[UO Herald] Is Your House in The Right Spot?

[UO News]

It has come to our attention that houses build houses inside or right outside of the arenas are interfering with their proper functioning.
If your house falls into this category, please remove it before Friday. Houses that are not taken down by Friday will have to be removed.

Thank you for your understanding.



More...

 

[aarons6]

thats great, build an arena where there are previous houses and then force people to remove them?


good job devs.. maybe you should have built those away from player housing.

id hate to be the person that doesnt play uo very often but pays the account to keep a house.
then log in one day to find it replaced by an arena...

 

[Kayne]

Oh dear, really not a good decision to have made devs. People likely had houses there before you put an arena in.
Why should people suffer unecessary hassle that shouldn't have happened.

 

[Thunderz]

They could at least tell us where the spots or houses are as some people might not still be active but are still paying to keep there house and there gona loose everything without being informed.

Bad idea, unless people have placed houses recently so they could be close to an arena i dont even know where thay are so how do i know if mines gone be deleted and loose everything??

Thunderz

 

[Salivern_Diago]

Well unless you can place a house in Haven/Ocello and the lost lands you dont have anything to worry about. As far as I'm aware you've never been able to place in those locations.

 

[Kayne]

Oddly enough Sal, theres a house causing problems in Occlo on Europa...

 

[Salivern_Diago]

Ah, I am wrong then lol. I dont think I've been to Occlo since before Haven blew up :/

 

[Poo]

the only arena that would be effected would be the occlo one, and a house there is either very very VERY old, or very new.

im assuming since they are asking people to drop them they have looked at them and realized that they are newly placed there specifically for griefing, hence the reason they are politely asking them to be removed before they remove them.

i see nothing wrong with it.
hell, at least they asked!

so much hate going on today!

 

[Shelleybean]

Can you give players more than just a few days? Some of us will be busy with family and travel over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

im assuming...

Yes, you are.

Most of this thread is not filled with "hate" as you so uniquely put it, but rather suggested that their handling of it was poor in execution.

If they are "newly placed" houses, then the announcement should say so. If they are not newly placed, then there should be another method implemented.

In either case, they're not exactly providing full details in their announcement.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

...which isn't even cross-posted to the login screen messages!

And here I'd hoped we'd left those days behind. [/sarcasm]

Seriously... it's like they don't even know the patch screen exists. I mean, okay, Patch Notes, Latest Announcements, whatever... they could certainly utilize that real estate better for important things like this.

 

[Ultimaholic]

LOL doesn`t take much to make you UO haters crawl outa the woodwork. First thing I thought of as I read the announcement was it involved newly placed houses.

Open mouth,insert foot people. Its amusing.

 

[Tazar]

Posts by the "Grammar Police" have been removed. Stratics is not the place for this.

In this case - there is a language barrier and Google Translate or whatever translation system was used - isn't working right.

Further grammar trolling posts will also be removed and acted on.

 

[aarons6]

And here I'd hoped we'd left those days behind. [/sarcasm]

Seriously... it's like they don't even know the patch screen exists. I mean, okay, Patch Notes, Latest Announcements, whatever... they could certainly utilize that real estate better for important things like this.

exactly, with the current situation of the mannequins i would love to have seen some warning about those and friends taking your armor..

this is a super place to post this stuff, but these boards arent viewed by every player.

 

[iamSnippa]

Wow, I seriously hope these are only newly placed houses, otherwise they are messing up big time.
Seriously, if these are old houses then they need to move the arenas, not force players out of their homes.

Edit: oh, and if they are newly placed houses, why even bother saying anything about it? If I had placed a house on top of the xroads healer tower or in a dungeon it would have been removed immediately when it was found by a gm or dev member. I seriously don't think I would have ever gotten any notice like that.

 

[JohnnyO]

So for those of us that haven't followed the whole "Arenas" thing. They're located in the Lost Lands, Ocllo and Haven, correct? Just want to make sure my house is safe.

 

[virtualhabitat]

I have a house next to the arena in Occlo.

It was my first house. It was placed legally on April 14 2011. As of last thursday it is now improperly placed.

I sent Mesanna a pm through Stratics last week, but haven't heard a peep from her.

