The housing system has always been a hot pile of garbage. Obtaining a house as always been a thorn in my side, whether it is the availability, effort that doesn't even mattered, and now the gimmicky housing lottery system. I have played since HW, the fact it took so long to make even a change to the housing system baffled me. Here is my post that I want to point out some issues and some are anecdotal as well but I know I cannot be the only one that feels this way.
First things first. I made a ticket and support forum post about my home. I was in the hospital due to a life threatening condition and was out of work for a couple weeks. I was concerned cause I was on somewhat of a hiatus playing other games curing a FFXIV burnout before the incident happened. I account lapsed cause I didnt have the funds due to my situation. I eventually did and got the email about my house may be demolished. Just in time I reactivated my account (which was aggravating cause I had to buy Crysta, SE wouldn't take my money and kept charging my card a fee).
I made the fatal error of apparently not reading a word vomit of an email. I acknowledged my housing was in danger. I always was under assumption for years from other house owners, all you have to do is simply login once a month and your house would be fine. I rearranged my outside, played for a bit. Went to bed. Next day played a different game. The following day, I logged in where in front of my house should be, gone. Why?
Here is the reasons the other posters pointed out to me. I should read the entirety of my email, I should of watched updates and live letters that they have been saying it, and etc.
Bid Time and Housing system is infuriating!
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03-07-2023, 07:12 AMZaredthBid Time and Housing system is infuriating!
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03-07-2023, 07:14 AMZaredth
After support ignored all my requests it baffled me. I gave this money to a company that took a content away. I have never been banned or suspended, always been on point. But I lose my home in this way. When there are others who don't even play anymore for months on end (I was neighbor to one when I had a FC company house) and would login once a month just to keep their home and logged out not seen again. Heck it was creepy cause the house look haunted and the neighbor was really strange.
Anways, after hrs of no response, I conceded that SE didn't care. I took my losses and transferred back to Aether.
Next housing bid roles around, found a nice small property. I place a bid, nobody places a bid for over 3 days straight, things are looking good! Then that evening on the fourth day, one person puts a bid on the lot. No one bids at the other available small. Then yesterday, one more person bids on the lot. No on bids on the other house (I kept checking) until that evening. Today I lost to the 3RD person who bidded. Infuriating! Why? Here is why:
1. Why can't simply being active ensures your housing is safe? Whats the difference between logging in and stepping in your home to prove you are active? I see none! Why do I have to devote my time to Live Letters, a high word regurgitation of a email when I get a bazillion emails daily just to find one small crucial detail about keeping my home, or non-stop keeping up with updates. For some people thats fine with them. But this is not the only damn game I play and keep up with. I have streamers and content creators who summarize these things. So why couldn't me being active in the game be enough to keep my house safe??? I also had reports from some friends they was getting the email and lost their home even though they were stepping in their homes!
2. Why is the bidding window to activate takes 3-5 days and the bidding window takes 6????? You punish people and ignore them when your system fails and you make strange requirements to keep your home active giving a sense you must pay attention but SE excuse for the housing bid time for 6 days is "so people who cannot login has a chance to bid for a home". That makes zero sense!!! Pick a lane SE, either housing is for active players or its a commodity to be on casual mode. You have people holding housing hostage when they haven't truly played the game in years bypassing loopholes even before the housing system change. You take homes from active players and then give it to people who simply could not be bothered to login for 5 minutes or less to place a bid and logout? This is a contradiction!! -
03-07-2023, 07:15 AMZaredth
What I propose:
1. Simply logging in should reset the housing at a 60 day timer. You want to be lenient, make it 60 days. Besides making it 60 will make people who hold onto homes but do not play easier to forget the time by complacency, so they rightfully give up the house they hold hostage to a player who actively consumes your content. 60 days should be more than enough, if they don't subscribe for the 2nd month. Chances are they won't be back for quite awhile.
