Another housing delay, imagine that.

[Aaran]

As much as I hate to say it, OP does make one valid point. Yes, the post is very tone deaf. But at the same time, there IS always a crisis happening somewhere in the world now. SE needs to either stop suspending demolition altogether or just stop demolition altogether. There is always something happening somewhere in the world that will keep people from logging in. It's just the way the world is now.

[Atelier-Bagur]

As much as I hate to say it, OP does make one valid point. Yes, the post is very tone deaf. But at the same time, there IS always a crisis happening somewhere in the world now. SE needs to either stop suspending demolition altogether or just stop demolition altogether. There is always something happening somewhere in the world that will keep people from logging in. It's just the way the world is now.

Again the demolition thing is there to prevent complete perma-housing spots on a very limited system for new people to get a chance on gaining a plot if somebody hasnt logged for a good amount of days. Yes the limited plot system itself sucks a lot but its either that or no new players will ever get a house for their own.

[Dzian]

Again the demolition thing is there to prevent complete perma-housing spots on a very limited system for new people to get a chance on gaining a plot if somebody hasnt logged for a good amount of days. Yes the limited plot system itself sucks a lot but its either that or no new players will ever get a house for their own.

The demo system still sucks though, When it's suspended for more months of the year than it ever runs for, what does it actually accomplish? Nothing! Even when it has been active people have managed to keep housing without paying subs due to free login campaigns and such.. It's beyond busted..
Not to mention that famous quote from Yoshi that players can take breaks and there stuff will be safe when they return...

Best thing they could do is scrap demo timers and add a leasing system... Use GC seals or something to buy housing ventures or something to pay a lease.. Allow a decent advance say 180 days maximum and with that you'd accomplish more than a demo system that only works 2 months of a year..

You'd still free up houses from long quit players when there leases expire giving new players a chance,
Current players could safely take breaks between patches which again the famous quote says players should be able to do...
And might even free up a few dormant plots in the process. why pay keep paying for a house if you never use it..

The system has spent more of the games life suspeded than it ever has working.

[-BlueGreen-]

IMO, the solution to the problem isn't to resume the demolition timers. The real solution is to remove them completely.

On topic with the OP's post (and oddly ignored by most replies) COVID impacted them as it did with many others. The situation with Ukraine has many similarities with respect to how it'll impact players around the globe, and from the looks of things, isn't going to be resolved anytime soon (if at all during the lifespan of FFXIV).

Go ahead and freeze the timers for now as a mercy, but it's a pathetic response honestly. OP's personal situation with respect to COVID will only be repeated by others impacted by this situation with Ukraine. The freeze will eventually be lifted as the world reaches a "new normal" even if the problem is still there (be it COVID, cold war, or some other long-lasting thing) and some unfortunate souls will continue to be impacted by it for far longer than the freeze remains in place. When those same players eventually (if we think positively) return, they will find themselves in the same situation as the OP described.

Yes, there will certainly always be some tragedy at any given time, and it doesn't even have to be of the scale to be world news for it to impact some player somewhere.

I know there was someone who had (still does?) a quote as their signature in the forums about how Yoshida believed auto demolition shouldn't exist.

If SE really wants to address this and show real empathy:

• Implement true instanced housing - not apartments. Let every player own a large if they so want complete with exterior decorating capabilities including gardening.
• Implement the ability for players to log into the mog station to freeze their subscription, or better yet, don't count down subscription days on days players don't log in effectively auto-freezing player subscriptions and equalizing value across varied schedules. Power players who play every night pay every night, but weekend warriors only pay for weekends. Impacted by a global event that prevents you from having an internet connection for months? No problem, auto subscription freeze has you covered! Not able to play because an expansion dropped and the login queue is 5k+ and takes more time than you have available in the evenings? Yup, still covered!

[Krotoan]

The system has spent more of the games life suspeded than it ever has working.

has it? Anyone wanna run the actual numbers? So far as I remember they suspended it for the hurricanes and flooding in America, the Tsunami in Japan, The launch of EW and now the conflict in Ukraine. I know I must be missing a few. Demolition was implemented in 3.1 (2015) So has it been suspended for more than 4 years?

