Auto Demolitions Need to be Reactivated

If this is continually put aside due to world troubles then it will never be active. The world IS trouble. Its ALWAYS going to have problems.
If SE cant do something to give more housing then they have to reinstate demolitions.
I find it disgusting they gave us that damn island to appease us while claiming more housing would be too hard on servers or some other garbage. Bullshit.
Why not give us a house on our islands?
But until they do something they need to activate auto demolitions.
Surely its not laziness???? *cough cough*

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Originally Posted by DarkSpite

If this is continually put aside due to world troubles then it will never be active. The world IS trouble. Its ALWAYS going to have problems.
If SE cant do something to give more housing then they have to reinstate demolitions.
I find it disgusting they gave us that damn island to appease us while claiming more housing would be too hard on servers or some other garbage. Bullshit.
Why not give us a house on our islands?
But until they do something they need to activate auto demolitions.
Surely its not laziness???? *cough cough*

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When did SE say they can't give us more houses because it would be too hard on servers?

They said back in Shadowbringers they couldn't give us more at that time because they were having problems obtaining hardware due to the microchip shortage.

They just announced in the 14 hour broadcast that they have to plans to increase the number of wards per world but they're still working out the details so can't give us an estimated date.

I suspect you're confusing player discussion about the merits of wards versus instanced housing when it comes to server load as being some sort of announcement from SE when it's not.

As for reactivating demolition, I don't expect that to happen until after all the new worlds for EU and NA have been opened. For the time being, the houses that are/will be available on those worlds are a dangling carrot to help SE get those worlds populated with veteran players.

Even if they did reactivate demolition, your chances of getting a house remain very small. What would you demand next when you keep losing in the lottery for the relatively small number of houses that demolition would make available?

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

When did SE say they can't give us more houses because it would be too hard on servers?

They said back in Shadowbringers they couldn't give us more at that time because they were having problems obtaining hardware due to the microchip shortage.

They just announced in the 14 hour broadcast that they have to plans to increase the number of wards per world but they're still working out the details so can't give us an estimated date.

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They always have plans to add more housing. Adding new wards every 1~2-ish years has been their modus operandi even from well before the shortage.

It's also only ever a small fraction of the demand from housing. Also since well before the shortage.

So, sure, SE will continue the drip feed as they always do. Will it come remotely close to being enough? Well, it's never happened in the 8 years since the system's release... but perhaps this time will be different. lol.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Even if they did reactivate demolition, your chances of getting a house remain very small. What would you demand next when you keep losing in the lottery for the relatively small number of houses that demolition would make available?

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I disagree. Chances would be significantly improved if auto-demolition was enabled because historically a large number of houses become available in the first wave. After that, there is a healthy amount of houses rotating per month compared to when auto-demolition is off.

While there is a lull in FFXIV content, it's easy to miss the auto-demolition email, especially if it goes to your spam folder.

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Originally Posted by Kitsu

I disagree. Chances would be significantly improved if auto-demolition was enabled because historically a large number of houses become available in the first wave. After that, there is a healthy amount of houses rotating per month compared to when auto-demolition is off.

While there is a lull in FFXIV content, it's easy to miss the auto-demolition email, especially if it goes to your spam folder.

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That was true prior to Shadowbringers. The periods that demolition have been active since Shadowbringers launch have seen relatively few houses become available. The player population has increased greatly so players are a lot more interested in not losing their houses.

I'm not trying to say there won't be any houses made available but that number will be far less than the number of players seeking to get a house now that SE is using a lottery system and the population has more than doubled.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

As for reactivating demolition, I don't expect that to happen until after all the new worlds for EU and NA have been opened.

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I suspect this is the case and after time has been allowed for them to populate. There are lots of houses in the new servers and those to come and their focus will be to populate them. Housing is a major carrot.

Still major crisis in the world, I don't see it happening anytime soon.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

There are lots of houses in the new servers

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This is very true. With 4 new servers, the NA data center is going to have 28,800 new houses available for sale in 18 days. They havent announced the planned FC/Personal split, but the first wave of people to transfer over will be all but guaranteed to get a house in whichever district they like best - and a decent shot at whichever is their dream plot. And still being NA servers, theyll be free to world/DC visit if the duty/party finder takes awhile to get up to speed on the new worlds or they want to continue adventuring with friends who didnt transfer. It isnt perfect, but some people will end up very happy in a couple weeks.