2. I don't know why you even have a interim for housing and delay bidding to begin with. It should take one day after results to get your money and rebid the following day. If the argument is you want players to be able to pickup their gil. If they had the time to drop the money for the home and a date of results showing. They then have the time the day of to pick it up. Or simply make it where it will be made available by the Housing Enthusiast NPC the day after. You did for me when I lost my home, why it cannot be any different?
3. Housing Bid time is way too long. It should take roughly 2-3 days. Early bird gets the worm. Not only you are ensuring people who actively play your game, but it may have a chance to reduce the insane amount of bids on one home and prioritizes these players if they lose, they wait the following day and try again (if the bidding time was reduced).These players are the ones who pays your bill when there is downtime. Some of us even buy from the mogstation to support the development of our favorite game. Some are fantasiaholics. If someone really wants a house, they will make the effort to try since its a highly valued asset in this game. All it takes is a couple minutes to log in when you get home from whatever you are doing, go to the housing ward, and click bid. This shouldn't be some sort of complex thing. -
03-07-2023, 07:17 AMZaredth
Counter arguments to common replies:
Just get an apartment: Very few care about an apartment. You are cut out of outside furnishing content. Chances are no one is gonna visit your apartment, apartments as a function is highly inconvenient as a base for using a marketboard and crafting when you have have to go outside back and forth depending on your desires. Apartments is nice for those who care less about houses, but its function is not desirable and is bad.
Its your fault you lost your house quit crying: Sure its my fault, that doesn't negate the strange steps you have to do just to reset a basic timer. It should be simpler than that. It is poor design.
No one cares: Yet you are here.
Conclusion: Im not expecting anyone to agree with this or flame me to oblivion on here. This post may be ignored or end up have the same FFXIV Copers who just refuse to admit that this system that is already broken is made even worse and their practices makes no sense and conflict with one another. Maybe there can be constructive feedback. Maybe the majority of the posts will not be a bunch of Grandstanding Forum Dwellers that just enjoy sounding smart over the internet to belittle people. Surprise me community.
TL;DR: 1. Simply logging in should reset housing timer and timer is to 60 days. 2. Bidding result period should be reduced to one day, if gil not picked up or housing claimed. Housing Enthusiast will have your money for a given time. 3. Housing Bidding period should be reduced from 6 days to 2-3 days max.
Thanks for reading. -
03-07-2023, 07:39 AMShialanI mean, yeah? If they clearly stated in that mail what would happen and explained the steps you need to take to not lose your house, it's purely on you and has nothing to do with the system. You even gave proof on how that system works with your paragraph about how other players only log in once a month and still keep their house.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaredth
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03-07-2023, 07:45 AM4clubbedaceSorry bout your health mate, but its not a contradiction at all, the emails clearly state that all you have to do is login and enter your house, same amount of time to Bid on a house either, and you just need a month and a half. Those steps arnt strange. I can see why youre red and upset, but the directions were clear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaredth
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03-07-2023, 07:49 AMZaredthAnd what is your point? Is there something wrong with switching to activity online versus entering a house? What would be the issue for this switch and why would it be a worse design? Please do explain why an active player should lose their house if they don't step inside it for 30 days and one who is obviously not active logins one day and does not? Are you implying despite my anecdotal experience, that completely voids the arguement that the housing system and the way its conducted is not a mess and its just fine? Please do explain and if you are just going to say cause SE says so, please refrain from replying. That would be a poor argument.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shialan
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03-07-2023, 07:51 AMZaredthYou didn't read my statement of friends losing their homes when they have stepped into the house.Quote:
Originally Posted by 4clubbedace
Also to add mate. Making a system to demolish houses based on an idea of housing activity rate but has a long bidding period "so players can have a chance to login to bid" is very contradictory. If we can lose housing based on a activity metric, why are we concerned that people who don't get online often gets a chance to bid? -
03-07-2023, 08:21 AMKnot_D
I don't get how everybody have strange mechanism when it's about resetting the timer. All you have to do is just enter your house and boom
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...gESZpKhpFc.png -
03-07-2023, 08:35 AMKhryseis_Astra
Sorry you lost your house. :( I don’t think upping the demo timer to 60 days would be such a bad idea, and I say that as someone who has been trying to relocate with no success. If we could actually do something about the artificial scarcity problem (cough… instanced housing!) there wouldn’t be a need for auto-demo at all.
