Housing abandoned plots, this is needed SE!!! Thank you!

[zuldar]

Reclaiming houses from unsubbed players is not entirely unexpected, though I would suggest giving the player in question a chance to return. After however long they decide they can be inactive before taking the house give the player say two days of free game time. If they resub after those 2 days they keep the house, if not they lose it. If you just straight up take the house you miss out on a chance to get a returning player.

[Dante_V]

The reality is simple, even if they take back the houses from inactive players most you still will not get one. If we say 5% of the pop has a house how does that translate into this thread? One out of every twenty people commenting right now MIGHT get a house. The fact of the matter is the system is broken and this won't fix it. You could relinquish 100% of the properties and the same situation still exists. They shouldn't have ANY personal housing in this game at all and if they do it should be 100% instanced. Personal housing is what made the issue worse and FC's should definitely have priority (groups of people) over property than single individuals or couples. Further more you should be allowed to have possess more than one property at any given time.

There is zero evidence that reclaiming houses will fix any issue and furthermore, the mathematical evidence outright shows that it isn't possible to fill 100% of the housing demand. There simply is not enough houses to go around and no matter how you squeeze one end of the balloon it still will only posses the same amount of air.

[Syrehn]

There is zero evidence that reclaiming houses will fix any issue and furthermore, the mathematical evidence outright shows that it isn't possible to fill 100% of the housing demand. There simply is not enough houses to go around and no matter how you squeeze one end of the balloon it still will only posses the same amount of air.

Pretty sure no one said that this solution will fill 100% of the demand but there is no denying if half of some wards are inactive/banned/un-subbed that it will help get SOME active players/fc's properties. If those players go inactive the decay cycle will continue; it's a recycle system to keep wards from dying out.

[Souljacker]

What's worse is that this is the new normal. Systems that developers put ZERO thought into, broken and overly complex "solutions" that still don't address the root problem, and half the playerbase cheering SE on because they just love to see someone lose something. It's so... just petty. There's way too much bullying behavior on the internet these days. There are solutions that don't involve anyone losing something (visit the housing forums and pretty much any thread for a boatload of examples). Those are the solutions that the playerbase should be interested in.

The fact that XI got this right from the beginning, and after years XIV's team can't even patch together a working system that everyone can use is just laughable. It's ridiculous. It's wholly unprofessional.

I've given up entirely on housing. It's not worth the stress. While I'd love to have some form of it, I realize that my casual nature (I can't spam the servers the second they come up just to snatch a plot) precludes me from ever using player housing in this game.

[m3eansean]

I, for one, would be happy with an aggressive policy that requires entrance to the house every 90 days or so to keep it active.

As it is, and as it will be, housing is a very limited resource in this MMO. They will inevitably cause more harm than good if they allow it to stagnate any further and exclude newer players.

Constantly revolving newer players is what keeps a themepark MMO alive, when you restrict newer players from accessing all content, you will see diminishing returns every patch and expansion cycle.

[Mindylou]

I dont agree with their plans.

But se usually does thinngs backwards and in such small scale when it benefits players that Im not toally suprised.

No matter how many are freed up it wont even be close to covering the amount of homes still needed/server.
Its nothing more then a bandaid and one of those cheap dollar store, bargain bin bandaids to boot. (the ones that never work well)

The entire housing needs rework, many many have given pages of good ideas for instanced housing to make certain ALL players can participate at the same time...but as usual it falls on deaf ears.

[Souljacker]

Constantly revolving newer players is what keeps a themepark MMO alive, when you restrict newer players from accessing all content, you will see diminishing returns every patch and expansion cycle.

This won't solve that problem. Mathematically, there aren't enough houses to go around, period. There never were. Players aren't restricted from the content solely because of abandoned houses, though that is certainly a part of it. They are restricted from the content because it is a terrible design to begin with and never had ANY hope of serving the entire playerbase.

[ValyrianBlood]

Pretty sure no one said that this solution will fill 100% of the demand but there is no denying if half of some wards are inactive/banned/un-subbed that it will help get SOME active players/fc's properties. If those players go inactive the decay cycle will continue; it's a recycle system to keep wards from dying out.

Sorry, but if you're not playing, you're not playing, and you shouldn't be able to hog a limited resource that could be used by other active players. Otherwise you could end up with literally dozens of abandoned houses just sitting around because the players who owned them quit the game, which would mean that either the devs would have to keep adding more and more housing plots to keep up with the demand by new players who would also like to have houses or say "tough luck" to those new players because the available housing has been taken up by people who aren't even playing anymore.

No, I think it's perfectly fair for houses to be reclaimed if the owner has unsubbed or hasn't logged in for a certain amount of time (probably at least three months).

I totally agree and have a little story to share that upsets me pretty much since I found out:
I left a guild with a couple of other players to start our own bc of some drama. The leader quit playing, the co-leader was also fed up of the drama and also left the fc to join a friend (I told him to sell the house before leaving and enjoy the gil but he just wanted to have peace and leave). His alt got the lead, then an other friend, who later left with his gf for a guild he was before. Not a single active player left in the fc, everyone gets to be the leader for 30 days untill the sytem degrades them and it rotates on and on.
It's insane and deeply upsetting no one ever sold that plot and it's insane the system allows ghost guilds to exist when me and my firends are saving gil since then for an own house. No house for active players but one for inactive?

It certainly won't fix the whole problem but I do think it IS a part of the solution

[LineageRazor]

Folks are correct that degrading properties will not solve the housing shortage problem, as there will still be far too few plots to go around. This is true. It will help, certainly, but there's still going to be not nearly enough plots to give a house to everyone who can afford one.

Regardless, even if we had so many plots that everyone COULD get a house, I would STILL argue that a degredation system would be worth having. I don't want to see districts becoming ghost towns because the house owners there quit the game and left their immortal homes behind. I don't want to wind up in a situation where every house around mine is abandoned. If my neighbor leaves the game, I want to see his house vanish and the plot picked up by a newcomer.

If SE adds a hundred new districts, or a thousand, and districts 1-7 over time become a graveyard of empty homes due to the natural cycle of folks coming and going from the game, I'd say that's a tragic thing. SE designed the housing system to be open and explorable rather than instanced precisely because they wanted players to have the opportunity to stroll along the residential streets admiring the homes their fellow players have built up. They wanted thriving neighborhoods where players could meet their neighbors and perhaps form new friendships. Whether these goals were met is debatable, but I'd certianly consider it to be a letdown to find that your neighbor hasn't logged in for six years, and you'll never have a living neighbor again...

So, yeah, whether or not it solves, or even significantly helps, the housing shortage, abandoned homes SHOULD be relinquished. It's just a matter of deciding how long to wait before considering a home abandoned.

[Vejjiegirl]

and your friend should lose his house, sorry

I agree he should lose it! I'm Houseless!