Pushed to quit after 1,860 days subbed

I took a break for about 4 months, still am somewat.

Last day of my sub I get into my house and then exit the game, sub runs out and I keep it like that for 44 (or whatever the amount of days is, I look at my emails 4 times /day).
1 day is left, I get Steam 30 day sub time, I log in the game, teleport to house plot (I was already there from last login), I step inside my house and exit again.
That takes less then 1 minute and there are 1440 minutes in one day. Better yet I counted this today and it takes me on average 25 seconds to launch client, login and get in my house and there is 86400 seconds in a day.

I'm much less a fan then you are, I don't go to fan fests, I didn't start in the beginning of time, yet somehow I know about this and also SE is friendly enough to send me multiple emails when my house demolishing is about to happen.

When you do have time to do seasonal events, then you also have time to spend less then 25 seconds to reset your house removal time.

Yes the housing system is trash and yes it sucks that you need to keep active sub time to prevent your house removal.

It's your own fault to be honest, you're describing yourself as the best fan but you don't know about this, the internet is full with info about this. Even I who's nothing compared to you're super uber l33t fan awesomeness about this game knew about it.

And to 'save' the most money in how to keep your house while being inactive you can do this:
On the last day of your sub you go into your house, then you can leave your account frozen for 44 days or whatever the counter is minus 1 day, then you get a new sub, login to the game and get in your house to reset the timer (less then 25 seconds needed) exit the game and 29/30 days later you log back in the game and go in your house (less then 25 seconds needed) you exit the game and then you keep your account frozen again for 44 days, rinse repeat ...

Edit:
Have you been living under a rock? Remember the recent nature disaster (not the current one but the one before that), It was all over on XIV stuff (on the launcher and on the webpage, ...) that auto-demolish was temporary suspended for people who had been hit and had no electricity, etc so they would not be able to come online.
Have you never once though 'what could this auto-demolishing mean'?
As a super amazing fan that's something you should have thought I think?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fhaerron

It's your own fault ...

---

Ok, I know I said I was out of this discussion but seriously... the OP has admitted it was their own fault they lost their house, twice now. Here's the quote:

Quote:

---

I am not contesting that my house was demolished. I am not saying that it shouldn't have been demolished, and I'm not saying Squenix is to blame for it being demolished.

---

So, I'm not quite sure why we are still debating this.
Is it because you think the OP hasn't gone far enough, even though they have accepted full responsibility for their house being demolished?
Or were you trying to make another point that I somehow missed? I'm honestly baffled.

I know the OP is implying that if in-game notification existed or the timer was more visible then they wouldn't have lost their house. None of us can know for certain what might have happened if things were different, but if we have an issue with any aspect of the game we are encouraged to bring it to the forum, which is what the OP did. To me this seems a simple question of could the system be improved and would it benefit people.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Solarra

I'm honestly baffled.

---

I think for some people, they find it very difficult to understand that "no" is a valid answer to "Didn't you see this?", "Didn't you read this?" or "Had you not heard about this?", as though it were impossible - rather than just very unlikely, but still entirely possible - to have not.

I might as well, because deflating hyperbole is cathartic:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fhaerron

I'm much less a fan then you are, I don't go to fan fests, I didn't start in the beginning of time, yet somehow I know about this and also SE is friendly enough to send me multiple emails when my house demolishing is about to happen.

When you do have time to do seasonal events, then you also have time to spend less then 25 seconds to reset your house removal time.

---

No one's debating that I had time to something so trivial. I've said that if I had known, I would have. I'm delighted for you that you did know this, and were able to manage your own time accordingly. I'm not sure anyone's level of fandom has anything to do with how likely they are to see this information - I only mentioned my own fan engagement it in context for how the furnishings being lost (not the house being demolished) had made such an impact on me as a fan and collector of the content I lost.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fhaerron

It's your own fault to be honest, you're describing yourself as the best fan but you don't know about this, the internet is full with info about this. Even I who's nothing compared to you're super uber l33t fan awesomeness about this game knew about it.

---

Making silly exaggerated claims about what kind of a fan I am, which I've not actually made myself, is just a lazy way to try and prove a point. How much of a fan you are has no bearing on how you choose to seek out information on game systems, and we've already covered the subjectivity on "How much should you be Googling, and how much does the game have a responsibility to tell you?" at length in this thread.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fhaerron

Have you been living under a rock? Remember the recent nature disaster (not the current one but the one before that), It was all over on XIV stuff (on the launcher and on the webpage, ...) that auto-demolish was temporary suspended for people who had been hit and had no electricity, etc so they would not be able to come online.
Have you never once though 'what could this auto-demolishing mean'?
As a super amazing fan that's something you should have thought I think?

