Housing, Player Towns and Paying Customers

[Zyon Rockler]

We have had the same house standing for over 10 years. Around the house we have watched people place slabs or mock up homes and then terminate their account, to simply hold the place. After about 5 years I decided I would open up more accounts and place some houses and create a player town. So, we waited for one of the houses to fall and built a church, then we waited for another and built a social club and we got lucky enough to place an 18 x 18 auction house. We also had other houses that I was holding but could not afford to keep the accounts active. So, I made a decision to drop the smaller homes and keep the bigger ones I had mentioned.

About a year later, they come out with a player town system. So, now, everyone of the spots has been taken and more and more dummy houses are being built on inactive accounts. This is unfair to people who pay and who have invested a great deal of time in the game and who really deserve to have the places.

If somebody stops paying and the account goes inactive then the house should fall, so someone who is willing to pay to play the game has a better chance. I feel as if it's a type of con. I feel the problem is so bad that even EA allows houses to stand just to help the game look more populated, when in fact, I doubt that is the case. Now, this is just a feeling but if you take the number of players that are on at any given time and then look at the number of houses, this tells me that they're more worried about a quick buck then the long run.

So, why don't they, instead of giving a time period, such as 90 days that a house will stand after an account goes inactive, it should be earned. For example:

If the house has been standing for one year then it will stand for 2 months if the account goes inactive.

If the house has been standing for two years, it will stand for 4 months.

So, in the case of my house that I have been paying for for 10 years it would stand for 20 months because I have earned that place in UO and my house should stand to let people know that someone once lived there.

It kind of makes ya sick to think about it, that I can go and place a slab, turn off the account for 90 days, come back in 90 days to keep the house standing, while someone else has had to pay constantly for over 10 years to preserve their house and what kind of houses do they get placed around them, foundation slabs.

It's kind of sad how they can engineer the game to promote people to actually do these types of things but it's unfair. These people did not earn the right to have a home, so I say if the account is brand new, has a house on it, and goes inactive, it should fall immediately.

Thank you for reading this post.

 

[maroite]

We have had the same house standing for over 10 years. Around the house we have watched people place slabs or mock up homes and then terminate their account, to simply hold the place. After about 5 years I decided I would open up more accounts and place some houses and create a player town. So, we waited for one of the houses to fall and built a church, then we waited for another and built a social club and we got lucky enough to place an 18 x 18 auction house. We also had other houses that I was holding but could not afford to keep the accounts active. So, I made a decision to drop the smaller homes and keep the bigger ones I had mentioned.

About a year later, they come out with a player town system. So, now, everyone of the spots has been taken and more and more dummy houses are being built on inactive accounts. This is unfair to people who pay and who have invested a great deal of time in the game and who really deserve to have the places.

If somebody stops paying and the account goes inactive then the house should fall, so someone who is willing to pay to play the game has a better chance. I feel as if it's a type of con. I feel the problem is so bad that even EA allows houses to stand just to help the game look more populated, when in fact, I doubt that is the case. Now, this is just a feeling but if you take the number of players that are on at any given time and then look at the number of houses, this tells me that they're more worried about a quick buck then the long run.

So, why don't they, instead of giving a time period, such as 90 days that a house will stand after an account goes inactive, it should be earned. For example:

If the house has been standing for one year then it will stand for 2 months if the account goes inactive.

If the house has been standing for two years, it will stand for 4 months.

So, in the case of my house that I have been paying for for 10 years it would stand for 20 months because I have earned that place in UO and my house should stand to let people know that someone once lived there.

It kind of makes ya sick to think about it, that I can go and place a slab, turn off the account for 90 days, come back in 90 days to keep the house standing, while someone else has had to pay constantly for over 10 years to preserve their house and what kind of houses do they get placed around them, foundation slabs.

It's kind of sad how they can engineer the game to promote people to actually do these types of things but it's unfair. These people did not earn the right to have a home, so I say if the account is brand new, has a house on it, and goes inactive, it should fall immediately.

Thank you for reading this post.

You know... in a way I agree. If you're planning to quit the game, pack up what you really want to keep and put it in your banks. The rest tough luck.

