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NEWS [UO.Com] Custom Castle Winners

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Greetings Everyone, Below are the winners of the recent Castle Contest on TC1. Thank you for all that came to TC1 and showed off just how creative you all are. Heorot by Is’Madin The Township by Christmas Magic Castle of the Resistance by Jamie Congratulations and look for these new designs when Publish 112 goes live next week. Thank you, UO Team

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Larisa

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Castle of the Resistance is the one I voted for in round 2. Only thing I don't like is the Tele tiles RIGHT there by the stairs...too visible. Would have liked to see them hidden so I could put some deco by the stairs but overall the one with the most available space.

Congrats to the three winners, they are all beautiful!
 

Cinderella

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Castle of the Resistance is the one I voted for in round 2. Only thing I don't like is the Tele tiles RIGHT there by the stairs...too visible. Would have liked to see them hidden so I could put some deco by the stairs but overall the one with the most available space.

Congrats to the three winners, they are all beautiful!
you could always put some campion flowers on top of them
 

Caerbannoc

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Nice choices!! I like that something more rustic won, you don't see it done very well that often.

Congrats!
 

Larisa

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Just tried...they fall underneath even if you raise them :(

I was hopeful for minute!
 

Larisa

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I will have to test to see what I can place that looks good....I would love to put a big piece of furniture there...the space begs for it...:(
 

MalagAste

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Once again nothing I can use... *sighs*

Congrats to the winners though.
 

MalagAste

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Castle of the Resistance is the one I voted for in round 2. Only thing I don't like is the Tele tiles RIGHT there by the stairs...too visible. Would have liked to see them hidden so I could put some deco by the stairs but overall the one with the most available space.

Congrats to the three winners, they are all beautiful!
I totally HATE those doors and the iron fencing it's fugly... but it is what it is... which IMO is unusable. So still stuck with the old school castle for me.
 

Larisa

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Well yours still had those tiny unusable cubicle rooms, IMO the worse things about the original design you left in yours..

Everyone has their own opinions...if I can figure out how to hide those teleporters I just might re-do my castle..it has BIG open spaces.
 

Larisa

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I don't like using the craftable walls because CoT does not work on them.

Yes I am a very picky person lol.
 

Ruby Knight

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Honestly, isn't it about time Mesanna realizes that the world won't be populated by borg cube castles? With 200 entries, given not all were very good, we are fully capable of having custom castles that we can design ourselves?

Maybe just have a set of guidelines or make us submit them for approval would be options. I really would love to have a dungeon with floor other that gray pavers. If we could just customize a preexisting design, that would make me happy. How many castle spots per server are there actually? Of those, how many support custom plots?

It is time to stop crushing our creativity! It's time we rebel! Kidding not kidding.
 

MalagAste

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I don't like using the craftable walls because CoT does not work on them.

Yes I am a very picky person lol.
So am I hence why that castle is completely unusable to me.. it's hideously fugly... I totally HATE those doors and the fence... and certainly do not want them on the front of my castle.

and those tiny rooms are only unusable to you.... mine had plenty of BIG open spaces. Besides I want to live in a castle not a prison...
 

Larisa

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I am re-doing the bottom floor on TC

Would have preferred these doors

1643839210690.png

Even though they always look uneven to me lol.

I love open concept...using furniture and accessories to define the space. Small rooms are hideous to me and useless in a house unless it's supposed to be a tiny closet.

I am going to figure out how to make this design work for me.
 

skett

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Never really noticed the doors not lining up

wish you wouldn’t have pointed that out, now it will be like that annoying song that gets stuck in your head @Larisa lol

its a small world after all ahhhhhhh:sad2:
 

Naitch

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I don't like using the craftable walls because CoT does not work on them.

I thought the goal was to hide the teleporters ?
There's probably a better workaround, I just don't have the brain energy to think of it right now lol
 

Draza

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There are 2 doors for each facing, ooening in or out, you sure you got the right ones?
 

Larisa

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Yes, I always try both just in case by some miracle it works lol.

No matter, I like them better than the gates.
 

Ellie

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Number 3 is to dark for me. Number 1 and 2 have no room for 9 sheds. I donb,t have the best eye sight in the world and like things on the lighter side. Right now I have the Else castle which is plenty bright. I came in # 10. I think this is about the 3rd or so time I have made it to the top 10.
 

MalagAste

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Yes, I always try both just in case by some miracle it works lol.

No matter, I like them better than the gates.
But on a real shard, not TC1, the winning design came with the gates... therefore you are stuck with them. As well as the god-awful iron fencing .... which I'm not living in a graveyard and I'm not in jail... Don't know if one could put real walls over those fences and lower them down to cover them up ...

The other thing that irritates me with that design is the "gap" on the right side of each of those iron fences... nothing you can do about that either.
 

