• Hail Guest!
    We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
  • Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
  • Hail Guest!,
    Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
  • Hail Guest!
    Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!

Allow Customization of Keeps & Castles Plz!

Eric Ravenwind

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It would be great if we could customize Keeps and Castles. Allow us to change the designs on these like regular custom housing. Build on the entire footprint of Keeps & Castles, and giving us an option to revert custom changes back to the classic look of Keeps & Castles.
 

Riyana

Operations
Administrator
Professional
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Event Coordinator
UNLEASHED
Campaign Patron
Some limited customization might be nice, but I would sure hate to see a castle-sized crystal block. Customizing the INSIDE would be nice because frankly I find the layouts a bit wasteful, but you still have lots more room regardless.

From a practical standpoint its probably not worth the effort to code since only a small portion of the player base owns them anyway. I figure lack of customization is the tradeoff for the superior size and secure/lockdown count of keeps and castles. *shrug*
 

Sean

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Geez, this seems to rear it's head every few years. I'd be against it. Riyana has correctly shown the trade off IMHO.
 

Winter

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
People are posting "NO" without an explanation, so hard to comment on why they disagree and counter the argument.
Keep the foundation footprint and walls, I would be happy to just move walls inside my keep, make some of the corner rooms bigger and more usable.
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yes to inside. That way no awful outside designs will show.

Oh, to all who posted no, could I see what house you built please? :)
 

Winter

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
... From a practical standpoint its probably not worth the effort to code since only a small portion of the player base owns them anyway. ...
Have you looked around lately? It's not a small percentage if you add up all the keeps and castles. It would take some developer's time, but I would guess that most of the code to do this already exists in the current housing system.
 

hen

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yes to inside. That way no awful outside designs will show.

Oh, to all who posted no, could I see what house you built please? :)
I have a keep on Drachenfels Felucca facet, just northwest of Shame. I also have a small 'tavern' design on Drachenfels Felucca on the island of Skara Brae.
Feel free to marvel at my wonderous constructions.
 

cazador

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The exterior is fine..the interior sucks!!!! Maybe a revisit could be in order making some of the floor plan actually usable..but as for full customization...a big fat NO, it's not needed
 

Zosimus

Grand Inquisitor
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
No

No to the Borg cubes

No to the "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" challenged.

No to the big square floor plots with chests on them.

No to the other reasons anybody can come up with.

Just no!

Castles and keeps should still have that old UO feel and look.
 

Winter

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
No

No to the Borg cubes

No to the "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" challenged.

No to the big square floor plots with chests on them.

No to the other reasons anybody can come up with.

Just no!

Castles and keeps should still have that old UO feel and look.
If castle and keep walls and foundations are left alone - and they look the same from the outside - why do you care what the inside of someone's home looks like? It really shouldn't impact you or other players.
 
Last edited:

Irulia Darkaith

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well I've said this before and so have others - no to customization, but maybe have a contest and let some players post alternate castle designs that fit the same footprint and still match the feel of the game. The winners design could be added to the menu for classic homes, or possibly let the real estate NPCs sell "upgrade" deeds to turn your existing castle into one of the new designs.
 

Winter

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
... maybe have a contest and let some players post alternate castle designs that fit the same footprint and still match the feel of the game. The winners design could be added to the menu for classic homes, or possibly let the real estate NPCs sell "upgrade" deeds to turn your existing castle into one of the new designs.
That's not a bad alternative, but what is the difference between that and allowing someone to customize to their own design the interior of a keep or castle?
 

Zosimus

Grand Inquisitor
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
If castle and keep walls and foundations are left alone - and they look the same from the outside - why do you care what the inside of someone's home looks like? It really shouldn't impact you or other players.

That's the price you pay to have a Keep or Castle. This has been going on from time to time since house customization was introduced. No changes to this day.


Personally I would rather see

1) New updated designs by the dev team only.

2) Voted by the players of choices they would want. ( say you had 3 choices classic look, new design 1 and new design 2)

3) Allow Keeps and Castles to be changed in the housing gump to the exact design the devs did only.
 

Zosimus

Grand Inquisitor
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well I've said this before and so have others - no to customization, but maybe have a contest and let some players post alternate castle designs that fit the same footprint and still match the feel of the game. The winners design could be added to the menu for classic homes, or possibly let the real estate NPCs sell "upgrade" deeds to turn your existing castle into one of the new designs.


