Solution to unusued housing: ONLY homeowner's account can refresh

And yet the devs are starting to put out feelers about expanded land for housing, clearly they don't feel the same way you do

Rich coming from you. hah.

I am worried that there are 500 players here and all you can place is a small/medium house because of players that NO LONGER PLAY HERE.

You are all so damn daft and think this about house size/placement when in reality it's about the rules here that allow for attrition with no turnover. The rules here promote vast swaths of viable land that have been built on by useless houses. Do I think these players who no longer play here deserve to have their houses? Absolutely not. Do I think that current players deserve their spots? Absolutely. If you PLAY here and have 25 houses, all the power to you, you've earned everything you have. If you DON'T play here any longer and have 1 house, it should be destroyed, no matter the history. These people have moved on from the server so why cant the server move on from them?

Get it?

Instead of fixing the issue, the idea is to just open up more land. It's backwards thinking.

@Kiryana Let me ask you-- how do you really know that all those properties are owned by who you think they are?

Additionally, how do you know those players are no longer here or that the original owner is long gone?

sta·tis·tics
/stəˈtistiks/
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noun

1. the practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample.

@TreeHugger Read my post again then use your brain and try to figure out how statistics may not really be helpful here unless you know who owns what.

If you run around the lands it’s pretty clear which homes are actively lived in and which homes aren’t.

There are houses belonging to previously well known players that have been in their posts when they’ve been active, 1,2,3,4,5 years ago that are still in the same spot, looking exactly the same. Books left on the steps, forum posts enquiring about owners of properties, in game neighbours asking around, discord posts all attempting to locate items & housing all equate, for me at least that the original owner is long gone, and the property is being refreshed by ex guild mates or friends.


If the house serves a purpose to them (the refresher) and they’re active I’m ok with it.


But refreshing a property that’s locked up, empty or stocked to the brim but unused by anyone, which is what we have a fair amount of here right now. Seems fucking idiotic. Right now @Nusir has a post up trying to buy BLOCKERS. That’s homes BLOCKING HOMES. And no ones coming forward.
That’s fucking idiotic too. What purpose does that serve anyone who plays or has played here?


There’s a problem with homes and housing mechanics and the active playerbase just want to talk about it in a way that might create a positive change for a server we all collectively play on and enjoy. (Editing to add - this is a bigger problem now, more than it has been and why it hasn’t been adressed because of the success of this server, new players means new homes needed, this is fundamentally a good problem to have - but needs talking about)


I don’t get why people are questioning it.
Oh no wait, yes I do, egos & greed.
My bad, forgot where I was for a second this is an online forum for a 20 year old, online wizard game that’s played by 30 year old, grown ass men.

@Andrakus I communicate with many guys. Everyone has different reasons for refreshing their ghostly castles. I do not claim to know 100% of the owners and friends who are refreshing. With the naked eye you can distinguish a living spot from a dead spot.

All of these topics go astray. I am for refreshment only by the owners of the account, I am for 1 house per account (any without a point system), I am for condemned housing.

I will survive the rules that are now, I am comfortable playing and I like the server. But globally, my position is on the side of change. For example, my good friend has 15 huge buildings, he has not played for a couple of years and cherishes the hope that he will return. Although this will not happen. So are the other acquaintances and comrades ... They need to be nudged and simplified by their lives, with new bills. One even said it was a drug, to have 4 forts ... haha

The short answer is no, I will not read it again.

The medium answer is that with 500 people and over 3000 places to place a house, this shouldn't be an issue. However, due to there being 500 current uses and X amount of people who no longer play here but think they are entitled to owning a property on a game they'll never play again, there is a problem. Stats have a lot to do with this, bud.

What's your definition of no longer playing here? I'm just curious.

Active engagement.

If you don't log on and have friends refresh your houses that you don't even remember having, that's inactive as you bring nothing to the community except threads like this, however, you're not actually the bad guy in this situation. The people refreshing your houses for you, that you don't remember owning, are actually the worst people ever.

If you log on once every 10 days to click the sign on your house of ANY SIZE (for an extended period of time [6 months or so] and forget the military service, family, etc... that's all one off stuff), that's not playing here, you're inactive and you're detrimental to the growth of the server. There's nothing beneficial that you do for the community.

If you log on once every 10 days, kill a few monsters or people, buy some things off vendors, say hi to some buds, that's not ideal but that's fine with me, you're active with either limited interest or limited availability. BUT, you're here and you're trying.

If you play 24/7 and you live in Canada, I would first like to say you're an absolute asset to the server and you should get your own throne room. Secondly I'd like to say you're welcome for all my hard earned tax dollars going into your unemployed pockets.

.

*Long gone
You used to play here a couple of years ago and were a big thing. Don't remember what properties you own, you toons names and there are people who were once friends of yours that refresh houses in the hope that you might give them pixels or see the importance of a couple of shit deco items on your roof and think the rest of us care.

*IRL is better
If you haven't logged into the game in over 3 months, you probably shouldn't have property and should consider downsizing / selling.

*Refresher
If you login only to refresh houses for over 1 year, you have a hobby elsewhere, do you even know anyone still here?

*Holiday player
If you login only for holiday events you should make some friends and share houses if you don't want to live out of a bank.

I myself have a busy life, I would play more of I could and there are weeks that go by that I am only just able to refresh my houses, however I will also have days where I am online playing for 6+ hours.

