Yes, every aspect of IDOCs are broken as shit but for this post I am specifically referring to the item drop system. Do not mention other aspects, focus on the topic at hand.

Another day goes by and another player's account/houses drops due to credit card issues and/or being busy with real life stuff. It's so dumb they allow people to lose 20 years of items but more importantly this player will not continue to play; they are forced to quit. I understand how this may have made sense 30 years ago when games were more innately 'hardcore mode' but clearly the industry has long shifted to games being a bit less harsh, UO included. This awful system still exists and must be changed.

When a house falls, 'box' the items up and allow the owner to pay to retrieve their items at a later date. Charge $15 for each month they're boxed up so it's not free storage. The player is able to come back and retrieve their items while still having an incentive to keep an active account: they already lose the plot and have to pay the same amount as having an open account. No loss of revenue to broadsword and an incredibly higher chance they will continue to subscribe (player retention, which we desperately need). The technology to pack items up in the 'cloud' and associate them to an account at least partially exists with moving crates/transfer crate. 

I would argue this should be applied game wide but arguments could be made that it does not apply to Siege/Mugen or Fel.

It blows my mind we're getting the 'new game' after 5 years of dev work but shit like this could be implemented in a fraction of the time and contribute to overall game health and player qol.

I don't think the current IDOC system is bad. It's true that some players have lost their accounts and houses due to credit card issues or being busy with real life. However, the system allows players to come back and retrieve their items while still having an incentive to keep an active account.

*written with Crome AI*

$15 a month is way to much unless you are also going to credit the account with those months that were just paid for.  You can not charge the money because EA controls all purse strings, you will need to charge Sovs.  I would go say 1000 Sovs for every 6 mo/ partial 6 mo, so 7 mo would cost 2000 Sovs plus 1 year sup

Consider it a form of punishment for people who game the system by buying a 1 month game token then play for free for two months before getting another 1 month game token.

Lord_Frodo said:

$15 a month is way to much unless you are also going to credit the account with those months that were just paid for.  You can not charge the money because EA controls all purse strings, you will need to charge Sovs.  I would go say 1000 Sovs for every 6 mo/ partial 6 mo, so 7 mo would cost 2000 Sovs plus 1 year sup

Okay, $12.99 + tax. That's what 1 month of game time costs so they must make it that at least. Housing/storage is the main drive for people to subscribe and to keep their subscriptions while they're otherwise less active or inactive.

Too expensive for the returning player? Okay, then your items are gone, back to how it currently is from their perspective, no difference.

Sure sovereigns could be a solution BUT again it would have to at least equal the price of a monthly sub per month inactive, so like 1300 sovs.

the strange thing is. the person that lost his house was using 2x 90 Days GTC and his CC as backup. but the CC failed. doesnt matter anyway, I spoke with him and he looked all over his email and he never received the Mythic Entertainment - End of Subscription Notification email
I have few occasions that I never received the email either. so as usual something is wrong with the system and yes I look into he spam folder,
I honestly think the system should email the customer when account is closed and than 80 days later saying, your account is closed for 80 days and you may loose everything if you dont subscribe or so.

I agreed with that the system need to be changed again, but mesanna said 100x that they will not touch that again, DEAL WITH, was about her own words about changing again, matter of fact she said, if they have to change anything again, would be to take that part of the game out. OFC they want that, 1 less headache.

As any paid customer, that pay for the service to keep my account live with all contents. I think is really bad that when something goes bad, you just loose everything. I mean, I think that any account bound item should stay with the account. I agree 100% that the system is there, like moving crate. when house goes idoc, instead of barrels, everything get packed and sent to a cloud system attached to the account owner.  Account owner receive another email saying that his account pass the 90 days period and anything that was on the account is now available after he subscribe again and pay an additional 5k sovs, 10k sovs, BUT 
BUT
ofc it will have problems like, what happened if the person had a castle and 30K items? where and how he will unpack all?, or the system will save only account related stuff?

just ideas

I appreciate the comments but again this is not about anything other than the item drop system and how it needs to be brought up to speed with the current gaming environment.

Anything else is out of the scope of this thread. Please make a different post to discuss those gripes.

I have seen the idea of 'pack up and keep' many times. It makes one very critical assumption, and, while I don't actually know, I strongly suspect that assumption is incorrect.
It assumes that closed accounts are accessible. I am of the belief that closed accounts are not accessible to the system.

The loss of the house is punitive enough. Lotro has the most fair system I've come across, if you fall behind in house maintenance the swelling goes back into the pool for rental and all of your belongings go to an escrow account that you can claim later.  There is no fee or anything. 

This really isn't a problem to the majority of players I'd imagine as most don't have items that are not replaceable. You are trying to make a non issue into something.

Trallic said:

The loss of the house is punitive enough. Lotro has the most fair system I've come across, if you fall behind in house maintenance the swelling goes back into the pool for rental and all of your belongings go to an escrow account that you can claim later.  There is no fee or anything. 

