An Idea for Our Packed Shard

CityKitty

So, I'm fine with the auto refresh on our homes and castles and I understand the need for it. The down side of this, however, is that there is no land being freed up for new players or those who wish to move to another area.

I have an idea to solve the overcrowding issue and it comes from another game I played for a while, "Lord of the Rings" and it's a pretty good system. Their homes are static and you rent them at varying rates, depending on size, location and such. If you fail to pay the rent for a while (3 months maybe?) everything gets packed up into escrow and you are informed that you need to contact the escrow person at a bank to retrieve your items.

I wonder if there could be a way to implement this in UO. The deed for the home could also be included in the escrow account so it's a win-win. The only penalty, really, would be that of trying to find a new plot to put the home on and get set up again.

I wonder if this has been discussed and if there is a way to implement this in Ultima Online.

Ivenor

The problem in this idea is, IMO, that LoTR is, correct me if I'm wrong, a totally F2P MMORPG, whereas people that have Houses in UO pay a Sub, and frequently they pay that Sub exactly to be able to have a House...

CityKitty

Yes there is a F2P aspect but you need a paid sub to access and retrieve items from escrow or rent a new house, etc, even to access certain areas in the game.In the case of this game, the sub would have to be paid up to access escrow or replace your deed. Rule would be, if the house has not been accessed by a character on the account, from a paid sub within (insert length of  time here), then escrow it is. Think of it as the moving crate, it's the same principle.

Bilbo

All those houses belong to paid accounts.  Please do not mess with housing

jelinidas

Bilbo said:

All those houses belong to paid accounts.  Please do not mess with housing

See, we can agree on something!  +1

Ivenor

jelinidas said:

Bilbo said:

All those houses belong to paid accounts.  Please do not mess with housing

See, we can agree on something!  +1

+100
Jup, strangely enough, sometime IT IS POSSIBLE to agree with Mr. B.!

CityKitty

Ok, if they're all paid and active, great. I am only referring to those who have left their homes behind when they left the game. That would mean no paid account. Just an idea to free up space on some of the servers.

Mariah

Are you saying you want a change to the current rule? Where houses become IDOC (in danger of collapse) after the account has been unpaid for 90 days and are then deleted from the server? 

Danpal

So I pay my accounts but sometimes cant log in for months. If I dont pay the rent I lose my place I have had for 5 years and 11 years. This would be just like the property tax someone came up with years ago. Just because someone owns a castle does not mean there rich. I keep about 20 million gold on my accounts. If I dont log in and my gold goes to 0 I would lose my place. 

Because if we have to pay rent it would be based on size.  with the princes the they come up with 20 ish mil would be the rent on a castle. 

Keep it how it is. Pay accounts to keep house. Dont pay accounts dont keep house.CityKitty said:

So, I'm fine with the auto refresh on our homes and castles and I understand the need for it. The down side of this, however, is that there is no land being freed up for new players or those who wish to move to another area.

I have an idea to solve the overcrowding issue and it comes from another game I played for a while, "Lord of the Rings" and it's a pretty good system. Their homes are static and you rent them at varying rates, depending on size, location and such. If you fail to pay the rent for a while (3 months maybe?) everything gets packed up into escrow and you are informed that you need to contact the escrow person at a bank to retrieve your items.

I wonder if there could be a way to implement this in UO. The deed for the home could also be included in the escrow account so it's a win-win. The only penalty, really, would be that of trying to find a new plot to put the home on and get set up again.

I wonder if this has been discussed and if there is a way to implement this in Ultima Online.

Dash

The easiest way to solve the housing issue (even though to UO it's probably not an issue) is to expand new lands and allow new housing there. There are entire large areas of maps on every shard that have several (sometimes a dozen or more) houses clustered into a region that are owned by one person and have been owned by that one person for almost 20 years. It's tough to ask them to remove them, but it does hurt gameplay for new or returning players looking for their own little slice of heaven.  I don't think its possible that people left the game and their houses are still up and taking up space.  They drop after the account becomes inactive (60 day window)?

WornOutYourTool

But there largely unexplored lands for housing even on Atlantic, it's called fel.  Tis a quiet peaceful place devoid of life where the neighbors are few and traffic is light.

Kirthag

^^^^^^
What he said.

Makasouleater

WornOutYourTool said:

But there largely unexplored lands for housing even on Atlantic, it's called fel.  Tis a quiet peaceful place devoid of life where the neighbors are few and traffic is light.

That isn't ture, I spent a hour yesterday going through some of the spots, and none of them are open. Even in bad spots like the trinsic swamp. I have seen 3 people looking to buy houses in fell or tram with no hits. The only one I saw was 1p for 2 18 by18 in tram. 

Your right I guess if you are talking about 7 by 7 houses. The problem with houses is the fact that a few RMT people have 100s of accounts and keep the entire thing locked down, but I guess it is how uo is. If they changed it to 1 house per person that would fix it, but as it stands, these people make cash off of locking down all the house market.

