The High Price of Living on the Atlantic Shard
When it comes to housing, the price of living on Atlantic is crazy high. If all you want is a Villa or maybe you get lucky and find a Large Tower spot (Like I did) then the price is zero.
If you want a Keep or a Castle or two 18x18s side by side, then be prepared to fork over some serious Platinum. Someone gave me a price of 12 Platinum for a Small Keep today and 5 Platinum for two 18x18 side by side. It's all about Supply and Demand. I get it.
What are the advantages of Living on Atlantic? Easy access to shopping which no other shard has right now. You go to any other shard other than Atlantic and the things available for sale are nearly nothing. The shopping is the biggest advantage of being on Atlantic. You might say having a better chance of being in a guild on Atlantic is a positive. Has anyone tried joining ANY guild in Ultima Online lately? I've been trying for 15 years and without success.
You go into pretty much any other game and joining a guild is BY FAR easier than Ultima Online. I don't want to dwell too much on that though. But, all of a sudden the "Atlantic Advantage" and the high price of housing is looking a lot less appealing.
Then, I get on a Shard like Origin. And, I walk around and there are 5 CASTLE spots JUST SITTING THERE. Wow. We just went from paying 12 Platinum (for a small keep) to paying maybe 50 million for the most expensive customized house in the game.
There must be people out there willing to pay 12 Platinum or people wouldn't be selling homes for that price. I'm sure there's people out there forking over real life money for the "Atlantic Advantage" too.
If you want a Keep or a Castle or two 18x18s side by side, then be prepared to fork over some serious Platinum. Someone gave me a price of 12 Platinum for a Small Keep today and 5 Platinum for two 18x18 side by side. It's all about Supply and Demand. I get it.
What are the advantages of Living on Atlantic? Easy access to shopping which no other shard has right now. You go to any other shard other than Atlantic and the things available for sale are nearly nothing. The shopping is the biggest advantage of being on Atlantic. You might say having a better chance of being in a guild on Atlantic is a positive. Has anyone tried joining ANY guild in Ultima Online lately? I've been trying for 15 years and without success.
You go into pretty much any other game and joining a guild is BY FAR easier than Ultima Online. I don't want to dwell too much on that though. But, all of a sudden the "Atlantic Advantage" and the high price of housing is looking a lot less appealing.
Then, I get on a Shard like Origin. And, I walk around and there are 5 CASTLE spots JUST SITTING THERE. Wow. We just went from paying 12 Platinum (for a small keep) to paying maybe 50 million for the most expensive customized house in the game.
There must be people out there willing to pay 12 Platinum or people wouldn't be selling homes for that price. I'm sure there's people out there forking over real life money for the "Atlantic Advantage" too.
Comments
I try to keep my prices low for a small shard like Origin...people selling runebooks and runic atlas for over 10k is just redic! IMO anyway....but if we get more people doing it, we'll give Atlantic a run for it's money
Also, there are "Free" Keep and Castle spots available on Origin.... rather than paying 12 Platinum on Atlantic.
I haven't seen anything in this game which really encourages people to join groups as in other games. What does that mean? Well... I'd really have to start giving examples.
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
Dont pull that thread. I've been suggesting a looking for group tool for a while now. You will get ripped here for suggesting you cant find groups easily in general chat. I play mostly solo, and love tools like other games have to quickly put together groups/raids. Dont ask for this here, people just flame it.
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
And is that is really expensive stuff- you can transfer yourself and sell it on Atl rather than selling on a small shard.
BTW most of stuff on you can make or grind by yourself. Dont buy it if it is too expensive for you
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
Tbh I dont play a steady time that's the big issue. Sometimes I log in for 30min at 2pm, sometimes i play for 2 hours at 6am. No rhyme or reason, this is why I wanted the tool. I do ask in chat, but it's time consuming, and falls apart a lot.
I think the main issue most have have with this (as with majority of things) is that people realize we have a very finite amount of Dev resources and many people do not want energy spent on something that can technically be done (perhaps not as quick as hitting a button to join a group).
The other thing for this specific request is that many veteran players (like myself) are able to play most content they want and do not need to rely on a group. In the event that I do want to partner up with someone, the people I'm grouping with need to know what they are doing. The biggest problem I see with the "easy button" is that you are going to be putting some Leroy Jenkins type people in groups they have no place being in and thus is actually making things more of a hassle than Vets want.
It's not quite as simple as "create an easy button so people can quickly group".
