Isn't it long overdue to have custom houses larger than 18x18?

[JC the Builder]

The developers just added all that new stuff letting you sort of customize keeps and castles. But why hasn't anything larger than a custom 18x18 been added since 12 years ago?

The original reasoning was concern for players on dial-up connections. That thinking was sort of flawed because what is the difference between a 18x18 or two 18x18 one tile apart? I'm sure it was good at the time but there shouldn't be that barrier anymore. They just released the Shadowguard which seems to be a dynamic tile system to change the rooms around.

In any case, I think it is high time that larger plot sizes became available. How large? I don't know. What I do know is this would also make a great gold sink. The largest should be the most expensive item in the game to purchase, whatever the developers decide is the maximum.

Can you imagine a custom plot as large as a castle?

 

[Jaden Rain]

Love the idea ...not sure however if it can ever be possible, .....we can only hope

 

[Barok]

We don't need larger plots, we just need more storage!

 

[JC the Builder]

We don't need larger plots, we just need more storage!

Really? Almost 4,000 slots are not enough? Plus all the storage books (power scroll, transcendence, treasure maps), new stackables, mannequins, etc. You still need more room?

 

[MalagAste]

Really? Almost 4,000 slots are not enough? Plus all the storage books (power scroll, transcendence, treasure maps), new stackables, mannequins, etc. You still need more room?

No they aren't enough... I quit doing BoDs years ago because I lack the storage for them since to do it "right" would require and entire castle for lockdowns... And I refuse to play the "vendor" game with them.

But if you think about every year we start off with Valentines gifts, then we get Easter Stuffs, Halloween stuff, Vet Rewards, Anniversary Items, and Christmas Stuff, add in that each EM does 1 drop a month and if you are like me and you live on a shard with 2 EMs that's 2 drops a Month, plus artifacts, suit pieces, recipes, plant growing things, if you do any crafting at all that tons of stuff think about all the ingredient crap there is just for Imbuing! And lets not even get into Refining and Reforging which both can add 100's of things. That doesn't even count all the crap you need for Tailors, Blacksmiths, cooks, inscription, masonry and all... And if you try to build and put together suits you have countless items of weapons, Jewels, armor, not to mention boots, robes, and statues, house add ons, etc..... Over the years if you have played more than 1 or 2 you tend to build up 100's and 100's of items... many of which either don't have any worth to throw or have sentimental attachment... either given to you by a dear friend that is long gone or perhaps departed...

And I have over 90 characters on my shard with soulstones, weapons, armor, gear, potions, spellbooks, bandages, arrows, bolts, quivers and everything else under the moon... That's a ton of stuff.

Each Holiday in UO can generate 1 to 15 items. I actually LOVED this Christmas with the Token. I wish it stacked but one Token vs a Box with a card and an item or 10.... MUCH nicer. But oddly enough this was one year that we didn't get a Christmas card.

You add that up with all the collection items there are in the game with the statues, robes, books, plants, etc..

And then gods forbid you might like to do some Fishing or T-Maps..... those things can generate TONS of stuff. Most of which are worth more to sell or use than to throw away... Pillows, paintings, more plants, deco items, mini-arties, and even some good Legendaries sometimes if you are lucky....

It's a wonder anyone has any room at all.

And while yes many people who just don't care about deco don't have much care for that stuff some of us LIVE for Deco and design. Outside of RP Deco and Design is one of the things that keeps me playing UO. So you can bet that I don't throw away stuff I might need to deco with. And if you are into decorating then you have stuff for every season and you have to keep it "fresh".... so you have lots of it.

I regularly deco peoples homes. I've been paid to do it and it's something I very much enjoy... so yeah I keep most all of it. If there is something that is Deco in the game you can bet I probably have it... in bulk.

 

[WootSauce]

Well, they let you customize with the new granite blocks! Yeah, its ********, but that is where the dev time and effort went.

 

[MalagAste]

Well, they let you customize with the new granite blocks! Yeah, its ********, but that is where the dev time and effort went.

That's more like decorating than customizing. And since you can't change the crappy layout it really doesn't do much but does actually let me make some area's of my castle actually Private.

 

[JC the Builder]

And I have over 90 characters on my shard with soulstones, weapons, armor, gear, potions, spellbooks, bandages, arrows, bolts, quivers and everything else under the moon... That's a ton of stuff.

It isn't really fair to say 4,000 storage is not enough storage for 90 characters. That is at least 13 accounts if each account has 7 character slots. With 13 accounts x 4000 storage comes out to about 52,000 item slots you have with max storage houses.

