IDOC-A-PALOOZA 2012 :(

[Slickjack]

I know plenty of people will see this as an affair to get rich IDOCing...
and I'm no hypocrite, I'll be right along side everyone else looting this weekend.

BUT, I think this also might be one of the saddest events that has ever taken place in UO history.. I would trade every scrap of loot that I get this week for these people to be playing Ultima again...

It's just a shame.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

BUT, I think this also might be one of the saddest events that has ever taken place in UO history.. I would trade every scrap of loot that I get this week for these people to be playing Ultima again...

I agree fully with the first part. On the second part I will say SOME of these people. I am thinking atleast a few of them were the harrassing folks lol. Better off without those

One thing that is being done on Atlantic is moving to save some of our shard specific history etc. This thread http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-atlantic/259301-saving-atlantic-history.html is where that is being done for anyone on Atlantic. I post it here thinking maybe other shards should try something along those lines as well. With all these falls, all shards stand a chance at losing alot of their specific history.

 

[Storm]

well thinking about the people that left and some of them have been gone a long time we just now will notice! With that said I went and checked the ones I had marked in my books and about 10 of them had been reactivated meaning the accounts were turned back on so thats a good thing

 

[T-Hunt]

Was it no different last spring?
Were the idocs were so many you needed 10 books..

Alot of the idocs this time around are from players who used the come back place last fall time..

And i am seeying a few places being refreshed..
But i bet you if they removed the 90 day free timer to 30 days..you would see alot more go into decay stages...

But for me im looking for resources, so good luck everyone, see you on crash day..

 

[Deaol]

It is a shame... in the other thread someone had compiled at pretty extensive list of idocs for most of the north american shards... its in the 1000s probably 3-4 idocs for every active player in uo.

Some of the less populated shards are going to be VERY empty.

 

[JoO]

this is the same as when they turned it back on after 9/11. we laughed we cried we got some lewt. HOWEVER I wish they were going to be falling on this weekend as weekday IDOCS really screw the pooch for me.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

HOWEVER I wish they were going to be falling on this weekend as weekday IDOCS really screw the pooch for me.

Yeah, the decay rate seems to be trending 30-36 hours or so per cycle. Have been watching a few of them closely and fairly has been on them almost 28 hours now *shrugs*. IF that holds true it's looking like a Monday night/Tues morning fall range.

 

[twoburntfouryou]

I agree that it is a shame that so many people have left the game. But it should surprise nobody about the amount of idocs have you all not noticed the lack of players in the game?

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

BUT, I think this also might be one of the saddest events that has ever taken place in UO history.. I would trade every scrap of loot that I get this week for these people to be playing Ultima again...

I agree fully with the first part. On the second part I will say SOME of these people. I am thinking atleast a few of them were the harrassing folks lol. Better off without those

One thing that is being done on Atlantic is moving to save some of our shard specific history etc. This thread http://vboards.stratics.com/uo-atlantic/259301-saving-atlantic-history.html is where that is being done for anyone on Atlantic. I post it here thinking maybe other shards should try something along those lines as well. With all these falls, all shards stand a chance at losing alot of their specific history.

I am sorry but I am confused. You keep talking(kinda zealously IMO)about 'history'
Since when are unclaimed and forgotten soulstones & unclaimed and forgotten personal bless deeds 'history' ?? They are nothing more then refuse. They would only be history if they had actual events tied to them. They quite obviously do not and cannot. The fact that maybe they may remind someone of an old friend does not make them a piece of shard history.

I am completely on board with the idea of trying to collect them so that maybe someday the owner who left them unclaimed can get them back but I honestly find it kinda weird that anyone would try to call them history. We all get nostalgic. Deal with it

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest after seeing more then 1 thread IMO wrongly hi-jacked in the name of 'history'

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

I am sorry but I am confused. You keep talking(kinda zealously IMO)about 'history'
Since when are unclaimed and forgotten soulstones & unclaimed and forgotten personal bless deeds 'history' ??

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest after seeing more then 1 thread IMO wrongly hi-jacked in the name of 'history'

I personally do not see soulstones and personal bless deeds as history. Are they things that should be held in case the owner ever returns back to the game. Possibly, a good argument can be made for that anyway.

