Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

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Originally Posted by Voltyblast

And so? They are houses. They give free (for the most part?) houses to players, which is what people want. Are you really that picky?

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I'm not advocating or condemning either type of implementation . I simply stated that instanced housing and instanced communities are not the same.

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Originally Posted by Voltyblast

They could always improve this system but instead they chose the worst possible decision, a decision that was initially revoked because people didn't want it. But I suppose people forgot it, so they tried again without telling anyone.

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A feature that should have been implemented initially, together with the system itself, considering how severely limited the supply is. They changed their minds because they chickened out because of a few too loud voices on here - that was the worst decision they could make after deciding on going ahead with this system. And implementing it now did not happen without telling anyone, at the very least they talked about it in the latest live letter. The fact that a transcript or summary of that is not posted in a prime place, such as Lodestone main, is a fault, that's sure.

But this system itself is simply unsustainable, especially at this scale, which is something they should have foreseen (they must have at least one knowledgeable expert on the team?) and not go ahead with this system at all. Which they did, so considering housing (especially personal) as a whole, they botched it right at the beginning when they opted for this model, yes.

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Originally Posted by FriendlyUncle

Your argument makes no sense. We do not having community housing instances either. We have physical server resources constantly devoted to running the housing Wards and subwards. At not time during server uptime are these ever removed from memory. Then on top of that, we have individual instances for housing interiors. So what exactly is the problem in this system? That it worked for other games?

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I don't believe they were making an argument. Just stating a fact.

Like this:

We have a broken housing system. They will never rehaul it. They will just improve upon it.

THIS is one of those improvements. I'm sure more will come and just as many people won't like those either... just like any updates to the game.

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Originally Posted by Voltyblast

They could always improve this system but instead they chose the worst possible decision, a decision that was initially revoked because people didn't want it. But I suppose people forgot it, so they tried again without telling anyone. Like those anti-piracy acts.

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They announced this weeks and weeks ago that they were working on a reclaim system.

They did not hide it from anyone, just not everyone reads gaming news or the forums.

People in fact have been demanding it for months on the housing forums.. because of inactive players like you...

Sorry but if you're not playing or subbing you don't have a right to exclusive & limited content unavailable to other players just because you want/need a break.. doesn't matter the reason or excuse for being gone. May seem harsh but as it stands this is an improvement to the limited housing issue.

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Originally Posted by Dree-Elle

With no release outside of Asia, and only on one platform (no, Vita doesn't count). Apples and oranges.

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The game has 3 million registered accounts, the last I checked on the figure. Not all of them are active, obviously, but each account is automatically given its own rooms that are saved for perpetuity. It may be officially limited to one market, but for the purposes of this comparison, that is irrelevant. What's important is the numbers, and the numbers say that an F2P game can provide instanced housing to literally millions of accounts. From a resources perspective, it should be trivial for a game that's double dipping with a sub fee and a cash shop to accomplish the same feat.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

It was expanded. They took what was there, and added more. Anyone who thought the base game would change, when they never gave that impression, was delusional.

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Yeah, we call them patches: they give us more of the same, more content, more "stuff" and more story, and the main difference is that they're free.

I'm not expecting the base game to change, but to expand into various directions: possible skill improvements, new traits, skill customization, possibility of multi role for each job just to name a few.
But so far the game plays exactly like 2 years ago: still the same weekly caps, I still use the same rotations on the same jobs I played 2 years ago (minor differences here, but my monk and warrior still use the same base attacks with no real difference), I still see the same single boss raids from 2.X (why can't they make a raid like CT raids? Those are what I call a raid, in terms of exploring and size).

You're right on this: they definitely added more of the same exact thing and if that's your idea of expansion by all means, don't let me stop you. It's definitely not mine.

The amount of misinformation on this forum is seriously beyond me.

