NEWS [UO.Com] Contest Housing Pricing

[Pawain]

first, bravo Riyana, if for nothing else, for this line "No part of this contest has been anything but a big middle finger to the majority of the interested playerbase, and somehow it keeps getting worse."

second, the following published yesterday... yesterday

Publish 101 to Origin, Izumo & Baja & Castle/Keep Contest Winners – Ultima Online

and in the paragraph in the center you find this: The house will cost per tile such as the old prefab houses do.

seriously, is no one paying attention? and I'm horrible at math, but does anyone know if it somehow does work out to a misplaced decimal point??

I saw that also and then was shocked at the prices today. Do they communicate with each other?

All the tile costs are less than 2 Mil.

 

[Riyana]

Want to know how I acquired my only keep? It all started back in 1999, playing on the Baja server. Me and my cousin played on the same account (I was like 13). I had one character that I played (badly I admit). But I worked incredibly hard to build that character up. I killed and skinned tons of animals, chopped tons of trees, killed tons of mongbats, all while dodging PKers who incessantly murdered me for my scraps lol, until I had enough to buy a small marble. Eventually I opened my own account for the first time and placed that house. Then I worked for months and months to save up to buy an L shaped. Bought that and kept working my way up until I got a keep. Then, I ran into my very first scammer. He tricked me into handing over my keep and I lost everything (yeah, it was totally my fault but I was 14 lol). At that point I quit playing. I was devastated. Go on a few years later and I decide I want to play again. By this time (2003ish), my cousin had moved to the Atlantic server so I joined him there. Little did I know that server was going to explode. My playstyle never allowed me to buy any house bigger than an 18x18. I've never been interested in the economic aspects of the game. I like to hunt. I like to craft. I like to gather resources. I like to deco with what I make. Anyways I lived in several 18x18s but keeps and castles were always out of reach on the Atlantic server. Whenever one dropped there was always a house sniper there and waiting to place and would beat us because of the hacking programs they used back then. Or they cost 400 million+ which to me seemed like I'd have to hit the lotto. So I went on about my UO life, enjoying the content and having fun. One day I was messing around on other shards and found a spot on Sonoma for a keep. So I sold a couple items from old gift bags and got just enough to place the keep. Then I ended up spending real cash to move my characters there one by one. Not one time in all those years did I have hundreds of millions of gold.

I won my castle at the 16th anniversary party.

My husband was in general chat when someone announced they were dropping a keep and placed in the spot. When the neighboring house fell he was able to replace the keep with a castle.

I had a little over 1 plat once, but it was from selling a 1/1 (also won at the 16th anniversary) during the Ches Rares Fest, and I spent it back into the Fest.

 

[uokings7]

I won my castle at the 16th anniversary party.

My husband was in general chat when someone announced they were dropping a keep and placed in the spot. When the neighboring house fell he was able to replace the keep with a castle.

I had a little over 1 plat once, but it was from selling a 1/1 (also won at the 16th anniversary) during the Ches Rares Fest, and I spent it back into the Fest.

Thats awesome! I always wondered if they dropped existing houses or created new space for people who won castles. Thats so cool!

 

[Riyana]

Thats awesome! I always wondered if they dropped existing houses or created new space for people who won castles. Thats so cool!

I believe they usually place in otherwise unplaceable areas. Mine is in the big empty area just northwest of Luna.

 

[skett]

I can’t stop laughing at this BS she has lost her pancaking mind lol

The RTM sites Are them.....
This isn’t a gold sink it’s a rtm grab

At what point does an unpopular, incompetent leader just resign ?


Just WOW !!!

 

[MissEcho]

I can’t stop laughing at this BS she has lost her pancaking mind lol

The RTM sites Are them.....
This isn’t a gold sink it’s a rtm grab

At what point does an unpopular, incompetent leader just resign ?


Just WOW !!!

Agree

I just did some pricing having never bought from them EVER.

So 250 mil on Atlantic will set you back $50, so $0.2 per mil
5 mil on Siege, where I play will set you back $20, so $4 per mil

In what realm is it fair that the cost should be the same for Siege as on prodo, I know it is meant to be harder but if you base value on what the cheat sites sell gold for it is ludicrous. To 'buy' my conversion on production shards it would cost me about $70 bucks. To buy it on Siege would cost me around $1,200.