The history I am referring to is the RP'ing history of each shard. If that aspect of the game has never been something that appeals to you then fine, please stop reading here. However, if keeping your specific shard's "history" alive by keeping the in game fiction books from hitting the trash cans or decaying to nothing, is something you can "get behind" then by all means do it.

I don't really consider this history to be a hijack though. Slickjack was talking about his concerns when it comes to the sheer number of houses in decay, and I was doing that very thing. Granted I had a slightly different concern than he did. But glad you got it off your chest.

 

[THP]

well when u get your head around how many are falling this time ...then try getting you head around .....more than 50%/60% of the remaining houses will be bugged no name or cbtb housing....WHAT if they fall TOOOO!!.....u can gulp ya hearts out then .....never mind merging a couple of shards...just have 2 or 3 !!

 

[Uvtha]

I think a good deal of the houses dropping are from people who haven't been playing in a long time.

There was a similar mass drop like 6 years ago.

UO is fading to be sure, but I don't think this is such a big deal.

 

[Slickjack]

Look, I know that posting anything on uHall is opening the subject up for debate and flaming but in this case, I simply wanted to acknowledge that it's a pity that ANY of these people are not playing actively any longer...

That's it.

It doesn't matter if they left 6 months ago, 9 months ago or if all the rest of the houses are all RTB houses... I don't care.

I love Ultima and simply hate to see so few people playing.

YES, I have seen barren shards and less activity than ever before.

YES, this is not a good sign.

I just think that celebrating all these IDOCs is a bit ironic.

 

[Spiritless]

Wow Slickjack, you finally made the observation that I've been thinking pretty much throughout reading all these posts about IDOCs for days.

To me it seems as though most people don't seem to connect that every IDOC falling represents a lost player; perhaps large numbers due to the account migration which was the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of people. I get the impression many just couldn't be bothered with the hassel so took the easy option instead. IDOCs on a large scale are never something to be celebrated, tbh... particularly with the already low number of people playing. Instead, keep the potential reasons for this in mind, such as EA's incompetent handling of the account migration for one.

Enjoy your loot, vultures. But realize the only reason you have it is because the people who care about the game is ever-waning to the point where the items you possess are an irrelevance.

 

[popps]

I know plenty of people will see this as an affair to get rich IDOCing...
and I'm no hypocrite, I'll be right along side everyone else looting this weekend.

BUT, I think this also might be one of the saddest events that has ever taken place in UO history.. I would trade every scrap of loot that I get this week for these people to be playing Ultima again...

It's just a shame.

On the second part I agree.

On the first part, about getting rich with IDOCs at this point of the game, I cannot agree.

Why ?

Because regardless how many items or resources one will be able to find from IDOCs, I think it is not guaranteed, in a game with less players around (because lots of IDOCs = lots of subscriptions lost....), and with the less players around already most being quite self sufficient in their needs (after all, they also went for IDOCs....), this means a whole lot less buyers and thus, much less chances to be able to sell what one might encounter from IDOCs.

So, that's why I cannot possibly rejoice for the mass IDOC scenario unfolding, not personally, and not for the game.

 

[popps]

Enjoy your loot, vultures. But realize the only reason you have it is because the people who care about the game is ever-waning to the point where the items you possess are an irrelevance.

Personally, I hardly think that loot from IDOCs, especially when it will be a lot of loot from a lot of IDOCs, will be able to make looters richer since, as I see it, if the game results in much less players (because the mass IDOCs mean mass subscriptions lost and thus, players....), and the fewer players left will most likely already be self sufficient in their needs (hey they will also be looting IDOCs after all....), the ending result will be scarcity of buyers for all that IDOC loot just found.....
So, is my view, players looting IDOCs will find a bunch of items which will hardly be sellable and if they will, because of abundance in the market, they will likely fetch a much lower price than expected.

So, I see hardly any richness coming from this mass IDOC scenario, to me it is a just very sad unfolding for Ultima Online.

 

[Lady Storm]

I have to say while out marking the runes for the falls I ran across alot of names I knew fondly. The sad part is not the loss of their items persay but that these people were apart of our UO family.

As all familys there are good and bad members sooo I do understand the roudy are well rid of but to be dead honest I'd be happy if all came back.....

