The house refreshing issue just got serious.

Nah he’s generally a pile of dicks.
THE SILENCE is what kills it. 15+ threads. No fixes.
Zero threads about having fancy water. Fixed?
It’s so frustrating the lack of any sort of transparency. I get it. The last time anyone tried to be transparent it backfired huge because the CUB update took 4 years longer than planned.
Which is why I was astonished that Samorite posted his thread. If any of this isn’t delivered in a timely fashion..... well..... I dunno.
I’d lost the will to push for new things as nothing changes. It’s June and there’s no new X-Mas rewards. The CUB system is 1/3rd implemented as promised. The holiday rewards are just new colours.
If I donated to this server, I’d be pissed.

This. The lack of communication that just feeds itself until it comes to a head. When the forums get loud and people flamespray the Staff, it drowns out constructive commentary, which frustrates people, who then in turn flamespray the Staff for not listening to them. I understand why Staff balks at having some conversations.

I honestly don't think there is a hard and fast solution to all of the community's ails. All I'm proposing is that we (staff and players) put on our big kid pants and talk things out and blunt some of the negativity. Talking isn't hard.

Point taken getting the official word would be more definitive.

As for people fighting over it, nature of the beast, always going to be that way with changes. This is also, I would say, one of the most heated topics you will find here. I am not sure what else comes close, maybe something about thieving because of how much some people hate thieves? This is a topic that you bring up if you want to kick the hornets nest.

@Phoenix I agree with you completely. There is no way to make everyone happy and there are no easy solutions. And it's the one place that I'm willing to bet that people feel the most helpless for two reasons: the wasted space and what that wasted space represents.

Haphazardly placed homes that go largely unused are kind of an eyesore and are like Minoc on a Wednesday--mostly just empty setting. This is the 'small' argument. The practical one.

But every time that one comes up, it is invariably followed by suggestions that staff find a way to force the owners of the houses to log on and refresh their places. And I'm willing to wager that most of the anger is a misdirected desire to bring old friends back. I don't see how you can carve out a corner of this game as large as Stormhold without having made either friends or enjoyable enemies.

Carving out that little niche in the world is what made this game great. And this shard is awesome. But all of these empty houses are more indicative of a community slowly approaching a persistent vegetative state than one in bloom.

All I really want out of this whole catastrophe of a thread is the recognition of the human element that UOR was built on, and that we talk some of this shit out. Hell, I've seen some of your faces and your kids. This isn't OSI, UOSA, UOF, this is @Chris, @Samorite, @Fenrir, and @Quick. There is no corporate facade to hide behind. Honestly, that's exactly why i picked this server. I also know y'all are reading this; at least thumbing through it anyway. If some new guy named FartBarf spent hours of his day articulating the importance of reasonable communication around a historically-unreasonable topic doesn't make you the least bit curious, you're an iron golem.

There are a number of people that have done me a kindness here. This is the primary reason I'm even spending the time dwelling on a topic that doesn't affect me the way it has others. Any one of them--or Staff--can tell me to shut up and/or go to hell, and I will. Send it to my inbox if you don't want it public.

Otherwise, I'm going to persist with my attempts to make rational, clearly articulated (kinda), points regarding heated topics in a virtual world, and do so without resorting to personal attacks or name-calling. Imagine having to deal with that for an extended period.

@FartBarf The fact that we have even seen posts from staff indicates, to me, that there is recognition of the issue and I am sure discussions go on about what to do. Asking for those discussions to be held in public is probably not constructive though as we can see not only here but in many gaming communities. Developers have learned (or learn) that once you start talking about an idea there are a non-zero number of people that will take it all as gospel or as doomsday mutterings ("you promised housing changes" / "My keep is being destroyed with no notice").

Asking for a statement from @Chris or any staff though is putting them in a tough spot. Pinning them to a stated position makes it a lot harder to change course down the road without even MORE anger. Silence can be frustrating but a statement, in my opinion, wouldn't solve anything either just add fuel to the fire. As is I am taking it as a positive that there is some solicitation of feedback and curious to see what's next.

I think the vacant housing is truly an issue but I don't personally have any clue about the "right" fix. For that matter I don't know what the work involved is, what the feasibility is of any new system, or what the player reaction will be at large.

It was a joke. I read your post.

ETA- Youve been here since March 4th. I’m sorry you have suffered so. Just when I started to like you I find out your true identity.

Okay. Now you’ve got me interested.

"Whether or not you're trying to inject humor into the conversation isn't clear, either. It could be the timing; it could be my current headspace."

^^^ This was me acknowledging that I could have misread what you meant. Believe it or not, I navigate strong personalities for a living. Especially ones that--for whatever reason--seem to work aggressively against each other to reach a common goal. Sometimes wires get crossed.

You read my post. My primary argument is about lack of communication. At the time, "TL/DR" didn't help because it was vague and because I haven't read a post of yours that wasn't very direct. You seem to be a dude who speaks his mind. So I took "TL/DR" to mean that you were either tired of the argument or that I was being too longwinded. Either way, I misread your intention.

