The Demolition Timers Need to Be Clearer for Peace of Mind

[Kittypryde]

I honestly don't think it would be too much to have an active housing timer in the menu. We do have it for everything from Grand company turn ins, airship/retainers timers, even fashion report. I don't think it would be that hard for SE to add another timer in the menu. However, now we would have to hope that players would actually remember to hotbar the timers shortcut and check their houses. I don't see this option as SE holding our hands. If the owners STILL manage to loose their house/houses with a timer like this, then they really didn't care about their homes in the first place.

[Jojoya]

...have you even read my first post? I did not say there should be extra or more notifications in game. I said the timer that is constantly in the game should be constantly visible. Do you even know how the timer works? You don't get notified when it becomes visible. It just happens. With my suggestion the timer would simply be visible at all times. No extra notifications in-game. You simply would be able to see it at any time if you took it upon yourself to look at the estate tab of the timers window.

Yes, I know how it works. I have a friend with a house who takes breaks a couple of times a year and as a tenant I keep an eye out for the timer popping up in case his break is lasting longer than he anticipated.

No, the last thing I want is another UI element cluttering up my screen. I don't need a constant timer on display because it's irrelevant to me. I actually use my house so I'm in no danger of having it demo'd unless I stop playing, in which case a timer on display in game is useless to me.

It's no more difficult to open up the Timers menu once a day, hit the Estate button and check to see if a house is getting close to demo than it is to actually go to the house and walk in it to reset the timer.

Use the house. Problem solved. No need for something else cluttering up your screen.

I honestly don't think it would be too much to have an active housing timer in the menu. We do have it for everything from Grand company turn ins, airship/retainers timers, even fashion report. I don't think it would be that hard for SE to add another timer in the menu. However, now we would have to hope that players would actually remember to hotbar the timers shortcut and check their houses. I don't see this option as SE holding our hands. If the owners STILL manage to loose their house/houses with a timer like this, then they really didn't care about their homes in the first place.

The timer is already there.

You know how I mentioned my friend above? He's been focused on WoW since the expansion release. While his subscription is still active, he hasn't logged into FFXIV to play since Battle for Azeroth was released. Guess what showed up in my Estate timers yestrday (image taken just before I'm posting this)?



We're absolutely getting into hand-holding territory when someone can't take 10 second to flip through a submenu on their own to look up information about something they presumably care about and they expect someone else to bring that information to their attention instead.

And it would be totally unnecessary if they were simply using their house in the first place as SE intends. If SE didn't care whether or not players were using their houses, there would be no auto-demo timer based on house entry. It would have been tied to active subscription.

Let's stop enabling the hoarders who are wasting limited resources that others would be using if they had the access. Let's start encouraging personal accountability instead.

[Claviusnex]

The timer is already there.

You know how I mentioned my friend above? He's been focused on WoW since the expansion release. While his subscription is still active, he hasn't logged into FFXIV to play since Battle for Azeroth was released. Guess what showed up in my Estate timers yestrday (image taken just before I'm posting this)?



We're absolutely getting into hand-holding territory when someone can't take 10 second to flip through a submenu on their own to look up information about something they presumably care about and they expect someone else to bring that information to their attention instead.

And it would be totally unnecessary if they were simply using their house in the first place as SE intends. If SE didn't care whether or not players were using their houses, there would be no auto-demo timer based on house entry. It would have been tied to active subscription.

Let's stop enabling the hoarders who are wasting limited resources that others would be using if they had the access. Let's start encouraging personal accountability instead.

Which is what the OP and others have been saying. No changes to the UI but since the timer is already there just display it in the timers tab all of the time so it can be checked on demand. There is no reason to start showing time left at the 15 day ticker.

[Jojoya]

Which is what the OP and others have been saying. No changes to the UI but since the timer is already there just display it in the timers tab all of the time so it can be checked on demand. There is no reason to start showing time left at the 15 day ticker.

The problem is we tend to ignore things that are common place and always present. How many game notifications like the log in message do players already ignore because they're always there and rarely has anything of immediate importance included?

Having the demo notice pop up the other day got my attention fast because it was out of the ordinary. Its presence said "hey, this needs attention now".

I can tell you what would happen if the timer was always displayed. They would start ignoring what it says simply because it's always there and then still complain that it was inadequate.

It doesn't change the fact that if they were actually entering their house on a regular basis, this would be a non-issue. If they're online and able to see a timer then they're able to enter their house.

[Claviusnex]

The problem is we tend to ignore things that are common place and always present. How many game notifications like the log in message do players already ignore because they're always there and rarely has anything of immediate importance included?

