Thursday, August 8, 2013

“Old Mall... New Mall... Red Mall... Purple Mall...”

Every time I think about publishing a small group of stories to our news blog, I always get this sinking feeling I left it too long. It's not exactly my fault! So many small things take place that it hardly seems newsworthy. In some cases, sometimes it's a two part news item that the second doesn’t seam to come to pass in due time. For those who know how the game works and our small role in it, I can only do so much alone and don’t get a lot of help. Long ago, we had a much more active game and today is much more subdued. So, I’ll issue my standard “sorry for the delay” in publishing the news and get on with it.

At the top of the news item is something that took me totally by surprise, first thing Wednesday morning.


“What's that in the grass?!!!”

I was up extra early, unable to sleep. I decided to run a quick delivery to my workroom at my main house (that’s right in front of the Red & Purple Mini Mall), when I dropped the items in storage to be worked on later then recalled off to do another bit of work. I saw something just behind my house and it didn’t register right away until I was flying away. Something that clearly didn’t fit in. I had to wait to stop recalling and come right back.

A bit further down the blog, you will find a story about a “new” program to allow those who own houses over 10 years old to get a little accolade to this rather minor feet. Minor, yet it seems very rare a player keeps the same house for 10 years or more and the house is 10 years old or more. A rather simple and subdued banner is placed near the house sign of the house in question to declare when the house was placed. I never saw this announcement originally. I found out quite accidentally when running around the lands doing some exploring. My best guess is that this program, like so many other bits of news, failed to be published on UO.com. Calling any program that shows a little love for us a players a GOOD THING, I knew I had miles to wait as despite the overall age of the Red & Purple, we were forced to relocate a few years after custom houses came to the land and thus are behind many of the banner-clad classic castles, keeps, and large towers.

WE GOT A HISTORY BANNER!


When clicked, it says: “Part of UO Historical Society, Placed 4/17/2003”

As far as I can tell, no matter what, these History Landmark Banners are still rare. It's even more rare for Mesanna-built “Town Banners” to be in place and is a totally different program. Even rarer still, however it's quite baffling, are memorials. As of sometime last night or early in the morning, “The Red & Purple Mini Mall” now sports all 3 type staff programs.

“Town Banners”, for those who don’t know, require 3 or more buildings owned by the same person or group and serve the community in some way. If that way be a mall, library, collection, roll-play group, or big guild. “Memorials”, mostly built by our EM staff, are very simple and mostly decorated by the player that wishes the memorial for his or her friend. The main, if not only addition by the EM, is a gravestone that can be tinted a different color then the stones can be by players. His or her job is to then name the stone to mark the passing friend.

When the Red & Purple main building turned 10 years old on 4/17/2003, enough time had passed that I actually gave up on this happening. A few reminder emails, all kind of system drama going on... my best advice to anyone is to not give up. Most of the time, our soul caretaker (Mesanna) will provide. I honestly don’t understand why we don’t see more memorials. Goodness knows how many people we see come and go in the average lifespan of an older vet of 10 years or more. Maybe it's just super rare other old vets die in the saddle and their empire lives on. The most noteworthy case on Atlantic is very famous Goodman, who died several years ago and who’s empire expands far greater now then it ever did in his time. Yet, most old vets know his name to this day. Newer players have no clue. There is no memorial for Goodman, at this date.


“Yew Magical Moongate Market, no more.”

On a sad note, the new town in development known as the “Yew Magical Moongate Market”. This was to be a town unique to all others, at least as Atlantic goes. Most every house was a vendor mall around the Yew Tram Moongate, but also included some museums. A sudden “giving up” of 3 of it's members left the project unable to continue. 1 was and old vet. 2 were too new. One of the newer malls was sold to a friend and is now renamed “Ye Ole Small Tower Mall”. It is, however, extremely hard to get so many different owners on the same page without guild or other common connections, more then just owning vendor malls in the same area. Yew Gate Tram was known to be one of the highest populated vendor areas long before Lagtown and can still provide goods at prices that are far better then vendor packed city.


Also connected to that... good old Kraken’s mall, otherwise known as “The Yew Gate Mall of the Red & Purple”.

This mall is the oldest in that very areas, co-founded by myself and Lord Kraken who died a few years ago rather suddenly. I assure everyone that this mall is still quite alive and well and will be with us for years to come, however it sometimes falls behind in management due to the number of commitments laying before me. Old dead and forgotten vendors are cut, their goods end up in the moving crate. This slows re-deeding the vendor areas and decorating. Very soon, I will give this house a good house cleaning and get it back to normal.


“Grow, baby, grow!”
Our friends and neighbors should also be aware that there are a total of 7 malls in our little circle. Not all are owned by me, thankfully. One, #5, specializes... or is turning into a pure specialty of plants. Located just west outside the Lagtown west gate, then down a little. It's roof holds a clover as a visual clue. It is our goal to have all types and all colors of plants for sale, however this may not include the more fussy monster-spawn seeds. We have been working hard to make rather incredible mutants, of sorts.

Thanks to our Japanese fellows, there have been notes made to produce odd colors in some of the newer plants. Multi colored vanilla plants, for example. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, with all bright counterparts. The same can be said with the spider trees, the 4 barrel cactus, and many of the bonsai trees. If interested, please keep an eye open.

Personally, I’ve never had much use for colored plants... outside the resources people love. However, if you are going for a clear “look”... a haunted house, a ruin, a lot of neglect? Orange (brown) plants do the trick along with a few mutant black ones, if you get so lucky to find them. Black plants are rare to find these days as they are so needed to make plant based dyes.


Lastly... “A new mall is born!”

Joining in the 7th position is a mall actually inside the very walls of Lagtown UO. Located along the outer ring, west of the north most gate, is a small custom house about the size of a classic log cabin. This mall was owned by our good old friend ‘Hunter Moon’. It was to my shock and slight horror she announced she was downsizing her empire after many years and this included the city mall. By sheer luck, I was able to match this mall to another friend, bringing it in to our family. For many years, more then I care to remember, I had 2 vendors standing to unload higher end goods to not suffer too many fees. I’m happy to say it will remain in friendly hands.

A small redecoration, some updating, new decorations and a little teleporter hub to help others to find the more remote and friendlier old areas of our small empire. The new mall’s name is “Super Sugar Rush Mall” and it's rent starts at 25k a month, per vendor.

Most of the other malls, we own, have no rent demands. Other malls inside the city have far worse demands.

Bonus:

With 7 malls in the circle now, we are considering a standardized book of mall rules and conduct. This would include a small allowance for specialized uniform requirements. At all malls, we demand some kind of care when dressing your vendors. At the Red & Purple, a part of every vendor uniform must be either RED OR PURPLE, not both. At the new Super Sugar Rush Mall, the requirement is Signal Purple and Tailoring Reward Cloth Purple. More is sure to come as we work these things out. Never, no matter what, 3+ months of being empty or neglected... your vendor is considered dead so please be aware.

All for now and thanks for reading.