Housing afk

So how many of you think it will actually free up the "desired" amount of plots and (considering its being implemented with a content patch) how many are prepared to be waiting until jan-feb when plots will actually start going back on the market cause I highly doubt as many people will not log in at least a few times for 3.1 as most would like?

I'm predicting the housing wards are going to become a new, unofficial PVP area as the plots start to opening up.

I think lots of plots will become available. Housing areas are pretty deserted most of the time.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I think lots of plots will become available. Housing areas are pretty deserted most of the time.

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Ours isn't. We have lots of people in ours.

There will be a rush of plots available during the initial clear out once the timers expire, removing what are essentially existing abandoned housing. Those waiting for a house should start their timers now.

After that, it will be the same situation. Not enough housing for those that want it and the majority of players cut off from a large amount of content.

PS. I have a house, which I got by making a solo FC before personal housing was introduced. I feel for the rest of the player base that are not as lucky.

We can say deserted but just cus you don't see people wandering around the area doesn't mean the houses are not in use. Probably safe to say that if they do go to the house they instantly go inside, tend garden if need be and gone again, not much reason to hang around a house unless your taking advantage of the bonus crafting items but even then, that is inside.

We have lots and lots of truly abandoned housing on our server. It's not about people not being around, it becomes obvious when for over a year they had dead plants in their garden, a dirty stable, still have the decorations from an ancient seasonal event up, NOTHING ever changes either outside nor inside the house, and if you check out the player who is holding the rights to it on lodestone, their last achievement update has been from over a year ago too (yes, I'm that kind of stalker).

They still allow more than one house per account, so I assume there will be a little rush and changeover of plots at the first expiration date due to those who have permanently left the game, but after that we will be right back where we started with an occasional new plot showing up once in a Blue Moon.

There's at least one plot I know of. A previous FC's plot where the leader kicked everybody out after his wife (who paid for his sub) found out he was fooling around and he hasn't been around since Hunts allowed for Carbontwine and such. Most of his gear is unaugmented magitek.

My guess is at least half the plots become available on day 1. So many people have quit the game it's not funny. I think once they fill back up they should add new wards. If everyone in a house is paying a sub, They should be able to store the extra info.

I think there will be a lot of vacant plots on my world. Most of the FC tags in the first set of wards are from groups I've never even seen, so there are bound to be a number which become available right away. But then again, my FC had little trouble grabbing our house a few months before Heavensward landed and there are still a handful of large/medium plots available even now which have finished their pricing reductions with no buyers. It's a shame that the number of people on each server is spread so unevenly.

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Originally Posted by Atoli

....dead plants in their garden, a dirty stable, still have the decorations from an ancient seasonal event up, NOTHING ever changes either outside nor inside the house.....

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Swap 'stable' for garage, and this sounds worryingly like my house IRL... ;)

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Originally Posted by ExKage

There's at least one plot I know of. A previous FC's plot where the leader kicked everybody out after his wife (who paid for his sub) found out he was fooling around and he hasn't been around since Hunts allowed for Carbontwine and such. Most of his gear is unaugmented magitek.

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I feel so bad for these people. Aren't they unable to leave the FC since they can't demolish their private rooms?

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Originally Posted by Hypa

I feel so bad for these people. Aren't they unable to leave the FC since they can't demolish their private rooms?

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When the FC lead kicks everyone out, their rooms are demolished. A lot of people scrambled trying to figure out which housing person gave back most of the housing stuff that isn't auto-lost when removed. (Sadly a lot of us had those rare furnishings that get lost when removed like Extreme Primals furnishins, crafting tables etc)

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Originally Posted by AxelDH

Swap 'stable' for garage, and this sounds worryingly like my house IRL... ;)

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Haha :D
For your sake, I hope at least the "no new achievements in over a year" part isn't true ;>

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Originally Posted by ExKage

When the FC lead kicks everyone out, their rooms are demolished. A lot of people scrambled trying to figure out which housing person gave back most of the housing stuff that isn't auto-lost when removed. (Sadly a lot of us had those rare furnishings that get lost when removed like Extreme Primals furnishins, crafting tables etc)

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That's awful. I remember there was an FC somewhere that got locked out by their leader, and they couldn't leave since they were unable to enter their house and destroy their rooms. They were basically held hostage by this guy.

If SE is able to keep track of players who shouted 'Yoshida', I'm sure they're able to measure the amount of players who have housing but have left the game long ago.

I'm guessing that Yoshida has an estimate of the number of plots that may become available once that 45-day hammer hits.

