So when does the first houses become avaliable? SUGGESTION: House degradation timer

[GenericMagus]

I have been wondering ever since patch 3.1 that, with the first implementation of the house degradation feature, where in 45 days of inactivity which is determined by not visiting your house, when will the houses first degrade anyway?

I find it odd people are saying it to be on Christmas, as 45 days away from when the patch launched, 9th of November, is the 24th of December, Christmas Eve. So, what time would the houses actually drop? Will it be at midnight, from the transition from 24to 25th, will it be at when maintenance first started, when patch went live, will it really be on Christmas?

It's so frustrating that Square Enix won't give us a proper answer or time to when the houses first become available. Because looking at it now, it's making me think I have to prepare myself to spend all day on Christmas Eve/Day in the hopes of securing a property by camping myself outside a house in the hopes of it becoming available to purchase.


This is where my idea of allowing a visible House Degradation Timer on the placard of the property, underneath who owns the property. It tells you how many days, hours and minutes that property has left before it degrades. Once the 1st houses drop, it will become an absolute pain to keep track of which houses become inactive/close to becoming available on the market.

So please, can any mods/developers come to this thread and clarify about what time the houses will become available and please implement a house degradation timer.

Thank you, and Merry Christmas.

[AnnietheCat]

45 days since patch would mean plots will open up on Christmas. SE most likely won't give a degradation timer because it will lead to a lot of player conflict(stalking people's houses, etc). I believe that's why they didn't implement one in the first place. I mean, how annoying would it be to come back from a vacation to find a bunch of people constantly checking your placard to see if you've gone in just because you were gone for 7 to 14 days? Or sending rude tells to you over and over suggesting you just give up your plot so that people who "actually want it" can use it? That's exactly the type of thing that would happen.

[GenericMagus]

Snip.

About that, what time Christmas would they open up? Would It be at Midnight, in the early morning, or some other point in the day. There's no given exact time when the 1st houses would be available. About the player conflict, there already is a player conflict over house degradation already, especially when it concerns those who own private housing. I cannot verify whether rude tells would occur as a result of if house degradation timer was implemented or not. However, it's not my fault if people will behave in this way depending on how they use the system(add in the other system as well that players debate over, parsers), but it's also not my fault that Square Enix let the housing situation get extremely bad to begin with.

[AnnietheCat]

No one's saying it's your fault, but you're only thinking about you and how it would affect you. SE has to worry about how it would affect ALL players, not just you. No, there's no exact timer. One isn't necessary. People are of course going to be camping out in residential areas all day and night hoping for plots to open. But this is the first round of reclaiming. After this, plots will free up 45 days after they are purchased, and not on a fixed schedule. Is there player conflict over this already? You bet your ass there is. But why introduce a feature that would obviously be abused and cause even more player conflict? SE is a company and companies focus on revenue. Smart decisions either keep revenue as is or increase revenue as old players will resub to either keep their plots or in the hopes of actually finally getting one. They aren't complete dingwads. They weighed their options and clearly decided a timer would be more trouble than it's worth. Sorry that doesn't fit into what you want it to be, and sorry you're probably going to miss out on a house on Christmas. But this is the busted ass system SE put in place, and it isn't going to change until they finally realize that the entire housing system needs to be redone. The problem isn't reclaiming or the lack of a timer. The problem is the fact that housing in this game blows and SE is so focused on being different from other MMOs that it's starting to bite them in the ass because they refuse to take inspiration from housing(both guild/fc AND personal) systems that actually work.

[GenericMagus]

Snip.

I agree with you about the case that Square Enix shot themselves repeatedly over the housing situation, with no real effort to fix it. House degradation is a good start, as if I take a house and quit the game, with no intention of coming back, that house is permanently off the market, regardless of what you do. But the real issues is down to personal housing takes up the same space as free company housing, the fact that 1 account can hold multiple houses between personal and fc, the fact that there's no support for 1 house between all alts on an account are much bigger issues than adding a timer.

I will still be on for Christmas Eve/Day, camping all day and night just for a chance to get a house for my free company in the first place because there's no clear time when they will drop, which I feel would be a risk to health because of the extreme measures one has to take because of no clear indication. This is why I want a house degradation timer in the first place because then I can look at a house, see how long it has left instead of having to look up free company, ask around how long a person has left the game for, see if they changed their character in anyway, etc. So I can see what houses will be available when they open up.

Any and all systems that Square Enix will implement will be abused by the wrong sort of people. For example, Vote Kick trolling in 24 man content rings a bell, and we can report harassment/unjust kicks, the same thing would and can be applied to house degradation timers. Don't blame the system, blame the player in that instance.

[umbralcadenza]

Don't blame the system, blame the player in that instance.

But the housing system being barely-supported garbage is the whole reason there is player conflict to begin with.

[GenericMagus]

But the housing system being barely-supported garbage is the whole reason there is player conflict to begin with.

Of course the housing system is also to blame as well, but the timer wouldn't be that harmful to the situation, both for and against. What I was talking about was that any and all systems that SE would implement can and possibly to would be abused. It's down to the community how they use what they're given, and the timer is not one of those things that can be abused in favour of causing toxicity, because the housing situation is doing a fine job of that anyway. If the timer shows how long the house has left, and it makes people toxic, then I find it more a problem with the person rather than the system. In cases such as owning multiple houses because the system allows that, then yes, blame the system, but also the person who chooses to do it. The main problem is that you're thinking it's deterministic, that there is no free will how people react to the system.

It's already creating toxicity due to the fact that, there isn't enough houses, there's a very high limit to the amount of houses you can have on 1 account, how personal housing takes a plot away from free companies (which should really be fixed now considering how there's important things tied into owning an fc house than a personal house). Why I want to advocate a timer is so we as a community can see if there are any houses that can go up for sale in the near future. With that being said, maybe the timer should only be displayed when the degradation timer is almost up? Like in 7 days or so? This would be a nice compromise to my original idea and so you wouldn't be forced to camp to dangerously unhealthy levels just for a slight hope that the person hasn't logged in and renewed the property. This also gives ample amount of time for people to look around the housing market and see what houses would come up in a week, without it actively being shown all the time.

[Badmoon]

glad there isnt gonna be a timer ...looking forward to sitting in my yard in my ward when housing opens up on the 25th and watching the drama unfold!

[NanaWiloh]

glad there isnt gonna be a timer ...looking forward to sitting in my yard in my ward when housing opens up on the 25th and watching the drama unfold!

I am going to slap on a Bikini get a chair sit in my yard and watch the housing area go to hell and back

p.s I am sorry to everyone out there who lacks a personal house and I hope you our able to get one on the 25th. My best wishes too all and SE please fix this problem :P

[dejiko_san]

A timer on your banner sounds mega depressing. IE this is how many days you have left to enjoy your house.
Instead of a timer that would piss people off that want to KEEP their houses, how about this.

An icon that appears when you open the area map over the houses that have expired.
It's simple to look at and it doesn't annoy people as much as having a timer on your banner.