The issue with my house is that the arena stone is in the same spot as the house. it still works and everything, you just have to have your circle of trans on to see the stone. The arena has even been used. you can see the statistics.

This announcement is poorly written and does not convey whether my house will be removed or not.

Does anyone know what this means? houses build houses?
"that houses build houses inside or right outside of the arenas are interfering with their proper functioning. "
Well my house is adjacent to the arena but the arena functions properly. Is my house in that category??

 

[Larisa]

I have a house next to the arena in Occlo.

It was my first house. It was placed legally on April 14 2011. As of last thursday it is now improperly placed.

I sent Mesanna a pm through Stratics last week, but haven't heard a peep from her.

The issue with my house is that the arena stone is in the same spot as the house. it still works and everything, you just have to have your circle of trans on to see the stone. The arena has even been used. you can see the statistics.

This announcement is poorly written and does not convey whether my house will be removed or not.

Does anyone know what this means? houses build houses?
"that houses build houses inside or right outside of the arenas are interfering with their proper functioning. "
Well my house is adjacent to the arena but the arena functions properly. Is my house in that category??

It basically states that any houses built inside or directly outside of an arena interfere with it functioning properly.

I would say that having to use CoT to get to the stone is interfering with it's function as that is not how it is intended.

So I would pack up your belongings and be prepared to move just to be safe.

 

[virtualhabitat]

The house was there BEFORE the stone was there. There was no stone, no guard zone.

I guess you have to know someone. I obviously don't.

 

[Crysta]

Was the arena building itself there when you made it?

 

[old gypsy]

The house was there BEFORE the stone was there. There was no stone, no guard zone.

I guess you have to know someone. I obviously don't.

I can sympathize, but if I had a small house subject to eminent domain and knew the bulldozers were on the way, I think I'd move before they got there.

 

[elspeth]

I can't agree more with the patch message. All important messages such as this really need to be there. And it should be updated when there are new patches. I've often wondered why its not updated more. or at the very least it should tell players that they must check "blah blah" website for important messages.

But for something like this I would expect them to email the account owners directly of offending houses. But even more so, any house placed before the arenas went in, this seems seriously rude of devs. They should build the arenas in places that were not housing areas. The second they knew where they wanted to do them they should have made those areas offlimits for new housing as well. Somebody who doesn't frequent these boards and even one who does check occasionally might not have known about this, or perhaps a person who doesn't like pvp so who ignored all but initial posts about the arenas, I certainly haven't read much about them because I doubt I'll ever use them.

This is nothing to do with hate. The message makes it sound like arenas are being placed and anybody already there must move immediately. Or did they screw up and allow houses to be placed on top of arena in some way after they went in? That's the only way I could see houses being in the way as griefing and as I said earlier, they should've marked the area all around as a no housing zone as soon as they knew or at least as soon as the arena went in.

 

[Kellgory]

Problem I see with the situation is that if the house was placed well before the arena was placed, then I don't see where it is right that they are given such short notice to remove or we will remove it for you ultimatum. After all it is a holiday week in the US and for all we know the person that owns the house could be taking a break from the game (but still paying) or could be travelling for the week. If the house was placed after the arena was placed, then they shouldn't have placed a house there. Not sure how many houses or shards are affected by this.

 

[old gypsy]

Problem I see with the situation is that if the house was placed well before the arena was placed, then I don't see where it is right that they are given such short notice to remove or we will remove it for you ultimatum. After all it is a holiday week in the US and for all we know the person that owns the house could be taking a break from the game (but still paying) or could be travelling for the week....

True. More notice should have been given, not only because it's a holiday week, but because many players go for days or weeks at a time without playing. And as someone else mentioned, not every player reads Stratics.

 

[virtualhabitat]

This is crap. It shouldn't be my fault that they decided to make my house illegal seven months after it was placed legally.

-then give me two days to vacate. Thanksgiving on top of that.

Thanks a lot UO.

 

[Zosimus]

Tis a "shame" they announced this during the holiday weekend in the US.

Jeff started off real good didn't he. He is the "Ultimate Franchise Producer" so it was his call.

Dev communication went to zero pretty fast after a few days of shame chatter on the boards

It should of been expected

Go to his twitter account and tweet him is what I would suggest since tweeting is more important then reading stratics. It may enrage some if you see what he is occupied with and nothing about the "Ultimate Franchise".

