New Castles Update?

Has there been any news at all about the new/custom castles?

I"ve been holding off doing pavers etc in the hopes there will be an easier way.

I think they last said maybe around fall but I could be mistaken it for something else 

~As soon as this publish is out, Bleak will be working on it~ According to the Meet and Greet on LS last month.....


[Anjou Bari]: 2 plz, when can we redo castles and mite keeps be included ? thats one

[Anjou Bari]: llama bows

[Mesanna]: as soon as we get this publish out Bleak will be working on the tool 

[Mesanna]: for building a new castle

If this holds true, Bleak is working on it right now....because the publish is out...technically

I so wanted a customized castle like everyone else is able to do. BS goes off into something that's totally different with this nonsense, so I don't even care about it anymore. Super annoying.

I'm curious, but will wait until it comes out on TC before I make any plans to redo either of my castles. 

I am wondering if it will affect the Historic Homes.

From what I remember, she (Mesanna) Wanted you to send in castle designs and they would pick 4 of them to add to the house tool...I think it was 4....so you won't be able to customize your castle, it's just for creating designs for them to chose from and add 4 to the housing tool.

Nevermind it is 3 designs..

https://uo.com/2017/02/24/looking-for-new-castle-designs/

mmkay... so nope... not gonna risk it.
will be nice to see what people come up with though.... 

Yes there will be 4 very happy new castle design winners and the rest of us won't like or use them It would be completely impossible for someone to design me a house that I'd like better than my own design. I spent days downloading programs and designing my last castle entry to see it tossed out and I'm not going through it all again. Wasted enough time on that. It's completely ridiculous everyone in the game can have a custom plot unless you manage to secure the coolest house in the game. Then you get punished. This is completely on Mesanna for this mess.

The real rub is that if they can create a tool to allow custom castle designs... why not just put the tool on production and call it good.  Some will make big ugly cubes and some will make amazing structures... such is everything else in UO.

A Borg Castle...
*shivers*

So this new tool will not be useable by existing castles ?

Garth_Grey said:

So this new tool will not be useable by existing castles ?

No..it's to create a design for a contest that Bonnie had mentioned over a year ago...enter your designs for a chance to have your design picked as one of the 3 new castle designs that they would add to the House Placement tool, so you can either build one of the new designs or replace your existing castle with one.

Kirthag said:

A Borg Castle...
*shivers*

Yea seems most houses are that Borg cubes already,   Devs should open up Test with castle footprints and allow players to customize them and pick some top (10 or so) designs.  Then give the winning designs that castle on their server.  

Larisa said:

so you can either build one of the new designs or replace your existing castle with one.

Yeah.... 
With the current issues reported by people regarding the "replace" feature on housing (items poofing with no chance of recovery), I'd rather not. I don't have space in all my banks and the Museum to move all my junks out of the YCC so I can "replace" the current castle - and I don't want to risk a demo/replant since the placement tool is glitchy in the CC, and I really don't like the EC, even for house placement. It's in such a prime spot Giggles gave to me for my birthday... means the world to me. Getting this castle was one of the last few items on my UO-Bucket List. 

I'll just continue with my stone-customization. Gives the miner something to do, and I keep buying up everyone else's granite so I'm helping young miners get rich.. hehe. One told me I helped him get his own castle, so that's something.

Larisa said:

Garth_Grey said:

So this new tool will not be useable by existing castles ?

No..it's to create a design for a contest that Bonnie had mentioned over a year ago...enter your designs for a chance to have your design picked as one of the 3 new castle designs that they would add to the House Placement tool, so you can either build one of the new designs or replace your existing castle with one.

I know its risky, but will the resize option be available for castles ? I might try it at like, 5am ish if so.

There are many castles that wont be Phoenix customisable anyway with the current set of "house placement" rules.
They would have to re-do the Phoenix rules for the whole system or just not allow about half the Castles to be included in this.
Seems like a big cluster Phoenix to me.....

Slayvite said:

There are many castles that wont be Phoenix customisable anyway with the current set of "house placement" rules.
They would have to re-do the Phoenix rules for the whole system or just not allow about half the Castles to be included in this.
Seems like a big cluster Phoenix to me.....

This made me laugh....gotta love your drive Slayvite! (I still like the new phoenix *ducks* ) But yes they did say back in 2015 or whenever it was that she first announced it that they were still working out the logistics of how a current castle would be replaced by a new one without losing any of your belongings....I don't think I would trust a total replacement but would like to see a way for you to demolish your castle with all of your belongings going into *The Cloud* as it were, and then once the new castle was placed, a VERY large packing crate would appear in the main area for you to unpack....LOTS of problems I see with this situation and it's no wonder it's taking them awhile to figure it all out.

Slayvite said:

There are many castles that wont be Phoenix customisable anyway with the current set of "house placement" rules.
They would have to re-do the Phoenix rules for the whole system or just not allow about half the Castles to be included in this.
Seems like a big cluster Phoenix to me.....

