I feel like im being held hostage.

i been playing since 1999 or 2000.. i have a TON of stuff.. on several servers.
i dont really play much anymore.. i havent logged in for months. 
i play maybe a few weeks every year when there is a new patch or something.. then i stop playing for awhile and move on to a different game.

the issue is, i have to pay every 6 months whether i play or not, because my stuff will vanish if i dont.

i really dont like this. id be more than happy to bank everything i have and close my account if i could reopen it and get the stuff back.. but it doesnt work that way. 
if i lose my stuff, i will most likely never play again.

at this point i really feel like im just wasting money.

Give me your stuff problem solved 

If you put everything in the bank the only thing you'll lose is your houses, and then when you're ready to come back just pay again and get it from the bank. EJ is just limited but your stuff should still be there, plus it's easy to get another house if you come back.

ActionElly said:

If you put everything in the bank the only thing you'll lose is your houses, and then when you're ready to come back just pay again and get it from the bank. EJ is just limited but your stuff should still be there, plus it's easy to get another house if you come back.

i guess you missed the part where i said i had a TON of stuff.
i have a soulstone with every skill on it with both 120 and 100.
i have 100s of other items, such as deeds and tokens.
i also have a bunch of old items such as a mannequin with every armor set including those rare colored metal armor that dropped a few years back during a special event.
i also have a keep in a popular area. 

way too much to put in a bank.

“I had played for 20+ years and deactivated my account and restarted almost from scratch over a year ago with only 1 suit on 1 char.
you’ll be surprised how easily you can rebuild.” 

Bank only the soulstones, and sell the rest of the crap. i did that during a long hiatus and now have more crap than i ever did. You're only holding yourself hostage with nostalgia.

SO true Victim, When I left back in 2007 I banks what few stones I had, and some old rares from 2000, came back in 2015 and I have far more stuff today along with at least one character on every shard that can fight

so......
you want a Bank Account?
you want to keep all your goodies?
you want to keep all your values?
you want the bank to keep all your values safe and secure BUT you dont want to pay the Bank Fee's?  and you call yourself a Victim? wow.

Step 1
Fill Banks with 125-175 Items, get a blue beetle and fill it with 125 items and fill your back pack with 125 items, mount beetle and log out.  Do this with all active accounts.  This gives you 375 - 425 items per Char. 
Step 2 if you have shard shields take stuff to other shards for storage.
Step 3 make as many EJ Accounts as needed to store stuff in backback 250 items per EJ account (limit 2 chars per ) and no beetles allowed.  Or you could make new accounts (pay 1 month) and make 6 chars with 6 beetles and 6 banks would give you 2250 items per account

A Castle with max storage is 7500 items so the account with that castle could hold 2975 items (7 Chars with max bank storage) and you would need 2 basic accounts to hold the rest.

What shard are you on, maybe there are people that can help you move items to other shards for storage.

UO_FakeNews said:

so......
you want a Bank Account?
you want to keep all your goodies?
you want to keep all your values?
you want the bank to keep all your values safe and secure BUT you dont want to pay the Bank Fee's?  and you call yourself a Victim? wow.

Let's look at the issue from a "neutral" position, shall we ?

What would be in the best interest for Ultima Online ?

To have players eventually come back to it, or, rather, to see them going for never coming back ?

Personally, I would imagine, that it would be in the very best interest for UO, to see players coming back...

Now, let's look at the "chances" that players might or not come back...

Would it be more likely for a player to come back to UO, if they KEPT their game belongings, or whether they lost them because their House decayed with all of its contents ?

Personally, I happen to think that, a player would be A LOT LESS likely to come back to UO if they lost their House with all of its contents....

If they had been able to store it all in their Bank Box, for a special "Absentee UO" enlarged Bank Box Capacity capable to contain everything that their House contained, thus leaving their House totally empty before they quit UO so that they could either sell it or let it decay, but as empty, and then quit UO, I think that it would be a LOT more likely that abandoning players might, eventually, want to come back and resubscribe again.

But players who lost everything because it decayed with the UO House ? The chances for them to come back would be much, MUCH less, to my opinion.

So, I am of the opinion that giving this ability to players would be in the VERY BEST INTEREST of Ultima Online to see its players more likely coming back.

In the end, obviously, Developers Design decisions DO affect players' gameplay and willingness to stay to play the game or leave it and, eventually, whether to come back to it.