 

[aarons6]

if the house was there before this patch that made the arenas then it is very unacceptable to be asked to move them in this manor.. specially the do it or have it removed in 2 days BS...

they should have been given a proper in email per account message saying to please move your house weeks before this patch went live..

way to go devs..

why did you even put the arenas so close to player housing where it could have been an issue?

 

[Raptor85]

or how about if housing nearby causes issues forget using the ocllo arena and use the others that for some reason aren't being included, such as the one next to wrong and the one near umbra (neither of which can have houses too close to them)

 

[Aurelius]

Houses that are not taken down by Friday will have to be removed.

The more I think about this, the more intrigued I am by it...

Does this imply removing 'by hand' by a GM/Dev? Or is there a half-baked idea to just delete any 'illegally placed' houses with some form of automated script?

You see, if it's the latter, there are several problems. I'm directly affected by one - my main home is near Yew, it was placed legally many years ago, but in the windup of the Meer/Juka storyline, when Yew ceased being a swamp, the guard zone was redrawn and many houses fall inside the newer limit - and are thus 'illegally placed' if you check the house sign, and cannot be replaced if demolished.

As ever with UOHerald announcements, more information required please....

 

[McValdemar]

Well,
I am the owner of the house in Occlo in fron of the Arena.

I placed it using the game tools, no trick or similars, and nowhere is stated that I should check Stratics every day.

Assumed this I'm in UO from about 10 years (with pauses) and since don't wanna be a problem for devs I can accept to move my house.

But is crazy to gime me just 4 days, without any in-game notice, to move a full decorated house for something that is not my fault.

Please someone in the devs/mods contact me to agree on a longer term to make me find another spot.
I don't think to ask something absurd.

 

[QueenZen]

I too had that spot right next to the Ocllo arena.

It was legally placed, even surprised me that a house, would even go down there at all, cuz they blocked off placing homes, that once upon a time could be closer to the Ocllo bank, were blocked off, years ago.

Not sure what year, they put that unused arena up in Ocllo originally,
but a home [was able to be placed] right next to it, for a long long time.

A 9 x 12/ 9 x 11 or some thing like that.
Is/was a great spot, no guardzone,
& no one using that arena, anyhow.

I had placed it *legally placed* it with housing tool on Siege,
originally to provide a way OFF of Siege Ocllo,
cuz on Siege there is NO public moongate,
no way off Ocllo has ever been created by the Dev. team on Siege,
so I provided a crystal portal on my public porch there...
for the short time, that I held that spot, on Siege.

That spot was empty last time I looked on Chesapeake shard..
but yeh homes were placeable there LEGALLY, right smack up next to the arena in Ocllo,
long before this arena, publish stuff.

Someone new, now has that same house spot, I had next to the Ocllo arena, on Siege.
I am not sure he plays very much, so unless he reads this thread or gets some EMAIL, he is going to be shocked, to find his legally placed next to Ocllo arena, which he has now held for a few mos. now, will suddenly become a home ILLEGALLY placed, when it WAS LEGALLY placed originally,
over these next few days !

I do not think the home owners of the homes that WERE placed
next to arenas like the Ocllo one, some long time ago, are getting enough notice to vacate/move their home spots.

Thanksgiving weekend in USA, some of those home owners will be GONE visiting family for the holiday meal etc. & won't even be back to their rl homes possibly till mon or tues !

 

[virtualhabitat]

Well,
I am the owner of the house in Occlo in fron of the Arena.

I placed it using the game tools, no trick or similars, and nowhere is stated that I should check Stratics every day.

Assumed this I'm in UO from about 10 years (with pauses) and since don't wanna be a problem for devs I can accept to move my house.

But is crazy to gime me just 4 days, without any in-game notice, to move a full decorated house for something that is not my fault.

Please someone in the devs/mods contact me to agree on a longer term to make me find another spot.
I don't think to ask something absurd.

My house is in the exact same location as your, but on GL.

Four days? Try 2 days. the announcement was given at end of business on Tuesday giving us Wednesday and Thursday to move. Houses will be removed on Friday at what time is anyone's guess.

