The Demolition Timers Need to Be Clearer for Peace of Mind

[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.

[Kittypryde]

So normal that you casually say people should just "bring their laptop" if they need to work away from home, and end that phrasing with lol? Forgive my cynicism but you're not making a convincing case that you deal with money the way most people do.



How nice of you to completely ignore the other reasons I stated that could make a person be away from the game for more than 45 days.

And good for you if you make things work. But I really am very disappointed in the sort of attitude that is saying "if I can always easily work with the system, then so should everyone else" and use that as reasoning to keep the housing system in its current state. The lack of empathy in some posts with these sort of statements is astounding.

But this is all beside the point I was making when I made the thread. My first post states the timer should be visible in the estate tab in the timers window at all times. This has no effect on the length of the demolition timer. That is another debate altogether.

Yes, I said lol, because it doesn't matter what you do, just to take 5min out of a busy schedule and be pro active about your house.

[Dustytome]

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.

[Jojoya]

So let me get this straight. You're saying even if life events happen such as work trips, bad health, losing your job, your parents preventing you from playing while you're studying for exams...all this counts as hoarder behaviour if someone is unlucky enough for this period to last longer than 45 days?

Not at all. Those things are preventing people from playing the game so they can't even log in. Your in-game timer does nothing to help those people.

If they're able to log-in, then they can easily enter their houses and reset the timer.

The hoarders are the ones who aren't using their houses even though they are playing the game. Try applying a little critical thinking to the situation.

How often do people experience events outside of their control that will prevent them from logging in for over 6 weeks? Not very often at all. It's extremely rare these days.

Those who frequently travel on business, especially for extended periods of time, will have laptops and stay at accommodations with internet access. I had guildmates in WoW who were playing while stationed in Iraq and on an oil rig in a remote part of Alaska. Their connections sucked but they could play.

It's extremely rare that people end up hospitalized for more than 6 weeks. If their condition is that bad, a house in a game is not going to be at the top of their list for things to worry about.

It's not a lack of sympathy on my part. I've suffered loss and rebuilt my life before, have you? It's a matter of realism. Games can't be designed around the extreme outlier situations.

There are few things in life that can't be resolved in 45 days that will end up resolved in 60. But how convenient that 60 days happens to match the usual patch cycle for those who log in for new content, play for a week then stop playing until the next patch is released. Sounds like a suggestion from a hoarder who wants to keep a house they aren't using in a game they barely play.

If they are playing? Then walk into the house and reset the timer. Problem solved.

[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.

[Beckett]

The amount of player-blaming in this thread for a situation that SE created (and swore would never exist) is frankly concerning. SE screwed up their housing by making it too limited for all players to have access to, then came up with a bad solution in the form of Reclamation (despite previously saying that you would never lose your house because you couldn't log on) and now somehow players are blaming each other for being "lazy" and "hoarding".

The OP's suggestion to have the demolition timer permanently visible is the absolute bare minimum SE could do to be more transparent about this. I honestly feel like they should go further with it, and give big notice windows at log-in that say how many days you have left (starting at 5 or maybe 10 days left).

I mentioned in another thread on this subject that I have a friend that logs in every day and uses his house to garden. He happened to catch an email that said his house would be demolished in 1 day. Despite using his house every day, he hadn't actually gone inside it for 44 days. It would have been absolutely ridiculous if this full-time player who uses his house every single day had lost it, especially considering he's owned the plot since before Reclamation even existed! Reclamation is a bad fix to a problem SE created for themselves, and they owe it to us to make it as painless and easy to understand as possible.

[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.