I'd like to put in my two cents about IDOCs, since I represent what is likely Broadswords most desired player, a new or returning one.
Since returning to UO about a year ago, I have found housing, particularly the acquisition of housing to be the most stressful part about the game. I play on Atlantic mostly, for reference.
When I first got back, I was easily able to find space for a small house, which I setup and began my journey pretty quickly. I had outgrown it pretty fast. Thankfully, some hero named Spring has a runebook setup with runes to every IDOC, and within a month I was able to find an abandoned spot with enough space available to place a villa... Which was my first house when I played originally back in 99, so there was a lot of nostalgia that came with it.
I quickly realized I would outgrow that space as well. Within about 8 months I was searching for larger spots again.... Only this time I was finding it impossible to place. I would camp out at the spots and try to snag them, yet somehow, some guy would beat me EVERY SINGLE TIME. It became apparent that I was not going to be able to acquire a house through this method, and I was likely going to have to buy one if I wanted a bigger space.
I refused. The only person who was selling houses was the same person who was snagging them every time. Regardless of how this person was acquiring them, whether it is by fair methods or through scripts, they represented a direct competitor. And I refused to play THEIR game. So this left me stuck in my house.
That is, until the other day. A guild member was quitting, and he gifted me their house. I just finished setting up and moving in, and I am satisfied.
For now.
There will once again some point in the future, where I will have to come into direct competition with this person and their monopoly. And at that point.... Well, I'd rather quit then be forced into an unfair game.
Anyhow, I've seen some pretty good suggestions to how to resolve the IDOC situation. I like the way the items are awarded, especially when it's in Fel, it creates a nice little spontaneous competitive area for a while. The only thing I would change is the stuff that gets deleted from the house, I think there's too many things that end up being removed from the game in this method.
As for the house itself.... My best solution would be to hold a blind auction for it, one bid per account. All money is taken when the bid is made, and all money returned to everyone except the winner. if nobody bids, it just goes to an empty space
For those who don't know, it would look something like this. Nobody can see anyone else's bids
Player 1 bids 2mil, and 2 mil is taken from their account
Player 2 bids 1mil, and 1 mil is taken from their account
Player 3 bids 10mil, and 10 mil is taken from their account
Bidding is over
Player 3 gets the house
Player 2 gets their 1mil back
Player 1 gets their 2 mil back
This would also act as a gold sink
Anyhow, this would help level the playing field in terms of how housing is done.
Just my two cents, but for me, this has been probably the most frustrating part of the game experience so far.
I appreciate your perspective. Not many returning or new players these days.
Simple housing raffle system would be sufficient enough. Best part is this system already exists so would just have to be adapted to IDOCs with minimal dev time taken away from precious NL. Maybe add nominal fee (5m-10m) to enter.
However! I have mentioned in other threads that it sounds like the most recent IDOC changes are final and they don't care otherwise, from what they've said at M&Gs. You know, those changes that have only helped the non-legit players. I'm so happy I'm out of the housing market as I absolutely wouldn't buy from these players either. Good on you for not caving.
I'm on my way out of the game because of similar aspects of the game that are just ignored by the devs. I'll be sure to give my houses to a new(er) player instead of letting them fall.
Since we are thinking outside the box, Let's think way outside the box.
How would you feel about a complete moratorium on house placements starting now.
Then lets say you join NL. You work your way through a season which in some way shape or form allows you to earn an account bound house placement tool that has one successful placement use that you can transfer with your character to the normal shards and you get to place a house.
*throws another log on the fire and takes a sip of his Good Old Moonglow Red*
Nabin....
Yanno, I think stopping all house placement might be a good idea. The new legacy part not so much, I have no interest in playing new legacy. That's just an extra step. But. Stopping the placement of houses by this individual, and all individuals, until a better, more fair solution could be reached. I'd absolutely support that.
Feigr, the analogy between other businesses is a pretty good comparison. When I used to be in retail way back in the day, every black Friday we would have swarms of resellers line up early and attempt to purchase all the deals before everyone else. The business would usually make the decision to limit these purchases, as the resellers generally worked as a team and as such had unfair advantages over the other shoppers.
Once again though, if what shootgun says is true and messanna doesn't care about whether her customers are happy or not, it's irrelevant.
Is messanna like ceo of broadsword? Or just like some middle manager on a dated game. I just ask this because if enough of her customers are upset and there's enough tangible evidence of loss of subscription or profits, I would assume something would be done to remedy things more expediently. I saw a uo Skype or zoom call a while back and the only thing I remembered was the poor qa guy falling asleep.
They already have an excellent answer to this age-old problem. The same answer they just used to shift ownership of the fallen Abyss houses. Place a pylon at the location where the house fell, allow 3 days for people to click the pylon and submit information. Random draw for the new owner after that time. Only they can place the new building. Only thing I would add is make this work only for 18x18 and above plots. Simple, fair, no one person or group can hold the monopoly on the market.
Let the RNG decide if you place with a random roll of the dice every time you try to place a house of an IDOC for say 48 hours.
