My absence and return - thoughts on demolished houses

[Skivvy]

I think this topic is a good place to ask.

If i will not login for 1-3+ months, will i lose my apartment? I.e. does same rules apply to apartments or not?

Currently, apartments do not demolish.

[Zeonsilt]

Currently, apartments do not demolish.

Thanks for answer!
Good to know.

[Alberel]

so you understand why they need to demolish houses, and you're still complaining?

instanced housing? thats literally what people DON'T want in a housing system.. people want actual plots, actual space, and an actual neighbourhood. many other games have fully instanced housing and those feel like a single player housing simulator rather than housing in an mmo. ffxiv has 1 of the better mmo housing system.

secondly, housing is luxury, something you never need in the game, and something that only 10% of players have, while like 80% of players want, theres a huge demand for them.. as someone waiting to buy a house, i can't wait to see plots get demolished lol..

Actually I think if you polled the community the result would be overwhelmingly in favour of scrapping neighbourhoods and using an instanced system. Neighbourhoods are great on paper but don't work in reality when you have limited real estate. Most wards are deserted regardless as no one ventures out of their own personal house so the current system still feels like it's all instanced. There's absolutely no benefit to the neighbourhood system.

Most players would happily give up the current failed system in favour of individually instanced private housing locales. It would guarantee everyone a house and would also remove many of the 'server limitations' cited with regards to housing.

[Naunet]

i really don't see why one couldn't just sell their house when they wanna quit and buy a new one when they play again. the net loss wouldn't be alot

There's NO guarantee a house will be available, and there is a gil loss regardless.

As for apartments - they are small, have very low decor limits, and don't have access to a number of features that houses do.

[Geryth]

I want to thank everyone for the discussion. I had a positive experience engaging with most of the people in this thread. I edited my original post for people to continue talking about what they like or don't like about housing, and what they would like to see in the future. I hope SE listens to the community, and that they realize how severely punishing house demolition is for their players.

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

Jesus the community in this game is disappointing.

1. You talk about it not being fair for people to have houses if they are unsubbed because there are people who own more than one house, specially FCs that have like 128 houses and so on. So then people who aren't willing to pay for something they are not going to play for a few months because let's be real the game is designed this way unfortunately, yet have effectively stayed subbed for the past 3 years and so on deserve to get their houses taken away? How does this even make any sense?
Solution: Make it one house per account. It's as easy as that?

2. You relate it to paying bills irl. Are you for real? This is a game, people are already stressed irl having to pay their bills, why should they have to be stressed to keep their house in a game? >_> (This is not Archeage) It's not like they are going away for years. Would you be happy if because you decided to take a break, your character deleveled and you had your gear deleted? People work hard for their houses, they spend a lot of time decorating them, only for them to be taken away because of this bad implementation.
Solution: Increase the demolition time limit. Also, Make it one house per account. It's as easy as that?

3. You talk about the cons of instanced being the lack of a neighborhood. I too like showing off my house to my non existant neighbors. They are never there! It's always felt like a ghost town regardless.
Solution: Make it instanced OR make it one house per account. It's as easy as that?

4.

OOOOH poor us. How have we all coped without your complaining! I'm surprised the forum didn't grind to a complete halt.

Really? I mean REALLY? What's even the point of this post and others like it? This is completely unnecessary. (And it even has upvotes, dear god, baby jesus) Why don't these kind of posts get deleted or get their users banned? Seriously, this forum.

[Ayer2015]

So, you think other people actively playing the game should go without access to limited content so others can claim said content and neither use it or pay into the game's sustainability?

[Ayer2015]

snip

There is no question housing was implemented poorly. I've always felt there should be a communal ward, with the houses and yards being instanced. And honestly.... the content that went into the GS should have been put in the wards to promote congregation. Bottom line.... the wards current state are a huge development mistake, but they are what we are stuck with.

[Geryth]

So, you think other people actively playing the game should go without access to limited content so others can claim said content and neither use it or pay into the game's sustainability?

Could you tell me what part of my post makes you think I would prefer inactive players to keep houses over active players?

The previous implementation of housing had issues, and inactive players were taking precious housing resources from active players. This was a major problem that needed to be solved. I was hopeful that SE would fix that by implementing a system that made housing not so limited, however they took an easy and cheap way out and kept the system they had, and decided to demolish houses of inactive players. With that design philosophy, they severely punish players who want or need to take an extended break from the game. Housing is such a huge and enjoyable part of the game, and I know for myself a majority of all the gil I ever made went in to my house, so deleting it is a major punch in the gut. Let me reiterate that housing demolition is absolutely necessary in a system where housing is so restrictive and limited, and is better than what it was before. However, there were so many other and better options that they could have gone with, and in my opinion they picked the laziest and worst solution.

[ImmortalDreamer]

Neighbourhoods are great on paper but don't work in reality when you have limited real estate. Most wards are deserted regardless as no one ventures out of their own personal house so the current system still feels like it's all instanced. There's absolutely no benefit to the neighbourhood system.

I have to disagree here. While I agree that there needs to be more housing to accommodate the demand, the neighborhood system is what gives FFXIV housing its life imo. Being able to walk through the wards and see FCs and players houses is one of the main draws to the housing system for me. If it was an instanced system, there would be no real reason to go to it. I'd warp to my house for the melder, ect and warp out instead to spending time outside in the ward as many of my FC currently do. I understand the need for more housing, but gutting the charm of the current system for the generic, pointless variant that every other MMO does isn't the answer imo.