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house idea

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 10:08 pm
by fitzchivary
how about more lockdowns for houses say a 5 level house can have 220 lockdowns!

or giving players 7 house points .
so we can have our main house and a merchant/guild shop?

just an idea

PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 10:51 pm
by Eldric
The big problem with adding lockdowns to houses is the so called "black hole" effect where some people can't log in due to high top level (to the best of my knowledge stuff in chests dosn't count) item count.

I don't know how sphere and runuo do it they don't seem to have the problem, or at least not as bad. Hopefully, maybe someday the pol emulator will handle toplevel items and we can get some higher itemcount.

*wonders when the next version is comeing out*

PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 12:02 am
by fitzchivary
yes i know of the black hole ,but 220 itemas shouldnt make a black hole.
on another pol shard i play on i have way more then 220 locked down iteams and get no black hole .

PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 1:23 am
by Eldric
It seems to be highly variable my 160 item house has caused people to black hole and I've taken up deco items so they could log back in.

PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 4:05 am
by Drocket
There's a few things that affect blackholing. The first is top-level items, as already mentioned (as well as other players and NPCs in the area.) The second is the connection speed of the player (its pretty rare on any sort of broadband connection, but dial-up players have the problem far more often.) The third cause is the one that tends to affect WoD much more than other servers (as Fitz mentions playing on other POL shards that don't have the problem much): the items that you're carrying when you try to log in.

Simply put, every item that you're carrying counts as a top-level item for you (meaning that it needs to be loaded when you log in.) Since most UO shards have rather strict weight limits, they don't have to worry about this too much. With WoD's wide-open carrying capacity, though, a lot of people tend to carry around backpacks full of backpacks full of junk (there's currently 107 characters with more than 250 items, and 17 with more than 500.)

This is actually a pretty good argument for why WoD needs stricter weight limits. But that's a different subject.

Getting back to the original subject, though (getting more lockdowns), this is something that will almost certainly happen at some point, though its not going to be free. My current plan is to give houses levels. When you buy a house, it would start out as a level 0, and have the same number of lockdowns as it does now. Houses could be upgraded to a maximum of 2*HV (so a HV 4 house could go to level 8), and each level would give an extra 5 lockdowns (so 50 extra lockdowns for a fully upgraded HV 5 house.) The cost to upgrade a house would be 10k times the new level (so 10k to get to level 1, another 20k to upgrade to level 2, 30k to go to level 3, etc.)

This will probably happen eventually, but as I said, it may have to wait a bit until some of the current problems with people blackholing is fixed (which probably means waiting until POL 0.96, when I'll be able to make more stringent limits to carrying capacity.)

PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 6:33 pm
by Ehran
Drocket wrote:
(there's currently 107 characters with more than 250 items, and 17 with more than 500.)

This will probably happen eventually, but as I said, it may have to wait a bit until some of the current problems with people blackholing is fixed (which probably means waiting until POL 0.96, when I'll be able to make more stringent limits to carrying capacity.)


Oh Drocket tell me it isn't so :cry:
you mean i am going to have to prune back the 1800 items i carry around somehow?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:42 pm
by Amileth
Drocket wrote:
(there's currently 107 characters with more than 250 items, and 17 with more than 500.)

This will probably happen eventually, but as I said, it may have to wait a bit until some of the current problems with people blackholing is fixed (which probably means waiting until POL 0.96, when I'll be able to make more stringent limits to carrying capacity.)


Wouldn't this create a whole lot of problems for looting?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:00 pm
by Dell-Leafsong
Amileth wrote:Wouldn't this create a whole lot of problems for looting?

Probably so. Not to mention mining and other harvesting skills. I know there's a verisimiltude issue here, but the playability of weight limits has always bothered me. I can't wait to see Drocket's ideas for addressing these kinds of problems. Other scriptors have basically said "Screw the players" on this issue and installed weight limits that made playing a harvester character much harder and even regular hunting more of a bore than the fun time we're hoping it will be.

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:15 pm
by simon
Bags that can hold more weight could be made, so while mining or farming you wouldn't have to return to town every 5 minutes.

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:24 pm
by Laephis
I know "OSI" is a dirty word around here ( :) ), but they have something called "Bags of Sending which provide a way around occasional weight limit problems:
http://uo.stratics.com/content/arms-armor/special.shtml

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:44 pm
by Dell-Leafsong
While we're at it, can we say Firehorn, folks?

no pressure :wink:

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:46 pm
by simon
alot of that isn't all that bad, more then one quest is needed to get the end effect.

Perhaps our Lord Drocket, The Great Britishman, from the midwest, could come up with a good way for such said things to be done.

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:54 pm
by Bayn
Drocket wrote:...With WoD's wide-open carrying capacity, though, a lot of people tend to carry around backpacks full of backpacks full of junk (there's currently 107 characters with more than 250 items, and 17 with more than 500.)

This is actually a pretty good argument for why WoD needs stricter weight limits. But that's a different subject.


Maybe institute an item count limit on packs rather than a weight limit? That is one of the best things about WoD, no weight limit. It is often tough enough as it is to find time to play and when you can only carry a restricted amount, you end up mining or gathering for a very short time and then have to return to deposit it all and then make your way back to wherever you were......well, it just blows.

PostPosted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:26 pm
by Joram Lionheart
I'm with Bayn on this one, I'd rather have an item count cap than a weight limit. Reason being of course is the feasibility of large-scale hunting trips. Being able to carry 3 full loot containers (149*3=447 items, plus whatever else you carry with you) is a great plus of WoD, specially when you consider you can't just recall in and out of the bottom level of a dungeon. I'm assuming there's nothing you can do about the fact people can have 149 bags full of items and inside them more bags full of more items. Still, even putting an overall limit of 600 or so items per character-backpack would be a great help. Another thing you can do is reduce the amount of "junk" items you get in monster loot. I think vampire loot is an excellent case in point.

Finally, I guess lowering the carrying capacity to more reasonable levels is an option too. Unless you are harvesting some kind of resource, I don't see why your character should have to carry around more than 5k stones all the time. And then there are ways to get around that too (henchmen, packhorses, etc). Even with several full loot bags rarely do I ever reach the point where I can no longer run freely and as comfortably anymore.

I'd think that a maximun carrying capacity of 6-8k stones for any and all characters should be enough(i.e. make it impossible to move if that limit is reached, and VERY difficult to if close to the limit). The only time I've ever reached (or come close to) that weight is when mining ores for hours non-stop (w/out having to go back home to drop some ingots off). Yes, I've never had to use a packhorse in WoD. Being required to have one does not sound like a terrible burden either. Anything less than 5k as the maximun carrying limit, though, is bound to make a lot of people unhappy.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:58 am
by Wolfie
Hm I dont know what everyone else carries around all the time, but I rarely see 1k weight after a long hunting trip. 5k as a weight limit would be more than generous. I'd see little problem with a limit like 2k or 3k. The only players who would need higher than that would be harvesters (miner/LJ/etc), who would be able to use pack horses.
I agree with the item-limit idea of about 600. Loot bags fill up quick with non-stackables, plus regs and equipment which add up. Besides, item count limiting seems a more effective way to reduce lag than a weight limit.