But I definitely agree with shortening the lotto cycle as a whole. Yes I understand they want it to stagger, so it’s different days every week. But as long as it’s not a 7-day cycle, they could still do that with, say, a 3-day bid, 2-day result period. And really, collecting your money from the housing NPC is way better than having to go back to the placard and see someone enjoying (or gloating over) what you lost out on. -
03-07-2023, 08:47 AMTitor
I have heard of people saying they lost their house despite entering it, but never really had any solid proof of it. All the instances I have heard of it were people having a lapse of how much time had passed, or never actually entered their house and just thought logging on was enough. SE has never acknowledge a relinquish glitch, and I've never seen it happen in practice.
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03-07-2023, 08:51 AMZaredthThanks, I miss it already. I spent a lot of time getting the outside, the fixtures outside, wallpaper and flooring inside. I designed a beautiful yard. Its truly disheartening for it to be gone. My own little piece of sanctuary. I can only imagine if my creative block ended what I could of made inside. Now I don't know if I'll ever know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Khryseis_Astra
I would love instanced housing, despite I would be sad that the idea of having neighbors and others want to see your home would be gone in real time. But honestly, I just want a hidey hole to craft in the shade in solitude sometimes under my beautiful trees I put down. The long waiting periods are just not necessary and it makes the progress of getting a home for everyone long and anxiety inducing for no reason. I really appreciate you not focusing on the event that happened to me and more on the problems that the current system has. The only reason I put that there is what even made me feel like I should voice my concern about the inconsistency and logic behind this current system. -
03-07-2023, 08:59 AMZaredthThe issue is, a couple of my friends who had this problem, unlike me. Made a ticket in-game to the GM specifically, marked the title and did everything. They just automated response all of our inquiries as in "we hear you and sorry for this inconvenience" summary but doesn't let us know if they are investigating it or looking to try to resolve it or not. It was a total blow off. Its really disheartening. The irony is, in my post on the support forum, a SE employee responded to it and said I should contact a GM and shelved it. Its the typical customer support not wanting to deal with you and giving the run around.Quote:
Originally Posted by Titor
While I do not have proof myself, I would argue these others may have met the same issue we did and just gave up. I do not know for certain however. -
03-07-2023, 09:20 AMHasratKinda, yeah? Because the whole point to to encourage actually using the house.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaredth
Use it or lose it. -
03-07-2023, 09:38 AMZaredthIm not gonna revisit the semantics from the previous Forum Topic but I did use it, I used its outside, the inside was what was undecided. The system does not recognize you using the house despite going into the housing under options reconfiguring the outside of the home. If anything technically, you could not be using your home inside either. All your doing is refreshing a stored instance and for whatever reason, the plot itself is not considered the home, its the instance itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hasrat
My point is, your argument is flawed. Refreshing a stored instance to reset a timer does not mean you are accessing the housing function nor encourages it, you are sadly just paying gil for a instance. There is plenty of empty owned homes that proves this.
To add, you honed in only one part of that. Why couldn't you even engage that post in full context? I only explained my situation, I am not arguing to change it neither. I am addressing housing issues that makes no sense. With people losing homes despite refreshing said instance and others getting unwarranted Demo emails. You deny and defend a very flawed system? Are you ignoring the long bidding times as well? I just don't get why people cherry pick instead of staying in context of what the posts are really about. -
03-07-2023, 09:50 AMPratini
This looks like a “you” problem.
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03-07-2023, 09:55 AMZaredthWhy the grandstanding?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pratini
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03-07-2023, 12:14 PMJojoya
While I'm sorry you lost your house, your suggestions don't solve anything. What they do is make things easier for you based on how you tend to play the game without concern for how others play it.
