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Castle winners

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Congrats to all six. I am amazed though that one castle was not in the top twenty. The Sandstone by Grand Bishop. I do remember it being in the contest.
 

Akalabeth

Journeyman
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Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I guess I did not understand the rules. I thought the 3 dev picks would come from the top 20 which were the most voted on castles.
 

Sempronius

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Congrats to all six. I am amazed though that one castle was not in the top twenty. The Sandstone by Grand Bishop. I do remember it being in the contest.
Where are the screenshots of the winners?

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Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
You can visit all but one from the Stone on TC.
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
Well we looked and looked on TC but so far no one has found the non 20 dev pick. I remember a house with a cross in front is all. From the 150.
 

Sempronius

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Congrats to all six. I am amazed though that one castle was not in the top twenty. The Sandstone by Grand Bishop. I do remember it being in the contest.
I don't understand why so many people left "giant sized rooms." I could do better than those. Maybe, I'll design one and see if I actually can do better.

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Sempronius

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
I don't understand why so many people left "giant sized rooms." I could do better than those. Maybe, I'll design one and see if I actually can do better.

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What is the prize to the winners?

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MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
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What is the prize to the winners?

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The ability to have your design as your castle... if you don't own a castle NOTHING. There is Zero reward for winning other than being able to use your design or having your design on the menu.
 

Sir_Bolo

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
No, it is for sure not from the top 20. I have seen this castle, it was one of the 150. Good news is we will not have to worry about votes anymore. Sad that she found nothing suitable in the top 20 voted ones. Great that she bothered looking at every one of them! Kinda good news, bad news. :) I wish all future builders the best. I really hope the rules do not get changed on you. It was not fun to see what she did.
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It is for sure a different castle than any in the top twenty. It is a nice house. So were the houses in the top twenty. Why not do a special pick for it? One extra? Follow your own rules. Why hurt those who got in the top twenty? I have now won twice and lost once. Not bad. Until I see how she just did what she wanted. Same with the cheaters, the idocs. Nothing gets better. Yes I am leaving, was not just this, it is all of it. Has been fun for a long time. I wish every, well most of you well. I have no stuff left. :)
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
An empty plot and an unfinished house. Yep that's exactly the same. Yay you!
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Oh honey bunny my bad. I thought you were talking about the first contest. Yes it has been 3 top vote castles and 3 dev pick castles chosen from the top 40 and then the top 20. Not new. What is new is this. The Castle Fortress was not in the top 20 at all, but in the 150 that entered. That is the rule that changed. Now I do wish you well with all you do in UO. Good night..
 

Promathia

Social Distancing Since '97
Premium
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UNLEASHED
Oh honey bunny my bad. I thought you were talking about the first contest. Yes it has been 3 top vote castles and 3 dev pick castles chosen from the top 40 and then the top 20. Not new. What is new is this. The Castle Fortress was not in the top 20 at all, but in the 150 that entered. That is the rule that changed. Now I do wish you well with all you do in UO. Good night..
I'm sorry you didn't have your castle selected, I can tell you are uspet about it. As far as I can see there was never any stated rule of where the Dev picks can come from, just that there WOULD be Dev picks.
 

ShriNayne

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Awards
5
Hmm that might be true, maybe we all just assumed that all six winners would be from the final 20, I think the Devs could make the rules a bit clearer.
 

Minerva Foxglove

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Nope its well explained the devs pick from the 17 remaining after the players voted for top 3 of the 20 remaining to second round. I asked Kyronix a couple of weeks ago, on TC, if it was same rules as last time and he said yes, it is.
 

ShriNayne

Babbling Loonie
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Awards
5
Thanks @Minerva Foxglove then I guess we all should ask the Devs why they have chosen one of the six from the original 150 and not the top 20, if they thought one of the others deserved to be made then they should maybe have made that a special 'bonus' pick and chosen three from the 20 as well. It seems a bit unfair to change the rules like that.
 

petemage

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Nope its well explained the devs pick from the 17 remaining after the players voted for top 3 of the 20 remaining to second round. I asked Kyronix a couple of weeks ago, on TC, if it was same rules as last time and he said yes, it is.
But Kyronix is not Mesanna and a couple of weeks are a lot of mornings to feel like let's do it different :D Maybe they guy who won rakes in more subs than all posters in the thread combined :rolleyes:
 
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ShriNayne

Babbling Loonie
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5
@petemage I'm trying not to be that cynical, but so many decisions in the last few years just don't make sense, you do start to wonder....it's not like there were no other decent choices in the remaining 17 castles, there were a few that were actually very good. They need to post the actual rules and be clear on the criteria, they can't just change the rules of a contest AFTER the voting has ended!
 

petemage

Babbling Loonie
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@petemage I'm trying not to be that cynical, but so many decisions in the last few years just don't make sense, you do start to wonder....it's not like there were no other decent choices in the remaining 17 castles, there were a few that were actually very good. They need to post the actual rules and be clear on the criteria, they can't just change the rules of a contest AFTER the voting has ended!
One would think so, but then the team (and as the lead of the team especially Mesanna) has shown over and over how they do not feel obliged to ANY statement they made in the past whatsoever.

