SUGGESTION: In-game Demolition and Reclamation Notifications

[EmeraldAres]

snip

I've noticed this trend of hostility and rejection towards new ideas across this entire forum. As someone who lurks from time to time but rarely posts, it amazes me the lengths people will go to rip apart a poster for a simple suggestion that more than likely won't be read by SE anyway. My conclusion is that most polite neutral/supportive players don't bother to post here because they are content or don't consider it to be a problem worth getting worked up over, mostly leaving the combative and hostile minority jumping into these kinds of threads to attack the OPs.

Guess I'll offer my thoughts since I decided to stick my head into this topic. I wouldn't mind seeing a simple in-game notification added, provided it can be turned off. I have a house myself. While I'm careful to enter it on a regular basis, putting up more safeguards against the demolition system wouldn't hurt.

[Kurando]

It's funny to suggest that that some users are portraying anger or hostility through their posts, but that's purely self assumption. The meaning and tone behind words cannot be confirmed unless you know exactly what the person is thinking or if you hear them speak (which is not possible on something like a forum). Do you know how they feel when they express themselves with an opinion? Is the usage of particular words a true interpretation? Disaggreeing with an idea can often be said in the most positive way, and aggreeing can be done negatively, but essentially there is no way to confirm it, though it doesn't mean the person is wrong to do it like that.

It's quite easy to white knight a situation but in the end, that's what discussion is all about, both ends of the spectrum will have conflicting ideas/opinions and personalities, some maybe more outspoken than others but how they express it shouldn't be frowned upon. No one is more better than another person, otherwise we may as well just stiffle things we don't like to prevent hurting anyone's feelings (regulation seems to work wonders in some countries after all).

Housing is not game breaking and there some players who have had to take much longer breaks (months or years), ending up losing their residence and not even having a chance to reclaim everything at all. Players that are capable of logging in over a shorter period even if it's just one day a month can keep verifying their entry in to the house, and even if they do lose it then have several days to reclaim stuff, this is much more relaxed than those above who cannot login at all. Housing issues are still a problem on some worlds, give another player a chance to own one if it cannot be upheld.

[Elamys]

If you're never going to lose your house because you're always checking on it, the pop-up/notification will never, ever affect you. You won't see it. So why are you getting so bent over the request? If it was a "days since entered" notif or whatever that popped up every time you logged in, I could see being bothered, but that's not what this is.

You would think that they suggested a mariachi band blast across the entire zone the player is in every time they log in.

[MsQi]

Then players without housing would never be able to get it because people who stopped playing the game would own most of it. The only time a house would become available is if the owner transfers to a different world.

The implication would be to move away from the current archaic system.

[Razla]

I'm really surprised at how seemingly hostile some of the replies have been. I don't feel I made an unreasonable suggestion (in-game notification for an in-game event) but it's been compared to requesting a notification on not capping tombs, or even requesting a phone call.

As of right now, the way demolition is treated in-game feels very... dissonant with how big of a hit losing a house has the potential to be (in terms of time/gil investment, possible inability to get a replacement house due to server demand, loss of exclusive/breakable items, nostalgia, etc).

The timer in the menu is irrelevant once the house and (I'm assuming) reclamation period is gone. Whether or not the player logs in an hour after the reclamation deadline, a few months later, or a year later, all record of their ever having a house is gone from the game. As though they never had one in the first place. As if the demolition wasn't (potentially) a devastating loss to the player and was so insignificant and unimportant that the demolition is never directly acknowledged or mentioned in-game beyond a temporary countdown hidden in the menu.

What do I mean? There's a huge difference between logging into the game, regardless of how long you were gone, and either seeing a pop-up notification or a new inbox message with the following:

"Your cottage/house/mansion at Plot X, Ward X in the Mists was demolished on 09 May 2018 at 2:00 AM PDT. You have until 15 June 2018 to reclaim 80% of the initial purchase price as well as any retrievable items from the Housing Caretaker. If you do not reclaim your gil and items within this time, they will be deleted and cannot be retrieved."

....and logging in and seeing absolutely nothing about it. Even if it's far past the deadline, having a notification on login or an inbox message does the following:

1) Acknowledgement/confirmation that the demolition did in fact occur.
2) Indicate that it was considered important enough to warrant a pop-up notification or message in-game.
3) Serve as an in-game record of it taking place (vs it being as though you never had a house to begin with).

It felt very weird to have lost the house (purchased on or prior to April 30th, 2016), my original Eastern Cherry Trees, original Flames of Passion, crafted items, other seasonal exclusives, over 2 years worth of changes/updates, everything in it it and the game treating it ("House? What house? You had a house?") as though nothing happened.

