Please fix - really poor game design

[skeletonfingers]

Your 50 items and their data, no matter how valuable they were to you, were not as valuable as the space they took up.

Couldn't disagree more. This is why companies fail every day because "small things don't matter". When my items were deleted, it made me want to get on here and complain. It decreased my excitement about the game. It made me want to never put time/effort into housing in this game again. Now, when I think of FFXIV I think about how its great, but the housing system sucks. When asked by friends I play other games with, I will mention this. Don't play this game if you want a good housing system. It's one less thing the game has to offer. So when I run out of other stuff to do, chances are instead of continuing to pay monthly and enjoy housing, I'll unsub. That time in addition to the time I detracted others from subbing for this game is worth FAR more than the pennies it cost to store that information on a server.

[worldofneil]

Woah there! I was only talking about why the FC room was attached to the FC house, which seems pretty logical to me and that not having it attached would need a pretty good explanation...

If you want a room not attached to the free company you can get this with the upcoming apartment housing which sounds like it's due in 3.4 (October/November?) and those houses will (apparently) have 500 rooms per house and won't be attached to a company as no one will own the overall house. Or just buy your own house, more are coming to existing wards in 3.3 apparently (June/July?)

That being said, they'll likely have the same 45 day inactivity "demolish" rule as the main houses and the same 35 days after that to get your stuff...

[Aoxaviar]

Silly game design or not, your base problem is that you had a private room (which is a one time charge) at your Free Company's Estate and (per your own post) have been gone for 6 months.

If your Free Company had disbanded, I would first ask why you weren't told they were doing this during your 6 month break from the game. It would have given you an a chance to resub long enough to get your room items back.

Also, considering you were out of the game for 6 months, there are several things you should consider before simply blaming a new game mechanic added while you were away:

1. If your FC disbanded, it is possible that the last member sold the rights to the house prior to the demolish mechanic being added. That would mean you would have lost everything with no option to get it back.

2. If you FC disbanded and simply removed itself and the house (which I think you can do) then you would have lost everything, but the up side is no single person would have profited from it.

3. If, by fate or whatever, that it is the actual fault of the new demolish game mechanic for housing, then I have trouble feeling sorry for you for 2 reasons:

A - If you posting I am then guessing that you do keep up with game information,
could have gotten on to check the status of your FC and made changes to your
membership then, or

B - You don't keep up with game news at all which probably also means you don't
check video blogs of those who do.

So the fact that you lost everything boils down to the simple fact that you took a 6 month break due to life or your gaming needs but didn't take any steps to prevent what has happened from happening in the first place.

Sucks to be you is all I can think to say.

I am one who plays regularly (weekends) and (before the demolish mechanic was added) hardly ever went to our FC house (maybe once every 4 months). The mechanic has been added and the only thing that has changed is I end my game there every night when I play.

Also, I am the only active member in my FC with about 4 members who still play during the month. I stay with the FC cause I helped start it and I like the perks of having it available to me.

I am sorry that no one in your previous FC was willing to show that commitment to the group to save you (and possibly others in your previous FC) from your (and eventually their) new found housing fate(s).

[skeletonfingers]

Aoxaviar, thanks for contributing.

What I got from your post is that you support the idea that if a player has to take a break from the game and unsub, they are responsible for keeping in contact with their FC and current game updates that might include: deleting ones items for not being subbed or available to claim items being trashed in the event a FC disbands.

Just out of curiosity, how many MMO's have you played that deleted any housing items of yours while you were away for an extended period of time? I can name 6 MMOs with housing I play casually that do not delete my stuff in this way. Many of them are F2P.

It's silly and destructive. I don't see how anyone can actually defend it as if it makes perfect sense and is the right way to do things.

[Neira]

Just out of curiosity, how many MMO's have you played that deleted any housing items of yours while you were away for an extended period of time? I can name 6 MMOs with housing I play casually that do not delete my stuff in this way. Many of them are F2P.

It's silly and destructive. I don't see how anyone can actually defend it as if it makes perfect sense and is the right way to do things.

