Time to Restart Housing Demolition

[Puksi]

I am in favor of Yoshida honoring his promise back in the day that FFXIV would never use the cheap leashing tactic of housing demos. Not only should players not be punished for tragedies beyond their control, demos do not respect a player's time and effort into getting a house overall, let alone the furnishings, some of which would be paid for with real money in their (too large) cash shop. It makes Yoshida's advice of "taking a break" seem insincere, and Square's advertising housing as a feature seem like they're selling snake oil.

Whether by instanced housing or new wards, Square can't claim "small indie company, please understand" when XIV is one of their top sources of revenue. The limit is one personal/one FC per account now, iirc. That's a finite number, and they know the demand is very high. The only thing really holding them back is their greed. You know, like they claim more free inventory space is too difficult, but they will gladly rent you more retainers for real $$$$. The "vision" of neighborhoods also sounds like just another excuse, when 95% of the time, wards look completely uninhabited.

Not to mention the poisonous attitudes the scarcity encourages, seen in this very thread. What good ~neighbors~

They need to eliminate the differences between housing sizes regarding gardens. There is no legitimate reason why a small can't have as many garden plots as a large. Apartments should have full garden access. Either gardens should not be reliant on weather, or apartments should be made to reflect the weather of the ward.

Workshops should never have been made an FC-only perk, as the workshop rarely benefits the FC members, only the owners who sell the rare mats and housewalls on the marketboard at inflated prices.

The devs had a chance to roll some of these issues into the Island Sanctuaries, but they opted to not make them actually functional to normal gameplay like Warcraft Garrisons. Because reasons.

TESO has housing that is part of their game zones, not dedicated wards. Click on the house in the world, and you are taken into an instance of that house that is yours alone, yards usually included. That could allow the illusion of a "neighborhood" but still provide the functionality of instanced housing. It would provide an amazing goldsink if they also allowed multiple homes to be owned again, as TESO allows you to collect every house in the game.

There are a lot of possible solutions. It just relies on Square's bottom line. It shouldn't fall to the mercenaries of this community circling players, caught in a murderous war, like vultures.

[WillIrishclover]

a fundamental problem was when Square enacted this policy when the war began, it was very much thought that it would be over in a matter of days, that was the analysis , that the conflict would be quick, bloody and over in a matter of days if not weeks,

the fact it has prolonged was very much a surprise to everyone, myself included.

so really square probably didint think they'd have this policy still in place as many organisations and governments felt this conflict would be well over by now

[Neoyoshi]

They do have to turn in back on eventually.

[dspguy]

There will always be real-world disasters. Not all disasters are equal. What's going on Ukraine is terrible. We've turned off demolition for less though. On another post, I mapped out every time demolition was turned off since it was first turned on. Nearly every time it was for weather related things (Typhoons, Hurricanes, etc). These are localized disasters. Even the Ukraine Crisis is localized - however the damage is extended.

Personally, SE should consider making a statement that demolition will be turned on/off on a DC by DC basis. Players should recognize that if a natural or man-made disaster befalls an area, the DC that is designed to service that area may see auto-demolition turned off.

Hurricane in the US? US DCs might be affected. Typhoon in Japan? Their DCs might see auto-demolition turned off. Severe blizzard in Europe with no power for an extended period of time? EU servers might see auto-demolition turned off.

I have a question for SE though - if there is a player in Ukraine that has their sub on auto-pay, are they refunding them automatically? Or are they still taking their money while they are running from the carnage?

[Rhea_]

well the cry baby demanders are back we want this we want that give it to us now!!! lmao.

You ok buddy?

[Elevin]

Clearly you don't actually want the answer then and are just trolling.

lol, you can easily copy and paste, why should I look through your posts because you're too arrogant to copy and paste what you said in another forum post or repeat what you said elsewhere on this thread.

[Nepentha]

lol, you can easily copy and paste, why should I look through your posts because you're too arrogant to copy and paste what you said in another forum post or repeat what you said elsewhere on this thread.

At this rate I should start charging people who ask the same damn question I already answered /in this very forum post/ and are too lazy to look back a couple of pages.

