If you alternate paying for an account, beware ...

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If you alternate paying for an account, beware ...

Postby KDSonoma » Tue Jan 06, 2015 8:24 am

If you are not able to afford to keep all of your accounts open (paid) continuously, and rotate paying for some accounts every other month, beware …..

Apparently there has been a change in how Broadsword handles housing on those accounts.

We had a guildmate lose a house because they rotated paying in even or odd numbered months (1 month paid, the next month not paid, etc).

The change was supposedly communicated through Stratics, but we only became aware of this change when our guildmate lost a house.

I’ll let others chime in with more details. But my understanding is that housing now checks to see if the account was paid for the last 90 days. If the account does not meet the 90 day standard, the house on that account will drop within 5(?) days, and the account owner does not seem to have been emailed that this will occur.

Post here with clarifications on this new change, or with questions on the change. I’ll defer to others that have more specific information on how this happened to our guildmate and how this might affect others.

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Postby Ciara » Tue Jan 06, 2015 5:44 pm

Is there anything I can do to help? Who lost the house?
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...

Postby KDSonoma » Tue Jan 06, 2015 6:50 pm

Dripping Blood lost a house.

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Postby Maldar » Tue Jan 06, 2015 10:10 pm

Isn't that the way it has been for years? I have been paying for my main account every month and activating the other three every 80 days. Is this no longer working? If not, Broadsword has made a foolish business decision. It is far better for them to accept this practice and the income as opposed to losing it. I, for one, will not pay for 4 accounts every month. So, Broadsword, are you going to accept $39 every 80 days or nothing...?
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Postby Queen Mum » Wed Jan 07, 2015 7:56 am

:(
First announcement was made in the August 12, 2014 Producer letter ...

www.uo.com/article/Producer-Letter-1

Last but not least, I am sure everyone has seen an increase in the decay rate of items on the ground, houses, and boats. This is due to a fix we had to put in for a shard crash. Due to the fact that the house decay does not give players enough time to move their items from one house to another, we are going to be putting in another patch to change this. Players will have 5 days for a house to decay.

Till next time, see you in Britannia!
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Postby Queen Mum » Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:20 am

did some more research on it as I remembered one of the Devs also posted and found it ....

http://community.stratics.com/threads/h ... es.320814/

Developer Bleak post on Sept. 5, 2014 (Stratics - Developer Feed) ...


Since there still seems to be some confusion about how long it take for houses to fall I will provide a more detailed explanation.

First case is where your account is inactive for 90 days then becomes condemned.

Second case is where you trade an existing house or place a new house and the first house becomes condemned.

As stated in the Producer Letter houses will fall within 5 days. There are 6 states that the house will transition to within the 5 days. There is no defined time that a house will be in each state.

Decay Stages:

1. Like New
2. Slightly Worn
3. Somewhat Worn
4. Fairly Worn
5. Greatly Worn
6. In Danger Of Collapsing

So an example:

Day 1: Like New-> Slightly Worn

Day 2: Slightly Worn

Day 3: Slightly Worn -> Fairly Worn

Day 4: Fairly Worn -> Greatly Worn

Day 5: Greatly Worn-> In Danger Of Collapsing -> Drop

Another example:

Day 1: Like New-> Slightly Worn

Day 2: Slightly Worn -> Fairly Worn

Day 3: Fairly Worn -> Greatly Worn

Day 4: Greatly Worn

Day 5: Greatly Worn ->In Danger Of Collapsing -> Drop


Stephen Brown, aka "Bleak"
Software Engineer, Ultima Online



Another thread we should all keep a watch on is ...

http://community.stratics.com/threads/h ... se.329831/


I truly hope this helps ....
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...

Postby KDSonoma » Wed Jan 07, 2015 8:33 am

thanks, Queen Mum, for the additional information.