The example of this is in vesper along the coast there is a tower I have wanted for 3 years, it is owned by one of the RMT people. The sign gives his name, and it is for sale. He just keeps it on lock so no one else can get it, driving up the prices so he can make more money.

WornOutYourTool

Not exactly 7x7, placed another tower for a friend last night in fel.  Took about 10 minutes to find the spot. *Shrug*, housing situation increases sub count and keeps the game alive at its core, good or bad seems like one of the only reasons we're still here to talk about this.

Glorfindel

I would like to see malas opened up to keeps and castles. With most shards it’s pretty empty 

Danpal

Glorfindel said:

I would like to see malas opened up to keeps and castles. With most shards it’s pretty empty 

Wont happen. The people with the castle there will lose the vaule of theres. 

Xris

You can place a large tower in fel on atl. It takes time and effort to find big house spots, but they are there. Malas/tram you could still find 3 story house spots. 

RonFellows

Terrible idea

Seth

I think it is perfectly OK to let the house fall if the player did not pay sub. 

However, I feel it is terrible to let his items fall together with the house and allow others to loot. 

Yes, say all you can and justify why this is necessary. But I can say for sure many players may not return in future if they probably lost an entire castle worth of items collected since day 1 in 1999. 

Drop the house but pack their stuff into a cheap memory space on your Server HDD and you will get more returning players. 

Currently there are no advertisements to attract new players and yet existing players keep dwindling down and they lose their stuff just because they didn't pay rent for few months. 

Seth

Yes, you can still charge them a small fee to retrieve their old items, maybe the faction horses, rares, original lieutenant sash, extinct bane dragons etc will still be around today. They can even sell their accounts to other players. 

At this rate soon we just need a few shards, because most will be empty.

Jeddak

I solved my atlantic problem. Went to LS. Prices are still outrageous but there is lots of room for a house.

Sir_Jerms

Glorfindel said:

I would like to see malas opened up to keeps and castles. With most shards it’s pretty empty 

If they were to open Malas to castles and keeps, a good idea would be to sell pre-made land plots.  Instead of letting folks go all willy nilly with placing them all over the landscape, how difficult would it be to set up land plots, in various sizes and prices ( sort of a housing development), without placing them so close to one another that you could lean out your bathroom window and ask the neighbor to borrow some hole in the floor paper....  Put some lumberjacking or mining areas in between the houses.  Put in some fishing holes between the houses.  Then sell the plots.  Set them to be either customizable or old school housing.  I personally would enjoy a castle size plot that is customizable.  Just a thought

Haz

Be like me.  Started in Baja at the beginning.  Left for Atlantic years later.  Returned again, I could only place a small on Atlantic when I returned last month.  Came back to baja.  Took less than an hour to place a keep.

Give away some free server transfers to servers with some space and fresh air. 

Come back to Baja, where the fishing is good, trees as far as the eyes can see.  Where the wild dragons have become fat and lazy and the gold just lays on the ground, waiting to be picked up.

Bilbo

CityKitty said:

Ok, if they're all paid and active, great. I am only referring to those who have left their homes behind when they left the game. That would mean no paid account. Just an idea to free up space on some of the servers.

It does not matter if that account is active or not as long as it is being paid for then the house stays.

If you do not like living in LA or NY then move and stop paying for over priced houses.  There are tons of space everywhere else and guess what you are still supporting UO.

Bilbo

Haz said:

Be like me.  Started in Baja at the beginning.  Left for Atlantic years later.  Returned again, I could only place a small on Atlantic when I returned last month.  Came back to baja.  Took less than an hour to place a keep.

Give away some free server transfers to servers with some space and fresh air. 

Come back to Baja, where the fishing is good, trees as far as the eyes can see.  Where the wild dragons have become fat and lazy and the gold just lays on the ground, waiting to be picked up.

Welcome home

Haz

Thanks Bilbo, its good to be home.

"It does not matter if that account is active or not as long as it is being paid for then the house stays."

You hit the nail on the head Bilbo.

SC_UO2021

Danpal said:

Glorfindel said:

I would like to see malas opened up to keeps and castles. With most shards it’s pretty empty 

Wont happen. The people with the castle there will lose the vaule of theres. 

And? 

SC_UO2021

Seth said:

I think it is perfectly OK to let the house fall if the player did not pay sub. 

However, I feel it is terrible to let his items fall together with the house and allow others to loot. 

Yes, say all you can and justify why this is necessary. But I can say for sure many players may not return in future if they probably lost an entire castle worth of items collected since day 1 in 1999. 

Drop the house but pack their stuff into a cheap memory space on your Server HDD and you will get more returning players. 

Currently there are no advertisements to attract new players and yet existing players keep dwindling down and they lose their stuff just because they didn't pay rent for few months. 

I like the way this was handled in DAOC where the house would fall but all items would be reclaimable through an NPC.