UO Second Age

I was really excited to get back into UO and play during an era that was hands down some of the best gameplay this game had seen. After working very hard to acquire the means to place a house and start a guild, it appeared that I was extremely out of luck...

In the 3 weeks I had been playing, the most amount of active players I had seen on screen at one time was 10. (Appoligizes for over-exaggerating some situations, it was more like 4 or 5.) My hopes were high for not only placing a small house, but maybe something even larger!! Boy was I excited.. (This was a thought that was NEVER even a possiblity playing for the paid version... unless you were willing to sell your soul or put a second morgage on your real life house) Well, to my amazement, the land on this server looks EXACTLY as it did on the paid versions, the only difference is 8 out of 10 of these houses I see are empty... Mind-boggling to me since all the NPC towns are basicly barren.

My suggestion:
Don't advertise the ability to have 'player run towns' when one can't even place a small house. Unless, of course, you ment that one person has 15 houses around the same location and only use one, the rest must be for the purpose of him saying 'Ya I have 15 houses'

The best aspect of the game was meeting new people, banding together and building a respectible group of players... Seems to me all this house thing does is cater to players that have been around longer and are barely active, where as, if new players knew their activeness could yield something, there would maybe be growth.

In the end, I'm highly dissappointed that even 10 years later, on a server that should understand the fact that the housing aspect of the game has always been the least appealing and downright sucky, would have a policy where one person could have 15 different houses...

Cmon guys, Really??

Im sorry to hear that you feel that way and in a way i agree with you on the fact that one person shouldnt have so many houses but contrary to your statement there are still plenty of places to place a small and probably several for an L-shape if you just scout the area. in fact, i have several locations for smalls marked on my map. I would be more than happy to put you on one of theese nice locations with little to no spawn and just a short walk from town or moongates, anyhow cheer up, it gets better

cheers
Charisma

I really appreciate that =). I've been looking for either something somewhat near a town for a vendor house or a spot with other spots near it in hopes to start a guild and have room for guildies houses. Either way, I appreciate it, I'd love to see what ya have and will provide a finders fee.

I'm usually by Vesper bank, Orenia.

Housing on this server is very full but very cheap. If you want a house of any size you can buy for just over coast of deed. If you want an house with an awesome spot they cost a little more but they are sold all the time. I have 3 smalls with amazing spots and just bought an L shape with an amazing spot. The first house I placed was 3 smalls all in one tight area with no one else around. Cool spots are out there you just have to find them.

Thank you llama. At least it gives me a little hope =)

Many of the player run towns you see were created at a time when that guild had more people. Since anyone who is friended can refresh them, it is easy to keep a guildtown around even when membership has dropped. Anyway regarding acquiring land to build a guildtown there is no certain ability to do so, each one was bought one house/ plot at a time. Anyway good luck it can be difficult to find who owns a certain house sometimes.

Even large houses usually go for deed + 10k or so. If you can afford a deed, you can afford another 10k. So you can't place it yourself, but you will still be happy in a used home.

There's gotta be at least half a dozen small home plots open north of Minoc.
They are all over the place in UOSA, you just gotta wander a bit.

I own a couple of the smalls closest to Mt. Kendall/Minoc that I'd be happy to let you have for deed price. Just let me know if you're interested. If your set on placing your own take a walk around the Windmere coast. I know there are always plenty of spots open there. I think there are two small spots right by the ranger huts, for example.

Despite the nature of the shard and how its working, the OP is completely right and I might add that allowing so many houses per account is a reason why the shard has topped out for unique user count.

By allowing people to have lots of houses it removes a personal quality of the game, and instead of finding a nice spot of your own chosing to set up, you are forced to deal with a glutton of house owners who just own it for the same reason you wanted to, but force you to find someplace you really don't like. It also hugely lowers the quality of houses available, because most are unloved/unfurnished and derelict in appearance, thus showing poorly upon impressions new players have of the game and shard in general.

It is easier to excuse someone for picking a good spot that you wanted, and only owning that instead of someone placing in *all* the good spots and expecting you to just accept that. That is the reality of life around us, and not something we like to see in something we play to escape that.

It never feels like "your" house, just someone else's and thus when people look around and figure that out they usually quietly leave and probably tell their friends not to play because "its just a bunch of nerds hoarding houses".

This was a mistake from the start, and probably too late to fix; but it is a reality that housing provides a way for people to uniquely place themself how they feel they fit into the community and also as a means of expression of being part of said community.