Keven2002

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The other thing that irritates me with that design is the "gap" on the right side of each of those iron fences... nothing you can do about that either.
Honestly... I don't think it is any worse than if the Devs had created this house given the large number of mistakes / bugs from them that have gone live over the past several years. Just one of those things where if the gates irk you that much then it's just not the selection for you. That's why I think they should just allow us to customize our own plots; period. I think the real reason they don't let us at this point is just because it gave everyone something to do for an entire month and to silence the "no new content" people.
 

Akalabeth

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Whatever reason they gave us the contest... I absolutely love it. I think it is a wonderful, creative aspect of the game. I certainly hope they continue. Congratulations to all!!! Winners and Designers alike!!!!
 

Naitch

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Honestly... I don't think it is any worse than if the Devs had created this house given the large number of mistakes / bugs from them that have gone live over the past several years. Just one of those things where if the gates irk you that much then it's just not the selection for you. That's why I think they should just allow us to customize our own plots; period. I think the real reason they don't let us at this point is just because it gave everyone something to do for an entire month and to silence the "no new content" people.
And they hate their customers. That's the answer I'm sticking to.
 

MalagAste

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But on a real shard the winning design came with the gates... therefore you are stuck with them.
Honestly... I don't think it is any worse than if the Devs had created this house given the large number of mistakes / bugs from them that have gone live over the past several years. Just one of those things where if the gates irk you that much then it's just not the selection for you. That's why I think they should just allow us to customize our own plots; period. I think the real reason they don't let us at this point is just because it gave everyone something to do for an entire month and to silence the "no new content" people.
I agree with you for once. I really think they ought to just let us make what WE need/want. I own 2 castles... and I'm ok with one of the designs for my other castle because honestly all I use that castle for is to put junk in and store it... so having a big open area is great for that...
However my other castle is the HEART of Newcastle Township.... and that requires a CASTLE to be a CASTLE... not a town or a villa or a mansion... it needs to be a CASTLE that functions ... I don't want it to look like a jail... a prison... a graveyard or anything but a castle... and I do NOT want those cheap wooden doors in it... I don't want it open... it needs to be defensible ... and such... and yes I'm pretty particular about it. It is meant to be a guild/group gathering place... and the home of the Knights... it needs a grand hall entry... a large gathering room etc... but yeah somewhat picky. Would prefer my own design... so far I have yet to find anything worthy of use. Not a single winning design fills or suits my needs.
 

MissEcho

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Well yours still had those tiny unusable cubicle rooms, IMO the worse things about the original design you left in yours..

Everyone has their own opinions...if I can figure out how to hide those teleporters I just might re-do my castle..it has BIG open spaces.
Just put whatever furniture you want over the top of em and then put in some vet reward or store bought teles where you want them. Is why I never bothered with teleporters in The Spires, people can put their own in where they want them, the stairs are straight forward and it takes you 5 seconds to get from ground to roof.
 

Larisa

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Not the point.....tele's should be hidden if they are built into a design.

The Spires has it's own issues....esthetics over functionality. I'd rather not have my stairs smack dab in the middle of my home for one. Though my guildmate utilizes that design rather well I still don't care for the *spires* part of the design...again leaves tiny TINY little spaces.

Though I am grateful that you put doors into the towers. I was helping a friend re-design his roof and had to add additional floor to make the space more usable.

1644158297029.png

I will admit that for those that enjoy the craftable walls, The Spires is a good choice.
 

MissEcho

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Not the point.....tele's should be hidden if they are built into a design.

The Spires has it's own issues....esthetics over functionality. I'd rather not have my stairs smack dab in the middle of my home for one. Though my guildmate utilizes that design rather well I still don't care for the *spires* part of the design...again leaves tiny TINY little spaces.

Though I am grateful that you put doors into the towers. I was helping a friend re-design his roof and had to add additional floor to make the space more usable.

View attachment 126740

I will admit that for those that enjoy the craftable walls, The Spires is a good choice.
Well this wasn't actually about The Spires other than the fact that it doesn't have teleporters for the very fact that where I would want them others wouldn't. The actual 'spires' themselves are usually the ideal place to put any teles you want as they are hidden but obvious and in each corner and central. As for tele's being hidden if they are part of a design, I disagree with that, I prefer it to be obvious where they are. Nothing worse than 3 teles side by side hidden behind a darn wall so you either have to run with circ on to see em or end up stepping on the wrong one.

Basically you confirmed my comment as it wouldn't matter where you wanted them or I wanted them they would always be in the 'wrong' spot for someone else. Hence I left em out completely, put in easy access stairs, only the ground floor up to the first floor, are central, the others are against the walls.

