Housing Decay Rates.

[azmodanb]

But the stages do mean something... Once it goes gw to idoc you know your on the final day....

If it was idoc from day one you would have zero idea... 1 2 3 4 or 5... Days...

First you support.making it back how it was... Not liking the 3-13 hr thing... Then you go to the polar opposite 1hr -5 days?! Heh.

I thanks for response.. Just leave it.. I would rather know its on its final 24hrs.. Then not knowing weather you got to wait 1-5 days. .. Lol

I mean i got time to wait 13 hrs.. But 5 days .. "ain't nobody got time for that"

 

[Petra Fyde]

I have removed a significant number of posts from this thread discussing scripting. Please help keep the thread open and informative by sticking to the topic - ie the new housing rules and details of houses and shards that appear not to be following those rules.

 

[THP]

Please return it back to the old system that was fully opeational...if its not broken ..it dont need fixing...Before u could time the fall so to stop needless waiting times at the end of the decay [this was the hard part and finding them- jesus!!!]....and futhermore when u moved house u knew exactly how much time to the second u had to move your stuff....b4 filling the old house with junk for the rest of the happy idoc crew to be disapointed again.

Theres nothing gained with a random system..just chaos....i would love to hear why the devs have implemented this unwarranted of changes....the old system worked mighty fine...again why fix something that was never ever broken

*Hangs up his well worn Legendary Idocing boots up on the castle display case....... to remind of the good days of olde*

 

[MalagAste]

I think it's better this way. Honestly the argument about emails and all is moot. You have 90 whole entire days to do something about your inactive account. Set a reminder on your phone..... whatever. Folk shouldn't play the game of paying only every 3 months anyway. Either your playing or you aren't. I would notice during 90 days if I couldn't log into one of my accounts. Obviously if you are waiting 90 days + to notice you can't log in and your house IDOC's your not playing. Don't know how you all allow your accounts to do that. I pay it every month. Then I don't think about it. I log each and every account in at least once a week. I would know if something was amiss.

 

[Lady Storm]

Popps has a point...
Like me many who have more then your average number of accounts and have the account now spred over 2 or more e mail addys* it can be difficult to keep track of bank, CC's and accounts that dont bill properly.
I have a good deal of e mails just on my 53 accounts... many created just for the account managment system.
I dont like it but well... I cant change it till a better way comes around.
The Bank tells me if a charge for more then 3 accounts come in... the automated system kicks in for fraud.
Same with CC companys... if a set of more then 3 to 5 come in all at once it alerts the system and it shuts down the card.
It's also why the purchases in the UOStore also dont go through if you have to go the hard way to buy items 1 at a time.
This set of facts was not known to me till I lost not 1 but 3 grandfathered accounts on one of those damn obscure e mails and didnt know a CC payment was blocked due to a billing run of 12 accounts at once.
I dont know about you but I have tons of things on my mind and here I thought I could at the very least not worry about the paying of my UO accounts....pfft!
The 5 day system that has been in place from the beginning seems to be effected depending on the shard.. the emergency change from the Shard shield token duping stint has effected the over all IDOC system. Bleak and the dev can fix unless they have examples of whats going on.
And waiting till it falls is not helping perhaps sending in a report to him when a stage is noticed to be skipped? He is not after your loot guys so share with the man the fall andlet him make the determination if its a faulty system.

 

[THP]

but so many reports of 3 day falls...can they be true??? ...big stink mess up if it is... and a major flaw in the new system....i dont idoc hunt anymore...long time ago hung up the legendary land stalker boots....but really think the system we had worked fine and so why change something that didnt need changing and as no benefit of such a new change at all???

 

[S.P.A]

So, do we really want to loose [sic] more UO players making Houses go "poof" in just 5 days ??

They don't disappear in 5 days. They disappear 5 days after the 90 days grace period you have after an account's payment stops.

So you have 95 days to get your email / credit card / life sorted out.

 

[azmodanb]

I have been to many idocs since the change nothing has dropped in three days. Unless transferred... Or dropped by the owner. I even moved to a New location .. Guess what house was there the full five days...

 

[Tina Small]

The 5 day system that has been in place from the beginning seems to be effected depending on the shard..

