NEWS [UO.Com] Publish 103 Keep Design Contest

[UO News]

October 19, 2018 Greetings everyone, We would like to announce we are wiping TC1 Monday October 22nd so we can begin the next house design contest which will feature keeps only. This period we are not accepting castle designs. Please know we have updated the contest and will be going through two voting periods, see the changes below: Players will have two weeks to design a keep and submit it for voting Players have one week to vote on their favorite keep design From the results of player votes we will advance the top 20 keep designs to a second […]

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[Maximus Neximus]

Well that’s disappointing for castle owners

 

[Draza]

But more options to actually switch them. Most castles cant switch over.​

 

[ShriNayne]

Let's hope we get some really nice, practical Keep designs this time around, people should have more idea of what we need.

 

[Great DC]

This was a disaster last time and they go ahead and do it again. Why am I not surprised?! People just want to be able to customize what they already have not choose a design made by somebody else. Just open up the castle and keep on the customize menu and allow some things to be changed.

 

[Jelinidas]

Now they need a fix for properly placed keeps with a tree/rock/obstacle in the courtyard or edges. If the keep is placed already, why cant they just put a slab over what's there? I'd bet half the keeps have something in the way.

 

[Pawain]

Let's hope we get some really nice, practical Keep designs this time around, people should have more idea of what we need.

What you need, what I need, what he needs, what she needs. None will be the same.

The Keep that won is practical. But the one I Design is more Practical. (for me)

UO housing is not one size (style) fits all.

 

[Pawain]

I thought we would get some guidelines.... Here we go with the blank plot again.

 

[Draza]

I might build one this time

 

[Eärendil]

Me too

 

[Slayvite]

And that's gonna be it for Publish 103 too.

 

[Spartan]

How many Borg cubes can you count? You know there will be at least one, dont'cha?

 

[Mene (DF)]

Me too

uhm... me not - this time

 

[Drakelord]

I am tossing my hat in this circle, I hope to do something decent, do we have any idea when TC1 will be wipe? I checked and my characters from the last contest are still there

 

[Pawain]

I am tossing my hat in this circle, I hope to do something decent, do we have any idea when TC1 will be wipe? I checked and my characters from the last contest are still there

It is not on the list right now. Must be wiping it.

 

[uokings7]

I'm glad they chose to only include keeps this time. Last contest 5 out of 6 winners were castles. That one keep was not for me. I'm hoping at least one sandstone style makes it through this time. I'm dying to turn my keep into sandstone.

 

[Eärendil]

How to enter our designs? Screenshots to Bonnie?

 

[MissEcho]

How to enter our designs? Screenshots to Bonnie?

When you have designed your keep on test centre, on the house sign menu (customise) you click to submit the design in game. No screenshots or anything.

 

[Eärendil]

Excellent! Thank you!

 

[Uriah Heep]

And IIRC it must be set to public

 

[Eärendil]

IIRC?

 

[Uriah Heep]

If I Recall Correctly

 

[Eärendil]

Ah, ok. Thanks!

 

[Lady Michelle]

How to enter our designs? Screenshots to Bonnie?

house as to be open to the public to enter then under customize you will see where you click to enter

 

[Cinderella]

How to enter our designs? Screenshots to Bonnie?

House must be set to public, then enter the contest will be under customize...
then you must go back in & commit design

(last time some people didn't commit after entering contest & they weren't listed)

don't forget you can also change the house sign, post & hanger... foundation too
also if you name it after you enter the contest, the stone will not show the new name
so make sure you do it before entering the contest (so you can see it on the list better)

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

I just hope this time peple and devs will look more for funtion and less for cuteness and fluff. Doing just keeps this round is whise I think. Ill work hard on it for the fun and practice and submit if Im satisfied with what I made. I dont have a keep , im sooo waiting for a castle round ! I didnt fall for anything yet.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I never wanted a keep, all that up and down stairs just to get to the next room never appealed - but then I saw the keep from the last contest, and now I have not one, but two new style keeps. I've enjoyed decorating them and despite all the negative posts on the topic, for me at least, it was a success.
Europa
Siege

 

[Draza]

here is my submission. Kinda thinking Itallian villa
what you guys think?

 

[Eärendil]

Good morning!