Not gonna happen as I don't cheat to play, but damn, it smells like this is set up to make someone some MONEY.

I a traveling outback Australia atm and I managed to check my email yesterday and noticed the newsletter and got a nice surprise to see that the devs selected my castle for that comp. Super delighted.

Then I saw for me to build it on siege is gonna cost 313,500,000 gps.

So now I am considering closing my three accounts and walking away. Talk about going from a high to a low. I really hate that the devs are so intent on rewarding the cheaters in this game and continually screwing over regular players.

50-80mil to convert would have been expensive but reasonable, 300 + million is out and out rorting and screams that someone somewhere is after a profit.

 

[skett]

I have already closed 2 accounts and I’m working on 2 more

If you read the newsletter it’s clear they are not doing well

I realize people have been saying UO is closing for a long time now, but for some reason it feels like it’s very close now

Pac is just about empty 3 of the main players there are now leaving and others moving to Alt because it’s so dead.

We needed a new leader years ago

 

[arkiu]

Nevermind the silly prices for homes that only a handful of players would buy... Frankly speaking I prefer classic houses over these anyway.

Im more blown away that they actually think this would be an effective gold sink!

I cant pretend to know the numbers, but my guess is it would take selling literally a couple thousand or tens of thousands of these homes in order to up the value of gold to a noticeable degree game wide. Sure it may be a start (if people actually buy these homes), but to use combating inflation as a justification for the high cost in my mind sounds ridiculous.

I am not an economist btw but it doesnt take one to realize this isnt gonna do jack sh**. The game is soooo old and probably has such an absurd about of accumulated gold that it would take a lot of effort to correct. Overpriced houses? Get real nice try.

I almost wish UO get suspended if this kinda bs continues to spew out of the official news feed...

 

[Great DC]

All I know is, Ive been saying these devs were bad decision makers for years! Today was the day to say "I told you so". I won UO without even logging into it for months.

 

[Theo_GL]

Ahh I see.....
The only way the average player (not me but I don't count anyway) can get that much gold is to buy it from a 3rd party website...…
Well played Devs, more money into your back pockets instead of the game.

Oh please. Average player?? If a maxed out toon can't earn 10-20m a week at a minimum you are doing something wrong. Solo champ spawns. Bod rewards and sell. Tmap and sell loot. Acquire peerless drops etc.
150m isn't really that much money unless you do alot of non-money generating activities or blow every gold coin as soon as you earn it.

It takes me an hour to solo a champ spawn for scrolls and 300k in gold. Two 120 tactics and a 120 wrestle and you are almost there.

Let me log into your account and I'll bet I can easily find 150m worth of items to sell.

 

[Dot_Warner]

*backs slowly out of thread in search of a hazmat suit*

 

[MalagAste]

Oh please. Average player?? If a maxed out toon can't earn 10-20m a week at a minimum you are doing something wrong. Solo champ spawns. Bod rewards and sell. Tmap and sell loot. Acquire peerless drops etc.
150m isn't really that much money unless you do alot of non-money generating activities or blow every gold coin as soon as you earn it.

It takes me an hour to solo a champ spawn for scrolls and 300k in gold. Two 120 tactics and a 120 wrestle and you are almost there.

Let me log into your account and I'll bet I can easily find 150m worth of items to sell.

Not everyone is a "L33T" player like you... I can't solo a spawn... would take me hours... I don't have the storage for BoDs .... TMap loot is garbage do you really get anything out of that????? Acquire perless drops??? Again can't solo that and any of the drops I've ever gotten aren't worth anything but the 5k turn in points no one will buy that crap... I've done Navrey solo 100x over I've only ever gotten 1 tangle... and no one wants or buys the glasses... I don't get 120 scrolls off a champ spawn either lucky to get a 115 in something that isn't totally lame like macing....

I probably have items I could sell for 150 but what would be the point of having a big castle to store all the shinny **** if I sold it all????

Long time ago I was GIVEN the castle I own as well as the account that held it. I never bought it.. I bought the keep nearby for a song... thankfully the other castle I have is in fel and I don't deco it or anything certainly wouldn't waste money to change it to some fancy thing when no one would ever see it but me... besides most the designs would get you killed if you placed them in fel... they are open to griefing unless being pked in your own home is your cup of tea... it ain't mine.