I suspect this as well, Lady Storm, just based on what I noticed initially for galleon decay. So if people have examples of decay that doesn't fit the pattern Bleak gave, they need to let him know and be sure to include the shard as well as relevant dates and times so he can investigate.

 

[popps]

They don't disappear in 5 days. They disappear 5 days after the 90 days grace period you have after an account's payment stops.

So you have 95 days to get your email / credit card / life sorted out.

Ah, I thought it was changed to make them go "poof" in just 5 days getting rid of the grace period .....

Thanks for the clarification, as long as the changes do not endanger Ultima Online players to loose their UO home over an account gone inadvertedly inactive, then I am ok with them. IDOCs are fun, but to loose UO players over UO homes lost unwillingly and inadvertedly, is not fun......

 

[Viper09]

I think it's better this way. Honestly the argument about emails and all is moot. You have 90 whole entire days to do something about your inactive account. Set a reminder on your phone..... whatever. Folk shouldn't play the game of paying only every 3 months anyway. Either your playing or you aren't. I would notice during 90 days if I couldn't log into one of my accounts. Obviously if you are waiting 90 days + to notice you can't log in and your house IDOC's your not playing. Don't know how you all allow your accounts to do that. I pay it every month. Then I don't think about it. I log each and every account in at least once a week. I would know if something was amiss.

Well put.

 

[claudia-fjp]

I think it's better this way. Honestly the argument about emails and all is moot. You have 90 whole entire days to do something about your inactive account. Set a reminder on your phone..... whatever. Folk shouldn't play the game of paying only every 3 months anyway. Either your playing or you aren't. I would notice during 90 days if I couldn't log into one of my accounts. Obviously if you are waiting 90 days + to notice you can't log in and your house IDOC's your not playing. Don't know how you all allow your accounts to do that. I pay it every month. Then I don't think about it. I log each and every account in at least once a week. I would know if something was amiss.

I agree, your friend RaDian FlGith lost their fel castle the other day, it fell after only 3 days. They didn't get a chance to refresh it like they did their other houses...

 

[jack flash uk]

Bleak, what happened to SOMEWHAT WORN? don't tell me you can't get this right in the decay cycle

so your "example" is WRONG

 

[MalagAste]

I agree, your friend RaDian FlGith lost their fel castle the other day, it fell after only 3 days. They didn't get a chance to refresh it like they did their other houses...

Had another dear friend lose a castle recently ... But mine still stands. But then I pay my accounts monthly and don't play the 90 roulette.

 

[Lady Storm]

Sometimes its not a 90 day roulet people are playing .... as I said if many have a seprate e mail(s) from their normal one its not that esy to keep track of if your payment was goofed up... Had plenty of money for payment but the charge didnt happen.... if your not a e mail jumper you can mis out on valuable info... and if you have seen the spam that flys in the e mail..... you can loose the notice in the pile of junk.

 

[Gem]

I respectfully request the team reconsider this decision....stages make no sense if they are randomized.

 

[Bobar]

Bleak, what happened to SOMEWHAT WORN? don't tell me you can't get this right in the decay cycle

so your "example" is WRONG

You are right of course Jack and as the stage from Slightly Worn to Somewhat Worn used to be something like 36 hours there is a LARGE error in that example somewhere. The error IS in the example because decaying houses are still going through the Somewhat Worn stage so somehow an elementary error has been made.

I know of a decaying house which has been at the Somewhat stage since AT LEAST 3am this morning, now, at 10pm it is still Somewhat. So far that totals 19 hours, nearly a whole day so as I said this is one LARGE error it is going to take most of a full day. This makes the information in the example completely useless.

 

[Viper09]

Bleak, what happened to SOMEWHAT WORN? don't tell me you can't get this right in the decay cycle
so your "example" is WRONG

It could be as simple as the somewhat stage just passes more quickly within the one-day period, an intermediate stage if you will on day 3.

But he already stated that each stage is RANDOM and not consistent. Thus, it would be assumed that these examples have somewhat being a short stage. In some instances somewhat may last longer than other stages. He didn't forget about the somewhat stage, if you go back to where he lists each stage it is clearly present.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

Something that has changed is the refresh period for houses that start to decay after the account is inactive for 90 days.