Me and my sons are huge fans of medieval architecture. We visited about 20 castles within the last 3 years and when I look back, there is one thing that always annoyed me when I think of UO-castles and keeps: They rarely looked authentic with the genuine features of castles and keeps which have grown over centuries: Watchtowers, a mixture of stone and plaster walls, different roof types, a castle-like entrance, a coutyard with gardens, more visible details. Hence, I always dreamed of making such a building on a large plot. I designed alot of medieval buildings of this type for fellow players on different shards - mostly on 18x18. But I never had the opportunity to do it on large scale. When the castle contest began, I was on vacation - now I had the oppotunity to realize my dreams. If I could place the building, I will now show you, I would give away one of my best housing spots just to move there. That´s how I always wanted to "live" ingame.

One note: The design is not focusing on maximal space usage nor on "functionality". There are enough cubes or cube-like buildings around. Many players want functional cube-like buildings and that´s okay. My design is for those players, who want authenticity. A truely medieval look with different materials. Folks between 1000-1500 A.D. did not build their keeps and castles the way we do it ingame. I tried to copy some of the typical style I found in different buildings in Germany, France and Britain.

If there are others out there who do not only want to live in a plot that owns space and functionality but in a place that breathes the spirit of these ages, I would love to hear from you! Imagine what you could do here with trees, braziers, banners! Of course, some really large deco items might not fit perfectly, but this place is meant to be filled with stuff that fits to the style. Hanging axes, wooden furniture, training dummies and wall torches, paintings, cannons, various plants for the garden and so on... I could have left space on the roof tops for ladders, but as the interior space is already limited, I wanted to offer as much as space as possible for future owners. If you dont like visible teleporters, you can put crafted stone pavers upon them

Here are the pictures:















Have a great day!

 

[Eärendil]

Changed the drawbridge to 3 tiles width ;-)

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

Nice place for RP and casual players indeed. Well done! But its the opposite from what busy crafters shop runners and gardeners need. Perhaps not find most authentic or pretty , but what we need for our crafting machines, rugs ,storage plant beds etc...and if we love to decorate as much as others love to build , doesnt mean it has to be a cube! But as good looking as yours we cant have. I try to make some nice parts on the outside , keep colours plain with not much patterns and think about how it will look with deco. I didnt see anything of that last round but we will learn. Its not ideal with cubes for most of us ! I think its fine with a mix and sooner or later we will get there. We dont need to fight about it now when we know there will be more rounds . I enjoy this so much I spend almost all my UO time on TC (and I am retired). I have no keep but trying to help out here. Just for fun! I hope we end up with many types but sure it would be nicer with our own designs . With your advanced design, didnt you have big problems with missing tiles on the tool? Its so much I have to give up on when I come to an edge!

 

[MalagAste]

I guess I just want a keep, not a house... I have plenty of houses and really an 18x18 does the job for me house wise... the reason I have Keeps and Castles is simply for STORAGE... and to display things... the smaller the workable space for storing and display the less I like it. And the more complex the background the less the items on display stand out... If it's a PITA to get around in I highly doubt I'll want to take the trouble to pack up all my tiles and crap to move into something just as annoying to get around in...

Just my opinion...

 

[Eärendil]

My design is no contribution to any kind of fight, nor am I casual player. Further do I doubt that single players can speak for the whole community (quote: What WE need....). I can only speak for myself and my taste. And thats what you both, Minerva and Malag, are doing, too. With all respect, but there are many players not focusing on rugs, machines, displays and storage. There are plenty of alternative cubes for them (to me, all buildings with a more or less rectangular basis on all floors are cubes). Why not accepting some small deviances from the standard? I know, you are very much convinced of your opinions, which is legitimate. But my taste is different, as a fellow UO-veteran, and we all could live with 1-2 designs which are different. There definitely will be lots (and much more) of designs that will fit to your needs than to mine. Thank you.

No offense! When I read your both posts a second time, I saw that you were stating that you just spoke for yourself. I can see your point, I just dont share it

 

[MalagAste]

My design is no contribution to any kind of fight, nor am I casual player. Further do I doubt that single players can speak for the whole community (quote: What WE need....). I can only speak for myself and my taste. And thats what you both, Minerva and Malag, are doing, too. With all respect, but there are many players not focusing on rugs, machines, displays and storage. There are plenty of alternative cubes for them (to me, all buildings with a more or less rectangular basis on all floors are cubes). Why not accepting some small deviances from the standard? I know, you are very much convinced of your opinions, which is legitimate. But my taste is different, as a fellow UO-veteran, and we all could live with 1-2 designs which are different. There definitely will be lots (and much more) of designs that will fit to your needs than to mine. Thank you.

