Devs....Any announcement with Housing ?

[THP]

2 quick questions i guess......

1. Youve been going through the shards manually setting decay on houses and have maybe got rid of 60/75% of the bugged houses and the RTB houses ...are we just having a little breather b4 going into phase 2 ...[god we need one...what a crazy month its been] ....or is that gonna be it ....are the remaining bugged ones gonna stop there even longer unless they are reported by players maybe??

2. Any update with owning a secondary house on another shard??

my idea would be for EA to cash in AND SELL cheap token thats account bound...like the increased storage /7th char etc etc....maybe 10 dollars for a secondary house token.....this way peeps that want a 2nd house can buy one...those that dont .........can simply ignore it............simples!!!!

 

[DerekL]

my idea would be for EA to cash in AND SELL cheap token thats account bound...like the increased storage /7th char etc etc....maybe 10 dollars for a secondary house token.....this way peeps that want a 2nd house can buy one...those that dont .........can simply ignore it............simples!!!!

Sure, if the second house is limited to a fairly small footprint. You want a full a size house, you pay the full monthly freight.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

I'd honestly pay another $2/month for a secondary house up to 15x15 as long as it could be placed on whatever shard I wanted it on, including my home shard. I think a one-time sales token is probably a little too low of a price for it, unless it was limited to maybe 10x10 and only on another shard.

 

[DJAd]

You want a full a size house, you pay the full monthly freight.

I currently pay the full monthly freight already and don't have a full size house....

 

[cdavbar]

I currently pay the full monthly freight already and don't have a full size house....

So your only able to use half your plot?

 

[DJAd]

So your only able to use half your plot?

What I mean is many people pay the full whack per month and don't have castles (the biggest plot). This is what I consider a ""full size" house like you mentioned in your first post.

Its kinda unfair already that everyone pays the same subscription but some get more lock downs and storage space than others.

 

[Emil Ispep]

I was thinking more along the lines of a 2nd house plot as a 15 year veteran reward?

I mean a shed is nice and all... but i feel like a hobo living in it.

 

[claudia-fjp]

What I mean is many people pay the full whack per month and don't have castles (the biggest plot). This is what I consider a ""full size" house like you mentioned in your first post.

Its kinda unfair already that everyone pays the same subscription but some get more lock downs and storage space than others.

Well, your full monthly access to the game is quite capable of placing and owning a max storage castle. You just choose not to play on the servers where you can go place one. That's not EA's fault.

 

[DJAd]

Well, your full monthly access to the game is quite capable of placing and owning a max storage castle. You just choose not to play on the servers where you can go place one. That's not EA's fault.

Yes I guess your right. I don't want to play on the "dead" shards cos it's boring as ****!

 

[TheGhostRaider]

The damm shed is only for Castle, so the rest of us that have regular house have no use for it. Why not give the same amount of lock down on Castle and Keep since a keep is easier to place. UO give us lot of gift but no room to displace then.

 

[DJAd]

The damm shed is only for Castle

Really?! I've seen on placed on a custom plot.

 

[Petra Fyde]

The damm shed is only for Castle, so the rest of us that have regular house have no use for it. Why not give the same amount of lock down on Castle and Keep since a keep is easier to place. UO give us lot of gift but no room to displace then.

Where does that idea come from? The shed will go on any house that has the space for it, which is slightly less than that needed for a soulforge.

 

[cdavbar]

This is what I consider a ""full size" house like you mentioned in your first post.

Umm, I had only one post in this thread.

What I mean is many people pay the full whack per month and don't have castles (the biggest plot).

Its kinda unfair already that everyone pays the same subscription but some get more lock downs and storage space than others.

Really, get over it. It's been over 15 years. In all this time, I have yet to obtain a castle, which I truly desire before the end of this game (which I hope doesn't come for decades). You sound more like your just want more storage, not the actual castle. Get over that too. Many people have storage needs, they get more accounts storage accounts cost what, 4 months sub a year? You could have three house holder accounts and essentially pay the same as only having ONE extra account.

 

[THP]

Umm, I had only one post in this thread.



Really, get over it. It's been over 15 years. In all this time, I have yet to obtain a castle, which I truly desire before the end of this game (which I hope doesn't come for decades). You sound more like your just want more storage, not the actual castle. Get over that too. Many people have storage needs, they get more accounts storage accounts cost what, 4 months sub a year? You could have three house holder accounts and essentially pay the same as only having ONE extra account.

