Player Assets deleted (Housing)

[worldofneil]

I'm sorry that you lost your house, I really am, but (and I honestly mean no offence) you're basically telling us information we already know...

We were originally warned about housing reclamation in December 2013 in the 2.1 patch notes and that it'd be coming with 2.2, but there were so many complaints about it that they indefinitely shelved it and that never happened.

But then after multiple forum threads complaining about inactive houses and the desire to have those houses reused, they reworked it and we were told back in October 2015 that housing reclamation was coming with 3.1. This was then confirmed in the 3.1 patch notes. Both of the those links say about if you don't walk into the house with 45 days it will be demolished and if it is demolished you have 35 days to collect your items/80% compensation money.

They do send two emails to the email address on the account before it is demolished and I realise you've said you didn't receive any email so I recommend checking your email address on the account is still valid as well as if it's been traping their emails in any junk/spam folders. Failing that, shout at your email provider as they might be running their own block list.

Housing demolition was also posted on the launcher at the time as well so everyone playing was actively informed (and having a working email address should have informed everyone not playing, but there's only so much Square Enix can do to tell people...)

The housing reclamation started with 3.1 on 9th November 2015, but due to the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan it has actually been suspended since April 2016 and has been repeatedly pushed back and won't be started again until 3.4 (27 September 2016). The free game time you recently got was due to the Free Login Campaign and was for 5 days since 25th July 2016. This unfortunately wouldn't have helped you with your house as that would have been demolished at somepoint between November 2015 and April 2016 and then the items/money deleted 35 days after that.

That being said, Square's decision to straight up DELETE your hard earned assets is alarming, shocking, and uninspired.

Well I appreciate that's a personal opionion, but there's 45 days before anything happens, an in game warning, 2 email warnings and even when it is deleted, you still have 35 more days to collect. After that yes it is gone, but that's quite a long period of time and all you have to do to save the house is walk into it... (or talk to the vendor to get items back)

Is a 170KB or so file with itemIDs, gil, and positions for an instanced lot/house so crippling?

why delete such a file for 45 days of inactive (even is actively subbed).

I'm curious to know how you came up with such an exact figure, but although I don't know the definite answer to your question, I suspect it's nothing to do with data storage and more because they want to motivate players to login (and play?) as well as if they can ditch the data it's one less thing for them to have to worry about storing/converting/updating in the future. Also housing was originally supposed to be a massive gil sink (so many things put money into the game, very few take them out) so they want to remove as much gil as possible to help slow inflation. Getting back 80% of the gil was supposed to be compensation, but now of course every player wants that 80% back and won't just relinquish the plot for nothing knowing that they could get money. Deleting the money after those 35 days allows Square Enix to have that gil sink again.

Why not have a paid restoration?

They already get a lot of stick for the Mogstation and at least everything on that you buy is untradeable. If they had a paid restoration they're essentially giving you money/items that are tradeable, for a real world price. Obviously they are items that you once did own, but it's no longer acting as the gil sink it was and I can only imagine how many accusations and money grabbing there would be about SE still having the data and only handing it over after you hand over a fee etc.

[Donze]

I'm sorry that you lost your house, I really am, but (and I honestly mean no offence) you're basically telling us information we already know...

That might be the case with some, but thats a confident 'we'. As mentioned in the OP, people seems to be under the delusion that nothing gets deleted (got this in the localization thread, reddit, facebook, etc). So awareness seemed more important than I would have thought. Even in the post immediately after yours, by Lexia, she mentions

lot of servers don't have enough housing ... Where are they going to put it?

so there was clearly a misconception or misunderstanding by a great number of the community I ran into (over half i would say have made similar, physical in-game space defenses). So many people told me "Square never deletes anything" as well. that "no, your stuff is always there, go check the vendor" and I really wished that was my case. Maybe if more players knew they could get their items deleted, even if actively subbed, there could be change (and my evil, personal goals could be fulfilled!).

You're right about the patch notes. Completely right, and I certainly don't think nor accuse Square of being sneaky about it. I think they were fully disclosed about the intent (its in their interests to do so even). However that doesn't mean I agree with the process/execution. They could post something like "you will lose you inventory and retainer items if you dont visit the golden saucer once a month", but the head's up doesn't defacto make the process beyond reproach. (though in-game emails and patch notes might be outside the realm of useful in regards to 30+ day inactive players, ha.).

While I certainly have no desire to champion every misunderstanding, i loved this game and my personal housing items were near and dear to me, so I wanted to at least 1) post in the suggestions thread for a way forward. SOME way around the roadblock of returning home owners having their hard work deleted and 2) to articulate that clearing inactive player space and archiving inactive player itemid list can co-exist and doesnt appear to be an impossible feat (made evident by the fact they hang on to inventories, FC banks, and retainer inventories just fine).

