When I was new, I used to be in the same boat as @JohnM (pun intended), but since then, I've switched sides. (I was asked to remove part of that)
I put this on par with fair and smart play - anyone could have done this (and if someone doesn't refresh people still could.) I'm always amazing at how people in UO use the system to advance their game play. In a fair and legit way. I see nothing wrong here.. to say someone is preventing you from gathering resources is a stretch. If someone blocked off entire travel routes - should that be aloud... well i think that's a different beast. People camp the mare spawns and prevent players from taming the 1 of 5 mares that spawn a day.. That's their style and their hustle. People camp new players on the server, watch when they log on IRC and go raid their house... That's their style.. Ever try doing a champ? people stalk the champ spawns and the second you start a spawn they raid... so although they arnt blocking the land with boats.. they are preventing people from doing what they want... It's Fel... it's UO.. It's a multiplayer game where people think and create content!
Doesn't this essentially turn those areas into trammel? It's impossible to get inside the area because the boats are indestructible. The dbl-click-once-every-two-weeks refresh mechanic is hardly much of a limitation on an indestructible, player-created wall which turns areas of the map into trammel. You cannot mark inside the area, you cannot place a boat inside the area to get across the wall, you cannot teleport across the wall to get into the area, etc. Once the wall is up, the only way any other player gets inside that area for good or ill deeds is if the person gets tired of refreshing their boats every couple weeks. If anything, this behavior reduces the interactions between players. This would be more akin to being able to lock down a wall of chests around a champ spawn to prevent player interactions than camping a mare spot and attacking players who show up.
Aren't house essentially trammel? It's impossible to get inside houses because they are indestructible. You can't mark inside a house region (only cy), you cannot place a house there because there already IS a house there, you cannot teleport into a house region. Once the house is up, the only way any other player gets inside that house for good or ill deeds is if the person gets tired of refreshing or makes a mistake. If anything, this behavior is akin to having a fortress with a tree in the cy. Is it ok that the tree is no longer in the public domain? I say yes, there are plenty of trees out there, go get your own and stop worrying about what other people have in their cy.
But that tree has wood/oak that all players should have access to! What if I want to chop that tree? How dare you tell me I can't chop that tree?!
It's arguably safer than a house. At least with CYs, there is a possibility someone else has a rune to your enabled courtyard. You know for a fact whether or not someone has a rune to your boat. It's akin to a house with a secure CY which contains a mountain range you can safely and endlessly mine resources out of with the only limit being you have to refresh some stuff every two weeks. That's a tad different than a single tree or two you can chop wood from and ingots are far more valuable than boards. My comment doesn't have much to do with stopping others from getting the resources, it has to do with turning parts of the map into trammel and being able to safely and continuously produce resources out of it without any interaction possible from other players. Telamon has made mechanics changes to make it more difficult to mine resources from inside houses for a reason and this behavior is similar (if not worse). Collecting resources should carry some level of risk if we're going to stick to something resembling Felucca. It's unsurprising players who are exploiting something would prefer other players leave them alone and worry about something else, but "hey, you can go exploit too, leave me alone" is a pretty silly response. In any case, it's not something I particularly care about. It's just one more small aspect of the game being removed from interaction between players and thrust into trammel. At some point all these little bricks which by themselves don't matter much turns into a wall.
yeah I have and I will again - spawning elementals. So, when I block off an entire area and breach some unknown boundary.......
People block spaces with their houses. There's no difference with boats. As noted previously, they decay if not maintained. It's OK to take some spots for yourself. Believe me, no one will ever get them all. And you're worried about mining? You know how many different veins there are across Britannia?
It's a spot on an xy axis. That's all any structure is in this world. And like I was suggesting before, go mine somewhere else.
What, no one mentioned the spawning reagents made unavailable due to placed houses! Not to mention reagents in CYs!
You could fit a couple more boats in there... Don't forget your ole buddy Peace when collecting those statues !