---

Putting the silly "super amazing fan" claims aside, because you're the only one making them and they're worthless, I don't know exactly which natural disaster you're referring to (which is sad that they're frequent enough for me to not be sure), but no - I don't recall seeing any articles about auto demolition being suspended. So the rest of your question is moot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by R-Pete-G

Putting the silly "super amazing fan" claims aside, because you're the only one making them and they're worthless, I don't know exactly which natural disaster you're referring to (which is sad that they're frequent enough for me to not be sure), but no - I don't recall seeing any articles about auto demolition being suspended. So the rest of your question is moot.

---

Well, there's been a few, with the most recent being the floods in Japan in July, 2018. A quick search lead me right to the article. https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...ffaceba8982dfc

They also suspended demolition when hurricane Harvey and Irma were on the rampage.

They're posted in the notices on the launcher, but I admit I didn't see the July flood one, as I usually ignore the notices, since it's mostly just about eternal bonds, bot bannings, and maint.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ko_

Forget the comparsion then... you are still missing the point. The information is out there. Just like everything else. So what cause it's housing the person isn't posed to look up information to keep it? That doesn't make sense. It's not like it's not out there AT ALL. Literally all he had to do was google. It's not SE fault he was too tucking lazy to use google. Sorry but I'm not goign to blame the company for a user error.. which is what this is. Had he did the research NONE OF THIS WOULD'VE HAPPEN! Can we stop with wanting to blame SE for EVERYTHING fopr a change and actually expect people to do their part for something that's - important- to them? Or is SE posed to baby us for everything?

---

And maybe if SE had just put in a little information about this when someone buys a house or give us an ingame mail or chat text when you log in then nobody would have the need to look for something outside of the game. Posters are looking at this with the viewpoint that they know that there is more behind housing but that is not the case for everyone. There are enough MMOs out there where you keep your house no matter how long you were gone. If that person now plays FF14 for quite some time and finally wants to buy themselves a house they will not get any notice when they buy it. Which would be the place where such a information should be visible. If there is no information there and then you wont have any direct messages ingame that there is a timer counting down, how would that person even know that they are missing something? Should we all be forced now to look up every single content to make sure that we are not missing something? Why not simply have the information ingame?

Also the OP itself stated more than once that it had hurt to lose the house but that it was not the reason for him to quit. It was the destruction of all house items that the OP has gathered over the years that hurt. And is it really fine that our items could be destroyed like that? What if someone was not able to play at all for like 4 months because of a sickness? Not only has that person lost their house but every single item too..so even if they had known about it but could not simply log into the game because of rl they still lose all of it. Even paid items. Is that fine?

It would be easy to solve for SE: Give ingame mails about the demolition, give a short information about this when you buy a house and store every housing item on a NPC that wont destroy it after a certain amount..This way people could at least try to get another one later and not lose years of work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alleo

... how would that person even know that they are missing something? Should we all be forced now to look up every single content to make sure that we are not missing something?

---

I think what this thread has shown is that, for some people, they think that not only is the answer yes, but that it's a fact and not merely their opinion.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raskbuck

That's glossing over a very real issue several players seem to been having lately. There have been reports of people getting other player's housing e-mails despite not owning one, or they simply poof into the void.

Sometimes life happens, and it's not up to us to judge whether another player is invested or not in the house. It could be surgery, deployment, or anything else that prevents them from playing for an extended period of time. Pointing out the game's flaws isn't meant as an attack to the company. It's criticism to help them improve upon the game and address the concern a lot of the playerbase have. Sitting comfortably on your side of the fence and judging them isn't helping anyone.

---

This has me curious. If a player does have something like that come up, there needs to be a way to allow others that have permission to do things to the house (like decorate it or tend the garden or something) to be able to reset the timer when they enter the house.

I don't think this would be hard to implement. Maybe just another checkmark in the Permissions tab, or just allow it in general to anyone who has Permissions specifically for that house.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raskbuck

That's because it wasn't explained clearly anywhere in-game. I feel like we're talking in different languages here, not to mention completely missing the point of my response.

If deep down you're implying that it was ultimately OP's fault and that there's nothing to improve upon the housing system, I suppose there's nothing else to discuss. I know you are not saying that, but it sure seems like it if we're arguing about technicalities.

---

Hm ... yes it was explained in game. At least from my recollection.

When you enter a housing district, either first time or after you get your house (I wanna say this but I could be wrong on the timing) you get a pop up window explaining about house demolition. From the wiki, where it states the demo timer was put in place during Patch 3.1:

Quote:

---

Reclamation of Inactive Housing

To ensure that plots of land are not claimed and left unused, estates not accessed for extended periods of time will be automatically demolished, and the plots of land will be put back up for sale.

Reclamation of Inactive Housing was released in patch 3.1.

Estates Subject to Demolishing

Free company housing that has not been accessed by at least one member within 45 days.
Private housing that has not been accessed by the owner within 45 days.
Purchased plots of land upon which an estate has not been built within 45 days.

Steps Prior to Demolishing

30 days of inactivity: A notification indicating that the estate is being prepared for auto-demolition will appear in the Timers interface in the Duty tab of the Main Menu.

