Taxes to put off auto-demo

[Illmaeran]

I'd love to see an option to retain ownership of a house and have it not be demolished over the long term. I've had stints on the hospital longer than 45 days a couple times over the past couple of years and have lost my house each time. I'm lucky enough to be on a server where small plots are usually available and I've been able to get another one when I was able to play again. However, that resulted in the loss of more than 15 million gil; a not-insignificant amount on my server, and something that takes a lot of time to recover from.

I agree that demolishing/automatic relinquishment of a plot due to inactivity is helpful on full servers with no available housing. However; for those people who are unable to play for more than 45 days due to RL circumstances, auto demo is a significant deal, especially as it can mean they're not going to be able to get a house again in the future.

The old method of needing to maintain an active subscription to keep your house was good as that usually indicates intent to be active again in the future. Barring that, and YoshiP's statement that it's fine to tale breaks, a separate "house maintenance" charge/subscription when cancelling an active sub during breaks could be a good alternative.

[Brynne]

The old method of needing to maintain an active subscription to keep your house was good as that usually indicates intent to be active again in the future. Barring that, and YoshiP's statement that it's fine to tale breaks, a separate "house maintenance" charge/subscription when cancelling an active sub during breaks could be a good alternative.

This isn't necessarily a bad idea, but I think it'd be better to improve apartments so that they could be upgraded (for additional gil cost) to provide all the amenities of a house (outdoor space, additional item slots, crossbreeding, etc). That way those who want to take breaks or who know they may need extended absences can have a permanent space that they know they will not lose. The ward housing can remain for those who enjoy the neighborhood feel, and hardcore housing enthusiasts can use both for the additional decorating potential.

I don't see the auto demo going away any time soon, unless they overhaul housing completely to remove the 'limited quantity' restriction. However, I think they should extend the amount of time that the housing NPC holds your furnishings and gil in the event that your house is demolished. At least 6 months, not just 30 days.

[Illmaeran]

I was thinking about this more yesterday and remembered LOTRO's system. The game would auto generate another neighborhood each time the current one filled up. Also, we had to pay a gold rental fee each month, with option to pay up to 6 months in advance. If rent/maintenance/taxes went unpaid you'd lose the house. After some consideration this seems like the best of both worlds; there would never be a lack of housing and the monthly gold/gil fee would make for a regular gil sink. Being able to pay ahead would also be a good means of letting people keep ownership of the plot during periods when they're not subscribed or are just taking a break but are still subscribed.

[Lambdafish]

My way to put off auto-demo would be to allow tenants to reset the timer too. Me and my girlfriend share a house and it would be great if her use of the house also reset the timer.

[Penthea]

Alot house owners find themselves in a position of having alot of gil and nothing else to spend it on (but more housing bits). What if there was a tax payment option before auto-demo happened.

It creates a serious gil sink for the economy, which would be a good thing.

You seem to be making the mistake of thinking that most wealthy players don't spend their gil because they have bought everything already. I'm very wealthy but I haven't bought everything. Why? I only buy things I want to have. I don't buy everything just because I can. There are substantial gil sinks I am refusing to engage in because I don't want whatever it is I get from it.

So spinning a tax payment as some sort of solution to players with nothing to spend their money on is pretty silly. No wealthy player is going to rejoice and think "finally something to sink my gil in to!" especially when they don't even gain anything new from it, or maybe nothing at all. Certainly this tax idea is completely irrelevant to a player who regularly enters their house.

To prevent rich players from indefinitely locking up a property, the price would dramatically increase over time.

I don't know why you think tax would prevent this. Those players you are talking about already hang on to their houses just fine without help from your tax idea. How is tax going to stop them from doing that when they clearly can consistently prevent demolition by entering their house? If anything your tax idea actually allows them to hang on to plots for longer while paying for less game time.

My goal wasn't to remove auto demolition. That would be bad. However by extending the deadline for 1-2 weeks we can introduce an amazing gil drain into the economy.

As I already mentioned before, your idea for a gil drain would be irrelevant to anyone who regularly enters their house. This would only be a legitimate gil drain if paying the tax was unavoidable.

Also how about we get some FUN things for amazing gil drains instead? Emotes, hairstyles, glam, furniture, the ability to expand the interior of homes (extra rooms and floors), the ability to purchase more npc slots for homes, the ability to purchase more retainer bell slots (very much needed for mansions!)...that's the sort of thing people want to sink their gil in to. Not tax.

I understand you want to sort out the issue of people hoarding houses and also provide a gil sink, but this is not the way to do either successfully.

[Theodric]

I'd rather not see a tax implemented. It'd simply lead to further frustration with the housing system.

[Vidu]

I'd love to see an option to retain ownership of a house and have it not be demolished over the long term. I've had stints on the hospital longer than 45 days a couple times over the past couple of years and have lost my house each time. I'm lucky enough to be on a server where small plots are usually available and I've been able to get another one when I was able to play again. However, that resulted in the loss of more than 15 million gil; a not-insignificant amount on my server, and something that takes a lot of time to recover from.

I agree that demolishing/automatic relinquishment of a plot due to inactivity is helpful on full servers with no available housing. However; for those people who are unable to play for more than 45 days due to RL circumstances, auto demo is a significant deal, especially as it can mean they're not going to be able to get a house again in the future.

Considering your statment of "15 million gil being a lot of money", a tax actually works against you here, since it would be taken out of your account wether you want it or not, potentially draining it dry before you come back with the possibilty that you still lost your house because there was no gil left to pay the tax. Now you're homeless and broke, while with the current system you can make the choice to either look for a new house and spend money on it again or just write up that one-time-loss and settle for an apartment.

The old method of needing to maintain an active subscription to keep your house was good as that usually indicates intent to be active again in the future. Barring that, and YoshiP's statement that it's fine to tale breaks, a separate "house maintenance" charge/subscription when cancelling an active sub during breaks could be a good alternative.

That was never the old method. You didnt even need an active subscription to keep your house before auto-demolition - you just bought it and then it set there, being yours forever, wether or not you still paid for the game or not.
Considering how limited housing is, I also dont think that that would have been (or is) a good solution - housing should go to those people who actually care enough about the content to engage with it once every 45 days, which is a very low bar (personal crisis aside). If you're already subscride to the game, is it to much to ask to log in once every 45 days (or arrange for someone trusted to log in every 45 days), enter your house and log out again - something that takes less than 2 minutes?

Until we get unlimited, instances housing, I personally feel that thats not to much to ask. And a way better solution than any form of tax.

[LaylaTsarra]

No I paid for my house and the items in it. I worked hard for it. We don't need taxes. How about a paying sub it's pretty easy. You pay a sub you keep your stuff. It's really not that difficult.