Having the demo notice pop up the other day got my attention fast because it was out of the ordinary. Its presence said "hey, this needs attention now".

I can tell you what would happen if the timer was always displayed. They would start ignoring what it says simply because it's always there and then still complain that it was inadequate.

It doesn't change the fact that if they were actually entering their house on a regular basis, this would be a non-issue. If they're online and able to see a timer then they're able to enter their house.

The same thing can be accomplished by always displaying the timer in the housing tab but only showing the red warning text when the timer reaches 15 days. At other times it is blank. These are simple things not major coding exercises no matter how poorly the code is written. The real issue is and always has been the need for a demolition timer at all. SE blew the implementation of housing and nothing they can do will change that other than a new system (even if they run it in parallel with the existing system).

[Penthea]

Which is what the OP and others have been saying. No changes to the UI but since the timer is already there just display it in the timers tab all of the time so it can be checked on demand. There is no reason to start showing time left at the 15 day ticker.

If there are any issues where entering the house doesn't reset the timer, an always visible timer would show that. If you're before the last 15 day mark, you can't see if you actually reset the timer or not and email has proven to be an issue for some people. Personally I don't go into the timers often. I check the house regularly enough, but I would like to be able to monitor the timers (yes, I'm paranoid) and I'd very much like to get a warning in game if something didn't reset and I'm in the red zone despite having entered. I see it more as a safety net against a possible bug vs hand holding.

Thank you. You two actually understand what I'm saying, and my intentions behind making this thread.

[AriesMouse]

Thank you. You two actually understand what I'm saying, and my intentions behind making this thread.

I think the issue is mostly that, unless it really is a simple button press, and we have a timer in the timer menus, the whole thing seems like a pointless waste of time and resources for the Dev team. Asking for them to put extra time/effort/resources into something that realistically, is a player made problem (As I've said in past posts, excluding RL emergencies), is asking them to waste time when they could be doing any number of other things to improve the housing system, things that might actually make it so we don't even need the timer.

[Penthea]

I think the issue is mostly that, unless it really is a simple button press, and we have a timer in the timer menus, the whole thing seems like a pointless waste of time and resources for the Dev team.

You say that but we consistently get features that could easily be seen as a waste of time. I think we can all agree that making the demolition timer permanently visible is significantly more important than more gpose filters. I'm not saying I don't want more gpose filters but that is a purely cosmetic feature, and its absence isn't causing issues. The demolition timer has an actual mechanic that warns you of losing something you own. In its current state it is very misleading for the reasons stated at the end of my first post. It's not a waste of time to make something like this clearer. Although whether SE agree as well is another thing.

when they could be doing any number of other things to improve the housing system, things that might actually make it so we don't even need the timer.

I completely agree that ideally we should have no demolition timer but lets face it, will this ever happen? It's far more likely for SE to make the state of the timer permanently visible than to do enough work to the housing system that would allow them to remove demolition altogether.

[Kittypryde]

Yes, I know how it works. I have a friend with a house who takes breaks a couple of times a year and as a tenant I keep an eye out for the timer popping up in case his break is lasting longer than he anticipated.

No, the last thing I want is another UI element cluttering up my screen. I don't need a constant timer on display because it's irrelevant to me. I actually use my house so I'm in no danger of having it demo'd unless I stop playing, in which case a timer on display in game is useless to me.

It's no more difficult to open up the Timers menu once a day, hit the Estate button and check to see if a house is getting close to demo than it is to actually go to the house and walk in it to reset the timer.

Use the house. Problem solved. No need for something else cluttering up your screen.

The timer is already there.

You know how I mentioned my friend above? He's been focused on WoW since the expansion release. While his subscription is still active, he hasn't logged into FFXIV to play since Battle for Azeroth was released. Guess what showed up in my Estate timers yestrday (image taken just before I'm posting this)?



We're absolutely getting into hand-holding territory when someone can't take 10 second to flip through a submenu on their own to look up information about something they presumably care about and they expect someone else to bring that information to their attention instead.

And it would be totally unnecessary if they were simply using their house in the first place as SE intends. If SE didn't care whether or not players were using their houses, there would be no auto-demo timer based on house entry. It would have been tied to active subscription.

Let's stop enabling the hoarders who are wasting limited resources that others would be using if they had the access. Let's start encouraging personal accountability instead.

Ahh so that's what it looks like. Thanks for posting. I had honestly never seen that screen before. I've had a house since my first April 2017, but was curious what it looked like.