You beat me. I was thinking the same thing almost lol
 

S_S

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
The DEV team has stated, and stated, and stated (beating a dead horse slogan) that this is NOT even a possibility. Not going to happen.
 

SlobberKnocker

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
NO. people can barely deco an 18/18 to look nice. most look terrible.

last time this was brought up someone posted artwork of what a borg castle would look like. was very funny.
 

Pandora_CoD

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
How about instead of allowing the full "customization" of keeps and castles, adding in additional DESIGNS for Keeps and Castles and allowing folks to change their designs. This would have to be a completely new house design system, however. Would probably take some time to develop out and code out. The current house customization doesn't have a way to LIMIT what can and cannot be altered, thus a new system would be needed. But I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see new castle and new keep designs out there.

Question, would you risk UPROOTING your current keep and castle to change its design? Cuz that might be what it takes.
 

NuSair

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
To add my voice to others, as an owner of both a keep and castle, just say no to customization.

I am all for having different layouts possible, but, would prefer them from a gump menu and not have to try and replace.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
I'd be happy even if I was limited to just the tiles that are part of the keep/castle..... just being able to make the building more functional would make me happy. I still say they ought to have 4 or 5 different designs for them .... and allow the owners to pick which design they want to use.
 

Olive Oyle

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
It would be great if we could customize Keeps and Castles. Allow us to change the designs on these like regular custom housing. Build on the entire footprint of Keeps & Castles, and giving us an option to revert custom changes back to the classic look of Keeps & Castles.
I actually like this idea.

It has been a dream of mine for many years to be able to design and build a mini village on my own plot - it is the main reason I have kept my Castle. I already have in my mind the type of design I would build.
Also, given the creative minds of some of our players, I suspect that there would be some pretty impressive homes being built. Having said that, I also acknowledge the concerns of some at having Castle plots all over the place as vacant plots and creating an eye saw to the landscape.
One option to alleviate this as a possible outcome would be to make the ability to change your Castle as a Vet Reward - 16th year? That way there would only be limit number of plots being upgraded (or potentially left vacant)

Just a thought

Olive Oyle
 

Irulia Darkaith

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
One option to alleviate this as a possible outcome would be to make the ability to change your Castle as a Vet Reward - 16th year?
Olive Oyle
As a 16 year Vet I love this but there are a whole lot of other old threads that prove adding more Veteran exclusivity would just anger a lot of other players. As for the argument that this would allow people to create really big ugly homes...dunno about you but seeing the same castle/keep style dotting the landscape is pretty boring too. I think the best compromise is allow a new high level Vet reward usable by anyone (in keeping with the Vet changes already introduced) to pick another style of castle/keep that is in the style of the game so as to avoid the big borg cubes everyone is so worried about seeing. I don't see why anyone would object to this change but I'm sure someone will.

I was also thinking they could give us wall tiles that we could purchase to customize houses, but yes, then people would be able to buy walls to make a big ugly castle so that solves nothing. How about this, everyone has to take a decorating test, those with horrible taste and decorating skills are confined to pre-done classic homes already decorated in a tasteful manner :D
 

Uvtha

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
As for the argument that this would allow people to create really big ugly homes...dunno about you but seeing the same castle/keep style dotting the landscape is pretty boring too.

Boring =/= ugly and potentially disruptive.

Really just take a minute and imagine a 3 story 31x31 crystal cube. Nearly double the size of a max size customizable house. Think about how much screen real estate that would take up. You could hide other houses in its shadow easily.

I think I personally could make a bitchin' castle sized plot that people would like to see, but it would take a LOT of work, and I don't think most people care enough to make a nice looking house, or are even capable.
 

Aran

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
If castles could be turned into 3 story customs, I would spend whatever real life cash it took to acquire one for every one of my accounts and make borg cubes out of each of them.
 