Demolition is a gross practice that's needed to support a gross system that should have been phased out years ago anyway. Instancing is future proofed, but the devs seem to be in love with the ward system and they're not willing to compromise on it at all. Worse still, they won't even bring back demolition so their system can sort of function properly. They'd rather have a broken system functioning at half capacity, and then tell us that instancing isn't possible because of the game's limitations, while simultaneously giving everyone in the entire game an instanced customizable island.

So yeah, I agree with OP but I also kind of don't. If we're stuck with this shit system, then yeah, it requires demolition to function properly and they should bring it back. But the ideal solution would be one that actually works for the game's future, allows everyone who wants a home to have a home, and doesn't require a heartbreaking system where someone returns after a break and finds their home demolished. I think a 2 billion dollar game studio should be able to do this for one of its most consistently profitable titles, but I'm sure someone will stop by to tell me why aCkShuALly square isn't rEqUiRed to do anything and I should just unsub if I don't like it.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

They said back in Shadowbringers they couldn't give us more at that time because they were having problems obtaining hardware due to the microchip shortage.

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There's been a housing shortage since ARR. There was no microchip shortage then. That's a convenient excuse.

The fact that there even IS auto-demolition shows that their system is broken. There's no other aspect of the game where a player that goes on hiatus loses anything. Why housing then? And the fact that auto-demolition turns off at all when it is designed to free up housing plots is just a further contradiction by SE. The logic just isn't there.

At a bare minimum, enable auto-demolition to the DCs that serve the region that is in crisis. When SE turned off auto-demolition for weather-related events in the US, they didn't disable it for EU/JP servers. Why is the Ukraine/Russia conflict turning auto-demolition off for all DCs?

SE seems to apply policies with very little consistency or logic.

It's good that auto-demolition is off and hopefully it will be here to stay or at least that the timer be extended to longer than the current 45 days (at least 90 days imo).

It's a really sucky feeling for one to come back to the game and realise that you've lost your house which you've worked so hard to obtain, I don't think housing is ever removed forcibly from players in other MMOs due to inactivity and it shouldn't be in FFXIV either. The solution should be to increase the housing supply and not punishing the playerbase.

They should just keep it off. Accept that auto-demolition is a band-aid and a bad idea. Address the actual housing supply issues in other ways.

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Originally Posted by DeNada

It's good that auto-demolition is off and hopefully it will be here to stay or at least that the timer be extended to longer than the current 45 days (at least 90 days imo).

It's a really sucky feeling for one to come back to the game and realise that you've lost your house which you've worked so hard to obtain, I don't think housing is ever removed forcibly from players in other MMOs due to inactivity and it shouldn't be in FFXIV either. The solution should be to increase the housing supply and not punishing the playerbase.

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ON the other hand, if you're away from the game for 90 days, then you should expect the game to move on without you. That's 3-month's time. If you can't find something in 3 months to grab your attention enough to log in, then it's time for a new game, my friend. If you've been logging and and you haven't checked your house in 90 days, then you don't need a house. Not going to garner likes with this but I really think this is a fact that nobody wants to think about or hear because of the me-first attitude that tends to permeate the housing community.

Re-instate auto demolition. Relinquish the unused houses to the community. I'm tired of my 1:350 chances of winning a house.

They could definitely do a purge. Maybe 45 days is a bit short but every 3-6 months would probably free several dozens houses from people who stopped playing. Maybe give a linger delay to recuperate decos afterwards. Other games don’t do it but they don’t have a limited and finite supply as SE’s system. Without demolition there will basically be no chance for new players to get a house unless they add more wards. Not getting rid of abandoned houses also goes against this so-called “neighborhood” feel that they always talk about. When auto demo was on, even if the number was limited, there were houses for sale on a regular basis which is not the case now. A small number is better than none at all.

I have a house and would totally be ok with it being demolished if I stopped playing.

I wasn't even aware they stopped doing auto-demolitions lol.

I ended up losing my house when I got memed hard by covid and I even lost the gil and all of the furniture because I was so messed up I ended up missing the timer for recovering the stuff.

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Originally Posted by dspguy

Why is the Ukraine/Russia conflict turning auto-demolition off for all DCs?

SE seems to apply policies with very little consistency or logic.

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We can agree on the second part, the first though is a "player-made-up" fact. SE never claimed that demo was off for the war in Ukraine. They said "current world situation", which is a bit nebulous, but players assumed that this meant Ukraine despite them not saying this.

That it includes the other three data centres - most importantly including OCE where few Europeans can play due to the 240+ms ping - one has to conclude that while the war in Ukraine is a factor, it's not the entire reason. There are other factors here, like multiple one-in-a-thousand year weather events, inflation, and more. There is also likely a desire by SE to fill the "multiple new worlds" in the game up a bit too.