I can think of a place on Baja that is one of the 18x18 plots that has been a DIRT FOUNDATION for like 5 years now. Its such a waste. someone could put a house there with vendors, or something else but this person has never been seen. Think its owned by "Queen of Trinsic".

There is another spot near that one which has also been a dirt plot for a while now too.

 

[Tina Small]

You know... in a way I agree. If you're planning to quit the game, pack up what you really want to keep and put it in your banks. The rest tough luck.

I can think of a place on Baja that is one of the 18x18 plots that has been a DIRT FOUNDATION for like 5 years now. Its such a waste. someone could put a house there with vendors, or something else but this person has never been seen. Think its owned by "Queen of Trinsic".

There is another spot near that one which has also been a dirt plot for a while now too.

I have to ask, Maroite, would you even care about those plots if they didn't happen to be in Luna?

 

[Mapper]

You know... in a way I agree. If you're planning to quit the game, pack up what you really want to keep and put it in your banks. The rest tough luck.

I can think of a place on Baja that is one of the 18x18 plots that has been a DIRT FOUNDATION for like 5 years now. Its such a waste. someone could put a house there with vendors, or something else but this person has never been seen. Think its owned by "Queen of Trinsic".

There is another spot near that one which has also been a dirt plot for a while now too.

If the 18x18 is private, It could just be storage, I know several folks who just leave plots empty for storage *coughs* Heimlich *coughs* .

If people can afford a plot in Luna, They can do whatever they want with it.

 

[Kat]

Well, my friend, I have the answer to your problems! I have the perfect spot for your player run town and not a single house, plot or water barrel will stand in your way! We have tons of space in deserts, snowy mountain tops, in lush green valley's of Malas and Tokuno. There are vast expanses of land in many areas, for as far as the eye can see and I am so not kidding!
Siege Perilous - Your empire awaits you!

Drop me an ICQ [220571153] and I'll be your personal real estate guide.

 

[Lord Gareth]

One problem I have ran into with houses is this. I am trying so hard to keep my accounts active but funds are really lacking this year. What about the players who really do play multiple accounts and are just really having a hard time this year keeping the accounts activated every month?

 

[Zyon Rockler]

Lord Gareth, that's why i'm saying it's important to think about those people more that have dedicated themselves and their time to UO. People that just started playing don't have that much care about losing their homes as people do that have been established for a year or more.

If you are having trouble paying for accounts then this system would look at how long you have been playing and been active and then give you a credit to how long your house would stand. Like I said, I could not afford it and had to lose my houses, so what i'm trying to do is prevent that. I did everything that I could to build a community or town.

Now the block house that is behind my house, you can walk on and you can see no one lives there and like I said i'm an active player. I remember when we had neighbors who actually lived in their houses. I can still remember their names. These people we have now don't care about being able to pay for their account. They don't care about playing at all. They only care about holding that house space for whatever reason.

So, like I said, if you invested 10 years into your house and your account was active that whole time and maybe you had a house fire, lost your job, had some really tough times, believe me I know how that can be, you would now be protected for over a year. Now, wouldn't that be more fair?

 

[Lord Chaos]

I can think of a place on Baja that is one of the 18x18 plots that has been a DIRT FOUNDATION for like 5 years now. Its such a waste

Whats wrong with dirt foundations, our main 18x18 was a dirt foundation from AOS up until a month ago.

Not everyone has the inclination or drive to build and decorate houses.

Heck, it only got made because my gf started playing again and she's into building homes and decorating big time, if she hadn't, then it would still be a dirt plot.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

I think part of the problem with slabs is nobody likes them. We would of rather had a red square appear to show that somebody owned the land when using a house placement tool and a green square appear if you could buy the land. Then, we could of turned the land into farming and had different rules for farm land because you could run through farms.

When someone places a house it should not just be a slabbed foundation. There should be a house design for every size and it should cost more than simply buying a slab.

When a person removes pieces of the house they should lose money. This would promote keeping some type of design.

There are alot of people who can not design homes and to be able to buy a furnished home or just a designed plot would increase their ability to become part of the community.

I think certain housing tiles should be set to certain areas, like in the city of Britain, there would be limited design options, so that you could not place, or would have to use certain materials to build with. This would help the housing look the same so communities would mesh better.

