Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Malevicton]

Doing "exactly what people ask" would be giving up on this broken and unsustainable housing model.
And yeah well sorry if we get upset when there are n number of details to something and they manage to go with the worst options for all n of those.

I must've imagined a lot of posts if no one ever asked for a reclamation system.

[echoica]

This doesn't fix the problem, this just needlessly punishes the players who got housesThis 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, 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 itTerrible choice, I'm very dissapointed in this awful design decision

Why should paying customers be penalized (not being able to get a house) while entitled non paying customers get to hold on to things they may or may not use again? I understand a lot of effort goes into buying a house and decorating it but if you aren't even playing the game...

It's like leasing a car. Not owning it. TOS reflects this quite clearly.

[Sicno]

It's not too much to ask for you to log in once per month and visit your house if you wanna keep it.
At least now other people who are playing have a real shot at owning land currently not being used

Because that means you have to resub every single month even if you want to take a break from the game.

[BreathlessTao]

I must've imagined a lot of posts if no one ever asked for a reclamation system.

Didn't say nobody ever asked for reclamation. But it was in sort of an "at least" way, I do believe everyone asking for it has been well aware that it can only serve as a band-aid - something that should have been in place from the start, without SE chickening out from having it implemented together with the whole housing system.

[YuiKitahara]

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

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, 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

I have the same feeling. now I can't even take a break in peace....

[kamikrazy]

So you have to always be subscribed or else your 50 million gil investment that took you months of work goes up in smoke? Should they also implement a 45 day timer where your gil starts vanishing from your inventory because other players might need it? And should they also take away your retainer's levels and gear as well? What about your character name after 45 days? How about they also make your gear go down ilevel by 50 for every 45 days you are offline?

It seems like a really cheap shot to keep people subscribed, it isn't a solution to fix the housing availability problem. Fixing the housing availability problem could be done in a ton of ways, none of which involve forcing players to login within an arbitary time frame that just so happens to guarantee you have to stay subscribed at all times or else.

[kamikrazy]

They could have added instanced housing plots.

They could have added apartments in the city states.

They could have done what LOTRO did and create an expanded system of plots that would actually function in a way where everyone will get one.

This system does nothing. Instead of only .5% of the playerbase on a server getting to do housing content at all, everyone will have to take turns being the .5%, except not a year from now when the .5% are all people who will stay subscribed forever and will never relinquish their property. This is nothing but an underhanded and subversive way of keeping subscribers while appearing to be improving the game. It's insulting that they think people are this stupid, and its even worse if people fall for it.

Their housing system is fundamentally broken, fixing that is what needs to be done. This does absolutely nothing for anyone except SE's subscriptions.

[Mattia]

Well damn now I don't want a house.

[XLauncher]

So you have to always be subscribed or else your 50 million gil investment that took you months of work goes up in smoke? Should they also implement a 45 day timer where your gil starts vanishing from your inventory because other players might need it? And should they also take away your retainer's levels and gear as well? What about your character name after 45 days? How about they also make your gear go down ilevel by 50 for every 45 days you are offline?

Do you seriously believe any of that is analogous to what they're doing here?

[Malevicton]

Cmon, a new and better system would've been better, but we all knew they weren't just gonna scrap it and start over. (inb4 but ARR)

But yeah, even 65 days woulda been nicer. Then people can actually take a break (which is the number 1 piece of advice to every complaint ever) without losing one of the most expensive items available in game (probably with a decent amount of expensive furniture in it too, which apparently isn't refunded), with effectively 0 chance of getting another one.

At least you get 80% of the house's worth back. You can go spend that on something, presumably. I don't know what there is to buy except a house, though.