This true...u can run /pay for 3 accounts...each one every 90 days....hence u get 3 houses and esentially pay for one just year ...12 months ...you just freind up all 3 account chars to all 3 houses...this aint new...loads of people are doing this....

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

This true...u can run /pay for 3 accounts...each one every 90 days....hence u get 3 houses and esentially pay for one just year ...12 months ...you just freind up all 3 account chars to all 3 houses...this aint new...loads of people are doing this....

..and this is the next thing they need to address. While it's nice that if you have a legitimate problem and can't get your subscription renewed in time to save your house, it's being abused by people who reactivate accounts four times a year to maintain storage sheds. Encouraging others to "abuse" this method of maintaining houses doesn't sit well with me. I say bring on the next stage of IDOCs and start making it so that houses go into decay as soon as the subscription lapses - or shorten it to 6 weeks, and maybe allow a one time lapse (for those who legitimately get caught off guard by an expired credit card, or whatever). Having said that, now that there is so much space, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, but all my houses are paid for by full-time subscriptions the way it was intended! .

 

[cdavbar]

..and this is the next thing they need to address. While it's nice that if you have a legitimate problem and can't get your subscription renewed in time to save your house, it's being abused by people who reactivate accounts four times a year to maintain storage sheds. Encouraging others to "abuse" this method of maintaining houses doesn't sit well with me. I say bring on the next stage of IDOCs and start making it so that houses go into decay as soon as the subscription lapses - or shorten it to 6 weeks, and maybe allow a one time lapse (for those who legitimately get caught off guard by an expired credit card, or whatever). Having said that, now that there is so much space, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, but all my houses are paid for by full-time subscriptions the way it was intended! .

They actually at one point planned on shortening the time limit from ninety days to thirty days. However, that plan got canned. I do not remember the official reason why, whether it was programming issues or player response. Either way, I'm glad you have the extra cash to spend 12 months sub for a spare house when you only have to pay 4 months/yr for a spare house.

 

[THP]

So devs .....your move....what gives??

 

[Petra Fyde]

I think you'll need to exercise a little patience.
IF there's any change coming up with housing I would hazard a guess that it will be linked to, or related to, the new theme pack. However there is no mention of that kind of change in the information we have on that so far.
From Mesanna's last Producer's Letter:

• Introducing a new Housing Theme Pack which will consist of:
  • New couches, chairs, tables, beds, lots and lots of lamps, pictures, and tapestries. (46 new pieces of art total)
  • Advanced Tinkering – This will allows players to create new gadgets, one example is being able to create a light switch for your house to turn off and on your lamps
  • Changing the Co Owner status from 10 co-owners to 10 accounts as co-owners on one house (70 players)

I'm saving my pennies for multiple theme packs, one for each account.

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

...I'm saving my pennies for multiple theme packs, one for each account.

Well I just hope it's not like the gothic/rustic theme pack where we have to buy multiple theme packs to get a few craftables...as for the light switch...neat idea, but never gonna use it unless they suddenly implement utility bills for our houses..."Honey, turn off the lights before you log-out! Do you know how much gold it takes to keep this house lit?!?!"

 

[Warpig Inc]

New deed for accounts over a year old on the vet reward list and the deed will be offered as a bonus for early purchases of new upgrade packs. Account bound.

Deed has choice of placing a tent or gypsy wagon in legal housing areas. Longer decay rate then boats. One placement per account per shard.

6 hardened containers of 125 locks and five spaces for locking down non container items like forge, anvil or oven. The arts guys can play around with different tent designs and wagon styles. 7x7 plot size without a foundation but with all the house security for fel type living. Campy type of plot theme.

Decay rate oculd be like a running 30 day IDOC timeline.

They just got rid of the RTB houses to replace them with more POD rental storage plots that never see life? The SP house placement option still is a good ideal for a secondary house. Just may need a decay rate also for players that are serious. If they really want to support senseless hoarding not supported by a monthly fee. There is a large area at the East end of the Luna mountain for goldsink storage buildings. Just needs a perma gate to there and some fel location.

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

Well they could introduce a housing deed that allowed for placement of a castle sized, customizable plot in Malas. But given how many people have multiple accounts I'm already dreading what Malas would turn into...hmm, maybe make it a 16 year vet reward - that will make everyone happy *ducks*

 

[Lord Frodo]

..and this is the next thing they need to address. While it's nice that if you have a legitimate problem and can't get your subscription renewed in time to save your house, it's being abused by people who reactivate accounts four times a year to maintain storage sheds. Encouraging others to "abuse" this method of maintaining houses doesn't sit well with me. I say bring on the next stage of IDOCs and start making it so that houses go into decay as soon as the subscription lapses - or shorten it to 6 weeks, and maybe allow a one time lapse (for those who legitimately get caught off guard by an expired credit card, or whatever). Having said that, now that there is so much space, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, but all my houses are paid for by full-time subscriptions the way it was intended! .