 

[Finley Grant]

Ok, I've thought about it.

These gold prices being requested for the castles are absolutely nothing.

I happily spent 450m on an original +20 stealth cloak for my rogue, it gave me something to aim for, I felt proud to achieve it, that's what the game is about.
I'm now saving 500m for an original lieutenants sash.

I do all this the hard way, spawning, pvming, collecting gold, selling some stuff etc.
Even on Siege I reckon I could grind this - although I could understand if they divided the costs by 10.

I remember back in the day, the 10m Ornament of the Magician was the item to have, and we all saved so hard to get it.
I remember the glacial white hair dye, which was a huge gold-sink that again we had to save for, but was a mark of distinction, and I loved having on my mage.

The Rares collectors deal in Plats only.
So do the Traders.

There is no point you all collecting this gold, or having the means to do it, and not using it.

These Castles are a premium item, to be shown off by the games most successful, you strive to get there and be one of them, they are a good gold-sink which is good for the game itself.

I'm ok with it.

We all have our thing, some it's Rares, some it's top end PvP/PvM gear, some it's Castles, some it's Pets - but at the top end, it's expensive, and has to be played for.

You can't have everything on a plate.

well thats your opinion, iam respect that.

but what you dont get is that the only thing this whole action will do as "gold sink" is sinking the amount of Dollar from BS available for UO. why? because if makes ****ing no sense to invest that much developer time for 1% of the playerbase in the first place an NOW after the "contest" is finished the houses are stupid expensive and non pratical for everyones need.

so guess what the result will be? a hand full converted and thats all. which sinks what? 5plat? you can make those on a good week with EM events....

it was simply wasted time

and the only ones who laugh their asses off are the RMT sites....

a gold sink would be selling stuff most people really want.... not that.

 

[uokings7]

*backs slowly out of thread in search of a hazmat suit*

If I owned a castle and was going to convert it I'd choose your design just fyi.

 

[Finley Grant]

I get this. Maybe they could have been more up front about it, for sure.

I don't get where you say it creates expectations (among non castle owners), if someone didn't have a castle, they are not going to be affected anyway?


On the positive side;

• The actual contest was open to everyone, everyone who is creative and enjoys housing design got a chance, and they all really excelled, the effort that went in from the player-base was amazing - you can see how passionate the designers were - almost as passionate as us PvPers. This is a good thing by the way.
• The gold sink can help the game - and in theory - it only targets/taxes the rich - ie the players in castles.
• The Winners can be proud their castles will be placed ingame.
• The new design castle owners can show off to the rest of us...

that post is complete BS and ill tell you why...

1. contest: it was open to the few who actually were able to get a plot on TC. IT was not fair at all or anything, not a design contest but a who got the most friends for voting. most houses had hard flaws in building there was no QA. even with the "winning" designs

2. gold sink: its not a gold sink if ****ing no one uses it
3. not sure if i would be proud here but ill give you that
4. you wont see much of those new designs you probabaly came across when you saw the playerbase feedback.

 

[ShriNayne]

@MalagAste your Keep sounds like the one I voted for. I have no clue why it wasn't chosen.
@Riyana you always manage to say exactly what I wanted to say but much better!

They could have made a conversion token and sold it in the store, this would have made them money, but nooooo they just made it stupidly expensive and pretty much forced the average player to buy gold. How many people sitting on piles of plats got them by legitimate means? Why are the only winners in UO the gold sellers, time after time? So many decisions made have just thrown more and more gold at the scripters and RMT sites. Even if they halved the prices for the 'winners' designs it would still be out of reach for many Castle and most Keep owners. I'm sure some people actually spent most of their gold actually getting a Castle in the first place. Stop rewarding cheats and start rewarding your loyal paying customers. This is the kind of extortion you expect in free-to-play games, we already pay you every month, throw us a bone for once. For the love of <insert appropriate deity here> stop using Atlantic as the norm, it isn't!