Why force players to go into the house? To make certain there is some use of it rather than have it never get used at all. The game doesn't seem to have been set up to track your movements on your specific plot as opposed to just being in the ward in general. Going into the interior should at least register because you've entered a separate instance. If an active subscription was all that was required, even more houses would sit undecorated and unused. This way the player has to go to some effort to keep the house at the very least.
Why the long lottery entry and claiming period windows? Because not everyone has the ability to log in daily on demand, especially service workers who can be required to do multiple day shifts and sleep at their worksite or near to it instead of at their home. It also allows a few houses to accumulate during those periods when plots are sold out so bids get spread over a few houses instead of every player that is trying to get a house dogpiling on the same one. It also discourages players from camping the placard trying to intimidate others from entering and makes it less likely that winners and losers will encounter each other, possibly leading to harrassment problems (still happens but much less than it would with just a 24 hour window to claim).
Also on the subject of a 24 hour window, no game should make a player feel forced to prioritize it over their real life obligations. The longer window gives player time to claim when it's convenient for them to log in, which is fine. The money from those of us with more time to be able to play is no more meaningful to SE than those who are also still paying but playing less per month. We already have advantages in other areas of the game due to the additional time we have; SE doesn't need to give us more.
So for your proposals:
No, simply having an active subscription and logging in to play should not be enough to reset the demo timer.
The lottery period does not need to be changed.
Apartments may not have all the features of a house but considering how many players use the houses they already have, they're just as convenient and don't have the risk of demolition. Depending on the player's individual circumstance, I'm still going to recommend getting an apartment especially if there are no available plots.
Not going to say it's your fault you lost your house because the system does have some flaws. Seems to me that if SE wants to suspend demo out of compassions for those who have suffered misfortune, it should happen whether it's one player being in the hospital for an extended time due to serious illness/injuries or an entire region getting hit. Or better yet, use a better instanced housing system to solve the supply problem so players won't need to worry about their house demoing anymore than they have to worry about their apartment.
I witnessed it with a friend a couple of years ago (I was a tenant in his house). He had been for about a month dealing with real life but had come back to the game. I checked estate timers and saw the timer on his house still active so I reminded him he needs to go into the house. He said he had just the day before so I told him do it again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Titor
I watched him go in. Demo timer did not reset. He logged out, logged back in, went back into his house. Demo timer did not reset. I told him to mess with a Summoning Bell or vendor inside. He did and the demo timer reset. He now makes a habit to repair his gear in his house instead of elsewhere. Better safe than sorry.
Why does it happen? Don't have a clue. I was a skeptic about the stories myself until I saw it happen to my friend. -
03-07-2023, 12:25 PM4clubbedaceLiterally untrue, if you entered and its the owner of the house then it doesnt demolish, period is a little over a month, if they forgot withen a span thats on them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaredth
also not really, youre comparing a month and some change to a week , ive gotten a house by both clicking for a whole sunday and lotto, lottos better by far. i have no issue for the week process, its really whatever. -
03-07-2023, 01:06 PMValkyrieL
I know is frustrating but there is a BIG difference between just login and actually interacting with your house, many people buy house for the sake of it and have Gil to spend but they never set foot on it after couple of weeks, they don't deserve a house that is not been use
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03-07-2023, 01:18 PMBobby66
Tbh I fall in the camp either the give everyone a house or they put harsher restrictions on those that have a house to make sure only actively player characters have a house. I also say this as someone with a multiple houses across many characters that takes long breaks. No reason I should be able to keep my houses when I am not even playing
I think the current system is too forgiving. -
03-07-2023, 01:56 PMDeNadaThat seems quite worrying. Shouldn't just entering your house reset the auto-demolition timer? If your friend didn't realize that the timer wasn't reset even after entering his house and did not interact with a vendor, what is his recourse if he loses his house through no fault of his.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
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03-07-2023, 02:47 PMImora
idk about a lot of people but I practically live at my house rather than the FC house.
I do my retainers there, I afk there, I have friends visit there.