Thing is when the amount of players gets down to that precious handfull those idoc's will be the last thing any of us would want to see. When the numbers get that low no idoc loot will be worth much..... the glut of it all...

I as with all of you will be house hunting, good hunting to all .. But I truly wish it were not so bad as I have seen this past few days...

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

I as with all of you will be house hunting, good hunting to all .. But I truly wish it were not so bad as I have seen this past few days...

Could not agree more.

 

[Prime.]

It is a shame... in the other thread someone had compiled at pretty extensive list of idocs for most of the north american shards... its in the 1000s probably 3-4 idocs for every active player in uo.

Some of the less populated shards are going to be VERY empty.

Curious, where's this list at?

 

[Rupert Avery]

i agree it is sad that with a lot of houses falling it means a lot of people are sadly no longer paying for their accounts.
But imagine how quickly some of these spaces will be snapped up, By new players old players returning players?
Also the houses that are falling may of fallen a lot sooner had the decay not been turned off... pretty much most of these houses would of fallen at some point in the last few months it just so happens they are happening at the same time.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Also the houses that are falling may of fallen a lot sooner had the decay not been turned off... pretty much most of these houses would of fallen at some point in the last few months it just so happens they are happening at the same time.

Agreed. If the houses were spread out over the months the decay cycle was turned off it would not be anywhere near the shock it is right now. Which would lead to less "the sky is falling" type posts/threads.

Decay has been off what.. since the first part of August or so? Say six moths. I know there are well over 200 houses on Atlantic that are in decay, and have heard as high as 300, from multiple reliable sources in the community. So let's take 350. As an average that would have been 58 houses a month falling, call it 15 a week. I haven't been IDOC'ing in a couple of years, but I remember there being close to that many every week back when I did.

I just seems WAY worse than it is when it's all at one time. Only thing I wonder about is how many of these are folks that would have paid if they knew about it, and how many are the ones that simply just moved on. I guess time will tell on that.

 

[Poo]

OMG Atl !!!

2 castle on the same screen in fel on atl both in IDOC!!!!

hahahahhahahaa

thats gonna be a SLAUGHTER!

 

[Rupert Avery]

thing is if it was people who do the 90 day thing they would of seen the new account system. and got it sorted i would think....

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

thing is if it was people who do the 90 day thing they would of seen the new account system. and got it sorted i would think....

I would guess that most players doing the 90 day game have been doing it for a while and are on top of it.

It was stated by Jeff in one of his tweets that they were working on a nasty housing bug.

It's quite likely that there were lots of houses that should have fell even before the account migration.

I've already seen one post were a person said one of their accounts has been inactive since July, the house should have gone into decay but it hasn't. Seems things are still buggy.

 

[Hunters' Moon]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

idoc already? I have just scouted Catskills and I have only seen "greatly worn"

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

Just a guess, but when he says both in IDOC... I am thinking he means in decay, not at the actual idoc stage. Have not seen any on atlantc that are idoc stage yet. Just have seen 4 of them turn greatly within the last three hours.

 

[Bman]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

About 75% of my locations have gone into the Greatly state...the countdown continues..

 

[Viper09]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

Just a guess, but when he says both in IDOC... I am thinking he means in decay, not at the actual idoc stage. Have not seen any on atlantc that are idoc stage yet. Just have seen 4 of them turn greatly within the last three hours.

I'm going with that too. Lately the term "IDOC" has been used very loosely to simply describe houses that are decaying.

 

[Viper09]

I don't think it's really that bad. If decay was never turned off no heads would be turning at all and instead there would just be some IDOCs here and there. The only difference here is simply that all those houses that would be falling on their own random time are instead going all at once, and given the warnings a lot more people are participating in recording and preparing for the IDOCs instead of the select groups. There may also be hundreds of houses that were suppose to decay in the past that are now decaying properly with the reboot of house decay.

 

[xxmoondancerxx]

Scenario:

You are at the store and in the parking lot. You notice a 100.00 bill on the floor.
Do you:

A) Pick it up and wave it around screaming did anyone lose a 100.00 bill.
B) Pretend you don't see it at all and kick it to the left and right like a soccer ball till someone else sees it and picks it up.
C)Pick the damn thing up and go buy something nice in the store.
D) Throw it in the garbage.