I'm under the impression that 45-60 days after the expansion, people who aren't playing, and people who just resubbed to check the expansion and then stop until the next one will have their houses relinquished. Many people don't read patch notes, and some people simply don't care about their houses. SO be it through ignorance or apathy, I see many plots becoming available.

But then come the complaints! People upset that they lost their house, even after the multiple warnings sent out. It'll be (rightfully) followed by others mocking their plight, but this raises the awareness to everyone else over losing the house, which will cause others to habitually use their house more often. Which is fine, really. Maybe they'll enjoy their house more now that they're 'forced' to do so. I suspect after this time, the only houses that will really free up are those belonging to people who have quit for good after 3.1, with FC houses belonging to medium sized companies and up almost never freeing up.

So mark your calendars and find a realtor near you!

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Originally Posted by Atoli

a dirty stable, still have the decorations from an ancient seasonal event up, NOTHING ever changes either outside nor inside the house

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To be fair though, once most people color their chocobo, they don't really use the stables as much, so it just stays that way and taking my fc house for example, we use it a lot, but our outside/inside have been the same for about a year, with maybe 1-2 things different and that's about it, mostly because it's what the fc likes and theres only so much furniture. Not to mention the restriction of 20? items outside really limits what you can do.

Tbh, in a couple of months when the people who don't have houses now, have one, I can see those people turning around complaining about the 45 days, just like current people with houses are now, more so the fact that content gets stale incredibly fast and as many people have said, it's going to force people to sub every month to keep their house, even if theres no content but expert to do. Which we'll be right back to where we are now, people subbing, walking into their house, then logging off for the month, followed by people whining and complaining they don't have a house.

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Originally Posted by Nomad-phx

So how many of you think it will actually free up the "desired" amount of plots and (considering its being implemented with a content patch) how many are prepared to be waiting until jan-feb when plots will actually start going back on the market cause I highly doubt as many people will not log in at least a few times for 3.1 as most would like?

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It's impossible for it to free up the "desired" amount. There's just not enough housing.

I also doubt it will free up as many as people think. I'm sure anyone who passes by my house when I'm not sitting in the garden crafting thinks it's abandoned, and I'm sure I'm not the only person in that situation.

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Originally Posted by Nomad-phx

So how many of you think it will actually free up the "desired" amount of plots and (considering its being implemented with a content patch) how many are prepared to be waiting until jan-feb

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Odds on date for 3.1 to launch is November 10th.

45 days after November 10th is December 25th.

4am Christmas morning I expect about 15-30% of the houses on my server to be up on the market.

Oh wow they couldn't have picked a worse day to do this on lol wtf.... I didn't even realize. So everyone has to wake up super early on Christmas to log onto a video game and fight over whatever bit of housing was freed up? Or risk missing out? Good Call SE. Nice one.

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Originally Posted by Nomad-phx

So how many of you think it will actually free up the "desired" amount of plots and (considering its being implemented with a content patch)?

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even if every single plot gets vacated it won't free up the "desired" amount on my server.

i'm guessing 25% will open up.

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Originally Posted by StouterTaru

Odds on date for 3.1 to launch is November 10th.

45 days after November 10th is December 25th.

4am Christmas morning I expect about 15-30% of the houses on my server to be up on the market.

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Christmas is not a holiday in Japan so this is irrelevant to SE.

That said, both the day and the time could make it difficult for those wanting to buy - wards will be camped if this is implemented strictly by the clock.

To make it fair, they should randomize when individual plots become available to a random time over the 7 days following demolition.

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Originally Posted by Waeksyn

Christmas is not a holiday in Japan so this is irrelevant to SE.

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How is it relevant whether or not Christmas is relevant or not to SE? We still have Christmasish and Easterish in game events.

I just stated that's how the dates line up, not that SE did it on purpose, or recognized it, or will change things when the do recognize it.

My only complaint about this is that there is too much furniture that is destroyed when picked up. Think SE should get rid of that, or at least allow it to not be destroyed if reclaimed with the system they are implementing.

Remember also they are opening up housing wards in Ishgard.

Still, they should limit housing to one per account.

Well, the "desired" amount of plots has never existed, to begin with...

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

My only complaint about this is that there is too much furniture that is destroyed when picked up.

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Why does this system even exist?? I've never understood this; if they want to keep items rare and prevent people from profiting from them via MB or other trades - they could've made them bound to the character once placed on an estate, for example. This destroying furniture thing is just asinine.

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Originally Posted by Waeksyn

Christmas is not a holiday in Japan so this is irrelevant to SE.

