"Vacate Chambers" without Estate Access

Currently there is a massive design flaw in the way Private Chambers are handled in that if an FC leader locks out his/her FC members from the estate (Estate and Guest Estate Access locked), preventing them from accessing their Private Chambers - people are unable to clear out their furniture from their rooms.

Without able able to clear their rooms, they can't vacate and demolish their rooms.

Without being able to demolish their rooms, they can't leave the FC.

Attempting to "Vacate Chambers" from the lawn of the FC house does not work as the game wants you to clear out the items in your room first. This leaves people stranded in an FC they don't want to be in, with a Private Chambers they can't access. There's not even the option to simply destroy the furniture and leave if you don't care about the furniture you're leaving behind.

Players should be able to vacate their rooms from the front lawn of the Estate with all of the items from the room sent to the same NPC items go to if a player is removed from their FC by the FC leader.

I'm no help at all, other than to say that is really, really bad. I read what you wrote and thought "Nah, can't be true" and then I checked the permissions for an FC. Wow, that is ridiculous design!!

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Originally Posted by Lurial

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I wonder if in that case, you could get in touch with a GM about it. Thing is, you can't even transfer server to fix the problem, because if you're in an FC, no server transfer for you (I learned the hard way). The FC leader is essentially holding you hostage to that FC. Grounds for harassment surely?

Several folks on my server were essentially held hostage by their own FC leader. They didn't even care about their furniture - they just wanted to leave at any cost, but were unable to. The people who were trapped did contact GMs, but were instructed to use the "Vacate Room" feature even when the players explained that it wouldn't work unless they could clear all the items out of their FC room. I don't think even the staff realise that it doesn't work the way most people would expect it to.

This is a huge mess. Despite my own personal experience with many GM calls and seeing that GMs were all kind, nice, friendly and helpful to me in other kind of issues I needed help in, in this specific case, the GMs were not only unhelpful, they gave wrong information, insisting that the people who submitted the inquiry/report should go to blah blah menu to vacate the room blah blah, when the system DOES NOT allow it.

This is horrible. I, as an outsider, was terrified just by reading the whole thing. It is such a nightmare. I can't even bear to imagine myself in their situation. It is horrendous. No one deserves to go through this. This is a huge blackhole in the system which makes FC members vulnerable to such abuse, if and when the FC leader decides to be evil. Worse yet, when they turned to the GMs hoping for help, they were met with unhelpful response. Oh, the despair they must have felt!!!

This needs a fix ASAP. Please do something. We need preventative measures to stop this from ever happening again.

Summary of the Balmung drama:

- An FC leader was absent for a long time.
- In short, a few officers were running the FC and recruiting.
- The recruited people became loving members and helped building the Airship and the new housing exterior.
- They also crafted a lot of furnishings to decorate the house.
- FC is now prosperous, FC house is now gorgeous.
- FC leader returned and wanted to take over their hard work, despite the majority of members disagreement.
- People started to leave to make a new FC.
- FC leader got pissed at the officers and demoted them.
- Some members were able to snatch their crafted furnishings out.
- FC leader changed permissions so no one else could access the estate.
- Some members couldn't grab their own belonging in the private chamber and were unable to enter their own room or do anything about it.
- Those members are locked in the FC, unable to leave FC because the game doesn't allow people with private chamber to leave FC before demolishing the chamber.

WORSE YET:
- The FC leader refused to let those people in in order to vacate/delomish their own rooms UNLESS those who left hand over the furnishings to the leader first.
- This is basically a hostage situation where FC leader demanded items (of million gil's worth) as ransom.

Therefore, what we need are one or more of these functions:

a) The ability to enter one's own Private Chamber from the front door of the estate.
b) The ability to vacate Private Chamber from front door of the estate.

So that when a FC leader decides to be a jerk and lock people out, they can still go to their own room to get their belongings or have a shelter.

There definitely needs to be an option to vacate chambers without having to access your personal room. It seems that currently, the developers don't realize this is a potential abuse situation where members can essentially be forced into staying in a Free Company they don't want to be in because they have a personal chamber.

Either let people access their personal rooms directly from the front door, or fix this so members cannot be locked out of their own FC house regardless.

I actually honestly can't imagine a reason why FC members should ever be denied access to a communal housing area anyway, especially if they have invested gil into the place and have a personal room.

I didn't know you could lock out your own FC members from the FC house. How and why is this even possible?

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Originally Posted by Kio

I didn't know you could lock out your own FC members from the FC house. How and why is this even possible?

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I use that feature for the lowest level of FC members; my server has had some issues with Company Chest smash and grabs, as well as many other problems with people stealing, being caught planning to steal, etc. the CC and the estate are both completely locked to people at the lowest rank. I usually promote people within two weeks, because anyone who intended to steal anything leaves within a few days to a week. I honestly never thought about how it could be used to create a hostage situation though. I think that is a problem that definitely needs to be fixed.

This really does need to be addressed as this kind of situation is unnacceptable.
No one pays a monthly sub to be treated in this manner. I wish I could demand that the FC leader be held responsible for this massively abusive behavior.
I really hope that the higher ups see this situation, as its blowing up my media streams.
I hear they have the situation mostly resolved now, however at what cost to the player? You have a group of players who have been abused and no longer feel safe!
Please tell us you plan to address and fix this issue!