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NEWS [UO.Com] 20th Anniversary Grandfathered Castle Giveaway!

Lady Storm

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
First off the 500 sovereigns was a free gift Mesanna tossed on our account (s), be gratefull.
You didn't have to buy them.
I am finding too many people of late feel when a gift is given the need to argue over it.
If you cant remember what a gift is, google it... get out that big dusty book called a dictionary and look it up.
Ask yourself this after you do.......
Am I the fool to look a gift horse in the mouth?
Be thankfull that person who gave you a gift thought enough of you to gift you something.
They thought of you.
 

skett

Babbling Loonie
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Wasn't the gift because of them giving the robes at a town hall event they had a lot of people pissed of about?
The rode cost 500 s and we was given 500 to buy one?
Maybe I'm remembering this wrong
 

Captn Norrington

Stratics Forum Moderator
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LOL. There *may* be that many accounts still running, but nowhere near that many players, I don't think. That's why I hate to see people leave, everytime you lose one player you lose anywhere from 6-30 accounts.
Watching the chain of quitting really sucks too.

A player quits - 3 accounts lost.

Now the players wife quits because he is gone - 2 accounts lost.

Now their children quit - 2 accounts lost

Now some of that families friends quit because they are all gone - 4 accounts lost.

So just that one original guy leaving ended up causing 11 accounts and 4+ people to be lost. It happens more often than people realize.
 

Keith of Sonoma

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Watching the chain of quitting really sucks too.

A player quits - 3 accounts lost.

Now the players wife quits because he is gone - 2 accounts lost.

Now their children quit - 2 accounts lost

Now some of that families friends quit because they are all gone - 4 accounts lost.

So just that one original guy leaving ended up causing 11 accounts and 4 people to be lost. It happens more often than people realize.
I wonder how many of these people are leaving because they are fed up with the scripting/multiboxing/cheating/RMT's? My guess is a good percentage of them.
 

Uriah Heep

Grand Poobah
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I wonder how many of these people are leaving because they are fed up with the scripting/multiboxing/cheating/RMT's? My guess is a good percentage of them.
I suspect more leave because of other reasons...grinds, direction of game, new bugs/old bugs that never seem to go away, etc.

Scripting doesn't bother me too much, especially the gatherers. Since resources went random I havent gathered one yet, I just buy from the scripters-I'm damned if I'm gonna spend my little bit of playtime hunting for a vein of a particular color, or particular wood, etc. The fix only helped the scripters, but you will never see the powers that be admit to their mistake.

And some leave just because their circle of friends has disbanded and moved on to other games, so they go with them.
 

Lady Storm

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Stratics Legend
A lot of the older players who have been here from near day 1 quit for many different reasons...
Most of the reasons had nothing to do with the game.
Those that did have a reason for in the game was not the multi boxing.
Some was pvp, others said boredom of doing the same thing day in and out...
The only one who was angry at the dev for anything was not on what you would guess in a million years!
For the younger of Stratics readers this game is reaching 20 years of game play to the public.
20 years of logging in, running around hunting, mining, chopping trees and others (hehe)
Time takes its toll on a body sitting at the computer..
Let me put that in a example you might understand better... its kindergarten through 4 years of college.
I included the beta in that number...
So yea some have left the game feet first... I have lost good friends over the years
So don't forget the fact some who played the game died and there was no one who knew they had played UO.
Being one of the oldest games out there for online will have its prestige but it also will have its detractors who cant help pull it down to the dirt.
I have seen many in here toss handfuls on it.
Its time for you to admit UO has you in its grip and its part of your day.
Love or hate its become a habit.
For me..
Its become a way to relax and let the world do its thing without me.
I cant stop the politics of the world.
I can go hunt a Dragon...
 

Keith of Sonoma

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Those that did have a reason for in the game was not the multi boxing.
I know of 6 players who have quit, for a total of about 26 accounts, who told me the reason was specifically because of multiboxing/scripting/cheating. But yes, different people do have different reasons for quitting. Whatever the reason, it's sad to see them go.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
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There are literally 100's of reasons people have quit over the years... beginning with getting ganked continually in PvP in the early pre-tram days... to having their house and everything they own stolen... still can't believe this was an ALLOWED practice... To having been hacked... I know at least a dozen who quit over that... As well as sheer Boredom... which is what is killing my "love" for the game... endless grinds with little to NO reward are NOT fun... and aren't going to keep me engaged in playing... doing the same tasks day in day out of nothing... Then there is the loss of community ..... newer shiny games with pretty pictures... which includes, EQ, WoW, LoTRO, ST, SW, FF11 and FF14... and many others... now with Aria, Shroud, and Morrowind in the mix... all wanting attention...