I get a lot out of the house I won. Though I'll admit the system needs a few changes. Like, I'd have preferred to go to an NPC to get my gil back instead of going to the placard. Think of it as a steward giving you the keys. -
03-07-2023, 04:56 PMDogempireActually, that is possible, for some reason the system sometimes doesn't reset the demolition timer until you interact with an item in the house, so simply going inside and not interacting with any furniture or summoning bells might not reset the timer.Quote:
Originally Posted by 4clubbedace
You pretty much always have to interact with something when you go into your house to be sure that the timer reset. -
03-07-2023, 08:28 PMLianaThorneYou don't even need to go so far as to interact with an item. Just change your light settings. Have never lost a house doing that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogempire
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03-08-2023, 12:27 AM4clubbedacethat makes sense then, i have a repair node right as i walk in so the distinction was never something clearQuote:
Originally Posted by Dogempire
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03-08-2023, 12:31 AMZaredthWhile I respect your disagreement and you give some solid points rather than usual "Don't change it just cause" which I have seen often in these forums. I do agree that while at sometimes I feel its stricter, there should be some forgiveness in certain scenarios. One thing I disagree on is how they give money back if the Lotto was not one. We have an NPC for this and that is thr Housing Enthusiast that holds your money if your house is Demo-ed. To tie the money specifically to the placard and create a unneeded result window is inefficient and unnecessary in my honest opinion. 2-3 days in my opinion should be enough in my opinion for Lotto Period. Its not a matter of easier for me, it should be easier for everyone to get their results and move on without being dragged out. But for that part that is my opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
My biggest discrepancy is where SE has one foot on being strict on one area and lenient in another that both just doesn't make sense. I rather them be either very lenient in all respectable areas or strict cause their design philosophy for this type of content just doesn't make sense.
While I understand some people feel like "if you dont use your house you should lose it" comes from a attitude and resentment for not getting a house for a long time. I read here that there is so many inconsistencies with the system. Thats why I say simply logging in should rectify it and simplify it. But eh, its a massive flawed system. Can't have everything right? -
03-08-2023, 01:42 AMLianaThorneHousing is literally being held together by elmer's glue and prayer. We won't be getting any changes unless they rip it apart and fix it from the ground up (which they most likely don't view as worth it since they're deadset on having the neighborhood system that we have).Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaredth
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03-08-2023, 02:27 AMZaredthTrue, I would be fine waiting though but that is just me, whether I have a house or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by LianaThorne
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03-08-2023, 02:28 AMZaredthI don't use one cause I repair my own stuff but its a good point!Quote:
Originally Posted by 4clubbedace
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03-08-2023, 02:44 AMAmarandeIndeed. Service/retail workers get dunked on too often by MMO communities as it is (ever tried raiding as one ... oof), it's nice to see us get a little bone thrown at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
TBH, I've actually myself suggested the "it should be tied to an active subscription instead of entering the house" for exactly this reason.Quote:
Not going to say it's your fault you lost your house because the system does have some flaws. Seems to me that if SE wants to suspend demo out of compassions for those who have suffered misfortune, it should happen whether it's one player being in the hospital for an extended time due to serious illness/injuries or an entire region getting hit. Or better yet, use a better instanced housing system to solve the supply problem so players won't need to worry about their house demoing anymore than they have to worry about their apartment.
Consider natural disasters for instance where you've lost everything; chances are you probably still have a phone with web access and that if you care enough about your XIV house, you'll still be able to muster the $15 a month for a sub (I mean, a fast food meal practically costs as much these days even), but you may not be able to afford the several hundred for a PlayStation or new gaming PC. So if it was tied to the sub there would also probably need to be far fewer blanket demo moratoria (which affect EVERYONE on the server), which is an advantage of that suggestion right?
Definitely. Either way you have to get lucky, so at least this lets you do other stuff meanwhile and keeps you from having to wear out your mouse trying (I already swear sometimes with the inefficient menus in this game that SE get money from Razer and Logitech, lol ...)Quote:
Originally Posted by 4clubbedace