From: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...808-18-2015%29

1:43:01
Q: I really love the scenery in the new areas. Do you have plans to introduce a housing ward in Ishgard?
A: We’ll first implement a feature to automatically relinquish unused houses in order to increase the availability of land. In parallel, we’re also working on quality of life improvements for the extended wards. Once these are complete, we’re move onto optimizing the servers so we can increase the amount of furnishings that can be placed in houses. Without taking care of these first, players won’t be able to transfer their houses without relinquishing their existing house first, and this also creates a situation where it leaves an unused house. We'll be progressing with this one step at a time, and will be gradually applying changes from Patch 3.1 onwards. The Dragonsong War hasn't ended yet, so it’ll take some time before we can add a housing ward in Ishgard.

There you have it. They're doing one thing at a time, and trying to fix more problems than they're creating.

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Originally Posted by Voltyblast

And so? They are houses. They give free (for the most part?) houses to players, which is what people want. Are you really that picky?

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It's not being picky. You want glorified Inn rooms while we currently have entire neighborhood of 30 houses. Absolutly not the same thing.

I already answered les than two pages before your first post on the matter. Since you don't seem to follow the thread with a lot of attention, I'll quote myself:

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Originally Posted by Fyce

But that would be a completly different design. You wouldn't have a neighborhood and all the "life" coming with it. It wouldn't be some kind of hub area but just a private thing only you will see and use.
I like my ward, the neighbors habits and wandering in the place to see what new stuff the neighbors added to their plot. Or even if a new FC arrived.

Yes, the actual system is very demanding in terms of technical ressources, but it add so much more flavor and value than a poor instantiated design you're suggesting.
You'd prefer a bland housing system but for everyone, rather than a flavorful but restricted one. I get where you're coming from, but not everyone think that way. Some people like that unique aspect to the current housing, even if it has quite a lot of issues.

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The timer is reasonable now. Before they proposed 30 days, which meant house owners couldn't even unsub for one month. Now everyone has some breathing room. As a personal house owner I'm happy with the system.

It's too bad the system isn't retroactive though. I know two houses that have been abandoned since personal housing launched. And my FC still wants to upgrade to a large house. Oh well. I hope they add new wards. Because this system wont be noticed for awhile.

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Originally Posted by Elim

The timer is reasonable now. Before they proposed 30 days, which meant house owners couldn't even unsub for one month. Now everyone has some breathing room. As a personal house owner I'm happy with the system.

It's too bad the system isn't retroactive though. I know two houses that have been abandoned since personal housing launched. And my FC still wants to upgrade to a large house. Oh well. I hope they add new wards. Because this system wont be noticed for awhile.

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they do intend to add more wards around the time they add ishgard housing which won't be for a while.

Answer to your question was actually above your post haha. See below

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Originally Posted by Kerii

The amount of misinformation on this forum is seriously beyond me.

From: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...808-18-2015%29

1:43:01
Q: I really love the scenery in the new areas. Do you have plans to introduce a housing ward in Ishgard?
A: We’ll first implement a feature to automatically relinquish unused houses in order to increase the availability of land. In parallel, we’re also working on quality of life improvements for the extended wards. Once these are complete, we’re move onto optimizing the servers so we can increase the amount of furnishings that can be placed in houses. Without taking care of these first, players won’t be able to transfer their houses without relinquishing their existing house first, and this also creates a situation where it leaves an unused house. We'll be progressing with this one step at a time, and will be gradually applying changes from Patch 3.1 onwards. The Dragonsong War hasn't ended yet, so it’ll take some time before we can add a housing ward in Ishgard.

There you have it. They're doing one thing at a time, and trying to fix more problems than they're creating.

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Originally Posted by Voltyblast

Yeah, we call them patches: they give us more of the same, more content, more "stuff" and more story, and the main difference is that they're free.

I'm not expecting the base game to change, but to expand into various directions: possible skill improvements, new traits, skill customization, possibility of multi role for each job just to name a few.
But so far the game plays exactly like 2 years ago: still the same weekly caps, I still use the same rotations on the same jobs I played 2 years ago (minor differences here, but my monk and warrior still use the same base attacks with no real difference), I still see the same single boss raids from 2.X (why can't they make a raid like CT raids? Those are what I call a raid, in terms of exploring and size).

You're right on this: they definitely added more of the same exact thing and if that's your idea of expansion by all means, don't let me stop you. It's definitely not mine.