35 days of inactivity: An e-mail will be delivered to the registered e-mail addresses of all free company members, or the owner of a private estate, indicating the estate is being prepared for auto-demolition.

42 days of inactivity: An e-mail will be delivered to the registered e-mail addresses of all free company members, or the owner of a private estate, indicating that the estate will be demolished automatically in three days.

45 days of inactivity: The estate will be automatically demolished.

Halting Demolition

Any free company member or private housing owner entering the estate at any time prior to demolition will cancel the demolition process.

After Demolition

When an estate has been demolished, or the rights to an empty plot have been relinquished, said plot will be made available for purchase to all players on that World. The price will decrease every six hours from the time at which it is made available for purchase.

Reclaiming Gil and Items

When an estate has been demolished, gil and certain furnishings will be placed in the care of the resident caretaker for a fixed period of time.

Redeemable from the Resident Caretaker:

80% of the price paid for the estate grounds.
Indoor and outdoor furnishings that are not destroyed upon removal.
Not Redeemable from the Resident Caretaker:

The construction permit required to build an estate.

Furnishings destroyed upon removal.

Housing exteriors.
Private chambers.
Company workshops and any registered airships in the workshop.

Players will have thirty-five days to redeem items from the resident caretaker before they are made irredeemable. Items belonging to a free company estate can only be retrieved by members with the authorization to purchase or relinquish land. Items belonging to a private estate can only be retrieved by the owner.

---

I'm not sure what I do different then.

I got my first house back last year when they released Kugane housing. I already knew that there is a demolisher and you can loose your house if you don't step inside at least once in a set amount of day.
The info is displayed everywhere.

I play WoW serious, that's a game I keep maximum info on. This game I play casual and I don't actively do search up on stuff. Yet somehow Iknew this and you as the amazing 100% devoted fan didn't know, I found that a bit weird.

I've only recently started to watch the live letters and those were the ones about SB before release. I've been playing since 2014 and back then I didn't check the site or forum at all.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AngelCheese77

Hm ... yes it was explained in game. At least from my recollection.

When you enter a housing district, either first time or after you get your house (I wanna say this but I could be wrong on the timing) you get a pop up window explaining about house demolition. From the wiki, where it states the demo timer was put in place during Patch 3.1:

---

This must be how I knew about it then. So yes ... not sure how others don't know it then when you get a popup window explaining it in game?

The housing timer can use work to make it more visible, certainly. It seems off-topic to be discussing who "deserves" a home, that is not for anyone else to decide.

Regarding the OP, I do hope you stay and enjoy all the other content this game has to offer. It would be nice if old event housing items were available for purchase at the Calamity Salvager. Perhaps the popularity of this thread will lead to some positive change.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bahati

The housing timer can use work to make it more visible, certainly. It seems off-topic to be discussing who "deserves" a home, that is not for anyone else to decide.

Regarding the OP, I do hope you stay and enjoy all the other content this game has to offer. It would be nice if old event housing items were available for purchase at the Calamity Salvager. Perhaps the popularity of this thread will lead to some positive change.

---

Not just the timer.

The game needs QOL improvements for everything.

So far, I did receive the mail about demolition twice.

I don't know about you, but for me, when I get my first house in any MMO, my first action was to read up more information about it.
I mean that's me, taking some time to read and understand stuff is better than regretting later.

But currently I am decorating our FC House, maybe I can help you by giving you some of your lost furniture? Are you playing on Tonberry?
Do you have some screenshot of your house before demolition? So I know what furniture you lost and I can try to get for you.
I think I can sponsor you around 10% to 20% of your furniture lost. Hope it makes you feel better.

Just hope we can keep the fun, caring and loving community of FF XIV going.

Let me know if you need my help.

I find it hard to believe that while logging everyday, following seasonnal events and all, you didn't know about that housing system auto-delete...
I mean, with the release of Shirogane and the drama that followed, the adding of new wards and the major change in house owning rules... how could you have missed that if you were logging in everyday ?
Feels sorry for your loss, but on the other hand you can't really blame SE for not warning you...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Windsurfer

So far, I did receive the mail about demolition twice.

I don't know about you, but for me, when I get my first house in any MMO, my first action was to read up more information about it.
I mean that's me, taking some time to read and understand stuff is better than regretting later.

But currently I am decorating our FC House, maybe I can help you by giving you some of your lost furniture? Are you playing on Tonberry?
Do you have some screenshot of your house before demolition? So I know what furniture you lost and I can try to get for you.
I think I can sponsor you around 10% to 20% of your furniture lost. Hope it makes you feel better.

Just hope we can keep the fun, caring and loving community of FF XIV going.

Let me know if you need my help.

---

That's very kind of you. Sadly I am neither on Tonberry, nor do I have any screenshots. I do remember some of the items which I know can be purchased on the Mogstation, but we're talking a lot of money to replace like-for-like the ones I do remember, in the quantities I had bought. And ultimately it doesn't feel worth it, right now.