Not having demo turned on is still a fairly large impetus for a relative small number of people to free-transfer and change the "current world situation" where too many are on Balmung and Mateus, while relatively few will be on Halicarnassus, and Seraph.


My thoughts. Keep it off for the immediate future. Let all worlds housing fill up and don't let the shortage on Balmung influence what happens on Halicarnassus.

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Originally Posted by dspguy

They should just keep it off. Accept that auto-demolition is a band-aid and a bad idea. Address the actual housing supply issues in other ways.

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Auto demolition is a great idea, people shouldn't have limited resources if they aren't going to use them

I thought SE can't reactive the timer until Ukraine won the war.

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Originally Posted by MoonmoonMoonmoon

ON the other hand, if you're away from the game for 90 days, then you should expect the game to move on without you. That's 3-month's time. If you can't find something in 3 months to grab your attention enough to log in, then it's time for a new game, my friend. If you've been logging and and you haven't checked your house in 90 days, then you don't need a house. Not going to garner likes with this but I really think this is a fact that nobody wants to think about or hear because of the me-first attitude that tends to permeate the housing community.

Re-instate auto demolition. Relinquish the unused houses to the community. I'm tired of my 1:350 chances of winning a house.

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Thanks for your feedback but I respectfully beg to differ.

Given that the patch cycle between each major patch is around 4 months and the game producer, Yoship himself has advised players to unsubscribe should they feel that they have gotten their money worth out of their playtime, it is reasonable to assume that some players will subscribe for a month during a new patch cycle to enjoy the new patch content before unsubscribing instead of paying for a subscription perpetually.

In this scenario, such a player will have an active subscription for 1 out of every 4 months, which is where the 90 day cycle which I suggested for auto-demolition is derived from. Nobody needs a virtual house in a MMO, it's a want. Don't get me wrong, I understand the frustration of bidding in a lottery and failing to get a house which I have experienced repeatedly myself in Balmung. Which is why I had an alt in Zurvan just to experience housing.

Not saying that everyone should do what I did, but if you are unwilling to really want a house in your native data center, your best bet would be the existing new worlds if you are in EU or upcoming new data center (Nov 22) if you are in NA.

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Originally Posted by MoonmoonMoonmoon

ON the other hand, if you're away from the game for 90 days, then you should expect the game to move on without you. That's 3-month's time. If you can't find something in 3 months to grab your attention enough to log in, then it's time for a new game, my friend. If you've been logging and and you haven't checked your house in 90 days, then you don't need a house. Not going to garner likes with this but I really think this is a fact that nobody wants to think about or hear because of the me-first attitude that tends to permeate the housing community.

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By your logic, then if you take a break for 90 days, remove mounts, levels, gil, etc. You don't need those levels or gil or achievements. No taking breaks in this game! SE should just delete your character after 90 days.

Housing is the only aspect of the game that can be lost to a player. Nothing else goes away when they take a break. Where's the logic in that?

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Originally Posted by Shibi

We can agree on the second part, the first though is a "player-made-up" fact. SE never claimed that demo was off for the war in Ukraine. They said "current world situation", which is a bit nebulous, but players assumed that this meant Ukraine despite them not saying this.

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True. They don't explicitly say it but the timing of it clearly lines up with the escalations of war in Ukraine.

What's the point of auto-demolition if it is turned off for 7.5 months?

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Originally Posted by dspguy

By your logic, then if you take a break for 90 days, remove mounts, levels, gil, etc. You don't need those levels or gil or achievements. No taking breaks in this game! SE should just delete your character after 90 days.

Housing is the only aspect of the game that can be lost to a player. Nothing else goes away when they take a break. Where's the logic in that?

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It's different, limited content that's currently meant for active players. I'm sorry but sometimes people should just accept that not ALL content is unlimited and everyone should have it. If you want unlimited housing, get an apartment and an FC room - do you actively decorate yours? Meanwhile lots of wards are ghost towns because there's a lot of houses empty from people that just stopped playing for too long and don't plan on coming back.
The thing is, before your house is auto-demolished, you get warnings via email letting you know, so it really shouldn't be a surprise. Also, 3 months (used to be) the time between major patches, and active players usually wouldn't take breaks longer than that, since most people come back for the new content. If you're taking a longer break than that and is not interested in the new content, why do you need to hoard an empty house?! If you come back, and auto-demolition is on, you can try to get a new one via the lottery, since there will always be empty plots available. If you REALLY care about having a house that much, move to a server with housing available.

