Housing demolition and the inevitable loss of items

[Olvido]

Hey everyone!

I'm not one to post much, but I think this needs to be discussed, and hopefully, changed.
This is about the loss of items after a house gets auto-demolished.

I've been playing since the beta, and I briefly played 1.0 (I stayed in XI instead). This is to say, I'm not one to complain much, and I've seen a lot of changes come and go, including the housing system, of course. After many years, I landed my dream plot in Mist, an L house, which I got to enjoy for a few years as well.

I recently stopped playing for a while, while still playing my subscription, to keep my house. Sadly, I missed a demotion warning, and lost my house. As many more who have lost theirs, I was absolutely devastated, and it took me a while, until very recently, to decide to get an S one in the same place I used to have many many years ago.

While I understand the need for the housing demolition, as sad as it can be for some of us, since the item storage is also time restricted, I lost so many things, so many, most of which I can make or obtain again, but there's a lot of exceptions. The event items I obtained over the years I would have to pay money for, which I absolutely refuse. I have the achievements to prove, and there should be a way to obtain them if you've completed the event previously. The Sakura trees, little ladies decor, many new year items, posters, and so much more that probably now translates to at least over 200 euros. Not only that, but there's some items, like the Lupin Plots, that are nearly impossible to get back, considering I had 6 of them.

Since the devs encourage you to take breaks from the game, this feels like a big punishment for not doing so. The storage/reclaim of items should be permanent, or at least have a long period, like a year, for people to be able to take said breaks and come back and not having lost absolutely everything. Also, since we can re-purchase gear from events we've completed and have the achievements for, I think it would be reasonable.

What do you all think? I really hope they take this into consideration.

[SmokeyTheSequel]

Hey everyone!

I'm not one to post much, but I think this needs to be discussed, and hopefully, changed.
This is about the loss of items after a house gets auto-demolished.

I've been playing since the beta, and I briefly played 1.0 (I stayed in XI instead). This is to say, I'm not one to complain much, and I've seen a lot of changes come and go, including the housing system, of course. After many years, I landed my dream plot in Mist, an L house, which I got to enjoy for a few years as well.

I recently stopped playing for a while, while still playing my subscription, to keep my house. Sadly, I missed a demotion warning, and lost my house. As many more who have lost theirs, I was absolutely devastated, and it took me a while, until very recently, to decide to get an S one in the same place I used to have many many years ago.

While I understand the need for the housing demolition, as sad as it can be for some of us, since the item storage is also time restricted, I lost so many things, so many, most of which I can make or obtain again, but there's a lot of exceptions. The event items I obtained over the years I would have to pay money for, which I absolutely refuse. I have the achievements to prove, and there should be a way to obtain them if you've completed the event previously. The Sakura trees, little ladies decor, many new year items, posters, and so much more that probably now translates to at least over 200 euros. Not only that, but there's some items, like the Lupin Plots, that are nearly impossible to get back, considering I had 6 of them.

Since the devs encourage you to take breaks from the game, this feels like a big punishment for not doing so. The storage/reclaim of items should be permanent, or at least have a long period, like a year, for people to be able to take said breaks and come back and not having lost absolutely everything. Also, since we can re-purchase gear from events we've completed and have the achievements for, I think it would be reasonable.

What do you all think? I really hope they take this into consideration.

I seriously took 2 extra years off when I discovered that all the event stuff lost would have to repurchased from the mogstation. I had a ton of stuff. I thought I could just go to the calamity guy, and it would be there. NOPE. It's gone and you will never get it back. It's SAD. I almost didn't come back at all. I refuse to take part in housing now because of it. Just thinking about it now makes me pissed xD

[ShadowyZero]

i am sorry this happened to you OP as a long time goer myself i feel this disconnect between players and developers in terms of providing and receiving feedback but more than anything this is just likely a localization issue more so than a developer one we can only hope that yoshida, foxcon, or koji sees our feedback as they seem to be the ones that care the most about it.
that aside the only solutions i can think of which i proposed in another thread is that they need to extend the timer to a longer period of wait but not too long 6 months i feel would be more than ample time to tell if someone's interest dwindled an that they may not return anytime soon or at all.
there is that but also a completely new house ownership system would go a long way to satisfy the majority who want to own or experience the features allowed with housing in ffxiv an my idea is to make that new system for solo owners only in a completely new instanced server an have that also be tied to the account an shareable among created alts on that same world etc.

[Olvido]

@SmokeyTheSequel

My thoughts exactly. The event stuff should be at the calamity salvager. I feel your pain too, it took me another three months to come back after that. I was truly devastated.

@ShadowyZero

Your proposals seem insightful. I do not know how viable they are develpment-wise but a longer period, or even letting us have our own instanced houses in the personal islands would be a huge improvement. I really hope they somehow get to see this and think about it.

[Impia]

This thread is exactly why my large will forever keep me bound to this game. I have experienced what you've experienced OP, and I was very fortunate to be able to get another less than a year later against all odds and many bidders. I know people try for years without getting one.

[WinglessSeraphim]

What do you all think?

You didn't enter your house once 45 days? 45 days from the last time you entered your plot plus the 30 days the items would sit with the housing npc. That's the minimum amount of time it would have taken you from then to writing this post.

It's common knowledge that you must enter your plot at least once in 45 days. So your loss is on you.

[Jojoya]

The reason they're not going to be on the Calamity Salvager is because that would make it too easy for players to open up their own "Mogstation" in-game to sell the seasonal event items. Invite someone to be tenant, they remove the items they want and pay you, you go back to the Calamity Salvager to buy more, etc.

Personally I wish they had not bothered putting them on the cash shop and instead would give players a way to earn them (or rebuy them) each time the related seasonal event returned to the game. I miss some of the mini-games we used to have with the seasonal events.

Why do we only have 35 days after a house is demolished to reclaim them? It's only speculation on my part but I suspect it's a database issue related to housing items being registered to the plot and not the player, and then the plot or previous ownership of it being linked to the player. They want to make certain the items are gone from the Resident Caretaker before the plot ends up demolished again and a new set of items added. Personally I think they could extend the hold to 60 days safely but who knows what lurks in the heart of their coding to prevent that.

What I do since there's no telling when a real life emergency might happen is store all of my seasonal event items either in my apartment or on a retainer (outdoor items) if they're not currently being used in my house. That way if I can't play and end up losing my house, most of the hardest to replace items are safe.

[Ravenblade1979]

Ya been playing since 1.0 but didn't know the housing system nor do research. Lol dear lord.

[LilimoLimomo]

I lost my wedding cake (from my in-game marriage with my real-life spouse) when I took a break during Stormblood. That was a bummer to come back to. I've mostly moved on, but it would be nice if there was a better system for that sort of thing.

[LilimoLimomo]

The reason they're not going to be on the Calamity Salvager is because that would make it too easy for players to open up their own "Mogstation" in-game to sell the seasonal event items. Invite someone to be tenant, they remove the items they want and pay you, you go back to the Calamity Salvager to buy more, etc.

My subjective take is that the solution to this would be to prevent players who didn't place the item from picking it up; I literally never hear about the ability to pick up something someone else placed in a house outside of players exploiting it, so they should probably just remove the exploit.

To be clear, I don't expect them to, because it's not a high enough priority. But in a more ideal scenario, that would be the best fix for that specific issue.