Housing Suggestion

[Ferg]

It was never this difficult to find a plot for housing in the original UO. I worked my way upgrading my home over a couple years and never had a problem on the OSI shards back then.

This is not the case on SA. I believe this is because not all players had multiple accounts on the OSI ones, and there were multiple shards. This is the reason I am probably going to quit:

Most of the land on this shard seems to be occupied by empty towers and castles, by people who just go out and hunt for spots, make a new account and place a house. Trying to build a guild city is one thing, but just to double the price of the land so they can make money (since there is 'virtually' no limit to the number of accounts you can own). This makes it really hard for someone who actually wants to find a place to stick a house and then actually use it.

This also creates another problem I have noticed. Since all the larger spots are taken by these vultures, normal people start placing multiple small houses on multiple accounts, taking up more space than they would if they just had one larger one. Then other people, in defense of not being able to find a spot later, also start placing small houses in big plots until they have enough to buy the larger house.

So instead of adding to this endless cycle, I have spent hours running all over the place and island hopping just looking for a spot to place a 14x14. Negative results, and frustration of wasted time are all I am left with.

You can respond as maturely as you want, but you will be taken just as seriously.

[BlackFoot]

what is the actual suggestion you mentioned

[Ferg]

Take this statement and form your own. Possibilities could be placing houses requires a certain amount of play time or skill points. etc etc. Since limiting people to only 3 accounts is impossible.

[Alex the Artist]

I call Shenanigans.

When T2A was announced, they (OSI) were talking about the expanded lands and how it would help the land crunch. I remember this, because my guild had one large forge and we were looking for a place to put a two story house. We all searched high and low and found two potential spots. We did not place the house though, as we wanted to see what the new lands had to offer before committing. Unfortunately, when T2A opened, as we know, no houses were aloud. Of course, the two spots we had been considering were long gone at that point. So, I know from experience (on GL) that land was tight before T2A officially opened up. So, I would argue that finding a house spot on UOSA right now is technically, out of era.

I can confidently say that because just last week, my wife found a nice spot for a tower, and placed it. There was a large forge about a screen and a half from her that disappeared about 3 days later. It didn't fall, it was taken down. That spot has since been filled. So, to say it's impossible to find a spot is inaccurate, as in the last week, I know of two large deed spots that were available.

You can't just trot out of town and plunk a large wherever you want. . . but to say that there is no room left is an exaggeration as well.

[BobDobbs]

If housing was era accurate you wouldn't be able to buy a placed one at deed plus small. So you're right that housing is "era inaccurate" in a sense, but not in a bad way. Honestly, if you want a house you can easily buy one for barely over the deed price. People rarely even sold houses if at all in era, and the land was just as full as UOSA.

[Braden]

It was never this difficult to find a plot for housing in the original UO. I worked my way upgrading my home over a couple years and never had a problem on the OSI shards back then.

Then your memory is likely fuzzy.

This is not the case on SA. I believe this is because not all players had multiple accounts on the OSI ones, and there were multiple shards. This is the reason I am probably going to quit:

Most of the land on this shard seems to be occupied by empty towers and castles, by people who just go out and hunt for spots, make a new account and place a house. Trying to build a guild city is one thing, but just to double the price of the land so they can make money (since there is 'virtually' no limit to the number of accounts you can own). This makes it really hard for someone who actually wants to find a place to stick a house and then actually use it.

Isn't regulating who can live where, the amount of property they can own, and the price of everything called Communism?

In addition, you are limited to THREE (3) accounts. Anyone who exceeds that limit gets banned and their accounts and in-game possessions siezed.

This also creates another problem I have noticed. Since all the larger spots are taken by these vultures, normal people start placing multiple small houses on multiple accounts, taking up more space than they would if they just had one larger one. Then other people, in defense of not being able to find a spot later, also start placing small houses in big plots until they have enough to buy the larger house.

That is era accurate I am afraid.

So instead of adding to this endless cycle, I have spent hours running all over the place and island hopping just looking for a spot to place a 14x14. Negative results, and frustration of wasted time are all I am left with.

As I teleport around the world, answer pages, etc. I see a TON of places where such a house would fit. You just aren't looking in the correct places. No, I cannot tell you where they are.

You can respond as maturely as you want, but you will be taken just as seriously.

I understand your frustration, but UO is what it is. Its a sandbox environment. There is plenty of land and spots out there to place. If you cannot find a place, you can always have another person find a place for you for a fee. This is not WoW, and this game has a real economy. Everyone is not guaranteed a spot, but if you work for it, you will get it eventually.

[Ferg]

Well, thanks to someone, I found a spot, had to have a guildstone removed, but I got it placed.

On another note:

Immediately after that, my brother, who has been playing for 20 days now, tried to place his small I gave him when a bunch of S3X reds came and killed him and looted him dry. (He didn't even report them) Then killed his mount. Leaving him stranded in the middle of a swamp. Nice. He defiantly wants to play now... Way to advertise how fun this game is for new players. I am pretty sure he just dropped all his newbie items at brit bank and uninstalled. I can see the future of this shard looks bright.

[Atraxi]

Well, thanks to someone, I found a spot, had to have a guildstone removed, but I got it placed.

On another note:

Immediately after that, my brother, who has been playing for 20 days now, tried to place his small I gave him when a bunch of S3X reds came and killed him and looted him dry. (He didn't even report them) Then killed his mount. Leaving him stranded in the middle of a swamp. Nice. He defiantly wants to play now... Way to advertise how fun this game is for new players. I am pretty sure he just dropped all his newbie items at brit bank and uninstalled. I can see the future of this shard looks bright.

