PLEASE HELP - Just reactivated account to refresh house but still in condemned status

[The Predator]

I just reactivated an account to refresh my house but it is still in condemned status. I attempt to refresh using the door, customizing it, changing the house from Public to Private, etc.

Is there a lag time once you re-activate your account in terms of triggering a house refresh?

Any assistance or feedback from the community would be appreciated. I would prefer not to lose this house...

 

[Miri of Sonoma]

I believe there might be some time lapse (24 hours rings a bell) until the housing database is updated. what state is the house in now? If it has gone IDOC already, there might not be enough time to save it. If it is not IDOC or greatly it should be alright tomorrow.

 

[The Predator]

UPDATE: My house was in "Greatly Worn" status. Roughly an hour later, upon doing nothing, the house was refreshed. I page a GM and e-mailed Mesanna, so I'm uncertain if it was by assistance of them, or via in-game mechanics which finally caught up.

Long story short, I am happy that I do not have to worry about losing my house.

But to echo your comment, Miri, I would not wait until your house is in IDOC status before refresh...just in case.

 

[The Zog historian]

Did you have intervention? I thought that once a house goes condemned, nothing can be done.

 

[Tazar]

Usually - it seems that the houses have to go through a server maint cycle before refreshing. Glad you got it sorted out.

 

[Miri of Sonoma]

Yay! Glad it worked out for you!

 

[The Predator]

Thanks for the responses. And I assume that I did not receive any intervention, I got a response back through Mythic Customer Support (in response to my in-game GM page) stating the following via e-mail:

---------------------

Greetings,

We are contacting you regarding your appeal, Ticket#: 8736659.


You contacted us regarding a condemned house. We have verified the house is not currently condemned.

If you have any other issues, please appeal again.

Thank you for playing Ultima Online,


Ultima Online In-game Customer Support
Mythic, A Division of EA

---------------------

So, it doesn't look like the GM did anything, and I never heard back from Bonnie in response to it....so one would guess that it just took some time for the database to refresh in the back end to allow my house to refresh --- similar to what Tazar said.

Hope this helps some players if they ever come across this issue in the future.

 

[SlobberKnocker]

i'm laughing at Bonnie getting your frantic email about your house falling. Surprising she didn't stop what she was doing to help.

you guys gotta leave the staff alone with stuff like this. Just pay your dough, play the game and have fun.

hate to say it but is sorta a your problem. not a their problem.

 

[cdavbar]

Upon re-activating an account it can take up to 24 hours to refresh. Most times it is done instantly, but you must remember the housing servers are different from the world servers. With that being said, on my house holder accounts I always re-sun them when they first start to decay, that gives me roughly 5 days to get help from GM if they don't refresh although it is usually instant that they refresh.

 

[The Predator]

i'm laughing at Bonnie getting your frantic email about your house falling. Surprising she didn't stop what she was doing to help.

you guys gotta leave the staff alone with stuff like this. Just pay your dough, play the game and have fun.

hate to say it but is sorta a your problem. not a their problem.

Why would I leave staff alone with something that would have been considered a major bug. It is even documented in the "Codex of Wisdom" via the UO client saying that you can refresh a house by double-clicking on the door:

"If a house entered the "condemned" status because the house owner's account became inactive, the house(s) may be uncondemned by the house owner, by opening the front door."

If you document something as such, and it does not fulfill the requirement functionality within the game....I believe that is a major problem that should be addressed when I am a paying customer.

Would you continue to use a service that states it will provide you a certain feature but does not live up to set obligations (say paying for a cable service with premium channels, but you never get the premium channels) .... I would say not. Would you call-in to figure out what is going on? I guess that depends on the person....

 

[Viper09]

In defense, the codex does say that the house(s) may be uncondemned by the house owner. It is documented that it takes up to 24 hours, even the devs acknowledged that. Admittedly, that little tidbit should be added to the codex.

Suggest being a little more cautious in the future and reactivating before it reaches greatly, for your sake. Some have had their houses not refresh at your stage and lost them.

 

[SlobberKnocker]

Agreed. Spare me the codex. you let your subscription lapse at your own peril. That's on you.

Crying to Bonnie is sort of a waste of her time, as evidenced by the fact she didn't get back to you.

 

[Lady Storm]

Now now kiddies ...
You all are assuming he let the time laps through careless timing.
That might not be the case in all instances.
Many times I have heard billing not updating a exp date or didn't take a CC.. also we forget many are under a cash crunch and have to time things.
Being mean about it is not helpful. Put on their shoes and walk a mile... then see if you like the chatter others are giving.
Please note that if a home of yours does go to the greatly stage it might refresh, best to double check at shard up and keep eye on house as it could go idoc before then. If idoc get another account to trade houses to save it.. good luck.

 

[Viper09]

Now now kiddies ...
You all are assuming he let the time laps through careless timing.
That might not be the case in all instances.
Many times I have heard billing not updating a exp date or didn't take a CC.. also we forget many are under a cash crunch and have to time things.
Being mean about it is not helpful. Put on their shoes and walk a mile... then see if you like the chatter others are giving.
Please note that if a home of yours does go to the greatly stage it might refresh, best to double check at shard up and keep eye on house as it could go idoc before then. If idoc get another account to trade houses to save it.. good luck.

Not that I care to start a discussion on it, but he admitted in the very first sentence that he was reactivating to refresh a house...

cdavbar has the right idea in reactivating the once it starts decaying. Waiting until it gets to "greatly worn" is like playing chicken. Sure as heck better than waiting for idoc, but with the decay timer being a pancake sketchy in the later stages, best to do it much sooner than later, especially since it can take up to 24 hours to refresh.