No offense! When I read your both posts a second time, I saw that you were stating that you just spoke for yourself. I can see your point, I just dont share it

Hopefully they are giving us 6 Keep designs... and hopefully, it has a lot of variety but something that will make me want to tear down my current. Whether they give something I can use this time or not I don't know... but my Castle is NOT changing. At least for now... It's a Castle... it's supposed to be a guild hall... I couldn't really bring myself to like any of the new designs. Most of them didn't feel right for what the building needs to be. One came close but I really don't want to be putting a bunch of the wall tiles into it. While I want some customization ability I don't want to fill the entire area with it and I really don't want to have the gaps that the crafted walls force you to have. Having walls with no CoT would drive me bonkers decorating.

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

Mr Eärendil! I always liked your posts and the building is well done! Also I understand what you say about the purpose. Im glad if it gets votes. But I didnt find anything I liked last round and I see many on the forums and in my guild that feel the same. I just want to point out that a place with storage and logistics dont need to be an ugly cube! I happened to say WE as I talk to many people, and im in a crafter /guild shop/ young player helper guild .. spending 1 hour every day meeting ppl of all sorts at Brit bank Europa.. I just want to help people to get something they like , same as you. I dont own a keep , but training for next castle session is what I do for now, and I enjoy it soo much! Good luck to all that doesnt make a cube!

 

[Eärendil]

Dear Minerva! I absolutely agree! Thanks four lovely reply! At the end, it would be fantastic if we get 6-8 good options covering all of our interests!

You are great!

 

[Larisa]

I am just having fun building...I built one, nice, plain, simple...cleared it and now I am building a less-simple, less plain one...not sure if I will submit any but it's fun to play around with the larger plot size to see what can be done with it.

I also am NOT a fan of having things off balance..I need symmetry and always have had a hard time thinking outside the box...but when it comes to houses in UO...things kinda have to be lopsided to compensate for the lack of visibility on the East and Southeast sides.

My first design is very plain...still not sure what to do with the roof...was thinking arches but those don't work very well so I just left it plain..it looks rather neat at night with the lights shining through the windows!



That's as simple and basic as it can get while still having a TINY bit of outside space to decorate...and quite possibly finding the right dye color to dye some stone walls for additions...

My second design is a work in progress and a little more...or less, depending on your point of view..functional.

This one gives a LOT more outside space for deco but still doesn't take away from having a large indoor space...this is only the first and second floors..I left the ground mostly dirt so that you can play around with it more without having tiles to conflict with deco



Again I am not sure if I will submit any of these designs to the contest but it's fun playing around with it!

 

[Tina Small]

This is a keep I built on TC. (Coordinates 124 N 11 W, west of Luna on the south side of the mountains.) It's supposed to be more of a museum than anything else. I used sandstone, because I really like the tile set, especially those columns. However, I am really struggling with picking a tile set for the floors. Wood floors don't look right. There's a red/orange tile that goes well with the walls, and I think a blue one too, but for such big floors, they seem too dark. So I went with white instead of the plain orange on the inside. Don't really like it.

In any event, here are some screen shots. You'll notice that the 2nd floor is open at the back so that you could place tall objects without them poking through the 3rd floor.

EXTERIOR


FIRST FLOOR


SECOND FLOOR


THIRD FLOOR


FOURTH FLOOR (roof)

 

[Tina Small]

I changed the floors back to the orange tile, plus used some of the blue tile on the 1st floor. Still not sure about it. Also made all of the walls sandstone instead of mixing in some of the off-white plastery walls.

 

[Slayvite]

I changed the floors back to the orange tile, plus used some of the blue tile on the 1st floor. Still not sure about it. Also made all of the walls sandstone instead of mixing in some of the off-white plastery walls.

View attachment 88500 View attachment 88501 View attachment 88502

Don't forget from the last comp, people like blank floors so they can add carpets later at there choice without the floor tiles making them look "off".

 

[Khaelor]

I changed the floors back to the orange tile, plus used some of the blue tile on the 1st floor. Still not sure about it. Also made all of the walls sandstone instead of mixing in some of the off-white plastery walls.

