Why on Earth is there a timer for retrieving items after being demolished?

[TheLittlestLala]

I know I should have kept track of my housing timer but between losing my job and my GPU slowly dying which with the insane prices may make me unable to play indefinitely at any moment even little things like going to my ingame house has been hard to keep together.

I can get over losing the house but losing all of the event items I've picked up over the expansions really feels like a kick to the teeth after that. I didn't even know there would be a timer on that cause it just seems like such an odd thing to put a timer on.

[Hasrat]

Because infinite-capacity computer storage hasn't been invented yet?

[Antoine_Lenheim]

Because infinite-capacity computer storage hasn't been invented yet?

Maybe that's the reason why we don't have instanced housing yet?

[Jojoya]

Maybe that's the reason why we don't have instanced housing yet?

Instanced housing doesn't require that. See just about every other MMO that has housing - it's all instanced.

[Antoine_Lenheim]

Instanced housing doesn't require that. See just about every other MMO that has housing - it's all instanced.

And how does it work then? Instanced data is clouded somewhere else?

[Jojoya]

And how does it work then? Instanced data is clouded somewhere else?

I'm not a programmer to know the specific technical details. The simple explanation given to players is that instances are load on demand (when a player is ready to enter). The data for the instance is retrieved, it's created and the player goes in. The player leaves and the instance is removed (assuming no other players are still in it) so there is room for the instance server to create a different instance for a different player.

There's nothing new about this. MMOs have been using instance technology for various portions of their content for decades.

[Vidu]

My understanding is also that the item storage from the NPC in question is bound to the plot of land, not the person (otherwise it would get complicated for FCs, I reckon). Since its possible that your house gets demolished, someone else buys it, but doesnt take care of it straight away, so the house gets demolished again you could probably run into problems with the reclamation of housing items if the previous owner didnt clear out the storage before... so... they put a timer on that.

While this might not help you in your current situation, this is really a good place to remind people of apartments again: They wont go away, they're here to stay. If you're worried about event items being lost: Buy an apartment and store them there! (Or, if you want to actually use them in your house, store some duplicates - my apartment is filled with nothing but event items)
Since all seasonal events only require a level 15 character whos completed the mainquest far enough to travel to the three initial citystates, it might be an idea to create an alt solely for the purpose of holding onto seasonal event items - might not be possible, depending on your sub and/or your server and/or your alt-addicition, but its an option aswell.

[Themarvin]

It is a a Data Center thing, if they are going to add additional storage for players, who can not be bothered about their items, that has been removed from a demolition, then why waste that database resource?

It is a public service you get, that you do not lose everything, take it or leave it.

[Solarra]

I don't know why this is a thing, but I have always felt it was wrong. I can't think of any other game (still running) that deletes player assets even when a subscription is still being paid. If that's a 'public service', imo it's a pretty lousy one.

I don't think it's asking too much for furnishing items to be saved along with your gear, minions, food, out-of-date event tokens, fireworks etc. If there's room to save all that, there should be room to save your furniture. I'd hazard a guess that the way they set up the timer and refund of purchase price has meant your furnishings are tied up with that. I would definitely like to see it changed though.
In the meantime, best to store any seasonal items on your retainer or in your apartment when they aren't in use.

[Vidu]

I don't know why this is a thing, but I have always felt it was wrong. I can't think of any other game (still running) that deletes player assets even when a subscription is still being paid. If that's a 'public service', imo it's a pretty lousy one.

I don't think it's asking too much for furnishing items to be saved along with your gear, minions, food, out-of-date event tokens, fireworks etc. If there's room to save all that, there should be room to save your furniture. I'd hazard a guess that the way they set up the timer and refund of purchase price has meant your furnishings are tied up with that. I would definitely like to see it changed though.
In the meantime, best to store any seasonal items on your retainer or in your apartment when they aren't in use.

The maximum amount of furniture that the NPC should need to hold onto would be 880 items - that would from a mansion with full indoor and outdoor storage, aswell as all itemsslots taken (400 items placed inside + 400 items inside storage + 40 items placed outside + 40 items outside storage). Even a small one would create up to 440 items.
Thats a bit more than 6 retainers can hold (or 3 for a small). Seeing how much trouble it is to give us more inventory space, I do see this being a problem - storing all the furniture of a small house is about the amount of "non specific inventory" you get ( 2 retainer + your own inventory should reach about that amount). Creating that storage for a person who might not even come back to use it ever again seems kinda wasteful to me...
The thing really is: There is no extra room to store that many extra things. If you're holding on to out-of-date event tokens, you're giving up some of your precious and limited inventory space for that!

And, as I explained, that furniture is not tied to your character, its tied to the plot of land - thats why anyone in an FC (if they have certain permissions) can reclaim the items from a demolished FC-house. And to make sure that there arent any mix ups when another house on that plot of land gets demolished, the "demolition inventory" has to be cleared out.