I'd like to take an extended break from the game, but...

[LineageRazor]

Reclamation just sucks, period. I don't know how anyone can be in defense of it as a system over a permanent solution to housing shortages as a whole.

Reclamation is not, and never was, a viable solution for housing shortages. There's simply not enough housing being demolished to even pretend that it is a solution. It helps a little, sure, but what's really needed are more plots.

Reclamation IS necessary, though - not because of the housing shortage, but to clean up the abandoned houses of people who have left the game. When people leave the game permanently, they should lose their house. Otherwise, districts become empty ghost towns as more and more people leave. A player who has left the game no longer cares about their house. There's no reason that SE should continue to maintain their property just in case they maybe might return to the game someday.

I do have issue with the current necessity of actually entering your house to maintain it. In my opinion, maintaining your subscription should be enough to maintain your house, even if you never log into the game. Players may be placed under circumstances that prevent them from logging in for long periods of time; military deployment, severe sickness or injuries, and so on. As long as SE is getting their money, though, I don't see any reason why they should lose their house. The continued subscription is indication enough that you intend to return to the game eventually, even if you can't log on right now.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

This is partly why I have reservations about trying to get any housing in Shirogane other than an apartment. I don't have, nor make a lot of gil, nor do I want to deal with the mad rush for housing there, especially when I'm already comfortably dug in where I am. I'm on a "wait and see" status for the relocation system they have in store, and I feel like, while it won't be cheap, it may not be an option for me, but again, wait and see.

Ideally, I'd say double the size of apartments (I mean come on, they're personal chambers for 200K more), and that'd be enough for me personally.

[Zensho]

I miss my mog room in XI, Jueno was such a fun place right at housing entrance. It gave the game a tighter knit community feel. No fees, just socialist housing for everyone lol! As the owner of a small house that I purchased and built from the ground up with all crafting, I feel I got kicked in the nuts when it got demolished when I unsubbed and took a break. Thanks SE! Now I'm just a homeless man living in the back alleys of pearl lane in U'ldah

[loreleidiangelo]

I would only support reclamation if three conditions were met:

-Housing becomes available and unlimited to anyone who has the interest and the gil to buy one. Whether they keep wards or go fully-instanced, I don't care anymore, so long as availability is no longer a concern.

-The full amount of gil for the purchase price of the home is refunded to the homeowner upon reclamation. This includes a voucher for the actual house deed of the same size as the home they had previously (I'm kind of flexible on this second part, though - I think the vouchers are cheap enough to warrant their existence as a reasonable gil sink for most players).

-All furnitures are preserved and stored at the housing dude indefinitely, meaning a returning player won't run the risk of losing rare furnishings if they happen to take an extended break.



If those conditions were met, then yeah, I'd be fine with reclamation as a general cleanup policy to evenly distribute active population among housing wards. But not a single one of those three is met currently, and has no plans to be in the future. Reclamation's only purpose ATM is to keep a stranglehold on the subscriptions of a few players during large content droughts and to appease angry masses who view themselves more "deserving" of player housing compared to someone else for whatever reason or another.

[ValentineSnow]

I personally like the OPs idea, it would let people leave for as long as they like without feeling tied to the game AND could be used for the housing transfer system. 2 birds with one stone. But like others have said, it wouldn't be a solution on its own, housing is a mess and there needs to be more plots still.

Honestly I'm kind of just hoping when shirogane comes out they'll remove the demolition timer or at least extend it since there will be more housing to go around.

As for FC leadership... I'm kind of conflicted, it seems a bit control freaky to not want anyone else to have leadership, but at the same time, it's your FC and if that's how you want it you should have that right, so I can see where the desire to make passing leadership optional comes from.

[Dustytome]

Honestly I'm kind of just hoping when shirogane comes out they'll remove the demolition timer or at least extend it since there will be more housing to go around.

If they aren't adding additional wards to all the districts and Shirogane has the same number of houses, then that's only 720 additional houses they're adding. Unless they limit housing per account and likely more than double the number of wards, we will still need some way to free up houses that are not in use.

[Alleo]

Lets not forget that with the system now, they got themselves in a corner for the future too. One might never hope that this will happen but if somewhere in the future a small server has way to low population and thus is merged together with another...well quite a lot of people will lose their houses since there is only a certain amount of plots. (I believe this happened with some Korean or Chinese servers)

This would not happen if they have instanced housing..really I had such a big hope that the new housing will be instanced, thus people that want some neighborhood can try to get a house in the ARR zones and all other people could buy their instanced housing in Doma..but no they have to stick to a system that will leave most of your player base out of it..at the same time they create lots of items and content for housing..>_>

[CrystalRainbow]

Have over the Fc to someone in the FC that you trust.
That is what happened when our FC leader started a company IRL. Logged in every 6 months for a day or 2. Then was gone again.
He is now back semi full time missing 3.0 to 3.45 The leader of the FC gave it back to him. The Leader shouldn't make the FC the members should.

If the issue is there is no one you trust in the FC to take the rains it means that your the only one holding the FC together and in turn it will fall apart if you leave anyways.

While the Original leader took a break the backup leader took a 3 month break. didn't unsub just didn't play other then logging in every 2-3 weeks for 10 mins.
If your a leader and want your FC to live this is some of the commitments you need to deal with when other count on your.

[DaikiKiyoshi]

That isn't the best idea, though there should be a way to hold your possessions for people who do intend to return.

After reading a lot of the posts in this thread I realized that the one thing I would change is to keep auto-demolish but greatly increase the timer. At least make it as long as the max sub period (6 months I think?) or even a full year. The OPs suggestion would be good in addition. There should indeed be a way to save your stuff, even if you have to pay to reclaim it.