Now, if you think that by my using that as an example of dismissiveness was somehow an attack on your character as a person, then I apologize. The goal wasn't to make you or anyone else feel attacked. Quite the opposite. One of my main points is that lack of clarity can easily be misinterpreted and lead to hasty generalizations and assumptions like the Staff doesn't care, a person is actively not helping their own cause, or that we have enough information to know who someone is.

Like you've pointed out, I've only been here since March 4th. I'm still navigating personalities.

My personal opinion is Condemned Housing. I think 5 houses / account is a lot, but, I also rarely have more than 1 house so maybe it's just my personal preference that makes it seem like 5 is a lot. So the number of houses is whatever to me. Just condemn the housing.

I'll be basing my replies off of Condemned Housing only -- Someone from the house owner account has to refresh the house within 3 months or else it goes condemned. I will not take into account a limited housing / account argument.

Condemned houses does not affect ACTIVE members of the player base. They are the ones that we should be aiming to keep happy. They're actually playing on the server -- so it's not the FEW that are happy, but all the ACTIVE members who are.

Forum participation on threads is a non-sequitur. How many of the 1536 forum members replied to CUB? To dungeon lighting? To Fire Dungeon Lich Lord spawn? Carpentry BODS, archery fixes, bug reports? Should we discontinue statues for the photography contest every month because not all 1536 forum members participated? Of those members, the only ones that are going to complain about condemned housing are either: A - people who don't play here anymore or B - The friends of those who don't play anymore who are benefiting from refreshing their friend's houses.

Sure, a lot of people have invested a lot of time and money into owning certain properties and decor etc... but if they're just sitting and being refreshing by someone else, they don't seem to care THAT much about it. Take a screenshot if you care that much, or start playing again.

Extenuating Circumstances should definitely be considered. Doing 10 years in the military myself and having gone over seas 5 different times, it sucks. Your life gets put on hold for a year or longer. Same thing with people that get super sick or going to space -- or any other strange one-off weird thing that makes sense. Personally, I'd make people prove they're being deployed or going to space or what not... but i know that could be fairly invasive. That's up to you guys how you want to handle it... but if something has been refreshed for over a year? Things are starting to get fishy -- someone needs to look into it or activate the "3 more months and it goes condemned" status.

We shouldn't care about what people are doing on other servers or even what the other servers do themselves. We care about UOR not xyz server. We care about the health of UOR not xyz server. If you don't want to play here, you don't get to keep your stacked houses here. Do like others who take breaks -- sell everything off and stash it in the bank: gold is gold, plat is plat, they'll always have value. Better yet, give all your possessions up for raffles like marble island. They can always buy something in the future. Instead, they're preventing people from placing or buying anything NOW.

TLDR -- Condemned Housing does affect ACTIVE members. If you don't want to log in to refresh your own houses, you don't really need those houses.

Hasn't the "what about the player deployed by the army" been answered in multiple previous threads of "reach out to the staff"?

Otherwise 100% agree with the above

System Gump on login saying house condemnation is getting switched on at X date.

Mass email if possible?

If someone's friends who are refreshing houses for them cant/don't get a hold of said person, that's on them. Let the chips fall where they may

Yea. It’s time to start catering to the players currently building this community. The old guard has been catered too for long enough.

To the founding members who no longer play here but still have property here or friends unknowingly refreshing your property, thank you for your service in building this server but it’s time you pass the torch to those who are still invested.

I honestly dont think it could have been said any better than this.

I just want to be able to place a two story stone and plaster house with a deed without having to go through a virtual real estate agent since this IS in fact a video game and not real life, and I can't do that, despite there only being like 900 people on at a time on the server.

That's the ENTIRE goal for me. I don't want a castle. I don't want a fortress. I just want a two story stone and plaster house in a good location with a mountain nearby, and that is impossible....

I don't want to argue or fight with anybody about it. It SHOULD be possible since the playerbase isn't that big. But it's not. It's been raised as a gripe a lot, clearly, and hasn't been addressed.

I'm not a GM, I have no say, I donated, and I am enjoying myself for what I am doing thusfar, but I am extremely devastated/annoyed that I can't meet a goal I set for myself for no other reason than a bunch of players who don't even play anymore have friends of friends who refresh their virtual video game houses for them so they don't vanish.

This make sense? This is fair? If the majority thinks so, then so be it. I'll shut my dirty whore mouth about it.

Sometimes you need to settle for less. Place a 8x8 near a mountain if you dont want to go on the forums and buy one.

Some UO goals takes a little time. Hang in there big guy! I feel like if you try hard enough you will get that dream house placed!

You'll find a spot. Just be patient. I'd find one for you if my life wasn't a nightmare right now.

I'll drop these 8:00pm tonight CST





Somebody give this person a small tower by a mountain.