldn't be a solution on its own, housing is a mess and there needs to be more plots still.

Honestly I'm kind of just hoping when shirogane comes out they'll remove the demolition timer or at least extend it since there will be more housing to go around.

As for FC leadership... I'm kind of conflicted, it seems a bit control freaky to not want anyone else to have leadership, but at the same time, it's your FC and if that's how you want it you should have that right, so I can see where the desire to make passing leadership optional comes from.

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Originally Posted by ValentineSnow

Honestly I'm kind of just hoping when shirogane comes out they'll remove the demolition timer or at least extend it since there will be more housing to go around.

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If they aren't adding additional wards to all the districts and Shirogane has the same number of houses, then that's only 720 additional houses they're adding. Unless they limit housing per account and likely more than double the number of wards, we will still need some way to free up houses that are not in use.

Lets not forget that with the system now, they got themselves in a corner for the future too. One might never hope that this will happen but if somewhere in the future a small server has way to low population and thus is merged together with another...well quite a lot of people will lose their houses since there is only a certain amount of plots. (I believe this happened with some Korean or Chinese servers)

This would not happen if they have instanced housing..really I had such a big hope that the new housing will be instanced, thus people that want some neighborhood can try to get a house in the ARR zones and all other people could buy their instanced housing in Doma..but no they have to stick to a system that will leave most of your player base out of it..at the same time they create lots of items and content for housing..>_>

Have over the Fc to someone in the FC that you trust.
That is what happened when our FC leader started a company IRL. Logged in every 6 months for a day or 2. Then was gone again.
He is now back semi full time missing 3.0 to 3.45 The leader of the FC gave it back to him. The Leader shouldn't make the FC the members should.

If the issue is there is no one you trust in the FC to take the rains it means that your the only one holding the FC together and in turn it will fall apart if you leave anyways.

While the Original leader took a break the backup leader took a 3 month break. didn't unsub just didn't play other then logging in every 2-3 weeks for 10 mins.
If your a leader and want your FC to live this is some of the commitments you need to deal with when other count on your.

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Originally Posted by saber_alter

That isn't the best idea, though there should be a way to hold your possessions for people who do intend to return.

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After reading a lot of the posts in this thread I realized that the one thing I would change is to keep auto-demolish but greatly increase the timer. At least make it as long as the max sub period (6 months I think?) or even a full year. The OPs suggestion would be good in addition. There should indeed be a way to save your stuff, even if you have to pay to reclaim it.