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questions

Postby Brianna » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:39 am

so someone please tell me the answers to the following questions

1)will my house drop if the account was paid in the last 60 days?
2)will my house drop if the account was paid in the last 90 days?

standard practice for the last 8 years is i pay jan skip feb and march pay april skip may and june pay july skip august and september pay october skip november and december and pay jan

giving between 89-91 days between actual payments and 59-61 days between my account not being able to log in

i understand the decay rate is 5 days and it has been that way for about 4 years now i just need to know if i need to pay every other month instead of every 3 months

thanks
bri


ps we lost shino's keep on fel ice island due to him forgetting to make the payment so i really dont want to lose my castle this way i would rather hand it over along with all the pixels to a fellow pas member than lose it to decay
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Postby KDSonoma » Wed Jan 07, 2015 2:45 pm

From the post from Queen Mum, it sounds like the trigger is 90 days plus 5 days for the account to be active.

Payment dates wouldn’t enter into the calculation.

So if the account goes 95 days as inactive (not being paid), then any house on that account would fall (on the 95th day).

Does that sound right everyone? Or did I miss anything?

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Postby Tracy » Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:23 am

From discussing it with Dripping Blood a couple days ago, I gathered that she had paid more recently than that though, so I don't know. I've never alternated, I am too likely to forget to reactivate.
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....

Postby KDSonoma » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:31 am

I thought Dripping Blood told us in vent the other night that she had't paid on the account that dropped the house for 97 days (so she only missed it by 2 days).

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Postby Maldar » Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:35 pm

The best I can tell, nothing has changed that hasn't already been in effect for years: An account goes into default after it hasn't been activated for 90 days.

Apparently, the devs screwed up a few months ago and messed with the house decay rate is all and, supposedly, that is fixed.
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Postby Ciara » Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:46 pm

The only changes I see are that the decay rate was speeded up, from 9 days and now settled on 5 days. For a short time it was only 2 days which didn't give folks enough time to move.

If someone hasn't paid for 90 days, I'm not surprised that they don't get an additional message saying the account will close. I usually get that message in the beginning when the account goes inactive, with no reminder later. That has not changed for as long as I can remember.

So, for whatever reason your house is condemned, get moved or fix it right away so you don't have to suffer the blues of having everything drop, if you want to keep the house and contents.
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account house decay

Postby lkatana » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:18 pm

there is no house in danger of decay notice. the only notice you will get is the day that the account did not successfully renew or its time has expired. there are no additional warnings. sadly this RTB event kind of messed my email up stating that accounts went down at the end of that time but oddly only the accounts that i had been paying for for were the ones i got the emails for. messana said that was the RTB notice of account ending but i dont know if it was just the RTB then i should have gotten about 9 emails stating the accounts went down not the 4 that i did get

but i can also confirm it is 90 days of the account being unpaid and a 5 day decay period. you should also take note that it takes 24 hours after reactivation of your account before the houses refresh to active again. so if your house has reached day 5 then paying for the account on that day will most likely not stop your house from falling. If you pay for your account and the house states that it is at idoc stage page a gm but dont count on the gm making it to you in time to to stop the drop.
I have first hand experience with that very issue. luckily i was able on that occasion to place a new house in that spot before i lost the location but sadly not before i lost 95% of every thing in the house. Lucky looters made off with about 50+ bods of 60k boards and all of my ingots, peerless regs and almost every thing else.
but at least i got the house back and seeing how it was inside luna that was the most importation thing. and i did take allot of personal pleasure of placing the plot and grabbing entire boxes of items that people were looting and locking them down on the pad thus blocking them from taking anything else out.

but i digress.

so to recap
90 days unpaid
5 day drop time
and dont wait tell the last day to pay the account.
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Re: If you alternate paying for an account, beware ...

Postby Dripping Blood » Wed Mar 11, 2015 4:21 pm

Some clarification of my house that fell....

