Playerbase and house count

[Shimus]

Just wondering about something..

Konstantine, or the staff, I think this is generally aimed at you.

I notice a lot of houses taking up space inside cities (let's use luna as an example) and whatnot. I understand we can have multiple houses ( I heard up to 5? ) per account. Half of them aren't even in use, nor do the number of houses even match active playerbase. (Thousands of homes for 60 active at any one time)

Which brings me to my question; do you intend to keep all houses and everything as they are, or do you wipe them after awhile if players that own them leave? Or do you just wait the normal condemnation period, or do you do periodic cleaning.

I know it might sound a weird question, but as I'm just up-and-coming, I was hoping to get a spot inside some type of city like Luna, but much to my dismay, all of them were taken, and a lot of them don't even look like they're going to rot anytime soon (they just log back in to refresh, like I used to do on live), or that the houses are just private, or ones with merchants just sit there with nothing on them. I know it might sound like a gripe, but myself (who's very active) would love any one of these house spots, and to see them unused makes me have a sad face, especially when anywhere else is out of the way, or I will get no traffic there.

Didn't mean to come off rude, was not my intention, or whiny/gripey for that matter, I was just curious if you had a gameplan for unused houses or you just let em rot away.

[King Kong]

Playerbase is growing, once it gets larger we will have a proper decay period.

We have 6 facets, most have 5. The new land of Ter Mur is vast and can have houses in it. So that gives a lot more open land.

Also I would like evantually all spots or most taken up with houses, Because that creates a real estate economy. Not sure how long you played UO, but it is a huge balance to the economy, to buy a plot, instead of just going out and placing.

Remember the days, spamming at Brit Bank.

"Selling nice log cabin! On the water! Mountains Near! Make Offer!"

That's what I am looking for.

Also look at the owner of the house you want to buy, PM them, they might sell it, actually I Know some of them in there are for sale. It creates a actual worth for housing in the long run.

[Shimus]

I see. Thanks for the quick reply.

The only problem I foresee is a lot of these people are never on. I don't mind farming gold to pay for a placed plot, I love that idea myself, but if you can never contact the owners, or if you can and they simply don't respond (language barrier perhaps), it's pretty discouraging.

At this stage, with the medium player-base I've viewed, everyone is for themselves. I'd imagine as we grow, the options would become available, but until that time is approached, it's everyone for themselves (aside from general help, like questions and rezzing - most people rock here for that. Heck, people even give out items to me (thanks LoH people, you're cool)).

But when it comes to anything having to do with plots or money, generally people just want them for themselves. Not saying it's bad, because hey they got the locations first fair and square. When you can't broach common grounds (IE: time zone differences, language barriers) it's hard to come by anywhere to place a plot/buy a house already placed. I've found some very nice ones in the middle of nowhere I want for my main house as well, so the plots are still plentiful out in the wilds (no problem there). The player-base I see either goes to Insula to idle, or they go shopping in Luna.

Also, I notice a fair bit of people in game don't even use these forums which is a crying shame, because these forums are not only nice, they can breach the gaps that we miss in game.

Anyways, I'm done on this topic. Thanks for the response Mr.Man =)