View attachment 88500 View attachment 88501 View attachment 88502

I would just remember, there are no sandstone tiles in game that a player can use to cover the blue tile and have it match the rest. But players can add blue carpet for a similar effect to the blue tile.

 

[Tina Small]

Don't forget from the last comp, people like blank floors so they can add carpets later at there choice without the floor tiles making them look "off".

I would just remember, there are no sandstone tiles in game that a player can use to cover the blue tile and have it match the rest. But players can add blue carpet for a similar effect to the blue tile.

Good points. I think I'll just leave all the floors the plain light orange. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[uokings7]

I'm glad to see all the sandstone! We need bigger sandstone options

 

[MalagAste]

Also single tile stairs make it difficult to move large heavy items from floor to floor by the bag ball method... please try 2 tile stairs it saves a lot of headache and hassle later.
................................

 

[Tina Small]

Also single tile stairs make it difficult to move large heavy items from floor to floor by the bag ball method... please try 2 tile stairs it saves a lot of headache and hassle later.

Putting in 2-tile wide stairs kinda messed up the symmetry because I didn't want them to take up too much space. Got rid of the mirrored staircases. But it's a good suggestion! You never know when you'll have to drag something up stairs. I also added teleporter tiles so you can go from one floor to the next, then step over a tile and go up a floor, all th way to the top of the building. Here are screen shots with a small circle of transparency in use to give you an idea of where the teleporter tiles are.

 

[Spartan]

Putting in 2-tile wide stairs kinda messed up the symmetry because I didn't want them to take up too much space. Got rid of the mirrored staircases. But it's a good suggestion! You never know when you'll have to drag something up stairs. I also added teleporter tiles so you can go from one floor to the next, then step over a tile and go up a floor, all th way to the top of the building. Here are screen shots with a small circle of transparency in use to give you an idea of where the teleporter tiles are.
View attachment 88513 View attachment 88514 View attachment 88515 View attachment 88516

On the first floor - right where you are standing. The double stair does sort of cramp the hallway for one to get through. What about a teleport in that area to replace ONLY those stairs? But I do like the rest of the place ... nice open design.

 

[Merth]

I am just having fun building...I built one, nice, plain, simple...cleared it and now I am building a less-simple, less plain one...not sure if I will submit any but it's fun to play around with the larger plot size to see what can be done with it.

I also am NOT a fan of having things off balance..I need symmetry and always have had a hard time thinking outside the box...but when it comes to houses in UO...things kinda have to be lopsided to compensate for the lack of visibility on the East and Southeast sides.

My first design is very plain...still not sure what to do with the roof...was thinking arches but those don't work very well so I just left it plain..it looks rather neat at night with the lights shining through the windows!

View attachment 88475 View attachment 88476 View attachment 88477 View attachment 88478

That's as simple and basic as it can get while still having a TINY bit of outside space to decorate...and quite possibly finding the right dye color to dye some stone walls for additions...

My second design is a work in progress and a little more...or less, depending on your point of view..functional.

This one gives a LOT more outside space for deco but still doesn't take away from having a large indoor space...this is only the first and second floors..I left the ground mostly dirt so that you can play around with it more without having tiles to conflict with deco

View attachment 88479 View attachment 88480

Again I am not sure if I will submit any of these designs to the contest but it's fun playing around with it!

I love this one so far. Im a cube guy lol simply dont have the deco touch at all. Ive always loved the basic sandstone house due to the outdoor area. My 18x18 had a completely open dirt floor area like youve done here which for me was the perfect area for setting up my blacksmith shop and cooking area. Love it!

 

[Tina Small]

On the first floor - right where you are standing. The double stair does sort of cramp the hallway for one to get through. What about a teleport in that area to replace ONLY those stairs? But I do like the rest of the place ... nice open design.

Good suggestion! Not only did it eliminate the cramped 1st floor hallway BUT it means that if you want to make the house public but keep the 1st floor locked away from the public, you can do it: Lock the 1st floor doors and set the teleporters to the 1st floor for friends/co-owners/owners only.

There are now teleporters on both sides of the 1st floor, lined up so you can hit them directly as you run in either door. Then when you hit the second floor, step over 1 tile and go up to the third floor, etc. New screenies with transparency on to show the teleporters.

 

[Spartan]

Damn! That did clear things! Haven't had a keep in years but I certainly hope your design makes it through! I like it!

 

[MalagAste]

Like that much better.