If the Developers make the right decisions, the game prospers and may even enlarge its players' base, otherwise, with wrong Design decisions, I need to imagine, the game might loose players, as well as, the chances for players to come back might become less, rather then more.....

Of course, it is their game so, the decisions are all theirs, and rightfully so, yet, their Design decisions have an impact on players, their playing decisions and, consequentially, on the game.

Take the OP, for example.... I have no idea what he or she will decide, yet, if he or she will decide to store in the limited Bank Box the few most valuable items, and then stop the subscription and let his/her House with all of its contents decay, how much likely can we think that one day, in the future, he might want to decide to get back to playing Ultima Online ?

He might, but he also might not.

Personally, I think that players who lost 90%+ of their in-game items upon stopping their subscription because their UO House decayed with all of its contents, do not come back as they see it pointless to come back, work for more items, and then have to loose them again if they decide again to stop paying the subscription... and, so, the game looses players' base for good....

Sure, some may come back, regardless, but how many do, of the overall number of those who left and stopped paying for their subscription ?

I think that, if Broadsword made it possible to transfer all of one's own items in an enlarged Bank Box for the purpose of quitting UO, the number of players then eventually returning to UO after some time, would be higher.

At least, that is how I see it.

Yoshi said:

“I had played for 20+ years and deactivated my account and restarted almost from scratch over a year ago with only 1 suit on 1 char.
you’ll be surprised how easily you can rebuild.” 

You may be able to rebuild your chars. and your house but you will never be able to replace those items that you hold special.

aarons6 said:

ActionElly said:

If you put everything in the bank the only thing you'll lose is your houses, and then when you're ready to come back just pay again and get it from the bank. EJ is just limited but your stuff should still be there, plus it's easy to get another house if you come back.

i guess you missed the part where i said i had a TON of stuff.
i have a soulstone with every skill on it with both 120 and 100.
i have 100s of other items, such as deeds and tokens.
i also have a bunch of old items such as a mannequin with every armor set including those rare colored metal armor that dropped a few years back during a special event.
i also have a keep in a popular area. 

way too much to put in a bank.

Oh I just assumed you probably had 6 or 7 characters all with banks and like others said you can do EJ accounts for the backpacks and such.

if anyone actually read all of Popp's lecture and found anything useful could you add it here, I am not going to read all that flannel

JackFlashUk said:

if anyone actually read all of Popp's lecture and found anything useful could you add it here, I am not going to read all that flannel

I believe he wants the developers to make it easier to quit 

@popps How many players, if they could store ALL of their stuff, would do so, in the thought that they MIGHT come back to UO at some point, and quit paying for their accounts? I would give serious consideration to closing 5-6 of my accounts if what you "propose" were indeed the case. My guess is A LOT more than "might come back". A lot of people currently keep accounts open JUST to store their "stuff". Or, of course, to hold housing until they can sell it for RL $$$ 🙂. 

JackFlashUk said:

if anyone actually read all of Popp's lecture and found anything useful could you add it here, I am not going to read all that flannel

Whenever he posts I just hum this song to myself while scrolling past. usually takes as long as the song to do it.

I'd like this twice if I could 

McDougle said:

I'd like this twice if I could 

LOL +2

KHAN said:

@ popps How many players, if they could store ALL of their stuff, would do so, in the thought that they MIGHT come back to UO at some point, and quit paying for their accounts? I would give serious consideration to closing 5-6 of my accounts if what you "propose" were indeed the case. My guess is A LOT more than "might come back". A lot of people currently keep accounts open JUST to store their "stuff". Or, of course, to hold housing until they can sell it for RL $$$ 🙂. 

Sure, but that "attempt" cannot last indefinitely, right ?

Eventually, the players who are no longer logging, whatever their reasons, WILL make the decision to stop their subscription(s)....

And if that was to cause the loss of all of their belongings, falling down with their UO House, the chances are that, in most cases, they will be gone for good, never coming back to UO, in most cases.

I think it is naive to imagine that a significant number of players might not log for a significant period of time and still pay for their account(s) for too long..... for sometimes yeas, but for too long ?

I do not think that many players might enjoy wasting their hard earned real money that easily....

popps said:

KHAN said:

@ popps How many players, if they could store ALL of their stuff, would do so, in the thought that they MIGHT come back to UO at some point, and quit paying for their accounts? I would give serious consideration to closing 5-6 of my accounts if what you "propose" were indeed the case. My guess is A LOT more than "might come back". A lot of people currently keep accounts open JUST to store their "stuff". Or, of course, to hold housing until they can sell it for RL $$$ 🙂. 