[Razla]

Keep playing that ignorance card. If you haven't stepped inside a house for 45 days, you truly didn't need it.

Let’s go back to the beginning. I suggested a pop-up in-game notification or in-game message to warn players that their house is about to or has been demolished. An in-game equivalent of the current email message which can be unreliable. Your response?

Game already notifies you, what else do people want... a phone call from the company?

When I ask you to clarify how the game notifies me, you say this:

The game tells you about the 45 days. Lodestone tells you about the 45 days.

“The game tells you about the 45 days” turns out to be an NPC reiterating policy.

The Resident Caretaker NPC and Lodestone contain information about the policy. NEITHER of these are SPECIFICALLY and DIRECTLY NOTIFYING players that the countdown is happening and they are about to lose their house, have lost their house, and/or about to have their items deleted. I know about the policy. Knowing the policy is worthless if I don’t somehow know that the demolition timer has started and what day count I am on. This is NOT the game notifying players that they are in the process of losing their house, which is what I was referring to. This is an invalid response.

Your timers menu warns you. You get warnings through emails. Is that not enough?

The timer is not a bad idea, a step in the right direction, but as it is right now, it is NOT an in-game notification but a tracker. It’s even hidden in the menu.

notification – noun - the action of notifying someone or something.

I have to know that I’m in trouble to go looking for it or be lucky enough to come across it while looking for something else on the timer menu. If I don’t know I’m in trouble, and I’m not checking my timer menu, I’m SOL.

The only thing in your list that is an actual notification is the email message, which is, of course, outside of the game. I’ve already gone over the problems with that.

In the end, NOTHING you have cited was an in-game notification.

Why does it matter if its outside of the game or not? The launcher sends you to the lodestone and contains important information. Your point is meaningless.

The lodestone/launcher point is completely invalid for the reasons explained above. General information on a policy =/= notifications specific to a player’s circumstances.

The issue is NOT that there is a notification outside of the game. The issues are: 1) the ONLY notification is outside of the game and is unreliable and 2) there is no in-game equivalent.

Apparently, the housing demolition warning is important enough to warrant an email outside of the game. BUT asking for something less drastic than email, staying in-game and doing an in-game notification, a normal thing for games, is somehow inconceivable and is the same as requesting a personal phone call. Who’d‘ve thunk!

That's on you. Just because you want to be ignorant/uninformed doesn't mean the game should compensate for your lack of interest in something your purchased.

How presumptuous. Your failure to give me examples of the game notifying players of their specific pending demolition in-game somehow means I’m ignorant and uninformed. Requesting a QOL addition, one that should have already been a feature since it’s a step less than email, is unreasonable and the equivalent of asking for the game to “compensate” me for my "lack of interest."

Hmm.....

[Claviusnex]

I don't get the hostility towards a pretty basic QoL request. People act like it will destroy their game if SE sends a parallel in game notice to the player's mailbox. In reality there wouldn't be a need for any notice if SE would step up and fix the broken housing system. Since they refuse to do any serious work in this area they should make working with the current fiasco as easy as possible. That means irreversible actions such as demolishing a house should have notifications sent to the player by in game and out of game methods. The same goes for any notices of how to recover your stuff with additional warnings before it is permanently deleted as well. Nobody should object to this except those that are hoping someone doesn't see their house will be demolished so they might get a chance at buying it. A rather self centered viewpoint IMO.

[DrWho2010]

It is up to the player to stay informed of how the game works. Simple as that IMO. It's not the dev's responsibility to hold your hand every step of the way.

[Elamys]

It is up to the player to stay informed of how the game works. Simple as that IMO. It's not the dev's responsibility to hold your hand every step of the way.

If your only argument against a situation is "it's not SE's responsibility" then that's not a really good argument. Nothing is lost by this and it doesn't affect you at all. I'm not sure why everyone wants to harp on about "personal responsibility" in a video game. And until SE can fix it so that their e-mails are working 100% of the time, and for the demolition timer to always be present and not just when you're in danger of demolition, then yeah, I'd say there needs to be a more obvious in-game notice.

[SendohJin]

It is up to the player to stay informed of how the game works. Simple as that IMO. It's not the dev's responsibility to hold your hand every step of the way.

This is not even a valid response. Knowing how the game works is knowing that a demolition timer exists. An in-game notification is there to tell you when the timer has started and how long is left on the timer.

Just because you know that dungeons and trials drops tomes doesn't mean the menu when you queue up for things shouldn't state specifically how many tomes each one drops.