I'm curious to know how you came up with such an exact figure

The exact figures were pulled from the 3.1 patch notes (for the days, 45/35) and the 170KB isn't exact (made evident by the 'or so') but how I arrived at that number was very guess work. FF14 uses a gutted/scaled down version of the Luminous Engine. While a bad comparison, i grabbed bits of inventory and code from other games (mostly using the unreal 3 engine) and crammed them into a Notepad++. At a bare bones, the file size was minimal, and since I have no idea how simple or complex that bit of itemID code actually is, i went crazy heavy. At a length of 248187 with 2337 col as a normal text file, that was 242KB, which i felt was probably a good place to start guessing. I compared this with other games i had were i could manipulate inventories and itemIDs. They all clocked in around 50 itemIDs or so at a length around 50k (and i believe small houses were 75 items max, so this brings us closer to a 'good guess'); then i increased the volumn 5 fold to be sure I wasnt low-guessing, but I probably should have just said "likely less an 1MB" or something. I wanted to head off the "its a huge technical burden" train of thought so the best guess I had was Notepad/Notepad++ (free, no license payment required), ball park the itemID count (which is checked against viewing source on the lodestone, for example, Augmented Hellfire Blade is /lodestone/playguide/db/item/24d899483e6/) and multiplied my 75 items and filler code by 5 times to result in that above 170KB guess =D.

In regards to the gil sink, i don't really have any informed opinions here, but is it the case that you are maybe suggesting that "they want to remove as much gil as possible to help slow inflation" and possibly are achieving it by something like 'delete that guys stuff/house' because he hasn't logged in? Hehe, cause that wouldn't be very endearing =D. (or, if i do understand you right, is 4/5ths the value not enough of a gil sink? houses are expensive ya know =D, or were).

an in game warning, 2 email warnings

As stated, never got the emails, but possible I missed them too. However, I am not displeased with the notification system, but the deletion that comes after. And even if the deletion was something I was ok with, I would still advocate some way to restore (mogstation). I don't like the idea of actively trying to prevent resubs (or discouraging indirectly resubbing because the 'limited' housing rolled up is a massive memory burden). I want people like me and other similarly affected folks to be drawn towards returning to Eorzea, not discouraged (but maybe thats wrong as there seems to be strong opposition to the idea of getting back your in-game items that were deleted).

They already get a lot of stick for the Mogstation and at least everything on that you buy is untradeable.

I'm not sure I agree that this is in the same vein (most of mogstation is vanity items) but I can certainly say players have offered up a lot of stick, a massive amount more resistance than I would have guessed. Even removing the ignorant (folks that think im advocating taking up a lot) it just flat out seems that other players who haven't had anything deleted absolutely are opposed to potential-returning-players having access to any kind of item restoration of long lost house items/gil. Like, these items were mine. I had them before and i never heard players oppose me having them, but now that they are deleted by SE and I expressed an interest in recovering them, folks seems to REALLY be put out by that. I dunno, maybe the community is more toxic now and not the same place I remember, or always has been and Diabolos is just blessed, but that seems odd to me; i remember a more understanding group and the very story/plot of FF14 basic game revolves around the idea of preserving the memory of those important things, the forgotten faces of the heros (unless the memories are in your house, then delete them forever! Hard work begone! Damn your accomplishments!).
I'm not even suggesting it for free, Square is a business so some recompense should be required because the tech needs to get paid, but even with that, the overarching theme of "no, you shouldn't get your stuff back!" caught me off guard (if it was 'your getting something I dont have' then I could chalk it up to general internet-jealously, but this is functionally the same as not wanting your inventory deleted, or, if it is, a way to recover it, at 4/5th the gil).

Alas! Seems like a moot point and I think Scott Pilgram is at least half right if not spot on. People either 1) already know and couldn't care (ive found more opposition than advocates in simply wanting my own character's inventory recovered after SE deletion) and actively don't want to see player items restored by any means, paid or otherwise or 2) people don't know (and by default can't care because they aren't aware).

Stay safe adventurers! Have fun and for gods sake, walk into your house once every 44 days even if you are still subbed!!! Someone come find me on steam if they decide to retcon the deletion decision pretty please!!! /id/VentusVero/ (just kidding, though I do hope something changes in the future, I certainly don't have expectations of getting delivered information, hehe)

[worldofneil]

It didn't delete your stuff. It should be at the housing caretaker along with 80% of your gil.

Only for 35 days, after that it gets deleted.

That might be the case with some, but thats a confident 'we'. As mentioned in the OP, people seems to be under the delusion that nothing gets deleted (got this in the localization thread, reddit, facebook, etc).

Yes I think you are right and I owe you an apology for my assumption, sorry. I've played this game continously for 3 years without a break and during that time I've read every patch note and the majority of the forum posts by the community team and hang out on the FFXIV sub on reddit so I'd like to think I've not missed any information.

But I forget that I do not represent all players and that many players do take breaks and therefore won't necessarily be aware of all changes made. I bet there are probably even players who haven't ever had a break who have missed things in the patch notes etc.

From a player point of view I can see why they would want the data to remain indefinitely (even if you can't get the house back, getting back the items/gil would be something), but I can also see it from Square Enix's point of view that it's less data to have to worry about/bring along/update with future updates and also lets them take currency out of the worlds.

Maybe when housing reclamation goes live in 3.4 (assuming it's not pushed back again) they need to put up one of those popups like they do from time to time to tell people (they'll probably do this anyway), but also point out on there that if it's reclaimed/demolished, you only have 35 days to get your stuff back. I'm sure not everyone would read it, but they can only do so much if they're not going to change the system to keep it forever.