[Shibi]

So far as I remember they suspended it for the hurricanes and flooding in America, the Tsunami in Japan, The launch of EW and now the conflict in Ukraine. I know I must be missing a few.

Yep, Tokai Tsunami was ~07/2/2016 until 26/9/2016 (patch 3.4)
US Hurricane Harvey was ~02/9/2017 until 29/1/2018 (patch 4.2)
Endwalker was 6/12/2021 until now, with the current world situation merged into it.

So, 16 months out of about 96.

(I am using d/m/y dates)

[Krotoan]

Yep, Tokai Tsunami was ~07/2/2016 until 26/9/2016 (patch 3.4)
US Hurricane Harvey was ~02/9/2017 until 29/1/2018 (patch 4.2)
Endwalker was 6/12/2021 until now, with the current world situation merged into it.

So, 16 months out of about 96.

(I am using d/m/y dates)

So.. that'd be FARRR less time out of demolition than with it enabled. Which is what it felt like really.

[VirusOnline]

Yep, Tokai Tsunami was ~07/2/2016 until 26/9/2016 (patch 3.4)
US Hurricane Harvey was ~02/9/2017 until 29/1/2018 (patch 4.2)
Endwalker was 6/12/2021 until now, with the current world situation merged into it.

So, 16 months out of about 96.

(I am using d/m/y dates)

Since housing was created, housing demolition has been paused for 17% of the time due to some global disaster (but not all *big think*)


Dating back to 2014:
43% of the time housing has been FFA/auctionable outside of the game. At least persons with no house had a chance to "buy" a house but SE dubbed it against ToS (IIRC)
57% of the time housing has had RNG timers along with relocation still being auctionable outside of the game. This only served to alienate persons with no house at all and allow people with houses free reign to sell/buy.

Since I started playing back in 2015 on Excalibur:
Housing was completely inaccessible nearly 99.9% of the time, plots filled, sold only to friends, quite literally grinded 24/7 for demo'd houses, or auctioned on external websites.
This was the case for most popular servers and since population boom in SB through ShB, it's only gotten worse.

Side rant:

YoshiP wants this "community like housing area", well guess what YoshiP ain't no body at they house, because they afk dancing in limsoland.

You know what would be great.
If we could have instanced housing where we get to pick our choice of background. Mine would be Mare Lamentum, Radz-at-Han, Sylphland Forests, or Ultima Thule and my house would be nestled in that scenery.

And you know what - I used to think that housing is an "extra feature", "not a core gameplay".
You know that flying chair mount that you can only get materials for if you had a house ?
Not core gameplay my buttermilk biscuits.

You can't make housing a limited supply which is accessible to unique features which then are profitable on the market.
Imagine if treasure maps were like this, where there could only be a certain amount of portals active at one time on a world.
Housing at this point is just .... a gross display of bots, money, monopoly, and empty wards.
I've given up on it.

Demolitions help NO ONE. Break down the wards and make instanced housing. Nearly all of the problems will be solved.

[HyoMinPark]

has it? Anyone wanna run the actual numbers? So far as I remember they suspended it for the hurricanes and flooding in America, the Tsunami in Japan, The launch of EW and now the conflict in Ukraine. I know I must be missing a few. Demolition was implemented in 3.1 (2015) So has it been suspended for more than 4 years?

They did suspend for COVID. Back in March 2020. I couldn’t tell you the exact time it was down, but someone posted earlier in the thread that they suspended it right when the pandemic started really hitting the world hard.

[Krotoan]

They did suspend for COVID. Back in March 2020. I couldn’t tell you the exact time it was down, but someone posted earlier in the thread that they suspended it right when the pandemic started really hitting the world hard.

so adding that to the already given numbers, at the absolute maximum it could have been of 24 months (pretty sure it's nowhere near this since it had to be on for us to turn it back off for EW) we come to 40 months out of 96 which is still not more on than off.

I am remembering that one though. There were some arguments that people were staying home MORE so pausing was ridiculous.. and people weren't connecting the dots that people couldn't work and therefore couldn't afford to play games.