I mean it is obviously to hard for them to put a simple post on UO.com along the lines of "congrats to A, B, C for winning the popular vote. We also picked D because its green, E because is round and F because it has a pond. Good luck next round"

Maybe thats on purpose cause nobody wants to read "and F because Phil is with me on discord every day and pays 50 accounts" :p The truth, as always, might be somewhere in the middle.
 

Siabra

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
well even though the one wanted to win, didn't the others were still nice-
but we do get another round of the having another castle design contest right?
 

Akalabeth

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Cy, You will be missed if you leave. Certainly by me. Who will do my rooms in my buildings? Who will find my flaws? Who will give me advice? I hope you reconsider and stay. You are an excellent UO player. Yes, you will be missed.
 

ShriNayne

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Awards
5
It just seems a shame that people put a lot of time and effort in and then the rules change so they had no chance to get picked even when they got enough votes to get through round one. There is never any real explanation of anything, just a lot of politician type nonsense that really doesn't make any sense. I know, I know I am getting so jaded... :(
 

mana hit

Crazed Zealot
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
guess the keep track by the electoral votes instead of the popular vote....
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Guys Idk why this happened. I have played many many years and never had so little faith in the team. I may try actually playing Atlantic, instead of just shopping there. With one or two accounts. It is silly to throw good money after something bad. I met so many nice top 20 players! I tell you it is hard to leave. Easier though when the team shoves you out the door. haha out llama! out!
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
Welcome to the Mesanna not so free free shards... where as producer she can do whatever she wants which includes make up her own rules for things... where have you all been?

Anyway @Minerva Foxglove I'm sorry you didn't win... I was hoping yours would get picked. Now it's another long wait to see if something decent gets picked...
 

Queen Arya

Rares Fest Host | Atl Sept 2011 & June 2013
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Awards
3
sighs***
Why is it so hard to get a castle with a large yard? and with white walls
the UO store just came out with the field garden bed and the farm package
There are so many older items including server births (plough-scaffold), EM drops etc that a large yard is needed
Paces while waiting yet again for the next contest
 

Riyana

Operations
Administrator
Professional
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Event Coordinator
UNLEASHED
Campaign Patron
y'all keep bitchin' about it and the contests will go away.... jes sayin' - and I like having more choices
It will go away anyway at some point... it requires direct dev oversight every time they run it (if the results don't match the voting, then SOMEONE must be reviewing and selecting outside the voting system), and people get mad every time because the results don't reflect the voting and/or their preferred designs don't win.

It's a time suck for all involved that benefits a very small part of the population--and I say that as a castle owner myself.

It's been a mess since the beginning (vague announcement, no way to build anything, "draw it on paper if you like", awkward viewing of entries for voting, confusing and opaque winner criteria, etc.). It's overcomplicated, inefficient, frustrating to interested players, irrelevant to most players, and likely unsustainable since it requires regular dev oversight/maintenance that could better be allocated elsewhere.

I used to be against customizable castles. A contest was a neat idea, but after watching this contest over the past few years, I am all for customizable castles. Expending so much of people's time and effort--including dev time--to produce a result useful to such a small part of the playerbase at the expense of frustrating and alienating some of them, is not a productive strategy.

To be clear, I don't care. I have a castle, but I don't play on the shard it's on right now, and I don't need or want a castle on the shard I am playing. I just don't think this contest is of sufficient benefit (if any) to justify the time spent on it by both devs and players.
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
It's a time suck for all involved that benefits a very small part of the population--and I say that as a castle owner myself.
This contest benefits a large part of the UO population, especially many players who log on >4 times a week.
A large part of the UO population does Deco part time or full time. To us an EM Drop is deco that needs a perfect spot.

This contest has grown to include many forum posters and players. We had 4 Of the top 20 from LS this time. We knew one would win because the Castle design spoke for itself. So we were split between 3 choices. Each contest has better designs and more participation.

@notriyana

:cheerleader: You are still the Llama Queen :cheerleader:
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It has to go away. How can M be expected to look at every entry in every contest as she did this time to find the Fortress? Don't think so. The credibility of picks and pickers is gone now, and maybe NO more voting! Let the team pick every one of them. Oh no, then all those accounts won't be activated. I even activated an ancient in the last keeps contest to vote for Wendy, she lost the vote and the pick BUT she won this time with all her young friends. Yay! This time we got, once again, K's fav.

So just maybe let us build our own on our own shards. The argument that borgs will pop up is moot, Borgs win. I wish all of you who enter in the future honesty and fairness, idk if that is ever even possible in UO. I will have two votes to share.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
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Stratics Legend
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Wonder if they fixed the random snowtile in The Castle Cascade Designed by Imbri Malifica.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
sighs***
Why is it so hard to get a castle with a large yard? and with white walls
the UO store just came out with the field garden bed and the farm package
There are so many older items including server births (plough-scaffold), EM drops etc that a large yard is needed
Paces while waiting yet again for the next contest
Could have had a HUGE roof to play with had you voted for my castle design I had ... Could have made the entire thing a nice yard... with tons of garden space...
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
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Wish they would allow us to just buy our castle design in the freaking shop at this point because that seems the only way some of us will ever get a design that works..
 