And the instant you do this UO will lose more subs and UO knows this. I have 3 accounts 2 of them are on 6 mo auto renewal programs. The 3rd is a house holder account that UO gets $13 everytime I renew my account or when I need to do something with that account. UO makes money off of that account and I can state for a fact that where that house is has been empty for a long time so UO is better off getting my money for a house hold account then nothing at all. If I find a spot that I want I will renew yet another one of my unused accounts that I have, total of 4. Is it better for UO to allow us to do this? YES! Getting something is better than nothing at all. And if UO did what you wanted then the shards would look deader than they do now with all the RTB houses falling.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Well they could introduce a housing deed that allowed for placement of a castle sized, customizable plot in Malas. But given how many people have multiple accounts I'm already dreading what Malas would turn into...hmm, maybe make it a 16 year vet reward - that will make everyone happy *ducks*

I DO NOT want to see any 31x31 customizable size plots anywhere in UO. 18x18 is large enough for that.

 

[Vor]

I DO NOT want to see any 31x31 customizable size plots anywhere in UO. 18x18 is large enough for that.

Ahmen to that!

 

[Olahorand]

I DO NOT want to see any 31x31 customizable size plots anywhere in UO. 18x18 is large enough for that.

Why not?
As long as there is the same hight limitation as to a common castle I see no problem here.

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

Well the strange thing is people are getting creative with gozas and the decorator tool, so castles are already exceeding their maximum height.

 

[Tanivar]

I DO NOT want to see any 31x31 customizable size plots anywhere in UO. 18x18 is large enough for that.

Customizable plots that large decorated by some of our very talented house designers would be fantastic. They should issue a few of these as prizes for house design contests.

And no, <laughs> I wouldn't have chance at one. My designs are closer to borg cubes than works of art.

 

[claudia-fjp]

I'm curious about #1 too. They seemed to have stopped short with about 10-20% of bugged houses remaining.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Why not?
As long as there is the same hight limitation as to a common castle I see no problem here.

We DO NOT need 31x31 4 story bright blue borg cubes. The 18x18 are bad enough.

 

[Viper09]

We DO NOT need 31x31 4 story bright blue borg cubes. The 18x18 are bad enough.

Can't deny that an artistic individual would be able to do wonders with a customized 31x31 plot though. But I agree. I don't mind the current borg cubes too much, but a 31x31 borg cube would be rather nuts.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Can't deny that an artistic individual would be able to do wonders with a customized 31x31 plot though. But I agree. I don't mind the current borg cubes too much, but a 31x31 borg cube would be rather nuts.

Agree There are some peps out there that could make some outstanding designs. But look at all the 18x18 dirt plots and 18x18 cubes. NO TY

If and only if I had one I would make a Castle that looks from the outside the same but redo the inside only, same with a Keep. Give us this and I will agree.

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

Agree There are some peps out there that could make some outstanding designs. But look at all the 18x18 dirt plots and 18x18 cubes. NO TY

If and only if I had one I would make a Castle that looks from the outside the same but redo the inside only, same with a Keep. Give us this and I will agree.

Well I suggest we go one better, let there be a contest for people to redesign the castle and keep with a few options for people to personalize their choice. From there they could make the top three (five?) designs available as a static plot for others to change over their current castle/keep and (if not too complicated), allow a few different options like floor and wall style. You say you hate the current cube designs, with all the open space, the world is turning into a series of grey keeps and castles which aren't overly pleasing when they're stacked side by side all over the place. Take a look at ice island to see what I mean. And maybe a further compromise...only allow this for keeps, but up the storage to equal castles in hopes that some people with castles downgrade...of course, some will always keep the castle.

 

[MrMightySmith]

i have a simple solution just make it so u can more than one house but it the total combinations of plot sizes cannot exceed 24x24. so i can I have one 17x17 and a 7x7 or 3 8x8s? or two 2 12x12s. Brings back the value of some of the small houses and it really all it does is it gives someone a extra 7x7 which i feel at this point with land being so open it would help the game a bit to fill just some of that empty space. Obviously a full subscription to keep a 18x18 vs a 7x7 really aint equal in my book but i am not the boss but the best part of this game was when the small house meant something.