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Wait, I'm a little confused on what you consider an expansion. All expansions I have experience with was literally more of the same. All old school RTS expansions, like Brood Wars and FT? More of the same with new units and maps. Nothing noteworthy changed with existing elements of the game, just how you might incorporate the new units. Expansions for FFXI and WoW? More of the same initially. Completely new styles of content were rare and when finally released, were generally introduced sometime AFTER the expansion launched. Raids are almost always done in the same style. We're not exactly far into Heavensward to make the same type of comparisons... in fact, we're not even into the first major content patch yet. I'm curious about why you would conclude something else to be the norm right from the beginning, because I definitely have to disagree with you there.

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Originally Posted by Elim

The timer is reasonable now. Before they proposed 30 days, which meant house owners couldn't even unsub for one month. Now everyone has some breathing room. As a personal house owner I'm happy with the system.

It's too bad the system isn't retroactive though. I know two houses that have been abandoned since personal housing launched. And my FC still wants to upgrade to a large house. Oh well. I hope they add new wards. Because this system wont be noticed for awhile.

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I just took a short break from FFXIV for the first time to play other games in the interim of 3.1, but came back a couple weeks early on a whim. Had I waited until 3.1 dropped, it would have been into the 45 days inactivity period, and I would have flipped to find out my house was demolished based on a retroactive system. They're extending a small courtesy to returning players, the least they can do after a long patch cycle. Don't fret, the players that aren't coming back will remain inactive and their estates reclaimed.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

Its not retroactive tho, it starts counting on patch day.

Do people not read the whole info note?

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Right. I was replying to the quoted poster who commented on a retroactive system. Did you not read the quote?

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Originally Posted by Seryl199

Right. I was replying to the quoted poster who commented on a retroactive system. Did you not read the quote?

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Nah, i gave up reading most of this, so you can ignore my post lol. theres been too much false info getting spread around today. My bad \o/

This is a bandaid, to be sure. But at the same time, there's no reason for someone who isn't playing to own a house. Those players are basically dead to Eorzea and what need for a house does a dead person have? In the real world houses don't just stay empty after someone leaves; either someone else in the family takes over or the house is resold.

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Originally Posted by SummonerSenah

In the real world houses don't just stay empty after someone leaves; either someone else in the family takes over or the house is resold

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https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...4aMmu8_l5koeHg
Sure about that?

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Wait, I'm a little confused on what you consider an expansion.

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This is often subjective of course, that's why I simply summed it up in "this is your idea against my idea: nobody is really correct". But for me when I play an expansion I simply expect things to improve in different ways.

I am glad that the warrior got expanded: they're not fully fledged dps too and they couldn't better than ever. But they're still stuck in their tanking role: I wish I could go as dps but I can't. It's not really well expanded in my eye.

The weekly caps got no real change: why couldn't we have something different, or a way to get more gear within the cap? Or even better: why can't we swap our Eso gear for another job you want to use? I currently play warrior but I'm quite bored so I went monk: my monk won't be any good in the next month and a half, the approximate time that I get full exo.

The places got a big improvement, no doubt on that, but there's nothing to do in these big places: they're completely "empty". No I'm not saying that they're barren: there's nothing interesting to do aside fate grinding and hunting, which is also pointless (for now at least). Infact flying is also useless unless you are grinding: teleporting is quicker.

All I'm trying to say is that, this is just from my own opinion, the game feels the exact same: some improvements were made but no real pizza. It plays like 2.0 and while I know where this game comes from, after 2 years I kind of pretend some more innovation. The expansion, always in my opinion, just brought 3 new jobs, bigger (but empty) areas, and flying. And story, but I don't follow it.

In addition to this...

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Originally Posted by Fyce

It's not being picky. You want glorified Inn rooms while we currently have entire neighborhood of 30 houses. Absolutly not the same thing.

