New Publish and the state of the COVID19 virus and how it is effecting players of UO

@Mesanna ;
As you well know the city, state, and feds have just about shut down the working public.  
This means some will have to make due on savings or out right unemployment to keep the home going and fed. 
This will leave not much to pay for game time... 
Don't get me wrong I am not asking for a hand out for them but consideration of house loss due to not getting a normal pay check might end the game as we know it. 
I know this comes at a time when your ready to set up the new idoc changes but please I ask you to put a hold on house falls till after this has started to let the public go back to work.    
I will continue to pay for my accounts as usual. 
But... I fear this is gunna be a hell of a time for both the working and the non working to stay in the game when they really do need the distraction from the news and illness... children at home is gunna drive them nutz!   
As always 
Lady Storm

If this madness is still running rampant in the 90 days it takes to idoc, we've got way more to worry about than a game. 

No sympathy for the ones that play the 90 day game and get caught up. Let them fall. 

On a side note, i saw a fella in the mart of wal with a respirator, safety glasses, gloves and an emergency kit backpack. The mass panic is comical. 

lol

@Urge is right about the 90 day game, houses should go off at one month so inactive players cant hold castle spots forever for nothing.

Nikard are you coveting a castle?  
One would think so by your words. 
For your info the reason we have the 90 day is due to banks and the CC industry. They don't seem to tell you your card has gone sour and you need to look for your replacement in the mail till it is used and turned down.  Many who work miss these messages too. 
Kids or mate forget to inform them...  or worse yet poor player is in the service and lets just say their bank has no branch in the middle east.  
Lately some who play UO do so when they cant afford it every month. Many jobs dont pay enough to keep heads above water most times. If you have not noticed a great deal are working on shoe string budgets trying to keep the roof over their heads and their kids fed.  They squeeze a few $ for a month of UO. If they had the $ they would pay.  Kids and home come first.   In todays economy not all of them have a rich sugar daddy to bleed dry or a wife who keeps them.  
Yes that is sarcasim.

Ramp this goes for you too oh and by the way if you would have asked him or her why the equipment they might have told you they have some underlying illness or weakness that this Covid19 would surely kill them.   Not a cool thing to pick on in my opinion. How would you feel if it was your granny/gramps or mom/dad?    
Always look at the issue from all angles... not everything is so cut and dry.  

Oh as a side line the word from Washington is this could go on for 3 to 6 weeks or up to 6 months before things start to cool off.    Can you imagine being locked in your home with kids or wife who cant go out or to school.   No movies, concerts, plays... ball games NFL NBA NBL Soccer.... golf.. ok you get the drift   

@Mesanna They should monitor accounts and those that play the 90 game more than two times a year houses go IDOC in 1 week 

Personally, I am of the opinion that until this Emergency is fully over IDOCs and House Decays should be stopped for good.

Give time to all those players who might get in trouble to think first about their families and real life necessities and only later, when the Emergency will well be over with, think also about their Ultima Online accounts....

UO has already lost too many players and accounts and losing MORE accounts and players asa consequence of this Emergency is the last thing that it needs....

I mean, it is a possibility to consider that a player who might be unable, whatever the reasons, to take care of their Ultima Online account during this Emergency and who was to loose her/his UO Home to decay, might then not feel like to come back to Ultima Online and start it all over once again after this major loss to their Account....

So, I suggest, @Mesanna , that Broadsword might stop House decay over this entire Emergency period.

Lady_Storm said:

Oh as a side line the word from Washington is this could go on for 3 to 6 weeks or up to 6 months before things start to cool off.    Can you imagine being locked in your home with kids or wife who cant go out or to school.   No movies, concerts, plays... ball games NFL NBA NBL Soccer.... golf.. ok you get the drift   

I been locked up for going on a year and a half with wife and 2 kids then 2 kids became 3 kids. So I think I can handle it. 

Iam just waiting to see the two big events comeing from this.

1 is the great covid 19 baby boom.

