Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Youkulm]

It's about time! Thank you SE! Thank you!

Now to wait to see when we get Ishgard / New wards as well.

[Syrehn]

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.

The issue with this is then SE has to maintain 2 separate housing structures, wards & instances, which they may not have the manpower/time to do.

The reasons that we have the system that we currently do likely fall along the lines of:

1) Hardware/Storage costs - storage probably being the key (this is the same regardless of wards/instances).
2) They already had the FC housing structure in place so it's more efficient (time/money) to piggyback off it.
3) If they split FC & Personal houses into separate wards, if/when the FC housing demand dies down and individual personal housing demand increases there would be empty plots forever sitting in FC dedicated wards. This isn't an effective usage of server resources. Edit: Found the quote regarding FC/Personal houses being mixed:

Basically, the reason both personal and Free Company housing plots aren't segregated is that because it’s been a year since our official launch, the rate at which Free Companies are established will gradually decrease. If the land for personal and Free Company housing was separate, we’d have to keep supplementing both in spite of declining demand for Free Company plots. Plus, when a Free Company is dissolved, its property is relinquished. On the other hand, individual players will continue to earn gil, so the demand for personal housing plots will only increase from now on. Separating the two would result in a situation where a player can’t purchase land in crowded personal housing areas or buy an empty plot in the Free Company areas.

4) They wanted Community centred hubs.

[Alexander_Dragonfang]

Im going to lol so hard when, in a month and a half we get the "omg housing sucks SE, i want a house now" threads get back.

[Lexia]

Im going to lol so hard when, in a month and a half we get the "omg housing sucks SE, i want a house now" threads get back.

Don't think anyone has said this is fixing the issue. Improvements still need to be made so no those threads are not going anywhere.

[Youkulm]

Don't think anyone has said this is fixing the issue. Improvements still need to be made so no those threads are not going anywhere.

This exactly. As much as people are going to complain about losing housing, this is a step in the right direction. It should have been in the game in the first place.

[Voltyblast]

This system was clearly created for the purpose of forcing players to remain subscribed for months on end, and I guarantee that this will be followed by long content draughts. Want to quit while you wait 6 months for a patch? Better not, or else you'll lose your house!

Eeeyup....sounds like I'll have to resub before 3.1 then: I don't want to lose my small plot (for me that much gil is a lot, since I don't craft) even if I was going to take a break for a longer time, playing other games and such.

"Sigh" At least I only have to get online once a day max.

[Aoxaviar]

Well, I have read the begining 4 pages on this one and figured I would add my 2cents:

UPS:
1. I think that it is about time that SE has been able to come up with a system that will encourage sale/new players to the housing wards. I like this because, on my server (Exodus) I have Mist, Ward 1, Plot 11. This was completely filled up in the first 3 to 4 months housing was started in 2.x. I do cruise the ward to see whats going on, and i have to say, not much has changed (outside) majorly in about a year. If most of these are abandoned, it will be nice to get new players who are active into the Ward.

2. This will encourage those who have unsub or left, to make the choice of what to do with their game account. Houses are not cheap. Furnishing houses is not cheap. the amount of time (gathering/crafting/gil farming) in order to fully outfit these houses is a major undertaking (casual players like myself) but still require a dedicated effort (hardcore players) in order to get them bought and outfitted.

3. This will encourage those who have houses simply to have them (FC's and Personal) to probably sell. The scavenger does allow for purchasing of sold items, or buy the retainers to store it if you aren't using a house.

DOWNS:
1. With the time limit (45 or 90 days depending on what thread your reading) I believe that SE has really taken a strong stance by siding with everyday casual players and a strong look to the raid only or hardcore raider community in game.
a. people do unsub because either the patch has nothing they are interested in.
b. Patches land around 90 to 120 days on average. A player will likey lose a during that time.

2. The current notes do not cover a player going into their house and logging out as a way to place hold being there. What happens if a player does this?

3. This does not provide anyway for real life to be taken into account inside the gaming world.
a. People who travel for work and only play on PS4 can't access it as regularly as a 9 to 5'er like myself.
b. Players who are in the military and are deployed/not able to access their house in game.

4. No definition for "Access" of house.
a. Most of us I think would agree that when we access our house is when we teleport to it.
b. Based on what I am seeing, we have to go inside (literally) the house to be deemed accessing the house.

Additional Things for SE to Do:
1. Players who seem to be wanting (ravenously) that what we have needs to be tossed and instant housing needs to be added. A couple of things SE could do to aid this crowd:
a. make the inn rooms specific to each player so that we all have an instant room/place to go. This would allow for a player to have a place they can make for themselves. This could also be setup so that the player can also invite other players to their inn room (a mechanic that is supposedly coming for personal housing sometime.)
b. provide (finally) places in the open world where players can access instant gardening and chocobo stables to players.
c. Since private rooms in FC houses are abundant, and not all use them (my FC, I am the only one using it, 512 total rooms available) let the FC sell them off. Since houses can be set to public access, let the FC sell off (in gil) private rooms not being used to players who want a place. FC sets the price for a private room with add costs for gardening and stable access.
d. If a single player ever gets (or already has, but doubt it) the ability to utilize workshops to build stuff, then FCs can also, for a fee (gil) rent out their workshops as well.

[Youkulm]

Eeeyup....sounds like I'll have to resub before 3.1 then: I don't want to lose my small plot (for me that much gil is a lot, since I don't craft) even if I was going to take a break for a longer time, playing other games and such.

"Sigh" At least I only have to get online once a day max.

Not even. Every 45 days. Sub every other month and log in once that month, that is literally all you have to do if that little amount of gil means that much to you ( even though you're not playing ).

This is a business model. Of course they want people to stay subbed. Why is everyone so shocked by this?

I think they're being more than generous by giving back people 80% of the purchase price and the reclaimable items. Frankly I suspected they would give back nothing since it would be a convenient gil sink for them.

45 or 90 days depending on what thread your reading

2. The current notes do not cover a player going into their house and logging out as a way to place hold being there. What happens if a player does this?

4. No definition for "Access" of house.

There is an official post in the news on the lodestone, It's 45 days.

2. Inside of housing is an instance. You're removed the second you log off.

4. Pretty sure they just mean walking into the interior of the house. I don't see a problem here. It's the only decent way to keep track ( in my opinion ) because if you log off inside/outside the house you will load outside the door. Teleporting to the house usually means you're not already at the house. If you're already there.. just walk on in.

As for selling private rooms, Private rooms are not the reason people want housing. It's mostly for stables, gardening, workbenches, NPCs, workshop, and FC community. There are copious amounts of FCs without housing BECAUSE OF personal housing. It should have never been a thing.

We should have had instanced inn rooms we could decorate and garden in.. like mog houses FFXI. The wards should have been left to the FCs. Sorry personal housing owners.

[CGMidlander]

Notification is in the timers menu which almost nobody ever looks at.

If they had some huge pop up that says you will lose your house in 15 days after you don't visit it when you log in then that would be ok but they choose not to go with something like that, its hidden in a menu within a menu.

I don't about you, but I look at mine at least once every day for scrips turn ins, GC turn ins, and ventures.

[Voltyblast]

This is a business model. Of course they want people to stay subbed. Why is everyone so shocked by this?

Because there are better ways to do it?

Wildstar does it right.

SWTOR does it right.

LOTRO (apparently, never played it) does it right.

I think also Aion does it right, with personal flats.

And I believe also Rift does it right.

This game doesn't? And because of technical issues?

So yes, call me shocked by this considering this isn't a cheaply (?) made MMORPG. Also, I thought they didn't want to implement such system because people were enraged, were they not?