Phase 3 Housing

[Steel DarKnight]

If you're a house owner, or you're looking to become one, this is an update not to be missed! As part of our one-house-per-account changes that came with Publish 16 (which you can read about here), we are planning to reinstate house decay in the near future.

For those not familiar with the phased rollout of this system, here's a refresher course:

Phase 1, which took place last year, was the time when the game checked all houses and determined whether they belonged to inactive accounts and should be condemned, or whether they belonged to an active account, in which case they were all marked as "grandfathered."

Phase 2, which also took place last year, was the phase when players were able to claim a single house as primary if they chose, meaning that house would never decay as long as their account was active. This phase also gave co-owners a chance to claim ownerless houses.

Phase 3, which is still currently in testing, will be the point where we turn off auto-refresh, and any houses not set as primary will begin to decay unless they are refreshed approximately every 11 days. Once Phase 3 has been activated, the housing system will also begin checking for inactive accounts, and any houses found to be owned by an inactive account will be condemned and will fall within 5 days after a 10-day grace period. (For the sake of clarity, the term "inactive" refers only to whether your subscription is paid and in good standing; it has nothing to do with how often or for how long you play.)

For more information on Housing States, you can read about it in the UO Playguide here.

We'll keep you updated and give lots of warning before Phase 3 is put into place, so stay tuned to FYI for the announcement!