Castle Voting

[Dramora]

Does anyone have any idea when the winners will be announced? I'm still hoping Dunescape will be one of them, although it seems unlikely.

I'm also wondering how many more times they will be doing the contest. It just seems like they have added enough choices, although I'm probably in the minority in thinking that!

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

I understood there would be a contest throughout each publish cycle this year. Alternating keep & castle.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

They could take a whole load of work off their schedules. Just drop the contest idea and let us customize our own ingame. It would seem that that work has already been done.

 

[Taka]

Hi Nathan,

The Okinawa design is a theme to asia japanese feel castle. It make us of roof tile from samurai expansion. Everyone has their own taste and love. You should not doubt how it get to that place. Let be honest every top 8 in this contest did ask friend or guildmate to help vote because mostly people who took part in this contest own a castle and want their own customize design. If you count on the voting of all the vote do you really think UO only have so less account consider one vote per account. It clearly show there is alot of people who dun even bother to go vote as they own a castle or they are happy with their own home. Give some love to the east design ! I personally is surprise that there is no more japanese or chinese theme design.

The concept of this castle design is not to fully make it a 32x32 box which need to cover every corner. I give alot of space for you to add your own deco to it. The reason why a single stair is choose also go into the concept that japanese tend to make good use of space. So a single stair which is beside a wall is enough for you to go up.

Anyway this was my first time taking part in the contest, I think we should always encourage rather then criticize or asking how did a design make it.

Not for nothing but I'm not sure how the Okinawa place made it. Looks nice yes but alot of wasted space.

Really hope the dev's pick Minerva

 

[ysolt]

All this talk about castle's,make's me wonder how many possible castle spot's there are available to each faucet.?

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

All this talk about castle's,make's me wonder how many possible castle spot's there are available to each faucet.?

Approximately 225-230 castle spots per server excluding Siege Perilous with no Trammel.

If you squeezed every last tile out of it and placed them perfectly it may be about 250 per server. 125 in Trammel, 125 in Felucca. There's supposed to be 5 in Malas on each server, from a random drawing I think, but there is not.

 

[Riply]

I think the notion of removing Keep and Castle size plots is a bad idea. I don't have a problem with allowing smaller plots to have the same storage capacity as a castle plot.
A number of players (including me) have collected items over the many years and would like to have the space to display them. Other players (me included), would also like additional space to have a thematic style home, such as black smith area's, a tailor rooms, etc etc. I have seen some really creative types of houses over the years, especially on the Japanese shards. I have found myself visiting these shards for some innovative designs.
The castle/keep competition is a game within a game. Meaning if you want a chance to win, its not just about having a great design, its having the support of guild mates, friends and your shard voting for you.
I'm hoping that a design will be approved that will make me want to change from the classic ones.
Lets keep these conversations civil, and not call out specific winning designs as unappealing etc. Its a game after all.
Riply

 

[Siabra]

I applaud every person who took the time to build on test. I think \
before next time a thread should appear with all the do's and don't in it. Everyone can list their own. Not after.
I wish we could build our own on our own shard plot...

That's the way housing has always been on Dark Age of Camelot.... they made "X" amount of housing space FAR away
from the towns so they could always 'increase " the player housing " when needed … a plot of land that began at a
very very high price , as no one buys it the price drops until the time someone does buy it... the you could place a
very small house or the largest one on the same plot "footprint" … you could then only have 1 vendor...

The homes only had a X amount of lockdowns .. there were no Castles as such .. all houses looked pretty much the same, say 1 out of 4 styles or so .. homes themselves have a limited amount of " hookpoints" were you can place am item for viewing instead of being placed in a chest.. the very largest home has nowhere near the amount of space of a DOaC home

People used a " Vendor Search board " to see what was carried on a vendor there were no "player run shops as such " ..
or museums

also .. if you tried to imbue too many properties .. you did have a chance at success .. however you had a much larger
chance of blowing up both your self & the item you were on , destroying it forever. ( thought that was pretty cool ) lol people were blowing up all over the place till

A lot of the people who began work for Mythic, then began working for UO...

Sadly, I don't believe that could be implemented here in UO as the land "system" was never sat up for that to begin with. But with UO you have homes very close to the main towns , if not IN them as in Luna..

good thought though !!

 

[Akalabeth]

I congratulate all who made a design. I love looking at them. I do like to see people criticize the designs. People build what they like and they get votes as they do. It is hard to see what people want. Last contest the winner had no interior rooms and there was griping about no walls. This time the winner has interior walls and there is griping because they are there. Neither is bad or good just a personal preference. I do like reading the posts and trying to tailor designs to what I read or hear. I have again learned things this time around. Thank you Dev team for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you UO people for still being here so we can all play this game. All that being said yes I would like custom castles also!!!

 

[Cyrah]

I do not think the potential ugliness of player made keeps and castles is the issue. There are already amazingly odd homes and laggy crafted walls on bamboo homes.
I cannot imagine the dev team would freak over poorly built homes with water coming out of no where, ill fitting roofs. We already have that. Maybe storage is the issue. Potential storage loads. Just saying.

 

[Delores D]

Next time around could the builders make the walls and floors lighter in color? I have old eyes and I like light spaces, even in my real house. My husband closes blinds and I open them. I like light. At least if you make dark walls make lighter colored floors. That is why I designed my castle the way I did (which is now 17). It is light bright and airy. Room for a kitchen, living area, craft or guild area, storage. Room for vendors on the 2nd floor front with easy access to them. There are stairs on each end for going up and down and teles from roof to bottom floor. And lots of green grassy areas for gardeners .