For me the new No Man's Sky update just hit... and I do enjoy that game... way more than I ever thought I would... There are countless reasons people leave... what we need to find out is what makes folk STAY... and focus more on that.
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
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There are literally 100's of reasons people have quit over the years... beginning with getting ganked continually in PvP in the early pre-tram days... to having their house and everything they own stolen... still can't believe this was an ALLOWED practice... To having been hacked... I know at least a dozen who quit over that... As well as sheer Boredom... which is what is killing my "love" for the game... endless grinds with little to NO reward are NOT fun... and aren't going to keep me engaged in playing... doing the same tasks day in day out of nothing... Then there is the loss of community ..... newer shiny games with pretty pictures... which includes, EQ, WoW, LoTRO, ST, SW, FF11 and FF14... and many others... now with Aria, Shroud, and Morrowind in the mix... all wanting attention...

For me the new No Man's Sky update just hit... and I do enjoy that game... way more than I ever thought I would... There are countless reasons people leave... what we need to find out is what makes folk STAY... and focus more on that.
Bring a tamer to LS. We are going to be doing a lot of group activities when they open the new area.

Last week two returning players showed up. We are filling their stables up with pets. They are loving it.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
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Bring a tamer to LS. We are going to be doing a lot of group activities when they open the new area.

Last week two returning players showed up. We are filling their stables up with pets. They are loving it.
What times and how late are you all on?
 

Lady Storm

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
What keeps us playing UO..... good question and I bet its different for each of us who do.
I like that if I only have an hour to run around I can pop in do the small stuff and go... I don't need to do a dance to get gone.
I am free to do or not do anything! What I do miss is something that is very hard to find....
Back in the early days guilds hunted and had set days for stuff to do... you had people to talk to at the bank...
personally I think the chat stopped a lot of this... its got its good points but there are days I wish it was not in the game
 

Polaris75

Lore Master
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What keeps us playing UO..... good question and I bet its different for each of us who do.
I like that if I only have an hour to run around I can pop in do the small stuff and go... I don't need to do a dance to get gone.
I am free to do or not do anything! What I do miss is something that is very hard to find....
Back in the early days guilds hunted and had set days for stuff to do... you had people to talk to at the bank...
personally I think the chat stopped a lot of this... its got its good points but there are days I wish it was not in the game
There is nothing to hunt... Back in the day you could try 12 different types of monsters (lvl 5s of each dungeon) to try to get vanquishing/power/silver weapons. Now it is you either go to Abscess and farm... or go to Shadowguard/Exodus/Scalis. There is nothing else.... and nobody can hop in and do those. They are grinds..... That's what I'm complaining so much about.

There is 0 point in killing liches, lich lords, or paragon lich lords... there is 0 point in killing paragon balrons... there is 0 point in "hunting" anything. And if you go do Shadowguard... you best have a 15+ year account so that you get a super, ultra, mega, jumbo luck bonus at the end of that grind...

If Mesanna and them want to save Ultima, they will completely re-work the loot system..... again. And they might as well let us imbue 12-14 property items now as they have destroyed crafting. Someone asked in Gen. Chat on Atlantic yesterday: "So... is blacksmithing dead now?" Uggh... far worse than that. You better make 12 luck suits for throwers and learn to multi-bot 24/7 on 8 different shards with 96 different characters.... like those pro "farmers" do. That's the only sort of farming that's left. And Mesanna has said that it's completely legal.....
 

Swordsman

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Redesign on the loots of regular monsters will certainly make the game more interesting to play. Different dungeons and facets give special items which have useful properties for a specific class. The properties of looted items from regular monsters are not so good right now, we have 99.9% chance to get useless stuff even I have 2500 luck.
 

Scribbles

Long Live The Players
Professional
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What keeps us playing UO..... good question and I bet its different for each of us who do.
I like that if I only have an hour to run around I can pop in do the small stuff and go... I don't need to do a dance to get gone.
I am free to do or not do anything! What I do miss is something that is very hard to find....
Back in the early days guilds hunted and had set days for stuff to do... you had people to talk to at the bank...
personally I think the chat stopped a lot of this... its got its good points but there are days I wish it was not in the game
Quite literally the only reason I still have one account up is to help players.