I already answered les than two pages before your first post on the matter. Since you don't seem to follow the thread with a lot of attention, I'll quote myself:

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Originally Posted by Fyce

But that would be a completly different design. You wouldn't have a neighborhood and all the "life" coming with it. It wouldn't be some kind of hub area but just a private thing only you will see and use.
I like my ward, the neighbors habits and wandering in the place to see what new stuff the neighbors added to their plot. Or even if a new FC arrived.

Yes, the actual system is very demanding in terms of technical ressources, but it add so much more flavor and value than a poor instantiated design you're suggesting.
You'd prefer a bland housing system but for everyone, rather than a flavorful but restricted one. I get where you're coming from, but not everyone think that way. Some people like that unique aspect to the current housing, even if it has quite a lot of issues.

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Let me just ask one simple question: do you want something to work properly or not?

Of course the wards give "life", with neighbors walking around and stuff but this thread is just the proof of why this system, while good on some parts, it's terrible on so many others: I'm in the goblet but frankly I don't see anyone nearby me: my FC is dead (they're waiting for the patch), all of the neigbors are always away, and my house is literally in the center where the MB is. Opinion varies here, but it does feel empty for me, but glad to hear you're having it differently.

You are correct for sure: having an house gives me a good feeling of "life" with neighbors and whatnot, but even I admit that it's flawed to no end. However it doesn't work good enough to keep up "whatever" they're keeping up, to the point we are now essentially paying a sort of rent to keep our houses up. I would simply let it go if they could at least fulfill the demand but there's barely enough for 1% of the entire server. On top of that they're expensive too, but it seems that they give back 80% (why not full?) of the money spent which is something.

I can see that you like this system because you like where "you live in", but for some (and many) a house is simply an achievement that they want to share, which is also good. And whether that's bad or good it doesn't matter: what matters is that this method of housing isn't working and now they implemented an automatic relinquish after a certain time. All I'm saying is that, I would prefer a "bland" housing but that works fine, rather than this.

And whether you agree or not, it doesn't matter the least: this is what is going on right now and I assume that either they won't change it, or will after a long time.

I'll just lower my sub to intro I guess. :/

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Originally Posted by Seryl199

Right. I was replying to the quoted poster who commented on a retroactive system. Did you not read the quote?

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I understand why they didn't make it retroactive. I'm sure the forum would be absolutely filled with rage if it was. But, not to sound cold, I still wish it was. Not only can I confirm two abandoned houses, but I can walk through most subdivs and run out of fingers counting houses that have no decorations(or very little) and haven't had any for months and months. Now we get to watch them sit there for even longer -- but it's not a big deal. At some point houses will start to free up, new wards will be added and people will be happy. I'm a bit more optimistic about this system than others. Because I'm sure houses will free up fairly often. People clearly buy houses and then regret it, or stop caring shortly after.

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Originally Posted by SummonerSenah

This is a bandaid, to be sure. But at the same time, there's no reason for someone who isn't playing to own a house. Those players are basically dead to Eorzea and what need for a house does a dead person have? In the real world houses don't just stay empty after someone leaves; either someone else in the family takes over or the house is resold.

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It's more than a band-aid; it's removing a malignant tumor. The problem isn't resolved, but it's a necessary step in that direction.

Note that leaving your house abandoned for 45 RL days is equal to leaving it abandoned for a little over 2.5 Eorzean years.

Losing title after 2.5 years is a bit fast compared to RL. In RL, it's commonly 10 to 20 years (depending on the local laws) before you would lose title to abandoned property, and then only if someone else takes adverse possession of it for that number of years. On the other hand, if you lose land in RL because of adverse possession, you get nothing for compensation, unlike the 80% you will get here.

All that said: it's just a game, and these are the rules. So there's no need to get particularly emotional about it.

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Originally Posted by Voltyblast

Because there are better ways to do it?

Wildstar does it right.

SWTOR does it right.

LOTRO (apparently, never played it) does it right.

I think also Aion does it right, with personal flats.

And I believe also Rift does it right.

This game doesn't? And because of technical issues?

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every single one of those games is F2P...which means housing items are a significant revenue source for them - of course they are going to make it easy for everyone to own one (not that I don't think everyone should be able to have one in FF14, I 100% do think everyone needs access.) WS, SWTOR, RIFT are all solo house instances - totally different animal than a neighborhood, it is just another instance like anything else. Aion has housing districts but anyone can have a home via apartments...not sure what LOTRO has though.