 

[Riply]

I would like the dev's to pick one house design which was not included in the top 20. Their were so many nice designs that were excluded, lets face it, if you only have one account and play pretty much solo. Your chances of
getting picked regardless of how nice your house is designed are between slim and none. What's your thoughts?

 

[MalagAste]

I would like the dev's to pick one house design which was not included in the top 20. Their were so many nice designs that were excluded, lets face it, if you only have one account and play pretty much solo. Your chances of
getting picked regardless of how nice your house is designed are between slim and none. What's your thoughts?

I can say that's not true... the churchy one that won the first round was voted in with votes not paid votes or bought votes just people liking it, nothing more. I know who built it and how many accounts they have and I can say in all certainty that the person didn't have that many votes, didn't go around begging for votes and doesn't even own a castle at all...

 

[Riply]

I can say that's not true... the churchy one that won the first round was voted in with votes not paid votes or bought votes just people liking it, nothing more. I know who built it and how many accounts they have and I can say in all certainty that the person didn't have that many votes, didn't go around begging for votes and doesn't even own a castle at all...

Hi, I am glad to hear this and I enjoyed seeing your castle design by the way.
Oh when I ask for the devs to pick one outside the top 20 that's in addition to the winners.

 

[Pawain]

Anyway this was my first time taking part in the contest, I think we should always encourage rather then criticize or asking how did a design make it.

We all want different things. Some are jealous that the majority do not want what they designed. Get your friends together and keep building. Yours was one of my top 10.

 

[MissEcho]

I am still waiting to know who the winners are. Yes they have listed the top 20 by votes but which ones are actually 'winning' . First round player votes ended up having 1, 3 and 5 selected and then the devs picked 3 more from the remaining castles, not from just the top 20 either for a total of 6. Second round (keeps only) player votes determined 3 then the devs picked another 3 out of the top 20, again a total of 6. Now this round castles we have a ranking but still are not sure on whether the top 3 are in and then are the devs gonna pick ? If it is top 6 then there are 7 in the top 6 as 6 & 7 tied for votes.

 

[Uriah Heep]

When are thye results gonna be listed?

 

[MalagAste]

I am guessing in March when they do the publish... or maybe we'll get a Feb newsletter... that'll say something...

 

[Taka]

Thank for your kind word Pawain, Just hoping I can use my design for my castle in my home shard. Waiting for the result and hope for the best. I also vote and hope we can customize our keep or castle as when we want. Then everyone can have their own taste and love.

We all want different things. Some are jealous that the majority do not want what they designed. Get your friends together and keep building. Yours was one of my top 10.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Winners are posted.

 

[ShriNayne]

@Taka seems some people liked your design after all!

 

[Dramora]

From uo.com:
2/14/2019

We know you are going to LOVE these designs! We are continually amazed at the creativity of Britannia’s architects and we are excited to announce the following castle plots will be available when Rising Tide is released worldwide,

Robin’s Roost by Robin

Camelot by CaMeLoT

Lacrimae in Caelo by Tears in Heaven

Okinawa Castle by Taka

Grimswind Sisters by Sir Draper

Sandstone Castle by Lex Anteris

Congratulations again to all the winners!

See you in Britannia,

UO Team

 

[Khaelor]

Some of these winners are a shame.

Pepper had a great design and should have been one of the ones chosen. A castle with 6 votes won... and the design was very meh.

Guess another 6 months of not converting any of my castles.

Only people with placed castle accounts should be allowed to vote.

 

[Dramora]

Robin's Roost is the only design I might even consider. I'm very disappointed.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Robin's Roost is the only design I might even consider. I'm very disappointed.

Yup, but even then, it's got issues. Oh well. This game has a 21 years record of disappointments.

 

[Riply]

Congratz to the players who had their castle designs chosen.
Two questions,
How long will the contest be going on for?
Will we be able to design our own castles after we are finished with the contest.
I'm a bit disappointed with neither of the ones that finished in 6th place made it.

 

[ShriNayne]

@Riply the players only decide 3 winners and then the Devs choose another 3 from the 17 that are left, they don't always even allow all of the first 3 we choose, sometimes they miss one out and choose another from lower on the list. Not sure why, but maybe there is some feature that won't work or the building is not quite finished.
The test centre is wiped before each new publish and we get another contest. Not sure if the next one will be just Keeps or a mix of both as the first one was. Messana has said we won't get castle sized plots on live shards, maybe one day she will change her mind...

 

[Pawain]

Robin’s Roost by Robin

Camelot by CaMeLoT

Lacrimae in Caelo by Tears in Heaven

Okinawa Castle by Taka

Grimswind Sisters by Sir Draper

Sandstone Castle by Lex Anteris

Congrats to the ones chosen!

 

[Riply]

Oh Messina said that the players would not be able to create their own designs? I guess its now wait and see if one is created that will be close to what I'm looking for. Thx for the info, so the other question was how long will this contest be going on for?
I understand that this was suppose to help bring some new excitement to the game, I hope this does not end up turning off our dwindling population of players that still support this game.

 

[Lady Michelle]

congrats to the winners

 

[ShriNayne]

@Riply they have said that it will be a regular thing, a new contest with each publish to test, but I'm not sure how much bigger that list on the placement tool can get!

 

[celticus]

Da Castle..