Long live the players.
 

THP

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Hey thats not bad odds methinks...maybe ....obvoiusly a lot will reopen old accounts aka like me...
But a very fair raffle methinks.....the devs have actually got there heads screwed on this time.....
the coffers will soon fill ....only $9.99 a ticket for the chance of an Atlantic castle...pretty much a no brainer
THP = rolls the dice 3x
 

petemage

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
First off the 500 sovereigns was a free gift Mesanna tossed on our account (s), be gratefull.
I paid my account 4 years in a row and all I got was zero sovereigns :rolleyes: I'm gratefull for being not worth a virtual gift without another 6 years.
 

petemage

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
There is nothing to hunt... Back in the day you could try 12 different types of monsters (lvl 5s of each dungeon) to try to get vanquishing/power/silver weapons. Now it is you either go to Abscess and farm... or go to Shadowguard/Exodus/Scalis. There is nothing else.... and nobody can hop in and do those. They are grinds..... That's what I'm complaining so much about.
From the latest Meet & Greet:

Fingolfin : Is it possible for ilsh and the all the modain legacy dungeons to get luck bonus like we do in fel? The ones that are tram only.

Mesanna : one sec, is there a reason you are asking? Good question, but curious.

Fingolfin : well they have wonderful critters to hunt but with luck being so important, the loot is poopie

Kyronix : Well, that has less to do with luck and more to do with the creatures

Fingolfin : like miasma

Kyronix : If anything we would focus on providing new encounters such like the ones you find in some of the newer areas of the game, to justify the less poopie loots
Guess you kinda got your answer there. Otherwise there would be no reason to buy *their* horrible expansion (aka "newer areas of the game") then..
 

Uriah Heep

Grand Poobah
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Kyronix already said quite a while back that they 'adjust' the loot to encourage people to play the newer content rather than the old. That's why a level 7 t chest has loot that totally sucks-they want you grinding at Shadowguard. Otherwise they would look bad releasing stuff no one was doing.

And from personal experiences, I am still not convinced that luck plays a part in that t-chest loot equation.
 

Kylie Kinslayer

Stratics Legend
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Awards
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And from personal experiences, I am still not convinced that luck plays a part in that t-chest loot equation.
Agree with you there... and in all honesty... I am not convinced luck works on anything but the new content stuff as well. Unless some random multi-boxer finds a glitch like Abscess..
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
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What times and how late are you all on?
Community events are between 7 and 9 central depending on when Teara starts them. Donovan is around early afternoon central time. I am also. I stay till around midnite. Sometimes they stay later.

The guild has turned into a taming guild right now. We are all loving that.

Last night the community event was Bedlam champ. That took forever... We had some members of a Fel spawn guild there and DrCossack was there.

You and anyone else can just holler out for Donovan or Allen in Gen chat. Or hang around Luna stable.

We can help you find stuff and Donovan will immediately show you his rune library.
 

Kylie Kinslayer

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Last night the community event was Bedlam champ. That took forever... We had some members of a Fel spawn guild there and DrCossack was there.
That one does take a while.. but.. the Naja has made it a lot easier thankfully.
 

Mr Bug

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Because It is my home shard. Not interested in it for the value of it. I could care less about how many platinum it is worth on another shard. Played for 20 years and I have no desire to sell it if I did win it. Why would I want to put it on any other shard?
 

THP

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
If by some freak chance I win one, it is going to be on Lake Superior.
have u tried to buy a castle on LS from one of the guys/gals that own +5 each....prices are pretty damn reasonable on LS...unlike Atlantic which are simply breathtakingly stupid
 

Parnoc

Certifiable
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well then! I guess I'm in, thanks for clarifying! I'm so paranoid about grandfathered houses that I've never even customized a single one. ;)
I didn't think you could customize grandfathered houses, I thought they were all classics?
 

Prince Erik

Seasoned Veteran
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I didn't think you could customize grandfathered houses, I thought they were all classics?
I've been told that you could as long as you don't change plot size but I've also been told that's not correct so I never tried it for myself. ;)
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
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ohhh btw... Id love to swop you a LS castle for an Atlantic one if u win!!!
What good would that do if it's not grandfathered???

If I win I guarantee I'm not putting it on Atl either... wouldn't play or go there. Don't want to "trade" or Sell it since well the whole idea of having it Grandfathered is to get MORE storage... and have a second house on the account... not to make a buck on Atl...

I will say though that if I win one of Clops' homes there in Luna.... I WILL be selling that.
 