If you consider 7 characters on an account and divide it among them, lets say you come out to 500 item slots per character (4,000 / 7 is 571, lets subtract 71 for decorations). Are you saying 500 item slots is not enough per character for storage?

 

[MalagAste]

It isn't really fair to say 4,000 storage is not enough storage for 90 characters. That is at least 13 accounts if each account has 7 character slots. With 13 accounts x 4000 storage comes out to about 52,000 item slots you have with max storage houses.

If you consider 7 characters on an account and divide it among them, lets say you come out to 500 item slots per character (4,000 / 7 is 571, lets subtract 71 for decorations). Are you saying 500 item slots is not enough per character for storage?

Yes, Yes I am... I can get 500 items per character in just gift crap in 2 or 3 years. When you are talking about 15 to 18 years of playing Yes it is a problem.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

i like the idea of larger custom houses but God help us when we end up with 24x24 (or larger) "box" houses. also, if the idea was ever implemented i think the number of floors would have to be scaled back because 4 floors would overshadow adjacent homes.

mesanna has repeatedly said castles and keeps can't be placed in malas or ter mur (although i don't understand why). maybe this is the alternative?

 

[JC the Builder]

i like the idea of larger custom houses but God help us when we end up with 24x24 (or larger) "box" houses. also, if the idea was ever implemented i think the number of floors would have to be scaled back because 4 floors would overshadow adjacent homes.

What would be the difference between a 4-story 18x18 or 24x24? The 18x18 can tower over adjacent homes just as much.

 

[MalagAste]

What would be the difference between a 4-story 18x18 or 24x24? The 18x18 can tower over adjacent homes just as much.

There aren't any differences... folk just like to complain. Personally I would rather they create a program to allow a contest to "redesign" both the Castle and Keep and then offer folk some choices on what to place. Some designs might not be able to be placed in some area's but others would actually be able to be placed in area's where you couldn't now have one... anyway.... I would prefer that. It would keep me from EVER seeing a giant borg crystal monstrosity and it would make things nicer not seeing 20 castles packed into an area that all look 100% identical.

As for the not being able to place them in Ter Mur it's because they didn't make any plots large enough on purpose. The reasoning behind not having them in Malas is IMO just a cop out since DEVs can and have placed them there. If it has to do with server load then just increase the server capacity... On 99% of the shards space is no longer an issue... No one is clamoring for housing space on any shard besides Atl. Allowing Castles/Keeps in Malas would actually I think spread out server load as more people would move further apart just to have a castle or keep. (for storage)

Which then we are back to if they just added a new sub server to put housing only on and gave us the Basements we could buy to add storage then no one would actually care for having a Castle or Keep since most prefer the 18x18 since it can be designed to be "user friendly" and a Castle or Keep are often very user unfriendly... If we could add storage by adding a basement I think you might actually see housing space open up even more especially on Atl..... just saying.

 

[Spartan]

The developers just added all that new stuff letting you sort of customize keeps and castles. But why hasn't anything larger than a custom 18x18 been added since 12 years ago?

The original reasoning was concern for players on dial-up connections. That thinking was sort of flawed because what is the difference between a 18x18 or two 18x18 one tile apart? I'm sure it was good at the time but there shouldn't be that barrier anymore. They just released the Shadowguard which seems to be a dynamic tile system to change the rooms around.

In any case, I think it is high time that larger plot sizes became available. How large? I don't know. What I do know is this would also make a great gold sink. The largest should be the most expensive item in the game to purchase, whatever the developers decide is the maximum.

Can you imagine a custom plot as large as a castle?

Agree ... I'd love to have a 40x40 or something in that vein. Decorating might be a bit easier with a somewhat larger ;canvas" to work with. Storage would necessarily have to increase accordingly with the new sizes. Would be interesting to see how it could end up.

 

[Cymidei]

Hoarders Ultima Online version! Hopefully there will be new bait eventually in the Clean Up Britannia rewards for you guys. I would love it if they came up with some new pre-made houses in large sizes and made them customizable. I get why they don't want to mess with the existing stuff *shudders * one missing curly bracket and everyone's castle would vanish into the abyss.

Agree that Malas would be a great place for castles and keeps. Some people probably would get mad though because the prices would go down on castles and keeps.

 

[MalagAste]

Hoarders Ultima Online version! Hopefully there will be new bait eventually in the Clean Up Britannia rewards for you guys. I would love it if they came up with some new pre-made houses in large sizes and made them customizable. I get why they don't want to mess with the existing stuff *shudders * one missing curly bracket and everyone's castle would vanish into the abyss.