Last Thursday I noticed that my house had become improperly placed. I was concerned and asked around.
Turns out there are lots improperly placed houses due to changing landscape over the years

I sent Mesanna a message through Stratics on Thursday of last week explaining the situation. She did not respond to my message.

I log in to Stratics last night and see the Herald announcement.

The house is not built on top of the arena, it is next door/Adjacent to it.

There was no guard zone seven months ago when I placed the house.

There was no arena stone seven months ago when I placed the house.

For seven months the house has been "properly placed"

Now with Pub 73 there is a guard zone and an arena stone under the edge of the house and it is now improperly placed.

Inquiries made to Mesanna are met with silence.

An announcement that appears to be written by a fifth grader is posted to Stratics, informing me I must vacate in two days. One of those days is Thanksgiving holiday.

Bullschit

 

[McValdemar]

My house is in the exact same location as your, but on GL.

Four days? Try 2 days. the announcement was given at end of business on Tuesday giving us Wednesday and Thursday to move. Houses will be removed on Friday at what time is anyone's guess.

Last Thursday I noticed that my house had become improperly placed. I was concerned and asked around.
Turns out there are lots improperly placed houses due to changing landscape over the years

I sent Mesanna a message through Stratics on Thursday of last week explaining the situation. She did not respond to my message.

I log in to Stratics last night and see the Herald announcement.

The house is not built on top of the arena, it is next door/Adjacent to it.

There was no guard zone seven months ago when I placed the house.

There was no arena stone seven months ago when I placed the house.

For seven months the house has been "properly placed"

Now with Pub 73 there is a guard zone and an arena stone under the edge of the house and it is now improperly placed.

Inquiries made to Mesanna are met with silence.

An announcement that appears to be written by a fifth grader is posted to Stratics, informing me I must vacate in two days. One of those days is Thanksgiving holiday.

Bullschit

I agree.
I never used to rant but is absurd that they change the rules, do not notify us, not allowing a proper time to move our houses.
Without even considering that having someone to move a house that was properly legally placed is already asking a kindness to us.
What I can do is begin tonite moving my items to the bank and then deactivate my account.
I'm paying 13$ per month for the love I have to the game even If I have few time to play.
But did this especially to preserve "my place" in the world.
Now they are taking it away, like it was my fault, and not even try to be fair in the comunication or the times.
I can understand if this request was posed and tended differently.
This lack of any care about changing rules without even the smallest respect for a many years customers makes me decide is time to store my things in the bank and move on a free shard.

 

[virtualhabitat]

I too had that spot right next to the Ocllo arena.

It was legally placed, even surprised me that a house, would even go down there at all, cuz they blocked off placing homes, that once upon a time could be closer to the Ocllo bank, were blocked off, years ago.

Not sure what year, they put that unused arena up in Ocllo originally,
but a home [was able to be placed] right next to it, for a long long time.

There is a L-shaped house not even 20 tiles from Occlo Bank on Great Lakes.

You can walk all the way under the house.

Only a tiny corner of the house is actually touching the ground. Seriously, like five tiles of the house foundation are all that touch the ground.

There are six full sized trees under the house.

The guard zone is two, maybe three tiles from the front door.

Why aren't they tearing that house down? Was it ever Properly Placed?

 

[Capn Kranky]

Like it's up to date when you patch? Rarely

 

[virtualhabitat]

So, I was thinking about this announcement. You know how it comes across as a little rude.

I was talking to a friend about the situation and he suggested I call EA and see if I could talk to someone about this.

"Well", I said, "it's the day before Thanksgiving, who do you think will be at work today? Tomorrow? Friday?"

That's right, this little operation has been neatly engineered to occur while no one is at the office to hear any complaints.

 

[old gypsy]

So, I was thinking about this announcement. You know how it comes across as a little rude.

I was talking to a friend about the situation and he suggested I call EA and see if I could talk to someone about this.

"Well", I said, "it's the day before Thanksgiving, who do you think will be at work today? Tomorrow? Friday?"

That's right, this little operation has been neatly engineered to occur while no one is at the office to hear any complaints.

If I had any characters on your shard, I'd offer to help you move.

 

[vexyvixen]

Wow, this is horrible and really short notice. I know a lot of people are going out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday and won't be able to move their houses before the beginning of next week.