 

[The Zog historian]

The OP poster was indeed cutting it close, but let's be happy a house was saved. Recently I realized a house-holding account had lapsed because the credit card expired, and I initially missed the e-mail. Sometimes the notification is easy to miss.

 

[weins201]

I wish that if you let your account lapse, i.e. stop paying, then house on that account should go into IDOC immediately. Paying less than everyone else every 90 days is in a way an exploit . :whip:

You want a house pay every monthly.

Flame away

 

[The Zog historian]

weins, haven't you seen the Stratics threads about legitimate billing problems, or like in my case, nearly missing the notice because I got a new credit card?

If your goal is to have EA pull the plug after a lot of players quit, then your proposal is excellent.

 

[Olahorand]

I currently have about 10 accounts, 5 of them are permanently paid, the others are in the 90 days cycle holding houses.
Since I rarely find the time to play, I might consider demolishing some of them and let the accounts go.
But whom would this really help, besides my pocket?

 

[Viper09]

Personally, given the ratio of active players to land available for housing, they should (at the very least) sell tokens or codes on their UO store to allow an extra housing spot for players. At most, they could just let us have an extra housing spot free

 

[Lyconis]

The last house I refreshed seemed to refresh within about 30 minutes. If I recall correctly it used to be done during server maintenance cycle I.E. why folks say it can take up to 24 hours.This could have been dumb luck but it seems like they refresh quite quickly now on their own.

Opening doors/customizing/etc never seems to refresh a house, even though the in game "help" faq about houses says opening your doors will refresh your house.

 

[Lady Michelle]

NO !!!!! official can interfere at a house that is in danger of collapsing at that point its up to the player to tranfer it to another account, empty the house , etc....
So between like new and greatly worn an official that is given the ok can fix the house.

Why is anyone belly achy about this in the first place? So an official helped save his stuff its not like he was gonna let the house drop, and let others have the items in it.

 

[Viper09]

NO !!!!! official can interfere at a house that is in danger of collapsing at that point its up to the player to tranfer it to another account, empty the house , etc....
So between like new and greatly worn an official that is given the ok can fix the house.

Why is anyone belly achy about this in the first place? So an official helped save his stuff its not like he was gonna let the house drop, and let others have the items in it.

No one even knows whether or not an official helped here. All we know is that the OP attempted to get help and never got a reply (other than a GM saying it was not condemned).

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

The house refreshes at the next decay state change.

As long at it wasn't already at "In Danger of Collapsing" it will be uncondemned.

No official was needed to step in here.

 

[Flagg]

Glad you are okay OP I was in mildly similar situation with my 2nd house some time back. Account I had it on is one I never play anymore. I knew I should have reactivated it "one of these days" because of the house but foolishly kept putting it off. House had gone from IDOC to OSI owned (vendors) without me noticing.

I kinda panicked and was stupid and desperate enough to go to the ever poisonous ATL general chat for information about wether there is something to do in such situation. I got trolled with genuinely commendable grace. In hindsight, it was prolly the first and last time ever I saw the community on ATL chat agree on something and pursue one single goal with such mutual, wordless understanding and harmony. " Yeah mate, it says OSI owned but is tehnically not the case just reactivate is fine bla bla" from numerous sources. As a result, I (still) "have" one OSI owned house and one newly reactivated account I never play anymore. C'est lavie and all that I guess.

 

[Arcus]

I know Im going to get flack for saying this but honestly I always thought that this tactic was kinda of crappy thing to do. If you are going to play then play, if not let it fall and let someone else have the plot. Yes, I know with the low pop of most servers now plots arent that hard to get but back in the day this really erked me.

 

[The Predator]

I echo the sentiments that they should provide some sort of token that allows an additional house for an account. I understand that some people may frown about this tactic (only activating an account every couple of months to refresh a house) .....but it doesn't make sense to me to pay $150+ a year when I can pay $50 a year just for a house and nothing else. EA is still getting additional revenue from me....in addition to the other active subscription(s)....

 

[Flagg]

I know Im going to get flack for saying this but honestly I always thought that this tactic was kinda of crappy thing to do. If you are going to play then play, if not let it fall and let someone else have the plot. Yes, I know with the low pop of most servers now plots arent that hard to get but back in the day this really erked me.

Imagine how huge factor house and all that is inside is in tying people to the game. How many accounts belonging to people who have pretty much quit remain ative just because their digital property holds sentimental value. How many of these people occasionally wake from their slumber and be active in-game for few months once in a while, just because the account is being paid for anyway thanks to the house.

Are you sure you wanna imagine UO population who simply gave up their houses and property every time they notice they don't feel like playing in active fashion?

 

[Arcus]

Imagine how huge factor house and all that is inside is in tying people to the game. How many accounts belonging to people who have pretty much quit remain ative just because their digital property holds sentimental value. How many of these people occasionally wake from their slumber and be active in-game for few months once in a while, just because the account is being paid for anyway thanks to the house.

Are you sure you wanna imagine UO population who simply gave up their houses and property every time they notice they don't feel like playing in active fashion?

I would rather deal with reality. A house sitting in a field on an account that is INACTIVE may as well not be there. What is the point? They dont log in except to refresh so they aren't contributing to the game or the economy. They are taking up space but are not paying for the privilege of said space. ( Again, I know there is plenty but thats not the point) .

If they have an active account then fine BUT if they reactivate, refresh then deactivate their account I think this is quite cheesy.