Housing abandoned plots, this is needed SE!!! Thank you!

[Dalvy]

Which would be easier and less time consuming?

1)Creating code to remove all property off the plot, evict inactive homeowners, make a record of items in said house, and send player items in the mail.

2) Or, creating code for instanced housing, including the ability to set privacy levels for the player home.

Just some ideas. I know SE is working with limited funds by having all their NA servers (the most populated bunch) crammed in some Montreal office, but it looks like instanced housing will require more computing power. Anybody that needs a home on Gilgamesh, Hyperion or Balmung are sure as hell SoL

[Naunet]

In Ward 1 of Lamia 8 of the houses alone are empty. Several are accounts that haven't logged in for months. I went to a couple other wards and some have upwards of 10+ empty houses. I think you are underestimating how many houses are abandoned, or how many are held by the same person on different accounts! Adding new servers and more wards would have more impact, but it would also cost more money to Square Enix and more maintenance work, more staff, more issues with the games core functions!

It doesn't matter. Even if ALL housing plots were to be relinquished, there would still only be enough houses for a miniscule fraction of players on a server. Adding more wards isn't a real solution either, because they'd have to add hundreds of wards to make a dent in the problem - which... doesn't seem efficient.

[Valaska]

It doesn't matter. Even if ALL housing plots were to be relinquished, there would still only be enough houses for a miniscule fraction of players on a server. Adding more wards isn't a real solution either, because they'd have to add hundreds of wards to make a dent in the problem - which... doesn't seem efficient.

You solve what you can in-front of you the best way you can. Currently making sure its players actually utilizing these houses is the mostly simple, straight forward and pragmatic solution. They already have build in counters for when people were logged in last, or subscribed... It won't be hard to tie that into the housing system where as creating a whole instanced housing system is something more likely to be added into a MASSIVE overhaul patch such as Heavens Ward.

[Naunet]

You solve what you can in-front of you the best way you can. Currently making sure its players actually utilizing these houses is the mostly simple, straight forward and pragmatic solution.

That's my point... it's not a solution at all, because it does nothing to actually "solve" anything: there will still not be anywhere close to enough houses.

[Valaska]

That's my point... it's not a solution at all, because it does nothing to actually "solve" anything: there will still not be anywhere close to enough houses.

... It gets rid of houses taken up by people who aren't playing the game anymore, at all, and opens those plots up for players who are playing the game. Right there, that's something its solving, like, bam... Intrinsic in what I'm saying, that issue of people not playing the game anymore taking houses away from playing members, solved.

[AnnietheCat]

It gets rid of houses taken up by people who aren't playing the game anymore, at all, and opens those plots up for players who are playing the game.

If someone spent their time and gil on a plot, why should they lose it just because irl stuff might have come up and they had to take off for a while? stuff happens, and paying a sub just to keep part of the game you paid to access(both with your sub fee and with in game currency) is really silly and inconvenient. So yeah, they're right, this doesn't solve the housing problem. It doesn't matter when someone left or when they're coming back. They put the work in for it, so they shouldn't have to lose it. Instanced housing(though I don't like the idea of it) is the only real solution, and SE is kinda pussyfooting around it. And there are millions of subs with only thousands of plots. So this still won't really help at all.

[wentouch]

Store housing information once a house is purchased onto the player's hardware memory.

The load times would still be the same. Ha ha.

[Syrehn]

If someone spent their time and gil on a plot, why should they lose it just because irl stuff might have come up and they had to take off for a while? stuff happens, and paying a sub just to keep part of the game you paid to access(both with your sub fee and with in game currency) is really silly and inconvenient. So yeah, they're right, this doesn't solve the housing problem. It doesn't matter when someone left or when they're coming back. They put the work in for it, so they shouldn't have to lose it. Instanced housing(though I don't like the idea of it) is the only real solution, and SE is kinda pussyfooting around it. And there are millions of subs with only thousands of plots. So this still won't really help at all.

So let me get this straight... you want SE to maintain and pay server fees for players that aren't even paying them (and may never come back)... and then on top of that pay for additional servers for new wards (I say new wards because they're NOT going to move to instanced housing)...

I can't even tell you how incredibly stupid that is from a business financial standpoint; in the long run that type of mentality would end up costing them money. Thank god they've already shown they are not going to do this. Hopefully Ever.

[SQBoard]

So let me get this straight... you want SE to maintain and pay server fees for players that aren't even paying them (and may never come back)

Not sure that makes sense. The wards are essentially the same as persistent outdoor zones like thanalan. The server will load that entire "zone" regardless if all 30 plots in a ward is empty (unsold/no house) plots, 30 inactive houses or all 30 are active. The only difference would be the load time according to how many housing items are placed in the zone and how many players are in it at the time.

That's a big reason why it needs a patch to add wards, instead of just dynamically generating wards.

Ironically, individual housing instances would've helped with that by unloading unused, unsold or inactive houses on a case per case basis without deleting them. But i understand they're unlikely to change.

[Syrehn]

Not sure that makes sense. The wards are essentially the same as persistent outdoor zones like thanalan. The server will load that entire "zone" regardless if all 30 plots in a ward is empty (unsold/no house) plots, 30 inactive houses or all 30 are active. The only difference would be the load time according to how many housing items are placed in the zone and how many players are in it at the time.

That's a big reason why it needs a patch to add wards, instead of just dynamically generating wards.

Ironically, individual housing instances would've helped with that by unloading unused, unsold or inactive houses on a case per case basis without deleting them. But i understand they're unlikely to change.

Not sure how that doesn't make sense.... The wards are on servers. Servers cost money to buy/maintain. If half of a ward is full of inactive un-subbed players then SE is technically not recouping costs for said ward; they would lose money if they continue to keep partially dead wards. With something like a decay timer they ensure that the houses in the wards are filled with active paying players. By allowing active players to re-use those vacant houses they reduce the amount of new wards they have to buy/maintain server space for. Essentially it boils down to cost efficiency.

I'm not sure how their ward system is setup server wise... maybe they wait for big patches because wards take dedicated servers instead of virtual servers.