Mannequins / New housing items added, but contestants can't use until November.....

In case anyone forgot or maybe wasn't aware, anyone who participated in the "Eorzean Interior Design Contest" is technically not allowed to use these things until "in or around November" when the winning entries are announced as per the rules.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...8a6b81a2690366

"Do not make any changes to your estate until after Sponsor reveals the winning entries."

"H. Winner Notification: Sponsor, or Sponsor’s designee, will announce the winning entries via Lodestone topics in or around November."

So for those looking to add these nice new items to your place, you can't for nearly 2 months....Depending on how strict they decide to follow the contest rules.

Since we have no knowledge of when they would actually be looking at said houses, you could put new stuff in your house and make changes and then just change it back before they maybe look at it but you would never know. And if you forget about something or make huge changes you might not be able to easily replicate what you had.

Thoughts? Can we get any kind of developer response to this rule? On one hand you would think they could just base it on the screenshots but I can see why they would want to look at it "in person" but are they really going to go and look at EVERY entry and judge that way?

Or are those people seriously stuck not doing anything to their house, including adding mannequins until November when the winners are decided unless they want to technically break said rule?

Personal thoughts: You knew that when you entered the contest.

It might not be the answer you would want to hear, but at least I can say for myself that I looked at the rules, looked at the options I had to submit (personal house, apartment, FC-room, friends houses that I decorated and share, FC-house...) and picked the one I would be least likely wanting to change.
Since I'm half expecting new furniture to be added with each patch by now, I also calculated that I might miss out on stuff that I would really like to add until the contest is over. I dont see how the Mannequins would be so different. Yes, they were highly requested and I understand that a lot of people are looking forward to using them, but... I dont know, I just feel its a risk you were willing to take when you entered that contest: That they would any kind of furniture that you'd really like to place in your house.

I could also imagine that they are indeed looking at every house - which is why it takes them til november to review everything. Or maybe they just peak into houses that they feel they didnt get a proper look at on the screenshots (even though that sounds a little unfair to me).

Either way I dont feel that new furniture that you could have anticipated (maybe not Mannequins specifically, but new furniture in general) would be reason to change those rules that are most likely in place to help them judge the entries fairly and thoroughly (one would hope that they do that). I can see why this rule is in place, it makes sense to me, to have it, so I dont see why it should change just because there is some furniture now that you'd like to add.
I'm looking forward to putting up the new primal-furniture aswell, I have a very lovely spot in mind - and yes, that spot is in the house that I submitted in the end, but I dont mind waiting, because I can understand that they need time to look at everything, so... yeah thoughts basically: Not ideal, sucks a little, but understandable.

Patches come with new furnishings. Patches also come every 6-8 weeks. There was no way they were going to announce the contest winners without us missing out on some of the new stuff (at least while it's new) and I think most people who entered did it aware of that fact (or should have been). I'm sorry if that's not the case for you, but unless you want to disqualify yourself, I'd leave your furnishings alone. Maybe you could get away with it if you somehow managed to guess when they're going to look at your house, but since there's no way to know if/when, do you really want to risk it? They might only look at the short list of potential winners and not everybody, but since that could also include you, you just have no way of knowing. Plus, I'm pretty sure the game keeps records of what's done in the house so even if you put it back they may be able to tell and still disqualify you for not following the rules.

I feel your pain, but we knew what we were getting into.

I got the Hedge Partican drop from dungeon today the judging can't come fast enough.

I'm assuming that they created that rule for the contest in order for them to verify the participant's ownership of the house and its design, just in case there were players who took screenshots of a completely random stranger's property and passing it as their own.

Assuming players have read the contest rules in full then they would know that they can't modify their houses until winners are announced in November. Despite that, not being able to modify anything in the house until then is painful, so I'd like to get some clarification about this as well. I have not even been using the flower pots in case that would count as disqualification. If we could get an official response on whether or not we're to be granted leeway on modifying our houses (fingers crossed) would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping that we can at least modify parts of the house that are not visible in the screenshots.

I think it's kind of a bummer. I have a feeling that mannequins are the precursor to many redesigned homes, and I bet some of these contestants are now chomping at the bit wanting to do so.

For me personally, had I entered my home into the contest I wouldn't be too bent out of shape about it. Mainly because I'm waiting for multi-race mannequins to come out before I get into any renovations.

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Originally Posted by Miles_Maelstrom

I got the Hedge Partican drop from dungeon today the judging can't come fast enough.

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That's for the garden area though and it's the insides that were part of the contest.

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

That's for the garden area though and it's the insides that were part of the contest.

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Nope, the hedge partion is an indoor item. I'm pretty upset because it's perfect for my basement garden and I can't swap them in for months.

The bathroom tiles are even worse, because I've wanted something like that for a while and had to settle for using one of those combed wool rugs instead...

I just hope they're going by the pictures and not, like, checking some sort of change log of our houses, because I've put down a few things to look at them and picked them up immediately. November can't come fast enough.

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Originally Posted by Lukha

Nope, the hedge partion is an indoor item. I'm pretty upset because it's perfect for my basement garden and I can't swap them in for months.

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Is it the Verdant partition you're talking about? The hedge one is outdoors.

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

Is it the Verdant partition you're talking about? The hedge one is outdoors.

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Yes. I couldn'trecall the name at the time and wasn't in a position to look it up, but that's it.