All the slabs do is add poor design and create an ugly landscape and add disfunctionality to a player's community.

 

[Aran]

I have two 18x18s and a tower. I rarely touch any of them. Does that mean I don't deserve them as much as someone who spends all their time at the house?

 

[Trebr Drab]

I have two 18x18s and a tower. I rarely touch any of them. Does that mean I don't deserve them as much as someone who spends all their time at the house?

That depends on how you look at it. Is your primary concern for the good of the game or for yourself? Players have every right to be more concerned for themselves, and it's a shame that is the case almost entirely, because the game as a whole suffers for it.

 

[DevilsOwn]

When someone places a house it should not just be a slabbed foundation. There should be a house design for every size and it should cost more than simply buying a slab.

this seems a bit backward, actually.... if the intent is to free the landscape of plain dirt plots, then a house design on an 18x18 should cost less to encourage people to go that route... for each size have predetermined designs and it stays that way until the plot is customized and committed

of course, you would then end up with plots with just floors, so we're not really solving anything with this solution, are we

 

[Ransom_of_BiC]

There is nothing quite like an active player town. To be able to craft things in my home and see other guildmembers running by, or crafting things in *their* home has probably been one of the most rewarding aspects about our current locations.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

Devils Own, we are solving solutions. It would have to cost more because your building a full house not just a slab, so you would take the cost of say an 18 x 18 and then add the cost of the design for that 18 x 18, I think we're looking at somewhere around 850k.

So, now, after someone places, if they go below this cost they lose that money. So, it does encourage you so you don't lose your money. You would want to design something at about 850k or more.

Also, if the value of the home dropped to much it could revert to its' original design and penalize you the cost. That would insure some type of design.

Also, this makes it easy for people who don't like to design and there could be an option added for a furnished house where you would pay even more, like 3 million, and the house would come furnished, with a cookie cut design.

You could still draw a foundation, it's just that the house would not have the basic foundation to start with. You would pick what part would be house and what part would be land. The part of the house would have a foundation.

The part that is just land could be fenced off, but if you declared it farm land the rule could be that you need to leave it open. So, if you grow corn, basically people could run through your corn field and they could be connected right together so someone could own 4 18 x 18 plots for farm and then have an 18 x 18 house plot with a yard, all connected and no spaces between them.

 

[Aran]

That depends on how you look at it. Is your primary concern for the good of the game or for yourself? Players have every right to be more concerned for themselves, and it's a shame that is the case almost entirely, because the game as a whole suffers for it.

So my houses, in the middle of nowhere, with open housing spots all over around them, are hurting the game in some manner.

Riiiight......

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

The empty dirt plots are an unfortunate side effect of custom housing. But I have to say, the empty plots look better than some of the ridiculous looking eyesore houses I see littering the landscape.

 

[Tangled Metal]

I think it would be great to reinstate house refreshing. I used to love looking for IDOC's back in the day. It gave everyone a reason to log in and refresh their house. Or if you were going to be away from the game for an extended time you'd ask a friend to refresh it. Drop the timer to 14 days after inactivity and reinstate refreshing. The reason for the 90 day time is no longer valid. The US is not technically at war with anyone in particular and most all soldiers have either completely quit UO or EA Mythic has extended their accts to not have their houses fall.

 

[Aran]

No that's okay, it's fine how it is.

 

[Tina Small]

I've seen some interesting designs that had were made with no walls whatsoever or very few of them. (One of my favorites is an illusion house that looks like it has a basement.) Would hate to think those would no longer be possible.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

I've seen some interesting designs that had were made with no walls whatsoever or very few of them. (One of my favorites is an illusion house that looks like it has a basement.) Would hate to think those would no longer be possible.

Well if they decide to place an 18 x 18 for like 850 k then rip it down and lose 850 k then so be it a slab.. At least we can try and I would have to agree with you, we can not take away only add to something.. I would think tho that most ppl who customize would be doing it to make it better for them so by adding in that step of building them a predesigned house there would be no logic in making it a slab.

So ppl would say to themselves If I make the house like this I will lose x amount and have to decide is it worth it??