I paid for it on October 1, 2014...for one month...which ended on November 1st 2014.
My house fell on January 1, 2015...(the time I was going to pay for it again....two months off, one month on..as usual...)
However, I was "told" by an Advisor during the Wedding of Brig and Cinderella that my house got "caught up" in the "crazy days of turning on closed accounts" during the month of December 2014, (when UO decided to turn on closed accounts for a month; which they do every now and then...)When they were closed again on December 31, 2014...my house fell. It was a fluke.
I checked my house on December 26th...it was fine.
January 1st, it was gone.
I paid for this third account every 60 days. Did that since the beginning. I had this account since February 2007. This house NEVER got near the 90 day mark of not paying for it...I am a creature of habit, and the 1st of every other month FIT for me like a well oiled glove...Thought I was safe...apparently not. I always felt crap like that happened to OTHER PEOPLE...right....!?
Two days after my house fell, I spoke with one of Sonoma's Advisors: the Advisor was emailing "someone else" and was told I went over 2 days...NOT TRUE...I told them I had proof the account was only off for 2 months...I have the notice that my account was not paid for so I couldn't play as of November 1, 2014...by EA Games this notice was sent. I was told to email Bonnie at mesanna@broadsword and that she would look into it, and someone would get back to me as soon as possible...I felt time was of the essence as they had their information WRONG...just look at my payment schedule folks! Please!???? I had proof and emailed that to Bonnie within 1/2 hour of talking to the Advisor. I had six weeks of trying to communicate...NOTHING from her or anyone on her staff....
Finally at Brig's wedding I was told the good news. Nice huh? But thank Baby Jesus the message was FINALLY given to me. Ack!
What was super frustrating is that I was laughed at during one point for EVEN emailing Bonnie, because she never even looks at her emails...Nice HUH? I was even told, at one point, if I really liked the "things" in that house I should have paid for it on a regular basis...TRUE...however, again, I was within the "rules" and everybody else did it...bah!
UO's customer service skills suck...there is no phone number (though I did try to call the numbers available to me...) but each and every one was either disconnected, or sent you to an email address (which I also sent my information to as well), with no avail.
It was like screaming into empty space....for I truly felt maybe my house could be replaced...I was told houses have been replaced before....but each and every day went by with no response and NOT being able to contact this company was not only frustrating, but truly heart-wrenching.
....and one would like to think a seasoned player would be a true treasure, but alas...not from what I experienced. I felt totally ignored, and I felt it would only take a minute to email a person back in a timely manner...apparently not. I just wanted to know what happened, or to at least hear a "yes, no, or maybe...we are working on it..." NEVER.
Of course, after six weeks, the Advisor finally told me GONE and COULD NOT BE REPLACED......at least I have THAT.
Maybe I would have gotten more attention if the account had been paid for on a timely basis? Won't ever know. Sad, but true.
I look at the game differently now. I have rebuild the house I lost the best I could, but loss of it still stings...I put that place together with a lot of love and thought...however, in my own defense, I WAS within the rules. Many folks did the same thing I did...I wasn't the only one. Probably won't be the last one either. I did not want to entrust another house on an account that lost one. Now that would be STUPID in my book. My third account is now off. Done. I will never open it again.
I make sure I pay for the remaining accounts that I have in a timely manner.
I still love the game, love PAS, and will play till the end...but I am much more wary now of what I pay for and put in my lovely houses.
The funny thing of it all was that when I emailed Bonnie, I told her the one thing in that house I was the most upset about was the "Candle blessed by Love for Hyde". (This is my dear sweet dog's name in RL). The first thing out of my mouth when I was suddenly shocked at the vacant place where my house once stood was "Oh my God, the candle is GONE..." I would have loved to have just that one pixel back. In my hearts of hearts, I was hoping that if my house could not be replaced, I could have gotten just that one item back....please? Being a good player and all, you know? A token of goodwill perchance? Nope. Nothing. That would have rocked my world getting just that one item back. That's all I really wanted. Honest.
Gone it is. Cannot be replaced. The quest is over and is not active anymore.
Anyhoo....
That's the truth about the falling of my third house ... just to set things straight. :)

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