 

[petemage]

@Mesanna if you want to do an effective gold sink.... Ban the RMTers, Dupers, and other cheaters. This [bcolor=rgb(16, 16, 16)]happened in 2006[/bcolor], and you guys wiped 15,000,000,000,000 gold in the process, that's 15 trillion for those who don't want to count zeros. That's the equivalent of ~46,012 of the highest priced castles. How about starting off by doing this again and seeing where it gets you, rather than spending over a year raising expectations only to once again disappoint.

Hits it on the head! But where does @Mesanna find new people for the UO facebook page and the EM program then?

 

[leloyon]

I just subbed again a couple of months ago after a 4-year hiatus thinking that uo was finally going in a decent direction, but this proved me wrong. I was pretty excited when I heard about new designs, especially a new Keep design because the original keep barely has enough room to even walk around in. I tore down my 18x18 to place a keep thinking the new design would be reasonably priced but now I can see it was a huge mistake and a waste of time. I can barely keep 10mil in my bank on LS. Want to know how much gold I've ever had in the game? ****ing 30mil. How the hell are people getting 200+mil gold legitimately without spending a good portion of their daily lives playing the game? This game is turning into a pay-to-win grindfest and we pay monthly, but they continue to alienate the small base that still sticks around. What I don't understand most of all is why gold-sellers increased gold prices before the launch of the patch, as if they knew it was coming? Perhaps that Avatar spambot that's always in chat never gets banned because the devs created it for their own RMT platform. This helps nobody but the gold-sellers. Also, how is it a gold sink when somebody could just demo the house and get their gold back if they need it?

Regardless, I won't be renewing my subscription after this month. It was a mistake to come back.

 

[petemage]

What I don't understand most of all is why gold-sellers increased gold prices before the launch of the patch, as if they knew it was coming?

Some of them are EMs and in private groups with Mesanna where she usually shares those information in advance. I don't even think she does it on purpose, they are just good at playing her

 

[Danpal]

I only play a few hours a week and alt is my shard. 15 year vet picks are worth 80 to 95 million. Em items are worth 50mil and up. Sometimes you find stuff cheap on Vender search you buy it then mark it up a few million. I sell pets that i tame ibsell them for half the cost other do. Some of them buy from me then resell them at a higher price. I sell pet for 20mil they resell for 40 mil.

I just subbed again a couple of months ago after a 4-year hiatus thinking that uo was finally going in a decent direction, but this proved me wrong. I was pretty excited when I heard about new designs, especially a new Keep design because the original keep barely has enough room to even walk around in. I tore down my 18x18 to place a keep thinking the new design would be reasonably priced but now I can see it was a huge mistake and a waste of time. I can barely keep 10mil in my bank on LS. Want to know how much gold I've ever had in the game? ****ing 30mil. How the hell are people getting 200+mil gold legitimately without spending a good portion of their daily lives playing the game? This game is turning into a pay-to-win grindfest and we pay monthly, but they continue to alienate the small base that still sticks around. What I don't understand most of all is why gold-sellers increased gold prices before the launch of the patch, as if they knew it was coming? Perhaps that Avatar spambot that's always in chat never gets banned because the devs created it for their own RMT platform. This helps nobody but the gold-sellers. Also, how is it a gold sink when somebody could just demo the house and get their gold back if they need it?

Regardless, I won't be renewing my subscription after this month. It was a mistake to come back.

 

[leloyon]

Some of them are EMs and in private groups with Mesanna where she usually shares those information in advance. I don't even think she does it on purpose, they are just good at playing her

If that's the case, maybe she could spread different misinformation about pricing on the future castle contest designs and monitor major influxes on popular RMT websites to determine which ones are attributed to which EM. Though, easier said than done.

I only play a few hours a week and alt is my shard. 15 year vet picks are worth 80 to 95 million. Em items are worth 50mil and up. Sometimes you find stuff cheap on Vender search you buy it then mark it up a few million. I sell pets that i tame ibsell them for half the cost other do. Some of them buy from me then resell them at a higher price. I sell pet for 20mil they resell for 40 mil.