You're wasting your time. This debate is very old around here, and anyone who is actually okay with how the housing is will not change their mind. I'd suggest you just write off FFXIV and stick to one of your other MMOs, because this is what the XIV community accepts and expects now. It's blasphemy to imply that a free game can do housing better, despite the fact that there are clear examples that they can, and we should all be happy that this subscription-based MMO with a cash shop gives us any housing at all.

[KaitlanKela]

You're wasting your time. This debate is very old around here, and anyone who is actually okay with how the housing is will not change their mind. I'd suggest you just write off FFXIV and stick to one of your other MMOs, because this is what the XIV community accepts and expects now. It's blasphemy to imply that a free game can do housing better, despite the fact that there are clear examples that they can, and we should all be happy that this subscription-based MMO with a cash shop gives us any housing at all.

No.

It's just some of us recognize that new wards are coming in 3.3 and private instanced housing in 3.4. Adding FC private quarters was a stop-gap measure and is not a perfect solution, but there's nothing that you could change to FC rooms that wouldn't be fixed with the changes coming in 3.3 and 3.4. So there's no point petitioning for a game design change: they're coming but they don't happen overnight. Just be patient about it.

[MomomiMomi]

No.

It's just some of us recognize that new wards are coming in 3.3 and private instanced housing in 3.4. Adding FC private quarters was a stop-gap measure and is not a perfect solution, but there's nothing that you could change to FC rooms that wouldn't be fixed with the changes coming in 3.3 and 3.4. So there's no point petitioning for a game design change: they're coming but they don't happen overnight. Just be patient about it.

Which doesn't address the issue of the game deleting your stuff. Which is what this thread is about.

[Nicobo]

You're wasting your time. This debate is very old around here, and anyone who is actually okay with how the housing is will not change their mind. I'd suggest you just write off FFXIV and stick to one of your other MMOs, because this is what the XIV community accepts and expects now. It's blasphemy to imply that a free game can do housing better, despite the fact that there are clear examples that they can, and we should all be happy that this subscription-based MMO with a cash shop gives us any housing at all.

No.

It's just some of us recognize that new wards are coming in 3.3 and private instanced housing in 3.4. Adding FC private quarters was a stop-gap measure and is not a perfect solution, but there's nothing that you could change to FC rooms that wouldn't be fixed with the changes coming in 3.3 and 3.4. So there's no point petitioning for a game design change: they're coming but they don't happen overnight. Just be patient about it.

Sorry to tell what I read is Neira knows the history but you don't...^^;

[Sida]

Since this is about the private FC room.

I got my room more than six months ago and way back when I got it the system was already an place, that if you for any reason loose the room (mainly, if you for any reason loose FC membership) the items will have a grace period to be picked up or they are gone forever. That was informed to me along the purchase of the room so it must have been either on the help text dialogs I need to click through, or in the active help window the private room purchase spawned. It also might have been one of the housing related explanation dialogs one can choose to read. It's reasonable to assume you were informed about this back on the purchase time.

Now other MMOs, I have played quite a few and in every of them, if I have taken a break of more than a month it has been safe to assume I would have been kicked out of the guilds I were in, except I they were guilds with people I also communicate outside of the game. What I'm saying is, taking half a year hiatus with no contact to the guild is enough reason to expect you have no guild when you return.

Neither of this has anything to do with the new house timing concept, which by the way sends you mail in time to come back to the game to secure your house if the time was running out.

[Apocrypher]

It's all good in theory that we should not be required to come back halfway through a break just to get our stuff back, but the reality is that keeping the data around for all characters like this would bog the servers down more than we think. The Calamity Salvager is merely the cache for the housing system in this case - you have to eventually empty that cache for the game to keep running smoothly, just like a regular computer. The resources SE allocates to FFXIV are finite here & need to be closely maintained.

Housing has basically turned into a whirlpool: it looks great & spectacular, but you have to put forth the effort to stay out of the tunnel once you're in motion (logging in regularly) or else you're gonna get sucked to the bottom and possibly die/get maimed (lose all your stuff due to inactivity).