I think auto-demolition is a good system and should be reactivated too. Maybe extend the demolition period to 4 months to match the new patch cycle, send a few more warnings via email about auto-demolition, or give an option for the person to extend the timer through lodestone or other means without having to resub once if needed.

I used to agree with auto demo, but now that I have my dream house I think it should stay off. We wouldn't want unlucky people to own homes.

Agreed. There are a LOT of empty houses out there. We need demo back. It feels unfair to the average player - despite owning a house.

We make a habit of exploring houses on various wards and servers, and there are way too many that aren't even being touched. Nevermind wards taken up by an entire shell FC that need to go, outright.

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Originally Posted by NovelItokuri

Agreed. There are a LOT of empty houses out there. We need demo back. It feels unfair to the average player - despite owning a house.

We make a habit of exploring houses on various wards and servers, and there are way too many that aren't even being touched. Nevermind wards taken up by an entire shell FC that need to go, outright.

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Show us on the puppet where those people touched you ;P

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Originally Posted by NovelItokuri

We make a habit of exploring houses on various wards and servers, and there are way too many that aren't even being touched.

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That's really creepy my dude, yikers

A possible solution was to add instanced housing in the instanced Island. Yet they decided not to do it.

I think they do not do instanced housing to keep a carrot on players who do have a house so they continue to pay subscription.

Although, to be honest, the only thing you miss from having a house is having a garden. Everything else you can do in an apartment.

To be honest. The demolishing system is stealing. As the original owner is not paid back the cost of the house.

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Originally Posted by rxantos

A possible solution was to add instanced housing in the instanced Island. Yet they decided not to do it.

I think they do not do instanced housing to keep a carrot on players who do have a house so they continue to pay subscription.

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For me the reason they don't do instanced housing is because the cool thing about FFXIV housing IS having wards and neighbors and not being instanced. It's what makes housing in this game different! It's actually really fun when house owners in a ward are active and you can see your neighbors changing things around, visiting them, seeing people, active FCs and RP venues. Plus, apartments ARE instanced housing and people just don't use them, you don't see them around, a lot are abandoned...it's simply not as fun in that sense.

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Originally Posted by rxantos

Although, to be honest, the only thing you miss from having a house is having a garden. Everything else you can do in an apartment.

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EXACTLY. Now please tell this to people that never even tried having an apartment but think they're entitled to a house they're most likely going to abandon in 2 weeks. I've seen many people don't even try to decorate their own apartments, get a house, struggle with decorating, decide they're not that into it and just abandoning and never using it again - but since auto-demolition is not on, they're just...there.

Also, about missing out on gardens - YoshiP already said that he plans on making possible to put outdoor items in your island to decorate it. There you go, instanced garden decoration!
If you're talking about the housing garden plots...they're really not that big of a deal that people make it seem to be. They're not really a good source of gil, you have to log in and actively take care of it (or have a friendly neighbor that waters them for you) everyday or things die which can make them a chore, everything you get from it you can buy cheap on the marketboard or get by other means. If you go walking around random wards you will notice a LOT of people don't plant anything on theirs, or don't even have them.

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Originally Posted by chizLemons

It's different, limited content that's currently meant for active players.

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That's the whole point. It is the only thing treated differently... by SE's choice.

I've lost a house. When I took a break, there were still houses available on my server. I didn't think it was a big deal. Came back - still had my gil, mounts, achievements, levels, gear, etc. Just not my house. And I lost it in that first purge. A timeframe when auto-demolition wasn't even a topic mentioned by SE. Even better, my email sorted the auto-demolition notice into promotions/spam. I'm not salty about it. It is what it is. I just disagree that it exists at all.

I've played lots of MMOs where the early players got certain gear, items, etc "easy" because there was less competition. And the newer players just had to deal. Housing is like that. And it is only like that since SE decided it will be so.

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Originally Posted by rxantos

To be honest. The demolishing system is stealing. As the original owner is not paid back the cost of the house.

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Except you don't own anything in the game. You've purchased a license that allows you to play the game. Everything within it is owned by SE.

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Originally Posted by chizLemons

EXACTLY. Now please tell this to people that never even tried having an apartment but think they're entitled to a house they're most likely going to abandon in 2 weeks. I've seen many people don't even try to decorate their own apartments, get a house, struggle with decorating, decide they're not that into it and just abandoning and never using it again - but since auto-demolition is not on, they're just...there.

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It would be no different if demolition was active. We had all those empty houses just sitting there in the past when it was just as much as they currently are.