Many of us weren't fortunate enough, or even wanted to keep our accounts active for 15 years. Em items on LS are pretty non-existent because we were out of an EM for months, and only so many people play on LS so it's nearly impossible to sell anything on the shard. I've had some +5.0 taming pinks on my vendor for 1mil for two months and they haven't even sold, not to mention some nice power scrolls but I took everything down because i'm wasting gold just letting it sit there. I even have a bane dragon that I haven't even attempted to sell because it just wouldn't. You can't sell anything on LS, and I can't transfer every week to another like the rest of you, and I probably never will because with decisions like this, I doubt UO will be around for another 15 years. It's bad enough that there's an in-game store where you can purchase items that give advantages over other players. I would expect that kind of crap in a free-to-play game, but uo is still very much a subscription-based game.

 

[Coco_Zamis_DF]

What a joke.
I can spend my time better than in designing for others. Next contest, no participation.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

What I don't understand most of all is why gold-sellers increased gold prices before the launch of the patch, as if they knew it was coming?

Some of them are EMs and in private groups with Mesanna where she usually shares those information in advance. I don't even think she does it on purpose, they are just good at playing her [bcolor=rgb(16, 16, 16)][/bcolor]

Not only the EM's. You'd be surprised to find out who has instant access to her VIA ICQ. Let us not forget she was at one time "just a player" her and her guild originated on Baja I believe? (correct me if I'm wrong).

And anyone that don't believe she knows who is and who isn't running RMT sites (on her ICQ friends list or not) are just naive or out right gullible!
Is she involved in the sites or getting kickbacks? It's 2018 everyone is out for themselves and anything that make that paycheck bigger is hard to pass up on. (you make your own decision on that one).

I've also noticed a lot of these 1%'s as they are being called (that are on her ICQ) are staying clear of any of these conversations/threads. coincidence? I think not.

The best thing that could happen to UO today, in my opinion, would be to let her go and replace her.

(EDIT)
One of our trusting EM's is well known to be from one of these RMT sites also.

 

[leloyon]

Not only the EM's. You'd be surprised to find out who has instant access to her VIA ICQ. Let us not forget she was at one time "just a player" her and her guild originated on Baja I believe? (correct me if I'm wrong).

And anyone that don't believe she knows who is and who isn't running RMT sites (on her ICQ friends list or not) are just naive or out right gullible!
Is she involved in the sites or getting kickbacks? It's 2018 everyone is out for themselves and anything that make that paycheck bigger is hard to pass up on. (you make your own decision on that one).

I've also noticed a lot of these 1%'s as they are being called (that are on her ICQ) are staying clear of any of these conversations/threads. coincidence? I think not.

The best thing that could happen to UO today, in my opinion, would be to let her go and replace her.

(EDIT)
One of our trusting EM's is well known to be from one of these RMT sites also.

If what you're saying is true, then UO has officially reached unprofessional absurdity peaking well above the average player-run free shard and I couldn't agree more about replacing her. But at this point, I doubt EA cares enough to do anything about it . it's obvious that they don't care about the game when they let Broadsword take over, a company that is mostly known to have made some terrible Dreamcast games in the past.

 

[Mene (DF)]

Would someone please explain to me what RMT stands for? Thank you!

I think this contest was a lesson for everyone - for players as well as for developers. Personally, as a passionate house builder, I took advantage of the opportunity to finally let off steam on these big plots and build my ideas - and at first I didn't care if they hit the "touch of UO" or not - at first I wanted to give my own creativity an outlet. If you see that others also like what you put there, this is a very pleasant personal confirmation and spurs on accordingly. But I started from the idea that these keeps and castles will be implemented in a way that even the not so rich UO player can afford at some point. These horror prices may be okay for real castles - they're not for a game.
After all, this event - so much hoped for by many - is a huge kick in the ass for everyone - not only for the house builders themselves and for everyone whose dream is now bursting. I for my part had expected a certain frame in which one can build and that did not come from the side of the gods - so everyone relied on it with a lot of enthusiasm. And also diligently used the advertising drum for himself on TC - not all but so a few very special people here . If one could easily have called it unfair competition, which has partly gone out there - but none has controlled and none has gone against it, even if in the forums here was grumbled; )

But when you read a note from Amber Witch in the official forum that Mesanna said to some on TC that she was shocked to see so many copies of what we already have and that she would have wished for completely different building styles, which were build by some people and therefore existed - one should ask oneself already at that moment - why she didn't just call it off as head boss and just restart in her sense . And now here - supposedly forced to do a thing that probably does more harm than good to the game.
Shall I have compassion with someone who cannot open his/her mouth early enough to explain what he/she would be like or not? As a clairvoyant i would certainly earn a lot of money