And 2 is the great covid 19 divorce. So if you can start studying divorce law

People who truly believe this is an "epidemic" are the same ones who get their facts from "social media", and follow "influencers". ROFL Should we take precautions? Sure! Is the sky falling? Frak no.

I just want to know one thing. Why all the TP is the frist thing gone?

So all the zombie movies, tv shows and post-apocalyptic stuff is wrong. 

Not one episode of walking dead has any one saying to rick dont forget the tp on your next scavenger run

whether its a real epidemic or not, the peopel and governments are FORCING it to be. Thus, I say, turn off idocs for now, its the right thing to do, so the vultures cant profit off of whats going on.

b

KHAN said:

People who truly believe this is an "epidemic" are the same ones who get their facts from "social media", and follow "influencers". ROFL Should we take precautions? Sure! Is the sky falling? Frak no.

On a serious note, as thousands (or millions?) are being put out of work for weeks/months it would be nice to turn off housing decay for a while. Personally, I'm out of work for at least the next 8 weeks. I'm fortunate enough to have money saved up so I should be fine. Many aren't as fortunate.

My point was for any reasonable thinking person is the Family comes first, the game dead last. 
That being said.. 
There are many reasons the Idoc's should be paused right now.. 
1. Jobs have sent workers home.. this is stopping pay checks. Money is gunna get tight.
2. Stock market effects banking, I have received a message from my bank that they will do their best to keep the flow steady as the effects of this virus is reeking havoc. 
3. I am just asking for the house systems IDOC function to stop for the duration, not account payment to stop.  
EA is not so generous to float the game and BS depends on us to pay. 
Holding off till the financial eases off and lets players return knowing that they don't need to start from penny one will go along way to keep our game healthy and off EA's sunset party list.

I (currently) work in retail/grocery.

Stores are starting to not have inventory and are temporarily closing - this is putting a whole lot of minimum wage part-timers in a serious bind. Finances are going to be tight for a long time.

I'm with @Lady_Storm

@Mesanna
Is it feasible to perhaps delay IDOC for a while until there is a more positive outlook on the current world-wide crisis. I'm sure Asian players would be most thankful - as well as all of us who normally post here.

I got word from a friend who has been stuck in Nepal for a while - travel is at a standstill - as is tourism. Layoffs are rampant and people will not have money for a long time - this is not just an issue for the USofA.

I have family members in Vegas who got emails to stay home - some are lucky their employers are buffering them with two weeks of pay; others are just told to stay home as there is no schedule - and sorry, no financial assistance.

I am sure if the Devs take this into consideration, not only will help those that may need, but also will give them time to work EXTRA time on the new Patch WITHOUT any pressure and make sure that things are properly TESTED before the worldwide delivery.

You done it before, why not again!!

I couldn't agree more!  The IDOC system is cruel and unusual punishment for someone who fails to pay their sub fee.  Why can't those items be warehoused, saved to the player account until they return?  Must you rush these rules in while this pandemic is going on?  Think of how many of us may lose our jobs, end up in the hospital, or even die.  Losing the vet rewards is particularly harsh too, some of us have paid many thousands of dollars in sub fees for years and it's really not fair to lose them in an IDOC like that.  Wouldn't it be better if your vet reward unlocked those items and they were usable only by your account the way World of Warcraft handles heirloom items, mounts, and cosmetics?  Make some of the quality of life vet rewards store items or obtainable in game.

Or they could just do a free month at some point for all accounts that have been active in the last 90 days. 

Maximus_Neximus said:

KHAN said:

People who truly believe this is an "epidemic" are the same ones who get their facts from "social media", and follow "influencers". ROFL Should we take precautions? Sure! Is the sky falling? Frak no.

This. Why should we listen to all the virologists and epidemiologists? When have doctors and scientists ever known anything? The CDC, WHO, Red Cross, etc can't be trusted. What's happening in China, Italy, and other countries isn't real and could never possibly happen here.