Dot_Warner

Grand Inquisitor
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I didn't think you could customize grandfathered houses, I thought they were all classics?
If the plot footprint is customizeable you can, grandfathered status has nothing to do with it.
 

Archnight

Legendary Merchant & Rare Collector
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Why the hell would you do so?
ohhh btw... Id love to swop you a LS castle for an Atlantic one if u win!!!
Guys let's not forget that not everyone plays on Atlantic, wants to sell it or has multiple accounts... this castle will be grandfathered (doesn't count towards the housing limit). The person that wins can trade it but will most likely lose it's grandfathered status in the process, so the advantage is to claim it on the shard you actually play
 

Finley Grant

Crazed Zealot
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Guys let's not forget that not everyone plays on Atlantic, wants to sell it or has multiple accounts... this castle will be grandfathered (doesn't count towards the housing limit). The person that wins can trade it but will most likely lose it's grandfathered status in the process, so the advantage is to claim it on the shard you actually play
for the price of an ATL castle in those special location you can run one or two extra account till UO finaly ends and buy a castle on that shard plus having enough gold to get all your toons suited up and so on....
 

Slayvite

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for the price of an ATL castle in those special location you can run one or two extra account till UO finaly ends and buy a castle on that shard plus having enough gold to get all your toons suited up and so on....
Oh no.... i would only place the castle on my home shard as the extra 20 platinum does not interest me .....honest!! :eyes:....and by saying this i may increase my chances of getting my name out of the hat?
....yeah right. lol :devil:

Although i do get the very strong feeling that if my name was drawn then Mesanna would say...." oh hell no, not him...pull another name". :gee:
 

Finley Grant

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Campaign Supporter
to make things right, i dont want to trash talk the persons who want to place those on their home shard, i just want to highlight that there is a valid reason for getting it on atlantic and then use the gold do more stuff in the end.

iam pretty sure that there are people who are not aware how the prices on Castles are around Sosaria..
 
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Fridgster

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Oh no.... i would only place the castle on my home shard as the extra 20 platinum does not interest me .....honest!! :eyes:....and by saying this i may increase my chances of getting my name out of the hat?
....yeah right. lol :devil:

Although i do get the very strong feeling that if my name was drawn then Mesanna would say...." oh hell no, not him...pull another name". :gee:
You could offer to trade it back to the devs in exchange for the phoenix to be reverted :)
 

Keith of Sonoma

Grand Poobah
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for the price of an ATL castle in those special location you can run one or two extra account till UO finaly ends and buy a castle on that shard plus having enough gold to get all your toons suited up and so on....
How exactly does gold from an ATL castle get turned into "run one or two extra account till UO finaly ends"????? Enlighten me please.
 

Finley Grant

Crazed Zealot
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iam sure i saw that some folks sell GTC for gold. (if this is now allowed i never mentioned it)
 

Lord Nabin

High Council Sage - Greater Sosaria
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Glorious Lord
If you win - Place it where you live regardless of the shard. It is something special, something that will be an honor to you and your good fortune. No need to change anything about your game play for a prize, gift or someone else's opinion.

*tips a glass of Good Old Moonglow Red in salute towards you and your friends*

Best of luck each and every one of you.
 

Lady Michelle

Sprite Full SP
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Stratics Legend
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If you win - Place it where you live regardless of the shard. It is something special, something that will be an honor to you and your good fortune. No need to change anything about your game play for a prize, gift or someone else's opinion.

*tips a glass of Good Old Moonglow Red in salute towards you and your friends*

Best of luck each and every one of you.
I win I'm keeping it and placing it on great lakes
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
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Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
If by some freak chance I win one, it is going to be on Lake Superior.
I would claim it on Atl and sell it. I have many hungry pets to feed!

I would love the extra storage from a castle but I prefer to live in my 18 x 18 houses.
 

Minerva Foxglove

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I would place it on Europa and never sell. I dont need more gold, I dont care about gold or crazy expensive items. I play for friends and fun with the guild. That gold would just spoil the daily life in Sosaria for me with lots of "work" I like, and perhaps for my friends as well. I would get attension from ppl that I normally awoid , I would "be someone" in their eyes and get fake friends. Just what happens in RL. But the castle I would decorate for months and ower and ower and UO life would go on as normal , just the way I like it!
 

Acid Rain

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Thank you this anniversary giveaway !

*Hopes to finally have somewhere to put his stuff*

Good luck to everyone :)
 
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