IDOCS work the same way. People are not being vultures. They are trying to preserve a part of the game. I find it hard to believe the peeps who are ranting that its wrong to loot would turn their heads in the other direction if it were right at their feet. People who are genuine collectors cherish these items. This is what keeps UO's heritage alive. Think of it like a fine painting. Would you throw away a Monet?

 

[twoburntfouryou]

Scenario:

You are at the store and in the parking lot. You notice a 100.00 bill on the floor.
Do you:

A) Pick it up and wave it around screaming did anyone lose a 100.00 bill.
B) Pretend you don't see it at all and kick it to the left and right like a soccer ball till someone else sees it and picks it up.
C)Pick the damn thing up and go buy something nice in the store.
D) Throw it in the garbage.

IDOCS work the same way. People are not being vultures. They are trying to preserve a part of the game. I find it hard to believe the peeps who are ranting that its wrong to loot would turn their heads in the other direction if it were right at their feet. People who are genuine collectors cherish these items. This is what keeps UO's heritage alive. Think of it like a fine painting. Would you throw away a Monet?

I pick "C" FTW

 

[Spiritless]

I find it hard to believe the peeps who are ranting that its wrong to loot would turn their heads in the other direction if it were right at their feet. People who are genuine collectors cherish these items. This is what keeps UO's heritage alive. Think of it like a fine painting. Would you throw away a Monet?

Did you even read the thread? Show me one person who is "ranting" that its wrong to loot. You've missed the point entirely.

The point was, large numbers of IDOCs shouldn't necessarily be celebrated without keeping the reason for their existence in mind: the fact that UO has lost many players over a relatively short period. The game is dying all around you, with its death manifesting itself in the form of huge piles of chests, gold, statuettes and "[no longer locked down]" spam, yet all people have been doing these last few days is celebrating the "great drop" with their eyes widening at the prospect of getting even richer. It's like a huge group of turkeys begging for Christmas.

Don't lose sight of the grim reality behind this "event." And don't lose sight of what caused it in the first place: EA's mishandling of the migration between accounting systems.

 

[DanteSignas]

Before the Ipad and the Iphone there was the IDOC...

Everyone ready? Looks like its all coming down tomorrow!

 

[Larisa]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

I am fully expecting to see alot of very cool looting/PvP....I use the term PvP loosely, mind you....video's after this mass IDOC bonanza is over.

I love watching IDOC Videos....reminds me of something that should be on the Discovery Channel...Vultures fighting over carrion...always entertaining

I'm just hoping to save a bit of Origin's History...and get some mad resources in the process!

Good luck to all you IDOC Hunters, I feel for you Atlantic people, it's gonna be a mess lol.

 

[jack flash uk]

Re: Before the Ipad and the Iphone there was the IDOC...

litterally lol get it? oh well, i am betting the servers crash at its all falling similar times across all shards i think

the 10 players left in uo will only see "cannot connect you" or whatever it says a nano second after they start falling

gonna need a cleanup scheme to clean up this lot!

 

[allie_oops]

Re: Before the Ipad and the Iphone there was the IDOC...

Today or tomorrow??

:hugs:
Allie

 

[twoburntfouryou]

I can not believe people are blaming all these idocs on EA's account migration. I know at least 3 people who came back to UO with NO problems at all. I do not know anyone who had problems to begin with. I am sure there were some problems for a few and are fixed by now. All these idocs would have fallen at some point had they left them turned on the last 7 months.

 

[Petra Fyde]

One: We are looking at a back log of houses that would have fallen during the time decay was off
Two: While the account migration wasn't smooth, some people made things worse by ignoring the requests that we make sure our accounts were on current, valid email addresses. I remember at least one of those, and I'm almost sure there were several.
Three: Instead of counting how many houses are falling, how about counting how many aren't?
Four: IDOCers are 'salvage men'. If they didn't pick up what falls it would simply decay and be lost forever. Would that be better?
Five: Personally, if I can work out when they're falling, I'm off hunting in Ilsh, with no houses there it should be the least laggy spot on the server

 

[Warpig Inc]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

What no Cord? How good will the video be without making the location public? Stop taking promotion skiills from the EA team.

 

[THP]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

with well over 400/500 houses falling on atlantic..the silly real estate is now dead....thank god.....