/s

Ivenor said:

Maximus_Neximus said:

KHAN said:

People who truly believe this is an "epidemic" are the same ones who get their facts from "social media", and follow "influencers". ROFL Should we take precautions? Sure! Is the sky falling? Frak no.

This. Why should we listen to all the virologists and epidemiologists? When have doctors and scientists ever known anything? The CDC, WHO, Red Cross, etc can't be trusted. What's happening in China, Italy, and other countries isn't real and could never possibly happen here.

/s

OK, some of facts and considertions, FYI:

1) I'm Italian;

2) I live in a northern region (Friuli - Venezia Giulia) until now only marginally interested by the COVID19 mass infection (call it epidemic, pandendemic, whatever: these are only "political" labels) and FORTUNATELY with a strongly willed and VERY competent LEGA Governor (Massimiliano Fedriga), not a moronic PD-liberal one;

3) the social situation in my city (Trieste) as now is mostly surreal: empty streets, all shops closed beside grocery, newsstands, tobacco (!!!), pharmacies, veterinary and a few other categories, as by national Law: people that must not mandatory go to work (as, e.g., civil servants, Police, etc.) are asked by Emergency Laws to stay at home as much as possible;

4) as now there is NO people dropping in the streets, NO mass looting, NO food or other items shortage, etc.;

5) there has been a numer of deaths "COVID19-related" in my city too, mainly (but NOT only) of old people with pre-existing patologies, and my city hospitals (as all the hospitals in the Country) are in a "war footing" prepardeness, devoting all the resouces they can spare (those that haven't been depleted by 20 years of CRIMINAL & MORONIC European Union "austerity-related" mesaures) to support both the local citizenry and the needs of every other poeple from everywhere in the country;

6) Italy should reach the "Peak Infection" by the end of the month, but there are so many variables (e.g.: what will happens in the Center & South of the Country is anybody guess: thay have been governed by EU minions of the PD party for so much time that their medical facilities are very far from the Northern ones standards) that no one can be sure, as no one can be sure of what will happens when the full blast will invest the rest of Europe (we are about 3 weeks in "advance").

That said, the national COVID19 related data are surely not reassuring (i.e: even if one accept the thesis that this is "only" an influenza, it is IMO reasonable to assume that it will be at least at the level with the '70 "Asiatica" one, if not even of the "Spagnola" pandemic after the WWI - 





https://www.zerohedge.com/health/visualizing-history-pandemic),


and the Virtue-Signaling policies of out TOTALLY incompetent EU-Slave Central Gevernment, with a Pinocchio as First Minister ("Giuseppi" Conte) and a Minister of Finance that is a full succubus of the EU, surely has not, is not and will not help.

Add to this that the so-called "European solidarity" has shown AT LAST itself for wht it is: a TOTAL LIE (with an EU Central Bank governed by an old hag as Lagarde that PLAINLY REFUSED any Relief QE, with Germany STEALING ALREADY PAID shipments of Protective Masks destined to Italy, with France ready to take advantage of the Italian Stock Market crash to buy our strategic industries for cents on the euro), and the full picture that one gets is that, at the end of the COVID19 direct problems (whatever they will concretely be), there is, IMO, at least a 50% chance that AT LAST Italy will leave the EU once and for all,and if with "kind" methods or not we will see.

Please no politics this is not the place and is as welcome as a rant for/against Trump.

Kirthag said:

I (currently) work in retail/grocery.

Stores are starting to not have inventory and are temporarily closing - this is putting a whole lot of minimum wage part-timers in a serious bind. Finances are going to be tight for a long time.

I still believe this is uncalled for mass panic which can be avoided with simple hygiene and light precautionary measures.

But seeing first hand what's happening i will change my stance on this. Fresh food distributors are working with skeleton crews and selling in allocation to suppliers now. Fresh food is used to make canned and frozen foods. We WILL have a severe food shortage within the next couple weeks at this rate. 

There are other forums more suited to the discussion of Covid19.