For my part, from the experience I have now gained, I will simply make a rope out of it:
My keep and my castle stay the way they are - firstly because it is not at all clear whether the implementation in new designs works 100% cleanly "secondly I am not prepared to pay this completely excessive price for a design that I don't like - and thirdly - and that's the most important thing - I don't have to implement it - I can leave everything as it is - and that's my free decision
I'm going to get a castle from a very nice person last year for a very fair price from a seller who wanted it to come into good hands and not into the hands of vultures not by any stupid premature must-absolute-have actions; ) I never wanted one in now 19 years playtime and it was big coincidence someone sold on a very nice and speciell location to that fair price last year.
For the next contest - you know - I had fun probably I will create my designs again - and you know what else? It is then also my free decision whether I submitte my design then for a probably again not quite cleanly running competition or not

Greetings Mene
- not Krösus -

 

[leloyon]

Would someone please explain to me what RMT stands for? Thank you!

Real Money Trading. When someone refers to RMT it usually means third-party websites that sell gold and in-game items for real cash.

 

[Cetric]

Gold sink idea: +10 skill cap scrolls, on an npc - 100m

much more effective than pulling 300m away from 40 ppl for new castle designs.

 

[ShriNayne]

@Mene (DF) I think Messana obviously had no clue why people complained about castles and keeps. It wasn't because they hated how they looked outside, they look like what they are! The complaints were because of the impractical nature of the interiors, that was all that needed fixing. A lot of us just wanted the interior walls and stairs re-arranging, not a whole new building.

These horror prices may be okay for real castles - they're not for a game.

Actually you can buy quite a few 'real castles' in Scotland for 500k to 2 million, none of them cost these ridiculous prices. That price usually also includes a lot of land...

 

[MissEcho]

Well not sure on all you just said Mene, as far as I can see the contest as such was run fairly. Not sure what happened to the peoples choice 3 & 4 as they went 1,2,- - 5 on the players choice part of it no idea why 3 was not put up as for the empty plot (#4) I guess I can understand that not being selected as it really wasn't a stand alone castle even though I 'get' the idea of it, and I know the guy who is #5 from Oceania and know he wouldn't pull any sway with the devs, as I do not lol. First I knew my castle was selected was when I read it in the newsletter yesterday. So for that part of the process I can only think it was done with no major interference. I really was quite chuffed that they picked mine. The other two dev picks I don't know the people so have no idea on them either.

The decision to massively up the price was a total shock, and a disappointment and leaves us all with a bad taste in the mouth. Very bad move and way over the top. Even if you don't 'own' a castle or keep today it doesn't mean you won't tomorrow. Strange things happen, and even if you don't like the designs this time there will be more.

Yes I agree that it would be much nicer to be able to build your own as a normal customization but they don't wanna let us do that, so it is what it is. However the prices are just moronic and a mass disappointment as it seems the devs are just catering to those who want to buy gold for real life cash as that is what is going to happen for those who can afford it or to those on production shards who already have a billion to spare. Which is NOT the majority.

As for Siege well we are just gonna be a castle conversion free zone. I do feel pretty abused now, feels like we were duped into doing the design work for them and at the end of the day can't even afford to build em. I live on Siege and 313 million on there is equivalent to 3 billion on a production shard so I guess we aren't supposed to have one. If when i get home, (i am traveling atm) things haven't changed and the price on Siege is still 313m, I have decided to leave UO. I have paid every month for 3 accounts for the past 7 yrs and before that I paid every month for 5 accounts. I was looking forward to being a bit re-energised with new stuff to build and deco, now well, it is only for the super rich or those who wanna pay real life cash to do it. On siege this isn't even an option as the rmt sites wanna charge anywhere from 1200 to 2000 dollars for gold on siege. I don't think it is fair and I just can't be bothered getting upset with stuff like this any more. The cheaters, dupers and scripters and gold sellers can have it.

 

[Mene (DF)]

@Mene (DF) I think Messana obviously had no clue why people complained about castles and keeps. It wasn't because they hated how they looked outside, they look like what they are! The complaints were because of the impractical nature of the interiors, that was all that needed fixing. A lot of us just wanted the interior walls and stairs re-arranging, not a whole new building.



