Fortunately, online games such as Final Fantasy XIV Online have not been affected by the recent COVID-19 outbreak, outside the occasional login queue given the increased number of players accessing the servers. However, there would undoubtedly be those players who are now unable to access the title, whether trapped in overseas quarantine, impacted by a loss of income and unable to put money towards a game subscription, being a part of essential services who need to be on-call 24/7 or unfortunately hospitalised over this period. While those impacted may not have an online game on their mind at this time, Square Enix has announced a small plan to alleviate any worry about needing to spend a more extended period away from the game.
There is not a heavy penalty for those who take a long period of time away from Final Fantasy XIV. The one exception is player housing, with homes not accessed for at least 45 days by the owner experiencing auto-demolition. Especially for those on populated servers or those with medium or large plots, this can mean losing many, many hours of work and potentially never getting their dream plot again given demand. Fortunately there is no longer any need to fret, with auto-demolition of homes postponed until further notice.
The specifics of this delay are listed below:
- After Mar. 26, 2020 8:10 p.m. (PDT), the counter will stop completely.
- If your estate or land is currently being prepared for auto-demolition, you can cancel this status by entering your estate or constructing an estate on your land.
- When the Auto-Demolition Counter resumes it will resume from the time remaining as of the temporary suspension. (Excludes estates/lands where the demolition process has been canceled.)
It is a nice gesture of Square Enix to implement a deactivation of the auto-demolition counter. I would strongly advise those who can visit their homes do so over the next couple of weeks to reset their demolition timer back to 0, to ensure no surprises once auto-demolition resumes.