Atlantic is now the center of UO. It was always one if not the most populated US shard. As people quit and houses fell, people needed others to play with. Since ATL had the bigger population people bought tokens, moved toons and migrated to ATL. This has caused the degradation of players on every US shard. Some second tier ones (GL, Pac, Lake Sup) still have a bit of a player base. The lagging ones like Legends, LA, others are near dead - like korean shards anymore.
When all those people moved - they took their items and gold too. When more money chases items the prices rise. Tired of expensive ATL prices people with shard shields would go on 'shopping trips' to other shards without as much money chasing good and buy up cheap scrolls, pinks and other items to bring back to ATL to either sell or use. This caused a vendor prices to rise on those smaller shards even with a small playerbase because effectively they were an offshore supplier to ATL. People from these shards also do the reverse (I do this from GL) take goods with shields to ATL - sell for high prices - bring gold back to home shard and live like a king. I took some junk to ATL and made a plat in like 5 days.
In regards to how the housing market works for large houses in ATL - given the high values - there are a number of brokers involved. They attend the idocs and run a two account game to place. One account stands there casting recall. It won't show the words till the plot is ready to place. When the words first pop up the second account will script place the plot. They will then sell the big house for top $$. When they get 5plat for a prime 18x18 or 25p for a castle - they then sell the gold for $85/p. Who buys it? People buying the houses that have no hope to gather 25p. Maybe they have 10 but then they buy the rest. So in essense these houses are trading hands with plats but outside the game the money moves in real dollars. Its a job an income for the big house placers. Why does someone pay 25p or $2k real money for a house? Because they feel they can always sell it for that or more with housing being scarce. Its just like a stock market. I've been one to favor an auction for open plots run by UO. Yes, a house broker could pay 20plat for it and outbid the average guy - but when they sell it for 25p - they are only making 5p instead of 25p. And that 20p is deleted and REMOVED from UO. if this were to be in place even for a moderate amount of time house prices would fall as gold was sucked from the economy and eventually housing would be reasonable vs the time to acquire the gold because the gold sellers (house placers) wouldnt' have the the gold to sell anymore as it was deleted. Literally this is the devs best way to create a gold sink for 6 months or a year that would correct the UO economy by starting with the ATL inflation.
Otherwise tho people are free to transfer out. I love being on a shard that isn't ATL. I still go and sell things on ATl but I prefer playing with a tighter group of players where content isn't over crowded and housing is plentiful. I've placed two keeps in the past year in Tram and didn't have to pay a broker for them. Thats a win in my book.
Ill take em!
Returners and NOOBs need Atlantic size bank accounts to get Banes and scrolls.
About placing a house- it is known issue: I placed a house - I am good and clever. Somebody else placed it- he is a cheater and a scripter.
Inflation is mostly because people CAN afford that expensive houses. And once you play for a while you can find ways to make lots of gold. Not grinding gold from mobs but looting some stuff in high demand. Materials, arties, pets. All are priced accordingly.
At the beginning, when you have several K it is crazy to see al those prices for scrolls or arties. But learnong it and looting one clean ring with SSI 10 and selling it will make you way more gold that you can farm from mobs.
You want a good plot for ree- go to low- populated and settle even in Luna. Want to play on ATL and to have keep there- pay highest price to current owner or learn how to gel a keep plot faster than others. Those you call "scripters" did that. I dont want and now quite happy with my small max lock house. . You want that huge plot but too lazy to learn.
This is a basic economics lesson and if you don't understand macro economics and money supply and M1 and M2 then I can't help you. Please read up and try to understand. I offered a solution to the housing/scripting solution and gold inflation problem that specifically hurts normal players on atlantic while making a select few extremely rich in real life money outside the game.
I really don't want any house on atantic. I play other shards just for that reason and I will never pay anyone for my housing. I have two keeps I placed myself. UO took the gold - I've never bought gold from anyone nor paid a house broker for any house.
Some people think that they are entitled to place an 18x18 or castle after only playing 6 months on ATL and if they can't then they should be able to buy one for dirt cheap (all while disregarding supply/demand).
UO can be an extremely goal based game. If your goal is to have some high end plot of land then either start going to every single IDOC and trying to place (if you do place sell it to upgrade if needed) and/or make enough gold to buy it. I personally do not want UO watered down and the bar lowered because some people don't want to put in the time/effort to reach their goal.
Whole real estate in game and in real word have same rules: it will be sold to top-bidder.
Look at the ATL - tons of houses smaller than 18*18. They all need bigger one, not just you or me.
Lets avoid gold. How many 120 tactics scrolls or Cameos, or Bane dragons you think 18*18 should cost?