What I did tend to read up on was specific articles. I would look up furnishings (en.ff14housing.com is just amazing), or gardening, and particular areas like that. I wasn't aware that there was anything I couldn't just learn in game, or get around to reading as time went on if I needed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sigma-Astra

No, I never said to completely get rid of deletion confirmation messages and I would appreciate it if you pointed me in the right direction of where I said "please delete EVERY single message right now because I said so". I would very much appreciate you not twisting my words around in order to suit your own narrative. Thank you.

---

I never claimed you did and I'm not twisting your words around. I said using the logic of your argument we should remove those as well. According to you it isn't the game's responsibility to inform a player when they purchase a house that they can lose it due to inactivity so logically if a player picks the wrong item for deletion it isn't the game's responsibility to question their action. After all the player needs to be responsible for their actions, right? This is why I say you are wrong. It is the game's responsibility to ensure the player is informed of the rules. Once the player is informed it becomes the player's responsibility to abide by those rules. In the case of housing informing the player about the inactivity timer at time of purchase is the way to ensure the player is informed of the rules. Once they know the rules they can take responsibility for doing what needs to be done to keep their house. Like many things SE does the demolition timer was done in a haphazard way instead of using a bit of forethought about everything that needed to be included in its implementation.

I feel your pain OP. I'm a fellow Collector edition everything, nearly 2,000 day subber and I had lost my in-game house a few weeks ago. I was in the between-patch slump like many, so I was only logging in for a little bit here and there - but still logging in.

I myself KNEW the house demolition thing existed but I didn't know I had to actually go VISIT my home. I thought logging in was enough. Well, sure enough I went to my teleports one day to GO TO my house and my house was gone from the list. I went to the plot, it was empty. I read up that I should have received emails about the pending demolition. I did. But they were in an old Email account that I still can easily, regularly access, but is no longer my main email - thus I rarely ever ever ever look at it. Turns out the day I saw the teleport disappear was the day it was demolished.

I was fortunate enough to get my money back for the plot, all of my necessary items and I moved back into my FC room. (I didn't have much stuff, money is tough for me, furnishing the house was taking lots of time.) But if I hadn't gotten all my items back, I would have been furious.

THE POINT IS THOUGH: To the OP's credit, the fact that there are no IN-GAME WARNINGS that your house is about to go poof is very, very stupid. Had there been even ONE in-game letter to my mailbox, I would have been able to save my property. But somehow thats too difficult to program? No, it's laziness and an ill thought communication effort by Square.

While this may be too far and more conspiracy theory, it seems to me like Square WANTS you to lose your property. They KNOW in-game housing is tight and they want to create the illusion that it's not a problem anymore - that it's plentiful. More people that lose their property through poor communication, the more housing is available.

I still play, I'm excited for the new patch, and the expansion next year. I've given up on having a house though... for now at least. I'll be honest, I wasn't really using it to its fullest potential, or even had the resources to fully furnish it. My pain is lessened though because I'm already the Primary groundskeeper and decorator for my FC, so it's not like I'm missing out on that experience of house management. I may try again if I feel I need to but, for now, it was just another way to spend my already meager supply of money.

I feel your pain, sucks to lose everything like that.

Going to sound a bit callous but It is a bit strange to me that someone who played since launched and was that invested never saw/heard about the auto demo timer.
You were logging in and doing all of events, but you never stored anything in the armoire or housing storage? Not only did you not walk into your house for 45 days but another 35 went by without you even noticing it was gone so you could have saved what was most important to you.

I see a lot of threads lately about people just not knowing things from housing to maint schedules even in game people are making farm parties 2 minutes before server down time.

I say that to say this. While SE is not blameless, I think a bigger problem with a few of the issues players have is just people don't take the time to read.
Along with the emails when your house is close to being revoked there is an in game timer that displays in your timers tab. I know this because the game told me it would be there.
A big, all caps, red flashing, sirens blaring notification when you log in would help to I suppose. On the other hand, if we all just took the time to read the info presented in game and on the launcher, lot of issues could be avoided.

I got a question: why are the items being deleted off after 35 days? Can't the devs stored it elsewhere until the player retrieves them?

It's literally the efforts of the player going down into the drain with just one click on the delete button.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kirsten_Rev

I think most people at this point recognize the need for auto-demolition. Some of us certainly fault SE for the crappy design decisions that led to this need - it's still stunning to me that they'd build a system their servers are incapable of fully supporting roughly four years later - but that's a separate conversation.

The big issue at this point, the focus of this thread, is how the game (poorly) notifies you of (a) a pending demolition, and (b) the complete loss of all furniture. There is no pop-up. There's no timer visible from any standard window; you have to go digging into a sub-tab. The timer isn't even consistently visible, so someone digging in the sub-tab might not know they can even check it there. The email notifications aren't very far in advance, and are unreliable given the nature of spam filters / custom filters / sporadic email checking habits. It's very half-arsed, and there's no reason for it to be.