However, I bet most of the people that own the houses in question haven't even seen this thread and haven't logged onto the forums since 2018.

This is why we have a housing problem

Guy placed a house and brags he wont sell. I dont see how thats a UOR housing mechanic problem.

Unless your saying that's the only problem we have. Players wont sell homes that others want. So it just boils down to our player base and I'd agree that is your only problem with housing. No change in mechanics will fix how a player plays a sandbox game.

I think the mindset is childish and he's likely compensating for something else but that's a much deeper dive...but it is mindsets like these that are the problem

Forgoing his attitude issues I don't have a problem with the guys housing refresh behavior because he has actually been committed to refreshing it himself, it's when you have the ability to not have set foot on this shard for over a year and still have your housing stand that it then becomes a poor shard mechanic, imo.

I approve of your attitude. I’d be pissed too if I got busted for being a scumbag after a couple years of living the highlife.

I also know that you’re the guy who cheers against the home team to lose because they’re popular. You’re proud to stand against the norm because it gets you noticed. You probably drive a short cab Chevy 1500 long box while wearing a pentagram belt buckle which holds your leather man bag in place and you keep a small Bowie knife on your hip. You wear a waistcoat with a bolo tie and a felt Panama hat.

I know you Dan Steely, we all know you. Your opinions are passed over and forgotten because they’re the same every time.

“Oh look. This is gaining momentum, better go against it”

Yea, high school was fun for us too, I guess when we went, we got all the teenage angst out of our systems or my case, it turned into something a little more aggressive... like being a total ***t.

Anyways, enjoy your day of walking through your local woods foraging mushrooms. Can’t wait to see you on Forged in Fire.

Well, yeah. There have already been about three threads filled with people making this argument for you; this isn't some grand revelation. It's not that the houses exist on the map, it's that the players who own the houses don't. This whole situation is born out of the growing frustration over the player base's inability to self-regulate the current housing situation, as well as the attempt to come to some kind of solution that best serves the shard's future. If you haven't noticed, most ideas have to do with limiting the number of owned houses, not take all of the unused houses and indiscriminately pass them off to new players.

This is nonsense. Any changes is rules/mechanics/game design will have affect behavior. The whole point of a sandbox is predicated on players reacting to the world around them. Change a part of the world, you change the reaction to it.

If this guy in question wants to act in such a way, that's down to him and him alone, I have been saying all along the problem are the houses that are refreshed by someone other than the owner.

I don't have issues with people owning more than 2 house.. I myself own a few, However I do share most with other players, because that's my style..
No one's looking at taking away someone's houses because they own too many, I personally couldn't give a crap, I think it's a bit silly, but not on my radar.

My problem are the people who have nothing better to do than do their best to piss off as many people as possible.

There are so many active players within these forums that are giving these posts their time and thought to find a solution, together. And then there are people like you @SteelyDan and some others who have posted recently, I don't like you and your views.

There are legacy guilds that are inactive now, the server might not be what it is today without their fantastic contribution and they were rewarded, at the time. Now their gone and we respect that. Just like I respect my granddad for flighting WW2. although we sold his house when he died, because that's what happens.

Nusir.

I dont care if you like me or my views. If you make a public post be sure to know what you are talking about, especially when you attack a group of great players like KOS.

If anything this post was created to just piss off KOS and threaten their housing with nonsense.

THIS is exactly what I've been concerned about and why I've radically changed my position in the last 48 hours on this crap. Once Lightshade posted most of those houses aren't even KOS but someone else thats when i began to get suspicious about whats really going on here. The problem isn't Sterling or any reason he ( or any player like him ) decides to refresh the homes he owns. The problem is YOU who think YOU should be able to say who owns what and the stipulations that go along with that. If he logs in EVERY WEEK to refresh houses he OWNS that will not be fixed by a mechanical change people are complaining about. And the truth is we don't even know how many people do that very thing. You may ASSume you know but you don't unless your Chris. So what is this really all about? Cui Bono? The new player who can't place a house? Bullcrap-- there is tons and tons of housing to be placed for new players. No, hey probably can't place keeps/forts/castles but should they really be able to easily place a fort on an established shard that has been around 8 years or so? No, probably not. If someone worked really hard to get a keep/fort/castle and they want to only login to refresh then so be it. Its not your place to say what another is to do with what is theirs.

I think the average player really needs to ask themselves the question of how this has actually affected them. Treehugger admitted it didn't even directly affect him or the way he plays. It didn't effect most of us at first. Personally, I dont even want a keep /fort or castle. It'd be wasted space for me. For some players its end game stuff. I understand and they will become available just at a steeper price. So why is the problem brought up by the same people over and over again? They say it is to help newbs and such but really i think it's that they want the properties they can't have and they've wanted them for awhile. They're just manipulating you common plebs into thinking its for your own benefit.

I ran the yew zone about a year. I know Lightshade wasn't lying when he said a bunch of those properties weren't even KOS. I can verify they are on completely different timers. I've seen him refreshing.

Additionally, as an IDOC group we suspect there was around 800 houses that idoc'd last year. Tell me again-- whats the problem? People who don't play here eventually will forget to refresh. It happens ALL THE TIME. I mean ALL THE TIME!

Ask yourself whose to benefit from a major change in regards to the housing "problem"... It's probably not you.