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This obviously isn't true at all. We have very obviously Christmas themed holidays in the game or maybe there's some underground holiday in Japan also involving reindeer and presents and pine trees that isn't Christmas.

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Originally Posted by StouterTaru

Odds on date for 3.1 to launch is November 10th.

45 days after November 10th is December 25th.

4am Christmas morning I expect about 15-30% of the houses on my server to be up on the market.

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Does this math factor new content that will draw a fair amount of people back for at least a week? All it takes is logging in for less than 5 min to reset the 45 day timer and they email you. If most people with houses are holding on to them simply so others can't than I'd imagine they'll re-sub just to keep em.

I can't wait for Christmas to roll over and hear the complains of "OMG not enough plots" from the people that thought this terrible system would be the solution to the problem.

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Originally Posted by Nomad-phx

Does this math factor new content that will draw a fair amount of people back for at least a week? All it takes is logging in for less than 5 min to reset the 45 day timer and they email you. If most people with houses are holding on to them simply so others can't than I'd imagine they'll re-sub just to keep em.

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The 15-30% is based off lodestone FC profiles with housing on my server, and the amount that didn't have a member above level 50 a couple months after HW was released. If an expansion didn't bring people back, I doubt a major patch will. I estimated the abandoned FC houses to be about 15-20%, and assume personal housing will be higher.

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Originally Posted by Nomad-phx

Does this math factor new content that will draw a fair amount of people back for at least a week? All it takes is logging in for less than 5 min to reset the 45 day timer and they email you. If most people with houses are holding on to them simply so others can't than I'd imagine they'll re-sub just to keep em.

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I know someone that would do this, specifically for that reason alone. The guy would resub just for holiday events in other games, even if he never plays them again until the next event.

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Originally Posted by Hypa

That's awful. I remember there was an FC somewhere that got locked out by their leader, and they couldn't leave since they were unable to enter their house and destroy their rooms. They were basically held hostage by this guy.

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I remember reading this. What ever became of that?

And I'm pretty excited about this, I'm going to start looking around at house prices to see how much I'll need. Looks like I finally have something to spend money on besides funding alts.

can't get locked out of an FC house if you have a room, not sure if that was a patch thing.

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

SE should limit housing to one per account.

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Always and forever this. Again, it won't free up enough plots, but it will certainly free up some.

Baby steps, people.

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Originally Posted by SendohJin

can't get locked out of an FC house if you have a room, not sure if that was a patch thing.

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I think it was eventually changed in a later patch, I remember reading that thread too.

My biggest issue with this whole plan is the 35 day limit on how long the Resident Caretaker holds your items. At that point, the plot has already been opened up and you're no longer reserving a limited supply resource, just a really tiny amount of data storage. That should be permanent until the character is deleted or FC is disbanded. That way, people who leave the game for a while are still allowed to come back again. This current plan basically says that if you go, you're never allowed back unless you want to start over from scratch.

It's not uncommon at all for players to leave an MMO for a few months, even a year or more, trying out other games or interests, and then decide they liked their previous game and want to go back to it. That's the whole reason why characters themselves are stored permanently, so that inactive players can come back at some point down the road. Housing should be the same, with the Caretaker's storage as permanent as our characters themselves.

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

My only complaint about this is that there is too much furniture that is destroyed when picked up. Think SE should get rid of that, or at least allow it to not be destroyed if reclaimed with the system they are implementing.

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This is a stupid rule in the first place. All housing items (whether this destroyed when removed type or not) are bound as soon as they're placed, so there's no further reason for destroying them afterward. They should just remove this rule altogether, and allow any housing item to be freely placed and removed at the owner's whim.

But yes, if they keep that silly rule, at the very least make housing reclamation an exception to it, so the Caretaker can give you back your rare furnishings.

I'm a one man FC and I find it simple to exploit the timer, if I so decide to barely play, I can keep the house if I log in once , say every 40 days. Of course I'm not that guy, I actually use my house as a getaway or for the npcs in there. 45 days is more then fair, if you are gonna buy this particular content you should use it, not just sit on it.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Yeah, they email you with all of three days notice before the house is demolished.

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Ahem.

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Thirty-five 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.

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Ten days notice. Not three.

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Originally Posted by Spellbinder

Ten days notice. Not three.

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Yeah, that part got a little better when they added that second one. (Earlier, the announcement had just said the in-game notification at 30 days, email at 42, then demolition at 45.) I'll edit my post to remove that no-longer-applicable point. Now if only they'd fix the bigger issues with it.