Sure, but that "attempt" cannot last indefinitely, right ?

Eventually, the players who are no longer logging, whatever their reasons, WILL make the decision to stop their subscription(s)....

And if that was to cause the loss of all of their belongings, falling down with their UO House, the chances are that, in most cases, they will be gone for good, never coming back to UO, in most cases.

I think it is naive to imagine that a significant number of players might not log for a significant period of time and still pay for their account(s) for too long..... for sometimes yeas, but for too long ?

I do not think that many players might enjoy wasting their hard earned real money that easily....

Did you not even read what YOU wrote. You said it was better to allow them to keep all their stuff when they quit paying. I said nothing about them having to KEEP paying. No wonder everyone thinks you are an idiot!

KHAN said:

popps said:

KHAN said:

@ popps How many players, if they could store ALL of their stuff, would do so, in the thought that they MIGHT come back to UO at some point, and quit paying for their accounts? I would give serious consideration to closing 5-6 of my accounts if what you "propose" were indeed the case. My guess is A LOT more than "might come back". A lot of people currently keep accounts open JUST to store their "stuff". Or, of course, to hold housing until they can sell it for RL $$$ 🙂. 

Sure, but that "attempt" cannot last indefinitely, right ?

Eventually, the players who are no longer logging, whatever their reasons, WILL make the decision to stop their subscription(s)....

And if that was to cause the loss of all of their belongings, falling down with their UO House, the chances are that, in most cases, they will be gone for good, never coming back to UO, in most cases.

I think it is naive to imagine that a significant number of players might not log for a significant period of time and still pay for their account(s) for too long..... for sometimes yeas, but for too long ?

I do not think that many players might enjoy wasting their hard earned real money that easily....

Did you not even read what YOU wrote. You said it was better to allow them to keep all their stuff when they quit paying. I said nothing about them having to KEEP paying. No wonder everyone thinks you are an idiot!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Give us LIKE Buttons.  This one deserves a 10+

Repeat what shard are you on

You feel like you are being held hostage because you are.  Has been a marketing strategy since day one.  If you don’t pay on time the game allows other players to loot everything you own and you lose your house as well.  It’s one of the reasons I did not start playing years ago.  Game just had too many player unfriendly rules.  Most are gone now but this one remains although I believe the game allows a little more time now before your house falls.  It’s still around because it is effective at getting players to continue paying their dues.  Wonder sometimes how many houses are owned by players who don’t play anymore but just keep paying because they have a house filled with memories.  Nothing wrong with that I probably would do the same.  But, as has been said that particular rule is not going to bring players back or attract new ones.

KHAN said:

popps said:

KHAN said:

@ popps How many players, if they could store ALL of their stuff, would do so, in the thought that they MIGHT come back to UO at some point, and quit paying for their accounts? I would give serious consideration to closing 5-6 of my accounts if what you "propose" were indeed the case. My guess is A LOT more than "might come back". A lot of people currently keep accounts open JUST to store their "stuff". Or, of course, to hold housing until they can sell it for RL $$$ 🙂. 

Sure, but that "attempt" cannot last indefinitely, right ?

Eventually, the players who are no longer logging, whatever their reasons, WILL make the decision to stop their subscription(s)....

And if that was to cause the loss of all of their belongings, falling down with their UO House, the chances are that, in most cases, they will be gone for good, never coming back to UO, in most cases.

I think it is naive to imagine that a significant number of players might not log for a significant period of time and still pay for their account(s) for too long..... for sometimes yeas, but for too long ?

I do not think that many players might enjoy wasting their hard earned real money that easily....

Did you not even read what YOU wrote. You said it was better to allow them to keep all their stuff when they quit paying. I said nothing about them having to KEEP paying. No wonder everyone thinks you are an idiot!

DO you even read what one writes ?

You said : 

I would give serious consideration to closing 5-6 of my accounts if what you "propose" were indeed the case.

How is that then NOT "keep" paying ?

Of course it is....

You'd rather prefer NOT to pay, and infact, if there was an ability to transfer one's own belongings from one's own UO home to the Bank Box (of course enlargening its max capacity), or to some other "AD HOC quitting storage", by your own writing, you would give "serious consideration" to closing 5-6 of your accounts....

YEt, since that ability is not available, you KEEP paying...

It was implicit, to my understanding, in your writing....