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Originally Posted by AsahinaMyLove

I just say: WTF?!?!1!
We're gonna lose our houses after a short amount of time - only 45days? Even for people who own a house not as a guild?!
Why not just add more housing areas? >_>
They could spin the map again at 90° and its a 3th one!
What about those people who CANT login due random stuff happen in real life?
- being in a hospital
- console or PC broke
- school/college/job stress

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This is exactly what I was thinking. 90 days would be better, it would give you time to deal with the RL unforeseen event without losing your housing.
- having a baby
- military deployment
- death in the family
- job change
- job loss
- major relocation
All these RL events happen, 90 days would give most people a chance to get sorted out again.
I don't have housing but I have experienced some of the RL issues that are listed here. I think 45 days is too stingy and unreasonable a time frame, I can see it for an FC but not for a private estate.

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Originally Posted by StouterTaru

It's more than a band-aid; it's removing a malignant tumor. The problem isn't resolved, but it's a necessary step in that direction.

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You realise that the amount of housing that gets freed up after the time frame might be tons lower then what people are expecting not to mention once the houses are bought out, you are back to square one, band aids cover up the issue, you aren't fixing towards anything, fixes do not put you back to square one in any step, this is simply SE finding a scapegoat.

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Originally Posted by Ayerinn

every single one of those games is F2P...which means housing items are a significant revenue source for them - of course they are going to make it easy for everyone to own one (not that I don't think everyone should be able to have one in FF14, I 100% do think everyone needs access.) WS, SWTOR, RIFT are all solo house instances - totally different animal than a neighborhood, it is just another instance like anything else. Aion has housing districts but anyone can have a home via apartments...not sure what LOTRO has though.

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But they work fine don't they? Sure, maybe some issues now and you're forced to get some items from the shop, but I don't think that they need a 45 day relinquishing system to make it work.

SWTOR is ok but requires money to unlock additional parts, but you don't need a 3 floored house to begin with. I haven't played Rift and Aion too much to fully say how they are, but they work just fine and that's the important thing.

Does the housing work in this game? No, and now we have a stingy relinquishing time that doesn't allow anyone to have months worth of break. I am NOT saying that we should let the abandoned houses go untouched: I fully agree to that, I want everyone to have a place to stay in but I just don't believe that this is the right way.

All I'm saying is, you want it done good, or done it poorly? Because as far as I'm concerned the housing in FFXIV is in the latter.

They should redo the system so any player that wants as house can own one, like every other modern MMO with housing.

The current system is just bad. We wouldn't have to worry about a relinquishment system if it had not been so poorly thought out to begin with.

With the current amount of housing I probably won't ever own one. There just are not enough of them.

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Originally Posted by Darthzilla

This is exactly what I was thinking. 90 days would be better, it would give you time to deal with the RL unforeseen event without losing your housing.

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And this is why i think the german info text is more right (or clearer)

45 days time to enter the house before it get marked as an inactive house
45 days time to enter the house to remove the inactive mark before it get demolished

in total 90 days

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Originally Posted by raelgun

You realise that the amount of housing that gets freed up after the time frame might be tons lower then what people are expecting not to mention once the houses are bought out, you are back to square one, band aids cover up the issue, you aren't fixing towards anything, fixes do not put you back to square one in any step, this is simply SE finding a scapegoat.

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We've known this was coming for a long time and it was never marketed as being a housing "fix". It was always promoted as being a first step towards more accessible housing with their current structure. It's not going to get every player/fc a house but it will get one for some and be a recurring cycle as inactive's are exchanged for actives. Another step is going to be when they implement the house sharing feature for personal homes.

So no, this isn't SE finding a scapegoat. It's a recycle system to keep active users in active resources and it was sorely needed.

it is not a perfect solution but it is a step forward
In the meantime SE have to figure out the solution
Recycling will reach it limits eventually and I don't think plot could be add unlimitly
Yet, at least SE are actually doing something about this issue

So SE band aids (badly, I might add) a problem which should have been solved by them improving what they have currently, and people think this is a good thing?

