July 2025 Roundtable
Ultima Online - Roadmap Roundtable 2! - YouTube
I haven't listened to the whole thing, but this was mentioned, which concerns a lot of people (I want to know if they are going to change the timers on the tools)
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I haven't listened to the whole thing, but this was mentioned, which concerns a lot of people (I want to know if they are going to change the timers on the tools)
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There is one thing that's been popping up and I think we have to address it. Let's address a topic that's generated significant community discussion. IDOC housing. We've seen extensive feedback both directly and on the forums. And are there any plans to revisit or revise the current approach to IDOC in the near future?
Yes, there has been a number of discussions. I'm getting PMs daily about it. Um, it is something that is on our radar for the near future. And what I will say is anybody who is up to some shenaniganry, you know who you are, it's time to stop because you're not going to like what happens when we have to fix it.
Now that being said, uh there are some changes that we can and uh Stephen and I were having that conversation early some of that stuff publicly because it's backend stuff but forward facing you know anything fundamental way that uh we still need to see some more community discussion following the forum post on uo.com or the UO forums about and you know there's a couple different ideas that have right? Like just do everything as a raffle or do everything as an auction. I don't know that either of those are necessarily the right way to go with how houses get placed. Um but we certainly want to alleviate some of the stress that this is for house placement in general.
So it's something we have to address. Uh like I said, there's no concrete plans in terms of the fundamental change to the system. Other than that, those of you out there who are the root cause of this, and I know you know who you all need to cut it out right now because when we cut it out, you're not going to like the outcome. Take that as you will.
Now that being said, uh there are some changes that we can and uh Stephen and I were having that conversation early some of that stuff publicly because it's backend stuff but forward facing you know anything fundamental way that uh we still need to see some more community discussion following the forum post on uo.com or the UO forums about and you know there's a couple different ideas that have right? Like just do everything as a raffle or do everything as an auction. I don't know that either of those are necessarily the right way to go with how houses get placed. Um but we certainly want to alleviate some of the stress that this is for house placement in general.
So it's something we have to address. Uh like I said, there's no concrete plans in terms of the fundamental change to the system. Other than that, those of you out there who are the root cause of this, and I know you know who you all need to cut it out right now because when we cut it out, you're not going to like the outcome. Take that as you will.
Comments
I assume it is something so specific that if you’re doing then you know it is wrong. Without knowing anything my mind goes to all types of places. I’d hate to be doing something that is wrong, but I assume it it something they are just like it is impossible if you just play the game normal.
Ive done some IDOCs so if I knew what to look for and what they are talking about then maybe the community could help. Ill snitch. Ill turn them in. They don’t like it they can come see at my house in felucca. Ive lived there since 97.
One of the things Kyronix said was that they wouldn't give the who/what/how part of seeing what's going on (ie what they will be looking for) because that would allow the cheaters to escape detection.
Here are some additional thoughts/comments/questions for you guys @Community Manager:
All in all, I felt like this roundtable was a positive experience for me. I didn't really ask any questions and between flipping around to different Discord channels and then Youtube; I didn;t get to see all the questions asked but I'm wondering if most of the questions were answered?
Keep up the good work team and thank you for the proactive communication!
Are we expected to have multiple accounts - last I saw, housing was limited to one per account?
Additionally, building another house is obviously a problem on some shards.
Anyhow, the flippant attitude towards the question somewhat irked me... Hopefully, as I progress through this, I'll be reassured that the traitors to this game will actually be punished - but I'm still not holding my breath.
[13:37] : You can have as many houses as you'd like to put all your favorite things
[13:44] : anytime. But adding store increases to the
[13:50] : existing housing stuff, probably not. Um, you know, we've got a lot on certain
[13:55] : shards at least. There's a lot of empty land out there. On some shards, I know that's not the case, but uh
[14:02] : we have a number of different storage options from uh building another house to the vault tokens and things like
[14:09] : that. Um, also to remember that there is a performance uh side of it too. you
[14:15] : know, we can't have a completely unlimited number of items despite the fact that it's almost 2026 and the
[14:22] : hardware is upgraded. There are hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of items.
[14:28] : Uh, a lot of the issues that we've had in the past, part of the reason why we
[14:34] : try to keep things away from housing areas specifically when it comes to
[14:40] : events and stuff is because of their so item heavy. So, we want to spread you guys out, get you off into the
[14:46] : wilderness. You want more uh storage, build another house, or take advantage
[14:51] : of some of the exist. There we go.
- No exact ETA as of yet.