Agree that Malas would be a great place for castles and keeps. Some people probably would get mad though because the prices would go down on castles and keeps.

Boohoo I'd say.

Anyway... I would like a lot of things but I highly doubt any of them will happen. Honestly I always thought someone had the right idea in that if they could program it to where each account is entitled to having the equivalent of a 32x32, so you could have any number of plots as long as they are under 32x32 in space. If they did that I know you would see a bunch of things happen... Like folk having several small homes on many shards.... etc... Which IMO if you can have your own house there you are more likely to play there more. Might be good for some smaller shards... would solve many space issues as you would then be able to have more houses therefore more storage... etc. So everyone wouldn't be so distressed over needing a Castle or Keep I think you would actually see a whole lot less castles and keeps.

 

[MalagAste]

You know a friend and I talked about this and we thought ..... You know it might be beneficial to market UO as a fix for Horders. Since you can Horde in UO and not clutter your RL house at all... and if they are spending insane amounts on UO stuff then they aren't able to spend money on junk for their RL house... Win win for UO since they would spend tons of money on the game... The Horders would be able to horde to their hearts content....

However we then decided that it's still a health hazard. Sitting about on your duff non-stop playing UO isn't good for your health or sanity.... not that Horders are sane by any stretch of the imagination... And having them spend all their money on a game etc.... probably wouldn't "cure" the underlying cause of the need to horde.... but I think their families might prefer UO Hording to RL Hording... kinda a trade off.

I suppose many of us feel "safe" hording in UO... I can enjoy collecting without making a mess in my house. And whats even better..... You don't have to dust your UO Horde... It doesn't attract mice or La Cucaracha's... Which again.... bonus.

I'm sure lots of games have Horders.

 

[Corwyn]

Boohoo I'd say.

Anyway... I would like a lot of things but I highly doubt any of them will happen. Honestly I always thought someone had the right idea in that if they could program it to where each account is entitled to having the equivalent of a 32x32, so you could have any number of plots as long as they are under 32x32 in space. If they did that I know you would see a bunch of things happen... Like folk having several small homes on many shards.... etc... Which IMO if you can have your own house there you are more likely to play there more. Might be good for some smaller shards... would solve many space issues as you would then be able to have more houses therefore more storage... etc. So everyone wouldn't be so distressed over needing a Castle or Keep I think you would actually see a whole lot less castles and keeps.

I like this idea. Since a 32x32 takes up 1024 tiles total, you could, instead, have three 18x18 plots (324 tiles each) with enough left over for a 7x7 (49 tiles). Of course, there would be other combinations, allowing for even more houses on more shards. I just used the 18x18 plot for easy use (and the fact that I personally like 18x18s).

 

[MalagAste]

I like this idea. Since a 32x32 takes up 1024 tiles total, you could, instead, have three 18x18 plots (324 tiles each) with enough left over for a 7x7 (49 tiles). Of course, there would be other combinations, allowing for even more houses on more shards. I just used the 18x18 plot for easy use (and the fact that I personally like 18x18s).

I agree you could essentially have a small 7x7 on multiple shards. Which would offer all sorts of good possibilities. I thought it was a good idea back then and I still think it's a good idea now.

 

[Scribbles]

So a couple things that would be cool if you could place a bigger custom house.

All that wasted Malas space on lower pop shards could actually be used.
Me personally i would much rather customize a 31x31 plot instead of having a castle. Cant stand the walls in castles and keeps.

@JC the Builder heck yeah! i would love to see this, though some of the logistics would be pretty hard to work out.

 

[Corwyn]

So a couple things that would be cool if you could place a bigger custom house.

All that wasted Malas space on lower pop shards could actually be used.
Me personally i would much rather customize a 31x31 plot instead of having a castle. Cant stand the walls in castles and keeps.

@JC the Builder heck yeah! i would love to see this, though some of the logistics would be pretty hard to work out.

I can't even fathom building a custom 31x31 house. It's simply beyond me. My wife, however, could spend a week or more on one, and probably come up with something amazing.

Come to think of it, she's just an all-around better UO player than I am (barring crafting I suppose). I just have the gift of gab.

 

[MalagAste]

Give me a day or two and I could design not only a way better castle and keep but I could build a 32x32 Amazing plot.

 

[Merlin]

18x18's are fine as is. Considering they just added customization to Keeps and Castles, I don't think we need to make those sized plots 100% customizable. It's too late in the game's life cycle to make this drastic of a change.

Additionally, while some people I'm sure would decorate a nice housing unit, this would end up with a lot of ugly 32x32 Borg cubes.