[Elevin]

At this rate I should start charging people who ask the same damn question I already answered /in this very forum post/ and are too lazy to look back a couple of pages.

Why charge? That goes against your ideals of not having auto demolition which essentially means that people can unsub from the game and keep their house(s).

[Elevin]

I'll be serious though as i did read through your points although I am dyslexic, so can't remember names easily...

Yoshi P wants the neighbourhood feel, and I agree. It's far from perfect on most wards, but that's likely down to the fact that people aren't playing the game, hence why you need auto demolition. I myself at 2 of my houses have really nice and friendly neighbours I interact with quite often, actually friends with a few of them and have been since I moved in.

Housing is an entirely optional (and enjoyable) part of the game (they need to sort out the gardening and cross breeding as that is gate keeping) as well as improve on numerous things like producing furniture sets rather than crap. (no matching kitchen sets) This optional part of the game is one of the few money sinks and the auto demolition is what results in the turn over of housing. IF you aren't using it for what ever reason, why should you keep it. As per your argument about auto demolition being introduced post housing, then I present you this argument. Housing should be restricted to Free Companies only as it was for FCs only at the start. https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...926bda296b64a2

They NEED to expand on apartments even if it costs them a lot of dev time (money). As it currently stands, housing is featured as an integral part of the game but completely half baked and neglects the majority of the player base.

The islands announcement was completely anti climatic personally as it could have been a solution for players without houses to access gardening and decorating housing...but no. It's a completely separate and unrelated gameplay loop. Yoshi P may have turned around FF14 to be one of the best MMOs on the market despite its many UX issues. But his/SE's ideals and tight purse strings are getting in the way of players being able to enjoy the game fully. Just look how limited furniture placing is for housing as an example which is an artificial game engine restriction compared to what players can do when those artificial restrictions are ignored *cough*.

[Jojoya]

Yoshi P wants the neighbourhood feel, and I agree. It's far from perfect on most wards, but that's likely down to the fact that people aren't playing the game, hence why you need auto demolition. I myself at 2 of my houses have really nice and friendly neighbours I interact with quite often, actually friends with a few of them and have been since I moved in.

People not playing the game at all but still having a house due to demolition suspension has little to do with it.

People playing the game but being online at different times of the day and doing things other than standing in the yards of their houses does. Not everyone has a stereotypical 9-5 lifestyle. Even those that do live in different time zones.

Not once have I seen my neighbor since they bought their house over a year ago. I know they're online occasionally - they've redecorated their yard a few times. But because the times they're online and in their yard don't match the times I'm online and in my yard, we never see each other.

That is what it is like for most players. You evidently got lucky by having neighbors at their house the same time you're at yours and your houses are close enough together to be seen. I wouldn't be surprised if those neighbors of yours are part of fairly large active FCs because that increases the chance that you will see at least someone if not the same someone every time.

Not everyone is lucky enough to own a house next to a large active FC.

Then there are those players who would prefer not having neighbors, especially if it means not having to stare at one of the housing skins they dislike every time they go to their house.

Most of us don't want the wards removed. We understand there are players who enjoy the wards. What we want is for SE to stop pouring money into wards that will never be able to accommodate every player that wants a house and start putting money into enhancing the instanced housing system so instanced house plots are included, or at the very least apartment interiors that match the size of house interiors.

We know instanced housing can be more than a breadbox of a room. We see it in other MMOs. Those games lack the housing drama we have here because everyone can get what they want regardless of how many other players already have the same thing. A few of those games have a superior housing system not just when it comes to access but when it comes to features. SE probably wouldn't duplicate any of those systems in their entirety but certainly there is room to learn from them and improve what we have here.

As per your argument about auto demolition being introduced post housing, then I present you this argument. Housing should be restricted to Free Companies only as it was for FCs only at the start.

That's not an argument. That's a statement of opinion. If you want it to be an argument, you need to present your reasoning why it should be FC only.

Keep in mind that making it FC only would solve nothing. Players would simply turn to making shell FCs to get their house even as many have resorted doing now with the shortage.