Free Company Auto-deletion?

[EONX_]

I originally sent a ticket to FFXIV Game Masters directly regarding this topic but I was basically told to make a forum post about it instead. What I'm saying here is not the original message (I don't have it anymore and it wasn't in the email they sent out to me) but it has the same information and context that the original message does. Names of those involved will not be listed for obvious reasons.

Backstory: Roughly around this time last year I was having significant and lasting issues with my ISP blocking my PC and phone from accessing the internet entirely, limiting my abilities to play the game. At the time I owned a private FC that only contained myself and 2 inactive alt characters (those characters haven't been used in over 2 years), a Free Company house, and a Private Estate. I was unsure about whether the ISP issues would continue and I didn't want to risk losing my private estate to auto-demo as it was my favorite plot in the game and it was also fully decorated, so I decided to demolish the free company house (I used it as a GPOSE studio, so it wasn't a major loss) and make my private house the new free company house. A friend of mine also temporarily joined the Free Company and held the lead role of the company while I tried to figure out the problems with my ISP, and having them as lead role would also mean I wouldn't have to login to have the FC house not auto-demo, that could be done by them.
Things got problematic when the ISP issues continued for a few months and the friend no longer wanted to watch over the estate/house, as they wanted to rejoin some friends of theirs. We agreed that they would hand over ownership of the FC back to me, and the FC house being auto-demo'd was an unfortunate circumstance that couldn't exactly be prevented.
Fast forward many months later and I've since been able to start playing the game again (the ISP issues were resolved earlier than this month, but I had no intention of re-installing the game, paying for a sub and the new expansion when none of the content in the game at the time interested me), but when I logged on for the first time since originally dropping the game back in March, I was not in my FC. I've checked the Lodestone for it and found no signs of it existing on the server either.

My only immediate question is this: Is it possible for Free Companies to auto-delete if there are no active members for elongated periods of time? At most this FC was completely inactive for around 8 months at most. I'd simply move on but a lot of time and effort was put into building up the company, not to mention the Free Company Chest was loaded with materia, dyes, and other materials as I used it as extra storage. In total, the amount of materials in the Free Company chest is valued at around 20mil, and the company itself was probably worth around 10-15mil, so it's a pretty significant loss. The loss of all the work is whatever, I really just want some closure on the matter.

[EONX_]

Note: I'm not looking for "well what you should have done is etc etc", I know the situation at the time could've been dealt with better and in a smarter way. I just want to try and figure out what actually happened. I don't want to be reimbursed, I simply seek closure on what happened. Thank you.

[JacobNewblood]

Hmm.. never heard of such a mechanism for the game. Houses yes, but FC's themselves should remain regardless or else the game would have notified you.

my best bet is this:

The members there dispanded it
They kicked you and rebranded the FC under a new name,
or maybe it was changed and you were kicked on accident.

Best bet is to contact your Previous mates and asked them what happened or if you can search them on lodestone see if they are in an FC

[Arazehl]

If your friend had ownership of the FC and you couldn't take leader role back then if they left the FC still being leader of, that will disband the FC. You said you agree to take ownership back but never said for certain that you actually logged in and took it back. Just saying you fast forward a few months later you came back and found the FC disbanded.

[EONX_]

Hmm.. never heard of such a mechanism for the game. Houses yes, but FC's themselves should remain regardless or else the game would have notified you.

my best bet is this:

The members there dispanded it
They kicked you and rebranded the FC under a new name,
or maybe it was changed and you were kicked on accident.

Best bet is to contact your Previous mates and asked them what happened or if you can search them on lodestone see if they are in an FC

An email notification is a good point to check for, however I never received an email regarding the FC itself. I did receive an email about the automatic demolition timer for the FC house though, which happened after my friend presumably handed the FC leadership back to me (they were 100% gone by that point by the very least). If I'm understanding correctly, I feel like I shouldn't get that email about the FC house if I'm not in it?
Remember that there were two other characters in the FC other than myself, but they were inactive alts under my account (last login on them was like 2 years ago).

If your friend had ownership of the FC and you couldn't take leader role back then if they left the FC still being leader of, that will disband the FC. You said you agree to take ownership back but never said for certain that you actually logged in and took it back. Just saying you fast forward a few months later you came back and found the FC disbanded.

My friend never did 100% confirm if they handed leadership back either. I don't think I would have to log on to accept FC leadership though if it was passed over, but I could be mistaken.

[Big_Bap]

Do you have the names of all characters involved and the server? Alternatively, the name of the FC?

Free companies cannot be deleted unless the leader chooses to. Even if you were to delete the only character in the free company, aka the leader, the FC will remain in limbo until the end of time or until the character is recovered. For the record, you cannot leave the FC as the last member and in order to leave, you have to give leadership to someone else.

If I had to guess, your friend lied to you and sold the FC to someone else.

[EONX_]

Do you have the names of all characters involved and the server? Alternatively, the name of the FC?

Free companies cannot be deleted unless the leader chooses to. Even if you were to delete the only character in the free company, aka the leader, the FC will remain in limbo until the end of time or until the character is recovered. For the record, you cannot leave the FC as the last member and in order to leave, you have to give leadership to someone else.

If I had to guess, your friend lied to you and sold the FC to someone else.

I don't have the names of the alts anymore but I do have the previous FC name, as well as the exact plot. The name of the FC was "Drama Free" (tag was -AX- , or something similar, but it was changed to "Era" when my friend was running it for a bit). Before I handed it over, it was founded with the Twin Adders and was level 20 at minimum. The Free Company house was located at Lavender Beds Plot 29, Ward 9 (the small plot on that self contained island with the bridge leading to it).
They did mention to me before they left that it'd be wise to sell the plot and the FC together, but I requested to leave the FC with me and if they really wanted to sell the plot specifically, they could do that. I've been trying to disprove my own suspicions on this, but it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one that feels the same way.

[Big_Bap]

Thank you, I'll look into my archives.

[Big_Bap]

URL: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...12598714436575

July 2020:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: -AX-
• Members: 3
• Rank: 13
• House: LB 34 - Ward 21
• House name:-AX-21-34

March 2021:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: -AX-
• Members: 3
• Rank: 15
• House: LB 34 - Ward 21
• House name:-AX-21-34

July 2021:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: -AX-
• Members: 2
• Rank: 15
• House: LB 34 - Ward 21
• House name: -AX-21-34

November 2021:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: Era
• Members: 2
  
• Rank: 18
• House: LB 29 - Ward 9
• House name: Era's End

FC was def sold, sorry.

[EONX_]

URL: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...12598714436575

July 2020:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: -AX-
• Members: 3
• Rank: 13
• House: LB 34 - Ward 21
• House name:-AX-21-34

March 2021:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: -AX-
• Members: 3
• Rank: 15
• House: LB 34 - Ward 21
• House name:-AX-21-34

July 2021:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: -AX-
• Members: 2
• Rank: 15
• House: LB 34 - Ward 21
• House name: -AX-21-34

November 2021:

• Name: Drama Free
• Tag: Era
• Members: 2
  
• Rank: 18
• House: LB 29 - Ward 9
• House name: Era's End

FC was def sold, sorry.

I did some follow up with this and got in contact with the FC leader of the company linked on the lodestone and everything he said matches up with all the dates we have here, so it's pretty definitive that it was sold.

It's unfortunate but ultimately it was on me for inviting a friend. I thought they could be trusted but, oh well. Thanks for the contribution to the thread lads, we did good in figuring this out.