What's especially absurd here is players can lose their house even if they're still paying subscription

This change should only affect inactive accounts and the timer should be 2-3 months minimum. Ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by Ritzin

So SE band aids (badly, I might add) a problem which should have been solved by them improving what they have currently, and people think this is a good thing?

What's especially absurd here is players can lose their house even if they're still paying subscription

This change should only affect inactive accounts and the timer should be 2-3 months minimum. Ridiculous.

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Okay, I get the 90 day period and agree with that. But if you know you won't be on, it's really easy to cancel a subscription. So when you refer to players still paying a sub and may end up still losing their housing, that means they aren't using it. Going 45 days while playing, but not using your house for that long? This point doesn't really make sense.

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Originally Posted by Darthzilla

This is exactly what I was thinking. 90 days would be better, it would give you time to deal with the RL unforeseen event without losing your housing.
- having a baby
- job loss

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Having a baby doesn't really keep you from being able to take 2 minutes to long into the game to keep your house, neither does job loss either unless you can't pay your sub in which case it doesn't really matter cause you not able to play the game anyways.

I'm opposed to this also, at first I didn't really care that much since I'm in one of the largest and most active FCs on Balmung so this really won't effect me. But after thinking about it, it is a bit mean to some of the players to work so hard to buy a house they love and decorate it the way they like to suddenly have to worry about losing it should they decide to take a little break for any reason. I've known quite a few people who will stop playing a game for months and eventually come back to it. Should they be punished? Absolutely not. Considering how it was when the content was first introduced, it seems unfair to change the rules on them now. I think housing is a problem in itself, but any solution that attacks players is unacceptable.

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Originally Posted by Ritzin

So SE band aids (badly, I might add) a problem which should have been solved by them improving what they have currently, and people think this is a good thing?

What's especially absurd here is players can lose their house even if they're still paying subscription

This change should only affect inactive accounts and the timer should be 2-3 months minimum. Ridiculous.

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Totally agree, i dont use my house that often, but be sure that from now on i will always log out inside it to reset that timer every time. I willl even log in and and out every few days when im taking small breaks from the game.

I farmed my ass off to be able to afford mine and all the stuff inside it the same day new wards were being added. The last thing i want is to loose is my house to people being late to the party, simply cause i didnt go to my place for a while. Even though i would still being technically paying for it through the monthly sub.


The solution is to add more houses not taking them from players already owning them. It solves nothing.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

Having a baby doesn't really keep you from being able to take 2 minutes to long into the game to keep your house, neither does job loss either unless you can't pay your sub in which case it doesn't really matter cause you not able to play the game anyways.

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I was going to say when my wife and I had ours, it actually gave me more time to play. Leveled up all my DoH's playing one handed while my little one slept in my arms. We ended up having to have emergency c section and was only in the hospital for 5 days. If you're in labor for 45 days, I think the game will be the last thing you're worried about.

Maybe its just me but all these what ifs. If I had any of them, the game would be back burner material, its interesting to see people's priorities in life.

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Originally Posted by Ritzin

So SE band aids (badly, I might add) a problem which should have been solved by them improving what they have currently, and people think this is a good thing?

What's especially absurd here is players can lose their house even if they're still paying subscription

This change should only affect inactive accounts and the timer should be 2-3 months minimum. Ridiculous.

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You don't agree with the Inactivity Timer and think it's a band-aid fix. Ok no problem, that's your opinion you're entitled to voice it.

So then let's assume that switching to an instanced housing or instanced/ward combo housing model is completely off the table (which it basically is regardless). Now, while keeping in mind that hardware/data storage (particularly SAN) is expensive, meaning adding a schwack of wards wouldn't be a viable option, I'm curious to know how you (or others) would suggest they improve upon the system they currently have? What steps would you try to take to ensure sustainable accessible housing to the masses?