It saddens me that this isn't something everyone can agree on. I can understand disagreements over demolition in general, bit this? It's arguable that this is the least visible notification system in all of FFXIV. We have HUD elements for directing us to story quests and job quests; we've got pointers on maps directing us to quest objectives; we've got pop-up windows highlighting Achievements we're close to getting; we've got a series of three different messages for buying gear from an NPC that you cannot currently equip. And we've got a buried, sporadically visible timer for the demolition of what, for many, is their most treasured in-game possession. I'm honestly curious, how on earth does anyone justify defending this? Regardless of whether or not the OP (or others) could have solved the issue themselves, how is such an atrocious notification system acceptable in a game that does so much to protect people in literally every other way?

---

Could SE make the notification more visible? Sure they could, and I am not going to defend this and neither am I in my post.
On the OP and them using this as the reason they quit, I don't buy it. In SB there are other reasons for quitting this game, reasons for which I took a long break from this game myself and that reason is... the content DESERT!!! (To explain it with few words and a bit of screaming in the end) I mean, this expansion is the one to date with by far the least amount of content, on release and later on. So quitting over that I would understand but over a feature OP did not use for more then 80 days, but to chose that as the hill your want to die on when there are plenty of other hills to charge, well I guess that is your choice to make.

The real problem with housing in this game is imho the fact that it is not open for everyone. I think FFXIV is one of the only mmorpgs with housing where it is limited, and the only other one I can remember is a sandbox mmorpg where you build your house out in the world and having housing limited in that case is something I get, but using a instance system and still have it being limited is just... going to be diplomatic here and say bad.
If they say "its the ps4, it cant handle it" then I just have to wonder, how come other mmorpg that also exist on console manages to have housing systems that do not exclude due to low availability?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Soraki-Muppe

On the OP and them using this as the reason they quit, I don't buy it. In SB there are other reasons for quitting this game, reasons for which I took a long break from this game myself and that reason is... the content DESERT!!! (To explain it with few words and a bit of screaming in the end) I mean, this expansion is the one to date with by far the least amount of content, on release and later on. So quitting over that I would understand but over a feature OP did not use for more then 80 days, but to chose that as the hill your want to die on when there are plenty of other hills to charge, well I guess that is your choice to make.

---

What people enjoy in game is completely subjective. Why is it so easy for you to be OK with someone quitting over what you view as a content drought in SB, but it's totally unacceptable for them to quit after losing their house + all of their furnishings and collectibles that they've obtained over the last 5 years? Plenty of people have enjoyed SB thoroughly and have not felt the same about it as you. It would be silly for those people to come here and claim that your opinion is invalid and they don't buy that as your reason for quitting or taking a break.

It's not unheard of to absolutely love a game, and then have something happen to you that just puts a really foul taste in your mouth and leaves you not wanting to touch the game again. If you've never had this happen to you, then I'm happy for you as it really sucks.

It really is sad and shows how bad housing was implemented in that they force players in a way to log in just to retain a house. Other games do not have such a thing.
I rarely get emails from them, so perhaps the mailing system is out of whack?
I do feel bad for you OP and should you decide to leave because of this all the best of luck

Im in the kind of mindset that if you cannot be bothered to keep an eye on assets in game (always assuming theyre gonna be there), well then it kidna sucks for you. Yeah, I get that it does suck that you lost a lot of things you spent time collecting. And frankly, you should be able to get those back. Theres no reason why SE cannot log what items you had in your account and allow you to reclaim them at a later date should you wish. But as I said, if you cant be bothered to go to your house and step inside it at least ONCE a month, or even check to see if its still there every 2 months (and thus reclaim your items if need be), thats on you. With as much as you play, and as active as you are, thats not a huge struggle. I step into my house at least once every time I play (usually daily) out of pragmatism (I have vendors and other things in it for usefulness). I just dont see how you could spend so much time in game and never set foot in something you consider to be important.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ern815

I got a question: why are the items being deleted off after 35 days? Can't the devs stored it elsewhere until the player retrieves them?

It's literally the efforts of the player going down into the drain with just one click on the delete button.

---

Especially since they are not just crafted items that people can craft again but many event items that can only be bought with real money anymore and there are even some housing items that are purely out of cash shop. So having the chance to lose all of that is just horrible. Imagine how bad it would be if they would wipe our retainers and what they sell if we dont use them enough. Or even delete our characters after a certain time.

I mean its not like there are players that probably could not play due to some real life problems and yet they might lose everything. There should be no reason to delete such items. Take away the gil if you want to create more sinks as a "punishment" for holding the items but not the items itself.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alleo

Especially since they are not just crafted items that people can craft again but many event items that can only be bought with real money anymore and there are even some housing items that are purely out of cash shop. So having the chance to lose all of that is just horrible. Imagine how bad it would be if they would wipe our retainers and what they sell if we dont use them enough. Or even delete our characters after a certain time.