I mean, in an ideal world I'd agree, but we've seen how the team handled even allowing EJs to log out with pack animals so we all know their stance on allowing 'free' storage. Plus, I'd totally pack up my all stuff and f-off this game till they fix other 'things' if it was free. Again, I think they make a good amount off of people that are semi active keeping accounts open just to hold houses. I think the only way of this happening is to have it pay-to-return.

username said:

Lord_Frodo said:

$15 a month is way to much unless you are also going to credit the account with those months that were just paid for.  You can not charge the money because EA controls all purse strings, you will need to charge Sovs.  I would go say 1000 Sovs for every 6 mo/ partial 6 mo, so 7 mo would cost 2000 Sovs plus 1 year sup

Okay, $12.99 + tax. That's what 1 month of game time costs so they must make it that at least. Housing/storage is the main drive for people to subscribe and to keep their subscriptions while they're otherwise less active or inactive.

Too expensive for the returning player? Okay, then your items are gone, back to how it currently is from their perspective, no difference.

Sure sovereigns could be a solution BUT again it would have to at least equal the price of a monthly sub per month inactive, so like 1300 sovs.

BS/UO will not see a dime as all cash goes directly to EA.  With the 12 per month then you need to add those months to their account as if it was subed.

Lord_Frodo said:

BS/UO will not see a dime as all cash goes directly to EA.  With the 12 per month then you need to add those months to their account as if it was subed.

But EA will pull the plug and make all of them unemployed if the numbers are not high.

I just received an official warning. I have no intention to comply. I will be banned here soon. I will continue replying over at stratics.

shootgun said:

@ here,

I just received an official warning. I have no intention to comply. I will be banned here soon. I will continue replying over at stratics.

You can post there all day. 90% of your audience are also angry childlike posters but most don't play UO.

Pawain said:

Most don't play UO.

Why do you think this might be? Could it be possible because NL was a stupid decision by mesanna/bonnie and most migrated to free UO shards? Yet, they yarn for what official UO once was?

shootgun said:

Pawain said:

Most don't play UO.

Why do you think this might be? Could it be possible because NL was a stupid decision by mesanna/bonnie and most migrated to free UO shards? Yet, they yarn for what official UO once was?

Ya UO is so dead, anyone can place an 18x18 on Atlantic now.   😂

You are gonna get Usernames thread closed.  😂

shootgun said:

@ here,

I just received an official warning. I have no intention to comply. I will be banned here soon. I will continue replying over at stratics.

I think you need a break from the screen dude.
if a 25 year old video game has you this worked up, it might be time to try something else.

I don’t think this needs a revamp.  They get three months after the payment doesn’t go through.

an email notification would be nice, if it doesn’t already.  I don’t recall, it’s been a while since I looked.

Oreogl said:

I think you need a break from the screen dude.
if a 25 year old video game has you this worked up, it might be time to try something else.

Thanks for the fair and polite warning. I just cant help but rage when someone is so blatantly using exploits for months and devs/mesanna cant get their head out of their a** to take a look.

Oreogl said:

I don’t think this needs a revamp.  They get three months after the payment doesn’t go through.

an email notification would be nice, if it doesn’t already.  I don’t recall, it’s been a while since I looked.

I have always gotten an "end of subscription notification" email when one lapses see pic.  I will refrain from conjecturing if it will (or does) always happen, but it has so far. The IDOC is fair enough as it is, I always get something even when it's massively attended. The only part I miss about the old ways is the resource stacks and deeds, but then really, how many millions of blank scrolls and ingots does a person need.

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Oreogl said:

I don’t think this needs a revamp.  They get three months after the payment doesn’t go through.

an email notification would be nice, if it doesn’t already.  I don’t recall, it’s been a while since I looked.

I have always gotten an "end of subscription notification" email when one lapses see pic.  I will refrain from conjecturing if it will (or does) always happen, but it has so far. The IDOC is fair enough as it is, I always get something even when it's massively attended. The only part I miss about the old ways is the resource stacks and deeds, but then really, how many millions of blank scrolls and ingots does a person need.

Just two more ingots 

shootgun said:

Oreogl said:

I think you need a break from the screen dude.
if a 25 year old video game has you this worked up, it might be time to try something else.

Thanks for the fair and polite warning. I just cant help but rage when someone is so blatantly using exploits for months and devs/mesanna cant get their head out of their a** to take a look.

I can understand where you’re coming from.  

Grimbeard said:

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Oreogl said:

I don’t think this needs a revamp.  They get three months after the payment doesn’t go through.

an email notification would be nice, if it doesn’t already.  I don’t recall, it’s been a while since I looked.

I have always gotten an "end of subscription notification" email when one lapses see pic.  I will refrain from conjecturing if it will (or does) always happen, but it has so far. The IDOC is fair enough as it is, I always get something even when it's massively attended. The only part I miss about the old ways is the resource stacks and deeds, but then really, how many millions of blank scrolls and ingots does a person need.

Just two more ingots 

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Oreogl said:

I don’t think this needs a revamp.  They get three months after the payment doesn’t go through.

an email notification would be nice, if it doesn’t already.  I don’t recall, it’s been a while since I looked.

I have always gotten an "end of subscription notification" email when one lapses see pic.  I will refrain from conjecturing if it will (or does) always happen, but it has so far. The IDOC is fair enough as it is, I always get something even when it's massively attended. The only part I miss about the old ways is the resource stacks and deeds, but then really, how many millions of blank scrolls and ingots does a person need.

Good call, I looked at one of my emails and I had one back in 2020.  

Please remember that there is a problem with hotmail.com.Bonnie warned about it some time ago.

I don't know about anywhere else but Canadian law is a business has to have your consent to email you. Did you check the box that said they could send you emails?