Green acres housing - instancing

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What do you think of land ownership in an instance?

I love the idea
24
48%
I'm not quite decided
2
4%
I don't like it
18
36%
I don't intend to own such a house anyway
6
12%
 
Total votes: 50

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+Colibri
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Green acres housing - instancing

Post by +Colibri »

Related to this topic: http://www.uoex.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10471

Just had an idea, if this were made available on another copy of Malas or Trammel, well problem is that certain spots are more popular, and so even though there's room for housing, you wouldn't be able to have the place you want.

There's a plan to create instancing on this server (for dungeons, events, and such) but actually land ownership could be instanced like this as well. On the plus side, this means that multiple players can own/rent the same piece of land (by the lake, for example). And you could potentially rent out a whole map, so that all the 50 members of your guild can move there.

Perhaps the downside is that you wouldn't be able to "physically" access it - other players probably wouldn't come randomly running by your house, but the land would have to be found in a list (or an area of teleporters, like the housegates). Also, if multiple players have a house by that same lake, the location isn't as special anymore.

Btw - rentable land is still just an idea, so this post doesn't mean we're any closer to making this happen.
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Octavius Thorn
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Octavius Thorn »

When this topic first came up was pretty new to the shard.. but I gotta say we have plenty of housing space honestly it is just horribly situated. These giant empty boxes are more then annoying, if someone wants to do nothing with their 18x18 that is one thing but these giant multi plots of emptiness is a little absurd and personally I think adding even more housing space under the current system will only encourage more giant empty multi plexs. Just my 2 cents :)
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+Colibri
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by +Colibri »

Yeah i think this is because land was very scarce at one point (houses weren't dropping) and then if you are able to place two 18x18s side-by-side, or a castle, it's something you really want to keep. Even though houses are now dropping automatically, and land is basically not as scarce anymore. But some players hold land, and that makes it scarcer. (And why instanced housing land would be a great thing actually, makes for a basically unlimited supply).
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Wil
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Wil »

At one point I had an idea I called the "endless forest." A difficult idea that works counter to how runuo is designed but theoretically possible.

The notion is this:

1. Sacrifice one of the facets and convert it into mostly forest-style terrain whose heights match up at the edges. Terrain only, no trees or other objects. All of those will be server-side.

2. The facet is procedurally built on-access. Trees, ground cover, events and other objects are first added when a player (any player) comes within 50 or so tiles of an unconstructed area.

3. As a player approaches the edge of the facet, the copy past the edge is loaded. When they cross in to it, they're at the other edge of the next copy of the facet with that copy's unique objects.

4. Any facet (and all objects within the facet) not visited for a few hours are written to disk and unloaded from memory.

5. Place houses on any level terrain. Server-side trees and other objects are removed to accommodate and restored if the house is removed.

6. Houses start level with the ground with forest-style floor.

7. No house limit in the forest, so a player can sacrifice house slots to build things like roads and common areas through player-constructed towns. Perhaps change the house limit to an item limit instead so that a house starts with no lockdowns or secure storage but players can add storage for gold and ED.

Obviously such a thing would be a huge undertaking. But can you imagine the scavenger hunts and other games based on finding something deep within the generated world? Not to mention enabling players to create remarkable lairs large and detailed enough to be converted to events...

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Wil
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Silent »

It would be very cool if you could apply that to green acrees and guilds could buy an instance and decorate that plot as they wanted and appear in the world teleport in a new sections named "guilds" / "towns" so everyone could go there and see them + decorate the entire place as they wanted :D

That by itself would reduce trammel overhousing creating free space for new players
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Wil
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Wil »

Here's another thought for you:

Rent the entire facet instance to a player... but treat the entire facet as the house. As in lock down / secure anywhere. Maybe sell the stuff that would ordinarily be found in the house construction menu as objects that can be locked down.

The player can then build structures anywhere he wants. Or perhaps build out existing towns by adding doors and other objects that aren't present in the base facet. Sorta the ultimate in guild awesomeness for guilds which can afford it.
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by dreamstalker »

Not really sure cause i only looked at eq2 once for a few mins while wife was playing but if that is what instancing is all about i hope uo never does it. If i wanted housing like that i guess id be playing a different game. Besides the housing system on uo is unique lets not make it similar to any and all other mmorpg's. Just my 2 cents and i want change back
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Yoda
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Yoda »

my only issue with instancing is the way uo caches, I am guessing it would be quite similar from a technical client perspective to magda/malas which can cause alot of issues if you happen to be regularly visiting both facets in the same location
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+Colibri
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by +Colibri »

Well i see it's been about 50-50, with "i love this" currently being slightly more popular.

From a gameplay aspect, I'm really worried about special places becoming not so special anymore, plus you dont have neighbours anymore - from what I heard this style of housing is unique to UO (or very rare in MMOs) and that's something to keep.

I didn't think of the multicache issue (malas/magda right now), i'm guessing it would be a good thing to find an improvement for this issue (or a complete fix), or it will be a big nuisance.

Overall... Instancing support (for dungeons) on the shard will be available someday. (in a way it's quite a priority, but also not something that can be properly done in a few days). And once the land rental system is in, we can just combine the two systems together. When/if this happens, i'd probably open a few of these instances, but not infinite. The main benefit would be that these housing instances can be actually sold (with maybe a monthly upkeep/tax) since later on we can open a few more. The regular limited supply rented land would likely be on a weekly/monthly basis, probably having to renew it manually (like the shop teleporters, but with more time than just 3 days before expiration).
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Jax2
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Jax2 »

I just wish there were more copies of the current maps, I.e. malas or Ish, for normal house use, where anyone can place. This seems to be another thing that benefits the ultra rich here (as many other things do) while leaving the average player out, unless I totally misunderstood the concept. Just having say, malas 2, or Ish 2, to open up more room would be great. There are those of us who would love to be able to add 4 or 5 house slots to connect and have a large place, but there's just no room left for something like that without having to try and buy out all your neighbors for a huge cost, again, making it very difficult for the average player.
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by dreamstalker »

Malas 2 is called magda ...afaik u cant place in ilsh so wouldnt matter besides they have to balance supply and demand with demand a little higher then supply. If u want a large house right now buy it. If u are goin to play a long time ( goin on 8 years myself) then it is a goal you can aim for. Cant speak for the gm's but if the demand for houses far out weighs the supply then +C, +N would prolly do something.
Happy new year and may all your housing dreams come true gl and god bless
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Melkor
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Melkor »

Hi there, just wanted to add that at least in my experience it's more about waiting your neighbors out than buying them out. I got lucky and started with a 4 slot, not even shaped like a square and just bought new slots as space opened up around me.
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Re: Green acres housing - instancing

Post by Annachie »

[quote="Melkor"]Hi there, just wanted to add that at least in my experience it's more about waiting your neighbors out than buying them out. I got lucky and started with a 4 slot, not even shaped like a square and just bought new slots as space opened up around me.[/quote]

Lol, I've missed one neighboring plot twice now. Looks like it will drop again soon too.

Patience, or negotiations, will get you some decent sizes.
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