I mean its not like there are players that probably could not play due to some real life problems and yet they might lose everything. There should be no reason to delete such items. Take away the gil if you want to create more sinks as a "punishment" for holding the items but not the items itself.

---

Yep. Unquestionably, this is the worst part about the housing/auto demolition.

In my own personal case, I had accepted that I was going to lose my houses due to me being on a break from the game. That was fine. But then I had to come back to the game just so I could save my items, many of them seasonal items, from being destroyed. This shouldn't be a thing.

If nothing else, I would like this to be changed.

I haven't read the entire thread so I may have missed someone else suggesting this, but why doesn't the system send you an e-mail in game as well? It does put a notification in your timer window, but you need to go look at that. With an e-mail to the OP's in game e-mail, this whole situation may have been avoided, since the OP would have seen it when they logged on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alleo

Especially since they are not just crafted items that people can craft again but many event items that can only be bought with real money anymore and there are even some housing items that are purely out of cash shop. So having the chance to lose all of that is just horrible. Imagine how bad it would be if they would wipe our retainers and what they sell if we dont use them enough. Or even delete our characters after a certain time.

I mean its not like there are players that probably could not play due to some real life problems and yet they might lose everything. There should be no reason to delete such items. Take away the gil if you want to create more sinks as a "punishment" for holding the items but not the items itself.

---

Easy answer, storage.

Of course I wouldn't be surprised the spaghetti code and 90's server hardware has a matter in this as well.

I'm just hoping SE will one day invest correctly in this game like it deserves after all it's tripple A cost with full price expansions, sub prices and the piles mog station is making.

But you know, small indie company.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

I haven't read the entire thread so I may have missed someone else suggesting this, but why doesn't the system send you an e-mail in game as well? It does put a notification in your timer window, but you need to go look at that. With an e-mail to the OP's in game e-mail, this whole situation may have been avoided, since the OP would have seen it when they logged on.

---

An in-game email could be a nice addition as well, but I wouldn't want that to be the only in-game notification. The mail system is kinda wonky in game, and I believe if your mail in game is full (doesn't take a lot of messages), new mail doesn't come through. At least that's been my experience when I've ordered something. Keeping it clean wouldn't be that hard if the mail system didn't seem to always give you that error saying it can't delete the message from the server right now.. OY SE.

I think SE should MAKE sure that it REACHES all players about the demolition rules. this thing wasn`t implanted in the first place and having it made official now. you got to make sure no one have to come by a sad situation like that. SE should comply with a roll back on the item lost to reclaim. they must have that DB somewhere of items lost. that`s what they have to take care of after making such a decision =.= handle those special case please. or id lost faith in SE customer service.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skivvy

An in-game email could be a nice addition as well, but I wouldn't want that to be the only in-game notification. The mail system is kinda wonky in game, and I believe if your mail in game is full (doesn't take a lot of messages), new mail doesn't come through. At least that's been my experience when I've ordered something. Keeping it clean wouldn't be that hard if the mail system didn't seem to always give you that error saying it can't delete the message from the server right now.. OY SE.

---

Yeah that's the one drawback. It's possible it could give you a message when you log in, too. So the Timer window, a message when you log in, and an e-mail in game. Plus the out of game notifications. That should be plenty to get the point across.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alleo

And maybe if SE had just put in a little information about this when someone buys a house or give us an ingame mail or chat text when you log in then nobody would have the need to look for something outside of the game. Posters are looking at this with the viewpoint that they know that there is more behind housing but that is not the case for everyone. There are enough MMOs out there where you keep your house no matter how long you were gone. If that person now plays FF14 for quite some time and finally wants to buy themselves a house they will not get any notice when they buy it. Which would be the place where such a information should be visible. If there is no information there and then you wont have any direct messages ingame that there is a timer counting down, how would that person even know that they are missing something? Should we all be forced now to look up every single content to make sure that we are not missing something? Why not simply have the information ingame?

Also the OP itself stated more than once that it had hurt to lose the house but that it was not the reason for him to quit. It was the destruction of all house items that the OP has gathered over the years that hurt. And is it really fine that our items could be destroyed like that? What if someone was not able to play at all for like 4 months because of a sickness? Not only has that person lost their house but every single item too..so even if they had known about it but could not simply log into the game because of rl they still lose all of it. Even paid items. Is that fine?

It would be easy to solve for SE: Give ingame mails about the demolition, give a short information about this when you buy a house and store every housing item on a NPC that wont destroy it after a certain amount..This way people could at least try to get another one later and not lose years of work.

---

He wouldn't have lost anything if he took it upon himself to say " I don't know alot about this... let me ask someone or ask google." That is my only point. Yes SE needs better things but they can't fix lazy. Look at the dutyfinder thread for proof of that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ko_

He wouldn't have lost anything if he took it upon himself to say " I don't know alot about this... let me ask someone or ask google." That is my only point. Yes SE needs better things but they can't fix lazy. Look at the dutyfinder thread for proof of that.