Yes, opening a new account is a profitable solution for the game. However - on Atlantic, if there is no housing available - then why should I open a new account? There is no purpose, as all the housing is taken by a handful of individuals (and really, just one).
There are of course other solutions for storage.
The thing that truly irked me was the tone and the flippant response. I think Kyronix and the team are doing an incredible job at trying to communicate and bridge the gap between players and developers, especially when compared to our previous administration. I cannot knock them on that. HOWEVER... And this is actually part of the topic of the movie Office Space, Tom's character states, "I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to, I've got people skills!". Tom's role is to interpret the customers wants and requests into tangible and positive changes that their developers can actually make. When communicating with the customer, messaging, phrasing, tone, all of those things are quite important. It's a joke in Office Space, but it's actually a real world problem. The response to the question was, "You want more uh storage, build another house, or take advantage of some of the exist[ing features]."
If I could translate that properly, it comes off as, "We've already provided solutions, that's what you're getting and how dare you ask for more, you incredibly uninformed buffoon".
This is obviously a live Q&A so it's impossible to massage your phrasing live, but a better response would be: "If you're running low on storage, you might consider placing another house if you have the option, or making the most of some of the built-in storage features already available in the game. We're always here to help if you need guidance, and feel free to ask further questions on our message boards".
I in no way want to deter the devs from communicating with us. But I could see this devolving into something relatively detrimental, us requesting changes or fixes, and then just continually getting called stupid.
Perhaps this is the role of Fenneko to try and mitigate some of this and step in?
While I completely understand the frustration that may have been felt in response to the Devs' answer, I can say with confidence that there was no intention to be dismissive or cause any hurt feelings. The team truly values open communication and would never want to discourage anyone from speaking up or asking questions. After all, the only bad question is the one left unasked, right?
Regarding Atlantic, it’s true that housing availability is limited due to the shard’s high population. However, there are still several options players can explore to help reduce the number of locked-down items and potentially increase available space. We're always happy to share tips and ideas to help make the most of what’s available.
Thank you all for your continued support and patience.
How about this: Get the jewelry boxes into the Ultima Store for 200 sov's, get the greenhouse and garden shed in there for 500 sov's. At that price, they are cheap enough many players will pick up a couple, but not too cheap that shards will be flooded.
The jewelry boxes in particular would be handy for players with small houses, since it has a small footprint.
I don't know the process for getting stuff into the Ultima Store, but these three items in particular, since they help players running out of storage, or who have small houses, well the artwork and the mechanics exist already so there's nothing needed on that end, it's just a matter of getting them into the store. They won't solve everybody's problems, and not everybody will have the room for the greenhouse or shed, but it's a step in the direction of addressing these little quality-of-life issues.
This is what I think they should do... make BOD books count as 1. I know that Kyronix has commented in the past something to the effect of "well start using your bods instead of hoarding them" which I see his point, but the reality of it is that a crafter is going to need/have hundreds of BODs at any given time due to needing specific LBODS or SBODS to complete requests. I don't think having people throwing them on vendors is the solution either... to Lokea's point that's just hundreds/thousands of vendors adding to the mess.
@Community Manager - Apologies as this is a little wordy but I think it's a perfect example of why BOD books should count as 1.
I started doing alchemy BODs for the Master Craft Tali (failure protection) when the current event started. I won't bore you with all the nitty gritty numbers, but the only realistic way of getting a MCT is turning in a LBOD of certain value OR banking points really from lesser value LBODs (the SBODs are literally worth like 1pt each). Before I started doing the BODs for the MCT I might of had 15-25 alch bods; I currently have 130 because there are many LBODs that require the various SBODs so I end up keeping some of the SBODs to fill the LBODs (while I'm still working all the SBODs to turn in for hopes of a LBOD). It kind of becomes a vicious circle of trying to get a LBOD for the SBODs you have a vice versa. So the result is that I have several LBODS that need just 1 or 2 more SBODs and I'm keeping some of the SBODs (instead of turning them in) so that I can actually fill a LBOD if I end up getting one. This is just for one single trade skill... now multiply this by 7 other skills (some which have way more crafting options) and people can easily have over 1,000 BODS in books waiting to fill (ie 200 lockdowns). I won't even get started on Blacksmith where if I have a 15exc bronze chain LBOD the amount of BODs I'd need to attempt that....and I don't think it's fair that the "solution" be I need to bribe everything up to 20exc valorite bc it's very costly.
All that said, I do think that BOD books should be reconsidered to be 1 lockdown.
All good stuff here, Popps.