Lady Storm

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
As the owner of over a dozen of the Castles and another dozen of the keeps over 16 years of my game play in UO.
I have to put a finger on the problem of ownership and the idea of limited customization of interior.(with a limited exterior change)
I have had a few keeps over the 16 years that latterly have sat in one deco set the whole time as much of the lower tower corners are almost impossible to use other then to stick junk in to forget about it.
I know from talks to Dev over the years the inner land and such on castles belonged to the foot print of the building (and recient changes to allow placement of secure items possible was made) but... on keeps that inner wall grassy area is not.
Many a time I have had people recall in the blocked in area.. its quite disconcerning that over the 16 years this home has not been given an over haul. (plus the spawns of animals and monsters)
Its space that is going unused and would be better used if opened up for the home owners use, I am quite sure a floor plan could be simple and more workable for all owners.
I would love to move a wall or put in a door in places and move things (like stairs removed and put in a tp system.) Or better yet put your steps on the right side of the building!
I know its asking a lot in coding.. the original code for castles and keeps is set in stone but perhaps a small change could be made for players who want to do a little reconstruction.

I agree with all of you who feel a "Borg" cube is not wanted, but a little change might go along way to ease the age of castles and keeps owners feelings of being left out.
I know from my own exp on the hope that the "new" customization" had given us teleporters and a few of the changes the others got rights to do.
I'ts where a lot of old classic homes got the shaft when many gave up hope and dropped their older homes to get the new home they could manage to their hearts content.
 

Eric Ravenwind

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
When I began this thread, I was mainly referring to a customizable "Interior". I failed to state that -my apologies.
 

Lady Michelle

Sprite Full SP
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
1. A dye tub that dyes stone walls and stone floors would be nice. Using some of the granite colors the leather dye tub colors, adding in a few other colors like white etc.
2. Make paints like the boat paints, but house paints instead, and you just click the paint tub target the walls or floors.
 

Lord Frodo

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Please NO paint. Maybe and I say Maybe a few different stones for walls/floors (classic only) and no others. Move inside walls/stairs/doors only, putting stairs on south walls would be great. Allow us to remove/add trees/bushes/grass in the court yard and use floor tiles if so desired. No outside wall changes (minor shades of grays/browns (IE earth tones only) might be ok) or no floors added/deleted. Outside foot print (castle/keep) stays as is. Teleport Tile would be a nice addition too.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
People say that Castle owners are few..... but that is not true.... with the decline in population Castles and Keeps are everywhere... If they were allowed in Malas then there would be even MORE owners....

IT's not about the size of the Castle or Keep that makes people want them..... I for one would only own the One Castle because after all I live in "Newcastle"...... we need our Castle... IF my house held as much as the Castle I'd MUCH rather have a custom plot I can design..... But since I can't have that much in my house I am forced to want to have another keep or castle just so I can store stuff.....

What I'd like is a customizable plot that was say 26x26..... And held as much as a Castle..... if I could have that I would no longer want any Castle besides our Castle. Infact I'd even consider building my own Castle on a 26x26 plot. If that were put into game I think that you would no longer see Castles hardly at all.

Hell I'd even pay an account upgrade fee of 20 bucks to be able to place a "megga" plot of 26x26.
 
Last edited:

Winter

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
When I began this thread, I was mainly referring to a customizable "Interior". I failed to state that -my apologies.
I really, really, really don't understand why people are against others being able to customize the interior of castles or keeps. The only thing that I can think is for some reason people are envious or jealous because they don't have a castle or keep. I am having a hard time believing people are that petty.
 

Lord Frodo

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I really, really, really don't understand why people are against others being able to customize the interior of castles or keeps. The only thing that I can think is for some reason people are envious or jealous because they don't have a castle or keep. I am having a hard time believing people are that petty.
It is the way it started out with the OP. I am all for inside with some limits because the floors on the upper levels will be seen. As long as we are limited to inside with no gaudy floor tiles / no extra floors / and mild earth tones for the walls I am all for it.
 

Lady Storm

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Look ...
Castles and keeps should be placeable in Malas this I agree whole heartedly. We are so low in population and its so barren now up on 90% of the shards I cant see why not.
That being said... I agree stone types should be an option.
Sandstone, Limestone, and all the other stones come in some nice shades... but I put my foot down at that blue ice ....
Wall movement in keeps and making the inner portion of the boxed in areas a part of the house is a good idea. Why the original designer didn't is beyond me.
As I said before removable stairs and tp's would be nice.
 