I put them central on the ground floor as it allows a 'grand entrance' hall once you put walls in around the staircase which was the whole purpose of the design. It is a castle not a house . No self respecting castle doesn't have a grand entrance ;) Also why I made them wide so that it allowed for 'deco' on the stairs. I find it seriously a pain if I go in the front door of a place and then either have to hunt for where the stairs are (ie people shove em in the back corner of a building and I have to go from room to room to find them) or I have to search for hidden teleporters. When you go in the door of The Spires it is obvious where they are and once up the first flight the second and third flights are a direct passage to the roof. Takes 5 seconds to navigate from ground to roof. The actual spires were where I put my teleporters to various places, generally other premises ie from the shop to my castle or my castle to my warehouse etc. Don't need teleporters inside it as it really doesn't need them to go from floor to floor, but if you really wanted them then sure put them in, each room you make would probably have a 'spire' in it to allow to put one in out of the way. Like this pic below, if you wanted teles then rearrange the walls on both sides of the door to accommodate the teleporters in the 'spire' each side. I kinda laughed when you said "I'd rather not have my stairs smack dab in the middle of my home for one" when the Castle you voted for has exactly that, only 2 lots right in the middle rather than one lot I have the spires lol. Did make me chuckle.


1644390301047.png

As for filling in the roof etc, when I did that design it was originally all filled in and looked like a box, so I figured if people wanted a box they could fill it in themselves. I preferred it to look like a real castle with nooks and crannies and something other than 4 walls on every level buillt to the extremities of the foundation. Hence why I added the verandah part on the eastern edge, on the third floor that can also be filled in for those wanted the box look. However it still has huge spaces inside to put your own internal walls on every level. The whole centre of the place is empty. Deco is shown here in three different Spires builds.

Would there be things I would change if doing it again, yes, but you have to remember this was the 'first' round of the castle comp where we hadn't had lots of attempts and refinements etc. It has pretty well stood the test of time though. Also from the 'original' game default castle this was built to be super easy to navigate with zero doors other than the front one to have to 'use'.

Anyways it doesn't really matter any more, just shove furniture over teles you don't want to use and put your own in. :) I am not playing any more, haven't done for months now, just trying to decide what to do with my 'stuff'. The thought of packing up 30,000 items on my remaining 3 accounts is depressing. I have completely closed down 2 accounts and am marking time on when to shut the rest. Sadly the continous rinse repeat format of dungeons and events has finally done me in. Have fun whatever you do :)

I am now playing 7 days to die. If you wanna build castles this is the bomb lol. If you can mine it, chop it or craft with it you can use it build to your hearts content as many as you like and as big as you like :) Just has to be defendable from zombie invasions on the blood moon so there is a heap of strategic building as well.
 
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Larisa

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Didn't say the castle of resistance was perfect. Stairs in bad spot, teles in bad spot. I said it's the one that gets as close to what I want as I can get. If I were to ever move the almost maxed out storage castle I have now it would have to be something I haven't seen yet.
 

Cinderella

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:) I am not playing any more, haven't done for months now, just trying to decide what to do with my 'stuff'. The thought of packing up 30,000 items on my remaining 3 accounts is depressing. I have completely closed down 2 accounts and am marking time on when to shut the rest. Sadly the continous rinse repeat format of dungeons and events has finally done me in. Have fun whatever you do :)

I am now playing 7 days to die. If you wanna build castles this is the bomb lol. If you can mine it, chop it or craft with it you can use it build to your hearts content as many as you like and as big as you like :) Just has to be defendable from zombie invasions on the blood moon so there is a heap of strategic building as well.

sad to see that your Atlantic place fell today.
I'm not sure if that is one that you chose to close when you wrote this.
but hoping that you did decide to stop playing
and not that something has happened to you.

I saw several people say today about how much they respected you and looked up to you. They were sad to see your place fall.

wishing you the best of luck
 

Ellie

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I hate it when a house, castle, keep falls and you dont know what happened to that person that owns it.

On another note, I wonder of all the new designs there are out there how many of each, people have selected to use?
 

LyricDear

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I hate it when a house, castle, keep falls and you dont know what happened to that person that owns it.

On another note, I wonder of all the new designs there are out there how many of each, people have selected to use?
I haven't played the pay-to-play servers in several years but if it answers your question, they're quite popular on the unofficial servers. :)

They're more common than the empty plots because they're already-built but have the same storage as the empty ones.
 

MissEcho

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Not sure what place it was that fell but it wasn't mine. I have 2 castles and a luna place on Oceania, a Castle, Keep and 18x18 on Siege. I am currently paying for three accounts on 6mth renewed subscription and all are still standing. The other two castles I had on Oceania I gave to friends. They were on the accounts I closed. Having said that I haven't played in close to a year as have been playing 7 Days to Die and having an absolute ball.
 

HippoRedux

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Not sure what place it was that fell but it wasn't mine. I have 2 castles and a luna place on Oceania, a Castle, Keep and 18x18 on Siege. I am currently paying for three accounts on 6mth renewed subscription and all are still standing. The other two castles I had on Oceania I gave to friends. They were on the accounts I closed. Having said that I haven't played in close to a year as have been playing 7 Days to Die and having an absolute ball.
Sorry to see you are no longer playing. I have enjoyed your Posts here on Stratics over many years. After 23 years on UO I just started playing on SP shard about 6 months ago when I found out I could build additional houses. Siege is almost like a new game from the other shards, but housing is as bad as ATL when it comes to large houses. Glad to see you are enjoying a new game :)
 
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