Actually you can buy quite a few 'real castles' in Scotland for 500k to 2 million, none of them cost these ridiculous prices. That price usually also includes a lot of land...

Uhm ... in my real life I'm certainly not to be able to afford 500 k to 2 millions for such a domicil nor I wish to live within.

Dear ShriNayne - so plz be so kind and tell me why Mesanna than didn't say nothing like she ever did when big troubles were caused - not by the playerbase - but by bad preparation from the BS-side? How I said before - did she opens her mouth a bit earlier she mustn't be so shocked about the results she got - my two cents

 

[Mene (DF)]

The empty Plot from Lt. Dan to my opinion was pure protest action to show what we would really like - namely an empty dirty plot to build our own desings. Nothing else. And it was no wonder that so many fill those float with their votings.

 

[Uriah Heep]

I note the comment that the gold sellers are now upping their prices, see @Kyronix @Mesanna you are encouraging people to pay the damn cheaters. Great.

They have been encouraging and supporting the cheaters and RMT'ers for years. That's why you got random resources and such. Just look closely at all the changes over the last decade.

 

[ShriNayne]

I totally agree with you, the whole thing really was a fiasco, if this was always their intention then they should have told us upfront. We just keep getting screwed and we just keep paying them to do it.
I bet Messana wishes she had never started this whole disastrous episode 18 months ago, but her decisions are on her, nobody else, she is ultimately responsible for this situation of unhappiness.
The empty plot was never going to be chosen, as you say it was a protest, but some of their other choices, no offense but what were they thinking?
My comment about the real castles was intended as a joke, just to show they weren't so different in price from what we already had!

 

[Mene (DF)]

The nice thing is now - she can't get out of this number anymore


Just imagine that the next time you build the dream design she might have in mind and than you don't submit it for the competition. I'd really really like to see that face

 

[Treasure Hunter]

The nice thing is now - she can't get out of this number anymore


Just imagine that the next time you build the dream design she might have in mind and than you don't submit it for the competition. I'd really really like to see that face

Just because it isn't submitted doesn't mean she can't still use it...all she needs to do is see it. " 3 designs chosen by the UO Dev Team "

 

[Murdok]

I have 3 castles on LS with 2 of them being "clean" ie no yard art. At one point before this mess and seeing what we have to choose from (no offense to the winners) that really dont fit my needs... I was going to update one to a new design. Well at these prices there is no way in hell I could afford to do this unless I bought gold from on of the sites and tbh "IF" my wife found out I was buying gold my days of UO would be over!

I think between my 3 accounts I might have 25 mill! I have never been one to have a ton of gold only items I have collected or traded for over the course of 20+ years! I say we as UO supporters take a stand and just say no to BS gold sink!

 

[ShriNayne]

I think there will be very few entries if they ever run this 'contest' again, some of us won't be wasting our time. Fool me once shame on you etc.etc

 

[Mene (DF)]

Just because it isn't submitted doesn't mean she can't still use it...all she needs to do is see it. " 3 designs chosen by the UO Dev Team "

If she ever does, I insist on my copy right as first designer .

 

[Uriah Heep]

If she ever does, I insist on my copy right as first designer .

All your tiles are belong to them.

As per terms of service

 

[Mene (DF)]

All your tiles are belong to them.

As per terms of service

Dear Uriah you're right - the tiles belongs to them - but you cannot tell me that they ever had such house design ideas as that one I build and the voters had put to #9 in this contest

If I would have something to say - but unfortunate I have not - this is my imagination of an elvish city theme like heartwood and not these ugly tree building we've once got in Yew

 

[Pawain]

I even have a bane dragon that I haven't even attempted to sell because it just wouldn't. You can't sell anything on LS,

Ill buy it.

 

[CovenantX]

They are dipping their toe into active gold sinks. The game needs these. What are you complaining about? You have to agree that there's way too much gold in the game right now, and this will help with inflation. Hopefully this is the first of many luxury focused gold sinks

It's a pretty useless goldsink if you look at it in context with peoples overall opinions on the designs they have the ability to use, the newsletters reporting dupers being actioned every month, and the fact that relative to the overall playerbase, a very small percentage of players even have castles, even a smaller percentage have castles that could even be converted in the first place.

