If you thought it was a good idea to empty your house of your belongings by releasing them, and then going into customize mode so that they would fall under the house sign, think again. On Christmas Day I did that, and lost everything I've owned, worked for and collected since 1999. Not only that, but the same goes for my son who has been playing for as long as I have. His stuff was in my house. You can only imagine the amount of rares (a few server births too), huge item stacks, vet gifts, rare armor and weapons, rubble, dye tubs etc etc. A fortune worth hundreds and hundreds of millions I'm sure. In addition many items I recently bought off the UO online shop.
(And no, my house did not decay)
Here's how it all happened:
I wanted to demolish my customizable, then rebuild my old castle back up. So, I packed up all my and my son's belongings into dozens of chests and boxes, the idea being to place them on the ground while I demolish and rebuild.
But since there were dozens and dozens of chests and crates, I thought that the most convenient way to "place them on the ground" would be to release all of them, then go into customize mode which would eject them from the plot and create a nice single pile under the house sign. This felt wise, since it would not attract that much attention if someone came along. And even if someone did, all they'd be able to lift is the top one since they'd all be stacked under each other. Also I wanted it to look visually discreet, and not like an IDOC had fell or something!
I have used this trick many many times before without any problems, for instance when wanting to quickly "move" a very heavy chest from the top floor to the bottom without having to drag it along three flights of stairs. But up till now, I've only been ejecting one item or only a few at a time tops. Never 40 chests.
But this time things did not go as planned. Apparently there are only so many stacked items the game code can "eject" or accept under the sign, because after doing so, all that was left was 1 single chest and the rest had vanished into thin air. In any case thousands of valuables. Now lost forever! As if fate were playing a cruel trick on me, ironically, the single chest that was saved was the one where I keep all my empty bags and boxes for when I need them *sighs*.
I called a GM and thank goodness, one arrived within minutes. I really am thankful for that! The conversation is below.
Although it's only stuff, and although I can only blame myself for doing it the easy way (versus hand-dragging-and-placing the chests on the grass), I 'm really so devastated that I can't really find the heart to play anymore. It feels like, if I rebuild my UO life and start all over again, I'd only lose it all again to some other silly bug or at the very least be constantly stressed out knowing there is the possibility. I guess in a real life situation it would be sorta like losing your house, car and having your bank emptied out all at the same time. Sounds a little dramatic, but hey, even though it's merely virtual, it still takes real world time and effort to acquire it.
The main reason I've been paying monthly subscriptions for the game non stop for 12 years (even when I was not playing actively) was to ensure that my house and treasures are kept safe and sound. Considering how easily I lost it now, it feels a bit silly. Well at least it helped keep UO up and running if nothing else.
This experience does have it's good side though. Which is that now I am not tied down to the game in any way. Although I've glady paid the monthly subscription all these years, it has admittedly also bothered me that I am shackled to virtual goods for sentimental reasons. A weight has been lifted off, I'll have to admit. But this is only because I have not been constantly active. I think that had that been the case and would be very involved on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis, this sort of experience would have been many times more devastating. So for those of you who fit this description, please be careful out there!
Thankfully I also got the castle built back up. So now I can at least sell it and somehow compensate my son's loss. He estimated his valuables to be worth around 400 million, so hopefully selling off the castle will cover it. So yeah, if anyone is looking for a castle on a nice spot on Europa, let me know. ICQ #98012982.
It's too late for me, but I hope that on behalf of the other players who have been gathering their fortunes for many many years, that the UO programmers look into this at some point, because surely I cannot be the only one who has used ye olde "release and go into customization mode" trick.
(And no, my house did not decay)
Here's how it all happened:
I wanted to demolish my customizable, then rebuild my old castle back up. So, I packed up all my and my son's belongings into dozens of chests and boxes, the idea being to place them on the ground while I demolish and rebuild.
But since there were dozens and dozens of chests and crates, I thought that the most convenient way to "place them on the ground" would be to release all of them, then go into customize mode which would eject them from the plot and create a nice single pile under the house sign. This felt wise, since it would not attract that much attention if someone came along. And even if someone did, all they'd be able to lift is the top one since they'd all be stacked under each other. Also I wanted it to look visually discreet, and not like an IDOC had fell or something!
I have used this trick many many times before without any problems, for instance when wanting to quickly "move" a very heavy chest from the top floor to the bottom without having to drag it along three flights of stairs. But up till now, I've only been ejecting one item or only a few at a time tops. Never 40 chests.
But this time things did not go as planned. Apparently there are only so many stacked items the game code can "eject" or accept under the sign, because after doing so, all that was left was 1 single chest and the rest had vanished into thin air. In any case thousands of valuables. Now lost forever! As if fate were playing a cruel trick on me, ironically, the single chest that was saved was the one where I keep all my empty bags and boxes for when I need them *sighs*.
I called a GM and thank goodness, one arrived within minutes. I really am thankful for that! The conversation is below.

Although it's only stuff, and although I can only blame myself for doing it the easy way (versus hand-dragging-and-placing the chests on the grass), I 'm really so devastated that I can't really find the heart to play anymore. It feels like, if I rebuild my UO life and start all over again, I'd only lose it all again to some other silly bug or at the very least be constantly stressed out knowing there is the possibility. I guess in a real life situation it would be sorta like losing your house, car and having your bank emptied out all at the same time. Sounds a little dramatic, but hey, even though it's merely virtual, it still takes real world time and effort to acquire it.
The main reason I've been paying monthly subscriptions for the game non stop for 12 years (even when I was not playing actively) was to ensure that my house and treasures are kept safe and sound. Considering how easily I lost it now, it feels a bit silly. Well at least it helped keep UO up and running if nothing else.
This experience does have it's good side though. Which is that now I am not tied down to the game in any way. Although I've glady paid the monthly subscription all these years, it has admittedly also bothered me that I am shackled to virtual goods for sentimental reasons. A weight has been lifted off, I'll have to admit. But this is only because I have not been constantly active. I think that had that been the case and would be very involved on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis, this sort of experience would have been many times more devastating. So for those of you who fit this description, please be careful out there!
Thankfully I also got the castle built back up. So now I can at least sell it and somehow compensate my son's loss. He estimated his valuables to be worth around 400 million, so hopefully selling off the castle will cover it. So yeah, if anyone is looking for a castle on a nice spot on Europa, let me know. ICQ #98012982.
It's too late for me, but I hope that on behalf of the other players who have been gathering their fortunes for many many years, that the UO programmers look into this at some point, because surely I cannot be the only one who has used ye olde "release and go into customization mode" trick.