Player Assets deleted (Housing)

[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)

[Donze]

OP you say it makes no sense to delete your stuff, but why wouldn't it?

If you rent out a storage unit, put stuff in it, and then stop paying, what does the storage company do? Auction off or throw out everything in your storage.

Can you go back a month or two later and just pay to get your stuff back? No, of course not. They have no obligation to do so.

So why would SE have a different policy?

So why would SE have a different policy indeed! At present your player inventory, your FC Bank (confirmed, I have a personal rank 6 FC, for my characters only, so its been inactive as long as i have), and your retainers all have items!!! None of those are deleted from 'inactivity', so, as you say, why would SE have a different policy for housing? (your analogy would be more apt if you had 3-4 storage sheds, and they only sold off one WHILE you were still paying for it. You have to actually go open your storage shed every 45 days regardless of paying or its auctioned off(having an active sub doesnt prevent the deletion, even if your paying, you must still log in and visit said house/vendor)).

So to answer your question noble lalafell, "you say it makes no sense to delete your stuff, but why wouldn't it?" I say that it doesn't make sense to me to hang onto player inventories/gil, 1-4 retainer inventories/gil, or FC inventories/gil (remember FC housing is treated the same as private for inactivity) but to single out housing inventories and delete the items/gil.

[crc0427]

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

[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.