I have numerous accounts. I shopped at Target last Christmas. My credit card company cancelled my card and reissued a new card. I updated my CC info on the billing page and only reactivated one account. Then I watched my houses and as soon as they started to decay I reactivated the account.

Previously the house would refresh the next day, usually around 10-11am eastern time. I assume the housing server underwent maintenance at that time. But now several of my houses refreshed within 30 minutes of reactivating the account. One refreshed when I reactivated the account around 5pm eastern and another around 8pm. I wonder if this has any bearing on the new idoc timer.

 

[popps]

"within 5 days" in this case means the house will fall on the fifth day .

Could you please further explain this ?

If by your words the House falls on the 5th day, this means it is not much random ..... Or, that the only random part is that "within" the 5th day it would fall anytime during the 24 hours of the 5th day ....

If so, I'd rather much prefer that the randomization would "start" on the 5th day but that the random timer could also make it happen on a day past the 5th..... like on the 6th or 7th day even....

This, to avoid scripters as much as possible being able to cover multiple IDOCs over several accounts...

Thanks for the clarifications.

 

[Viper09]

He did clarify, in the original post he said while it is 5 days, the time for each stage is random.

 

[Evi]

But the stages do mean something... Once it goes gw to idoc you know your on the final day....

If it was idoc from day one you would have zero idea... 1 2 3 4 or 5... Days...

First you support.making it back how it was... Not liking the 3-13 hr thing... Then you go to the polar opposite 1hr -5 days?! Heh.

I thanks for response.. Just leave it.. I would rather know its on its final 24hrs.. Then not knowing weather you got to wait 1-5 days. .. Lol

I mean i got time to wait 13 hrs.. But 5 days .. "ain't nobody got time for that"

Actually, the way I read it, it looks like only the 5 day total duration is certain. None of the other stages are, so what's preventing this from happening:

Day 1: Like New-> Slightly Worn -> Fairly Worn -> Greatly Worn -> In Danger Of Collapsing

Day 2: In Danger Of Collapsing

Day 3: In Danger Of Collapsing

Day 4: In Danger Of Collapsing

Day 5: In Danger Of Collapsing -> Drop

You wouldn't be on the final day if you saw IDOC...

 

[kelmo]

That is the way I read it too. Five days. The stages are the only random.

 

[azmodanb]

sure.. heh. could be that way at times. maybe why some think they are falling in three days.

"it was just sw!!." then fell!!

but really it went sw thru the stages to idoc to death in hrs.

i found one tonight after server up .. seeing if it went gw yet... nope!! had dropped. whole house on ground. mid looting POOF stuff started to decay... was awesome.

Noone around but myself and a friend and one other soul.

None the less i got enough residue to finish me and buddies imbuing ..

 

[Fridgster]

Perhaps the new decaying process timer can start without an initial alert (slightly worn). That would explain the perception that they aredropping sooner.... either way i perfer it this way ::shrugs::

 

[kelmo]

I have merged two of the three housing decay threads. Sorry for the inconvenience. Carry on.

 

[claudia-fjp]

sure.. heh. could be that way at times. maybe why some think they are falling in three days.

"it was just sw!!." then fell!!

but really it went sw thru the stages to idoc to death in hrs.

No we think they are falling in 3 days because many ARE falling in 3 days. If you run a server on Tuesday at Noon and no houses are decaying then run again on Friday at Noon and find a keep that is Greatly which then turns IDOC and falls a few hours later, THAT is 3 DAYS. 72 hours. If it was 5 days then it would have found it on the previous run on Tuesday but it wasn't decaying at the time. It shouldn't have fallen until Sunday. This is why we are saying they have been falling in 3 days, not because we find a house at some stage and are guessing at when it started to decay.

 

[kelmo]

Then please email all of your documentation to Broadsword.

 

[Viquire]

Okay I am following these issues with great interest at the moment. Do we have an update to these sections of Stratics showing what current and going forward decay rates are for houses? For boats/ships? It is important information, and I've lost enough crap in this game over the years to make plenty of adventurers very comfy.

Just trying to make sure I have stopped the bleeding.

 

[Picus at the office]

Here is a idea to stop this issue. PAY FOR YOUR ACCOUNTS and if you don't then tough luck, though if the real issue is you can't script every IDOC on a shard(or more) I fail to see why anyone should or would care.