Riyana

Operations
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Professional
Governor
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This contest benefits a large part of the UO population, especially many players who log on >4 times a week.
A large part of the UO population does Deco part time or full time. To us an EM Drop is deco that needs a perfect spot.

This contest has grown to include many forum posters and players. We had 4 Of the top 20 from LS this time. We knew one would win because the Castle design spoke for itself. So we were split between 3 choices. Each contest has better designs and more participation.
At no point did I say customization itself was a bad thing--I like deco too and have built specialized, fully decorated event and RP houses on several occasions. I just think that the way we are getting it through this contest is extremely inefficient to the point where full customization is the better option. The expenditure of time and resources on this project, which only castle and keep owners can ultimately use, is of no real use to the rest of the playerbase. It's extra upkeep that could be eliminated by just opening it up like so many have asked for.

What value have you gotten from this system that could not be equally or better served by just allowing full customization? There are anger and hurt feelings and arguments and confusion every time this thing runs. Is scrolling through a zillion options to see your design on the housing tool worth that?

If castle and keep owners are a large part of the UO population, then we are in trouble because ownership of both has ALWAYS been limited. If they are a majority or even large portion of the player base, then we have lost a LOT of accounts and players.

If you are enjoying it, that's great and I'm glad for you. Like I said, it makes no difference to me at this point. I just think it's a bloated and overcomplicated way to go about it. For a tiny team with limited resources, it doesn't make much sense when there is an alternative that would require no dev upkeep and let everyone get exactly what they wanted.
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
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UNLEASHED
For a tiny team with limited resources, it doesn't make much sense when there is an alternative that would require no dev upkeep and let everyone get exactly what they wanted.
We all would rather have castles be custom. But the devs would be very busy. They would be called to the Body part shaped Castles and Keeps.
 

MalagAste

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We all would rather have castles be custom. But the devs would be very busy. They would be called to the Body part shaped Castles and Keeps.
How many houses like that have you seen? I'm sure they would get called to those too... but I haven't really seen that... If I did I'm sure someone would know about it.

As for the other thing like I said if we could just buy something in the store, build our design on TC and have it added to the list of castles if it "meets approval" (as in you can't just leave the plot bare and it would have to follow the rules same as the current design contests).... but once approved it would get added at the next publish... THAT would not only give them money but would go a LONG way to making things nicer for people who have castles and want to have a custom design but can't get their design voted in because of the nature of the contest being a popularity contest more than it being about functional designs.

There still are NO usable designs IMO. I'm still waiting for one that works for me and I'm not about to "settle" for something else and I own 2 castles and 2 keeps... so yeah I have a vested interest in them.
 

Sellingahouse

Sage
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UNLEASHED
Well Llama im glad your not leaving the game and Im sorry your upset about the way she picked her 3 winners. I kind of like it. This way even if you didn't make it to top 20 there is still a chance the one you want might win.

People like the houses you and Robin build, they vote for them, so keep up the good work. I know its kind of a joke that if I like it there is no way it will win. I know there has been 2 houses that I had in "my" top 20 that did make it to the final round of voting in all the contest we have had. One of those did win and I did change one of mine to it but after having it in game I really don't like it much. That is ok because we get more contest and im sure sooner or later someone will make one I really love and it will win, I hope.

I love looking at all the houses and im so glad we can get new keeps and castles now. Im glad your staying and hope you continue to build contest houses. Keeps are coming up next. Enjoy
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well, human I am not glad you like her new way to choose. Now that idea as an extra choice is freaking awesome. Some how that did not happen. The llama design ship has sailed and sunk. Build your own. Robin/Bree, she might put out another version of that house. Ask her nicely.
 

Cinderella

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Awards
6
After thinking about it, I'm wondering if the reason it was a dev pick is...

someone looked at all the castles in the first round & that is the one that stood out to them.

And the other two were picked from the top 20...

I actually thought top 4 -6 would have been picked...

but I was also hoping Tudor Gables and MalagAste's would have won...
I could see myself living in MalagAste's (my fel castle)
I think both of these need to re-enter in the next castle contest (in 2020)
 

Chap

Babbling Loonie
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Stratics Legend
I didnt vote this round, but when I see castle cascade Im really impressed, its great!
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
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Even with the random snowtile??? for me and my OCD it's a NO.
 

Cyrah

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
Snowfall can be covered by rugs, pavers, grass? No? Some times no matter how many times we look at those houses the error is never seen until it is way too late. We did the same thing on one of Robin's. An Atlantic pvp'r was the only one to see it after he converted.
I am still amazed that M did not pick the windowbox as her entree and the cross as desert and call it a day. More fun to hurt players?
 
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