 

[Crysta]

Again;

Was the arena building itself there when you made it?

 

[Demonous]

how do u even know what area it is... they should post a map and say any houses in this area must be taken down

 

[Cogniac]

The warning about this has been available for the last nine months.

It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."

 

[virtualhabitat]

Again;

Was the arena building itself there when you made it?

Yes, the arena itself was there. My house was placed next to it.

There is a thread on the Homes and Castles forum showing another house in the same location dating from December of last year as well. In fact he has pics of two houses within a few tiles of each other. both within the same screen area as the arena.

The houses were legally placed in an unrestricted area.

The issue isn't the arena building itself. It is the arena stone placement. The stone was added in Pub 73.

This has been an unrestricted area for housing for quite some time now.

 

[Salivern_Diago]

I know it sounds harsh and all, but not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. They have also given a few days notice at lest (Rather than just dropping the houses) so anyone who celebrates thanksgiving has a couple of days till they action it.

Now I've read a bit more into it, it is a bit off that they've done this. They could at lest allow said house owners to place somewhere else that they cant normally place as a sort of compensation. It wouldnt hurt the game and it'll ease any ill feeling.

Now from what I was aware of, each time they post on UOHeralds, its supposed to be checked by someone first. Although in cases of emergency then yeah ok. But its not like its an emergency and how much time would it take for someone to quickly read though and edit it?

 

[Crysta]

The issue IS the building itself.

Bascially, you placed a house in a spot that obviously is way closer than intended to a structure that is part of the map itself on every shard because you thought it "would be cool" and now come here to pancake and moan when, several months later, the devs decide to fix the problem?

Given, it is short notice, but you definitely should have expected this eventually since its something that always happens in such situations, it just takes a while sometimes, especially when its a feature that isn't active yet.

I have sympathy for anyone that's had a house there for years, or even from just before that arena structure was added to the map. For them, the anger is quite justified.

For you, or others, who built it that close after it was already there likely knowing it damn well wasn't intended? None at all.

By the by, I hope you've gotten your stuff out of it by now. Wouldn't want you to lose anything come Friday.




Bolding added in your style in the hopes that it will help you understand what is being said.

 

[Capn Kranky]

... That's right, this little operation has been neatly engineered to occur while no one is at the office to hear any complaints.

And how is this any surprise? It's an EA tradition to do stuff like this at the least opportune times (for the paying customer) in case of issues. Like the Support folks are gonna have the answers over this period? It's rare one even knows of UO.

<shakes head> Damn, I'm glad I'm outta this mess.

 

[old gypsy]

The warning about this has been available for the last nine months.

It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."

I suddenly have an inexplicable urge to rewatch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...

 

[Gorbs]

I suddenly have an inexplicable urge to rewatch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...

No, don't do that. The old BBC version is acceptable I suppose, but honestly, it's a 200 page book. You should be able to knock that out in a few hours and will enjoy it far more than the abomination that was in theaters a few years back.

 

[old gypsy]

No, don't do that. The old BBC version is acceptable I suppose, but honestly, it's a 200 page book. You should be able to knock that out in a few hours and will enjoy it far more than the abomination that was in theaters a few years back.

Read the book years ago. It was great... have been meaning to replace it for some time now.

Sorry to get off-topic, though. I really feel for anyone who may lose their house.

 

[Nyses]

The issue IS the building itself.

Bascially, you placed a house in a spot that obviously is way closer than intended to a structure that is part of the map itself on every shard because you thought it "would be cool" and now come here to pancake and moan when, several months later, the devs decide to fix the problem?
[/B]

Seems pretty rude, to be ripping into a player who is upset about a lack of foresight on the part of EA. Is he going off, a lot, yes. Should EA have thought to restrict housing BEFORE putting up the arenas, YES. Should EA have contacted the player accounts involved several weeks ago and offered to move the problematic houses all at once, maybe. They certainly could have some up with something better.

 

[Mapper]

Bascially, you placed a house in a spot that obviously is way closer than intended to a structure that is part of the map itself on every shard because you thought it "would be cool" and now come here to pancake and moan when, several months later, the devs decide to fix the problem?

Not everyone knows what the housing rules should be...