Housing Demolition

[white_mage]

Hello,
I'm posting here in hopes that this may help others in the future.

When I started playing XIV in 2014, my friends and I started a free company. The home we purchased for our free company on Malboro still stands to this day, and our legacy members frequently use the estate when they return to the game. Every few months, I receive an email regarding automatic demolition for the FC home, so we log in and make sure that returning and new members have a place to stay.

5-6 years ago, after I moved to Excalibur, I bought myself a private home. I've been logging in daily for 10 years, mostly in the front yard as we wait for duty finder content with our friends. Last week, I received an auto-demolition email notification that I saw on my phone, so I logged into Malboro for our Free Company as they have been away with work/school.

The next day, my personal house was demolished as I was in a duty. I was obviously stunned, as I log in daily with my friends for raids and duty finder content. Lo and behold, the email was for my personal house on Excalibur, and not our Free Company estate on Malboro. My house of 6 years, demolished as I was online. The purpose of automatic housing demolition is to reclaim land from individuals who do not return to the game for some time. I can't help but feel that this was a bit unjust due to my constant activity in the game.

A part of me hopes that someone on the team will read this and take action (the land is not up for sale for a few days), but I doubt this will reach the proper ears. So, I'm hoping this report can offer some feedback for a historically bad systems approach to housing.

• For starters, send in-game mail to owners of estates that are up for demolition, supplemented by real emails. This will make sure this strange set of circumstances will not happen to anyone else.

• Put the estate in question in the subject line of the email. Stop burying the property information in the body of the email. This will aid active players who run free companies, and have an apartment or private estate.

• Allow players who have 'shared estate' status trigger the reset of automatic demolition. My partner has been in and out of the house all week for vendors, and it's shocking that a house so frequently used was wrongfully demolished.

Hopefully this may help with a poorly implemented system as it evolves in the future. A small part of me still thinks the right person may be able to see this, as losing such a historic and meaningful part of the game for us has been devastating.

Thanks in advance for your consideration,

[Nezerius]

If the house was so frequently used, why did you specifically not enter it even once over the course of 45 days?
They already have an ingame notification open logging in. It's actually the first warning of the entire chain, with the email ones being near the end.

Unfortunately there's no "right person to read this", as the house demolished through an intended system.

[white_mage]

If the house was so frequently used, why did you specifically not enter it even once over the course of 45 days?

Classic response.

In my original post, I stated that we use the front yard daily. We stand out front in the housing ward, use the market board, feed the chocobos, use the garden. My partner is constantly updating her room, going in and out of the home on a daily basis as well.

After 6 years, I had finished what I wanted to achieve with the interior design. I repair my own gear, so I don't need the repair attendant, and I purchase stacks of 900 catalysts so I did not need to visit the crystal vendor.

You can 'gottem' all you like, but if you carefully read the circumstances, the system claimed a frequently used home. I'm not here for sympathy from people like you. I'm here to provide feedback so that people who juggle life, friendships, career, and multiple communities don't lose what they cherish to a sideways system.

Thanks for your response,

[Enkidoh]

But standing in the front yard is not enough, you actually need to enter inside and linger for more than a few moments to cancel the demolition timer (some have said even then that may not be enough and you have to actually use functions of the house inside - as in interact with features such as retainer bells or the FC chest). This has been known since auto-demolition has been a thing.

I can see where it would be frustrating that the warning email did not specify which house was slated for auto-demolition, and I'm sorry to hear you lost your house as a result, but again there is wisdom in making sure you frequently enter all homes connected to you whenever you're in game (whether FC or personal), especially when you get the dreaded auto-demolition warning, so as to eliminate the risk of it actually happening. Covering all your bases and all that.

Incidentally I don't have a personal house but I do have co-ownership of the FC I run with my boyfriend, and I always ensure the first thing I do upon logging into the game is to enter and make use of the FC house - which proved wise when the other week custody of the FC and the house automatically passed to the next in the member list due to my bf not having logged in for over a month due to work commitments and PC trouble - namely me. It is a tough lesson to learn but a necessary one.

[Tint]

Tenants should be able to reset the demolition timer.

Not only would that have negated OPs problem, but in general it would allow for taking a break for whatever reason without risking to lose your personal house.

[Nezerius]

In my original post, I stated that we use the front yard daily. We stand out front in the housing ward, use the market board, feed the chocobos, use the garden. My partner is constantly updating her room, going in and out of the home on a daily basis as well.

Oh, I didn't miss the part in your post where you said you used the front yard. But that's not enough to retain a house, as the auto-demolition system can't register usage based on front yard usage. Hence my question on why you specifically didn't enter the house over the course of 1.5 months.

After 6 years, I had finished what I wanted to achieve with the interior design. I repair my own gear, so I don't need the repair attendant, and I purchase stacks of 900 catalysts so I did not need to visit the crystal vendor.

After 6 years, I'd have expected someone to at least have run into housing demolition drama enough to find out about the requirements of resetting the demolition timer.

You can 'gottem' all you like, but if you carefully read the circumstances, the system claimed a frequently used home. I'm not here for sympathy from people like you. I'm here to provide feedback so that people who juggle life, friendships, career, and multiple communities don't lose what they cherish to a sideways system.

A post that doesn't sugarcoat words, nor includes the age-old "Yea, the system sucks" is now considered to be 'gottem' post? It was a genuine question, because that's the only way the current system registers usage. Based on your OP, everyone could see that the plot was being used, but that doesn't matter if the system in charge of demolition can't.
And yea, the housing system does suck. Everyone here knows it sucks. I'm sure even the devs know that the NA/EU playerbase thinks it sucks. But it's not looking like they're changing it any time soon.

[Staria8]

I TOTALLY empathise with you, it was such a simple mistake because of the limitations on housing, I think this could happen to anyone with multiple houses due to fine print or whatever reason.

I was just chatting to a designer and I log in every 40 days to maintain my one private house. But I'm on Materia and everytime I log in it's so QUIET and LOTS OF EMPTY PLOTS. I go into the HGXIV disc channel for Materia to check out designs every so often and some that are a few months old... I check up on about 7-8 of them and more than half were demolished!

I propose the solution as at the 45 day mark, it can be open for the public to bid. If someone wants that plot and the owner has not stepped inside in that time, it can be automatically sold and relinquished as usual. If nobody bids, that means the demand is not there and that person can keep the house and still make the place look active and if the house is designed - it's still there for people to be inspired as intended. Sometimes the house isn't designed by the owner. Imagine coming to a ward and it almost empty... that's the sad state of my entire district and I'm on the unofficial RP server, Sophia.

With this proposed solution, you receive a FINAL email alerting you that it's after the 45 days stating that the plot is up for sale and will be relinquished as soon as someone bids after the 45 days, Surely the final email with direct instructions would have prevented this unwanted situation for everyone. This would not have happened to you because nobody would have bid on it as you are standing outside! I just wish this were the case as i went to the trouble of finding empty plots :'( (designed places that were auto-demo'd)

What do you guys think? If they can give us islands, this would be a small ask...instead of auto-demolition, let it be auto Open House, but design still intact until the hammer drops. SE PLEASE REPLACE AUTO-DEMOLITION WITH AUTO OPEN HOUSE. It seriously needs a review...

[Staria8]

I made a post here for Auto Open House, please upvote! Every little bit helps the community and the game and in turn the developers etc. There would be less unhappy people at no real cost to SE, I believe. But would make the game look active if anything!

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...66#post6461966