---

But why would you think there's anything to look up if you're not explicitly made aware of an issue in the first place? I haven't had a new character for a long time, but going by what has been mentioned here, you normally enter the housing district at level 15, and they give you a bit of information then. That seems to be it. I'm half tempted to level up one of my mules and see what I get, but we'll see how lazy I get.

But for now, lets assume that level 15 is the one and only time you get any potential notification regarding the demolition process. If you're a new player, you are having SO much information thrown at you from the game, there's a good chance you're going to forget that random bit of housing information that was given to you at level 15. You can't even purchase a house until you're level 50 + have a certain GC rank. That is very poor implementation by SE.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skivvy

But why would you think there's anything to look up if you're not explicitly made aware of an issue in the first place? I haven't had a new character for a long time, but going by what has been mentioned here, you normally enter the housing district at level 15, and they give you a bit of information then. That seems to be it. I'm half tempted to level up one of my mules and see what I get, but we'll see how lazy I get.

But for now, lets assume that level 15 is the one and only time you get any potential notification regarding the demolition process. If you're a new player, you are having SO much information thrown at you from the game, there's a good chance you're going to forget that random bit of housing information that was given to you at level 15. You can't even purchase a house until you're level 50 + have a certain GC rank. That is very poor implementation by SE.

---

I dunno, if I barely remembered something from the game or better yet need to update myself on a rotation on a class or a feature. I google it instantly so I can be up to date. Alot of people do this. Now why am I goign to google instead of looking at the ingame files? Google is less of a mess and I can pinpoint what I need within seconds without stopping my gameplay. NOW this isn't related to the OP as nothing SE would've done would have stopped him being lazy. But they can make their UI less of a mess so it's easier to search for things like housing rules within the game. But with it being so talked about within the last 2 years alone one would wonder how anything was missed from the get go.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skivvy

But why would you think there's anything to look up if you're not explicitly made aware of an issue in the first place? I haven't had a new character for a long time, but going by what has been mentioned here, you normally enter the housing district at level 15, and they give you a bit of information then. That seems to be it. I'm half tempted to level up one of my mules and see what I get, but we'll see how lazy I get.

But for now, lets assume that level 15 is the one and only time you get any potential notification regarding the demolition process. If you're a new player, you are having SO much information thrown at you from the game, there's a good chance you're going to forget that random bit of housing information that was given to you at level 15. You can't even purchase a house until you're level 50 + have a certain GC rank. That is very poor implementation by SE.

---

OP started in 2.0 and played regularly, they would have been lvl 50, and had full, frequent access to the news presented on the launcher as you log in. I'd say that is being made explicitly aware. You are right that some people may fall into that category, and to them I sympathize, but OP has a different experience.

I just find it extremely hard to believe that someone who has invested this much time and money into the game is oblivious to a feature that is not unknown. OP claims to have been to fan fest and has bought every single collectors edition since 1.0, but apparently doesn't keep up with basic news/PLLs/patch notes. Hell, even recently there was a comment made regarding freezing the housing timer because of Japanese earthquakes, it's not like the Devs don't talk about it.

I sympathize with you but I don't think it is reasonable to say you were "pushed to quit." That's a decision you're making on your own. And you can't honestly say you "enjoyed" content that you didn't access for nearly three months. Makes no sense.

I had a medium house and a small house get destroyed once. C'est la vie. I have no one to blame for that but myself. I took my lumps and moved on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ko_

I dunno, if I barely remembered something from the game or better yet need to update myself on a rotation on a class or a feature. I google it instantly so I can be up to date. Alot of people do this. Now why am I goign to google instead of looking at the ingame files?

---

This is the problem with trying to make an anecdotal comparison. As players, different people look up different things for a variety of reasons. You might play a Job for quite a while and not go looking up a rotation until you realise your DPS or Healing isn't up to scratch. Typically you'll do more research if you know you're missing some information, but if you think - rightly or wrongly - that you are up-to-date on how something works, it's not unreasonable to continue as you are.

A player who may not be great at their rotation and isn't doing a good job at DPS will realise because they perform badly in groups, they're told they need to and do some research, but they still have no obligation to do so. And as ignorant as that might be, they wouldn't deserve for their 70 levels to be taken away from them for not having done their homework. We're not talking about whether someone will benefit from reading up on game features. The question, rather, is should it be a hard-and-fast requirement? Do you deserve to have content you've earned stripped away from not doing so?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lambdafish

OP started in 2.0 and played regularly, they would have been lvl 50, and had full, frequent access to the news presented on the launcher as you log in. I'd say that is being made explicitly aware. You are right that some people may fall into that category, and to them I sympathize, but OP has a different experience.