If I were to answer my own question the first few things that come to mind for me personally are:

1) Restrict housing to 1 personal & fc house per account per server - Unfortunately SE hasn't done this yet and it's the first thing on my list.
2) Implement an Inactivity Timer - I'd prefer 60 days with the removal of "un-retrivable" status from housing items so that all items can be reclaimed.
3) Personal House Sharing - This would be great for friends/family's. This is actually SE's next step but not sure if it will make to 3.1.
4) New wards/sub-wards added periodically - This would be dependant on supply/demand + company financial reviews.

I'd like to address the concerns of the person who mentioned military members, being a former one myself.

That's a legit concern and I hope SE factored that in. However, did they not also mention early on that they were adding a system to grant rights /privileges to up to 5 other friends as far as accessing your house and features of housing? This would work as someone who plans to be away can elect a caretaker of their estate if you will (just as you'd want someone to check up on/maintain your home while deployed).

Yes, this means putting your trust in a fellow player to help you, but as this is an MMO, we already do this in more important ways as is.

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Originally Posted by LeoEmpire

I'm opposed to this also, at first I didn't really care that much since I'm in one of the largest and most active FCs on Balmung so this really won't effect me. But after thinking about it, it is a bit mean to some of the players to work so hard to buy a house they love and decorate it the way they like to suddenly have to worry about losing it should they decide to take a little break for any reason. I've known quite a few people who will stop playing a game for months and eventually come back to it. Should they be punished? Absolutely not. Considering how it was when the content was first introduced, it seems unfair to change the rules on them now. I think housing is a problem in itself, but any solution that attacks players is unacceptable.

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In another thread I gave up on trying to get people to feel any kind of sympathy for those who worked hard to get and decorate their beloved homes if they commit the sin of needing or simply wanting to take a break. They'll gladly pillage on other people's stuff with no remorse if that gets them what they want, as if current house owners were to blame for the housing problem. Learning that I'll never be allowed to take a break from paying and playing and the attitude I've seen here really discouraged me from keeping playing in the long term.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

I'd like to address the concerns of the person who mentioned military members, being a former one myself.

That's a legit concern and I hope SE factored that in. However, did they not also mention early on that they were adding a system to grant rights /privileges to up to 5 other friends as far as accessing your house and features of housing? This would work as someone who plans to be away can elect a caretaker of their estate if you will (just as you'd want someone to check up on/maintain your home while deployed).

Yes, this means putting your trust in a fellow player to help you, but as this is an MMO, we already do this in more important ways as is.

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Military members were the first I thought about.
The thing you wrote makes sense and I hope it will work like that.

Somewhat repeating myself here but I have a feeling there would be a lot less complaining if they were simply moving inactive players aside to make room for active ones... the problem is they're going far beyond that: they're also deleting gil and items if you unsubscribe.

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Not Redeemable from the Resident Caretaker
-The construction permit required to build an estate.
-Furnishings destroyed upon removal.
-Housing exteriors.

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and

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* Players will have thirty-five days to redeem items from the resident caretaker before they are made irredeemable.

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Can any of the reclamation supporters explain how this is acceptable? I can't understand how anyone can say this is a good step when in comes with these strings attached. Losing the house plot in order to make room for active players is one thing, permanently losing your gil/item investment is a very different matter.

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Originally Posted by Felis

And this is why i think the german info text is more right (or clearer)

45 days time to enter the house before it get marked as an inactive house
45 days time to enter the house to remove the inactive mark before it get demolished

in total 90 days

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A post on the JP forum has confirmed that the time frame is 45 days not 90. Homes will be demolished and the plot put for sale again after 45 days of inactivity, SE has just worded it badly and people are getting confused.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

The resale situation doesn't apply to any of the abandoned FC houses in my housing ward. I researched them for my panel at AWA when I discussed this topic. They're all dead FCs. All of them. One with a single member. She might log in to keep the house, or let it get reclaimed and take the money.

Personal houses? Perhaps. But I'm in a main ward and the majority of the abandoned houses are FC houses. (Heck, one is a lot without a house on it at all.)

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I think you emphasized the wrong part of your post. Change the emphasis around a little, and you're clearly in agreement with me.