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

I do like that plot idea, it would let me rebuild my guild village with all the various sized houses I used to own, but can't see the devs doing it.

 

[THP]

I'm curious about #1 too. They seemed to have stopped short with about 10-20% of bugged houses remaining.

at least 10-20 % of RTBS still stand...and theres all the un-named / no owner bugged ones.......come on devs.....if ya dropping them...drop em all.........

 

[Irulia Darkaith]

And the instant you do this UO will lose more subs and UO knows this. I have 3 accounts 2 of them are on 6 mo auto renewal programs. The 3rd is a house holder account that UO gets $13 everytime I renew my account or when I need to do something with that account. UO makes money off of that account and I can state for a fact that where that house is has been empty for a long time so UO is better off getting my money for a house hold account then nothing at all. If I find a spot that I want I will renew yet another one of my unused accounts that I have, total of 4. Is it better for UO to allow us to do this? YES! Getting something is better than nothing at all. And if UO did what you wanted then the shards would look deader than they do now with all the RTB houses falling.

Well like I said, it's kind of a moot point now with all the open space - other than Atlantic I don't think shortening the decay rate would help anyone at this stage, and the players angered by this would probably outnumber the players who actually care about this idea. But I am curious about how much money EA would actually lose if they implemented this policy. I won't claim to know how all the players using the 90 day rule would react, but I have a hard time believing that everyone doing it would suddenly take an all or nothing approach. Let's take the scenario where you have 4 temporary accounts holding 4 houses, and you're just activating each account every 3 months to keep the houses standing. In this scenario EA is making $240.00 a year off a single player (not including any main, full-time accounts). Now, let's pretend EA changes it so that houses decay every 30 months. Are you telling me this player is suddenly going to go from 4 houses to zero?! I think more likely the player would carefully choose and would probably end up with 2 full time accounts, thus EA makes the same money off that person. As for the shard looking even more dead....guess that's a matter of opinion...I don't take any comfort from empty storage houses dotting the land...it doesn't fool me into thinking the population is higher than it actually is. Anyway, that's my point, take it for what you will.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Well like I said, it's kind of a moot point now with all the open space - other than Atlantic I don't think shortening the decay rate would help anyone at this stage, and the players angered by this would probably outnumber the players who actually care about this idea. But I am curious about how much money EA would actually lose if they implemented this policy. I won't claim to know how all the players using the 90 day rule would react, but I have a hard time believing that everyone doing it would suddenly take an all or nothing approach. Let's take the scenario where you have 4 temporary accounts holding 4 houses, and you're just activating each account every 3 months to keep the houses standing. In this scenario EA is making $240.00 a year off a single player (not including any main, full-time accounts). Now, let's pretend EA changes it so that houses decay every 30 months. Are you telling me this player is suddenly going to go from 4 houses to zero?! I think more likely the player would carefully choose and would probably end up with 2 full time accounts, thus EA makes the same money off that person. As for the shard looking even more dead....guess that's a matter of opinion...I don't take any comfort from empty storage houses dotting the land...it doesn't fool me into thinking the population is higher than it actually is. Anyway, that's my point, take it for what you will.

Your 4 house accounts going every 90 days is not the way most of the players do this. Most players have 1 or more accounts that are always on, I have 2 such accounts and that brings UO $240.00 a yr. I also have 1 house account that gives UO an extra $42 - $56 a yr so total I pay UO $282 - $296 a yr. Now if as you say they do a 30 day decay that means that house account will cost me $84 a yr, that is double the cost and is not worth it so UO because of your idea just lost $42-$56 a yr extra. Believe me when I say my 1 extra account is nothing compaired to some of the players in UO that spend more on there housing accounts than on the everyday accounts. Most of the people I know have 1-4 accounts active and have houses on every shard with houses and sometimes even more so yes UO would lose a lot of money doing this. Just for info that 90 day decay timer has been here for as long as I have been playing, almost 15 yr. It has been this way forever and it will stay because UO can not afford to lose all those accounts.

 

[Eärendil]

at least 10-20 % of RTBS still stand...and theres all the un-named / no owner bugged ones.......come on devs.....if ya dropping them...drop em all.........

Give us a break, please! I have a job, a family, and friends. The last wave of IDOCs was incredibly exhausting: Weeks without sleep, this constant adrenaline Infusion. I am too old for this. Let me recover for some weeks... I had to loot 40+ houses through night and day - I CANT STAND IT ANYMORE!