I just find it extremely hard to believe that someone who has invested this much time and money into the game is oblivious to a feature that is not unknown. OP claims to have been to fan fest and has bought every single collectors edition since 1.0, but apparently doesn't keep up with basic news/PLLs/patch notes. Hell, even recently there was a comment made regarding freezing the housing timer because of Japanese earthquakes, it's not like the Devs don't talk about it.

---

The disbelief continues. If you've read every article on the Lodestone, and every link that appears in the launcher, and you recall all news items / patch notes, then I tip my hat to you.

The reality that seems to be just out of some people's reach is that this is almost certainly not the norm for everyone. Taking a break for a few weeks? Probably going to miss the latest news. In a hurry to log on one day? You might ignore the links in the launcher and just get right to logging in. Who's to say what conversations you see in city chat? You mention my attendance to fan fest and having bought collector's editions, but you know full well that neither of those things would have any bearing on whether or not I'd know about auto demolition. And to then make the leap to "doesn't keep up with basic news / PLLS / patch notes" - I have, at times, done all of those things. But there's a great big range between "have read it all" and "have read nothing", and I'd wager most players fall somewhere in between those equally unrealistic extremes.


This thread is a great example, given how many people are banging the same drum about the demolition part of my post, despite the fact that I've pointed out - several times - that I'm not contesting the demolition at all. If only they had read things properly and done their research...

I can feel your pain OP. I had a similar thing happen to me, however, I was notified via email that my house was going to be demolished. I let it happen and regretted it. But I've been a subscriber since beta...followed this game through all the in, outs, thru thick and thin, good times/bad times been there the whole time. Please don't leave the game, we need more people like you! I was on Balmung, couldn't get my hands at all on a house since it was demolished. Desperate for a place to call home, I transferred servers and bought myself a Med house. I'm really happy about that, and I still enjoy the game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skivvy

What people enjoy in game is completely subjective. Why is it so easy for you to be OK with someone quitting over what you view as a content drought in SB, but it's totally unacceptable for them to quit after losing their house + all of their furnishings and collectibles that they've obtained over the last 5 years? Plenty of people have enjoyed SB thoroughly and have not felt the same about it as you. It would be silly for those people to come here and claim that your opinion is invalid and they don't buy that as your reason for quitting or taking a break.

It's not unheard of to absolutely love a game, and then have something happen to you that just puts a really foul taste in your mouth and leaves you not wanting to touch the game again. If you've never had this happen to you, then I'm happy for you as it really sucks.

---

No, what I don't get is how some content that OP ignored for more then 80 days made him quit. Clearly this was not a part of the game that the OP cared about, if OP did then this would not happened. If it was the straw that broke the camels back I would understand it, but as the sole reason? No way.
Oh and I have also subbed since 2.0, even played a little in 1.0. What I have seen and actually is a fact is that we keep getting less content each expansion, an easy example is the amount of dungeons we got, in 2.x 3 per patch, in 3.x 2 per patch, in 4.x 1.5 per patch. But anyways that and the fact that the formula for dungeons has not changed since 2.0 is another discussion.
And to be honest I do not find it unacceptable that the OP quit just because of this, I just find it highly unlikely, seeing as, and I am saying this again, the OP ignored this feature for more then 80 days while still playing the game regularly enough to keep the house if OP really cared. But if this is the sole reason for leaving, that is their right.

My plan for the game may also involve quitting it, I will stick around until 5.0 and see which direction they take the game during 5.x. If I like it I will stay, if I don't I will leave. Simple as that. But before I do I may write a longer post about what I think is wrong, but that is because I want to continue loving this game even if that love from time to time is tested. And to those who would love a direction I would not, more power to you but then the game has clearly turned into something that is not for me.

About that foul taste in my mouth... I have been a gamer since NES, of course I have had that taste in my mouth countless times now. I could make a list but will just name this one: Tabula Rasa, game launched in a mess and while the servers went down faster then any other mmorpg I can remember the creator took his money and went to space... yes the a-hole went to space instead of fixing his damn game. Hmm... perhaps this is why I turned into grumpy cat?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Raskbuck

Information that, more often than not, is given to sprouts at level 15 when they visit the housing area for the first time. I'm sure they will remember that information crystal clear should they ever get a house someday. Hm... I suppose adding additional warnings when purchasing a house or when the demolition time is approaching is unnecessary, then.

It was also clearly stated in outside resources, such as the lodestone and fansites, so frankly adding more warnings is a waste of time for everyone involved.

Honestly, shame on you if you don't go through every single patch note the game has received up until now. They should know better! And if they lose their house and event items, then they deserved it. Let them cry and quit the game!

Reading this thread has been very illuminating regarding what your average FFXIV player is like.

---

Let me be the first to give you a shrug and say if he was away for more than 80 days, he'd already decided to quit. Not my problem.

If he wants to start playing again, he can start a new collection. Or not; not my problem.

Heck, I'd be fine with a 14 day destruction timer that can be increased through active play. Just logging in once every 30 days or so only to go inside your house doesn't make you hold any value to your linkshells or free company. Meaning, you might as well not be playing.