To which I then replied, mentioning how, to my viewing, that could not last indefinitely, right ?

That is, as I see it, eventually, the players who are no longer logging, whatever their reasons, at some point, WOULD make the decision to stop their subscription(s)....

And if all the contents inside of their Home(s) was to get gone as it happens now, chances are, that most of these players would never look back at Ultima Online, and be gone for good.

It is only logical, human.

Why would players want to get back to play a game where they spend time to get pixels which then are gone once their House decays and if they get back to the game they would loose all of the new items which they were to spend time to get again if they quit again because the game Design does not permit them to store them should they decide, for sometime, to quit playing AND paying their subscription above the 90 days which a House stays up with a closed account ?

Are people such enthusiasts to throw away their time like that ? They really got nothing better in their real life to use their time for, other then see it wasted like that to get items in UO which then are gone when they quit playing and paying their subscription ?

Oh well....

I happen to think, instead, that if Ultima Online permitted to players quitting AND closing their subscriptions to be able to store the contents of their UO House(s) in their Bank Box or, some other "quitting storage", a lot more players might come back to UO after a time away from it since they would not feel that they just threw their time away, because they were able to retain all of their items when their House decayed after the 90 days from closing their Account last time.

Nowdays, there is plenty games out there that are free to play, UO not only wants to compete with them having a monthly subscription, but, on top of that also has a Design that forces players to "loose" their items if they stop paying their subscriptions ?

No wonder how Ultima Online looses players' base and when that happens, most of these players never come back to it... UO does not really make it easy to these players to "want" to come back....

I mean, have we already forgotten how the Developers made Soulstones have a LOT of points with the Clean Up Britannia thus, incentivating players who found them at IDOCs to destroy them, rather then keeping them for players coming back to UO who would then have to start working their skills all up again ?

What I am trying to say is, that players are definitely NOT having it been made it easier for them to want to get back to play the game... their Soulstones with all of the skills which took them long to train being gone, the items which it took a whole lot of grinding and time for them to get, also gone with their UO House when they last closed their subscription.... and if they come back, work that all back up, grind again with another investment of their real life time (unless they AFK script, of course...), and then stop playing again, it would be all gone once again....

Some players might then think, considering all that royal waste of time, "what for, then" ?

And I could not blame them for thinking that....

Did you not read what @Arnold7 just wrote ?

It’s one of the reasons I did not start playing years ago.  Game just had too many player unfriendly rules.

By the way, I am just commenting on the OP, someone else started it.... and that shows how there do are players feeling such a need....

Again I point out they are debating easier ways to quit...  can we just lock this useless thread now...

Arnold7 said:

You feel like you are being held hostage because you are.  Has been a marketing strategy since day one.  If you don’t pay on time the game allows other players to loot everything you own and you lose your house as well.  It’s one of the reasons I did not start playing years ago.  Game just had too many player unfriendly rules.  Most are gone now but this one remains although I believe the game allows a little more time now before your house falls.  It’s still around because it is effective at getting players to continue paying their dues.  Wonder sometimes how many houses are owned by players who don’t play anymore but just keep paying because they have a house filled with memories.  Nothing wrong with that I probably would do the same.  But, as has been said that particular rule is not going to bring players back or attract new ones.

It has always been 90 days after you stop paying that your house falls.  What are these other player unfriendly rules are you talking about.  You do understand that if houses didn't fall there would be no housing for anybody on all shards.

Bilbo said:

Arnold7 said:

You feel like you are being held hostage because you are.  Has been a marketing strategy since day one.  If you don’t pay on time the game allows other players to loot everything you own and you lose your house as well.  It’s one of the reasons I did not start playing years ago.  Game just had too many player unfriendly rules.  Most are gone now but this one remains although I believe the game allows a little more time now before your house falls.  It’s still around because it is effective at getting players to continue paying their dues.  Wonder sometimes how many houses are owned by players who don’t play anymore but just keep paying because they have a house filled with memories.  Nothing wrong with that I probably would do the same.  But, as has been said that particular rule is not going to bring players back or attract new ones.

It has always been 90 days after you stop paying that your house falls.  What are these other player unfriendly rules are you talking about.  You do understand that if houses didn't fall there would be no housing for anybody on all shards.

The problem is not about the House falling, the problem which may stop many players from wanting to come back to Ultima Online, is the "contents" of the Houses falling...