 

[The Craftsman]

Four: IDOCers are 'salvage men'. If they didn't pick up what falls it would simply decay and be lost forever. Would that be better?

Actually I believe it would be better. EA should have just deleted every inactive house from the server and with it every bit of pixel crack inside. Whilst I understand to some extent peoples desire to get "free stuff", I dont understand the greed mentality. Lots of people will probably make hundreds of millions from these IDOC's, to simply add to the hundreds of millions they already have. With every day that passes more items and more gold enters the game whilst more people leave and those left behind get richer and greedier.

The last few thousand playing this game will all have billions, all of it gone at the flick of a switch when EA pull the plug.

 

[old gypsy]

Just a question for those who play multiple shards: Are some shards more likely to have fewer IDOCs than others? I haven't actively searched my whole shard, but I do keep an eye out when I'm in any particular area, and so far I haven't seen enough houses in decay to feel overly alarmed. Maybe I'm just kidding myself? I don't know.

 

[popps]

Four: IDOCers are 'salvage men'. If they didn't pick up what falls it would simply decay and be lost forever. Would that be better?

Actually yes, I personally think that it would be better for Ultima Online.

Why ?

Because the game can live only as long as players find reasons to do things in the game.

By salvaging items at IDOCs, players make stocks or items, resources, BODs, blah blah.

That means they do not need to have reasons to play the game in order to get those items because, simply, they already got stocks of them through IDOCs.

So, players start loosing interest in the game and the game ends up losing.

IDOCs create an abundance of items on the market when there is a fewer number of buyers because of a reduction of the number of players or of players who actually need those items. Prices become marginal and make it for even become more difficult for the random new or returning player to come back or anew to the game.

Think of it like a brand new Shard that was just created today. There is no stock of resources, no stock of artifacts, nothing at all. Everything need to be worked for, hunted for. A LOT of playing opportunities for all those players playing that brand new shard where there is nothing. A whole new market that needs to be built up.

Now, IDOCs are the exact opposing pole of the above. They take away reasons for players to play the game because they hand out stocks of items be them resources or else, on a silver platter and often, these items are so many and abundant that they overlast whatever time the player may be playing Ultima Online.

Nope, to my opinion IDOCs work against the better being of UO and they should never be.
Houses for unpaid accounts should just disappear with all of their contents and be taken out from the game, entirely.

If it was like this, it is my opinion that then, the remaining players could enjoy a more lively game play and more lively economy.

 

[PitrGri]

Idocing works great if you sell uogold for $... which is against the game rules...

 

[Mairut]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

Where at?

 

[old gypsy]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

with well over 400/500 houses falling on atlantic..the silly real estate is now dead....thank god.....

That many on the most populated east coast shard? I have a feeling you guys may soon see a new wave of immigration!

 

[Rupert Avery]

Idocing works great if you sell uogold for $... which is against the game rules...

Why would you even bring that into conversation?

IDOCing serves a purpose... as cold as it sounds it clears out the old and unused to make way for the New. giving all currently active players a chance to get a house that they have always wanted or make some gold for themselves, so that they can get those last few items they would need to make their character.

It is as fair a system as it can be. If we didn't have it then when UO was at its 100s of 1000s they would all still have houses and there would be absolutely no space for anyone at all any where.

 

[Aida Quantrex]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

That many on the most populated east coast shard? I have a feeling you guys may soon see a new wave of immigration!

It allready started

 

[Poo]

Re: OMG Atl !!!

Sorry, I posted that right at bed time last night.

The castles are located on the plains north of Brit, half way to Cove, just before the Brit swamp.

I see there are small houses placed there all around allredy and boats in the water waiting to be loaded.

Should be a fun scrum!

Time to dust off the red stealth archer and have a little fun!

Or...... Take my detector and lift the skirt on everyone lurking..... Hmmmm.....

 

[popps]

It is as fair a system as it can be. If we didn't have it then when UO was at its 100s of 1000s they would all still have houses and there would be absolutely no space for anyone at all any where.

Personally, I am not saying that Houses should stay up with their contents even if accounts go inactive. I am just saying that if accounts go inactive the House linked to that account along with all of its contents should vanish and not be possible to be looted by other players.

So, there will still be spaces opening up for new Houses to be placed..... only the items would not stay in the game.