DUDE! Almost showered the monitor in my delicious 100% Kona Coffee!!!! I don't think they will be going back on the ancient bird unless there are some huge graphic changes *cough* across the board.

A lot of castles with trees, rocks, little bushes, and certain "twigs" in their courtyards would not be eligible for any sort of replacement - a new plot would never go in those spots. And as Larisa said... the whole item thing (for us hoarders) is a challenge. I've heard of too many people doing a totally easy house swap and lose that packing crate to the gremlins of Sosaria. Many castle owners would just up and quit if they ever lose all their stuff.

The direct approach isn't Phoenix working, so i'm implementing more subtle tactics
I'm like a Steven hawkings ninja i am 🙂

Slayvite said:

The direct approach isn't Phoenix working, so i'm implementing more subtle tactics
I'm like a Steven hawkings ninja i am 🙂

Are you interested in a deal? I will support your Phoenix revamp obsession if you support my equally obsessive crusade against the inter-Shards STS-Trade Oligarchy! We could put a reference to each other Obession in a catch-phrase slogan in our .sigs... 🙂
I.

I am sure all of you have seen Architectural drawings of a sort.. Graph paper...  a castle plot size is 32x32.  Graph paper comes in multi square size.  I am sure you can still send in a drawing and plans for said castle..   Larisa is quite right Mesanna sis say at a few M&Gs that as soon as the EJ was out  the tool and plans for TC1 would be soon after.

I actually did some on graph paper...but never sent them in..it's just too hard to visualize on paper.



I'm gonna try with lego's!

Garth_Grey said:

Larisa said:

Garth_Grey said:

So this new tool will not be useable by existing castles ?

No..it's to create a design for a contest that Bonnie had mentioned over a year ago...enter your designs for a chance to have your design picked as one of the 3 new castle designs that they would add to the House Placement tool, so you can either build one of the new designs or replace your existing castle with one.

I know its risky, but will the resize option be available for castles ? I might try it at like, 5am ish if so.

I used resize on a Castle to move it back 3 spaces and it worked fine.  Remember if you resize you must empty out the house (castle) first. It acts as a demolish but saves your current spot I think it was for 1 hour so I stood directly under the Castle house sign to mark the exact spot it was to start.

Larisa said:

I actually did some on graph paper...but never sent them in..it's just too hard to visualize on paper.



I'm gonna try with lego's!

I can totally see you sitting there with a big old stack of lego's putting this together! lol

I have been wondering about the same thing recently so thanks for asking.  
I would love to see an option for an empty castle plot that we could build on using nothing but the craftable granite.  Not as a design options but for ingame use when they add the 3 new designs.

I like my borg/cube castle lol. using the granite stone is not as fun as some may think, at least for me. I do wish we could start as a plot. when using granite pieces, some of the granite pieces will/may fall down or get D click on and disappear. too bad cant lock down but not count as storage. I was happy the devs did the granite pieces for us to do. is better than nothing.               PS only the old phoenix is allow in my castle, lol

I Have built alot with granite. It seems to me the main reason tiles fall is if you poke then from below when you decorate. Tall trees parrot perch raisingf stuff.. it hardly happens later on when you dont touch anything. The D-clicking by misstake is harder to awoid. Its tricky to repair for sure. But the even bigger prob with the granite is that transp circle doesnt work on it. To have granite already on the bottom floor and all way up would be a baaaad idea.  
  So if I only have 1 wish it is : let the transp circle work on granite walls and floors.

Larisa said:

I actually did some on graph paper...but never sent them in..it's just too hard to visualize on paper.
I'm gonna try with lego's!

Minecraft would work too.  

What ever works for you..   I like the leggo idea .. Because you can take a building board and do each level per board and work out the area's.  Id make up a legend of what ='s what on the board.

My son was a arcatech student and has a good idea of what I have been thinking in design.. so the paper idea works for me... but I do like the leggo bricks idea.

oh by the way... remember to look at the walls of a castle and how they sit on the edge of the plot.

I was thinking of this as I was walking in one of mine and then noticed the way things can and cant sit inside because of the way walls are on a square. 

Larisa said:

I actually did some on graph paper...but never sent them in..it's just too hard to visualize on paper.



I'm gonna try with lego's!

Graph paper... pshhhhhhh

Paint ftw... 

HAHAH!!! Giggles you always make me laugh!
Playing with a "plausible" design with one of my castles right now, using the crafted stone - but I keep running out of the plain granite, then I buy out everyone on Pac so am forced to go mining. With spring break next week, should be able to stock up again.

Castles need secret doors and passages. Maybe now a days a secret door to a house teleporter somewhere else in the castle <span>🙂</span>

Don't get me wrong  I like my castles ... but they do need this revamp...   stairs are great but I would like a few tp's to get round all that walking... and the long halls... if love to get back that few square's back and use the room for more than a few tables and path.

and the inner section   don't get me started on that... you don't use or see ppl use the left side I like the idea of a grassy area  on the first floor   the koi pond comes to mind...   so get out there and design your tush off ppl!