Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Fyce]

This is the same costs as adding new wards, albeit even more resource consuming due to a wards permanent fixture in the world where instanced it does not need to be actively loaded into memory unless in use. And looking at how often housing is actively in use, an instanced solution would be more efficient.
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But that would be a completly different design. You wouldn't have a neighborhood and all the "life" coming with it. It wouldn't be some kind of hub area but just a private thing only you will see and use.
I like my ward, the neighbors habits and wandering in the place to see what new stuff the neighbors added to their plot. Or even if a new FC arrived.

Yes, the actual system is very demanding in terms of technical ressources, but it add so much more flavor and value than a poor instantiated design you're suggesting.
You'd prefer a bland housing system but for everyone, rather than a flavorful but restricted one. I get where you're coming from, but not everyone think that way. Some people like that unique aspect to the current housing, even if it has quite a lot of issues.

[Catwho]

I don't like this at all its a nuisance to house owners like myself. This presents a problem for me since I have ocd, now I have to worry about going to my house every single day or I could possibly forget for awhile and lose my house. I play FFXIV every day, however I don't visit my house every day. Now I have to deal with the worry of going into my house every single day just so I can be sure I don't hit 45 days and lose my house. It sort of becomes an annoying chore that now I must visit my house everyday to reset the timer. There will be times where I am like did I visit my house today I don't remember better waste some gil teleporting to my house to make sure..

Log out in your house. I do that anyway. I curl up on my couch or log out in my bed after doing /doze. Provides a sense of closure for me.

[Eye_Gore]

Log out in your house. I do that anyway. I curl up on my couch or log out in my bed after doing /doze. Provides a sense of closure for me.

Everytime I do that, when I log back in I'm outside so not sure if the system would recognize you as being inside the house.

[FriendlyUncle]

That's fine, if you read my post I said nothing about removing wards all together. Much like Sol said, you can choose to purchase your plot in a ward, but if none are available or you have been inactive you are moved from the Ward into an instance.

If you would read the entire post you would have noted that no where in my post did I say remove ALL wards. Just cut them back until the get additional hardware in place. The additional of instance housing only adds the option for people who cannot purchase a plot due to them all being used can purchase a house in at least SOME capacity with the option to migrate their instanced home over to a ward when a plot becomes available. And vice versa for people who are in a ward, but do not care for it. So what exactly about that system lacks flavor or is bland? Nothing changes with that system aside from allowing people to get housing while not having to screw over players who have to take an extended leave of absence.

TL;DR Wards still in game but ADDITIONAL instance housing to be used based on preference/when ward plots are unavailable/house has reached inactivity timer.

[Gilthas]

Making the inactive leniency time only 45 days before losing your house is SE's way of forcing people to keep subscribing or lose their plot.

Really sucks that I'll be losing my L plot in December (and I'm certainly not coming back after I lose it), but SE needs to drastically reduce the grind for non-combat activities (crafting, gathering, RNG based drops, triple triad, etc) if they want my subscription.

All this grind prevents me from having time to enjoy most of the game (and I usually played 4-5 hours per day!), and forces me to focus on only on combat activities, leading to burn out.

[FriendlyUncle]

Everytime I do that, when I log back in I'm outside so not sure if the system would recognize you as being inside the house.

That's because when you join DF or log from there it shuts out the instance ID and just returns you to the last spot your character was at prior to entering said instance ID. Same thing with DF, you join Instance ID 332565. When it closes, it returns you to the last spot you were at prior to joining. If that happens to be a housing instance, then reverts back to prior to that instance.

[Catwho]

Everytime I do that, when I log back in I'm outside so not sure if the system would recognize you as being inside the house.

You have to walk inside it to log out of it, so yeah, it'll detect when you've entered the house to log out as long as you do that every time you play.

[BreathlessTao]

Everytime I do that, when I log back in I'm outside so not sure if the system would recognize you as being inside the house.

Not for the period of time you're actually offline, but the point is when you do enter your house to log out - the fact that you enter does get registered. Effectively it resets the timer.

[FriendlyUncle]

You have to walk inside it to log out of it, so yeah, it'll detect when you've entered the house to log out as long as you do that every time you play.

This will work I believe if someone is actively in your house when you log in, as that instance is open and can put you back into. Though I cannot say for sure I do not know exactly how they have this in place. But in a small FC such as mine I can confirm any time I sign on I sitting at the front door.

[Catwho]

This will work I believe if someone is actively in your house when you log in, as that instance is open and can put you back into. Though I cannot say for sure I do not know exactly how they have this in place. But in a small FC such as mine I can confirm any time I sign on I sitting at the front door.

Naw, happens even in a big FC. Come back from a duty, you're outside the door as well, even if someone was hanging out afk inside the instance.

Logging out in the house won't keep you in there for more than a day - it was just the suggestion for someone who was concerned they'd forget to go inside their house for over a month.