Victim of Siege

Grand Poobah
Professional
Governor
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I wouldn't mind being able to add a door or two, or add a teleporter here and there. but one thing i would like is a new color scheme available. *thinks a neon purple Castle with chartreuse doors would rock.*
 

Pandora_CoD

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I reiterate my statement to say NO to customizing existing castles in any way, we would loose the historical design of a castle. I'd much prefer the DEV team to design some new models (6 or so), with new walls, new inside layouts, etc. etc. and allow folks to place these new designs. If you want a new design, then you should either uproot your castle and replace it with a new design ~OR~ allow a design change from inside the housing menu. I prefer forcing folks to make that hard design to uproot, because that would ensure at least some castles will remain in the old design.
 

DevilsOwn

Stratics Legend
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
had to go back to 2011, but I found it..... during an identical discussion back then I posted the alternative I had entered into a contest (not an EA contest)... the footprint is the same and the outward appearance is not all that different to the current design... I just wish that I had saved all of the entries, cause altho mine won each of them were outstanding

a few preset designs and I would be a happy camper.. and with the restriction of the courtyards now gone it seems to me it would be a simpler task

Castle Basements......
 

Pandora_CoD

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend

See that right there is the shiznit... :D NO JOKE. Me wants... me wants... me wants a lot. WHY CAN'T THE DEVS DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!!! MESANNNNNNNNNAAAAA! I wouldn't mind this being one of the new designs they offer... I still wouldn't want to loose the original design, but I'd like to offer NEW designs and if you want it, you should uproot your shiz and replace it with a new design... imo.

IJS!
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
See that right there is the shiznit... :D NO JOKE. Me wants... me wants... me wants a lot. WHY CAN'T THE DEVS DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!!! MESANNNNNNNNNAAAAA! I wouldn't mind this being one of the new designs they offer... I still wouldn't want to loose the original design, but I'd like to offer NEW designs and if you want it, you should uproot your shiz and replace it with a new design... imo.

IJS!
I'd prefer if we were able to do it via something like the resize menu.... I could move all my crap out and then do the "I wish to resize this plot" and change the design and put my stuff back I'm good with that...... I'm even better with being given the chance to do it via the house menu to change design....

What I'd like more than anything would be to be given a contest with a downloadable program similar to the housing tool that would allow you to custom a 32x32 plot with pre-approved tiles.... to redesign the Castle and a 24x24 plot to redesign the keep.... Then the DEV's could choose perhaps 5 to 10 winners of each and give us the new designs.

I'd like it if we were able to submit as many designs as we liked as well. I think a more Japanese style Castle and Keep would be nice... and giving us the ability to redesign them and make them more functional would really be wonderful.

But still I stay with the idea that what would be "ideal" would be to give us an expansion that would allow the placement of a "Megga" plot of 26x26 that is customizable and has the same storage of a Castle and is customizable..... my opinion this would not only make an income but would make many people very happy.
 

Lady Michelle

Sprite Full SP
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Please NO paint. Maybe and I say Maybe a few different stones for walls/floors (classic only) and no others. Move inside walls/stairs/doors only, putting stairs on south walls would be great. Allow us to remove/add trees/bushes/grass in the court yard and use floor tiles if so desired. No outside wall changes (minor shades of grays/browns (IE earth tones only) might be ok) or no floors added/deleted. Outside foot print (castle/keep) stays as is. Teleport Tile would be a nice addition too.
Why no paint if the outside walls stay the same? Inside shouldn't matter right?
I don't like the bright over powered colors myself, and I prefer the dull colors if they do go with paint they pick dull colors.

I do like the metallic dye tubs metallic stone dye tub two tone colored walls. j/k
 

syndael

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
As owning a castle my self I would NOT want to customize the whole plot its self. I would like to be able to add doors or change the inside around.
I am very happy we can now lock down items in the court yards. enough people make more floor with castles and goza mats now that are huge lag spikes. So why not let us change some small things around.
 

Lord Frodo

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Why no paint if the outside walls stay the same? Inside shouldn't matter right?
I don't like the bright over powered colors myself, and I prefer the dull colors if they do go with paint they pick dull colors.

I do like the metallic dye tubs metallic stone dye tub two tone colored walls. j/k
I could go with earth tone pastels only on the inside walls/floors.
 
Top