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

[MageBlack]

In a game world where there are enough plots for every player and every FC that gets created, I would agree not to take away housing plots form inactive players. But we arent playing in a game that supports this. Taking pots from inactive players is not the best solution but it needs to be done regardless. Very happy they are doing this! I may actually be able to get a house some day!

[Syrehn]

When they implement their decay system (or w/e they will call it) they really really really need to implement a restriction on how many houses a player can own per account to 1 personal and 1 FC (should they be an FC leader).

There are some FC's on my server that have multiple FC houses by using alts. I actually remember one particular FC on Gilgamesh getting flamed extensively on Reddit for purchasing upwards of 5 properties when housing was first introduced.

[Wings]

It's funny because that's exactly the time frame SE originally proposed for house reclaim. I agree that sixth months would be a reasonable time for reclaim, although I would prefer for there to be no reclaim at all. However, I understand at this point that they just have to go down this route due to how crappy the housing servers are.

But they did originally suggest 2 months. And at this point I'm not optimistic about their housing changes not screwing over people, since that has been pretty much consistent ever since housing was introduced.

Actually the original time was one month (possibly 35 days, the same as FC leadership), and you had to actually step through the door of said house, not just hang out in/use the garden, to prevent the house from being lost. The items from a lost house would be available to be picked up for another two months, apart from those that would be destroyed if picked up. People cried out against that implementation and it was scrapped.

[LineageRazor]

Because they bought it with the promise that it would not be taken away from them.

I don't recall any such promise.

In fact, SE has promised just the opposite; it's made quite clear that your account and everything in it do not belong to you, and may be taken away from you at any time for any reason or no reason at all, with no explanation given. It's all in the terms of service. They don't specifically mention housing, but housing is part of your account, so...

Actually the original time was one month (possibly 35 days, the same as FC leadership), and you had to actually step through the door of said house, not just hang out in/use the garden, to prevent the house from being lost. The items from a lost house would be available to be picked up for another two months, apart from those that would be destroyed if picked up. People cried out against that implementation and it was scrapped.

It's not surprising that folks would react badly to such a draconion policy. I don't think anyone in this thread, even among the most diehard supporters of property decay, feel that that was a fair solution. The problem was, SE didn't compromise - they simply dropped the idea entirely. They need to tailor the plan to some realistic expectations. Not everyone is going to spend a lot of time in their home. For many, a house is a place where you can showcase your accomplishments - it's a place you want OTHER people to have a chance to enter. Not much point in going in yourself - you KNOW what your accomplishments are, and don't need to see them yourself on a day-to-day basis! While that's not the only use for a home, I'll bet it's a common one.

[myahele]

I think 6 months of inactivity is about the right amount of time. Not sure how they can do it, but they should at least try sending an email a few weeks/days to the person who has not logged in telling them they'll lose their house if they don't log in

[ckc22]

Because they bought it with the promise that it would not be taken away from them.

BS. No such promise is given.

[myahele]

Because they bought it with the promise that it would not be taken away from them.

Not really, I recall SE originally planned on making it so that you must enter your house at one every ~35 days; effectively forcing you to be perpetually subscribed or else you'll lose the house. This, understandably, angered players and SE got rid of that plan until they can think of a better solution and will "monitor" the situation.

They never promised that it won't be taken away due to inactivity. They're now considering a way to reclaim abandoned housing.

[Giantbane]

Taking away stuff from players because they are not active anymore is terrible, and doesn`t even fit as a solution, as the words of yoshida himself say, he thinks that is a solution, and is horrible.
All i read there is "Why would we work on our coding or servers if we have this lazy alternative that doesn`t even fix the problem but its ok for a few".

I hope they recosider just like at the first time they did thought of this.

They should implement a system that allows you to basically put the whole house in storage (a moogle did it). It would remember the whole plot layout, and then free the plot. If nobody's touched the house at all for, I dunno, 3-4 months, then the house gets boxed up, stored and the plot is freed for use.

If your house has been put into storage, then you may put it on any new free plot at greatly reduced cost (Like 2-3% of cost). This would restore the entire house on the new plot. Only works on same sized plots (S/M/L).

This way players get to keep the majority of their investment (most of the land cost, all of the furnishings). They lose the actual location, but this also prevents wards from turning into ghost towns. Seems like a reasonable compromise to me.

Bonus, same system could be used to allow players to relocate their house to a new plot (for a fee of course)

[Niwashi]

many furnishings - particularly the "trophy" furnishings created from rare ingredients from difficult accomplishments - can't even be retrieved without destroying them.

I think if SE is going to implement a feature to reclaim abandoned houses, they first need to change this rule (or at the very least make these reclamations an exception to it, though really it's pretty stupid to have such a rule in the first place). I think most people could accept a housing system in which if you're unsubscribed for 30 days or don't log in for 6 months you lose the house, but get a house voucher and ALL your furnishings kept in escrow for you until you return (including these currently irretrievable ones).

I'm guessing, though, that SE's solution won't be this elegant. They will take the easy way out; a timer of some kind, I'm guessing six months. If you're unsubscribed for six months, your house goes "poof". Furnishings lost. No gil reimbursement. Just gone. If you're going to be away from the game for a long time and want to keep your house, you will be required to continue paying for your subscription. It's as simple as that.

SE's original plan (which got shot down due to a lot of complaining) wasn't even based on whether you had a paid subscription. You would have had to actually enter the house every 30 days or less in order to keep it. Even agreeing that some sort of house plot reclamation is necessary, that version was just way too aggressive.

[Wolf_Gang]

I've never seen an MMO where every player can't get housing. Heck in Aion, everyone gets a free studio apartment.