 

[Viper09]

i have a simple solution just make it so u can more than one house but it the total combinations of plot sizes cannot exceed 24x24. so i can I have one 17x17 and a 7x7 or 3 8x8s? or two 2 12x12s. Brings back the value of some of the small houses and it really all it does is it gives someone a extra 7x7 which i feel at this point with land being so open it would help the game a bit to fill just some of that empty space. Obviously a full subscription to keep a 18x18 vs a 7x7 really aint equal in my book but i am not the boss but the best part of this game was when the small house meant something.

Er, wait a minute. You seem to have forgotten about castle owners; a castle plot is 31x31. If you limit the total amount of plot size among X number of houses to 24x24 then that is going to screw up the system for the players who own castles.

 

[Hoffs]

2 quick questions i guess......

1. Youve been going through the shards manually setting decay on houses and have maybe got rid of 60/75% of the bugged houses and the RTB houses ...are we just having a little breather b4 going into phase 2 ...[god we need one...what a crazy month its been] ....or is that gonna be it ....are the remaining bugged ones gonna stop there even longer unless they are reported by players maybe??

I don't believe this was done manually. It started 90 days after the last RTB promotion and would suggest that because most accounts had the promotional time-code associated with the account this time (thanks to the new accounting system), they were then able to flag all these for decay at the end of the period. And to avoid one huge collapse it seemed that they set the start of the decay from 90-120 days instead.

But yes, there still seems quite a few that have been missed from various time periods and I too would like to know if there is anything in the pipeline that will take care of these.

 

[THP]

mmm ..nope ...... gms have done this .........just they missed 25%

 

[THP]

heaps of RTBs still standing....heaps of bugged no names standing.....hell the good folks that ''had not'' wanted this..... they mayve even feeling good looking at the green spaces.......But devs give em the full bore!!!!!! let the rest drop....give them what they asked for...........let them count the population 1 by 1

 

[Hoffs]

mmm ..nope ...... gms have done this .........just they missed 25%

Then please explain why you believe this to be the case.

 

[THP]

Then please explain why you believe this to be the case.

totally random fall times...like any time of the day...if your theory was correct and there was a program the houses would have fell within the same time scale...not like they did here...all over the day and night....and they were done in areas.....u could trawl a area find none at all...then trawl another area and find every 4th house in decay...then 2 days later the area that had none...now had decay in every 5th house...etc etc..its the only logical explanation.....

 

[THP]

hell i dont care how they did it......PEOPLE who had none have got thier wishes!!!

just hope the devs FINISH THE JOB THEY STARTED......and lets truly see the state of play.....when another +25% of all bugged hosuing falls

 

[THP]

iam kinda enjoying the rest at the mo.....the 2 tram castle placements and sales there of and all the loot iam still sorting/ dumping /sellling or turning in for mega points....pretty crazy really

 

[DerekL]

totally random fall times...like any time of the day...if your theory was correct and there was a program the houses would have fell within the same time scale...not like they did here...all over the day and night....and they were done in areas.....u could trawl a area find none at all...then trawl another area and find every 4th house in decay...then 2 days later the area that had none...now had decay in every 5th house...etc etc..its the only logical explanation.....

Well, no. Your 'explanation' relies on the unspoken assumption that you have identified every bugged and unbugged house with 100% accuracy. It also relies on the explicit assumption that you know how program code you have no access to functions.

 

[THP]

like i said.........ive been in this game far too long....i do know of houses that are deffo RTBs ..i have freinds that still have RTBs... u can clearly see the un-named no owner houses that are bugged on the signs....what do u want me to do...cart wheels!!!...there is still loads to fall....why dont u listen...why do u want to argue....who gives a toss how they got to decay...the uo population got there wishes.....the wish aint finished yet!!!!

the devs have started to job...they certainly have not finished it...

iam enjoying the break.....so enjoy it tooo.......its was a chaotic 4 weeks.....no doubt the devs/gm will get back on board and restart decaying the remining RTBs and bugged houses some time in the future

 

[DerekL]

why dont u listen...why do u want to argue....

Watching you pull another rabbit out of your hat explaining how you know the unknowable is why I don't listen. (Especially when the rabbit is evasive and doesn't actually answer the question.) Pointing out the truth is not argument.

Seriously, give it rest.

 

[THP]

u jelous sod........[whatever]