It is a very personal thing that should not be monopolized in the way it is.

Alright so I am going to try to explain this so you understand why we have housing like we do.

First off, This server being based in the 1999 era has absolutely zero gold sinks other then housing. There is literally nothing else in uo that removes gold from the economy.

That said, when I quit about 2 years ago, and then finally missed a refresh run, I lost all my housing. Castle, 2 towers and various smalls. That is almost 2 million in gold deleted from the game, this is a good thing.

Second off, It creates more sand in the sand box, allowing for people to search out the world for spots, search out IDOC's to replace houses, and just allows for a good working relationship between people who want to be house sellers, people who want to be brokers, and people like yourself which have gold and no house.

Third off, in 1999 you were never able to place your own house. There were just as many houses on OSI in 1999 as there are now. It would be a fairly inaccurate experience as a player if you were able to go place a castle somewhere because people were only allowed one or three houses.

Fourth it gives you the ability to slowly buy all the houses in an area you like, be it via the forums, leaving books on the stairs of the house you are interested in, or patiently waiting out the time it takes for the person who has a house in the are you want to quit. Once you have all the houses in an area , you can drop them and build a bigger house. This aspect of housing would not be possible if you could only have a few houses. You wouldn't be able to cover all the plots for a keep or castle while you wait to get the rest of the land if you only had the ability to place 1 or 3 houses.

and finally in my opinion it is fun to block peoples dream house with my ugly thatch roof house. Me being able to do something to you to make you mad is what this game is about.

I know it is hard to understand right now, because you are new to the shard. Trust me though, after a year, or 16 months, you are going to be so freaking rich and powerful you will be able to buy anything you want. This game is supposed to be difficult to start, otherwise the people who have put in the long hours and effort in this game wouldn't had an advantage over you, and that doesn't make sense in a sandbox game.

Stick with it, keep farming, and once you have a couple million gold go search the world for the keep YOU WANT, and then ask on the forums who owns it and go from there.

Making people mad is NOT what this game is about. Not UO in general and not UOSA in specific. A lot of us enjoy the game for quite the opposite reason. That being said, the point of UOSA is era accuracy: a point pounded like a rusty nail into the head of every new player shortly after their first post on these forums. Griefing is a matter of era accuracy that we do very well here. Housing is most definately not. Most of us can go out any day of the week and find a dozen open small spots just because we already know where they'll be. These are the spots that new players need and lack the experience to find. Too bad for the new players that don't find them but plenty do. I earned enough to place a small a couple weeks into my time here and in the days following my deed purchase I re-deeded and placed that small half a dozen times as I kept finding new and better plots. I ended up with one a screen away from guard zones and placed another no further from guards as soon as I could afford another deed. Perhaps I was lucky but that could never have happened on OSI servers in era. Now, I still own both of those smalls so you may say I'm one of those players taking up good spots with empty houses but I've been trying to pass these off to new players for about a year now. I offer them for deed price to every new player I see complaining about house spots and have never had any interest. I suppose I'll just toss 'em out on the open market and make some profit since my prime newbie houses aren't wanted by the newbies.

The housing market is great here. I can't agree with you at all.

tekai wrote:
Second off, It creates more sand in the sand box, allowing for people to search out the world for spots, search out IDOC's to replace houses, and just allows for a good working relationship between people who want to be house sellers, people who want to be brokers, and people like yourself which have gold and no house.what this game is about.

Truth!

OP is probably not pushing his game window to the top left before he tries to place, and wondering why there aren't any open plots for smalls. Try again with your game window in the top left and you'll find you literally can't walk two screens without going past housing for smalls.

Although, not for long! It seems like the smalls are starting to fill out! Hooraaaay!

[Uhh] Eo wrote:

tekai wrote:
Second off, It creates more sand in the sand box, allowing for people to search out the world for spots, search out IDOC's to replace houses, and just allows for a good working relationship between people who want to be house sellers, people who want to be brokers, and people like yourself which have gold and no house.what this game is about.

Truth!

OP is probably not pushing his game window to the top left before he tries to place, and wondering why there aren't any open plots for smalls. Try again with your game window in the top left and you'll find you literally can't walk two screens without going past housing for smalls.

Although, not for long! It seems like the smalls are starting to fill out! Hooraaaay!

I have seen tons of small houses in random spots lately. Hopefully this means the shard is getting more active players. More players is always more fun.