Having a single shopping shard that everyone has equal free access to would fix this instantly
Pie in the sky... they could just allow transfers at will like FF14 for everyone. Then it wouldn't matter. In FF14 players can move around servers almost (not completely to be fair) seamlessly.
At the very least have a conversation with the player to not negatively impact customer experience even if they are technically within the rules.
When you can stop RMT and you don't it's easy to buy into conspiracy theories
ya know i used to fill the same way on the housing situation on Atlantic, but then one day i was like well im done with the drama and the toxicity that is Atlantic, i play UO to get a break from real life, so i decided to check out other servers, im so glad i did, i now own my own castle for the first time in 20 years and im loving the server in on now, we do alot of server activties such has hunts and events, no drama no toxicity, im loving it, my point is there is like 20 other servers out there, most of them you can log on and place a castle, can place a 18x18 almost anywhere. so instead of coming here and constantly complaining about the housing issues, just go some where else, Atlantic is the only one that has the issues there is like 20 other servers out there with no issues.
I mean, to be fair here, I've never had trouble finding someone willing to move stuff for me on Chessy. One pretty well known PVPer that regularly kills me and loots stuff still did it for me honestly once.
I don't like to use the "Ask someone" and it makes my skin crawl, but I waffle back and forth on that issue. People will really help you if you ask and transfers have always been a premium thing.
I do waffle on the issue though. Not a couple hours ago I mentioned that FFXIV lets you move around for free.
The answer to just to to somewhere else is absolutely not a solution. All shards are clearly not created equally. My main characters were on Atlantic when I first played, and since I do not have the vet rewards to move them around, they will likely stay there. I have an alt on siege I play when I'm feeling frisky, and I enjoy that.
The other thing I would like to add, everyone plays ultima online for different reasons and has different goals. Personally, I get a ton of enjoyment out of running a shop of vendors. I don't really care too much about crafting, min maxing a build, adventuring, any of it. What really gets me excited is keeping all my vendors stocked and organized. When I login, the first thing I always do is check my vendors, then go by and collect all my gold. And if I see something is out of stock or empty.... Ahhh. Perfection. I now know what my goal is for the day, what I'm going to work on next.
Because that's what I like, because that's what I play, then truly Atlantic is the best shard for me... So moving is not solution, no.
In addition ... I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say that I'm not trying to stop RMT by any means. I might even say I support them. I personally in my 20+ year relationship with MMOs have never used them. But I can understand their utility, especially in a game like this that is truly so market driven. The people that are running the RMT are playing the game their way. There was a guy I met not too long ago who was selling items in game to sell gold to an RMT to send his kid through college. To me, I think that's incredible, the ability to hoard pixels like a dragon for decades and then to turn it into something tangible that will have a direct impact on your families life.
That's a positive example
The reality of the situation though becomes tainted when greed gets involved, and the desire to cheat arises. If these items are acquired through methods that are not supported or available to all users, then something needs to change. It's ruining the game for many, and it should be fixed.
In addition to the impact this has on the game, I'd also like to mention the legal ramifications this could present for Broadsword and EA. EA, Blizzard, ncsoft, and many other gaming companies have been sued successfully recently over micro transactions and subscriptions that do not provide equal ability to all users. While I realize that these problems in UO have been going on for decades, the courts are now starting to rule in favor of customers who have been taken advantage of. And while I know people will say that they're protected by their terms of service, I'll just say that those other cases (literally other EA games), the terms of service did to protect them.
This however, would absolutely not be a solution. Because if a lawsuit did arise, that would be the definite end to UO.
Let's say bad player XX has 25 active account and emails Mesanna with them saying everything is OK this easily drowns out the few voices here toss in the sugar trolling posters handing out koolaid and nothing will ever change
Even a lottery not impartial or fair you think McDouglelovespawain@aol gonna get anything
It's a rare occasion that they'll post a response. This is a topic that has been ongoing in many forms for a gazillion years. They've made changes to the system, people aren't happy with the changes, they make another change, people still aren't satisfied. Good reasons? Bad reasons? Both good and bad? Probably.
They will never reply. and yes you can't make everyone happy, but if player XX is getting 99% of high value plots it's relatively easy to camp one IDOC and monitor thier behavior
easy fix very very easy auctionning plots ( good gold sink to ) 24 auction on every idocs thats it
Draconi would know what to do
Well, that’s an effort to get UO housing on a whole other level, Petra. O.o
They have a professional obligation to STOP somebody making a living from THIER game. Using any form of cheat program to them sell intangible goods that do not belong to the individual should be a top priority for the dev team, FAR MORE IMPORTANT than the NL nonsense.
The only reasons why nothing is done is inability to combat the clever the cheat system, or they are in on it. The fact that they NEVER disprove that latter has convinced many players, me included that a certain well past her sell by date employee is getting a pension booster from turning a blind eye
Convince me otherwise, I dare you
This thread has become a harassment thread rather than critical feedback. Thank you for your thoughts and opinions.
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