AFK Gump? Please at least try to read before voting, this is why we ended up with Trump

Why have bonded tames? - Because it was part of our ERA and allows players to create a bond with their pets. Forcing players with no intrest into learning how to PvP creates a server for only one playstyle. Some players might not want to PvP at all but might enjoy other aspects of the server. And if you incentivize ruining these players experience by rewarding this then that behavior will grow. My first day on a previous server I encountered a player who devoted 30 minutes to trying to drag my newly bought packhorse through a gate outside of town. You also discount the fact that we Drastically modified taming/bonding to link a significant effort/cost to obtaining more than one bonded tame to balance out this system. On OSI you bonded everything with zero risk, zero effort.

Why have guards who can see through walls? Guards cannot see through walls (there are line of sight checks for criminal acts) However guards can hear combat at a greater range and will react accordingly. If you want to test this yourself simply place a stone wall between a criminal act and a NPC. That said some walls have various LOS properties that can allow a line of sight check to return true. As those are reported we will investigate them and add additional LOS blockers. Again this is another custom change on UOR to maintain fair and logical mechanics.

Why not get rid of stat-loss? Not sure of the logic on this one. Players use teamwork to ensure that if one player in the team dies they can recover their valuable items, severed head, etc. The reason people use teamwork in this area is because of stat loss. Removing punishment from a system would just be a reward for that specific playstyle outside the known world rules of our era. This would have a disastrous effect on the playerbase perception and experience wise as they learn that murderers face zero consequences for their actions.

Why not keep the instance gates open at all times? Because sometimes players want to do something with their friends that cannot be interrupted by other players to enjoy parts of UO they love. Renaissance is about making the server a home from all players of all playstyles. For some of the newer instances like the level 7 maps players have a choice to leave the entrance open allowing for help to be brought in or close the entrance and go it alone. Also given the ironman systems that a huge section of the playerbase enjoys some control over these is needed.

A great deal of you are making the assumption that by randomizing a timer this would somehow encourage players to put the time in to find and camp decays? How does this logic even work? Why bother to get timers at all if the decay window will always be random? Why would the players simply say fuck it, this is not worth my time and give up on this playstyle all together? If I was playing I know this would be my conclusion. The same way I quit on OSI in 2001 when OSI decided that you could place over items and move all of the items under the house sign "to be fair" so that players could no longer block house decays. They had good intentions I suspect. But that one patch destroyed a huge aspect of UO (House decays) and rewarded from that point forward the player with the fastest placement macro and best auto loot scavenger macro.

This is what concerns us about this situation. How many players would simply point and laugh at the players who put the time into camping house decays as their hard work attempting to get a timer deemed unacceptable. While never bothering to camp a house decay themselves because they don't want to waste 4-8 hours sitting around for a random drop time. (You still need a timer to know when the random window starts after all, I think people are missing this)

In no way that I can wrap my head about this would the server grow in this area. It would take a beloved playstyle and nerf it simply for the sake of perceived, but unknown, diversity. This is not an issue of "I want it this way, so it is going to be this way" I am legitimately confused how punishing every player who wants to camp a decay with a random drop timer will cause more players to engage in this system? How would it not simply discourage the average player from even taking part because there is no way to know when the house would decay?

Say you have a single house decay, and there are 10 players watching it. And those 10 players get a timer of between 5 minutes and 5 hours.

So with the current system the players with an accurate timer would have to camp for around 30 minutes, players with a casual timer might have to watch the house for around 5.5 hours. Everyone else would have a window of between 30 minutes and 5 hours 30 minutes.

Under a system where all IDOC windows are randomized by 4 hours those same 10 players would have an additional 4 hours that they would have to be available to see if the house falls. From a best case scenario of minutes to a worst case scenario of 9 hours. So who in this equation is punished? Is the player who got the precise timer? Or is the casual player who had a larger window?

This is what confuses me about these requests. When you do the math on paper, the players who are punished are the same ones everyone claims to want to involve in this system. Anyone today can compete for house decay loot and house spots. The same as anyone can farm Arctic Ogre Lords. There is an equal chance you will be murdered doing either. That is why we have felucca. Outsmart your opponents. That is the core mantra of Ultima Online. Just because someone has a better timer on a house decay does not mean they are a better UO player than anyone else.