That's accurate. If you're looking for Trammel, this isn't the right shard for you.

[Eastwood]

In classic UO placing housing was really tough in the T2A era unless you were on one of the asian shards perhaps.

There are plenty of places for large houses here, not all people are greedy enough to horde up spots for the sake of it, altho for a lot of us, we're not that good at finding spots with the naked eye, but the pros sell houses all the time with a small upcharge.

If you want to buy a tower, even a keep on this server, sometimes it's just a deed and a days extra work worth of gold, 10k or a small house deed.

Don't give up hope. As for your brother getting murdered, it takes some practice in the game to avoid that, people doing the murdering have no idea how new and inexperienced a player is, but its part of the charm of the game that you have the ability to kill or be killed.

When you get further into the game your troubles today will seem pretty insignificant.

[Ferg]

Eastwood, your message is received. Thanks for the assurance, and sleep probably helped too.

Atraxi, yeah, you're hardcore. wooptie doo.. thanks for the huge contribution to the post.

Braden, excellent information, but please tell me how you will ensure that people only have three accounts. Personally, I only have two accounts, and one of them was to help get my brother started. However, it is impossible to enforce a three account limit, especially without subscriptions.

Also, I live in Japan (but am a U.S. citizen), and playing on the Asian shards there was plenty of space, and many many times the number of players that UOSA has currently. It was rare to see an empty castle (though not unheard of).

Additionally, calling me a communist when the idea proposed is more like the system in place in America right now. Only we don't call it communism, we call it a credit check. But that's fine since those were only suggestions for improving your game anyway, it is entirely up to you (and associated) to determine how you design it. I can respect that, even if you won't take my concerns seriously.

I can see now that bringing up this issue I was having was pointless. Just a whole lot of critical defense came at me instead of anything constructive. But after all, your not charging anyone to play, so make the game however you want.

[PHLiNX]

Patience is a virtue........ even more so nowadays. Seriously.

[Quin the Wretch]

Hey Ferg just hang in there. It might seem tough but thats what makes the victory and sense of accomplishment all the sweeter.

You're right about the Asian shards. They were a little different. But (being someone who played Yamato for nearly a year) there was never anywhere to place anything larger than a small (at least on that shard). My first house was Pac after Id played for nearly 2 years. It was a small and cost me 800k @_@. It was cheap cause it was from a friend lol. Anyway truth is its easy to place here. Just take your time.

Anyway my two cents.

[Kaivan]

While we appreciate your take and opinion on housing, one thing to understand is that the paramount goal of UOSA is to produce as close to an accurate reflection of the game mechanics for November 23, 1999. This means that housing must adhere to those mechanics, and the mechanics of the era were very clear; each character on an account could own a house, and there were no other restrictions on housing. This means that any player on UOSA may legally own up to 15 houses on 3 accounts.

Beyond that, I don't think that any discussion on the subject has any merit at this point without investigation into prior discussions on the subject. I would suggest doing a search for housing related threads in both the Suggestions & Era Accuracy forum, and the Second Age Discussion forum.

[Ripplinger]

Ferg, likening a situation to a particular movement is by no means calling you a communist. Comments all made here, even the ones you didn't like, have to do with why the shard operates as it does. It's built around a specific timeframe in UO history, which most of us find appealing and the most fun. If you check other free shards, you'll log in to find 11 players online, very low numbers... not so here. Yes, I realize a lot multi-box, but there's still over 200 minimum players behind all characters at any given time.

I played on Pacific, and there wasn't a free spot to even place a small when I played (I quit shortly after UO:R came out). Some people had 5 houses on their account, and if a new spot opened up, there would be 20 players standing there with deeds ready to place a house. Here at least you can find many places for smalls, but if you want something larger, you're better off checking the Trading forums here and just buy an already placed house from another player. You'll find something you like much quicker and with much less hassle instead of trying to watch for decaying houses. And the prices aren't exorbitant, you'll have more gold than you know what to do with soon enough to easily afford the extra small deed for the price of a pre-placed house. I also suggest you lock down your keys to your door (search the forums how to do that), so you never carry your keys with you and risk them being lost if you're PKed and your house looted.

PKing was a fact of life during T2A. While there are precautions you can take to minimize it, accept that you will be killed and looted at times, you can't always get away from them. Blue players will even kill you at times here. But that's part of the excitement that came with original UO and why people play here. We're not all PKers, you just need to be aware of your surroundings, especially when out placing a deed. (Runebooks also aren't blessed here btw before you lose one of those later on.)

Accounts are limited to 3, and yes it can be enforced by the IP logging in. Even forums will show your IP to admins (that's on all forums on the internet, not something specific here), the game does as well. While there are probably some people who try to cheat that system and log in through proxies, I don't think many bother with that; three accounts with 15 characters are more than enough to try everything you want. And as Derrick said, accounts gets banned if over the 3 limit.

Build your characters up a bit so that you can survive before venturing out very far, especially before carrying a deed or anything valuable on you. Macroing is allowed on the shard with Razor to help do that quickly. Hopefully your brother will give the shard another chance too and join you.

[Jill Stihl]

....you just need to be aware of your surroundings, especially when out placing a deed.

<snip>

Build your characters up a bit so that you can survive before venturing out very far, especially before carrying a deed or anything valuable on you.....

House deeds are newbied on UOSA. As long as they're in the top level of your pack and you're not red they're quite safe.