Implementing Gold-sinks (especially of this magnitude) while there are active dupe(s) only encourages people to buy gold from third-party sellers & dupers, Though, I cant say I'm surprised that it was done this way because it seems consistent with other questionable changes/implementations this Dev team has made over recent years.

Goldsinks that have been suggested by myself and others numerous times over the last several years would have a larger impact because just about everyone would use it.

Town Buff (trade deal) cost 25-50k+ gold every time the buff is chosen, with a 20-50% of the gold spent added to the city treasury to help maintain the city buffs.
Add/Remove 'Mage-Armor' (Convert Mage Armor) to and from items regardless of property counts or artifact status, which could also function as an option to remove Refinements from armor that has already been refined. 250k per addition/removal of mage-armor.

People use these systems already, they won't stop using them just because it costs a reasonable amount of gold... especially when what they gain from using said system gives the player a useful (or even essential) bonus.

 

[Philly]

Ok wow... This is just ridiculous... I also was excited and have played 20 years and I have never cheated or duped. Most of you know I'm just a scribe. I can honestly say I can not afford that for my Keep. Embarrassing but true. *sigh* and I had gone to look at the Keep and loved it. Oh Well Only Dupers and Cheats can afford this then again they are always the ones that own everything in this game anyway...
=[

 

[ShriNayne]

I just read that official announcement again and now I am less angry all I can say is that it's a whole crock of poop. What total and utter nonsense, how can they even write that stuff with a serious face?

 

[Mrsbug]

The bad part is we can't even afford to test this new housing change...NO ONE CAN AFFORD IT! I think this is UO's way of saying they really don't want those houses in game.

 

[ShriNayne]

I was thinking that myself, I can see how badly things could go when the first person tried to convert from old to new style and loses all their stuff. So to ensure that doesn't happen they pick options that few people want and then to further reduce the number of takers they make them insanely expensive. Job done!

 

[Uvtha]

On the plus side I won't have to look at any of the new designs on siege.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

And anyone that don't believe she knows who is and who isn't running RMT sites (on her ICQ friends list or not) are just naive or out right gullible!

I have PERSONALLY sent @Mesanna verifiable information regarding players who deal in RMT's and for whatever reason *cough,cough* , she has done absolutely nothing with it!

 

[MalagAste]

I saw a lot of places built but few that said "castle" or "keep" to me... the original stone and all is what I think of when I think of a Castle or Keep .... so 2 of my designs were just that... only fixed so they were easier to move around in simple yet would still be able to be finished and customed by whomever used them... but obviously that wasn't what most people wanted or they would have won.

I don't want to live in a church... not interested in a house... I wanted a CASTLE for Newcastle that resembled a fortified castle.. not some fancy villa or estate... or church..... I wanted functional usable space for storage, for deco and such.... but most of what I saw had ZERO functionality and many were way worse to get around in than what we currently had... the main reason I wanted them to redo the Keep and Castle designs was for better functionality... not to be some fancy estate.... IMO 18x18's are just fine for a fancy estate but a Keep and a Castle should look more like a guild hall and a fortified structure...

I wanted functionality... the winners not so much.

if I want a fireplace I'll build one.... if I want a pond I'll put one in.... if I want lava I can add that myself.... I wanted space to put things.. space to decorate... space to show off the things that the guild has done.... room to move and room to gather... and room to add more decor... and I'm rather picky and I like symmetry in design...

It is what it is... I will know better next time though next time I plan to submit just about the same thing I submitted this time.

As for what @Treasure Hunter said about Mesanna and her ICQ that I can say with all honesty is untrue... Mesanna never had ICQ... she had an AoL... but that has been gone since they went to Mythic... before Broadsword... so you may want to check your facts there.

She is trying and I do understand where she is coming from but you know... you can't please everyone... I agree with everyone though that the prices are irrational... they only serve the top 1% of the UO population... no one in my community has that kind of gold.. though all of them can probably tell you where to buy it..

And @MissEcho I feel you on Siege... fortunately I don't have a keep or castle on Siege... so won't have to worry about that. I don't have but a handful of gold there.

 

[Cyrah]

Go see the pricing update.