Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[XLauncher]

Frankly, I'd much prefer that SE just faced facts and acknowledged that their server tech simply can't accommodate the neighborhood vision that the devs have and implemented instanced housing. It's really weird that they invest as much effort as they do into systems tied to housing content (gardening, airships, furniture, etc.) when only a small fraction of the playerbase, by design, is in any position to take advantage of them. What we have here is a band aid fix. A good and overdue band aid fix mind you, but a band aid fix.

[BreathlessTao]

Frankly, I'd much prefer that SE just faced facts and acknowledged that their server tech simply can't accommodate the neighborhood vision that the devs have and implemented instanced housing. It's really weird that they invest as much effort as they do into systems tied to housing content (gardening, airships, furniture, etc.) when only a small fraction of the playerbase, by design, is in any position to take advantage of them. What we have here is a band aid fix. A good and overdue band aid fix mind you, but a band aid fix.

THIS. So much this. -_-

Also mind this little detail:

The count for days of inactivity will begin on the release of patch 3.1.

...so, plots that have been abandoned for half a year or even longer, will still be unavailable for another one and a half month after 3.1 hits, whenever that happens. Way to go. -_-

[ElHeggunte]

This doesn't fix the problem, this just needlessly punishes the players who got houses

It does indeed fix the problem of houses being unavailable to people who want them because someone took up the plot and then quit the game or decided to take an extended vacation of several months. It won't solve the problem of there never being enough houses to go around (that's another issue all together), but it's better than what we have right now by far.

It also doesn't really "punish" anyone. The personal housing timer could probably stand to be longer, but if you can't log in and enter the house at least once every 45 days (especially if you're voluntarily gone so long you'd have to do that more than once) the house doesn't really seem to mean all that much to you. On the flip side the FC timer is probably too long. If a FC owns a house and no one enters it for 45 days it's pretty clear none of them have any intention of coming back and the house is of no use to them.

Still, I suppose I can see how it may sting to a personal house owner since there are things that may drive you away from the game for 45+ days that are outside of your control, but keeping such a finite resource tied up in limbo isn't very fair to the active players either regardless of why the original homeowner hasn't been using it.

This isn't going to work when every estate is owned by someone who doesn't leave it be for 45 days, in a year or so everyone will once again not be able to buy houses...

No, but at least people will have a little peace of mind knowing that even though the houses are unavailable, at least they're being used. Way better than passing by a house you know no one has been in in months and knowing that's it's permanently stuck in limbo.

... and all this will do is annoy people and feel like a cheap gimmick to force you to keep playing the game every month even if you want to take a break from it

Terrible choice, I'm very dissapointed in this awful design decision

Less of a "cheap gimmick" to make money and more an attempt to be fair to their active players. It's SE's fault for giving us such a limited housing system, but until they change it (if they ever change it...) this is the next best thing for dealing with delinquent homeowners.

This is a change that's been asked for for a very long time. And it's a good one unless you think letting abandoned plots sit around and take up space is a good thing just because someone wants to take an extended vacation and might come back a few months later.

...so, plots that have been abandoned for half a year or even longer, will still be unavailable for another one and a half month after 3.1 hits, whenever that happens. Way to go. -_-

Probably to give players a chance to come back for 3.1 before destroying their house. It would suck if a player who was planning to sub back full-time for 3.1 returned to find their house already vaporized with minimal warning. Though at the same time if an entire FC hasn't been seen for over 45 days even before 3.1 I wouldn't feel any sympathy if their house vanished today.