Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Seryl199]

The timer is reasonable now. Before they proposed 30 days, which meant house owners couldn't even unsub for one month. Now everyone has some breathing room. As a personal house owner I'm happy with the system.

It's too bad the system isn't retroactive though. I know two houses that have been abandoned since personal housing launched. And my FC still wants to upgrade to a large house. Oh well. I hope they add new wards. Because this system wont be noticed for awhile.

I just took a short break from FFXIV for the first time to play other games in the interim of 3.1, but came back a couple weeks early on a whim. Had I waited until 3.1 dropped, it would have been into the 45 days inactivity period, and I would have flipped to find out my house was demolished based on a retroactive system. They're extending a small courtesy to returning players, the least they can do after a long patch cycle. Don't fret, the players that aren't coming back will remain inactive and their estates reclaimed.

[Seryl199]

Its not retroactive tho, it starts counting on patch day.

Do people not read the whole info note?

Right. I was replying to the quoted poster who commented on a retroactive system. Did you not read the quote?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Right. I was replying to the quoted poster who commented on a retroactive system. Did you not read the quote?

Nah, i gave up reading most of this, so you can ignore my post lol. theres been too much false info getting spread around today. My bad \o/

[SummonerSenah]

This is a bandaid, to be sure. But at the same time, there's no reason for someone who isn't playing to own a house. Those players are basically dead to Eorzea and what need for a house does a dead person have? In the real world houses don't just stay empty after someone leaves; either someone else in the family takes over or the house is resold.

[Eye_Gore]

In the real world houses don't just stay empty after someone leaves; either someone else in the family takes over or the house is resold

Sure about that?

[Voltyblast]

Wait, I'm a little confused on what you consider an expansion.

This is often subjective of course, that's why I simply summed it up in "this is your idea against my idea: nobody is really correct". But for me when I play an expansion I simply expect things to improve in different ways.

I am glad that the warrior got expanded: they're not fully fledged dps too and they couldn't better than ever. But they're still stuck in their tanking role: I wish I could go as dps but I can't. It's not really well expanded in my eye.

The weekly caps got no real change: why couldn't we have something different, or a way to get more gear within the cap? Or even better: why can't we swap our Eso gear for another job you want to use? I currently play warrior but I'm quite bored so I went monk: my monk won't be any good in the next month and a half, the approximate time that I get full exo.

The places got a big improvement, no doubt on that, but there's nothing to do in these big places: they're completely "empty". No I'm not saying that they're barren: there's nothing interesting to do aside fate grinding and hunting, which is also pointless (for now at least). Infact flying is also useless unless you are grinding: teleporting is quicker.

All I'm trying to say is that, this is just from my own opinion, the game feels the exact same: some improvements were made but no real pizza. It plays like 2.0 and while I know where this game comes from, after 2 years I kind of pretend some more innovation. The expansion, always in my opinion, just brought 3 new jobs, bigger (but empty) areas, and flying. And story, but I don't follow it.

In addition to this...

It's not being picky. You want glorified Inn rooms while we currently have entire neighborhood of 30 houses. Absolutly not the same thing.

I already answered les than two pages before your first post on the matter. Since you don't seem to follow the thread with a lot of attention, I'll quote myself:

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.

Let me just ask one simple question: do you want something to work properly or not?

Of course the wards give "life", with neighbors walking around and stuff but this thread is just the proof of why this system, while good on some parts, it's terrible on so many others: I'm in the goblet but frankly I don't see anyone nearby me: my FC is dead (they're waiting for the patch), all of the neigbors are always away, and my house is literally in the center where the MB is. Opinion varies here, but it does feel empty for me, but glad to hear you're having it differently.

You are correct for sure: having an house gives me a good feeling of "life" with neighbors and whatnot, but even I admit that it's flawed to no end. However it doesn't work good enough to keep up "whatever" they're keeping up, to the point we are now essentially paying a sort of rent to keep our houses up. I would simply let it go if they could at least fulfill the demand but there's barely enough for 1% of the entire server. On top of that they're expensive too, but it seems that they give back 80% (why not full?) of the money spent which is something.

I can see that you like this system because you like where "you live in", but for some (and many) a house is simply an achievement that they want to share, which is also good. And whether that's bad or good it doesn't matter: what matters is that this method of housing isn't working and now they implemented an automatic relinquish after a certain time. All I'm saying is that, I would prefer a "bland" housing but that works fine, rather than this.

And whether you agree or not, it doesn't matter the least: this is what is going on right now and I assume that either they won't change it, or will after a long time.

I'll just lower my sub to intro I guess. :/

[Elim]

Right. I was replying to the quoted poster who commented on a retroactive system. Did you not read the quote?

I understand why they didn't make it retroactive. I'm sure the forum would be absolutely filled with rage if it was. But, not to sound cold, I still wish it was. Not only can I confirm two abandoned houses, but I can walk through most subdivs and run out of fingers counting houses that have no decorations(or very little) and haven't had any for months and months. Now we get to watch them sit there for even longer -- but it's not a big deal. At some point houses will start to free up, new wards will be added and people will be happy. I'm a bit more optimistic about this system than others. Because I'm sure houses will free up fairly often. People clearly buy houses and then regret it, or stop caring shortly after.

[StouterTaru]

This is a bandaid, to be sure. But at the same time, there's no reason for someone who isn't playing to own a house. Those players are basically dead to Eorzea and what need for a house does a dead person have? In the real world houses don't just stay empty after someone leaves; either someone else in the family takes over or the house is resold.

It's more than a band-aid; it's removing a malignant tumor. The problem isn't resolved, but it's a necessary step in that direction.

[Silverbane]

Note that leaving your house abandoned for 45 RL days is equal to leaving it abandoned for a little over 2.5 Eorzean years.

Losing title after 2.5 years is a bit fast compared to RL. In RL, it's commonly 10 to 20 years (depending on the local laws) before you would lose title to abandoned property, and then only if someone else takes adverse possession of it for that number of years. On the other hand, if you lose land in RL because of adverse possession, you get nothing for compensation, unlike the 80% you will get here.

All that said: it's just a game, and these are the rules. So there's no need to get particularly emotional about it.

[Ayerinn]

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?

every single one of those games is F2P...which means housing items are a significant revenue source for them - of course they are going to make it easy for everyone to own one (not that I don't think everyone should be able to have one in FF14, I 100% do think everyone needs access.) WS, SWTOR, RIFT are all solo house instances - totally different animal than a neighborhood, it is just another instance like anything else. Aion has housing districts but anyone can have a home via apartments...not sure what LOTRO has though.