All those items, mean TIME to those players who grinded hours, days, weeks, months in order to obtain them and then, when they stop paying their subscription and their House fall with those items inside, all those items which mean all that grinding and time spent into getting them go away with them....

The House is the least of the issues, to my opinion, the issue is the contents of the House....

If, at least Broadsword permitted to players wanting to quit Ultima Online to save up their items into a "quitting storage", their Houses could well fall, but this time empty.... and when the players come back, they might get another house and put their items back in it and get started from where they left.

.And, mind you, I do not even think it would be a big deal to save up those items... all that it would take, is to enter them into a file, yes, just a file that was to list all of the contents' of that Account's House. Then, when the players was to come back, all it would be needed, would be to generate the items from that file....

So, it would not even take any storage space other then the few bites that such a file would be....

And, perhaps and hopefully, this could make "more" players want to come back to Ultima Online since they would find all of the items as they left them when they quit.....

Someone, PLEASE stab me in the eye if I EVER trying respond to ANYTHING popps says!  It would be less painful. I should have known better. I'm pretty sure I would have better luck trying to debate the toaster in my kitchen. At least the toaster serves a useful purpose, and makes more sense!

KHAN said:

Someone, PLEASE stab me in the eye if I EVER trying respond to ANYTHING popps says!  It would be less painful. I should have known better. I'm pretty sure I would have better luck trying to debate the toaster in my kitchen. At least the toaster serves a useful purpose, and makes more sense!

Just watchin the river roll by . . .

Ok I'll bite since this seems open to discussion @popps do you know what happens to an abandoned bank account in real life? Yet ultima keeps your stuff forever how is this unfair? 

McDougle said:

Ok I'll bite since this seems open to discussion @ popps do you know what happens to an abandoned bank account in real life? Yet ultima keeps your stuff forever how is this unfair? 

How would, keeping a File that was to list a player's items left in the game when they quit (so as to make their recreation possible, in case a player was to come back), "so much" trouble for Ultima Online ?

It is only a file of a few bites AND, what is most important, it could be seen by Ultima Online as an "investment" towards increasing the chances to see that player coming back, eventually...

Not to mention that, to my understanding, Ultima Online ALREADY keeps Back-Ups which they use when they need to revert the Status of a given server....

And, it would not be"Indefinitely", at least, unless one assumes that Ultima Online was to keep being a playable game forever, until the end ot times which, while possible, I hardly imagine it to be likely....

That is, whenever a decision will be made to shut down the Ultima Online Servers, whatever the reasons will be, all of these files would no longer need to be stored, obviously.....

You already keep everything in your bank popps what else do you want? they should use server space to hold your house and everything in it? On the chance you might return? I know to reward your nonpayment while you quit they can evict that paying customer and restore your home..

McDougle said:

You already keep everything in your bank popps what else do you want? they should use server space to hold your house and everything in it? On the chance you might return? I know to reward your nonpayment while you quit they can evict that paying customer and restore your home..

What server space are you talking about ?

A few bytes that a FILE listing the items (not the actual art of each and evey item) would take ?

Say that a player had a Hat of the Magi, it would not be necessary to actually store that Hat of the Magi but, rather, only the listing of it on a file....

Then, should the player come back to UO, one day, hopefully, the game would "read" that file and create a brand new Hat of the Magi to replace the one that the player had...

And the same, for any and all items that the player had in his/her UO House... as soon as the items listed in the FIle were to be recreated, the File would get deleted since the player is back in UO and got back his/her items left when he/she quit, time back.

Such a file, I imagine, would only take a few bytes... 

Of course, after listing them in that "quitting file", the items would then get deleted from the game and the House remain as empty, either to be sold by the player before quitting, or, if not possible, to fall down, but with no contents in it...

Yeah, no more IDOCs.... I would not shed a tear about them missing though.... I always hated them.... too many scripters, cheaters revolving around them to my opinion....

There would be no "eviction" of a paying customer since, if that old player was to come back, their home was no longer there.... there would only be a file describing their Home's old contents...

The returning player would need to get a NEW home, since the old one is gone, and then, when ready, they could "claim" the old items from the achived File and fill up their "NEW" Home with them...

And they would be back up, ready to start play UO again, moreless from where they left it....

@McDougle You are better off trying to argue/debate a rock than @popps . The rock is smarter, and has more reasoning ability!

@popps not the slightest bit of server space should be used for QUITTERS why is this even a debate..

I think we have sufficient feedback on this issue. Thank you.