The problem is it's a limited resource system. That inflates demand.

- Players who may not want a house right now but fear not being able to get one in the future if they want one. They buy now if they can so they won't have to worry about trying to get one then.

- Players who like the presumed prestige of owning something not every player can get.

- Those who see a profit potential by gaining something they can resell to others who want it (regardless of what ToS might say about such activity).

The empty houses won't disappear just because demolition is enabled. You're far more likely to see some nicely decorated houses disappear than the empty ones that were purchased for other reasons.

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Originally Posted by rxantos

I think they do not do instanced housing to keep a carrot on players who do have a house so they continue to pay subscription.

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Without demolitions you do not even need an active subscription to be able to enter the house. And by the rate they disable this auto demolition... i dont realy see it as a carrot, more the opposite. If you dont have a house, you are required to stay subscribed to get your chance on every cycle.

In addition to preventing people for getting access to abandoned homes, the auto-demolition halt has absolutely killed the market for furnishings and fixtures. Without new homes bought, there is no demand for new furnishings. I'm lucky if I sell 2-3 a week. Prices have completely plummeted. This auto-demolition halt is affecting A LOT more than just the supply of new housing. And I'm beyond annoyed that it has been in place for over 10 months now.

I'm quite convinced that even after the nukes have been dropped, there will still be people crying to turn demolition back on because SquareEnix should not "continually put aside due to world troubles".

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Originally Posted by Rolks

In addition to preventing people for getting access to abandoned homes, the auto-demolition halt has absolutely killed the market for furnishings and fixtures. Without new homes bought, there is no demand for new furnishings. I'm lucky if I sell 2-3 a week. Prices have completely plummeted. This auto-demolition halt is affecting A LOT more than just the supply of new housing. And I'm beyond annoyed that it has been in place for over 10 months now.

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There's still demand for furnishings, though not as great as when lots of houses are available. Players do buy apartments and FC chambers. They do redecorate.

If you're only selling 2-3 items a week, you're probably trying to sell the wrong items. My cousin (who is also on Zalera) has been making 500k - 1.5 million gil a day selling the various imitation windows. She's super excited because she's now got enough gil to get herself a medium house after initially saving what she had been making so her FC can get a large house when they move to Dynamis.

Prices plummeting isn't an issue as long as there's still profit over the cost of making an item. How much you sell can be more important than how much an item sell for. Price items too high and you price the item out of the interest range for players who would otherwise buy.

Ultimately the same answer goes to you that I give to people certain that if demolition resumes, they'd be able to get a house. It's not going to have the dramatic impact you expect. There will still be far more players left disappointed than who manage to get lucky - and chances are you're going to end up part of the first group.

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Originally Posted by ijuakos_xqwzts

I'm quite convinced that even after the nukes have been dropped, there will still be people crying to turn demolition back on because SquareEnix should not "continually put aside due to world troubles".

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lol Prob true.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

If you're only selling 2-3 items a week, you're probably trying to sell the wrong items. My cousin (who is also on Zalera) has been making 500k - 1.5 million gil a day selling the various imitation windows. She's super excited because she's now got enough gil to get herself a medium house after initially saving what she had been making so her FC can get a large house when they move to Dynamis.

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First of all, grats to your cousin for doing awesome business.

Out of curiosity, which server is she going to? I'm hoping to avoid the Crystal crowd and find the most unpopulated server to better my chances of getting a Medium. I know, I'm asking to get my soul crushed on November 10th. I've already bought ingredients to make misery pancakes that morning...

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Originally Posted by Brygd

First of all, grats to your cousin for doing awesome business.

Out of curiosity, which server is she going to? I'm hoping to avoid the Crystal crowd and find the most unpopulated server to better my chances of getting a Medium. I know, I'm asking to get my soul crushed on November 10th. I've already bought ingredients to make misery pancakes that morning...

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Based on talk and role reactions in the Dynamis Discord that was set up, it looks like Seraph is going to be the most populated server and picking up most of the RP crowd.

Interest in the other 3 servers seems to be fairly evenly split with Marilith getting slightly more interest but still far less than Seraph. Some are talking about making Halicarnassus the unofficial PvP server.

It's really going to be hard to say which will end up the smallest. Most who will transfer aren't going to the forums or Discords to talk about their plans.

Unless you have a specific medium in mind, I wouldn't worry too much about competition. If SE splits the wards 50/50, there will be 840 personal Mediums per world available. Most players complaining about not having a house still won't transfer to get one and even if they do, they probably only have the gil for a small.